All Rational

I'm sorry to say it, but this, from Attaturk at FDL, is a pretty good example of skepticism on the Left about Obama's ability to retake control of the health care debate:

Here's the deal, he'll make a speech, he'll be all rational as he disappoints his base who has no real alternative, the right-wing will make up some new series of crazed bs that "nobody anticipates" the media treats it seriously and nobody wins except in the Pyrrhic sense.

Or not, as I need to end on an optimistic note for no particularly logical reason.

Contract Murder

IOZ:

I eagerly await Richard Cohen's next thinkulation: "Contract Murder, But Does It Work?"

No One Else

Justine Bateman:

The summer is over. No one else is going to die now, right?

Ask Not

It's so odd the way rightwingers are horrified at the notion of their president asking anything of them.

Cold War At Home

My God, they really are freaking out:

As I stood on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Midway twenty-five years ago, I was fully aware of the enemy we had been confronting since the end of WWII. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I would be fighting a Cold War at home a quarter-century later, and against that very same rigid Marxist ideology. But that is where we find ourselves today. And our Cold War at home must be fought as the old one was: tooth and nail. Go to your town halls and Tea Parties in force. Sign petitions. Speak out when you see something amiss. Evil flourishes when good men do nothing. And I see far too many evils flourishing today to sit silently on the sidelines.

Our very democracy and way of life is at stake here. Is there any greater battle worth fighting?

Chelicerata Cams

Some Saturday morning chelicerata-cams for you.

Tarantula:



Scorpion:


(via kottke)

Opposite

TPM reader BN writes:

The Wellstone Effect is conservatives successfully portraying the legitimate grieving of progressives as dangerous hysteria so they can ram through political outcomes exactly opposite to the causes for which the departed stood.

Don't forget it.

Most Important

George Will must be a hoot at funerals. Perhaps he could sell a service of arriving at your next one and giving a speech on whether the deceased was the most important among his or her siblings.

(I notice that in the actual online article, the phrase is changed to "most powerful")

Oscar

DougJ:

More than anyone else on the unhinged right, Breitbart strikes me as possibly being a performance artist. I’m comforted by the knowledge that if he snaps and does something terrible, Philip Seymour Hoffman will win an Oscar playing him in the biopic.

Beret

Fake Steve Jobs:

As for all the rest of you, listen up. I'm back in charge, and I'm not going to ship this tablet unless it's perfect. Remember when I told you to make me a phone with only one button, and you said it couldn't be done? But then we did it. Sure, you all complained about me being a dick about the user interface, and making you redo the buttons and reshape the back and make the corners a tiny bit smoother. But in case you hadn't noticed, that product has done pretty well out there in the marketplace.

So listen up. The tablet, as it stands today, is a piece of shit. It's got Tim Cook's stink all over it. Tim's a great supply chain guy, I'll give him that. But when I was away he kind of went crazy and started wearing a beret and holding design meetings in his office. Jonny Ive would complain to me about it, but I was like, Jonny, dude, I'm lying here with a bunch of machines like from the Matrix all hooked up inside my guts, okay? Just deal with it till I get back.

Just So He Knows

Josh Marshall asks:

Has anyone told Giuliani that New York state doesn't get to have a foreign policy any more than New York City?

Copies

I agree, the new Library Finder thing is cool, but how insane is this limit?

My favorite part of Sony's Reader announcement was probably Library Finder, powered by OverDrive, which lets you check out eBooks from your local library—and "thousands" have signed up—for free, wirelessly, direct to your reader. But there's a catch.

There aren't an unlimited number of ebooks—each library has an actual "stock" of ebooks (because the library had to pay for each copy). So, if they have a stock of 5 books, and they're all checked out, you have to wait in a queue for somebody else's book to expire when they hit the 21-day mark. When it's available, you get an email, and then you can go check it out.

Funny Or Rebellious

"Jude" at Big Hollywood suggests you use Barbara Boxer's book signing as an opportunity to protest health care reform, but says you might want to go easy on the Nazi stuff here. Why?

No Townhall meetings with her constituents are scheduled for our renaissance Senator during this national debate on health care, so this might be as close as you can get.  You read that right.  She’s very busy.   Last night she did take some general questions, so if you attend, be civil and please, leave any Nazi garbage out of it.  It may seem funny or rebellious since Pelosi launched it as a smear, but it only undermines important discussion. 

Calling Democrats Nazis may seem "funny or rebellious?" That's fucked.

More To Help

What is it with these people?

The fact is, from a public health perspective, fast food restaurants like Burger King and McDonalds have done far more to help people than harm them. The fat-bottom line: people in America and around the world aren’t dying from malnutrition because places like BK have made food fresh, cheap and simple to prepare. Seriously, wherever you find a fast food restaurant, you’ll find fat kids, but not starving ones. But in this easy age of value-free moralism, experts are more inclined to demonize Ronald McDonald than Robert Mugabe.

Sometimes it seems like the rightwing exists to provide a kind of political candid camera for the rest of the country.

Proving Peacefulness

Ron Paul claims that William Kostric, the man show showed up outside Obama's healthcare speech with a handgun, "was remarkable in proving his point that he was a peaceful man, and caused no trouble."

Mike Lillis wonders:

Guess this means that the hundreds of unarmed protesters in Portsmouth didn’t prove that they were peaceful because they lacked the proper display of firepower.

Make Yourself Laugh

Great interview with Ryan North, creator of my favorite ever webcomic, Dinosaur Comics:

Where does the inspiration come from daily? How do you keep yourself from creatively burning out?

There’s not much danger of burnout because I really love doing what I do. It’s the first thing I do in the morning and it’s just so much fun: you wake up, usually discover some emails from strangers complimenting you on the strip, and then try to make yourself laugh by putting words into dinosaur mouths. Best job ever!

Old People

Matt Taibbi on Gingrich:

I know some politicians have kind of a wink-wink nudge-nudge attitude towards lying, and some of them in private will act almost like it’s funny, part of the job description. But there are limits to how much even a politician should be allowed to lie. That’s especially when he’s lying in order to scare a bunch of old people.

