Our national discourse

One of the conservative guests then says that Paul Krugman might be right in that everyone wants cuts for everyone else but not themselves, and that to move forward, we all have to be prepared to make sacrifices. Hannity was having none of it.

"I've sacrificed enough. With all due respect, when they tell me they're going to means-test my social security and they want to, basically, they're going to legalise stealing people's social security. "Oh you've been successful. You've paid in your whole life, Hannity. You know what? Too bad. We're going to take your money." I'm telling you, I resent that. It sounds selfish, right?"

Suffice to say, even his conservative guests were blushing a little for the multimillionaire talkshow host at this point, but he stuck to his guns.

"I paid my whole life. I want my money back!"

And with that, Hannity managed to prove unequivocally the very point he was disputing. It would have made Glenn Beck proud.

Insurrectionism Timeline

For those who try to say everybody indulges in violent rhetoric.

Shut up shut up shut up!1!

Or you will get stomped, handcuffed, threatened, and wrestled to the ground. All because teabaggers love God, the Constitution, and free speech....

Update: waterboarded....

Why are we giving the insane

Acknowledgement by the press?

Why?

It would be like denying the Quakers a meeting house

Near where the KKK firebombed a building. But nuance is not a teabaggery strength.

Newsmax:

A New York City panel has denied landmark status to a building near ground zero, freeing organizers to build an Islamic center and mosque there.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission's decision allows organizers to transform the 152-year-old building into an Islamic community center blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 attacks.

National and New York politicians and the Anti-Defamation League have come out in recent weeks against plans for the mosque, saying it disrespects the memory of Sept. 11 victims. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has supported the mosque.

The commission voted 9-0 against granting landmark status to the building. Commissioners said the building didn't meet historic criteria to qualify as a landmark.

The mosque would be part of an Islamic community center to be operated by a group called the Cordoba Initiative, which says the center will be a space for moderate Muslim voices.

But opponents say building a mosque near ground zero would be an insult to the memory of those who died at the hands of Muslim extremists on Sept. 11, 2001.

How is refusing a peaceful and religious group of Muslims an area to build a community center a 'Christian' action? What have they to do with 9/11?

Nothing.

Will the wingnuts and teabaggers ever acknowledge the difference?

No. It's too comforting to hate and too profitable to reeducate the haters.

Update: I love to be proved wrong. Go Temecula!

Rove still hides behind the curtain....

News that two former top Bush strategists have formed a spinoff organization to dig up dirt on Congressional Democrats before the 2010 elections has reignited a debate about how the Obama administration has structured the Democratic Party's own political operations.

On Wednesday morning, Politico reported that American Crossroads GPS, the organization formed by operatives Karl Rove and Ed Gillespie, hauled in an impressive $5.1 million in June. A separate legal entity from its parent shop, American Crossroads (a distinction that allows it to hide the names of its donors), GPS was poised to use that money for the ostensible purpose of wreaking havoc on behalf of Republican candidates.

It's the type of secretive electioneering that has Democrats publicly crying foul -- the Democratic National Committee sent out the story on Wednesday morning. In private, however, party operatives expressed anxiety with the development.

Clearly it's exactly what the Right wants.

Otherwise the GOP WOULD tone down the rhetoric. Especially if the unleashed teabaggery crowd turns on them, as revolutions often do.

Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly on the latest moronic shoot-out guy Byron Williams: (my bold)

Remarkably, no one was killed, though Williams was firing a rifle with ammunition that "could penetrate ballistic body armor and vehicles, police said." He was in court yesterday, and will face all kinds of criminal charges, including the attempted murder of four police officers.

But stepping back, every time there's violence like this, I'm reminded of the concerns raised by the Department of Homeland Security last year, about potentially violent anti-government extremists -- concerns that appear increasingly prescient.

