The Heraldic Crest of the Teabag Revolution

No, I'm not kidding. The Red State Rangers or whatever they were calling themselves before Rick Santelli faked up his umbrage, have to be the most obtuse klatch of people ever.

Doonesbury: Bush = Palin = Bush edition

By GottaLaff

I hope you're enjoying these Doonesbury strips as much as I am. Bush and Bush III get the treatment in this edition:

(click on image to enlarge)

Supreme Court won't review Obama's eligibility to serve

Damn those liberal activist commie Supreme Court justices!! /shakes fist at sky

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has turned down another appeal arguing Barack Obama is ineligible to be president because of his citizenship. The challenge by Cort Wrotnowski was denied Monday without comment.

Wrotnowski argued that Obama was a British subject at birth and therefore cannot meet the requirement for becoming president.

Fox Really Is Just That Stupid

But at least they're "Fair and Balanced" with their stupidity. See example #1 from their greatest hits-

Homes sweet homes: The Bushes' Big New Two Million Dollar Purchase

By GottaLaff

Yesterday I posted about the Big New Sprawling home the Bushes just bought, which is two hours away from their other big sprawling home. Now you can see what they splurged on:

(via)

See George and Laura's home! Big, big, big!

The home, on a Dallas cul-de-sac, sits on 1.13 acres and offers 8501 square feet of living space, according to city appraisal records. The property was purchased for $2.07 million in early-October by Robert McCleskey, the president's accountant, who is listed as trustee on deed records. Built in 1959, the home has been improved with a detached garage (1150 square feet), servants quarters (896 square feet), and a storage building (240 square feet). While the Bush property certainly appears comfortable, it is dwarfed by the 20-acre estate it abuts. That sprawling property is owned by billionaire investor Tom Hicks, who, in 1998, purchased the Texas Rangers from a partnership in which Bush held a stake (the deal netted the future president about $15 million). Hicks, 62, was a leading supporter of Rudolph Giuliani's presidential bid and hosted a fundraiser last year at his home--reportedly the largest in Dallas--for the former New York City mayor.

Their garage is bigger than many houses, if one is lucky enough to be able to afford a Bush-garage-sized house, that is.

See the rest of America default on rent/mortgage payments. Starve, America, starve. Starve, starve, starve!

We all knew the ranch in Crawford was a set. Like Reagan's movie ranch, where he posed for the cameras to make everyone think he was a working man while he was leading the charge on union busting, Bush's Crawford photo op background was all about getting him elected. Now that he's off the public housing teat, he's moving into a $2 million house complete with servant's quarters.

Good ol' beer buddy Cowboy George, your facade is showing. And so are your crass hypocrisy and middle finger.

Disgust At 'Lego' Terrorist Toys

Did they really have to go there? Do little kids need to understand what a terrorist is, let alone a radical Islamist one? At least they're not official Lego products.

The toy mini-figures, made by American Will Chapman, includes a masked terrorist bandit with an assault rifle, grenade launcher and belt of explosives.

Shocked by the playthings, British Muslim organisation the Ramadhan Foundation has branded the figurines "absolutely disgusting".

Chief executive Mohammed Shafiq said the figures were "glorifying terrorism".

He said: "I don't think there's any difference between someone that shouts hatred through a megaphone and someone that creates a doll that glorifies terrorists.

Author: Murdoch 'absolutely despises' the 'bullying' Bill O'Reilly

By GottaLaff

Thanksgiving is over, and yet... there are so many dee-lish-ous tidbits to chew on:

A new book about media mogul Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns Fox News, is to be released next week. Its most sensational revelations involve what the author describes as Murdoch's loathing for leading Fox commentator Bill O'Reilly.

The book? Michael Wolff's The Man Who Owns the News. The revelations?

Murdoch is not only embarrassed at times by his ownership of Fox News, but that he "absolutely despises" O'Reilly...

Awww, poor Bill-o. Okay, hands: How many think Keith Olbermann will report on this in his Monday show?

Wolff adds that Fox CEO Roger Ailes shares Murdoch's opinion. "It is not just Murdoch (and everybody else at News Corp.’s highest levels) who absolutely despises Bill O’Reilly, the bullying, mean-spirited, and hugely successful evening commentator, but Roger Ailes himself who loathes him. Success, however, has cemented everyone to each other."

