Jon Stewart Hits the Haiti Responses Of Robertson, Limbaugh And.....Maddow?

I get Jon Stewart's point about not using the Haiti crisis for political gain, but comparing what Rachel Maddow did with what Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson said is the height of false equivalence in my opinion.

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I Couldn't Have Said It Any Better...

This Muthafucka Right Here

I have made a decision. If you listen to Rush Limbaugh or support him in anyway I can't fuck with you. Yeah, I believe in free speech definitely but enough is a fucking nuff. If you think its cool that he can say this kind of bullshit or that its just all in fun, well you and I have too much of a different view of life and its not even worth dealing with you in any meaningful way to try to change your opinion. A line has to be drawn somewhere and dammit, Im drawing it!

On Harry Reid's Comments

I am not about to go into a long ass post about Harry Reid's comments describing President Obama as a "light skinned" black person who doesn't speak with a "negro dialect" unless he wants to. For one, what he said is true. For two its all been said before, just with "nicer" words. Every time a political pundit last year said President Obama was "non threatening" because of his background and demeanor or anything close, they were saying the exact same thing that Harry Reid said in 2006. Want to take issue with "negro dialect"? Ok then explain to me what the hell ebonics is. I know some of us black folks don't like to admit that many of our people don't speak the King's English well, but its true and trying to act like it isn't is pretty damned disengenuous.

Was it racist? I guess the question I would have in response is who would it have been racist against? Every racist term or sentence or phrase that I know of is meant to demean a person based on their race. Harry Reid was actually speaking favorably of President Obama and talking about why he had a chance to be our first black President. And what do you know, he was right. I guess MAYBE you could try to make the case that it was racist against all black folks not named Barack Obama, bu then of course you would still have to show how its demeaning. As I pointed out before, just the existence of the word "ebonics" in our culture speaks to the fact that many people belive black folks and other minorities speak a different language. Is that a negative? Most of the time it is, especially if you are applying for a job. And wasn't there a story not too long ago about business not bringing people who "sounded black" over the phone in for interviews? But hey why let facts like that get in the way of a hysterical over reaction right?

In closing I will say this, if you ever have had the occasion to praise and or promote Rush Limbaugh or Pat Buchannan, you shouldn't have a got damn thing to say about any of this. And if the mainstream media types were doing their job they would point this out at every turn.

P.S. One more thing, was I the only one who read Reid's comments and immediately thought, "Damn, I guess that means Michael Steele could never be President" lmaooooo

P.S. 2: This still doesn't change my position that Harry Reid is doing a shitty job as Majority Leader. Thanks, that is all.

Rev Al Still Got It

I don't care where you come down on Al Sharpton, there is no denying the fact that he straight dominated Chris Matthews and the racist Pat Buchanon in this conversation on Rush Limbaugh. It wasn't even close!

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You See He's A Racist Because He Calls Out Racism

In the wingnut bizarro world the ONLY racists in the country right now are all minorities. Oh they will concede that racism exists in theory, but bring up specific racists like say Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck and they will argue you down that they have "never heard them say anything racist". Hell even supposed centrist white people on the left will stick up for the Limbaughs of the world, probably because they spend part of their day listening to his invective as a guilty pleasure. But you let a strong person stand up and call out white racists and racism against our first black President and you just watch to see people step up to demean and bismirch them.

The culprit this time is former President Jimmy Carter.

Now if there was ever a white man qualifed to talk about racism its Jimmy Carter. I mean the guy was the governor of Georgia during the tail end of the Civil Rights era for goodness sake. And yet he has committed the crime of saying something so emmintently true and reasonable as to make other white folks uncomfortable. He had the temerity to say that a lot of the opposition and vitriol towards President Obama, including Joe Wilson's outburst, are rooted in racism. After we have seen pictures of the President photoshopped with a bone through his nose, emails circulated with all kind of racist invective like a watermelon patch outside of the WhiteHouse and the racist ignorance spewed about President Obama's daughters at freerepublic how can anyone possibly refute President Carter on this?

And yet they will. Oh mark my words they will. Hell Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe this morning pushed back hard on President Carter's words even though they work with an avowed racist, Pat Buchanan, several times a week. It is what it is.

