Lay Down With Dogs...

...and you end up with fleas!

This should be an abject lesson to both CNN and all other credible news outlets that treating Liz Cheney and her bunch of pro torture sychophant followers with anything other than disdain and scorn will end up tainting you with their stench.

Keep America Afraid

This is a dope web ad. Hope it spreads like wildfire!



By the way Democratic ad people, that song at the end of the ad, you know the same song featured prominently in the movie "Donnie Darko"? Yeah, that's good background music for attack ads.

Just sayin

Have You Heard Of The Oath Keepers?

If not then you really should read this post over at Mother Jones. Then distribute it to everyone you know. Then contact your local newspaper and ask them if they are aware of this group. Then contact some national media and ask if they are aware of the group.

Its time for our media to get its got damn head out of the sand and recognize that the fearmongering on the right is radicalizing people in a way that is fucking dangerous to the rest of us in this country!

Early Contender For QOTD

The GOP must have really pissed John Brennan off...

Cries to try terrorists only in military courts lack foundation. There have been three convictions of terrorists in the military tribunal system since 9/11, and hundreds in the criminal justice system — including high-profile terrorists such as Reid and 9/11 plotter Zacarius Moussaoui.

This administration's efforts have disrupted dozens of terrorist plots against the homeland and been responsible for killing and capturing hundreds of hard-core terrorists, including senior leaders in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and beyond — far more than in 2008. We need no lectures about the fact that this nation is at war.

Politically motivated criticism and unfounded fear-mongering only serve the goals of al-Qaeda. Terrorists are not 100-feet tall. Nor do they deserve the abject fear they seek to instill. They will, however, be dismantled and destroyed, by our military, our intelligence services and our law enforcement community. And the notion that America's counterterrorism professionals and America's system of justice are unable to handle these murderous miscreants is absurd.

Spencer Ackerman PWNS Crazy Pete Hoekstra

Spencer catches Congressman Hoekstra fundraising off of fear mongering over the attempted terrorist attack on Northwest flight 253. Further he hits him over the head with the fact that the terrorist who attempted said attacked is being housed right there in Michigan with all his terrorist super powers and other worldly abilities.

Somebody better get the fainting couch ready! LOL

She Will Not Be Your Appeaser

Rachel Maddow tears Republican staffers a new one for attempting to get her to do a correction on a story she did about their patently false fearmongering over veterans health care. She had to remind them that she is more of a progressive than she is a Democrat.

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And by the way, whichever Democrats are bending over backwards to kiss Buyer's ass just so he can kick them in the balls deserve to lose their next election.

Shoot It To Me Straight

Its pretty apparent that White House counsel, Greg Craig has been offered up as sacrificial lamb over President Obama's failure to keep the closure of GITMO on his own self imposed timeline. Now the truth is the real failure came from the White House when Republicans and their wingnut allies in the blogosphere and on talk radio took to the airways to fear monger over bringing GITMO detainees to America in order to make sure they faced justice. Not only did the White House not attempt to counter this ridiculous messaging, they didn't even support the Democrats in Congress who tried to do so on their behalf.

Now I remember one of the members of Congress who was most forceful in pushing back on the right wing bullshit was Congressman Jim Moran. It turns out that he isn't happy about how Craig is being treated and he doesn't mind telling it like it is.

"Those of us on the Hill who wanted to defend the administration's policy because we knew we had the facts on our side got no back up, no support, no information," Moran said, speculating that the Obama team simply didn't want to spend political capital on the issue.

That became clear to Moran and others in Congress in May, when the war funding bill was moving through Congress and Republicans took to the airwaves to decry the plan to shudder the prison. "We were at the Alamo, and the cavalry was galloping in the other direction," said Moran, "I think it was a political decision. I don't know who made it, but I very much doubt it was Greg Craig."

Other key appropriators who were trying to fund the effort, such as defense subcommittee chairman Jack Murtha, D-PA, and Appropriations chairman David Obey, D-WI, couldn't and wouldn't fight the Republican machine without Obama's help.

"They talked to the White House and the White House wasn't willing to stand alongside them," said Moran. The thinking among Democrats was, "If we can't take advantage of Obama's credibility on this issue, we probably are not going win."

