What Is Obama's Long Game On Syria?

Rep. Jim McGovern makes a similar case that Tas has made on this blog.

MCGOVERN: (INAUDIBLE) to me, this is not about rejuvenating the military. I want to fix sequestration, too. I mean the — the president is whether or not what he’s proposing is the right thing to do, whether it’s the effective thing to do. And I just don’t believe that’s that — that’s the case.

The point made by Tas.

So, my first question regarding intervention in Syria -- and not to be crass -- but what the fuck is the goal? Seriously, what is it? Do we want to topple the Assad government, or just drop a few bombs? Are we going to take out chemical weapons stock piles, or Assad government buildings? Since those stock piles and government buildings are likely in densely populated areas, how can we avoid killing Syrian citizens? Or do we arm the rebels? If we arm the rebels, how do we make sure that we're not inadvertently arming al-Qa'ida and other extremists? What happens if we topple the Assad government, will we commit 400,000 - 500,000 troops needed to quell the chaos and looting that comes after a government has fallen?

President Obama is a careful politician who doesn't want to say something that he would have to commit to later. That problem with that is the American people don't know what are Obama's long-term intentions for Syria.

Quote of the Day

"Michele Bachmann's Congressional exit interview should consist of one question: 'Can you find Benghazi on a map?'"

Tas, on Twitter.

Quote of the Day

"This is not just limited to the I.R.S. This is a culture of intimidation, a willingness to play hardball politics against your political opponents."

Sen. Marco Rubio

President Barack Obama is the most unintimidating man in Washington. Obama continues to express the belief that Republicans will eventually come around and be bipartisan. This is what Obama at a recent fundraiser.

"I genuinely believe there are Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them. And as a consequence we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government."

Republicans are taking to cable news and hold hearings on Benghazi and on the Cincinnati IRS office targeting tea party groups. Yet Obama still thinks that Republicans still want to work with him. Tas tweeted remark about Obama.

@pushingrope Obama's incompetent because he won't face reality and treat his opposition like the world's biggest children that they are.

— tas (@13monsters) May 15, 2013

I absolutely agree with Tas. Rubio's remark on the Senate floor is laughable. Rubio needs to sell the Obama as the boogie man to feed the base. If we are talking about intimidation, as Florida House Speaker, Rubio took the committee chairmanships away from Don Brown and Dennis Ross. Their crime was voting against a property insurance bill Rubio backed. Rubio has a lot of balls to be accusing Obama of practicing intimidation.

Pushing Rope Celebrates its Sixth Anniversary

Today is Valentine's Day for many people. For Pushing Rope this is our sixth anniversary. The first post ever on this blog was a humor piece about former New York Times columnist John Tierney. Since that time there have been nearly 8,000 blog posts written on the site. Some by fantastic guest bloggers who have left. (And whose contributions are greatly appreciated.) Tas and Litbrit have been the main guest bloggers. Their advice has also helped me improve this blog.

I would like to thank the readers for supporting this blog. Blogging can be lonely. It is nice to know that people are reading what I have to say.

Mission of Pushing Rope

Pushing Rope is a progressive blog. That doesn't mean it is a pro-Democratic Party blog. That is what many people didn't understand during Kendrick Meek's failed Senate campaign. PR pointed out the corruption allegations against Meek, Marco Rubio and Charlie Crist. The Meek campaign did push back against this blog. I pushed back.

This blog has been critical about President Barack Obama failing to "change" the unethical banking system and continuing the Bush policies of TSA searches and indefinite detention. This blog has not hesitated to bash the horrible policies of Republicans nationally and in Florida. Unlike some progressives, we aren't going to change our positions on civil liberty violations because there is now a Democrat in the office. That would be intellectually dishonest and only strengthen the erosion of civil liberties, if we allow illegal searches, and imprisonment without due process to continue.