These examples of politically-motivated attacks seem to keep piling up. Just this year, John Patrick Bedell opened fire at the Pentagon; Joe Stack flew an airplane into a building; Jerry Kane Jr. and his son killed two police officers in Arkansas; and the Hutaree Militia terrorist plot was uncovered. Last year, James von Brunn opened fire at the Holocaust memorial museum; Richard Poplawski gunned down three police officers in Pittsburgh, in part because he feared the non-existent "Obama gun ban"; and Dr. George Tiller was assassinated. In 2008, Jim David Adkisson opened fire in a Unitarian church in Tennessee, in part because of his "hatred of the liberal movement."

Let there be no doubt: deranged madmen are responsible for their own violent actions. But in the wake of these attacks, I don't think it's unreasonable to wish that some of the leading far-right voices would lower the rhetorical temperature a bit, helping to cool the tempers of those who might be inclined to hurt others.

Not to be cynical, but I'm sure the manipulators of the teabaggers and those who rant against the liberals really do want a shoot-out. Then they could yell about law and order and how the shooter was obviously a islamofascist socialist or dirty fucking hippie and only Republicans will bring peace and contentment back to America.....

We've been here before.

It’s not slander if it’s the truth

Racism in the Teabaggery party.

Finally somebody said it

Brave Sir Angle ran away

Is Palin actually TRYING to start a civil war?

Telling her teabaggers to stop cars with Obama bumperstickers and demand answers?:

Or that bumper sticker you see on the next Subaru driving by, an Obama bumper sticker. You should stop the driver and say, "So how is that hopey, changey thing working out for you?"

If you read the comments, there are a lot of liberals hoping to have an excuse to imitate teabaggers and lock and load so to speak.... especially after the road rage incident involving an Obama for President sticker.

And that hopey changey thing is working out much better than having you a heartbeat away from the presidency, lady.

Headlines

Sometimes earlier technology is better:

Rare Austin which stood in garage for 50 years discovered... and starts first time!

Try not to piss off your crazy armed-to-the-teeth base!:

In the Wake of Arrests in Three States, Right-Wingers Rush to Defend Terror Suspects, Criticize FBI

In one word: No. In three: PLEASE GOD, NO!:

Is America ‘Yearning For Fascism?'

Frank Rich tries to explain the fever pitch of hysteria:

The Rage Is Not About Health Care

In one word: Yes. In elventy: WTF, just do it! We're drying up and blowing away here!:

Can Wastewater Save California's Parched Farmland?

The destruction of the ocean habitats continues:

Mysterious whale die-off is largest on record

When in doubt... take off clothes:

Man cites boredom after arrest on streaking charge

I'm so sorry my neglected and abused pit bull ate your kid

That doesn't reflect on me now, does it?:

Tea Partiers and others on the right are starting to distance themselves from the recent spate of violence and racism that has characterized the opposition to health-care reform.

In a letter to President Obama and Congress released yesterday, an alliance of Florida Tea Party groups called the Tea Party movement "a peaceful movement" and declared that they "stand in stark opposition to any person using derogatory characterizations, threats of violence, or disparaging terms toward members of Congress or the President."

A similar coalition in Colorado -- where the office of Rep. Betsy Markey (D-CO) recently notified police about a phone call it received threatening violence -- released a similar statement. "Tea party and similar groups across Colorado are saddened tonight to hear of threats made upon Democratic lawmakers in response to the passing their recent health insurance reform legislation, specifically ... Rep. Betsy Markey," it said.

And FreedomWorks, the Washington grassroots lobbying group that has helped co-ordinate Tea Party events put out a statement declaring "political violence is both immoral and ineffective, and will only set the movement back."

Apparently you guys haven't been paying attention to what you've been encouraging, egging on, inciting. We sure have.

I fully expect teabaggers and wingnuts to go into a tizzy of mock surprise when an elected official is shot at. But it would be really interesting to watch the reaction if such a despicable action was aimed at a Republican.

Pit bulls often turn on their own family.

