Wingnut of the Day

Twitter user Steve Malinowski sent this disturbing tweet to Michelle Malkin.

"@michellemalkin Gun control advocates should get death or life in prison. Real crime is best generalized as the crime of government."

Exactly who is suppose to impose these death sentences if all members of government are jailed or executed? Mr. Malinowski's wingnut Utopia has some holes in it.

Progressive Sexism

Megham McCain got grief for posting a picture of yourself on Twitter. Cenk Uygur of the The Young Turks said McCain was "asking for it." Could a progressive pundit use a worse choice of words than Uygur.

Keith Olbermann refered to conservative blogger Michele Malkin "as a mashed-up bag of meat." Another poor choice of words.

[Malkin's] total mindless, morally bankrupt, knee-jerk, fascistic hatred, without which Michelle Malkin would just be a big mashed-up bag of meat with lipstick on it.

Progressives, you can diagree with a conservative woman, without making sexist remarks. Progressive values are about promoting equality. Not bashing women.

The Mask of Death

View the many crazy faces of Michelle Malkin.

Conservative Reaction to Specter

The Corner have longtime bashed Arlen Specter. Michael Rubin was angered by Specter's advocacy of diplomacy with Iran.

If ever the Republicans had a Jimmy Carter, Arlen Specter is it.

Kathryn Jean Lopez did muchraking reporting by using her anonymous wealthy friend as a source. K-Lo's thesis was Specter's vote for the stimulus package would help Pat Toomey's campaign contributions. The Corner repeatedly hammered Specter's postion on abortion. The Corner has repeatedly stressed for Specter's exit and less government. With Specter, Democrats have 60 seats once Al Franken is seated. The Corner is not happy about Republicans having less government.

I read that he was switching parties, but I was disappointed to learn he's still a Democrat.

The DINO remark is funny. Did the Cornerites expect Specter to join Bernie Sander's Vermont Progressive Party? Seriously.

In related news: RNC chairman Michael Steele told CNN he did not know Specter was going to defect.

Steele: Cornyn went out on the line for this man. For the senator to flip the bird back to Senator Cornyn and the Republican Senate Leadership, a team that stood by him, who went to the bat for him in 2004, to save his hide is not only disrespectful but down right rude. I'm sure his mama didn't raise him this way.


Q: Did he give you a heads up on this?

Steele: No, not at all. Which is another form of this respect that I don't count. At least give me a call or give the party leadership a call and let us know this is what I'm thinking. This is where I'm going so you can be prepared. I'm not one to be caught flat-footed about these things.

Oh really! Steele explains to CNN that he didn't know Specter's plans and then declares he doesn't get flat-footed. Steele is a comedy quote machine.

Steele declares, "Get ready to go to the mat, baby, because we're coming after you and taking you out." Will Steele be RNC chair in 2010?

Michelle Malkin goes nuclear. Specter is finally leaving the GOP and she is pissed? Malkin hates Specter. Yet Malkin is pissed. This is a seriously conflicted conservative blogger?

I am not a Specter fan. I agree that Specter's motivation is political survival. Republicans have bashed Specter for years and and are shocked he joined the opposition. Democrats went through this with Joe Lieberman. The base backed Ned Lamont and ended up stuck with Lieberman in the caucas. Republicans don't have a backup plan. Specter isn't likely to rejoin the GOP. Obama will campaign and raise money for Specter in the general election. Conservative principles don't mean much if you can't govern.

Quote of the Day

"I want Obama to fail. Miserably. As should all real Americans."

From a fake Michelle Malkin Twitter account.

The (lack of) Communications of Fear

One of the scariest tenets of the modern right is their inability to rationally talk with anyone who disagrees with them.  We see this on a micro, intra-party level when Pam Geller of Atlas Shrugs launches verbal bombs against Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs.  I also thought LFG was among the heaviest wingnut blogs around, but when Geller rants "Charles Johnson - poster boy for the left," you'd think the man just had the highest recommended diary on Daily Kos.  What is Johnson's crime?  Offering up criticism of Glenn Beck's insanity.  That's just too much indifference for righties like Geller, who demand carte blanche obedience.  Shorter Geller: Don't like Beck? Well, I don't talk with you, Obamabot!