Now the administration is trying to press the reset button on Guantánamo, but Moran argued the damage is done and it is now nearly impossible to sell the idea of moving the prisoners to U.S. soil.

"This is their first major fuck up, and it's an enormous fuckup, because now that you've lost ground you're not going to be able to recover it," said Moran.

Moran is harsh here but exactly on point also. To me this situation along with the fight over the stimulus bill showed that the White House was somewhat gun shy on their own legislative agenda. This signaled to he right wingers that as long as they were loud and as long as they were repetitive, they could make President Obama and his White House back away from issues they saw as politically difficult. It will be interesting to see where we go from here because Moran doesn't seem very hopeful about the closing of GITMO anymore. And honestly considering how he himself put his ass on the line only to get sold out by he White House, can you blame him at all?

Republicans ALREADY Passed "Death Panel" Legislation

I never thought I would say this, but great catch by Amy Sullivan of Time's Swampland blog:

Yes, that's right. Remember the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, the one that passed with the votes of 204 GOP House members and 42 GOP Senators? Anyone want to guess what it provided funding for? Did you say counseling for end-of-life issues and care? Ding ding ding!!

Let's go to the bill text, shall we? "The covered services are: evaluating the beneficiary's need for pain and symptom management, including the individual's need for hospice care; counseling the beneficiary with respect to end-of-life issues and care options, and advising the beneficiary regarding advanced care planning." The only difference between the 2003 provision and the infamous Section 1233 that threatens the very future and moral sanctity of the Republic is that the first applied only to terminally ill patients. Section 1233 would expand funding so that people could voluntarily receive counseling before they become terminally ill.

So either Republicans were for death panels in 2003 before turning against them now--or they're lying about end-of-life counseling in order to frighten the bejeezus out of their fellow citizens and defeat health reform by any means necessary. Which is it, Mr. Grassley ("Yea," 2003)?

You could make a really strong case that the 2003 Medicare bill, by the deathers' logic, is even worse than what is being proposed in the House bill because its only for people who are already deemed terminally ill. Aren't they the most vulnerable patients of all and the ones most succeptible to persuasion?

It would be nice if someone asked Chuck Grassley why he voted to unplug grandma in 2003 that's all I'm sayin.

Steven Pearlstein Brings The Noise

As a columnist who regularly dishes out sharp criticism, I try not to question the motives of people with whom I don't agree. Today, I'm going to step over that line.

The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems.

There are lots of valid criticisms that can be made against the health reform plans moving through Congress -- I've made a few myself. But there is no credible way to look at what has been proposed by the president or any congressional committee and conclude that these will result in a government takeover of the health-care system. That is a flat-out lie whose only purpose is to scare the public and stop political conversation.

Good on Steven Pearlstein for calling bullshit on the Republican attacks on health care reform. He better watch his back though because if he keeps it up he will likely be Froomkined.

Go For The Jugular!

For the last few weeks the GOP echo chamber has been churning out lies a mile a minute about health care reform. One of the lies that has been circulating which is picking up steam on that side of the aisle and is now being used to fearmonger the elderly is that the health care reform bills will institute mandated euthanasia. As ludicrous a that sounds the fact remains that the elderly are easily spooked when it comes to these kinds of rumors and its not just some wacko on a street corner repeating this, members of Congress have taken to saying it over and over again.

This particular lie has its origins with a woman by the name of Betsy McCaughey, who helped kill health care reform back in the early 90s. The thing of it is, she has been making up shit all year fear mongering about health care provisions in the stimulus as well. And each time she comes up with another out and out lie she gets debunked like she was recently but she never admits she made it all up and the lie continues own in both Houses of Congress out of the mouths of Republicans who know they can get on TV and say whatever they damn well please and hardly if ever get push back.

But here is the thing, the Democrats have an OBVIOUS line or attack on this lie. The truth is this provision is all about providing optional consultations to the elderly about how they want to set up their own end of life care. Here is how Politifact characterized it.

For our ruling on this one, there's really no gray area here. McCaughey incorrectly states that the bill would require Medicare patients to have these counseling sessions and she is suggesting that the government is somehow trying to interfere with a very personal decision. And her claim that the sessions would "tell [seniors] how to end their life sooner" is an outright distortion. Rather, the sessions are an option for elderly patients who want to learn more about living wills, health care proxies and other forms of end-of-life planning. McCaughey isn't just wrong, she's spreading a ridiculous falsehood. That's a Pants on Fire.

