ClimateGate Schlimate Gate: Panel clears scientists

By GottaLaff

Another Rushpublic talking point down the drain. Yes, all those "nasty, ill-informed" accusations of the so-called e-mail scandal, aka ClimateGate, got Drano'd:

[A] panel of experts tasked with examining the underlying science said it "saw no evidence of any deliberate scientific malpractice in any of the work" by the university's Climatic Research Unit.

That sound you hear is the glugging of unfounded accusations swirling downward...

Instead, "we found a small group of dedicated if slightly disorganized researchers" who did not store their data and working notes as well as they could have but whose science was conducted "with integrity," the committee said in a report released Wednesday.

Glug... glug... into the sewer the accusations go...

So after all the skeptics' denial of, you know, scientific fact about climate change in favor of smearing what turns out to be legitimate research, the panel found that a few scientists fit a watered-down version of the old stereotypical absent-minded professor profile.

In other words, their desks look like our desks, and like us, they pretty much know where everything is under all those piles of Post-Its and crumpled reports. What a crime! Why aren't they in prison getting waterboarded?!

"The fact is we found them absolutely squeaky clean," the head of the panel, Ron Oxburgh, a geologist and former government advisor, told the BBC. He said some of the criticism by skeptics, who pointed to the e-mails as proof of a massive scientific coverup, was "just plain nasty and ill-informed."

Fred MacMurray would be proud.


Now back to saving the planet. Glug.

VIDEO- Maddow calls b.s. on GOP: Attacks on ACORN, "Climate-Gate" were "bull pucky"

By GottaLaff

Once again, Rachel Maddow nails it:

"Let's have the great debate about the role of government... only you can't threaten to shoot people. And you have to stop making stuff up."

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

Those are awfully important revelations, aren't they? The ones Rachel covered in the video? They're stories one might expect MSNBC to go out of their way to report hourly, right?

Apparently not.

All morning, MSNBC concentrated on those other "big" stories, the ones about iPad and Tiger Woods.

Meanwhile, ACORN is no more, and voters believe that Climate-Gate was real. They continue to believe lies that the corporate media drive, repeat, perpetuate incessantly, lies that affect our elections and the well-being of the entire planet.

That is not news. That is propaganda. And it is not only unacceptable, it is toxic.

Scandal Watch: Scott Brown Accused of Harassment in 1998

By GottaLaff

But will the Senate ethics committee investigate? Don't be silly:

Jennifer Firth, a local mortgage banker who was elected to the Board of Selectmen in 1999, filed a civil defamation suit against Brown in July of 2000, alleging that he had harassed her when she worked on his campaign in 1998, and then tried to smear her reputation around town with forged letters and emails.

I can see the attraction, what with his affinity for the pink leather shorts and all. Who could resist a guy like that?

She also alleged that Brown told several people that he'd had an "intimate relationship" with her and that he had a stack of sexually explicit letters that Firth had sent him. In her suit, Firth says that she'd never been sexually intimate with Brown, nor did she ever send him the aforementioned letters. A 2000 article in the local paper, the Sun Chronicle reported that Brown had denied the charges; for her part, Firth said she felt that filing the suit was "the only way I could stop this."

Allegedly.

But wait! There's more! Two days later....

Two days after the lawsuit was filed, Jennifer Firth's lawyer, Harvey Schwartz, filed a motion to withdraw as her counsel, saying that "to the best of [Schwartz's] knowledge, information and belief, the above allegations [by Firth] are not supported by 'good grounds.'" The next day, Jennifer Firth withdrew her suit. It was dismissed with prejudice, which means it can never be re-filed. Brown told a local newspaper that her lawyer had decided to withdraw after he was presented with letters and e-mail messages that proved she'd been harassing Brown.

Maybe Firth should go before the ethics committee.

Come to think of it, maybe the ethics committee should go before the ethics committee.

Who paid Firth off, I wonder... Or maybe she had no case. Or maybe ... Or maybe...

Rushpublics are so good at making a lot out of allegations and conjecture, enough to ruin careers. Dems on the other hand....

More details, speculation, and the court documents here.

Guess who Pioneered Miranda Attack On Obama? Cheney & Ridge

By GottaLaff

It always starts with you-know-who:

It turns out that the criticism surrounding the decision to read Miranda rights to the attempted Christmas bombing suspect didn't originally come from any office-holding Republican.

Rather, it was pioneered by Tom Ridge and Dick Cheney in the days after Christmas, and only later picked up by members of Congress like Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO).

For a tick-tock, go here. These snakes stayed true to form.

Yes, Dickless McHeartStent strikes again... and his little dog, too!