We see many examples of this anti-social behavior on a macro level, too -- the most recent example is Obama's handshake with Hugo Chavez.  As is wholly predictable these days, this handshake has caused the right to go apoplectic.  Malkin asks if anyone smelled sulfur during the handshake; after calling it a "terrorist fist bump," Tom Maguire quips "When socialists salute!"  Etc., etc.  Apparently, there has to be a purity test world leaders must pass for us to talk with them -- somebody tell that to the King of Saudi Arabia!  Oh wait, the right only cared about Obama's meeting with Abdullah because they could scream about the supposed bowing act -- the fact that Saudi Arabia continues to be a leading human rights violator, not an issue.  Clearly, in their eyes, heads of state can be shitty, oppressive people as long as they're not socialists as well.

Not to digress on the hypocrisy too long (once you start, it's tough to stop), but the point of this post is just how scary this asocial behavior is.  Could you imagine the world today if this obedience-first, anti-social style of Republican occupied the White House in the post-WWII era?  We didn't have that, of course.  Despite the fact that the Soviet Union was more fearsome and brutal than Chavez could ever hope to be -- with a massive nuclear arsenal and ICBMs, too -- the Republican Eisenhower administration kept diplomatic lines open with them.  When the impromptu "Kitchen Debate" took place in 1959, Vice President Nixon had a direct, face-to-face meeting with USSR president Khrushchev.  Reflecting on politics today, let that sink in for a moment...  Could you imagine former Vice President Dick Cheney meeting with any one of today's lesser enemies while he was in office?   Now that just sounds silly.

The direct correspondence between Khrushchev and the White House continued into the Kennedy administration, and not only was present during the Cuban Missile Crisis but played a key role in averting total nuclear war.  Robert McNamara, Kennedy's Defense Secretary, discussed the cabinet meetings and tense diplomacy during the crisis which ultimately led to its resolution:

McNamara: Kennedy was trying to keep us out of war. I was trying to help him keep up out of war. And General Curtis LeMay, whom I served under as a matter of fact in World War II, was saying "Let's go in, let's totally destroy Cuba."

On that critical Saturday, October 27th, we had two Khrushchev messages in front of us. One had come in Friday night, and it had been dictated by a man who was either drunk or under tremendous stress. Basically, he said, "If you'll guarantee you won't invade Cuba, we'll take the missiles out." 

Then before we could respond, we had a second message that had been dictated by a bunch of hard—liners. And it said, in effect, "If you attack, we're prepared to confront you with masses of military power." 

So, what to do? We had, I'll call it, the soft message and the hard message.

At the elbow of President Kennedy was Tommy Thompson, former U.S. Ambassador to Moscow. He and Jane, his wife, had literally lived with Khrushchev and his wife upon occasion. Tommy Thompson said, "Mr. President, I urge you to respond to the soft message." 

The President said to Tommy, "We can't do that, that'll get us nowhere." 

Tommy said, "Mr. President, you're wrong." Now that takes a lot of guts.

Kennedy: We're not going to get these missiles out of Cuba, probably anyway, by negotiation.

Thompson: I don't agree, Mr. President. I think there's still a chance.

Kennedy: That he'll back down?

Thompson: The important thing for Khrushchev, it seems to me, is to be able to say, "I saved Cuba, I stopped an invasion."

McNamara: In Thompson's mind was this thought: Khrushchev's gotten himself in a hell of a fix. He would then think to himself, "My God, if I can get out of this with a deal that I can say to the Russian people: 'Kennedy was going to destroy Castro and I prevented it.'" Thompson, knowing Khrushchev as he did, thought Khrushchev will accept that. And Thompson was right. 

Now think about that for a minute.  Not only did the Kennedy administration have direct communication with the USSR, but in the cabinet meeting Kennedy had somebody who knew and formerly lived with President Khrushchev.  Given that the stakes were nuclear war, it's no exaggeration to suggest that the world would be a much more different, desolate place today if the US/USSR direct diplomacy of the Cuban Missile Crisis didn't exist. 

Talking with your enemies brings peace.

Of course, one person sitting at that cabinet meeting thought Kennedy and everyone else were full of shit, and that's General Curtis LeMay.  A hardline Republican then, LeMay is analogous to what the Republican party has become today.  Had Kennedy listened to LeMay, none of us would be sitting here today, blogging about it. 