Now what case in recent years having to do with end of life care might be one that the GOP doesn't want to revisit?

The Terry Schiavo case.

Unless you were on another planet for this debacle the Republican Party showed themselves to be fully prepared to use the government involved in what should be a personal family decision about end of life care. As much as anything else, it exposed their hypocrisy durinig the Bush years with respect to big government versus little government. Not only did this do great damage to their brand when it was all said and done, but it also inspired many people across the political spectrum to start having conversations with their loved ones about the need for living wills and other mechanisms to convey their wishes if something unforseen was to happen to them. For that reason associating the Terry Schiavo case with consultations for the elderly about living wills would not only resonate with most of America, it would also bring back the bad feelings that the GOP inspired from back during that debacle.

I would bet you any amount of money that once a few Democrats used that line of attack to push back on the lie, you wouldn't have to hear about it anymore.

Here is Rachel Maddow doing a segment on this very subject last night.

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100 Days Of Neither Fair Nor Balanced

A short glimpse into the bizzaro world of FoxNews in the age of Obama.

The Responsibility Of Cable News

Great video from Media Matters



(h/t Oliver Wills)

Glenn Beck = Orson Welles

A light bulb just came on in my head. Since Richard Polawski murdered three police officers over the weekend and it became apparent that he had been influenced by right wing propaganda, Glenn Beck and the rest of the right wing echo chamber has pushed back hard against any charges that they were responsible for Polawski's actions. Just the fact that they have been so defensive shows in my opinion a guilty conscious but I have been very dissappointed that most of the mainstream media has not really picked up the story or really fully examined the role that right wing fear mongering rhetoric is having on influencing these kind of situations. Then it occured to me, this is much like Orson Welles' radio broadcast of "War Of The Worlds"

On Sunday, October 30, 1938, millions of radio listeners were shocked when radio news alerts announced the arrival of Martians. They panicked when they learned of the Martians' ferocious and seemingly unstoppable attack on Earth. Many ran out of their homes screaming while others packed up their cars and fled.

Though what the radio listeners heard was a portion of Orson Welles' adaptation of the well-known book, War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, many of the listeners believed what they heard on the radio was real.

Basically what happened back then was that people were listening to the radio and caught some part of the broadcast and then thought it was a real news report. Back then it was common for the radio to carry important messages to the citizenry. When major events were going on the radio was usually how you found out. Besides that everything about the broadcast was made to sound like a real news report.

Orson Welles then went on the air as himself, setting the scene of the play: "We know now that in the early years of the twentieth century this world was being watched closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own..."

As Orson Welles finished his introduction, a weather report faded in, stating that it came from the Government Weather Bureau. The official sounding weather report was quickly followed by "the music of Ramon Raquello and his orchestra" from the Meridian Room in the Hotel Park Plaza in downtown New York. Actually, the broadcast was all done from the studio, but the script led people to believe that there were announcers, orchestras, newscasters and scientists on the air from a variety of locations.

snip

The script specifically attempts to make the interview sound real and occurring right at that moment. Near the beginning of the interview, the newsman, Carl Phillips, tells the listeners that "Professor Pierson may be interrupted by telephone or other communications. During this period he is in constant touch with the astronomical centers of the world . . . Professor, may I begin your questions?"

During the interview, Phillips tells the audience that Professor Pierson had just been handed a note, which was then shared with the audience. The note stated that a huge shock "of almost earthquake intensity" occurred near Princeton. Professor Pierson believes it might be a meteorite.

Another news bulletin announces, "It is reported that at 8:50 p.m. a huge, flaming object, believed to be a meteorite, fell on a farm in the neighborhood of Grovers Mill, New Jersey, twenty-two miles from Trenton."

Now what does this have to do with Glenn Beck? EVERYTHING. You see he has a show on a cable news station and he presents himself as someone who is telling the truth. He probably doesn't believe half of what he says but what he does believe is that scaring people over dumb shit will help the political party (Republican of course) that he aligns himself with. He sees nothing wrong with claiming President Obama will take everyone's guns or that we are on the edge of facism or that our whole way of life is going to crumble and we will turn into a third world country all because he doesn't like the fact that we now have a Democrat as President.