*edited to fix quote

Update: Digby nails it:

They know that serious violence is very likely. They are simply inoculating themselves against the charge that it was their inflammatory rhetoric that caused it. It will be the Democrats complaining about their inflammatory rhetoric that made the teabaggers snap. If they'd just stayed quiet and not made daddy mad, he wouldn't have had to hit them.

The only thing these people should be doing is calming down their crazies. Instead they're ginning them up. Heckuva job.

Update 4/1/10: Kelly Kleiman of the blog The Reality Based Community touches on this very thing: Health care reform politics and Kristallnacht 2010.

Rachel Maddow teaches Scott Brown a lesson

Liberals actually do fight back against blatant lies. With the truth. With facts. Against the Right Wing Smear Machine that has been in full gear since the Clinton era.

Go Rachel.

Aren't all politicians viewed this way already?

14 percent of Americans say President Barack Obama may be the Antichrist. When split by political party, 24 percent of Republicans and 6 percent of Democrats viewed the nation's leader in this way.

[snip]

Here's the percentage breakdown of respondents' views of President Obama:

38 percent say he wants to take away Americans' right to own guns.

32 percent say he is a Muslim.

29 percent think he wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government.

29 percent think he has done many things that are unconstitutional.

27 percent say he resents America's heritage.

27 percent say he does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do.

25 percent say he was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president.

25 percent say he is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of.

23 percent say he is a racist.

23 percent say he is anti-American.

23 percent say he wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers.

20 percent say he is doing many of the things that Hitler did.

When broken out by political party, results showed some stark differences. For instance, the majority of Republicans believed the president is a Muslim and a socialist, while around 40 percent believe he is a racist, someone who resents American heritage and "wants terrorists to win."

Forty percent of Republicans, compared with just 15 percent of Democrats, think Wall Street pulls his strings.

When Harris' Taylor saw the results he told LiveScience he was "flabbergasted. I would've guessed the numbers would've been a lot smaller than that."

He added, "It means that very large numbers of people are misninformed not only about President Obama but many things in modern life."

The findings lend support to, and in fact were done to verify, themes in John Avlon's new book "Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America" (Beast Books, 2010).

Holding their breath and turning blue

Do we reward tantrums?

Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly: (my bold)

In terms of messaging, though, I think Ezra has the right idea:

I could imagine a lot of smart ways to begin obstructing the chamber and making life miserable for Democrats. But declaring that you won't work after 2 p.m? Do Republicans really think the average American is going to rally to that battle cry?

If Senate Dems want to see Republicans scramble, they'd run with this one. Have the leadership hold a press conference and announce, "We're stunned that Republicans won't let the Senate function after 2 p.m. American workers don't the option to just stop working at 2 because he or she feels like it, and there's no reason their Republican senators should just call it a day after lunch. Republicans have gone from the party that only says "no" to the party that's too lazy to say anything at all."

Look, Democrats. We're helping you here. Expose this tantrum for the idiotic behavior it is.

The mask slips

And the monster is revealed. The true GOP.

Bob Herbert of the New York Times:

For decades the G.O.P. has been the party of fear, ignorance and divisiveness. All you have to do is look around to see what it has done to the country. The greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age was followed by a near-total collapse of the overall economy. As a country, we have a monumental mess on our hands and still the Republicans have nothing to offer in the way of a remedy except more tax cuts for the rich.

This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry.

Glenn Beck of Fox News has called President Obama a “racist” and asserted that he “has exposed himself as a guy, over and over and over again, who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”

Mike Huckabee, a former Republican presidential candidate, has said of Mr. Obama’s economic policies: “Lenin and Stalin would love this stuff.”

The G.O.P. poisons the political atmosphere and then has the gall to complain about an absence of bipartisanship.