That Adult Voted For the President In the Election!

Well, you see, the people who are in this country are often the same people who voted in the presidential election last year, so when adults (or their children) ask questions at political events, there's a good chance that they also, um, voted for one of the two major candidates. In fact, there's a higher than 50/50 chance that any given person actuall voted for Obama.

This reminds me of the struggle to put together a jury on high-profile cases. The jury becomes filled with people who are least curious and/or least-informed about the world around them.

Lack Of Americanism

Wow. I really shouldn't be surprised. But the Right is even blaming Obama for GI Joe being a shitty movie.

Director Stephen Sommers said, “this is not a George Bush movie — it’s an Obama world.” Sounds to me that since Bush is no longer president it is supposed to legitimize the disintegration of patriotism for our armed forces. That would explain why the Joe’s are no longer the all American heroes they once were. Instead, they are a multinational task force that picks up the pieces after the USA fails.

This film represents everything President Obama worshipers stand for, which explains the lack of Americanism. GI Joe has always been a vehicle of unapologetic patriotism. What happened? Obama happened. For some reason, it now feels like multiculturalism was not acceptable until Obama was elected into office?

Um..."Americanism?"

Less American

Big Hollywood: I'm not a birther but stop being so mean to them this country was formed from discontents we the people don't forget who birthed the nation and everyone should have a voice!

Bonus direct quote:

[Obama] may be even less American than the Birthers themselves fear.

Because

Hoffmania asks Do I have that right?

We're Nazis Because We Want Americans Without Health Insurance to Have Health Insurance

Sums Up

FT.com:

President Barack Obama reminds me of Felix the Cat. One of the best-loved cartoon characters of the 1920s, Felix was not only black. He was also very, very lucky. And that pretty much sums up the 44th president of the US as he takes a well-earned summer break after just over six months in the world’s biggest and toughest job.

Really, FT?

(via Atrios)

Woke Up

David Kurtz:

It's like Republicans suddenly woke up in the summer of 2009 and discovered they lost the White House.

Not As Dangerous

I'm really becoming more and more disturbed by these people:

I suspect that because George Bush and Condoleezza Rice were so respectful of Muslims, constantly telling us that theirs is a religion of peace, some otherwise sensible Americans actually began to believe it. Now we have a president who not only kowtows to a Saudi prince, but carries on as if Israeli homes are more threatening than Iranian nukes.

What is wrong with our leaders? Are they worried that they won’t be invited to those cool Ramadan parties? The Islamics have been actively at war with us for 30 years and generally at war with western civilization for well over a thousand years, and still we pay lip service to these people in a way we never did with Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan or the Soviet Union. Is it because the Muslims commit sadism and murder in the name of religion and not country? If anything, I would think that would make their evil acts all the more contemptible.


Still, I would contend that Hezbollah and Al Qaeda are not as dangerous as America’s liberals. The Islamic terrorists can only kill so many people, but those on the Left are doing everything in their power to eviscerate America. Cap and Trade can destroy our industrial might; Obama’s trillion dollar stimulus programs combined with his delusional health care plan will not only bankrupt our nation, but lead inevitably to a rate of inflation that will impress even Jimmy Carter; and the budget cuts directed at our military and our missile defense system will make us increasingly vulnerable to our various enemies.

A Year of Lex

Excellent.

What's More

How does the National Review greet the somewhat optimistic unemployment report from the other day? By talking about TEH BIG GUVNMNT & HITLER!

Second, even if unemployment does start to decline steadily  this year, the larger point is that the growth of government means a lessening of individual liberty. You have less control of your life, and bureaucrats have more. Would it be desirable to live in a country with only 1 percent unemployment — as Germany and the USSR sometimes had in the 1930s — but have almost no ability to earn and accumulate property and wealth?

Tantrums

From rightwing website Little Green Footballs, a breath of clarity and reality:

There’s a place for yelling, screaming, and protesting — at demonstrations scheduled for that purpose. When these Tea Partiers and Glenn Beck drones charge into town hall meetings, shout down speakers, and act like angry children throwing tantrums, they achieve nothing but to further cement the impression that the right wing is going dangerously nuts.

And who thought it was a great idea to gleefully adopt the name “mob?” Here’s a hint: it only works to satirically co-opt a derogatory term like “mob” if you’re not really acting like a mob.

And the freepers attack!

Ack!

(via John Cole)

Hitler! Caesar!

They're desparate and just resorting to a pile of their biggest clubs. Obama's Hitler, and now "American Caesar" from KLo.

Rooting For SUVs

What kind of sick fuck roots for SUVs? Katheryn Jean Lopez.

Oh, right. I forgot the primary guiding principle in these people's lives. Digby, last December:

The only thing Coulter really believes in all that is that Democratic women are hags and that the primary goal of conservatism is to piss off liberals. The rest of it is just puerile taunts and sarcastic bully blather. But that is the essence of Limbaugh conservatism and it is the foundation upon which their comeback will be built.

And it would be a mistake to underestimate the power of liberal hating as an organizing principle. The entire contemporary American political culture is based on it.

After A Bad Hundred, Will They Put Him In The Corner?

John Cole:

Are [CNN] going to grade him every hundred days for the next four years?

Fire Code Enforcement Taken Personally

These people are insane:

The reports from the ground are still sketchy. But in both cases of unrest this evening we appear to have a similar pattern. Relatively small venues (200 to 300 size spaces) get quickly filled to capacity. The doors get closed because of fire codes. And then locked out teabag activists start banging on doors and windows demanding to be let in and yelling about various forms of political oppression. From what I can tell, the shoving and whatever fisticuffs took place grew from that.

In post-event retellings on the right fire code enforcement became a form of political repression of teabaggers.

Forty-Million!

Grassroots or astroturf, you're not helping:

TAMPA – Bitter divisions over reforming America's health care system exploded Thursday night in Tampa amid cat calls, jeering and shoving at a town hall meeting.

"Tyranny! Tyranny! Tyranny!" dozens of people shouted as U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor struggled to talk about health insurance reforms under consideration in Washington, D.C.

