Clueless

And by clueless I mean totally fucking clueless. Thats an apt description of Mika Brzezinski's attempt to talk bout the Skip Gates arrest story this morning. Notice how in her world "look at all sides" means reading from the police report.

What a joke.

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Co Signed

I fully endorse everything Coates says in this post about Pat Buchanan, but especially this part:

It's amazing to me that people actually sit next to this cat, and have the balls to let the word "postracial" pass across their lips.

Just as a heads up Pat Buchanan will be on "The Rachel Maddow Show" tomorrow night.

If you agree with TNC just as I do how about tweeting some of MSNBC's on air talent and asking them why they allow him to get away with his blatant racism without saying anything.

Rachel Maddow

Carlos Watson

Contessa Brewer

David Shuster

Tamron Hall

Please hold their feet to the fire. Maybe that will inspire them to finally hold Buchanan accountable for his vile, racist, bigoted, and sexist rhetoric.

The Winds Are Shifting

With the disjointed, incoherent resignation of Sarah Palin last week it seems a curious thing has happened. The winds in Washington DC have started shifting in a major way. What is most important about that is that as the wind flows so goes the Villagers. For so long they have tried to close their eyes and act as if Republicans were worthy of being included in the major discussions of our day. Even though evidence was increaing by the day, none of the Villagers wanted to step out and admit that the GOP was now a fringe party with fringe ideas.

But it seems that with all of the recent scandals involving top GOP prospective 2012 candidates capped by Palin's glorious flameout last Friday the Villagers are now emboldened to start calling a spade a spade.

Witness Richard Cohen:

It would behoove us, though, to consider how close we all came to utter disaster -- the "counterfactual" suggested above. A recent Vanity Fair article clarifies just how awful a vice president (or president) Palin would have made. During the campaign, she proved allergic to briefings and remained determined to stay uncorrupted by knowledge. More recently, she explained her decision to -- permit me some GOP talk -- cut and run as Alaska governor by lapsing into no known language, explaining herself afterward in a burst of Tweets that only raised more questions. One question, though, has been settled: She is unfit for office.

Naming Palin to the GOP ticket -- a top-down choice by McCain -- was the most reckless decision any national politician has made in the longest time, and while it certainly says something about McCain, it says even more about his party. It has lost its mind.

Recall, after all, that Palin was not McCain's first choice. That was either Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge. Both were rejected by the party establishment because of their appalling moderation on social issues over which the president has little direct authority anyway -- abortion, above all -- and in Lieberman's case because he had been a Democrat. In desperation, McCain turned to Palin.

Was there a scream of protest? No. Did the Republican Party demand to know of McCain what the hell he had done? Again, no. Was it okay with the GOP if the person a heartbeat away from the presidency was -- pardon me, but it's true -- a ditz with no national experience whatsoever? You betcha. The party had cracked up, accepting a nullity because she was antiabortion over a seasoned senator and former governor because they were not. Ideology won. The nation lost.

It really shouldn't have taken this long for him to come to these conclusions but there it is. And notice that last line of the excerpt. Its apparent that Cohen still believes, incredibly at this point, that McCain was who the nation needed. And yet even he isn't willing to toe the company line anymore and is ready to call out the Republican Party. I don't think that would have been true had Sarah Palin not held her whine and cheese party last week.

Witness also Gene Robinson, whom I do not consider a true Villager, but who takes himself and his profession to task for not calling it like it was with Sarah Palin and her party.

But I'm stating the obvious. The thing is, Palin's unsuitability for high public office has been obvious all along. Tina Fey got it right; the rest of us were far too reluctant to state plainly that the emperor, or empress, has no clothes.

There are basically two reasons the political class and the commentariat continue to speak and write about Palin as if she were a substantial figure whose presence on the national stage is anything but a cruel, unfunny joke. The first is fear -- not of Palin and her know-nothing legions, but of being painted as elitist and sexist.