PR started a netroots campaign against a post by Sticks of Fire blogger Rachel Moran. In the post, Moran discussed her and her friends assaulting homeless people on-camera. Progressive bloggers condemned Moran's post here, here, here, here, here and here. At the time, Sticks of Fire was the most popular Tampa blog. I received a lot of flak for taking SoF to task for its hate post. Sticks of Fire died a slow death due mainly to readers moving to sites like Saint Petersblog. This site is alive and well, and still taking hate mongers to task.

The mission of Pushing Rope is not to do what is popular. Our expressed goal is to stand up for what we feel is justice for civil liberties and social and economic equality. Those issues are important to us. If that means dealing with negative comments or emails then so be it.

Happy Valentine's Day to all our readers.

Triangulation Man: How Obama Avoids Passing His Agenda

Tas wrote a post about how President Barack Obama avoids trying to forward a progressive agenda.

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of Obama and much of my criticism would be viewed under the light of me being a member of the "Professional Left". I don't think Obama is a fighter, and he doesn't have the vision to use the bully pulpit provided to him by the Presidential Office to change the job description of that office; as well as public opinion.

Pollster Nate Silver wrote on Twitter that Obama avoids policy fights when public opinion is on his side.

Dodd-Frank is a good example of something where WH had public opinion on its side but exerted little effort.

It is unfair to compare gay marriage to the public's sour mood of Wall Street. What is perplexing is that Obama wanted to do the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell after the midterm elections. There would not have been enough votes to defeat the filibuster. Fortunately, LGBT and progressive groups kept pressure on Obama. The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Don't was not cited as the reason why Democrats lost seats in Congress. Obama's strategic instincts on politics and policy turned out to be horrible.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo passed gay marriage by going after what Republicans care about most - campaign contribution. Money always trumps policy for the Republicans.

But the donors in the room — the billionaire Paul Singer, whose son is gay, joined by the hedge fund managers Cliff Asness and Daniel Loeb — had the influence and the money to insulate nervous senators from conservative backlash if they supported the marriage measure. And they were inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedom, consistent with their more libertarian views.

Within days, the wealthy Republicans sent back word: They were on board. Each of them cut six-figure checks to the lobbying campaign that eventually totaled more than $1 million.

Triangulation isn't an excuse to not govern. If Obama's big dream as a child was to have more Americans buy private health insurance then he should have become an insurance company CEO. In Obama's defense, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner and Eric Cantor have no interest in Obama passing any kind of legislative agenda. However, when Michael Steele defeats Obama's hand-picked DNC chairman Tim Kaine and McConnell is out messaging a speaker of Obama's skills then it is fair to point out there is a problem. When Obama does go on the attack, like he did against Paul Ryan and Donald Trump, his opponents fold like lawn chairs.

Update: Press Secretary Jay Carney tells the White House press corp. that Obama will not defend DOMA because he believes it is unconstitutional. Carney will not say if Obama supports gay marriage. Does the White House their position the President won't publicly support marriage that should be legally allowed under the 14th amendment. The White House position is a mess and will get attacked from all sides next year.

Q On another topic, last week the President spoke about gay marriage when he was in New York and he said that -- talked about how this has been the province of the state and that's the -- referring to what was happening in the debate in New York, he said that's the power of democracy at work. Does that mean that he also respects the outcome of democracy at work in California where voters rejected the idea of gay marriage?

MR. CARNEY: Well, I think as you saw in the decision we announced that we would no longer -- this administration would no longer be participants defending the Defense of Marriage Act because we do not believe it's constitutional, that it's precisely because of his belief that this was a matter that needs to be decided by the states. So without commenting on a particular other state, I think he was making that clear with regard to the action in New York.

Q Okay, but --

MR. CARNEY: But I'm not going to put words in his mouth applying to another state. I mean, you can analyze that, but -- because I haven't heard him say that. But obviously the DOMA decision -- what he said in New York was about his belief, our belief, that this is a matter that states should decide.