"There is more consensus than there is disagreement when you get right down to it,'' Castor offered, immediately drowned out by groans and boos.

She pressed on, mostly unheard among the screams from the audience of more than 200.

"Tell the truth! Tell the truth!"

"Read the bill!"

"Forty-million illegals! Forty million illegals!"

How It Is

Brilliance: If twitter wasn't down right now it would be full of people bitching about twitter being down.

Orly?

I was sure this was a birther joke when I first saw it.

64 Years Ago

I've seen photos my whole life of the aftermath of the nuclear weapon in Hiroshima, and they're still horrifying.

Mock

Joe Sudbay:

Note to the Washington Post: You can't mock "pompous pundits" with pompous pundits.

Getting To Know Her

I'm not much of a student of her work, but holy crap Ann Althouse is nuts!

Prince

There are some truly terrible people in positions of power in this country.

If You Weren't Apple...

Oh, that's fucking quaint.

Most notably, [Apple's] GarageBand '09 5.1 fixes an issue that could lead to your Internet activity being tracked by third parties without your knowledge. Previously, when opened, GarageBand '09 would change Safari's preferences to accept cookies always.

23 Spoons Of Sugar

Phil Bebbington:

A few years back I was between jobs and took a job that was just me and my boss. There was no fun in her, but, I managed to stick it out until I found other employment. I had to have some fun and as she liked 2 sugars in her tea it got me to wondering how much sugar could a person take in one cup of tea and not notice.

I increased her sugar intake by one spoon at a time and generally left a couple of days in between changes. I kept going until I was bored. I guess part of me wanted her to notice, but, she never did. Not even the amount of sugar we were getting through. Anyway, I eventually got her up to 23 spoons of sugar in a cup of tea – yeah, 23! She never said a word and always finished the cup.

The oddest part was, when I got bored and stopped I returned her to 2 spoons over night and she didn’t say a thing. It set me to wondering what our threshold for sweetness was and did 3 spoons of sugar actually taste no different to 23?

People are funny.

Chants

Whatever would we do without the oompah-loompahs of Big Hollywood:

Half-a-century ago, a band of Leftist thugs violently took over the administration building at Columbia University and hijacked the American education system.  From that moment on, they used this system to indoctrinate - in fact brainwash - generation after generation into their cult of Leftism.

For the next five decades (pseudo)-intellectuals, hiding behind tenure and “Academic Freedom,” have been spewing greater and greater nonsense designed for one purpose and one purpose only: sabotaging and eventually destroying all of Western Civilization.

Don’t think so?  Simply consider the fact that one of the most oft-repeated chants of the Modern Liberal movement is “Hey, hey, ho, ho. Western Civilization has got to go.”

Other Places

I think so:

So if this little beer bash accomplished anything -- besides boosting the market share of Bud Light, Bucklers, Sam Adams, and Blue Moon beers -- it may get the cop and the prof in other places like Toledo or Albuquerque or Miami to sit down and talk.

Southern Issues

Um, South, could you do something about this?

Beaked Squid

Digby writes about all the slack-jawed coverage of BeerFest 2009:

Hasn't a shark bitten someone lately? I know there have been giant beaked squid in San Diego. Would that do? Please?

Cut Out

I love those guys over at Blogs For Victory (formerly Blogs For Bush). No one really leans into it quite like they do.

It’s nice to see Americans waking up to Obama’s partisanship and lack of leadership. He claimed to be a uniter, but has proven to be more divisive than any of his predecessors.

Just goes to show you that anyone can read off a teleprompter… but some people just aren’t cut out to be president. And Barack Obama has shown that he is really just an Illinois state senator playing a president on TV… and a really bad one at that.

Don't forget to pick yourself up a nice "HOPE for Terrorists" banner ad while you're there!

One Leader

Republican House minority whip Eric Cantor:

At last count, there were at least 32 active czars that we knew of, meaning the current administration has more czars than Imperial Russia.

Matthew Yglesias:

The thing about Imperial Russia is that as a centralized autocracy it only had one czar. Having multiple people in positions of authority makes a political system less, rather than more, autocratic. Consider, “under Hitler, Germany had only one Fuhrer, but in the contemporary United States there are dozens of important political leaders.” Do you find that idea alarming? Are we worse than the Nazis? Of course not.

Pieces

What happens when your stories get mixed up? You just assert that everything's fine.

Michael Warren, a Collegiate Network intern at National Review, writes:

Blue Moon has an unwarranted reputation for being less manly than your average brew, but leave it to Crowley, the tough cop, to blast that stigma to pieces.

Um, okay?

The Country Awaits Obama's Shopping Trip

How surreal is this?



From a tweet by Mark Knoller:

Here's the scene in the Kroger's (near deli counter) of Obama event. (Photo by CBS' Susan Harmon.)

guntotinglibertarian

After Glenn Beck called the President a "racist" yesterday morning, Bill Shine, SVP of Programming told TVNewser, "During Fox & Friends this morning, Glenn Beck expressed a personal opinion which represented his own views, not those of the Fox News Channel. And as with all commentators in the cable news arena, he is given the freedom to express his opinions."

This was posted over at conservative blog Hot Air, where the comments are just horrifying. For example:

Go, Glenn

The truth is what it is.

Ogabe hates white America.

guntotinglibertarian on July 28, 2009 at 10:36 PM

Or:

The Precedent wants to exact revenge on whites, the successful, and the West. It’s all very obvious and it would be nice if people stopped acting as if they didn’t see it and started talking about the reality we are living with.

progressoverpeace on July 28, 2009 at 11:07 PM

Some serious violent undertones going on here.

Again, you can't blame the blog for this, but, as Pam notes, the race-stoking is getting out of control across the board of the remnants of the so-called conservative movement.

Ten Times

Ladies and gentlemen...



Bill O'Reilly!

Bill O'Reilly: Here are the letters. Peter Gillies, Victoria, Canada: "Has anyone noticed that life expectancy in Canada under our health system is higher than the USA?" Well, that's to be expected, Peter, because we have ten times as many people as you do. That translates to ten times as many accidents, crimes, down the line.