So just know that President Carter is in for a rough couple of weeks. And when you boil it all down its all because he decided to tell the truth. Doing so is heresy now in this upside down culture of ours.

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Here is a test you can give to anyone to determine if you can have an honest debate with them about racism. If they won't admit that Rush Limbaugh is a racist then you should probably just move alone. Seriously, just try it, it works every time.

Rush Reax

It is really amazing to me how the mainstream media goes out of its way to excuse any vile and hateful thing that comes out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth. Yesterday was no exception as Limbaugh used his radio show to compare President Obama and other Democrats in Congress to Hitler and the Nazis. Even though they reported on it most pundits on any of the cable networks just acted as if it was Rush being Rush kind of like baseball fans say its just Manny being Manny.

Thankfully Glenn Greenwald was not going to just let this go away without some pushback. He pointed out how many pundits and Jewish groups condemned MoveOn when a user posted a video comparing George Bush to Hitler. And so he set out to find out if any of those same people would similarly criticize Limbaugh for what he said and condemn him. You can see the responses he gets here.

This is what Cliff May had to say:

It is wrong, outrageous and damaging for Rush Limbaugh to compare Obama to Hitler. . . . Such hyperbole only serves to confuse and trivialize issues much more grave than tax rates and health-care plans.

Now those reactions are good but the one I think most people were waiting to see was from the Anti Defamation League and Abe Foxman. The reason being is that Foxman has been savaging Democrats for years for not being sufficiently pro Israel and because he really came out strong against MoveOn years ago. Well we finally have Foxman's statement and ir reads as follows:

New York, NY, August 7, 2009 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called attempts by some opponents of health care reform to bring Nazi imagery into the debate, "outrageous, deeply offensive and inappropriate" and condemned remarks by talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who compared President Obama's health care logo to a swastika, and policies championed by the Democratic Party to those of the Nazis.

"Regardless of the political differences and the substantive differences in the debate over health care, the use of Nazi symbolism is outrageous, offensive and inappropriate," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. "Americans should be able to disagree on the issues without coloring it with Nazi imagery and comparisons to Hitler. This is not where the debate should be at all."

In recent days, street protests against President Obama's health care plan have gotten ugly, with some protestors appearing in photographs wearing swastika and SS symbols.

That prompted Rush Limbaugh to remark on his radio program that, "They accuse us of being Nazis, and Obama's got a healthcare logo that's right out of Adolf Hitler's playbook." He went on to compare certain Democratic Party policies to those of the Nazis.

"Comparisons to the Nazis are deeply offensive and only serve to diminish and trivialize the extent of the Nazi regime's crimes against humanity and the murder of six million Jews and millions of others in the Holocaust," said Mr. Foxman. "I don't see any comparison here. It's off-center, off-issue and completely inappropriate."

I would have liked something even stronger but I'll take it, that's for sure.

My How Times Have Changed...

IOKIYAR gone wild!!!


Update: Glenzilla is on the case!

Update II: Oh and by the way, Attackerman's rightly pissed.

Tell The Truth, Shame The Devil

Joan Walsh and Kweisi Mfume held it down today on Hardball and didn't pull any punches about Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of the right wing race baiters. I had to give her a standing ovation when Ms Walsh stood her ground when Tweety tried to make her back off her statement that Beck and Limbaugh are racists. Its ridiculous how he and other pundits try to hold water for these assholes instead of calling a spade a spade just like she did.

More Powell Less Palin

I am not in the habit of giving Republicans good advice, but if I were I would definitely tell them that right now they need to try to look to people like Colin Powell for guidance on how to make a comeback, not people like Sarah Palin.

Peak Wingnut Will Never Come

John Cole made famous the term "Peak Wingnut". It refers to some mythical level of wingnuttery which will be the limit to their wackiness. However every time we think we have met Peak Wingnut, they do something to prove they have more batshit crazy in reserve. Sometimes the kinds of rhetoric the wingnuts engage in is dangerous. But other times its just plain hilarious. Today is such a day for the latter.