Q And the central argument in the challenge to Proposition 8 by supporters of same-sex marriage rights is that this isn't something that should be decided state by states, in fact, that there are federal rights involved. So would he reject --

MR. CARNEY: Well, the President very strongly supports equal rights and he's -- we've been -- he's made that clear as well, and he said it again in New York at the event that you're discussing. So I'm not going to --

Q But I'm referring to the --

MR. CARNEY: I don't really have a lot I can say about Proposition 8 with regards to what the President said last week. You know, I don't -- I'm not willing to go to what the President didn't discuss. I can talk about what he did discuss.

The Cost of Mubarak's Greed

Where do dictators do their banking? The answer is Switzerland.

GENEVA, Switzerland, Feb. 20 (UPI) -- The Swiss foreign ministry says it has located bank accounts worth millions of dollars associated with ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak stepped down Feb. 11 amid enormous public demonstrations calling for an end to his 31 years of autocratic rule. The interim military government then made a call among Arabic countries to freeze his assets, The New York Times said.

Switzerland was not formally asked to identify or freeze any holdings, but did so on its own, the newspaper said.

Mubarak and his family are estimated to have a $40 billion to $70 billion net worth. Under Egypt law foreign businesses are required to give a 51 percent stake to an Egypt citizen. Often that is Mubarak or one of his cronies. Mubarak got rich while many of his people lived in poverty. Tas has been in Egypt and describes how poverty is spreding in the country.

Similarly, if you go around the outskirts of Cairo, poor neighborhoods are spouting up -- very similar to shantytowns. Jobs in Egypt are in its cities, and the major city is Cairo. But even when you goto Alexandria, there is the rich tourist area near the Mediterranean coast, and the demographics of the neighborhoods get progressively -- and drastically -- poorer the farther away from the shore you travel. I've seen the neighborhood of Sayid Darwish's first house -- tourism dollars do not hit that part of Alexandria. Which, by the way, is only a couple miles away from the Sheraton.

To quote James Carville, "It's about the economy, stupid." People want to work and earn a decent living, whether it is the United States and Egypt. People can only take living in subhuman conditions for so long.

Tas on Obama's Tax Cuts Cave

Tas has a great rant about President Barack Obama caving in on the upper-income tax cuts. Tas explains how Obama could have protected small businesses and ended the tax cuts for those making above $250,000.

The thing that really kills me, though, is the Democrats complete ignorance to how the tax code is being used. Killing Bush's tax cut on the upper 2% of income earners would have adversely effected a lot of small businesses, since small business owners declare much of their business profits as personal profits. It's cheaper to run a business that way. All the Obama administration had to do (and they've had two fucking years to fucking do this!) is say, "Here's the new small business tax -- it's exactly the same as their current tax rate." Pass that, then revoke the Bush tax cut for the non-small business 2% of income earners. And there you have it -- Obama could claim he protected small businesses AND made good on a campaign promise. I mean, is this shit really that fucking difficult? Hello, McFly? Hello, competency? Hello, SPINE?!

What galls me the most is Obama's total lack of leadership adding to instability in the economy. I know liberals make fun of this, but instability really is a factor. Until tonight, I didn't know what tax bracket I'd be in a mere three weeks from now -- nor did millions of small business owners, who were wondering if it's safe to make purchases to invest in their businesses. But Health Care "Reform" adds extra business instability since nobody knows what health coverage prices will balloon to next year. All this instability is due to Obama waiting way too long to decide what to do with the Bush tax cuts; and caving into GOP demands on Health Care Reform, thus forcing through a craptacular bill.

I maintain that Obama is not a policy wonk. The Affordable Health care Act does not stop long-term increases in insurance premiums. If Obama actually understood the tax code he could have positioned himself as a champion of small businesses and put the Republicans on the defensive. The health care bill was a neoliberal wet dream about how Democrats can be corporatist and provide health care coverage. Neoliberals would never back universal government health care. They hate the Canadian health care system as much as Republicans.

Quantitative Easing

Paul Krugman wrote a blog post claiming people protested too much about inflation.