From the beginning, Palin has been a master at maneuvering her critics into this trap. Like most Americans, she didn't go to an Ivy League school; like most women, she deals every day with the challenges of juggling work and family. She highlighted these aspects of her biography, then used them to portray herself as a victim whenever anyone had the temerity to criticize anything she said or did. The most recent illustration is what she posted on her Facebook page last weekend on the reaction to her announced resignation:

"How sad that Washington and the media will never understand; it's about country. And though it's honorable for countless others to leave their positions for a higher calling and without finishing a term, of course we know by now, for some reason a different standard applies for the decisions I make."

What is she talking about? Who are these "countless others" who supposedly have made the same decision to abandon governorships for no credible reason? The names don't come rushing to mind. Why is any criticism of Poor Little Sarah the result of the "different standard" that mean old "Washington and the media" always apply? Because blaming her favorite alleged persecutors allows her to ignore the bewildered reaction from her constituents in Alaska who are stunned and mystified at her decision to skip out.

The other reason Palin is taken more seriously than she deserves is that she has a constituency. Heaven help us.

Palin has far-right conservative views, and while I disagree with her on almost everything, there's certainly nothing inappropriate or illegitimate about her philosophy. But I feel sorry for conservatives who look to her as a champion because she's going to let them down. Articulating a political vision and inspiring people to believe in it are true accomplishments, and no one can take that away from her. But realizing that vision through legislation or executive action requires discipline, persistence and rigor. To return to stating the obvious, these are attributes that Palin lacks.

Now I have a feeling that there will be more of this to come soon because, as we all know, the Villagers LOVE a good meme. But maybe for once its a good thing because they will be finally catching up to what the overwhelming majority of the country has known for years. And that is that the Republican Party is now run by people who are batshit crazy.

It is what it is.

The GOP Is Just Making Shit Up

And they wonder why they keep losing...

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Eugene Robinson, This Is The NEW Playbook!

Eugene Robinson is just the latest journalist to reveal their hacktackular side yesterday in his column entitled "A Playbook to Change". Now being as how Mr. Robinson is a frequent guest on "Morning Joe" everyone should have known the guy would be pliable when it comes to journalistic standards. But this particular article is just a joke in every sense of the word. Some how Robinson is equating PEOTUS Barack Obama's being thoughtful and actually wanting to investigate his own staff before making a blanket statement absolving them to using the "old" playbook. Really? So when was the last time that George Bush DIDN'T come out and lie immediately and make blanket statements when a scandal came out? When was the last time George Bush said he would release the fruits of an internal investigation into whether anybody on his staff engaged in questionable activities? No Mr. Robinson you see, this is the NEW playbook where it actually matters to the guy at the top that he gets it right the first time. It actually matters to him that his team is open and honest. It actually matters enough to PEOTUS Obama that he isn't willing to use the "old" playbook and promise things that might not be true just in the interest of politics and playing the media game.

There is a line being pushed by many of the drudge obsessed journos in the MSM that shows up in Eugene Robinson's article about President Elect Obama not being forthright enough. So lets examine it for a minute.

But the longer he leaves obvious questions unanswered, the longer the president-elect will have to talk about the seamier side of Illinois politics rather than initiatives such as saving the U.S. auto industry or revamping health care.

Ok so lets see the "obvious questions" that are included in Eugene Robinson's column that are so pressing for our President Elect that he hasn't answered. Here is the first one I found.

The normal thing would be for Obama's staff to talk to Blagojevich's staff -- and, unless prosecutors have asked him not to, I don't understand why Obama hasn't stated this simple fact.

But lets see what President Elect Obama
actually said on this matter.

What I want to do is to gather all the facts about any staff contacts that I might -- may have -- that may have taken place between the transition office and the governor's office. And we'll have those in the next few days, and we'll present them.

So Obama not only acknowledges that there might have been contacts between his office and the Governor's office and pledges to present the facts of any of those contacts. Isn't that what we have been missing for the last 8 years? Aren't we supposed to like the fact that our President is willing to investigate his own staff and then turn around and present the evidence publicly? Isn't the old playbook that you just deny deny deny and then refuse to comment? Ok so maybe Eugene Robinson just missed that part of the press conference. Lets look for the other "obvious questions" in his article that have gone unanswered. Here is the next one.