Now many people of course dismiss the things he says because he is obviously a little touched in the head and most of what he says doesn't even sound possible let alone probable. Yet and still right now he has the second highest rated cable news network show and he gets millions of views each day. Many of those viewers DO take him seriously and DO believe that he is bringing them the truth that "nobody else will". So what happens when you believe that a person is presenting the news to you truthfully and that person warns you every single day that you are under attack and that people will be coming for you and your kids soon and that you have to rise up against these unseen liberal forces? Well, just like with the Orson Welles broadcast, you react.

All across the United States, listeners reacted. Thousands of people called radio stations, police and newspapers. Many in the New England area loaded up their cars and fled their homes. In other areas, people went to churches to pray. People improvised gas masks. Miscarriages and early births were reported. Deaths, too, were reported but never confirmed. Many people were hysterical. They thought the end was near.

Hours after the program had ended and listeners had realized that the Martian invasion was not real, the public was outraged that Orson Welles had tried to fool them. Many people sued. Others wondered if Welles had caused the panic on purpose.

The power of radio had fooled the listeners. They had become accustomed to believing everything they heard on the radio, without questioning it. Now they had learned - the hard way.

So you see the question at this point really shouldn't be whether Poplawski was influenced by the right wing echo chamber to commit his crimes, there really can't be any doubt about that anymore. There are at least two questions that remain for us though,

1. How many more people will die as a result of someone reacting to all the right wing fear mongering by reacting with violence?

2. How much longer will the rational people in this country put up with this kind of hate rhetoric being spewed everyday on Tee Vee and in some cases by sitting Congresswomen?


I am not talking about restricting free speech here. People can feel free to say what they like. However even with free speech there is a prohibition against inciting panic and violence like yelling "fire" in a crowded theater. What I am asking is when will we start holding people responsible for the things they say? And by responsible I mean criminally AND civilly. Jason Linkins over at the Huffington Post pointed out yesterday that Michele Bachmann is still taken seriously and criticized with kid gloves by mainstream media types when they should be calling her batshit crazy. In the time since the shooting in Pittsburgh Poplawski's story has been carried by the local Pittsburgh media and the national media. It is striking how the local papers have no qualms about pointing out Poplawski's ties to right wing talking heads and far right websites but you won't see that in ANY national publication. Has our media gotten so afraid of being called liberal that they now refuse to report the truth when it comes to the right wingers in this country? If so its sad and just another indication of why many of the newspapers are dying a very quick and painful death. I am usually not one to call for people to get fired but when you aren't doing your damn job anyway what good are you?

Maybe more journalists should think about that last question.

"Its Supposed To Taste Like A Shit Taco"

Jon Stewart PWNS the right wing fear mongerers.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Baracknophobia - Obey
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Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

"You Can't Just Make Up Your Own Facts"

If only David Shuster could host Hardball everyday. Oh wait he DID have a show then the geniuses at MSNBC decided that he was expendable. What a frikking joke.

Well at least he was there today to connect the dots from the cop shooting in Pittsburgh to the hate talk from the wingnuts on Tee Vee and radio. And he pretty much sent the 2nd Amendment guy running home with his tail between his legs. Good on him for that and good on Charles Blow for calling the guy's argument "laughable".

Enjoy

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Not My Fault

So much for the party of personal responsibility. But then again most of us already knew it was bullshit. Especially when it comes to self described "rodeo clowns" like Glenn Beck.



From Media Matters

From the Post-Gazette:

Believing most media were covering up important events, Mr. Poplawski turned to a far-right conspiracy Web site run by Alex Jones, a self-described documentarian with roots going back to the extremist militia movement of the early 1990s.

Who's been mainstreaming the "freak" Alex Jones in recent days? Who's been embracing his conspiratorial rants and giving them a platform and legitimacy? Fox News, course.

Click here to watch FoxNews.com intro its webcast segment about "what the government has done to take your liberty and property away." And watch the Fox host introduce the "the one, the only, the great Alex Jones." The radio nut then launches into talk of the "New World Order" a "global government." Listen as Jones warns the Fox News audience about the Obama "agenda" for "gun confiscation." And watch the Fox News online host tell Jones it's been "a pleasure" listening to his rhetoric.