And for those who insist that we need to look at inflation in stuff like gasoline, bread, and milk: well, the BLS has convenient average price data, so let’s compare some of those prices to what they were, say, three years ago, when Bush was in the White House and all was well with the world. Over those three years, the price of gasoline has soared by … well, actually gasoline is a bit cheaper now than three years ago. OK, but milk … actually, milk prices are down substantially since three years ago. But it’s true: bread has gone up in price.

Krugman writes that people weren't complaining about deflation lowering the cost of gasoline. That is because consumers were complaining about gas being high and they were right. I'm sure many small businesses were feeling the pinch of deflation. A mom and pop convenience store can see the prices of milk, food and other products decrease. This same mom and pop store owner still haas to pay the same cost for his lease, workers and utility bills.

Tas noted today that another unintended side effect of the Federal Reserve $600 billion is that it could raise the cost of living faster than pay increases. Right now it is an employer's market and there is less worries from companies that they have to give pay raises in order to retain employees.

Krugman is supporting a policy called quantitative easing. The Federal Reserve will buy more buying government bonds, private bank bonds and printing more money. The Federal Reserve needs a bigger cash revenue stream. In economic terms quantitative easing is a "hail Mary" pass. The practice is used after near zero interest rates have not received the intended results. The Federal Reserve have kept interest rates at historic lows and banks aren't lending.

Tas tweeted me that Obama is hoping that a cheaper dollars will increase exports from the United States. China has been so good at increasing their export business by devaluing the yen. If Obama is expecting exporting to take off and banks to start giving out loans before the 2012 general election then he is in for a big surprise. My attitude is much like Tas's. If quantitative easing works then great. Let's just not kid ourselves about the possible side effects.

Friday Cat Blogging

This is our very own Tas holding a lion cub. I had to beg him to post this picture. This photo isabsolutely amazing.

Channeling Travis Bickle

"At what point do the people tell the politicians to go to hell? At what point do they get off the couch, march down to their state legislator’s house, pull him outside, and beat him to a bloody pulp for being an idiot?

"At some point soon, it will happen. It’ll be over an innocuous issue. But the rage is building. It’s not a partisan issue. There is bipartisan angst at out of control government made worse by dumb bans like this and unintended consequences like AIG’s bonus problems."

Erick Erickson, saying there will soon be a violent revolution in America.

Bonus quote from Erickson:

Were I in Washington State, I’d be cleaning my gun right about now waiting to protect my property from the coming riots or the government aparatchicks coming to enforce nonsensical legislation.

The cause of Erickson's rage is Spokane County, Washington has banned phosphates from dishwasher detergent. Erickson claims "Washington State has turned its residents into a group of drug runners — crossing state lines to buy dish washer detergent with phosphate." Apparently, Washington residents need to get on a 12 step program to cure their collective dishwasher detergent fix. The more likely answer is people aren't going to riot over dishwasher detergent.

The body needs a certain amount of phosphate. However, overexposure can cause kidney failure, bone diseases and other complications. Most people would agree safe dishwasher detergent is a good thing. Erickson is willing to shoot someone to put potentially unsafe detergent back on the market. Erickson sounds more like Travis Bickle than a grassroots political operative. Erickson's rant is insane and should be treated as such.

"Listen, you fuckers, you screwheads. Here is a man who would not take it anymore. A man who stood up against the scum, the cunts, the dogs, the filth, the shit. Here is a man who stood up."

Travis Bickle, from the movie Taxi Driver. The Bickle quote doesn't strike me as different in tone from the Erickson post.

Update: Tas offers his take on Erickson's post.

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.

Blogging for the Media: Enter At Your Own Risk

Zencomix writes about his experience cartooning for alt-media. Editors gave Dave the pitch "we're giving you exposure." That translates into not being fairly compensated for work. News organizations are discontinuing political comic strips. My experience is Zen Comix brings traffic to Pushing Rope. The second most popular keyboard search on PR's Extreme stats counter is "cartoons." It makes no sense for print and web media to kill a popular feature.

Print media isn't losing money because of comic strips. The lack of advertising revenue reflects the economy and the quality of journalism. Columnist Harold Meyerson details how owner Sam Zell destroyed the Chicago Tribune.