Teaching the people!

(via)

Drow vs Mind Flayer

If you don't know what a Mind Flayer is, you may skip this post. If you do, read on...

Although I'm not very active in it, I am a whole-life fan of most all things D&D and fantasy. I've often gotten a kick out of Jon Schindette's blog. Jon is the Senior Art Director for Dungeons & Dragons (with Wizards of the Coast), and he posts often about the world of fantasy and game art, how to be a part of the business, what he looks for, etc, etc.

Today he has posted the submissions from challenge he set up last week.

The topic: Drow vs. Mind Flayer.

Lots of fun candidates (and certainly some clunkers). Many where I loved one character but not the other. This one, #14 (he posted the submissions with just numbers, not names), is my favorite overall:



Artists were also required to submit their entries with a book template overlay.


Check out the whole gallery!

Electronic Jesus

I really hated when Dan Lyons had his whiny little personal blog for a year, but he's been back for a bit as Fake Steve and, truly, this is his calling:

We told you we didn't care about the netbook market, so you went ahead with your plans, but now we're about to put you out of business -- iTablet is in the final stages, which means Apple will be taking over the market you created and then reinventing it in such a way that it immediately becomes 10 times bigger than it used to be, and all the money goes to Apple.

Honestly, Apple faithful, I feel like Jesus coming down from Mount Zion with those stone tablets. Except my tablet is electronic, which Katie says makes me Electronic Jesus.

War Pron

The "WHERES AR PATRIOTZ??!" talk continues at NRO with this from Maggie Gallagher:

The best evidence for the bias of Hollywood is the absence of films that encourage and reward patriotism.  I don't mind the presence of lefty anti-war films. They just make me mad because they remind me of the huge, gaping absence of films celebrating the heroism of men at war.

Where are my generation's World War II films? 

People are hungry for heroism.  Why is this market niche so persistently never filled, or diverted into comic book characters?

It's very hard to explain.

What happened to our feel-good war movies?

Very True

I wrote earlier today about Jonah Goldberg complaining that GI Joe wasn't going to be USA USA PATRIOTIC!!! enough for his taste, and joked that he probably liked True Lies, a fucking racist pile of shit.

And...along comes his co-NRO'er, Stephen Spruiell, holding that movie up like it's some kind of wingnut manifesto. Perhaps it's more important to them than Red Dawn?

Iron Man made strides in terms of Hollywood's ability, post True Lies, to depict Islamic jihadists as unambiguously bad guys and not would-be goatherders radicalized by Bush's refusal to sign Kyoto. But don't forget that the main bad guy in that movie was still a corporate fat cat. It's like they're trying really hard — but not quite getting there.

Above: Bad Guy

No!

Of course it was Bachmann.

Inhofe Says Fuck It

Why do we even bother anymore?

Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe says that oil and gas usage doesn’t create any pollution.

Proud, OK?

Edroso Explores The Depths For You

I highly recommend Roy Edroso's regular column "Exploring The Right Wing." His latest, Rightbloggers Will Tell You Who The Real Racists Are in the Henry Louis Gates Case, is full of gems like these:

At American Spectator, William Tucker recalled being unfairly challenged by a transit cop for bringing his bike on the New York subway; though this is perfectly legal, Tucker meekly acceded to "the gun and the legal authority" of the cop. This demonstrates to Tucker that "Gates is an egotist" who probably wanted to be arrested.

Intellectual Conservative finally offered what we may take as the definitive rightblogger legal analysis: "Being a 'black man in America' does not grant you the right to be obnoxious."

All this bodes ill for the Resistance if Obama uses the police to implement his liberal fascist agenda in America. Maybe they'll find a way to resist politely enough to evade arrest.

American Power attacked Gates from a sociological angle. In the disordered mind of Gates, he said, "'The Man' is always getting down on the black dude. But those dudes commit the most crimes, and profiling is perfectly legitimate as a crimefighting tool when the odds are that a certain demographic is prone to particular types of criminal activity." He offered further evidence: "I frankly can understand the fears of people flying cross-continental airliners when they see Middle Eastern and Muslim passengers on board." You see the connection: Maybe the officer mistook Gates' bronchitic rasp for a call to jihad.

Slate's Mickey Kaus pioneered what became a popular theme: that contrary to Gates' claim of police discrimination on account of his race, it was actually Gates who "has stereotypes" about policemen. "Isn't it pretty clear that Gates had a narrative in his head too?" he said. "...Again, from his own words it looks like he rushes a bit to the conclusion that a white man in a similar situation would have been treated differently." One wonders where Professor Gates got such an idea. Maybe as a Professor of African American Studies, he read it somewhere. (Patterico seconded: "The Officer Didn't Stereotype Henry Louis Gates -- Henry Louis Gates Stereotyped the Officer.")

The original contains the links to each of these posts.

All We Need Is Him

Jonah thinks that he's a hero that just needs to stand up and say "hey, you guys, you'd better start making our heroes SUPER-PATRIOTS again, you hear me??"

I bet he loves True Lies.

Jonah's "Profound" Protest

Jonah Goldberg gets an email from a reader thanking him for his courage:

I just want to thank you, belatedly, for the inspiration (courage?) you gave me a few years back, to simply use a paper towel to open a bathroom door and to leave the paper towel on the floor if no wastebasket is provided.  At my law firm’s office building, and many other buildings that I frequent (and in which I’ve left paper towels on the floor), wastebaskets have been provided next to the bathroom doors within a few weeks of my first paper-towel drop.  And the group dynamic is fascinating.  At my office building, I had never seen a paper towel on the floor before I first dropped one there.  But in the few weeks between my first “drop,” and management’s placement of a wastebasket, there were probably 15 or so paper towels a day dropped next to the door.

I doubt you started the practice. But many San Diegans who now enjoy wastebaskets by the bathroom door in buildings across the city are unknowingly indebted to your publicity of this simple, yet profound, form of protest against unsanitary property-management practices.

So, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Beware the "Don't Litter" Fascists!

Clearly the best way to request a trash can for your building's public bathroom is to drop a dirty paper towel on the ground.