That paragon of journalistic integrity, Fox Nation, thought they had discovered an amazing find. They thought they caught on a website an article about Tom Ridge taking on Rush Limbaugh for some of his recent comments and basically daring him to a fist fight. And in order to make sure their "fair and balanced" readers were well informed, they decided to link to said blog post. But there was only one problem. The post was satire.

From ThinkProgress

On his radio show, Limbaugh responded to Ridge, saying, “I must have missed something, because I remember that Colin Powell endorsed the Democrat, Barack Obama, at a strategic point in the campaign in 2008.” The blog, Elective Decisions, which features “the satire of Chris Davis,” then wrote up a post saying that Ridge responded to Rush by challenging him to a fight:

So this morning, Ridge went back on Washington Journal, responding to Limbaugh’s rhetoric. “I’m so sick of Rush Limbaugh. He’s the reason we lose elections. He needs to get the hell out of the Republican Party. As far as I’m concerned, he isn’t a Republican anymore. The man’s running. The man’s hiding. He’s too scared to face me!”

Ridge continued his rant, threatening Limbaugh. “Meanwhile, he sits there in his ‘Southern Command Post,’ and destroys the Republican Party! I’d like to just have three rounds in a boxing ring with that guy so I could shut him up! I’m caling (sic) you out, Limbaugh. Let’s see if you have a big enough set of marbles to back up your crap!”

Though the “Elective Decisions” blog is clearly marked as “satire,” the Fox Nation linked to the post and promoted it as if it were based on reported facts:

Now I was gonna post some of the more than 100 wingnut comments at FoxNation from idiots totally buying the story but it took me a little too long to format this post and they have now taken it down. Bummers...

GOP=FAIL

Well waddya know...

The new poll by the non-partisan firm Research 2000 for Daily Kos strongly suggests that the two main right-wing talking points about Sonia Sotomayor are a bust.

First, on the claim, echoed by many mainstream conservatives and GOPers, that Obama’s call for “empathy” in a judge is a cause for concern:

Do you think empathy is an important characteristic for a Supreme Court Justice to possess or not?

Yes 52%

No 29%

Not sure 19%
…and then, on the claim by Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich (who subsequently retracted it) and others on the right that Sotomayor is a “racist”:

Based on what you know or have heard about Sonia Sotomayor do you think she is a racist?

Yes 8%

No 61%

Kinda makes E.J. Dionne look silly doesn't it?

I'm Calling Bullshit

E.J. Dionne had an uber concern trolling column today in the Washington Post over President Obama elevating Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich. Now I was going to post on it, but instead I decided to just leave a comment on the WaPo website telling Dionne to grow a pair and quit being scared of a fight. There is no way in hell an objective person would say that Rush or Newt are "winning" this fight. It really comes down to Dionne being worried about them dominating news cycles. But you see THAT'S THE POINT! We want those douchebags on Tee Vee all day everyday, not for the idiotic pundits who will try to score balls and strikes, but for the electorate, particularly independents, so they can decide for themselves if they want to align with a party that has those to assholes as "leading voices".


Now like I said, I wasn't going to post on it but then a funny thing happened on the way to the barn. I noticed that several different progressives bloggers that I generally agree with on most things put up posts lauding Dionne's column

Steve Benen

Matty Y

Eric Alterman


Now I don't know if this was some kind of journolist collabo or something (just kidding) but I really fail to understand how they believe what's going on right now will hurt Democrats and or President Obama. But that's how it happens sometimes that liberals and progressives are strong on policy but not as much so on politics. Not to say thats definitely the case here but I don't think any of them E.J. Dionne included could put forth a credible argument how this hurts Democrats politically.

And of course, it it was working Newt Gingrich wouldn't have taken back his words yesterday about calling Judge Sotomayor a racist.

Fran Tarkenton Gives Brett Favre The Limbaugh Treatment

Fran Tarkenton, who was by far the most exciting quarterback in the history of the Minnesota Vikings and a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, evidently isn't too keen on the idea of the team bringing in Brett Favre. Now as far as I know Tarkenton is generally seen as a good guy, but he is definitely old school and I think a lot of what he said in that interview has to do with the fact that he thinks the NFL has taken a turn for the worse when it comes to the way they now put players on pedestals. I also think that loyalty is a big thing for him and he isn't happy at all about the perception that is definitely out there that Favre only wants to play for Minnesota to try to stick it to Green Bay, a team that he led into battle for 16 seasons. Still I don't think anyone saw this coming.

Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton, appearing on 790 The Zone in Atlanta, said “it’s all about” Favre when discussing the subject and also had some interesting comments about NFL owners in general. Tarkenton, a resident of the Atlanta area, didn’t need any encouragement to go after Favre and was especially critical of how the future Hall of Fame QB has treated the Packers after playing 16 seasons in Green Bay.

“I think it’s despicable. What he put the Packers through last year was not good,” said Tarkenton, who played for the Vikings from 1961-66 and again from 1972-78. ”Here’s an organization that was loyal to him for 17, 18 years, provided stability of organization, provided players. It just wasn’t about Brett Favre. In this day and time, we have glorified the Brett Favre’s of the world so much, they think it’s about them. He goes to New York and bombs. He’s 39 years old. How would you like Ray Nitschke in his last year [playing for] the Vikings, or I retire, and go play for the Packers? I kind of hope it happens, so he can fail.”

Tarkenton might have been a little strong in his assessment of Favre’s play with the New York Jets last season. The Jets, who acquired Favre’s rights from the Packers during training camp, were 8-3 at one point but finished by losing four of their last five games and missed the playoffs. Favre retired for a second time after the season in part because of a partially torn biceps in his throwing arm that continues to bother him.

It’s interesting that Tarkenton feels so strongly about how Favre dealt with the Packers because when the Vikings traded Tarkenton to the New York Giants after the 1966 season he wasn’t on exactly good terms with the franchise. Clearly he sees this as a completely different situation.

“He told the Packers [after 2008 that], ‘I’m retiring,’” Tarkenton said. “They’ve got to move on. They’ve got to go through their offseason plan, their workouts, they go with the other quarterback [Aaron Rodgers], who is a good player, and then [Favre] comes back and says, ‘I think I want to play.’ … You build your team in the offseason. Everybody knows that. It’s about team. It’s not about Brett Favre. So he goes and runs up to the Jets, doesn’t even dress in the locker room with the players. Has a separate facility. Playing quarterback is about the relationships you have with your coaches, with your players, with your trainers, with your managers. How can you do that if you show up on gameday and you haven’t put the time in. And now he’s trying to do it again in Minnesota. And if Minnesota bites, God bless them.”

Asked what more the Packers could have done last year, Tarkenton said: “They did everything, but you get into a position, and I understand he’s been glorified so much. He’s been a great player, there’s no question about it, but it’s all about him. It is supposed to be all about your team. If you’re going to be the quarterback of your team, you need to be there in the offseason workouts in March and April. Peyton Manning’s there. Tom Brady’s there.”

Tarkenton was known for his scrambling when he played the game and Favre always has been considered a gunslinger.

“I think he has been a great flamboyant quarterback, but he has made more stupid plays than any great quarterback that I’ve ever seen,” Tarkenton said. “Look at his final game in a Packers uniform [the NFC title game in the 2007 season]. He blew that game against the Giants. He’s playing against Eli Manning, I love Eli Manning, but he’s still not a great quarterback. He’s not Peyton yet, or Tom Brady. He’s just a guy. And [the Packers] are playing at home, and they’re in a tight situation, they went to overtime and [Favre] throws the interception that allows [the Giants] to come back and win the game.

OUCH. Now the truth is absolutely everything Tarkenton said is pretty much spot on. But you just don't expect to see a Hall of Famer go all in like that on a guy who is almost assured his own spot in the Hall. I don't know if there is anything more to the story between Tarkenton and Favre but I can tell you the the criticism has got to sting. It will be interesting to see how Favre is recieved should the Vikings go ahead and pull the trigger.

Keep Em Talking

The usual suspect are upholding their end of the bargain by spewing racist and sexist attacks at Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. Now the question is will the mainstream media ask establishment Republicans if they agree with Limbaugh or Dobbs or Buchanan or Coulter. Stay tuned.

Deep Thought

How long will it take the media to point out to racists like Rush Limbaugh and Pat Buchanan and their followers like Joe Scarborough and Mike Barnicle that there were actually Hispanic plantiffs in the Ricci case along with white plantiffs?

