Video- Wallace calls Obama tea party comments "height of condescension," cites dubious GOP stats to call his comments "not true"

This is their straight news guy, reading off the GOP Talking Points Memo. Yeah.

Tuh-WEET! There goes another right wing talking point

By GottaLaff

Via Andrea Mitchell just now n Twitter:


There you go, GOP, right there in black, white, and color screen grabs: The troops like President Obama. Imagine that.

Another talking point down the drain.

VIDEO: Keith Olbermann uses Mukasey ruling to counter GOP talking points

By GottaLaff

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow and Keith were on a roll last night. They both showed those wronger than wrong right wing talking points the door.

VIDEO- Rachel Maddow: "WRONG!"

By GottaLaff

I lerved this segment from last night's show. Lerved:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There is no way to counter Rachel on this stuff. She utterly demolished the right wing talking points.

Again.

VIDEO- Ed Schultz nails Rep. Joe Barton's flawed talking points re: Supermax prison

By GottaLaff

Ed stymied Not Joe Lieberman, and he went all deer in the headlights. Talking points much, Other Joe?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, explains why many GOP members of Congress oppose the Obama administration’s decision to bring Guantanamo Bay detainees to a detention facility in Illinois.

Note: It's wise to stock up on facts before appearing on national television.

And why again does Texas have a different view of terrorists than the rest of the United States? They haven't even seceded yet.

Cartoon of the Day

Click to enlarge, via.

Conservative talking points on your iPhone? There's an app for that

By GottaLaff

Okay, so you get into a verbal cat fight with some conservative, and of course, you're winning. Suddenly, they pull out their iPhone, and you find yourself being over-talked... just like a punditiot on the Tee Vee Machine! Whaa? How'd that happen? Simple:

Your friend has probably purchased the Conservative Talking Points iPhone app, approved by Apple for sale and now available for $1.99 at the app store.

Yes, your opponent has to pay someone to pull a Cyrano in order to get the upper hand in a political joust.

My question is, they have extra cash lying around for that?

It provides users with 250 talking points on everything from "America - The Greatest Nation Ever" to "Out of Control Spending" to ACORN to "Private Industries Taken Over (See Fascism in America)."

"Be armed with the Conservative Talking Points (CTP) iPhone App as your powerful arsenal to debate those emotional and ill-prepared liberals," it advertises in the pre-purchase info provided at the app store. It should make a nice pairing with the Glenn Beck Station Locator app, for anyone who needs to find Glenn Beck on the radio with haste.

We Dems don't need no stinkin' apps. Besides, we have to save every penny to pay off our insurance premiums.

H/t: Elle

AP: Obama is SUCH a loser

By GottaLaff

The state of the corporate media today is summed up in this AP piece that parrots the talkiest of Rushpublic talking points:

• Despite Obama's fabled charm and powers of persuasion, his in-person plea for Chicago to host the 2016 Summer Games fell flat. It was a hugely embarrassing defeat.
• He's trying to do too much at once.
• He doesn't have what it takes to close a deal.
• He is a celebrity, for sure, but is that always a good thing?
• He's too casual with the use of his own time.
• He's junior varsity-league, still learning on the job.

It's a good thing we have pros like that to inform us instead of bloggers who can't get anything right, don't verify their facts, and just pretend to be journalists.

H/t: TPM

RNC fumbles Sotomayor talking points

By GottaLaff

What?! The Rushpublics fumbled something? How out of character of them:

Whoops. The Republican National Committee (RNC) has apparently inadvertently released its list of talking points on the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

Oh dear. Oh my. Oh dear and oh my. What a bloopery mess:

Here are the talking points:

o President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is an important decision that will have an impact on the United States long after his administration.

o Republicans are committed to a fair confirmation process and will reserve judgment until more is known about Judge Sotomayor's legal views, judicial record and qualifications.

o Until we have a full view of the facts and comprehensive understanding of Judge Sotomayor's record, Republicans will avoid partisanship and knee-jerk judgments - which is in stark contrast to how the Democrats responded to the Judge Roberts and Alito nominations.

o To be clear, Republicans do not view this nomination without concern. Judge Sotomayor has received praise and high ratings from liberal special interest groups. Judge Sotomayor has also said that policy is made on the U.S. Court of Appeals.

o Republicans believe that the confirmation process is the most responsible way to learn more about her views on a number of important issues.

o The confirmation process will help Republicans, and all Americans, understand more about judge Sotomayor's thoughts on the importance of the Supreme Court's fidelity to the Constitution and the rule of law.

o Republicans are the minority party, but our belief that judges should interpret rather than make law is shared by a majority of Americans.

o Republicans look forward to learning more about Judge Sotomayor's legal views and to determining whether her views reflect the values of mainstream America.

President Obama on Judicial Nominees

o Liberal ideology, not legal qualification, is likely to guide the president's choice of judicial nominees.

o Obama has said his criterion for nominating judges would be their "heart" and "empathy."

o Obama said he believes Supreme Court justices should understand the Court's role "to protect people who may be vulnerable in the political process."

o Obama has declared: "We need somebody who's got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it's like to be a young teenage mom, the empathy to understand what it's like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old-and that's the criterion by which I'll be selecting my judges."

Additional Talking Points

o Justice Souter's retirement could move the Court to the left and provide a critical fifth vote for:

o Further eroding the rights of the unborn and property owners;

o Imposing a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage;

o Stripping "under God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance and completely secularizing the public square;

o Abolishing the death penalty;

o Judicial micromanagement of the government's war powers.

Hilarious on so many levels, pathetic on others. But then, you already knew that.

Of course, Scalia, Thomas, Alito aren't activist at all.

The new lame GOP talking point

Are they trying to be ridiculous?