When do we get to give these people their own state to run as they see fit?

"Purchased"

I agree with Tristero:

Merely promising to give up control is not enough. It must be impossible to alter the content of a book, magazine, newspaper, etc once a user has purchased it, for any reason whatsoever.

Oops

As we say on the internetz, hawwwesome!

A database update from AVG over the weekend made the Windows antivirus software attack users' iTunes installations, mistakenly viewing the application's library files as a Trojan virus and placing them in quarantine.

Foreign Beer

For the record:

Incidentally, asked at the White House press gaggle this morning which beers the president and his guests would likely be drinking, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs noted that the President hoisted a Budweiser at the All-Star Game (natch; he was in St. Louis) while Sgt. Crowley told the president he was more partial to Blue Moon.

Gates told the Boston Globe he likes Red Stripe and Beck's, but the White House doesn’t stock foreign beer.

Inclusive Exuberance

The official marketing agency proposal for Microsoft's upcoming retail stores describes their overall "value proposition" as "Inclusive Exuberance."

The Answer Is No

Matt Barber proves my old adage that if the headline of a wingnut article is a question, the answer is no.

Matt's article is called Is There a Co-Pay with Forced Abortion?, and it ends this way:

Forced abortion? Compulsory sterilization? Well, maybe not yet, but is it really that much of a stretch?

Just Helping

Is that so, Rich Tucker?

There’s a reason the officer wanted Gates to come out of the house, and it’s not so he could pistol whip him (if not worse). It’s so the police could check the house and make sure there wasn’t anyone else -- an intruder -- there.

If Michele Bachmann is Busy, Be Sure to Consult Package of Mixed Salted Nuts

Last night I talked to a guy who claimed the health care bill would force you to get government insurance if you switched jobs, "and it says so right on page 16."

Where had I heard that? Oh yeah! Noted loon and Repub Congresswoman for Minnesota Michele Bachmann, that's where! Except she claimed you'd be forced off your private plan after 5 years. Ah, tomato-tomahto.

I'm still reeling a little bit. Crazy Michele Bachmann produced a meme? That someone real actually believed? Someone who considers himself a newshound? Astounding.

Actually, his argument is more like this Investor's Business Daily editorial from last week--after Bachmann's comment--which builds a full page of text upon one funny-obvious misreading.

"Except as provided in this paragraph, the individual health insurance issuer offering such coverage does not enroll any individual in such coverage if the first effective date of coverage is on or after the first day" of the year the legislation becomes law.

So we can all keep our coverage, just as promised — with, of course, exceptions: Those who currently have private individual coverage won't be able to change it. Nor will those who leave a company to work for themselves be free to buy individual plans from private carriers.

What does page 16 actually say? It says that after 5 years, employer-provided health insurance plans must meet the same standards as plans that will be sold through the new exchange. So, in a way, you won't have exactly the same plan. But I guess arguing about what standards our insurance should meet is a bit boring compared to FREAKINGOUTTHEDEMSGONNACONTROLMYLIFE.

(b) Grace Period for Current Employment-based Health Plans-

(1) GRACE PERIOD-

(A) IN GENERAL- The Commissioner shall establish a grace period whereby, for plan years beginning after the end of the 5-year period beginning with Y1, an employment-based health plan in operation as of the day before the first day of Y1 must meet the same requirements as apply to a qualified health benefits plan under section 101, including the essential benefit package requirement under section 121.

UPDATE: Dang Thomas link isn't working. To find the bill and the electronic text of page 16, search here (by bill number) for H.R.3200 and click on "Sec. 102 Protecting the choice to keep current coverage."

Enjoying The Benefits

publius:

Every single Democrat -- every single one -- is currently enjoying the benefits of campaign promises to fix health care.  The Democratic Party has made it a goal for decades to fix health care coverage in this country.  The issue is intricately tied up with the "brand" in a way that few issues are.  The party advantages on this issue not only helped get Obama elected, it helped the Democrats secure big majorities -- the fruits of which all of them are enjoying, including the most conservative ones.

And so now the question is -- to put it bluntly -- whether the Democratic Party is one giant fraud.  Is this an issue that Democrats really care about?  Is it something they're willing to fight for?  Are they willing to put aside the normal idiocy of legislative sausage-making, and I-want-mine-ism?  Or is it just a campaign promise they roll out in the fall to help beat Republicans so that they can go about raising money? 

Undeserving

Hey, wingnuts, I can't remember - is it that Obama's not cool and thus undeserving of respect or that he's a "beefcake" that is thus undeserving of respect?

Nobody Does Hypocrisy Like The NY Post

Gawker on how the NY Post posted a slideshow of the voyeur images it was ostensibly denouncing.

Words are simply not sufficient to express the New York Post's fury at this perverted, unnatural desecration. No, it will take a slide show of images from the nude video for the Post to properly communicate how livid it is at this breakdown of all that is good and moral. The powerful caption, accompanied by three Erin Andrews nooodddzzzzz:

VIOLATION: ESPN sportscaster Erin Andrews (above) was the innocent victim of a perv-cam-wielding sicko who secretly took these images of her in her hotel room and posted them online.

The New York Post is both nauseated and indignant.

"A Very High Status Guy Trying To Bully The Cop"

The story of Professor Henry Louis Gates being arrested as he tried to get into his own home is horrifying and shameful.

But I'm sure everyone's wondering: what does Jonah Goldberg think?

Lots of email has come in since last night when I posted about Henry Louis Gates' arrest. The responses from readers are interesting in that they reflect a divide running through conservatives I've noticed before. About half the readers think Gates' is hilariously in the wrong. The other half, give or take, think that the cop was transparently to blame for the whole mess. That's a gross generalization of several dozen emails, but I think it reflects how conservatives, like Americans generally, are of two views when it comes to cops. One side is inclined to distrust them, see them as potential abusers of authority —  mere men with badges and guns. Another side is deferential to police. That is not to say they condone abuse or sanction cops being above the law. But they give cops the benefit of the doubt for a host of reasons.