And guess who wants to improve his image? Hint: It's not Bill-o.

According to Wolff, Murdoch's desire not to be defined solely by his ownership of Fox underlay his purchase last year of the Wall Street Journal, which "was in no small way about wanting to trade the illiberal -- the belligerent, the vulgar, the loud, the menacing the unsubtle -- for the better-heeled, the more magnanimous, the further nuanced."

Not workin', Rupert. Arrrh!

Whistleblower: U.S. Snooped on Tony Blair, Iraqi President (including pillow talk)

By GottaLaff

Too much information... literally:

A former communications intercept operator says U.S. intelligence snooped on the private lives of two of America's most important allies in fighting al Qaeda: British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Iraq's first interim president, Ghazi al-Yawer.

David Murfee Faulk told ABCNews.com he saw and read a file on Blair's "private life" and heard "pillow talk" phone calls of al-Yawer when he worked as an Army Arab linguist assigned to a secret NSA facility at Fort Gordon, Georgia, between 2003 and 2007.

Classy, huh?

"If it is true that we maintained a file on Blair, it would represent a huge breach of the agreement we have with the Brits," said one former CIA official.

In the case of the former Iraqi president, al-Yawer, Faulk says his "pillow talk" phone calls were to his fiancé, whom he later married. Faulk says the calls were intercepted by operators in the NSA facility at Ft. Gordon, Back Hall, and posted on the computer system for others to read about and hear.

Faulk described the al-Yawer calls as "courting, wooing and pillow talk" with an Iraqi woman he would later marry Nasrin Barwari, the minister of public works in the interim government.

Remember when we had a Constitution? Yeah, me too:

The Inspector General for the NSA is reported to be conducting an investigation into the allegations by Faulk and another former military intercept operator, Adrienne Kinne, about listening to calls between American citizens.

The Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees also are investigating the allegations about calls involving American citizens.

Trust, schmust.

January 20, 2009.

Requiem for a Maverick

By GottaLaff

Illustration by Victor Juhasz

John McCain ran one of the most incompetent, schizo campaigns in history — and for that we owe him big-time

Matt Taibbi attended John McCain's concession speech. He brilliantly opines on that and much, much more (Apologies for the length, but how do you eliminate gems?):

The exodus, in fact, begins about eight seconds into John McCain's concession speech, which incidentally starts off on the classiest of notes: with the remaining crowd cursing the name of the new president. [...]

A few yards away, a pair of thirtysomething women in an advanced wine slog have gotten into a screaming match with a Hispanic cameraman. One of them, 33-year-old Kristen McEntire, is already spinning out a conspiracy theory to explain McCain's defeat, suggesting that the media called the election in some key states before the polls closed, tricking hordes of would-be McCain voters into staying home. Obama, she assures me, is a "novelty" who will "go away within the next couple of years."

"Um," I say. "Go away?"

"I just don't think America's ready for a black president," she explains. "And I don't mean that in a racial way whatsoever." [...]

The Republicans didn't just break the party — they left it smashed into space dust. They weren't just beaten; the very idea of Republican conservatism was massively rejected in virtually every state where large chunks of the population do not believe in the literal existence of a horned devil, and even in some that do. [...]

The ironic thing is that the destruction of the Republican Party was a two-part process. Their president, George W. Bush, did most of the work by making virtually every mistake possible in his two terms, reducing the mightiest economy on Earth to the status of a beggar-debtor nation like Pakistan or Zambia.[...]

But John McCain and Sarah Palin made their own unique contribution to the disaster by running perhaps the most incompetent presidential campaign in modern times. They compounded a millionfold Bush's legacy of incompetence by soiling both possible Republican ideological strategies going forward: They killed off Bush-style neoconservatism as well as the more traditional fiscal conservatism McCain himself was once known for by trying to fuse both approaches into one gorgeously incoherent ticket. It was like trying to follow the recipes for Texas 10-alarm chili and a three-layer Black Forest chocolate cake in the same pan at the same time. The result — well, just take a bite! [...]

Instead of a plan, they had an endless succession of dumb ideas scrapped at the 11th hour in favor of even dumber ones. [...]

McCain's shtick wasn't exactly that, but it was close. He was a war hero who married an heiress to a beer distributorship and had been in the Senate since the Mesozoic Era. His greatest strength as a politician had up until this year been his ability to "reach across the aisle," a quality that in the modern Republican Party was normally about as popular as open bisexuality. [...]