Fox News has been playing with radical fire in recent weeks and months. But can it contain the bonfire? Naturally, that doesn't stop Newsbusters from whining about the consequences and insisting that the GOP Noise Machine has no responsibility for the extraordinary hate it's been pushing since January.

UPDATE: Again, even Little Green Footballs is appalled:

Wow. Racists, 9/11 truthers, and conspiracy theorists, all brought to you by Fox News.
Featuring “the great Alex Jones.”

What the hell is wrong with Fox News?

UPDATE: During his webcast on FoxNews.com, Alex Jones also notes with pride how FNC's Glenn Beck has recently been warning about the emerging New World Order on the air, just like Jones.

Honestly all of Beck's denials sound like a guilty conscious to me. The question is how many more tragedies will we have to go through before some one MAKES HIM take responsibility?

BTW David Shuster was teh AWESOME SAUCE today subbing for Tweety on Hardball and talking about this very issue. Just as soon as that video is ready I will be posting it.

Dave Waldman AKA Kagro X Is A BEAST!

Dave Waldman has a diary up over at dailykos that is definitely worth the full ready about the mainstream media's epic fail covering the cop massacer in Pittsburgh by right wing nutjob Richard Poplowski. But I just HAD to excerpt the ending because it expresses my thoughts exactly.

It's a little shy of two years now since reporters at the press conference at the last event held under the Yearly Kos banner in Chicago expressed amazement at having been shown the FOX Nutwork record of "mistakes" in reporting basic facts that were embarrassing to Republicans. And it seems clear that even now, traditional media reporters are unable to come to terms with the fact that there are people masquerading as "their kind," yet who not only can't and won't work in the same fact-based reality as they do, but actively beam out a steady stream of incendiary, counter-factual rhetoric that you'd have to be willfully blinding yourself not to connect to shooters who end up parroting, well, pretty much exactly what they're broadcasting on FOX.

Wake the hell up, people. There's a 24-hour eliminationist "news" nutwork broadcasting poison to already-fevered minds. Call it what it is. Be aware of what they're doing. And reporters, be clear on what they're up to, and whose profession they're using as cover.

And really, when a cop killer's best friend tells you casually that he was consumed with Zionist control of the government and imminent martial law and gun confiscations... that's actually the story!

When a shooter's best friend tells you he killed cops because his mind was being controlled by aliens from planet Xoltron, you have a sad and inexplicable illness on your hands, and "just the facts" reporting is all you can responsibly do.

When a shooter's best friend tells you he killed cops because he believed fake stories you can hear reported as "news" on a well-known (and even "respected!") 24-hour cable television network, you've got a very serious story on your hands that it's actually irresponsible not to look deeper.

This stuff isn't just appearing from out of nowhere. It's being beamed out under the protections you've worked hard to protect for your profession.
To the extent that you refuse to call FOX out for their nonsense, you become partly culpable for its continuance.

Take the reins and lead.

Stay Classy Michele Bachmann

Still more fearmongering from Michele Bachmann and allusions to Nazi facism this weekend on a radio show when talking abou the bipartisan approval of the expansion of Americorps.

It’s under the guise of — quote — volunteerism. But it’s not volunteers at all. It’s paying people to do work on behalf of government. …

I believe that there is a very strong chance that we will see that young people will be put into mandatory service. And the real concerns is that there are provisions for what I would call re-education camps for young people, where young people have to go and get trained in a philosophy that the government puts forward and then they have to go to work in some of these politically correct forums.

Steve Benen fisks this dreck

Now, I feel kind of awkward fact-checking obvious madness, but I suppose it's worth noting two quick points. First, there's nothing in the legislation requiring public service. It's about expanding service opportunities for those who choose to pursue them.

Second, support for the expanded community service programs was bipartisan. The bill passed the Senate with 79 votes, and passed the House with 321 275 votes. Bachmann apparently believes some of her own conservative Republican colleagues backed an initiative to mandate public service and force young people into re-education camps that only exist in her twisted imagination.