The LeMay factor of today's Republican leaders is what scares me the most about them; and if this wing of the party ever takes power again.  They don't want presidents to talk with anyone who doesn't pass their political litmus test.  If these anti-social Republicans were in power in the 1960s, or even the Eisenhower Republican era of the 1950s, we wouldn't have had diplomatic communications with the Soviet Union.  We wouldn't be here. 

Compared to such a bleak future, I hardly see where Obama shaking Chavez's hand is a mistake.  I'm more scared of not talking to him, or any other world leader.

Quotes of the Day

"Obama whines about inherited debt & lack of GOP budget alternative. Here's..."

Michelle Malkin, faling to complete her thought.

"Dear NRCC supporter,

"House Republicans have pledged to stop to the “Pelosi Recession” caused by a bloated Democratic budget that spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much. We are working each day toward real economic reform to help create new jobs instead of digging our country deeper in debt. Each Republican vote in Congress puts our nation on strong footing to rebuild the economy with sound and fair fiscal principles."

NRCC Chairman Pete Sessions, in a fundraising e-mail letter.

Thanks to the wonderful invention that is Google, we can have fun with Malkin's and Session's past statements on the Bush budget and economy.

Sessions in 2005

We are now in the ninth month of this year’s federal budget, and things are looking up. The economy is growing, federal tax receipts are surging, and the budget deficit is shrinking. Considering what was predicted at the beginning of this budget year, these facts should be big news. After all, the “experts” had projected a deficit of more than $460 billion for the current budget. Instead, it looks like it will come in at $300 billion – maybe less.

Once again, budget experts were proven wrong by the dynamic and entrepreneurial American economy. I have nothing against the professionals at the Congressional Budget Office and their colleagues in other federal agencies; they’re honest and hard working, but they have a history of underestimating the productive capacity and agility of the private sector in the U.S.

"This should be shouted from the rooftops," Malkin wrote on her blog. "'Instead of shovel-ready spending, let’s focus on ax-ready waste!'"

I'm all for cutting waste. The problem is stimulus is needed to create jobs. Unsurprisingly, Malkin hardly touched the deficit during the Bush years. I know because I checked her blog. There is only five pages of Malkin blog posts containing the words "tax cuts." It is mostly Malkin defending GOP positions. She doesn't delve into wonkery.

Sessions and Malkin weren't worried about the deficit and economy during the Bush administration. Their sudden interest is because Barack Obama is in office. The anti-liberal Wall Street Journal reports only 3 million job were created during George W. Bush's tenure. The Congressional Budget Office study found the federal budget would have been balanced in 2005. What prevented this was the Bush tax cuts and increased spending. During that time, Sessions was saying everything was hunky dory. Malkin was blaming illegal immigrants for America's fiscal problems. There is no reason we should listen to these people.

The Right's Fascism Problem

Michelle Malkin posed for a picture with a man holding a swastika sign. The photo was taken at a Denver, Colorado anti-stimulus package rally. Malkin has made a career out of support of the Japanese internment camps and anti-immigration. Malkin publicly supports the white supremist Minutemen Project.

Glenn Beck, Jonah Goldberg and the sign-carrying Swastika Guy enjoy bringing Neo-Nazism into political discourse. The 2009 version of conservatism is demonizing gays, Hispanics, blacks, Muslims and cutting health care for children.

The last Republican administation illegally wiretapped.

The last Republican administation jailed people without charge.

The last Republican administation paid off Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher for positive media coverage.

The last Republican administation told Americans "with us or against us."

The current Republican brand would terrify the Founding fathers and George Orwell. Fascism is government leaders using fearmongering to impose their will. Ari Fleischer's "with us or against us" was not designed to make Americans feel safer.

A fascist government will make decisions in secrecy. Dick Cheney still hasn't released the names of those that attended his energy commission meetings. The Bush administration kept waterboarding and wiretapping secret. Bush and Cheney issued nondenials when news started leaking out. Bush and Cheney were later forced to admit waterboarding and wiretapping. Claiming the Constitution gave them the authority.