[T]hey stuck him with Pinochet in heels for a running mate.[...] In a way that even George W. Bush never was, she is Karl Rove's wet dream, the Osama bin Laden of soccer moms, crusading against germs, communism, atheism and other such unclean elements strictly banned by American law. [...]

[McCain] exited the campaign on his knees, all his dignity gone, having handed the White House to the hated liberals after spending the last months of the race with numb-nuts Sarah Palin on his arm and Karl Rove's cock in his mouth. Even if you wanted to vote for him, you didn't know who you were voting for. The old McCain? The new McCain? Neither? Both? [...]

[O]ur TV-age political contests have devolved into grotesque marathons of mawkish entertainment programming, intellectually on par with a season of Survivor, in which the command of the most powerful military force in human history is handed to that unscrupulous nitwit who over the course of 18 months succeeds in getting himself photographed the most times and in the most swing states bowling a strike or wearing a duck-hunting costume. [...]

This dumbed-down, degraded election process of ours has, in spite of itself and to my own extreme astonishment, brilliantly re-energized the American experiment and restored legitimacy to our status as the world's living symbol of individual freedom. We feel like ourselves again, and the floundering economy and our two stagnating wars now seem like mere logistical problems that will be overcome sooner or later, instead of horrifying symptoms of inevitable empire-decline.

For this to happen, absolutely everything had to break right. And for that we will someday owe sincere thanks to John McCain, and Sarah Palin, and George W. Bush. They not only screwed it up, they screwed it up just right.

Vice President Cheney and former Attorney General Gonzales indicted

By GottaLaff

Via Think Progress:

A South Texas grand jury has returned multi-count indictments against Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County’s federal detention centers:

The indictment accuses Cheney and Gonzales of engaging in organized criminal activity. It criticizes Cheney’s investment in the Vanguard Group, which holds interests in the private prison companies running the federal detention centers. It accuses Cheney of a conflict of interest and “at least misdemeanor assaults” on detainees by working through the prison companies.

Gonzales is accused of using his position while in office to stop an investigation into abuses at the federal detention centers.

One down, 17519718 to go. Add this to the mix:

Taxpayers to pay for Alberto Gonzales’ private attorney

This summer, six attorneys “rejected from civil service positions at the Justice Department filed a lawsuit” against “former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and three other top officials for allegedly violating their rights by taking politics into consideration” in the hiring process for the Honors and Summer Law Intern Programs. Today, McClatchy reports that the Justice Department has agreed to pay for a private lawyer to defend Gonzales, which could cost taxpayers up to $24,000 a month.

I wish them the same legal considerations* they've offered us over the past eight years.

*Rendition them. Torture them. Incarcerate them indefinitely.

H/t: Eve

VIDEO-- Reid and Lieberman, starring in "As the Stomach Turns"

By GottaLaff

If only this were simply a soap opera. But it isn't. We're stuck with the Lieberman/Reid Show, despite the lousy ratings.

BREAKING: Lieberman will stay on

By GottaLaff

Harry Reid just announced. It wasn't even close, from what he said. Lieberman keeps his chairmanship.

"We need to be unified. We need to be unified as Democrats. We need to be unified as a Senate."

He defies anyone to be as angry as he was, Reid says. But, he doesn't want to "get even". He "feels good" about what they did today and doesn't "apologize to anyone". It's time to move forward.

He'll never understand or approve of what Lieberman did, but he's been one of the more progressive members, he said. He fought of the civil rights movement, says Reid. We need to handle the problems that face our country.

Do I trust him? Yes, I do.

Hey Harry? We don't. Not one bit. Not at all.

Traitor Joe is thanking Reid.

UPDATE:
Traitor Joe says the resolution nails him on his campaign remarks. He's denying some of the statements, saying they are "not true". He regrets "some" of his statements. Time to move on.

Claims what he said at the Republican convention were to explain his support of McCain. Uh huh.

He thinks he can reach across the aisle. He's defending his "independence of mind". But he considers himself to be a good member in standing of the Dem caucus... "that's what the record shows".

He's very enthusiastic, he says. He's excited about the chairmanship. He's relinquishing his seat on the Environment Committee.

Wow, that's some sacrifice.

He and McCain will introduce a new version of their anti-global warming rule.