During his first year in journalism, Zell has visited the city rooms and Washington bureaus of a number of Trib publications to deliver obscenity-laced warnings and threats to employees that whatever it was they were doing, it wasn't working. There was too much coverage of world and national affairs, he told Times writers and editors; readers don't want that stuff. Last week, the company decreed that its 12 papers would have to cut by 500 the number of pages they devoted every week to news, features and editorials, until the ratio of pages devoted to copy and pages devoted to advertising was a nice, even 1 to 1. At the Times, that would mean eliminating 82 pages a week.

Corporate owners placed less stock in quality and failed to keep up with the internet revolution. Rupert Murdoch made a mistake ending the Wall Street Journal's online subscription service. Given the WSJ away for free is financially foolish.

Tas wrote about a deal to blog for a media company. Disclosure: I am the blogger ("someone else who the semi-big media site wanted to blog for them") that was negotiating the deal. I don't have anything to add to Tas's post. Except that I stand by everything Tas wrote.

Word of advise to bloggers: want to find out if a media company is being straight. Ask for them to start detailing payment and copyright issues in writing. If they stall (which was my experience) then it is best to move on.

Side note: we won't name the media company. So don't ask.

Update: At one point, the deal was for the media company to host Pushing Rope. My goal was to recruit other progressive bloggers and make PR like AlterNet Peek. At a meeting, I mentioned Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos get ad revenue from political activist organizations. The web editor declared, "We aren't interested in Daily Kos or Talking Points Memo ad revenue!" A media company looking for more internet revenue told me they weren't interested in the ad market of two of the most profitable blogs in America. It took all my willpower not to laugh.

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.

Quote of the Day

"McCain = Change from Bush. Obama = Change from 232 years of American history, prosperity, and capitalism."

Patrick Ruffini, political activist and conservative blogger.

I'm real cynical about a former Bush campaign staffer talking about change. Tas is more blunt in his assessment of Ruffini.

Worst Viral Video Ever

I found out about Two Girls One Cup from Tas. (Thanks a lot, bro.) Warning: do not search for the video. George Clooney's reaction is reason why you don't want to see the video.

“No,” I tell him, “but it’s so disturbing. I saw it once and can never get it out of my mind. I can’t watch it again.”

“I want to see it.”

Well, he asked. After a bit of searching, I find the link. I click it.

After several seconds: “It’s not so bad,” he says.

Three seconds later: “Oh.”

Another two seconds: “Oh, my GOD! Oh, my God!! Oh, my God!”

Clooney puts his hand over his mouth like he’s going to throw up. He bolts from his chair and walks out of the room.

And no, I am not linking to the video. Facebook has a support group called Two Girls One Cup Ruined My Life.

Alan Keyes Speak: A Language No One Understands

Like eeveryone else: Andrew Sullivan wonders how the hell did Alan Keyes got in the recent Iowa debate? Sullivan points out this bizarre exchanfe Keyes had with the moderator.

“Ambassador, I’m going to ask you one more time. Have you personally been doing campaign events here in Iowa in the last few months?”

“I have had several campaign events here in Iowa, but I will not define those events as you do,” he said.

“In the last few months?”

“I don’t define those events as you do."

Keyes response reminds me of Bill Clinton asking for the definition of the word is.

Tas wondered if Keyes is even on the ballot in any state.

If Keyes wants to play, he's got a right to run, but to be elevated on the same stage with candidates who -- like'em or not -- have put actual effort into their campaigns is a travesty. Before Keyes debate, somebody should have asked "Where's his organization? Supporters? Donaters? Hell, does he have a campaign office?"

The fact that the American Enterprise Institute let Keyes and John Bolton through the door says much about the think tank.

Update: I confused Barack Obama with Alan Keyes in a sentence. I will make sure that never happens again.

To answer Tas's question: Keyes and Bolton both have been members of AEI. I doubt AEI got Keyes into the debate.