The Fourth amendment states "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." The Eighth amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. America is not fascist. The Bush administration steered America towards a fascist path. Bush was a president that publicly declared he had to aswer to no one. Republicans, such as Goldberg, believe fascists "isn’t an SS storm trooper; it is a female grade-school teacher with an education degree from Brown or Swarthmore." Orwell wrote about the misuse of the word fascism.

In conversation, of course, it is used even more wildly than in print. I have heard it applied to farmers, shopkeepers, Social Credit, corporal punishment, fox-hunting, bull-fighting, the 1922 Committee, the 1941 Committee, Kipling, Gandhi, Chiang Kai-Shek, homosexuality, Priestley's broadcasts, Youth Hostels, astrology, women, dogs and I do not know what else.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin

Beyond Captioning

This picture has been around for awhile. However, I thought readers would get a kick out of Tas having his photo taken with Michelle Malkin. Tas was covering CPAC for Raw Story.

Wingnut Use the Protesst Lessons From Bush Years? WTF

The Republican web site Rebuild the Party is posted information for a protest in Westlake Park, Seattle.

The protest against the porkulus is on for President's Day!

Date: Monday, February 16th
Time: 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Where: Westlake Park in downtown Seattle, 401 Pine St., in the open area by the big arch.

The idea is to use what we've learned about dissent over the last eight years. We need loud protests with lots noise and visuals. So, what should you bring?

The protest is against Barack Obama's stimulus package. Blogger Kristy S-Y wonders what protest lessons the Republicans have learned in the past eight years. The big protest issue was the Iraq war. The Republican base was soundly behind George W. Bush's neoconservative foreign policy. Republicans weren't protesting against torture or for equal pay for women. The major conservative protest issue was overturning Roe v. Wade. That failed in South Dakota.

Liberty Belle is the creator of the protest. The anonymous blogger lashed out against Kristy S-Y, in what reads like a parody of conservative blog post.

That is such an unsurprising response from your typical liberal, middle-aged, mocha drinking, Nordstrom's wearing, PCC shopping, haughty Seattleite who probably felt so darn proud that she wore an Obama pin for months raised a glass of real, fair trade, organic, French champagne on Inauguration day. It cracked me up.

Why do conservative bloggers always use run-on sentences and liberal stereotypes? Conservatives should show some originality in their disses. Is that too much to ask?

Unsurprising, Glenn Reynolds and Michelle Malkin love the idea for this protest. Malkin posted the image: "Proud to be unpatriotic in Obama's America." For years conservative bloggers have labeled progressive unpatriotic. Malkin comes right out and declares her lack of patriotism. The only God these people worship is elephant shit.

Pollsters note Obama's approval ratings are through the roof. Republicans are seen as obstructionists. Republican Congressman Eric Canter is turning to Newt Gingrich for advise. Gingrich's claims to fame is the unpopular shutdown of the federal government, being forced to step down and being against Bill Clinton's economic policies. Republicans want to chew red meat. Not govern. Gingrich proved he can not do the latter.

Considering what Obama's approval ratings must be in the blue Seattle -- I don't expect Liberty Belle's protest to generate a great deal interest.

Florida Republicans Make Medicaid & KidCare Suffer

Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist have left KidCare underfunded. Bush lost $20 million in federal funds for KidCare. Bush intentionally let KidCare funding die. The waiting list for children with medical needs was over 700,000. Parents were greeted with the answering machine message: "It is not possible to tell you where your child is on the wait list or how soon he or she will be enrolled."

Barack Obama's stimulus package may not help Florida KidCare. The state is eligible for $33 billion. The problem is Florida has to match $1 billion for every $2 billion in federal funds. In 2007, Kathy Castor urged Crist to call a special session for KidCare. Crist let Senate President Ken Pruitt let KidCare die in session. The Republican Pruitt blamed KidCare not passing on it's supporters.

"The Senate has been vilified about this, and that's okay, " Pruitt said. "But this didn't happen in the Florida Senate. It's just these providers and these groups finally got together to come up with an agreement, which they didn't, and the process we have here gave them ample time to do it."

How has the Republican-led Florida Senate "been vilified?" Does the GOP want to be known as the party that is against child heath care? Michelle Malkin's attacks on Graeme Frost showed utter insensitively. Republicans demonize children, but support CEO pay raises. Talk about fucked-up priorities.