H/t: Gr8RDH

GOP Character Assassination Time: The Teleprompter Meme is Part of a Decades Long Campaign

By GottaLaff

Your Daily Dose of BuzzFlash, courtesy of my pal Mark Karlin:

I was sick and tired of the Republicans using personality misrepresentations of Democratic leaders -- which the corporate mainstream press repeated ad nauseum -- to try to turn them into negative caricatures, an endeavor in which they have been largely successful. [...]

What is most alarming is that the Democrats rarely seem to be able to counterattack successfully. That's what is particularly distubing about the latest "Obama uses a teleprompter" meme that has infested the mainstream media, egged on by Sarah Palin and the Republican PR/media echo chamber. It's beyond ludicrous: do they think George W. Bush memorized his speeches?

[...] It defines Dems in a negative way that goes right to the subconscious of many Americans, enough to foul up democracy and obstruct the workings of government, not to mention defeat Democrats. [...]

Start acting like your character and integrity matter by fighting back and going after the Republicans. They are extremely vulnerable, but you won't stop them with promises of "bi-partisanship," an act that they only interpret as a sign of vulnerabilty and weakness.

You can read the whole thing here.

VIDEO: Scott Brown wondered if Obama was born out of wedlock

By GottaLaff

Brown is all class, isn't he? Earlier I posted about his filing a criminal complaint against the Massachusetts Democrats, most likely because he thinks he smells momentum. Actually, he smells, period.

Then, via AMERICAblog, we watch him try to slime President Obama and his mother (more details here). This was recorded during the 2008 Republican National Convention:



I'd love to see him say that to President Obama's face when he shows up tomorrow to support Martha Coakley. I'll bet that little smirk would fade quickly.

So Nancy Pelosi was right

By GottaLaff

Gee, who'd have ever figured that the CIA would do something wrong, and that Nancy Pelosi would do something right?

Oh yeah, me.

Certainly not the Rushpublics:

The CIA may have misled Congress at least five times since 2001, two Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said Tuesday.

Intelligence subcommittee Chairwomen Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) are leading an ongoing investigation into what they described as a practice of incomplete and often misleading intelligence briefings, which arose in the wake of CIA Director Leon Panetta’s June 24 admission that intelligence officials failed to notify Congress about a top-secret program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders.

“That is an example of a failure to notify but we think a symptom of a larger disease,” Schakowsky said on Tuesday.

“There have been many instances where we’ve come to a committee hearing, after having read in the paper of something that should have been notified to us, where it’s followed up my mea culpas by the intelligence community,” Schakowsky said. “And examples where the committee actually has been lied to." [...]

Findings on this point could bolster Pelosi’s case.

Of course, the sport of smearing Pelosi, whether she was right or wrong (right up there priority-wise with covering up for the CIA) was accomplished, so the manufactured damage to her reputation has been done. Good job, GOP.

Much more here.

White House: Czar critics taking marching orders from Glenn Beck

By GottaLaff

Remember this?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Now the White House is fighting back against this insanity:

Now the White House and its allies are accusing administration critics of taking marching orders from talk show host Glenn Beck, and pointing out that George W. Bush's administration appointed dozens of "czars" during his eight years in office.

"I think it's been somewhat remarkable that in previous administrations, so-called criticism of this has been a bit deafening, the silence has been deafening, only to have it come around as a political issue now," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday.

Later in the afternoon, White House communications director Anita Dunn posted a "reality check" about czars on the administration's Web site, noting that the term is not an official White House title and that several of those Obama appointed "czars" were actually approved by the Senate.

Wrong! You lie! "Czar" is a black socialist Nazi commie Hussein Obama word!

The Democratic National Committee was more blunt: "In leveling these ludicrous attacks, Republicans have crowned themselves the czars of hypocrisy," DNC press secretary Hari Sevugan said. Party officials blasted out six different e-mails to reporters on Wednesday flagging the Bush administration's reliance on "czars," citing news reports that going back to 2001.

Hypocrisy czars. I'm likin' that one. I may have to steal it.

"Most telling of the credibility of these attacks is that they come from the same Republican party that didn't utter a peep about the 47 documented czars in the Bush administration even when the so called 'abstinence czar' was caught soliciting," Sevugan said, referring to Randall Tobias, a top State Department who resigned in 2007 after he was caught soliciting prostitutes.

Boy Georgie had a Prostitute Czar. Perfect.