Reid's New Rule: From now on, each member will be limited to chair one full, and one sub-committee.

See "labels".

VIDEO-- Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Miller: Miasmic Homophobes

By GottaLaff

The vomit-inducing part comes at about 1:02. Why are these two [see Labels] still employed? They are beneath contempt.

VIDEO-- GOP leader: Rebuild party based on 'sanctity of marriage'

By GottaLaff

This video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast November 9, 2008.

Mike Pence is set for the No. 3 spot among Republicans in the House of Representatives, while Rep. Eric Cantor is generally viewed as the heir to the No. 2 position.

When asked by Chris Wallace what "conservative solutions" the GOP would bring to their current minority-party status, Pence said social issues like "the sanctity of marriage" will remain the backbone of the Republican platform.

"You build those conservative solutions, Chris, on the same time-honored principles of limited government, a belief in free markets, in the sanctity of life, the sanctity of marriage," Pence said.

The Indiana representative cited the ballot measures against gay marriage that passed on Election Day as evidence of the continuing presence of conservative values.

"There were three state referendums on marriage ... all three carried. The vitality of the conservative movement around the country is very real," said Pence.

Maybe they forgot to look at the Youthiness map and the protests in California and Utah.Or maybe they're just stuck in the mud of Republican bigotry and divisiveness that lost them the presidential election.

The Party's Over: The visual

By GottaLaff

Via Zina Saunders:

Pretty, huh?

Kinda makes up for all of our nauseous moments over the past 21 months.

Whiplash

By GottaLaff

(click on image to enlarge)

It's amazing what effect Obama's newfound power change message has already had:

Just a few weeks ago, at the height of the campaign, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota told Chris Matthews of MSNBC that, when it came to Mr. Obama, “I’m very concerned that he may have anti-American views.”

But there she was on Thursday, after narrowly escaping defeat because of those comments, saying she was “extremely grateful that we have an African-American who has won this year.” Ms. Bachmann, a Republican, called Mr. Obama’s victory, which included her state, “a tremendous signal we sent.”

We? We?!

Cold Shoulder Alert-- The following is not in the new Obama-era spirit of unity: Bite me, Bachmann.

Whether it all heralds a new era of cooperation in Washington remains to be seen and it may be downright doubtful. But for now, at least, it would seem to be part of an apparent rush to join what has emerged as a real moment in American history. [...]

Some wondered whether simple pragmatism was the explanation.

Oh, those ubiquitous, wacky "some". I wonder who "some" is? Why, here's a "some" now! And what a wise "some" he is:

“My experience is, it’s less an epiphany and more a political reality,” said Chris Lehane, a former Democratic strategist who worked on the presidential campaign of Al Gore. “I’m thinking they will continue in this direction so long as the polls indicate it’s a smart place to be.”

Some say they agree with that assessment.

VIDEO: Fox contributor mocks black reporter's tears during Obama win

By GottaLaff


Video via.

Late night Fox News host Greg Gutfeld makes a living off controversy. But this is low, even for him.

On Tuesday night, Gutfeld talked with correspondent Bill Schulz as the two mocked a video clip of a black ABC reporter breaking into tears as Obama's election to the presidency was announced. [...]

"I so wanna comfort him, right now," sneered Gutfeld. "... Bill, you were convinced he was faking it."

"I am, and I have to say, if that's a television moment, I cry on this show every night!" responded Schulz. "Why don't we get better ratings?"

The show's various cast members laughed.

"Yeah, I do think he was faking it," he continued. "It looked like he was trying to force the tears out and they weren't happening. So he could force the moment, that I come by so naturally ... Every time you hit me!"

Gutfeld laughed and hissed, "Yes! Yes, I know!"

Once again, "real" America reveals itself.

VIDEO: Students told not to speak Obama's name

By GottaLaff

School officials at a Mississippi junior high school threatened to discipline students for speaking the name of president-elect Barack Obama.

WAPT reported:

Reporters with 16 WAPT News received several calls from upset parents that said a school bus driver told the children on a Pearl school bus that if they said Obama'€™s name, they would be written up and taken to the principal's office for disciplinary reasons.

Another parent said that a coach at Pearl Junior High School told students that if they speak Obama's name, they would face expulsion.

In a separate incident, a girl's basketball coach at Pearl Junior High School told students they would be suspended for saying Obama's name.