We now learn Florida is not likely to receive funding for Medicaid.

And Crist's budget writers are going to have to deal with some troublesome details.

For example, the bill provides $87 billion nationally for Medicaid, the federal-state program that pays for medical care for the sick, elderly and poor. Medicaid enrollment in Florida is up by more than 10 percent.

But to qualify for the money, states are required to maintain the same level of Medicaid coverage that they provided in July.

Cut Medicaid as enrollment increases. That was bound to bite Crist and Republicans in the ass. Republicans did health care on the cheap.

"Most of the things in there require us to spend more money in order to get more money," Amy Baker explain, coordinator of the Legislature's Office of Economic and Demographic Research. "So there are going to be hard decisions to make."

Crist and the Florida legislature may have to increase state funding for Medicaid. Florida is in a fiscal deficit. That solution is unlikely.

Policy people need to understand how Florida got into the current health care crisis. The message should be citizens will not tolerate poor health care policies. Preventive health care saves lives and money. Crist and fellow Republican's may have to borrow money to receive Medicaid and KidCare funds. The money would have to be paid back with interest. Fiscally, Republicans counter productive health care policies cost the taxpayer more. Enough is enough.

Message to PETA: Please Go Away

Via Cara: PETA had the amazingly stupid idea to dress up as the Klu Klux Klan. The annual Westminster Kennel Club show was at Madison Square Garden. PETA handed out brochures that said: "The KKK and the AKC: BFF?" Where PETA made the connection between Westminster Kennel Club and America's most famous white supremist group is anybody's guess.

PETA is not progressive. They are batshit insane. What hurts progressives is Fox News, Michelle Malkin and InstaPundit will use PETA to attack our movement. PETA damages animal rights and other progressive causes. The latter maybe overreaching. PETA certainly doesn’t help us and we should shun them.

Obama Keeps Promise On SCHIP

President Barack Obama fulfills his promise to expand coverage of SCHIP. The State Children's Health Insurance Program pays for the health care of poor children. President George W. Bush twice vetoed SCHIP expansion. Obama sign SCHIP into law today.

By doing so, the new president said, "we fulfill one of the highest responsibilities that we have: to ensure the health and well-being of our nation's children. It's a responsibility that's only grown more urgent as our economic crisis deepens, with health care costs that have exploded, and millions of working families are unable to afford health insurance."

SCHIP hater Michelle Malkin made a blacklist of Republicans that voted for SCHIP. Did it occur to Malkin that GOP candidates don't want to run against children's health care? With apologies to On-my-soap-box and alaskangrizzly, Malkin commenters aren't the entire electorate.

How to tell when they've got nothing

One headline now running at Satan Malkin's bloggegeddon:

President Glistening Pecs laughs at Jessica Simpson’s weight problem

Generally the more pathetic wingnut headlines are, the less of an actual story they have. I would say this is rock bottom, but we've still got (at least) four more years for Satan Malkin and her ilk keep digging -- and keep us laughing.

Now presenting today's Unintentionally Ironic Tweet by Michelle Malkin

I've started following Michelle Malkin on Twitter, and I have noticed that she's a bit more honest in the microblogging format -- whether she means to be or not. Why not make a regular feature out of her sincerity? So today, I present the (in the parlance of our week) inaugural Unintentionally Ironic Tweet by Michelle Malkin:

07:20 1/21/09: "My eyes may be open, but I am not awake yet."

I couldn't have described you better myself, internment queen. Toodles!

Tas and Litbrit Mock Silly Bloggers

Tas remembers Mr. T Experience front man Dr. Frank once was one of the internet's leading warbloggers. And yes, these people actually refered to themselves as "warbloggers". A quick search of Dr. Frank's archives and found this gem.

It's too bad he hasn't been giving speeches like this all along, but it's welcome nonetheless. After weeks of "leaks" and trial balloons about proposed scenarios for post-Saddam Iraq, the administration seems to have, at last, committed itself to the pro-democracy, neo-con program, or at least something along those lines. At the very least, any further waffling, wobbling, or backtracking, any hint that our efforts at Liberation will be less than sincere or thorough, any nod to the stability-at-all-costs mantra of Foggy Bottom and the GHWB alumni, can now be criticized fairly powerfully with a playback of the President's own words.