VIDEO: Rachel Maddow's excellent "Czar Struck" eviscerates Republican smears

By GottaLaff

Rachel does it again. If you ever need arguments to knock down the Rushpublics' latest Campaign-o'-Wrong, watch this video, bookmark it, memorize it, and laugh heartily:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Mark Sanford accused of smear campaign against Lt. Governor

By GottaLaff

This clown cannot avoid news... make that, negative news:

An outspoken critic of Mark Sanford is accusing the embattled South Carolina governor of orchestrating a smear campaign against Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer.

Republican State Sen. Jake Knotts wrote to fellow members of the state legislature on Wednesday accusing Sanford and his allies of spreading rumors that Bauer is gay — a claim that was reported earlier this week by a blogger who seeks to out closeted conservative politicians.

"As a former target of a false rumor started by the Sanford Camp I can tell you with absolute certainty this attack was orchestrated on behalf of Mark Sanford, either directly or indirectly, and financially subsidized by him or one of his many 'front-groups,'" Knotts wrote. [...]

Knotts, an ally of Bauer and a fierce opponent of Sanford, said there is no truth to the gay rumors that have dogged Bauer for years.

"I have known Andre since he was eight years old," Knotts told CNN. "Ain't a homosexual bone in his body. That boy is a good boy. It's a just an attempt to prevent Andre from become governor."

Like being gay is something to be ashamed of? "Ain't a homosexual bone in his body"? "Good boy"? So gay men are "bad boys?" That's some friend.

Bauer publicly called on Sanford to resign last week, a request that was promptly rejected by the governor. Bauer is also planning to enter the crowded race to succeed Sanford next year. [...]

"It's an absolute effort by Sanford's people to discredit Andre," Knotts said of the rumors. "Sanford hates Andre so bad it's pitiful."

So he calls him gay and that's discrediting him. "You.. you... gay you!" I'd think a bigger slur would be, "You... you... Mark Sanford you!"

"Every time I have seen Andre and as long as I've known him, he's always had a pretty girlfriend," Knotts told CNN. "They love him, he treats them well, he treats them nice, he treats them with respect. He doesn't hang out in bars and go from woman to woman. Everybody that knows Andre knows for sure he ain't been seen hanging on to no damn man."

I realize Knotts is supposed to be one of the good guys, and that this isn't the point of the CNN piece, but I have a problem with the notion that one would feel pressured into statements like these to win over voters; that it's necessary to overcompensate by insisting that his pal always had a "pretty girlfriend", and the rest.

And I have a real problem with Mark, The (yeah, right) "Family" Man.

Rich Businessman Sinks $$ Into Obama Attack ads re: NY Flyover

By GottaLaff

(enlarged graphic here)

My crystal ball was sitting in the corner of my office, getting all dusty and feeling forlorn and abandoned. I was just about to shine it up, but realized I still didn't need it, because I saw this:

A wealthy Obama donor who turned on the president is launching an attack on Obama over the Air Force One flyover screw-up, linking it to his big spending policies, an assault that may involve radio and TV ads in a preview of what to expect in the 2010 midterm elections.

The donor, businessman Fred Tausch of New Hampshire, announced in February he’d be sinking some $100,000 into assaults on Obama. Now he’s adding the flyover snafu to his list of grievances, tying it to “wasteful spending” in a direct mail piece sent out to his state’s voters.

The group Tausch founded to attack Obama, Steward For Prosperity, may bankroll radio and TV ads along the same lines.

Hmm... Why in the world would he sink so much cash into such a weak anti-Obama campaign? What could this guy be up to? Where's that crystal ball again?

With New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg saying he’ll retire and John Sununu uncertain whether he’ll run again, Tausch is being talked about seriously in some quarters as a GOP candidate for Senate. So this is a preview of what we may see from 2010 Republican candidates in New Hampshire and elsewhere who want to take Obama down a few notches to limit whatever lift he can give to the Dem candidates.

If this is all Tausch has, he just wasted a sackful of money. And I didn't need my crystal ball to tell me that.

Gov. David Paterson Admits Role in Kennedy Smear

By GottaLaff

Gee, I didn't know that, by ordering my staff to contradict Caroline's story, it would turn all mean and stuff!

For the first time, New York Gov. David Paterson (D) acknowledged "that he personally ordered his staff to contest Caroline Kennedy's version of events in the hours after she withdrew from consideration to be United States senator," the New York Times reports.

However, Paterson said that he was "bewildered when his staffers subsequently unleashed harsh personal attacks against Ms. Kennedy."

Said Paterson: "The things said about Caroline I found despicable and shocking and very painful. I never would have imagined removing the idea that this is my first choice meant a character assassination."

Well, okay, since you put it that way.