I'm more in the latter camp. I think being a cop is a very tough job, requiring a lot of patience and decency, with lots of headaches. And, I believe that citizens should err on the side of trying to make cops' jobs a little easier.  Yes, I've had confrontations with police before and I don't think they were always in the right. But as a matter of instinct, that's where I come down. But I know plenty of conservatives — including many relatives — who instantly assume the cops are just taking advantage of a little power and are loathe to defer to them.

I don't think this divide is unique to conservatives. As I say, I think it runs straight through the American, and, no doubt,  human heart. But it's interesting in this context because I think conservatives are expected to be far more deferential to law enforcement. And, when I read the Gates' police report, I immediately sympathized with the cop who had to deal with a very high status guy trying to bully the cop in part by accusing him — unfairly, by my lights —  of racism. It's very interesting to read lots of conservatives offer good faith disagreements.

What an ass.

I'm Being Sarcastic

Thanks, Microsoft, for bringing us "Advertars." I like Spencer's description of the horror:

Imagine playing a MMO. Now imagine playing the same game with a color changing Zune avatar and the Trix Rabbit shouting “Silly Rabbit, Trix are for kids!” during a raid.

Isn't Anything Like A Funeral

Jed Lewison:

Look, Mark [Sanford], I don't know if you've ever been to a funeral, but what you've been through over the past few weeks -- a five-day vacation with your mistress in Argentina and another five-day vacation with your wife in an undisclosed location (all the while pulling down a fat paycheck) -- isn't anything like a funeral.

2 Pound Frozen Ham Sliced, The End

Hopefully this will be the end of the ham story:

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack just issued a statement referring to the $100 million available to the states for The Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) through the stimulus bill. TEFAP, he said, "acquires food that is distributed to local organizations that assist the needy – including food banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens."

Said Vilsack: "The Recovery Act funds referenced in press reports allowed states to purchase ham, cheese and dairy products for these food banks, soup kitchens and food pantries that provide assistance to people who otherwise do not have access to food. This program will help reduce hunger of those hardest hit by the current economic recession. The references to '2 pound frozen ham sliced' are to the sizes of the packaging.  Press reports suggesting that the Recovery Act spent $1.191 million to buy “2 pounds of ham” are wrong. In fact, the contract in question purchased 760,000 pounds of ham for $1.191m, at a cost of approximately $1.50 per pound.

Can y'all shut the fuck up now? Let's get back to talking about Sarah Palin's hair, 'mkay?

AREN'T

RedState explains that mmpff, grgrlg, bwuh?

But, like in 2001, the terrorists have underestimated who the American People are. I’ll note briefly who they AREN’T: Barney Frank, Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Code Pink and their friends.

First...

Mark Sanford is back talking publicly again, and he's sure got his priorities straight:

While there have been lifetimes of lessons learned over the past weeks, three things most immediately come to mind:

• One, forgiveness and grace really do matter...

So, the first thing that comes to your mind here is what everyone besides you needs to do?

Shorter GOP

Please don't damage the wonderful health care system we have in America!

At Least

Amazon has still lost a great deal of goodwill in the recent "deleting sold books" incident, but at least they are now saying this:

"We are changing our systems so that in the future we will not remove books from customers' devices in these circumstances."

Fed Up

Jesse Taylor:

Post-racialism’s advocates usually fall into two broad camps: minority advocates who want us to move past the restrictive effects of race on society, and racist white people who are really fed up with having to restrain their awesome jokes about how Sasha Obama crip walks to school every day.  Post-racialism can only work with a full and complete understanding of race’s effects on society coupled with a conscious effort to remedy those effects; anything else is just providing cover to racism.

"Poor Command of English"

I do not hold the blog itself responsible for what commenters say. But I will say this this post from DrewM at Ace of Spades, itself a bit of denialist optimism, has definitely brought the crazy in their commenters. I particularly like this one:



This seems like just the kind of "oh my God, you're wrong on everything" kind of perspectives that I wouldn't know what to do if I met on the street.

"No safeguards again letting the unqualified attain positions of power?" Instead of having 17 of the 100 democratically chosen political leaders of our country meet for 4 days of hearings in preparation to ultimately vote themselves on this position, perhaps we could improve the process by providing Arbalest with final veto power?

Beer Or Not

Jonathan Chait:

Dylan's terrific dissection of Politico's unspeakably dumb story, which reports that President Obama is "under scrutiny" for being spotted drinking a beer at sports events and other non-work occassions, reminds me of something. Remember last year, when Obama was under scrutiny for his alleged aversion to beer?

Grateful

I'm sure she's ever so grateful for their judgement.

"Big John" Cornyn Doesn't Play To Emotions

No identity politics here, move along...

Curiosity

Joan Walsh:

[M]y Caucasian certainty about our new era of race relations, as whites become a minority group, has been shaken watching the way Republicans have treated Sotomayor in these three days -- as an exotic, hot-tempered curiosity who isn't quite like the rest of us, and whose 17 years of legal rulings matter far less than the words she uses to encourage minority law students. These three days show we haven't come that far at all.

I can't say it any better than Mike Madden, who's live-blogging the Sotomayor hearings today: "So far, it's been remarkable to watch the GOP bash Sotomayor for saying she'd have empathy with some people because of her background and life experience, and also bash her for not having empathy with the firefighters in the Ricci case."

I'm confident Sotomayor will survive her grilling, but seriously, with leadership like this, the GOP might not survive as a national party. 

Pesky Back Hair from Doug TenNapel

This, from Breitbart's Haunted Clown Toilet of Angry Sad, may well be the greatest wingnut post of all time:

I Now Pronounce You Government and Wife
A new Gallup poll shows that married people are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats. The propensity for marriage among Republicans was the same regardless of race or age groups. So this is my formal call to all single Democrats who want to get married; it’s time to change your party affiliation or you’ll go through life alone, or worse, with some flaky narcissist with commitment issues.