Stepping back, though, this reminds me of a great post Kevin Drum had over the weekend in which he pondered why, exactly, so many on the far-right are feeling besieged and panicky.

"Who, exactly, is their enemy these days?" Kevin asked. "I'm not sure they know themselves. But maybe that makes it worse.... Like a horror movie where you're surrounded on all sides by something you can never quite make out, I guess it seems to them like there's something horrible going on, but it's something so insidious that they're only allowed to catch occasional foggy glimpses of it."

Right. And to take this one step further, I think this also helps explain why truly batty conservatives like Bachmann and Glenn Beck fabricate dire threats that don't exist in our reality. They're struggling to deal with legitimate progressive policy ideas, so they're stuck manufacturing make-believe policy ideas that suit their worldview. Obama wants to adopt a global currency! He wants young people in government-sponsored re-education camps! He wants to take medical decisions away from doctors and give them to bureaucrats! He's going to impose a tax on every time we flip a light switch!

These ideas are clearly delusional, but for those who need to see a political apocalypse, they apparently don't have a choice. Debating real ideas on the merits is proving too difficult, so they're creating their own reality and hoping their supporters play along

Now the overriding question is WHEN WILL THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA CALL THIS BULLSHIT OUT? Some journalists evidently think its not their job to do so or that they would be irresponsible to link events to right wing rhetoric. And in the next breath they wonder why they are working in a dying industry.

Go figure.

A Total Lack of Self Awareness And Personal Responsibility

Now that the story about that scumbag Richard Poplawski in Pittsburgh killing 4 police officers and wounding others because, in the words of his closest friends, he feard that President Obama was going to take his guns, the reactions on the blogs have been interesting to say the least. You can go to several different conservative blogs and you won't find even the hint of responsibility. Instead with the officers' bodies not even cold yet they try to contend that the guy really wasn't concerned about Obama taking his guns but rather that he lost his job, damn what his friends said. Or you might find words to the effect that the REAL tragedy here is that the guy actually helped those dirty fucking hippie liberals in their eternal fight against the second amendment. In still other places what you will find people absolving themselves by declaring that the guy was just insane. Now this last point has actually been echoed even on some progressive and left leaning sites like Washington Monthly.

Well I am calling bullshit on all of that, especially the whole "he was crazy so its nobody's fault" meme. He may very well have been insane, but that doesn't excuse the fearmongering spouted from the wingnuts which helped to push his insanity to a violent and deadly outburst. I am as big a proponent of free speech as anybody but you can't just keep scaring people everyday and making it seem like President Obama is going to personally target them and take away their freedoms and then turn around and not bear a great responsibility when someone acts out this way. Its just the same as why you can't yell fire in a crowded theater. What it comes down to is that your speech is not and should not be protected when you use it in an irresponsible manner to put other people in danger. There can be no better example of that than this situation. Yeah Poplowski may well have been bat shit crazy without all of the 2nd amendment bloviating from the wingnuts but would he have gone out and shot police officers? Would he have went out and bought an AK47? Would he have lived his life in fear of the government personally oppressing him? I don't believe so at all.

Now I don't expect the assholes on the right to ever change their ways because even though they preach personal responsibility you rarely see them take any, however its about damned time that we on the left stop giving them free passes. When they incite violence they need to be called out for it and held accountable. When they fearmonger and it leads to a tragedy, they should be made to own it. When they preach armed rebellion and revolution and then a nutcase actually goes out and attempts some of the things they allude to then the connections have to be made. I can tell you right now that I personally am not looking forward to 4 to 8 more years of this shit. The only way to change the behavior of the right is to try to shame them. If people actually start pointing directly at them when this stuff happens instead of letting them off the hook then maybe, just maybe, they will calm all that fear mongering bullshit down. But every single time we give them a pass with that "its nobody's fault" bullshit we damn near insure that they will continue to preach conspiracy and violence and sooner or later tragedy will happen once again.