That raises the question of what the Obama team knew about the investigation and when.

Now here is what's funny, supposedly all of the Chicago newspapers and most off the Illinois politicians were following the investigation into Rod Blagojevich but they ALL claimed to be shocked about the new revelations about him trying to sell the Senate seat. I wonder if Eugene Robinson put in a call to Dick Durban to ask him if he knew anything about the investigation. I mean whomever that is named to that seat would be a fellow Illinois Senator. Following Eugene Robinson's logic we should all be suspicious of Dick Durbin too, no?But setting that aside for a minute, lets see what Obama had to say about this matter.

MR. OBAMA: I have not been contacted by any federal officials. And we have not been interviewed by them. As is reflected in the U.S. attorney's report, we were not, I think, perceived by the governor's office as amenable to any deal-making. And, you know, I won't quote back some of the things that were said about me. So -- this is a family program, I know.

So, you know -- so, beyond that, I'm not really certain where the investigation is going forward. I'll leave Mr. Fitzgerald to address those issues. OK, Mike Flannery, CBS.

Now the funny thing is the person with ALL of the answers about the case is Attorney General Patrick Fitzgerald so why aren't any pundits calling on him to answer questions? Notice how Eugene Robinson says in the earlier quote

unless prosecutors have asked him not to

So uhmmm why not just ASK the prosecutors if he asked PEOTUS Obama not to comment on the matter. Ill tell you why, because if the prosecutor says that he did in fact ask Obama not to comment about the investigation then it takes away another talking point. And we all know how those MSM folks LOVE their talking points. Especially when they get their mug on TV in the mornings. I could point out that the Chicago Tribune printed a letter to the readers that explained how the prosecutors had asked them several times not to publish stories that would hurt the case against Blagojevich but then I might be destroying Mr. Robinson's "the prosecution doesn't mind everybody talking" meme wouldn't I?

Ok so what other "obvious questions" are just burning in Mr. Robinson's brain? Wait, what do you mean that's it? Are you trying to tell me this guy wrote a whole article about "obvious questions" that PEOTUS Obama hasn't answered and he came up with all of 2 questions? And are you trying to say to me that at least 1 of those 2 questions had already been answered? Wow. But wait wasn't the whole point of his column that Obama was way too involved with Blagojevich not to be more open and forthcoming about it? And doesn't Eugene do a great job of joining them at the hip? Uhmm not exactly.

For most politicians, that would be good enough. For Obama, who inspired the nation with a promise of "change we can believe in," it's not.

The scandal involves Obama in only the most tangential way, as far as anyone knows, and actually seems to cast him in a favorable light.

He delivers an expletive-laden tirade against Obama, according to the court papers, because he believes Obama wants him to give the job to a specific candidate "for nothing." This actually makes the president-elect and his team look good

None of this is likely to hurt Obama in any material way or even dim the glow of his victory and upcoming inauguration.

So Eugene Robinson wrote a column about a subject that "isn't likely to hurt Obama" about a scandal that only involves Obama in a "tangential way" where the substance of the scandal actually "makes the president-elect look good" which should be the end of the story but because Obama "promised "change we can believe in" its not". Thanks so much for your contribution to American journalism Mr. Robinson. I am sure that you are oh so proud.

Here is a final "obvious question" to YOU Mr. Robinson that has gone unanswered, If President Elect Barack Obama were to have listed all of the contacts his office had with Rod Blagojevich's office yesterday and then a week from now he discovered that there had been more contacts, would you cut him a break and conclude he just had made an honest mistake, or would you rake him over the coals for lying to the American people after promising Change We Can Believe In? I'll leave the answer to your conscious, if you have one that is.


While you are at it maybe you can explain to me what is so important about whether Obama or people on his team met with Blagojevich and what they knew about the investigation when all the facts point to Blago having the distinct impression that they were not willing to pay to play. But then again that's a question that only a REAL journalist would ask themselves before they wrote articles like yours.