We all pretty much know that most Democrats can’t be trusted and that’s reflected in this marriage poll. It’s not that Democrat women are ugly, because we’ve seen too many cute ones out there. The men aren’t hideous either, unless you think a soft, effeminate man hen-pecked his whole life by his domineering mother is hideous. The main reason people don’t get married is out of a fear of divorce– a fear of a breaking of vows. And Democrats talk with their feet when it comes to making commitments with those who philosophically have no grounding to keep any commitment. Did Obama shut down Gitmo? Will he get health reform finished before August recess? Is he going to cut taxes for most Americans?

I go to dinner with a bunch of Hollywood Republicans every month or so and I’ll tell you one thing, the women are easy on the eyes, none more conservative or good looking than my Beloved. Republican women are happy, they don’t mope around like victims or screech about how terrible men are for being men. The men at these get-togethers are happier and generally sport less hair product. Married men are polled to have more sex and more satisfying sex than singles so Republican men have another great quality over their unmarried Democrat counterparts.

Marriage works better for Republicans because how long can a relationship last when victimhood and class struggle are the stock and trade of the household? Every married couple will champion the virtues of personal responsibility which is alien to the donkey platform.

Finally, what Democrat needs a spouse when the government is the head of the house? The federal open wallet makes for a provider of food, housing, education and PBS without all that pesky back hair.

(my emphasis - so hard to pick a best part!)

Better Yet, Soccer

Rachel Abrams at Weekly Standard thinks Obama had no place at an American Baseball game, being such a Euro fag:

And second, he may have thrown out the first pitch wearing a Chicago White Sox jacket ("My wife thinks I look cute in it"), but there was nothing in his cool aspect or his broadcast-booth blarney to suggest a true love for the game, like that of, say, our 43rd president. This guy should stick to golfing, or, better yet, to kicking a soccer ball around the White House lawn. It suits him: more Europeanish, less Americanish.

Everything they see with their eyes is a lie - they still know his secret non-Americanness.

MeMe Roth is a Horrible Person

Christ! MeMe Roth is a horrible person.

Auto-Tune the News #6: Michael Jackson. drugs. Palin.

I've resisted this for a while, but give it at least a couple minutes of your time. Shit's hilarious and unlike anything else I've ever experienced.

"Real"

Another lazy article about there being "two sides to every story," this from Newsweek:

Meet The Sotomayors

One is a Latina firebrand, the other a model of judicial restraint. It's the latter who will appear before the senate judiciary committee. But it's the former, conservative critics fear, who will sit on the highest court in the land. Will the real Sonia Sotomayor please stand up?

Nitpick

Inspired by a review of Meghan McArdle, DougJ asks:

But—and I know I’m obsessed with this—why does contrarian concern trolling of liberal policies have to be the dominant mode of so much of the punditocracy? I understand the value of one or two New Republic-type columnists but why do there to be thousands? And why is that when a more-or-less exact replica of dozens of other contrarian concern trolls appears, that replica is greeted as a “fresh voice”?

I’m willing to offer one possible explanation: conservativism is so intellectually bereft that there’s no way to even discuss its positions without laughing, so the default smart-ass position is to nitpick at liberals. But I still don’t think that explains why there is so much of this stuff and why pissing off liberals is considered so important.

Six Percent

Pew Research poll says only 5% 6% of scientists call themselves Republican.

Update: INSTAPUTZ:

When 94% of an entire class of well-educated professionals has summarily rejected your party, you're in big, big trouble.

(I also fixed the number I had posted from 5 to 6)

We All Know

Are you fucking kidding me, John?

McCain said a special investigation would only publicize "bad things" that harm America's image in the world.

"We all know that the operatives who did it, most likely, were under orders to do it," McCain said.

"Do we want America's image harmed by dragging this out further and further?" he continued, calling photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq the "greatest recruiting tool" for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

John says "we all know" who did it, and that they were "under orders to do it," then who, dear John, gave those orders? We can prosecute them and close up this investigation nice and neat, sparing you the "embarrassment" of an investigation.

Clearly you'd never want to embarrass America.

Great Idea, Eric

Any political coalition in America would be proud to have Eric Dondero on their side:

While it may be too late to revoke Barack Hussein Obama's hold on the Presidency, it is not too late to make the issue of his birth outside of the United States, most likely in Kenya, an issue for Campaign 2012.

From Zero To Wingnut in Three Paragraphs

Here's some serious high-grade wingnuttery from one Paul A. Ibbetson at RenewAmerica. He starts innocuously enough...

Another Elvis sighting
"I just saw Elvis!" Even decades after the death of the legendary singer, people still exclaim these same words with detailed accounts of their personal sighting of "The King." I, along with most of the nation, mourned Presley's death in 1977 but for me, like for most people, that day was the closing of the living story of Elvis, not the beginning of the secret life of the musician/actor. When we look critically at the Elvis sighting phenomena of more than three decades, we can see a complex mental conditioning that allows certain people to come to a place where logic and reason are altered to a point where the next guy shuffling down the sidewalk in a pair of blue suede shoes could be "you know who."

Fine...okay...but two paragraphs later, Paul spins around and shows you his wingnut, front and center!

In the political sphere we see the same psychological reality building that created the immortal Elvis scenario being used by the modern liberal. Wrapped within radical leftist organizations, such as PETA, the man-made global warming crowd, or the tax-and-spend liberals that Barack Obama faithfully leads, we see the same framing of non-reality that has brought some Elvis admirers to seeing the equivalent of jumpsuits and capes that don't really exist. The radicals at PETA ignore the fact that they exploit women to save chickens, and that their mission statement falls in diametric opposition to mainstream Christianity. The man-made global warming crowd disregards the direct evidence that their green initiatives will most certainly destroy the American economy and, of course, that the planet keeps getting cooler, in order to follow a socialistic game plan to "save the Earth."

Yahtzee!

Blackberry Support

Laugh-Out-Loud Cats #1179, originally uploaded by Ape Lad.

I really really really love Hobotopia.

Oh, Noonan

Been a little light on the blogging of late, it being summer and warm and all, but damn if Noonan can't bring me back:

The best I can do right now is to issue a blanket condemnation of all those in our society who propagate lies - such as, for instance, the lie that racism still keeps a black person down.