This is ugliness that was unleashed by the bizarre witch hunt of the Clintons, unleashed by the neocon agenda in the Bush terms, whipped on by the McCain/Palin speeches. The neocons and the Republicans realized that if you goad people into a frenzy, they will attack those who protest against wars, try to stand up against hate speech, attempt to have a public discussion. The easily distracted ignorant and stupid became their minions which freed them up to pursue their own agendas.

They took off the leash for the Bush years and cannot now rein them in. Watch them as they try to pretend these monsters aren't their own. They are already trying desperately to buff Bush's image, rewrite history, lie outright .... and when they find that won't change the rampaging wingnuts and teabaggers, try to indicate Bush was actually a liberal.

Bush's policies were the Republican policies taken further and more completely than any other president has ever taken them. Take a look at the wreckage and realize that this is what the Republican party stands for. The GOP OWNS the Bush debacle and the ensuing ugliness, and no amount of buffing, rewriting nor lying will change that.

Update: Krugman has more:

And let’s be clear: the campaign of fear hasn’t been carried out by a radical fringe, unconnected to the Republican establishment. On the contrary, that establishment has been involved and approving all the way. Politicians like Sarah Palin — who was, let us remember, the G.O.P.’s vice-presidential candidate — eagerly spread the death panel lie, and supposedly reasonable, moderate politicians like Senator Chuck Grassley refused to say that it was untrue. On the eve of the big vote, Republican members of Congress warned that “freedom dies a little bit today” and accused Democrats of “totalitarian tactics,” which I believe means the process known as “voting.”

Without question, the campaign of fear was effective: health reform went from being highly popular to wide disapproval, although the numbers have been improving lately. But the question was, would it actually be enough to block reform?

And the answer is no. The Democrats have done it. The House has passed the Senate version of health reform, and an improved version will be achieved through reconciliation.

This is, of course, a political victory for President Obama, and a triumph for Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker. But it is also a victory for America’s soul. In the end, a vicious, unprincipled fear offensive failed to block reform. This time, fear struck out.

Blog sprinkles

Sailor at SteveAudio tracks the Media's weird tilt to the right.

Biden at the top of his game:



What you can do with a bunch of kids.

I thought Bryan had found the worst webcam ever with the cheese webcam, but these might actually be the most boring webcams EVER.

Teachers having to think about murderers and killers as they practice lockdowns.

Skinheads sentenced to work in Holocaust museum. Good idea, hope it works.

So we finally passed a health care bill... NEXT.

And just so you know:

The following Democrats voted against the House's effort to pass the Senate health care bill: Adler, Altmire, Arcuri, Barrow, Berry, Boren, Boucher, Bright, Chandler, Childers, A.Davis, L.Davis, C.Edwards, Herseth Sandlin, Holden, Kissell, Kratovil, Lipinski, Lynch, Marshall, Matheson, McIntyre, McMahon, Melancon, Minnick, Nye, Peterson, Ross, Shuler, Skelton, Space, Tanner, Taylor, Teague

Help vote Stupak out of office. (Btw, Stupak backwards is kaputs....) And oh, my... they are turning on him already. Update 3/23: REALLY turning on him!

What ever has happened to Riverbend of Baghdad Burning? Does anyone know?

You can interrupt a Democratic president because....

It shows you're a REAL journalist guy and anyway Republican preznits don't need the aggravation? They can't threaten you with Cheney's secret assassination squad? Republican preznits are special?

Even with the interruptions or non, I can sure tell who actually is presidential, has a grasp of all the facts and nuances, can complete complex sentences, and use big words. And not get testy being interviewed by an asshole. (Or interviewing an asshole.)

God... just listening to Georgie's excuses is nauseating... all of them WRONG. His condescending style of speech, his simplistic view of the world, his platitudes, his sound bites.... I am so glad this man is off the world stage.

Just keep him off.

*edited for stupid grammar.

Teaching the vocabulary of Teabaggery

Can you imagine getting death threats over such a cartoon? JJ of Unrepentant Old Hippie has the fascinating story.

Update: Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly discusses the fissures in the various Teabaggery groups.