This video is from WAPT.com, broadcast November 7, 2008.

Those must be the "real" Americans Wardrobe Barbie was talking about.

VIDEO: Republicans report Black Panther (aka Obama hirees) intimidation in Philly

By GottaLaff

Paddy and I were talking about this earlier. It's desperation time... again:


From YouTube:

Philadelphia (original feed - cleaned it up as much as possible - it is what it is).
Around noon EST.

Fox Philly reporting incident report by "republicans" @ polling station of voter intimidation by Black Panthers. Could not find any other news organization reporting this as of 2 hours after.

Will share with you a blog posting of this incident that predicting Blank Panthers might be out doing voter intimidation to get a BLACK man elected!

http://tinyurl.com/5o53s2
We told you months ago that in Chicago, Obama supporters told us that this was their plan for election day — to hire gang members, Black Panthers, Nation of Islam, you name it and use these men for voter turnout efforts in Philly, Gary (Indiana), Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, Pittsburgh, you name it. Anywhere with a large black population, where white and Hispanic voters (read: Hillary voters) could be intimdated and kept from the polls.

Glad the police are on top of this in Philly. Obama’s followers will try this in every major city, from what we are told. They are especially desperate in Philadelphia, because they need big numbers there to win the state, and the only way they will get that is through fraud and intimidation (aka, The Obama Way).

If you see Obama’s followers doing this in your city, call the police immediately, then start calling the local news. Follow that up with a call to the McCain/Palin voter hotline.

CNN adds:

A man wearing what appeared to be a black outfit with a beret and holding a nightstick was asked by police to leave a polling location in Philadelphia Tuesday, according to Philadelphia County Board of Elections Supervisor, Bill Rubin.

Rubin says the man left without incident. He says another man wearing similar attire had a poll watcher certificate and was allowed to remain at the polling site at 1221 Fairmont Avenue.[...]

Cathie Abookire, a spokewoman for the Philadelphia District Attorney's office, says the office is not investigating the matter, calling it a "non-incident." Abookire says, "We have had no complaints from any voters that they have been intimidated."

Black people are big, bad, and intimidating. One would never expect to see them in Philly. Obama must have paid them handsomely to throw the election.

UPDATE:

I'd been a bit skeptical of the reports that the Black Panthers were out intimidating voters on Obama's behalf, largely because the precinct is in the city's northern 14th Ward, which went (.pdf) overwhelmingly -- more than 95% -- for John Kerry in 2004. You don't typically intimidate your own voters.

But a reader sends over a link to clinch the deal: The Panther in question appears to be one King Shamir Shabazz -- and he's no Obama supporter.

"[Obama] is a puppet on a string. I don't support no black man running for white politics. I will not vote for who will be the next slavemaster," he told the Philadelphia Daily News a few days ago, one of the least crazy things he said amid some straightforwardly racist riffs.

The video is a little grainy, but it sure looks a lot like him, down to the position of the button on his beret. [...]

So what was he doing there with his nightstick? Trying to intimidate Obama voters? Just hanging around? There isn't actually any evidence that he tried to chase away any of the ward's (overwhelmingly black) voters.

Republican Mailer In Ohio Targets Wright, Says Obama's "Friends" Are "Hostile To America"

By GottaLaff

A quick copy and paste before I rush off to work, and it involves our Cliff:

The Republican Jewish Coalition -- which recently hit Pennsylvania mailboxes with a mailer implying a vote for Obama could produce a second Holocaust -- is now hitting Ohio with a wave of incendiary new mailers that directly target his association with Reverend Wright.

"Barack Obama's friends and advisors: Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israel, even hostile to America," reads the mailer, adding that his associates harbor "anti-Israel views" that are "dangerous, naive and reckless."

A second mailer attacks Obama on Israel with a picture of the Wailing Wall, a holy site whose use in a political attack could prove offensive to many Jews.

Ironically, both mailers, which are presumably targeted to Jewish voters, landed in the Columbus-area mailbox of Cliff Schecter, the author of the anti-McCain book "The Real McCain." Schecter sent them in to us.

(click on the images to enlarge)

These accuse Obama of supposedly backtracking on his support for an undivided Jerusalem, which is strongly disputed by the Obama camp:

Schecter also says he received a copy of the Pennsylvania missive on the Holocaust, meaning that the Republican Jewish Coalition's campaign is active in multiple states.

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