A brave man, Mark Noonan.

Extra hilarious is the final paragraph of the post, which reads:

Keep this in mind - tell the truth, all the time and every where. About things great and small. Do your utmost to allow not the slightest untruth pass your lips or, worse, settle in your heart. We live in an Age of Lies and we are seeing the ever more terrible results they bring. Its time to bring a halt to this.

...and directly below this conclusion is this banner image:



Thanks for leading by example, Mark!

If Not For You Kids And Your Pesky Momentum!

The Next Right, a site I'm trying to respect as representing intelligent opposition, has a list of Top 20 things the Right should do. But this one seems a little ham-fisted:

16. Turn the Left’s apparent strengths (brand, power, media adoration, momentum) into weaknesses, a la Sun Tzu.

Well, okay, maybe, but those "strengths" you mention are the fact that everyone likes the Left better. That's not a strength, per se, it's a cumulative effect of other strengths. This is not the kind of strength you can turn around - although god knows the Right tried throughout the campaign. The Britney Spears ad, suggesting it's embarrassing and shallow that so many people actually like Obama, the suggestion that Obama's unAmerican because so many people come out to see him in Europe...all the way to now, where the Right continues to sneer like fucking Cartman at what they still call "The One."

Many of the ideas on this list seem thoughtful, but suggesting they just need to fix - er, turn around, "a la Sun Tzu" - the strength of everyone liking Obama is perhaps the wrong way to go about it.

And good luck with the last one:

20. More meme machine, less policy argument. (Emotion, images, stories & sticky sayings.)

Less policy!

Cut The Cord For Him

I think this is a very insightful take on Sanford from Josh Marshall:

I know there are a lot of people who are genuinely questioning Sanford's sanity at this point -- when you put together the furtive trips and the endless new revelations. But am I the only one who thinks that he appears to be deeply in love with this woman and should just go be with her?

The marriage seems clearly to be over. And if it wasn't on his first day back from Argentina, it's hard to conceive how it isn't now.

That isn't to understate all the damage and hurt he's caused to his family, his children and his supporters; let alone the breach of faith with his constituents, not over the affair but over the dereliction of duty. But notwithstanding his claims that he wants to stay in office and repair his marriage, Sanford's every action suggests overwhelmingly that he is desperate not only to get kicked out of office but to get kicked out of his marriage as well.

Everything he's said seems geared to reach back out to his mistress in Argentina (to perhaps re-cement the possibility of continuing the relationship?) and force a final breach with his wife. It is almost as if his upbringing, culture, religion and simply familial obligation require one thing but he's doing everything he can to make those requirements beyond his capacity to fulfill. Put simply, it's like he wants his wife to cut the cord for him.

(my emphasis)

Lieberman Lites

Can't wait to see all the Lieberman Lites that will be popping up in the Senate - Democrats that will permit a filibuster on important Democratic Party platform legislation so that they can look tough and independent.

Packaging Versus Contents, as the Concepts Relate to Sarah Palin and Dana Milbank

If you've ever wondered just what the hell happened with the McCain campaign's relationship with Sarah Palin -- and just what the freaking hell is wrong with her -- here's a great Vanity Fair article by Todd Purdum.

Most of all, I'm struck by how familiar she seems. It's rare, but occasionally I've met a person who denies that the facts are important at all -- they seem unwilling or unable to understand why the rest of us place so much importance on them. Now, I'm not someone who thinks that politicians always lie or never lie, of course. Sometimes politicians see or convey the world in a way that's most convenient for them politically, but they generally recognize some relationship between their ideas and the real world. It may not be so with Palin:

At one point, trying out a debating point that she believed showed she could empathize with uninsured Americans, Palin told McCain aides that she and Todd in the early years of their marriage had been unable to afford health insurance of any kind, and had gone without it until he got his union card and went to work for British Petroleum on the North Slope of Alaska. Checking with Todd Palin himself revealed that, no, they had had catastrophic coverage all along. She insisted that catastrophic insurance didn’t really count and need not be revealed. This sort of slipperiness—about both what the truth was and whether the truth even mattered—persisted on questions great and small. By late September, when the time came to coach Palin for her second major interview, this time with Katie Couric, there were severe tensions between Palin and the campaign.

Later in the story, a couple unnamed folks suggest that she's got narcissistic personality disorder -- they'd actually consulted the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders on it. Whatever her problem, her behavior at least sounds compatible to that of someone with such a cluster B personality disorder.

On a side note, this is what bothers me most about WaPo columnist Dana Milbank, my Villager of recent pointed interest. He'll find an entertaining metaphor for some D.C. event, and he'll write about the scene, the personalities, the conflict, the drama ... and never get around to the important facts, who is bullshitting and who's earnest. It's not important.

Here's A Siegel riffing on a Milbank column that portrays Al Gore as the mystical Oracle at Delphi handing hazy, impenetrable wisdom on climate change to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee/superstitious ancient Greeks. As with the boxing-match metaphor in his "A Thrilla Near the Hilla," this Oracle frame is a fine way to avoid talking about facts when they matter most. And avoiding global warming facts is a fine way to keep from offending the craziest Republicans.

[Milbank's article:] Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) begged the Goracle to look further into the future. "What does your modeling tell you about how long we're going to be around as a species?" he inquired.

The Goracle chuckled. "I don't claim the expertise to answer a question like that, Senator."

It was a jarring reminder that the Goracle is, indeed, mortal. Once Al Gore was a mere vice president, but now he is a Nobel laureate and climate-change prophet. He repeats phrases such as "unified national smart grid" the way he once did "no controlling legal authority" -- and the ridicule has been replaced by worship, even by his political foes.

The chairman worried that the Goracle may have been offended by "naysayers" who thought it funny that Gore's testimony before the committee came on a morning after a snow-and-ice storm in the capital. "The little snow in Washington does nothing to diminish the reality of the crisis," Kerry said at the start of the hearing.

Really think, Dana, that the issue is whether Al Gore was offended or not? How about dealing with the substance that global warming deniers love to confuse people whenever a weather event works conveniently with their agenda to distort science?