Yes, I had thought that to be the case after the 2002 State of the Union Address, as well. That was a good speech, too. How could he face the nation in 2003 with Saddam still in power? He did, and he could. And when he did, he gave pretty much the same speech, almost as though the intervening year hadn't even happened. In effect, anyway. That's the thing about speeches. You can say any damned thing you want. There's good bluster, and there's bad bluster, and there's bluster whose virtue waits upon events, but it's all never more than bluster until somebody does something. The hawkish commentariat and the supporters of "regime change" were singularly ineffective at pointing that out in such a way as to hold him to those words. The ditherer-in-chief got a free pass. If they're at all sincere about this Democracy stuff-- as many of them are-- they will have to do much better this time.

If Bush keeps speaking in this idiom, some of the non-partisans, the "loyal opposition," reasonable skeptics, unconvinced idealists and the like may even be swayed by it. As to the disloyal opposition (if it's permitted to use such an inflammatory term) nothing he could say or do would have any effect. For within the ranks of reasonable skeptics, honest Democratic partisans, and informed worry warts, there is a small sub-sector whose strident opposition to Bush's policies, regardless of what they may be, has solidified, atrophied, engraved itself in granite. This rigid antipathy is personal, emotional, sentimental and, it seems, quite intoxicating. If someone had loaded the AEI teleprompter with a McGovernite speech, or a Nader campaign press release, or a chapter of "Stupid White Men," or the lyrics to "Imagine," they'd still be calling him Hitler. (And, to be fair, it must be conceded that many of the partisans in the AEI audience would still have applauded.) It is interesting to speculate whether these hearts and minds would have ended up quite so impervious to persuasion if Bush had been giving this kind of speech all along. I have no idea. But I do know that if this was just a case of putting on the neo-con hat for a special occasion, he will have given this skeptic grounds for further cynicism.

Dr. Frank argued Bush needed to be more neoconservative to win the public's support.

I remember blogger Ken Layne advocating the invasion of Saudi Arabia. (Too bad his archives aren't online.) The other lefty war-bloggers Matt Welch, Armed Liberal and Jeff Jarvis. They were so difficult to read. Former conservative Iraq war hawk Andrew Sullivan was wrong, but he wasn't boring. The lefty hawks can't make the same claim.

What these warbloggers have in common is they were on Glenn Reynolds' blogroll. Josh Marshall was more hawkish then. Oliver Willis and Reynolds struck up an online friendship. That explains why they were on the blogroll. With the exception of Sullivan, Reynolds is the only reason people took these keypad warriors seriously. Marshall and Willis publicly disavowed Reynolds.

Atrios did a great service by bashing these lefty hawk bloggers. They have fallen into irreverency. A just world would have these bloggers read their pro-Iraq war posts to an audience. The bloggers would then participate in a Q and A session with war correspondents and retired military officers. The media would cover the session. I would love to see them explain their posts to people that experienced the war firsthand.

Litbrit has fun with an easier target: Michelle Malkin. The latter defends her appearance in a mink coat calendar with her usual tactful eloquence.

It’s a light-hearted calendar for conservatives by conservatives. Yes, wearing fur. Gasp! And make-up. Horrors! For the folks out there with Conservative Calendar Derangement Syndrome, here’s my prescription: Get over it and go back to ogling The One’s tight jeans and Michelle O’s backside. You’ll feel better in the morning.

In case your wondering, Malkin did use the word "moonbat." A google search documents 1,980 times the word has been used on Malkin's site. Conservatives fail to grasp that the Left isn't bothered by the term. Wingnut has a nice ring to it. The average person hears "moonbat" and think it's an exotic pet.

The mink calendar is to offend liberals for the sake of offending. That sums up the purpose of Malkin's blog. I watched her video pretending to be Amanda Marcotte. Besides it being bad, I thought Malkin was in serious need of a hug. The Daily Show this is not.

Wingnut Alert: Wizbang Trusts What the Media Says

Kim Priestap of Wizbang states the Obama campaign wanted "horrific headlines" about the recent Wallstreet meltdown. Priestap's proof is that CNN's political correspondent Candy Crowley.