The Phillies Are Out

I officially have to eat crow. Tas and I have been discussing a Phillies-Red Sox World Series. The Phillies were swept by the Rockies. Ouch.

The Backlash Started

If there is one thing Tim Fasano can't be faulted on it is his predictablity. I knew he couldn't help himself. He would have to diss me for winning a Loafie.

I call for the annihilation of his ilk and the Blog Hussy compares me to Hitler and says I suffer from xenophobia..." fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign" ...NO I just have a respect for those that want to kill me. If they are strange or foreign that is their problem.

When Wayne Garcia wanted to go to press with an article about my blog, he emailed me, sent me his phone number and talked to me BEFORE he went to press. Mr. Hussy just went off and used pejoratives about me but not his asshole buddy Ahmadinejad.

Now he wins an award from THE Creative Loafing which will never run a negative article about Ahmadinejad (Hussy's love partner). They even mention my blog as they give him the award as if it was some Goddamn big deal to call out a CAB DRIVER!

1.) Fasano accuses me of being gay buddies with a man I never met. He fails to mention that I ran a negative post about Ahmadinejad's denial that gay and lesbians exist in Iran. It's interesting the homophobic Fasno would link me to the equally bigoted Ahmadinejad.

2.) Fasano is a Republican candidate for Congress. He is more than just a cab driver. Voters have a right to know that Fasano publicly stated, "I really believe the answer to this war is to kill all Muslims on Earth and destroy any written or computer record of this horrible religion."

Fasano kicked out the white sepremist talking points against Martin Luther King.

Was MLK really color blind? I know his followers are not. Why is it that a racial separatist holiday that can only really be celebrated by one race has been rammed down our throats?

Fasano is a amateur porn photographer who is a major misogynistic heel. One does not title a blog post "Show Me Your Tits!" because he is a fan of Blogher. He refers to female passengers as "bitch."

It must be torture for Tim to have his own xenaphobic words against him. He is left to run posts with no links to the accusations he levels. That shows poor debating skills. But then this wasn't suppose to be an exchange of ideas. Tim feels he should be allowed to say what he wants. If anyone disagrees with him, they support a tyrant. That spiel works on Free Republic or Little Green Footballs. Rationale people find that laughable.

One of the problems, I had with the Tampa blogosphere, was the hatemongering. I took Tim and Rachel Moran to task for advocating assaulting the homeless (Moran) and racism (Fasano.) The progressive blogosphere got wind of Moran's post and there was a huge backlash. Hatemongering was no longer something Tampa bloggers could get away with. Fasano misses the bad old days. I don't.

Fasano thinks Garcia "had nothing to do with that fucked up decision." Garcia is the political editor and interviewed me about the blog before I knew I won. It's doubtful music critic Wade Tatangelo got up during a meeting and declared, "Hussey must win a Loafie or I will go on a hunger strike." Then Wade mysteriously started singing, "The blood is on the table and their mouths are choking." If that's the case, I got to attend one of these staff meetings.

I wish we could treat Fasano as a joke. The sad truth is their are people that take his blog and political ambitions seriously. Fasano is against the Democrats increase for SCHIP, equates all Muslims as terrorists, cites Michael Savage and does not believe global warming is influenced by mankind. Fasano is a politician and cab driver that has been profiled in the media. He does not get a free pass.

Update: Fasano faces the fury of Tas here and here.

Tas Raw Story Article

Tas (aka Adam Dupont) has a Raw Story article about Ann Coulter.

Money quote:

"Obama is half-white and half-black," Coulter said, before comparing the Illinois senator to former President Bill Clinton. "Clinton was half-white, half-trash."

None of Coulter's controversial comments stops her from coming on cable talk shows. In fact, that is exactly why networks bring her on. It's not because of her wonkish policy knowledge. Coulter appearances are about ratings. She is the punditry equivalent of a shock jock.

Small World

I find a shock seeing who Taz, my former Loaded Mouth blog boss, is hanging out with. Hint: someone Amanda Marcotte will not be sending a Christmas card to.