Paterson Leaks Intended to Smear Kennedy

By GottaLaff

Surprise, surprise. Check out the last sentence, the one I highlighted in red:

A New York Times investigation of the appointment process to fill New York's vacant U.S. Senate seat finds that "it's clear" that New York Gov. David Paterson's (D) administration "released confidential information" about Caroline Kennedy "and misled reporters about its significance as part of an orchestrated effort to discredit her after she withdrew."

"According to advisers to the governor who were involved in the process, the leaks against Ms. Kennedy were coordinated by Judith A. Smith, a consultant who has been acting as the governor's top communications strategist."

Apparently, Fred Dicker was right.

Update: The New York Daily News reports Smith was formerly deputy White House press secretary under President Bush.

10 reasons why Barack Obama is not president

By GottaLaff

UPDATE: CORRECTION and complete version HERE. I was finally able to track down the site of the man who Thom Hartmann interviewed. That's the problem with hearing only part of an interview. I caught the segments that sounded genuine enough... coming from Republicans. It's often hard to distinguish between their reality and satire.

Original post:

Bill O'Reilly will be hosting a Fox show called, "Ten Reasons Why Barack Obama is Not President", or something very close to that. The reasons include: the time he was sworn in, the Big Birth Certificate Issue, that he speaks too sensibly for most Americans, palling around with terrorists makes him an enemy combatant, that he's half white and half black...

No, I'm not kidding. I wish I'd caught the rest of this, but I was otherwise engaged.

The sub for Thom Hartmann interviewed a blogger who has posted the rest of the information, but I missed the link. What does it really matter, you get the gist.

These people are mentally ill.

Guilt by hunch

By GottaLaff

How many times has this happened? It doesn't matter whether it's during campaign season, or if it's just easier to blame someone for a crime in order to appease a nervous nation, or even protect the actual guilty party.

Here's the headline on the New York Times website:

Portrait Emerges of Anthrax Suspect’s Troubled Life

The anthrax investigation yielded nothing more than a strong hunch that Dr. Bruce E. Ivins was the perpetrator, a Times examination found.

Guilt by hunch. Destruction of lives, reputations and credibility. Spread the rumors and misinformation, then retract when nobody is listening. That's what we've become.

Speculating about speculation

By GottaLaff

I'm gonna go way out on a limb here and speculate that there will be many, many more instances of destructive, meaningless speculation about Team Obama in the years to come. Obviously, that's a very safe thing about which to speculate, which sadly makes my point.

Here is today's latest headline from Politico:

Obama to absolve Emanuel in gov. scandal

You know why that's a headline? Because for weeks, all the other headlines have been similar to these:

• Blagojevich scandal: Rahm Emanuel and Jesse Jackson Jr face new revelations
• Emanuel: I'm Getting Death Threats Over Blagojevich Scandal
• 45% Suspect Obama Team Involved in Blagojevich Scandal
  

We have become nothing more than a society of voyeuristic vultures circling around the What-Ifs gleefully provided to us by frenzied media gotcha-mongers desperate to avoid the fate of the Big Three and AIG. Ratings are their god.

The results: Their Nielsen numbers rise, their standards sink, and Team Obama is indelibly defiled by the residual droppings excreted by rabid gossipmongering counterfeit journalists who destroy lives with the same ease with which they mangle the English language.

Those are some achievements. I'd be willing to bet that the Peter Principle will continue to be even more relevant in the foreseeable future. But that would be mere speculation.

Campaign Falsehoods Linger On

Sometime I really wonder about the intelligence of this country.

• 40: Percent of Americans who believe McCain would keep troops in Iraq for 100 years
• 52: Percent of Americans who believe Obama will raise taxes on most small businesses
• 2 in 5: Americans who think that McCain planned to cut over $800 billion in Medicare payments
• Nearly 1 in 5: Americans who believe Obama is a Muslim
• 46: Percent of Americans who agree that Saddam Hussein played a role in 9/11

Read more Data Points

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.

Pay to Play: The Chicago Way?

That my friends, is the name of a 1 hour program airing right this minute on Fox News. Yes, 1 hour. In the intro, the only person on screen who spoke was.... Obama! Check out this kicker to the article-

Tune in this weekend as Greta Van Susteran digs into those sensational allegations and finds they are only the beginning of a wild tale of power, corruption and greed.

Joe is right, and we should get ready.

Questions are raised. Connections are drawn. Conspiracies are theorized. Guilt is imputed, implied, asserted and very widely associated. And more of the same feckless fingerpointing is exactly what Barack Obama should expect from the Republicans, the right-wing propaganda machine and their enablers in the mainstream media -- even after Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has met whatever fate he deserves.

The truth will come out

For my money, Luckovich is the best editorial cartoonist out there. h/t Greg.