Now as for the assholes on the right who are unsurprisingly now using this incident to score political points, (yes I am looking at you, Malkin, JamieWearingFool, FloppingAces et al) what you are doing is fucking reprehensible. Its amazing how much you claim to love the military and the police but then turn around and publish the pictures of these fallen officers not to honor their memory, but to talk about what you think the left is doing or saying. Well let me explain it to you dumbasses. Nobody gives a shit about gun control right now. What we give a damn about is the fucked up things you are saying and inciting this violence. I own guns and I have no interest in repealing the 2nd amendment but by the same fucking token I don't want to be out in public and end up getting shot because some whack job has been watching too much FoxNews or reading too much bullshit on freeper and then they just go over the edge and really try to start an armed resolution. If you dickheads had any kind of respect you would tone the bullshit down. But because you are all slimy ass bottom feeding bitches I am sure you will simply continue to fearmonger and try to scare people into sharing your beliefs and put even more police officers' lives in jeopardy.

I Wonder Where He Got That Idea From...

Today brings news of another tragic shooting, this time in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania where a gunman has shot and killed 3 police officers who were responding to a domestic disturbance. But check out what at least was his percieved motivation.

From the AP

PITTSBURGH – A man opened fire on officers during a domestic disturbance call Saturday morning, killing three of them, a police official said. Friends said he feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.

Three officers were killed, said a police official at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Police spokeswoman Diane Richard would only say that at least five officers were wounded, but wouldn't give any other details.

Police planned to release more details at a mid-afternoon news conference Saturday.

The man who fired at the officers was arrested after a several-hour standoff. One witness reported hearing hundreds of shots.

The shootings occurred just two weeks after four police officers were fatally shot March 21 in Oakland, Calif., in the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since Sept. 11, 2001.

Police did not immediately release the gunman's identity, but his friends at the scene described him as a young man who thought the Obama administration would ban guns.

One friend, Edward Perkovic, said the gunman feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon." Another longtime friend, Aaron Vire, said he feared that President Obama was going to take away his rights, though he said he "wasn't violently against Obama."

Now maybe this guy was just crazy or paranoid or depressed, but what is it that would make him believe that President Obama was coming to take his guns to the point where it would motivate him to this kind of violence? Well most of us who have spent anytime on progressive and liberal blogs have a clue as to who is responsible for provoking this kind of dangerous behavior through their fear mongering and smears. But coincidentally there is an op ed by Charles Blow in the New York Times this morning that damn near foreshadowed this incident.

But, it’s not all just harmless talk. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They’re talking about a revolution.

Some simply lace their unscrupulous screeds with loaded language about the fall of the Republic. We have to “rise up” and “take back our country.” Others have been much more explicit.
For example, Chuck Norris, the preeminent black belt and prospective Red Shirt, wrote earlier this month on the conservative blog WorldNetDaily: “How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?”

Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, imagining herself as some sort of Delacroixian Liberty from the Land of the Lakes, urged her fellow Minnesotans to be “armed and dangerous,” ready to bust caps over cap-and-trade, I presume.

And between his tears, Glenn Beck, the self-professed “rodeo clown,” keeps warning of an impending insurrection by saying that he believes that we are heading for “depression” and “revolution” and then gaming out that revolution on his show last month. “Think the unthinkable” he said. Indeed.

All this talk of revolution is revolting, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.

As the comedian Bill Maher pointed out, strong language can poison weak minds, as it did in the case of Timothy McVeigh. (We sometimes forget that not all dangerous men are trained by Al Qaeda.)

At the same time, the unrelenting meme being pushed by the right that Obama will mount an assault on the Second Amendment has helped fuel the panic buying of firearms. According to the F.B.I., there have been 1.2 million more requests for background checks of potential gun buyers from November to February than there were in the same four months last year. That’s 5.5 million requests altogether over that period; more than the number of people living in Bachmann’s Minnesota.

Coincidence? Maybe. Just posturing? Hopefully. But it all gives me a really bad feeling.

I swear you would almost think Blow wrote his article AFTER the shootout this morning. Yet he didn't and that should tell you something. Yes we have first amendment rights to free speech in this country but what these irresponsible assholes are doing on the right wing fringe of this country is especially harmful and dangerous and if they are not called on the carpet for their bullshit you can expect more of these kinds of deadly interactions to occur between their weakminded followers and innocent bystanders. The shit has gone too far and its high times someone said so. I appreciate the fact that Mr. Blow took up the call today but there should be a lot more where that came from by the Villagers and our elected officials. Including the colleagues of Michele Bachmann.