This is what the Obama campaign wanted. Got that? The American people watched the Dow drop by 500 points yesterday and banks go under and declare bankruptcy, and Crowley reports that this is what the Obama team wanted because they see the chance to score political points. But this is typical of Democrats because in order to win, they need suffering, they need upheaval, they need fear.

Let me get this straight. Wizbang actually trusts what the liberal media has to say. Let's do the time warp all the way back to September 6, 2008. Priestap wrote the post "CNN Portraying Palin's Thug Ex-Brother in Law as Sympathetic." Priestap accused CNN of smearing Sarah Palin on the TroopGate story.

Nice. He should have been fired right then and there. And there's more, including that the Alaska State Troopers confirmed that this guy threatened to kill his father in law if he helped his daughter (Palin's sister) get a divorce. Additionally, there were protection orders against him prohibiting him from getting anywhere near Palin's sister. This guy had absolutely no business being anywhere near any police force.

Yet, CNN slaps up a video that makes him look like the victim. Head on over to AJ's site and read all about who this guy really is and how low CNN is going in their effort to hurt Sarah Palin.

That same day, fellow Wizbang blogger Lorie Byrd accused CNN's Soledad O'Brien on cutting funding for special needs children. Byrd hysterically cites Michelle Malkin as a valid source of factual research. Malkin's book "Defense of Internment" contained numerious errors that Malkin was forced to admit. Malkin has since took down the page citing her errors. The Historian Committee For Fairness signed a petition stating Malkin's book. The petition was signed by several tenured history professors.

Michelle Malkin's appearance on numerous television and radio shows and her comments during these appearances regarding her book IN DEFENSE OF INTERNMENT represent a blatant violation of professional standards of objectivity and fairness. Malkin is not a historian, and she states that she relied almost exclusively on research conducted or collected by others. Her book, which purports to defend the wartime treatment of Japanese Americans, did not go through peer review before publication. This work presents a version of history that is contradicted by several decades of scholarly research, including works by the official historian of the United States Army and an official U.S. government commission. In fact, the author's presentation of events is so distorted and historically inaccurate that, when challenged by reputable historians, she has herself conceded that her main thesis in incorrect, namely that the MAGIC intercepts of prewar Japanese diplomatic cable traffic, explain and justify the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans.

So is Malkin and Byrd right that CNN is falsely accusing Palin of cutting funding for special education and needs children? No. The 2007 budget was created before Palin became Governor. The 2007 and 2008 budgets were during Palin's tenure.

FY2007 Governor - 8,265.3
FY2008 Governor - 3,156.0
2009 Governor - 3,156.0

The moral of the story is conservative bloggers agree with the media when it confirms their beliefs. That means even showing love to the so-called liberal media. Conservative blogger will bash the media and cite the journalistically dubious Michelle Malkin when it reaffirms their worldview.

Two thoughts:

1. My jaw dropped when Wizbang cited a CNN talking head as speaking the gospel truth. The end of days must be near.

2. Bronwyn Lance Chester on Malkin: I think she habitually mistakes shrill for thought-provoking and substitutes screaming for discussion. She’s an Asian Ann Coulter. I also think that, like Coulter, she says outrageous things just to get TV appearances and book deals. She’s the worst of what’s wrong with punditry today. She adds absolutely nothing to genuine political discourse.

That about sums up Malkin.

Michelle Malkins Sings

You read the title of the post correctly. Michelle Malkin sings and very badly in her lame attempt to do a parody video of Hillary Clinton. What was Malkin smoking when she thought she could actually sing?

Malkin is like a roadside car wreck. I shouldn't look, but I just can't help myself.

For those whom wouldrather not subject their ears to Malkin's musical-stylings. Imagine a cross between Sanjaya and a cat in heat.

Hat tip to Litbrit

The Right gears up to kick some Straight Talk ass

[Crossposted from Sugar Land is Dreaming]

All the GOP frontrunners (or onetime frontrunners, in some cases) have weaknesses in the type of voters they can attract, which could spell disaster in the general election. Social conservatives turn their nose at Romney's religion; Huckabee wouldn't be able to attract any non-religious conservatives; Giuliani seemingly can't attract anybody -- even xenophobes! And McCain? He might be the best at courting independents, but the right just plain hates this guy.