Congressional Republicans rolled out a new line of talking points today, declaring that President Obama’s proposed $3.6 trillion budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.

The House Republican leader, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, was first to utter those words, during a conversation with a small group of reporters at his office in the Capitol.

“On the budget, it’s really clear,” Mr. Boehner said. “It spends too much. It taxes too much. And it borrows too much.”

Mr. Boehner added: “It’s a continuing theme that I think you’ll hear from us in the days and weeks and probably months to come.”

Actually, in just a few moments, on the other side of the Capitol, at a news conference with Senate Republicans.

“Senate Republicans find the budget has three fatal flaws,” the Republican leader, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said. “No. 1, it spends too much. No. 2, it taxes too much. And No. 3, it borrows too much.”

(snip)

Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the senior Republican on the budget committee, stepped in just to make sure everyone had been paying attention. “Thank you, Mr. Leader,’ he said. “As you say, this budget spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.”

New Americans United for Change Unveils GOP True Leader

I was kind of grumpy over blogger giving me a headache, but now I'm actually cheery!!! Via Ben-

"Rush Limbaugh is the leader of the Republican party - he says jump and they say how high," says AUC's Brad Woodhouse. "He is better known among Republicans than any of the leaders and when he speaks they listen and follow just as they did on the recovery package. If you look at the polls he led them off a political cliff on the recovery package - and now they are - at his instruction - lining up to oppose the Obama budget and the rest of his agenda just like they did the recovery package hoping - as Limbaugh does - that Obama fails. Of course - the vast majority of Americans want Obama to succeed and they know if he fails America fails. Republicans have adopted this strategy and this ad and a bunch of other stuff our side in planning is gonna make them own it and Limbaugh."

Word cloud analysis of Obama and Jindal speeches

This goes along with something that I just saw on MSNBC where Tamron Hall was talking to a room of voters about the speeches and a couple people expressed unhappiness at how Jindal kept up with the "Republicans" while Obama said "Americans". Not hard to tell which is which.Totally via here.

GOP Talking Point of the Day - Jobs

Isn't that the Mod Squad music?

Smashing Republican Economic Talking Points 101 via Krugman

By GottaLaff

Paul Krugman obliterates the rightie spin. Here's a summary:

1.The Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created

[T]hey take the cost of a plan over many years and look for jobs created in the first year. [Krugman]:

"The true cost per job of the Obama plan will probably be closer to $100,000 than $275,000 — and the net cost will be as little as $60,000 once you take into account the fact that a stronger economy means higher tax receipts."

2. Cutting taxes is better than government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money.

[Krugman]:

"It’s clear that when it comes to economic stimulus, public spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts — and therefore costs less per job created (see the previous fraudulent argument) — because a large fraction of any tax cut will simply be saved."

3. Barack Obama's chief economic adviser says monetary policy is better than fiscal policy in response to recessions. [...]

Dr. Krugman:

"It’s true that the normal response to recessions is interest-rate cuts from the Fed, not government spending. And that might be the best option right now, if it were available. But it isn’t, because we’re in a situation not seen since the 1930s: the interest rates the Fed controls are already effectively at zero."

Mr Krugman finishes saying that Republicans are throwing everything they have at Obama and hoping something will stick, and offering support to the new President over Obama's much reported "I won" statement to the GOP house representatives and asking the new President to stick with the plan.

Speaking of sticking, how about sticking it to these guys.

So much for GOP talking points: President Obama has gotten under Al Qaeda's skin

By GottaLaff

What is it the righties were saying about Barack Hussein Obama being Al Qaeda's choice for president? And who was it again, who added to their numbers? Looks like the GOP has been the party that contributed to the terrorist cause. Why do they hate America?

Soon after the November election, al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader took stock of America's new president-elect and dismissed him with an insulting epithet. "A house Negro," Ayman al-Zawahiri said.

That was just a warm-up. In the weeks since, the terrorist group has unleashed a stream of verbal tirades against Barack Obama, each more venomous than the last. Obama has been called a "hypocrite," a "killer" of innocents, an "enemy of Muslims." He was even blamed for the Israeli military assault on Gaza, which began and ended before he took office.

"He kills your brothers and sisters in Gaza mercilessly and without affection," an al-Qaeda spokesman declared in a grainy Internet video this month.

The torrent of hateful words is part of what terrorism experts now believe is a deliberate, even desperate, propaganda campaign against a president who appears to have gotten under al-Qaeda's skin. The departure of George W. Bush deprived al-Qaeda of a polarizing American leader who reliably drove recruits and donations to the terrorist group. [...]

[F][or now, the change in Washington appears to have rattled al-Qaeda's leaders, some of whom are scrambling to convince the faithful that Obama and Bush are essentially the same.

Paul Pillar, a former CIA counterterrorism official who lectures on national security at Georgetown University:

"For al-Qaeda, as a matter of image and tone, George W. Bush had been a near-perfect foil." [...] [A]consensus view supported Republican Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) as the man most likely to continue Bush administration policies and, it was hoped, drive the United States more deeply into a prolonged guerrilla war.

Once again, the Republican party line is contradicted by the facts. Hey wingnuts, how does it feel to have your former president and presidential candidate supported by Al Qaeda? Kinda puts a dent in one of your main talking points, doesn't it?

Attention news media (sic)! You get a few more days to speculate about Obama and Blagojevitch!

By GottaLaff

What a relief! The so-called press still has a few days to hone their skeptical facial expressions, eye-narrowing sidelong glances, "what does Obama really know?" intonations, and knowing sneers:

Incoming White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs spoke (.mp3) yesterday to the Tribune's Rick Pearson, promising to bring back the results of the "staff investigation" into the Blago mess in "the next few days."

Objectivity has gone the way of the U.S. Constitution.