Kinda hard for Judge Sotomayor to be a reverse racist against people of her own race, no?

So Predictable

Will our mainstream media as Congressional Republicans if they agree with Limbaugh?

A No Win Situation.

With the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, President Obama has set up what may be an epic battle between the establishment GOP and their voting base. The problem is of course this, opposing Sotomayor on specious grounds will further alienate Hispanics from the Republican Party. On the other hand if Republicans in Congress do not vigorously oppose Sotomayor then their wingnut base, led by the likes of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and countless other media hacks, will throw a major hissy fit. Now in my mind the calculus should be simple. Republicans in Congress SHOULD nip at Sotomayor's ankles a little bit and then confirm her with a lot of support from their side. At a time when the GOP is bleeding from just about every demographic, they can ill afford to lose Hispanics for a generation. But unfortunately the establishment GOP has shown little appetite for taking on the base of their party, even when they know not doing so will hurt them electorally. Not only that we have seen already this year how cowardly Congressional Republicans are when it comes to taking on Rushbo and his pals. I think its highly likely that Limbaugh and the rest will say some pretty disgusting and demeaning things about Sotomayor and if there aren't establishment GOP voices willing to pushback on the vitriol it might not be enough that they vote for Sotomayor. The Republican Party is now seen as a party for southern white males. This may end up pushing that perception to southern white RACIST males. Now hopefully they will grow a backbone in the next week or so and realize that the base will get over it if Sotomayor is confirmed but Hispanics will not if she doesn't. But I have no faith in their ability to lead their base instead of allowing the tail to wag the dog. I guess we will all have to see how this plays out.

Schism

This morning two prominent Republicans went on Sunday shows and dismissed the small tent philosphy embraced by both Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney. Colin Powell and Tom Ridge, both military veterans, calmly and thoughtfully put forth their case for their visions of the Republican Party going forward. Now seeing as how neither man is in office or running for office they could speak their mind without having to carry water for the wingnut base. Now they didn't present the exact same case, but one thing was for certain with both of them. Neither man believed the Republican Party can make a comeback if they listen to people like Rush Limbaugh. Now here is the thing, Rush Limbaugh is one of the most polarizing people in America let alone inside the Republican Party. But right now the GOP is not just trying to shore up its base, its also trying to reach out to independents and people in the middle. That is a fight that normally they would be fighting against the Democrats but it turns out that it seem clear now that they will also be fighting for them within the party.

I believe that today is a watershed moment. There are now two totally conflicting views of the party and sooner or later people are going to have to chose. The reason for this is that the Rush Limbaugh wing of the party wants to expel the Colin Powell/Tom Ridge wing. But they aren't going anywhere and while they would never say publicly that Rushbo needs to haul his fat ass, I am sure privately they think HE is the one that needs to go. So who will the majority of Republicans back? Who will those independents who lean Republican line up behind? The truth is it doesn't matter what the numbers end up being. What matter is I think what we are seeing now are two irreconcilable wings of one party. So unless there is some kind of miraculous kum by yah moment it would seem that it is now the destiny of the Republican Party to fracture off into at least two separate entities. I don't know how soon the public split will happen but it would seem that the private split is already in play. I do believe that we need at least two viable political parties in this country as a form of checks and balances, but until the Republicans or Republican lites get their shit together, they won't have the capacity to fulfill that role. If I could hazard a guess I am betting when the moderate wing of the Republican Party emerges as something else, Colin Powell may just be their standard bearer.



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What About McCain?

I have been wondering something since Cheney’s speech yesterday. John King asked Cheney if he agreed with Rush Limbaugh that Colin Powell should leave the Republican Party, but he didn’t ask if Cheney agreed with Limbaugh when he said Powell should take John McCain with him. I bring this up because Cheney’s views on waterboarding would in addition to putting him at odds with President Obama puts him at odds with John McCain. It also puts him at odds with McCain when he says terrorists didnt recruit new people based on our torturing people at GITMO. So why hasn’t anybody asked Cheney about that? Might it be because they don’t want to point out that Cheney doesn’t even agree with the Republican nominee for President from just last year? Something to think about.