It was just over a year ago where McCain was too afraid to show his face at CPAC. The rest of the candidates spoke, but McCain wouldn't dare step foot inside the conference because he knew the backlash against him would generate too much bad press. Here was a Republican who couldn't even communicate with members of his own party at their largest gathering -- how the hell did he think he could win the GOP nomination for president?

Over the past 12 months, McCain has gone from frontrunner to shitheel back to frontrunner again, riding some momentum from his victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina. But a key fact to remember is that both of those states, independents play a huge role in the primaries. And since McCain is great at courting independents, he was able to score a couple victories.

And they have noticed. GOPUSA (the folks who brought you Jeff Gannon) has a daily email newsletter that reaches around 500,000, called "GOPUSA Eagle." Today's Eagle had this for it's subject line: "John McCain: The Geraldo Rivera Republican." This is a reference to the screaming match that Geraldo had with Bill O'Reilly when they discussed immigration. For the right at large, Geraldo's views on immigration are just too... too... spic-y.

Opening the email, I find it's main story is a Michelle Malkin column deriding McCain's stance on immigration:

Not all of us have forgotten how the short-fused Arizona senator cursed good-faith opponents in his own party ("F**k you!" and "Chickensh*t" were the choice words he had for Texas GOP Sen. John Cornyn during a spat over enforcement provisions). Not all of us have forgotten that he voted against barring felons from receiving amnesty benefits under his plan. Not all of us have forgotten the underhanded, debate-sabotaging manner in which McCain/Kennedy/Lindsey Graham/Harry Reid conspired to ram their package down voters' throats.

His admission of the shamnesty failure is grudging and bitter. While he now tells conservative voters what they want to hear about the need to build the southern border fence, he takes a contemptuous tone toward physical barriers when talking to businessmen. "By the way, I think the fence is least effective," he told executives in Milwaukee, according to a recent Vanity Fair profile. "But I'll build the goddamned fence if they want it." Straight talk? Try hate talk.

And if anyone knows hate talk, it's a woman who writes a book defending Japanese internment camps. And while we're on the topic of "hate talk," let's bring Ann Coulter into the picture. She sent me an email today too. It links to her latest column in Human Events, a weekly newspaper that's hugely popular among conservatives. From her anti-McCain diatribe titled "'Straight Talk' Express Takes Scenic Route to Truth":

John McCain is Bob Dole minus the charm, conservatism and youth. Like McCain, pollsters assured us that Dole was the most "electable" Republican. Unlike McCain, Dole didn't lie all the time while claiming to engage in Straight Talk.

Of course, I might lie constantly too, if I were seeking the Republican presidential nomination after enthusiastically promoting amnesty for illegal aliens, Social Security credit for illegal aliens, criminal trials for terrorists, stem-cell research on human embryos, crackpot global warming legislation and free speech-crushing campaign-finance laws.

I might lie too, if I had opposed the Bush tax cuts, a marriage amendment to the Constitution, waterboarding terrorists and drilling in Alaska.

Hell, with that description, Ann's making me kinda like the guy.

Now that McCain is the popular pick for expected GOP nominee, expect the right to step up their attacks against him in the days to come. Also, you may want to wish for McCain victories in the primaries because if there's any candidate you want the Democrats to run against, it's one who would keep his own party home come November.

When Wingnuts Collide

This is just too good: Michelle Malkin has quit Fox News because Geraldo Rivera sais she was hateful. Duh.

Crazy attention whore Geraldo Rivera told the Boston Globe that crazy attention whore Malkin was "the most vile, hateful commentator I've ever met … It’s good she’s in D.C. and I’m in N.Y. I’d spit on her if I saw her.”

Bill O'Reilly attempted to negotiate an on-air truce. It didn't go so well. Although, if he did pull it off I might have to nominate him for a Noble Peace Prize.

Later, when O'Reilly asked him if he wanted to say something about it on the show because, he said, Malkin's "feelings were hurt." (Saying this he came across, weirdly, as almost grandfatherly and sane.) Rivera did apologized for his "ungentlemanly" and "ungallant" words — "I never spit!" he said — but couldn't help qualifying that he disagreed with everything Malkin said and basically indicating that he thought she was an asshole.

You can feel the love between Rivera and Malkin from this Factor debate.