it isn't a costume

rich iott, ohio teabagger, republican congressional candidate and goose-schtepping playboy, inspires yet another winning untergang redub:

not all losers created equal

on phil cave's military law blog CAAFlog a birther smugly asks:

it would be interesting to see what most of the posters here would be saying if, say, the president in question were GWB. and the issue was whether he was legit based on the election fiasco of 2000. you guys would be crying just like the birthers over the MJ [military judge] denying discovery. i think this case is the only time i have ever seen any one on this blog attack a defense counsel.

to which accusation phil effortlessly responds:

actually you have the answer to your question already. no-one who refused deployment orders while president bush was in office did so because they thought he was a usurper or illegal office holder. and clearly none of those on this blog did. the refusniks did refuse or go UA [unauthorized absence] did so on personal animosity to the wars and a belief the wars were illegal, not that the president was an illegal. so your question has been answered and refuted with fact, IMHO.

it seems that the differences between the losers of the 2000 and 2008 elections are invisible only to the losers of 2008. only one set of losers has filed and failed more than 70 eligibility lawsuits when in the same circumstances the other set filed none. only one set has flooded the coffers of gun dealers in every state when in the same circumstances the other set put gun dealers into a slump.

only one set has called for rewriting the constitution; only one set has called for military overthrow and violent revolution, whilst waving the long-discredited flags of long-dead seditious movements; only one set has obstructed all efforts to move forward and threatens to repeal all efforts they cannot obstruct; only one set is still throwing a tantrum two years running and childishly insists on holding the entire nation hostage until they "get their country back".

does it really need to be made any more clear that one set does not deserve to win?

the art of the backdown

former white house spinmeister karl rove sizing up delaware republican senate primary winner christine o'donnell (sep 14):

i've met her. i wasn't frankly impressed by her abilities as a candidate ... one thing that o'donnell is now going to have to answer in the general election that she didn't in the primary is her own checkered background. ... there were a lot of nutty things she has been saying that don't add up. ... why did she mislead voters about her college education? how come it took nearly two decades to pay her college bills so she could get her college degree? how did she make a living? ... we were looking at eight to nine seats in the senate. we are now looking at seven to eight in my opinion.

it does conservatives little good to support candidates who at the end of the day while they may be conservative in their public statements do not event the characteristics of rectitude, truthfulness and sincerity and character that the voters are looking for. ... but we also can't make progress if we have candidates who got serious character problems, who cause ordinary voters who are not philosophically aligned with us to not vote for our candidates out of concern of what they said and what they do. ... but look, she attacked him by saying he had a homosexual relationship with a young aide with not a bit of evidence to prove it. ... she had already previously spread the rumor. come on! look, she's got a chance now. let's you and i have a private side bet on this one. i think at the end of the day she has to answer these questions in a way that people of delaware find convincing or we are going to find ourselves with somebody who says conservative things, but doesn't have the character that the people of delaware want to have.

i believe the questions [about] why she had a problem for five years with paying her federal income taxes, why her house was foreclosed on and put up for sale, why it took sixteen years to settle her college debt and get her diploma while she went around for years claiming she was a college graduate," rove said. "i think a lot of voters in delaware are going to want more than she is offering to them right now, and we'll see.

conservative pundit michelle malkin:

might as well have been olbermann on MSNBC. the establishment beltway strategist couldn't even bother with an obligatory word of congratulations for o’donnell. ... rove came across as an effete sore loser instead of the supposedly brilliant and grounded GOP strategist that he’s supposed to be. expect more washington republicans to start sounding like tea party-bashing libs as their entrenched incumbent friends go down.

conservative blogger dan riehl:

... fox should suspend him and investigate. ... rove was working behind the scenes on behalf of the castle campaign to negotiate a deal that would have led to some delaware tea party groups not supporting christine o'donnell, while giving mike castle a pass. especially given his comments on fox news tonight, until this is resolved, it seems impossible to trust rove as an objective analyst. in terms of the conservative movement, we should not simply ignore him, but proactively work to undermine rove in whatever ways we can, given his obvious willingness to undermine us.

conservative bitch-slapper rush limbaugh (sep 15):

this is about conservatives taking back the republican party. ... who the hell are they, anyway, to anoint or disanoint somebody as electable or not electable? i'm in charge of that! ... that's always been my purview and nothing's changed. ... look at the petulant attitude. 'screw you — christine o'donnell wins, she's on her own. you're on your own.' ... we're going to throw in the towel here? why not fight for it?

christine o'donnell (sep 15):

[rove] is the same so-called political guru that predicted i wasn't going to win. and we won and we won big. so i think, again, he is eating some humble pie and he is just trying to restore his reputation.

anti-establishment teahadist karl rove (sep 16):

i, i don't like being called the establishment. i've supported marco rubio and todd tiahrt and a lotta — sarah palin and i tuesday night backed kelly ayotte in new hampshire, so before you start calling me that establishment guy be, be careful. ... i'm helping raise fifty million dollars, three million of which we've already spent on behalf of sharron angle in nevada so be careful when you call me an establishment republican. i'm not certain what that is. ... no, no, look, i'm a huge tea party fan. i've enjoyed meeting with people as i go around the country, i've got a great many friends who i've made during the book tour and leaders in the tea party movement. in fact, i met christine o'donnell when i was in delaware last december to do the sussex county christmas day, GOP christmas day party and in one of the interesting parts, i got to meet with about twelve tea party leaders from southern delaware and had a wonderful conversation. this has given us energy, enthusiasm and in many instances it's given us highly qualified candidates who are going to be able to take the fight to the democrats this fall. ... look, i, i endorsed [o'donnell] the other night, i said i'm for the republicans in each and every case. i mean, i was one of the first to do it. look, i'm also helping her. i've gotten so many people have written me an e-mail saying i'm irritated with you, saying what you said the other night, i'm giving her a campaign contribution, i'm sending her a lotta internet contributions. ... fox had one thing wrong on election night. we mistakenly said that the republican senatorial committee said they weren't going to send her my money. i called rob jesmer, the executive director of the committee, the morning after and said "why the heck did you say that?", and he said we never said that, in fact we're cutting a check, the maximum we're allowed to give her, $42,000, and we're raising money from the PACs, and campaign funds and republican senators, including cornyn and mcconnell to send her additional cash immediately.

giddy-ap (updated*)

congrats to christine o'donnell and her fellow triumphant teabaggers (and apologies to isaac asimov):

"there is an old fable," said hardin, "as old perhaps as humanity, for the oldest records containing it are merely copies of other records still older, that might interest you. it runs as follows: "a republican horse having a democratic wolf as a powerful and dangerous enemy lived in constant fear of permanent minority status. being driven to desperation, it occurred to him to seek a strong ally. whereupon he approached a teabagger, and offered an alliance, pointing out that the wolf was likewise an enemy of the teabagger. the teabagger accepted the partnership at once and offered to kill the wolf immediately, if his new partner would only co-operate by placing his greater speed at his disposal. the horse was willing, and allowed the teabagger to place bridle and saddle upon him. the teabagger mounted, hunted down the wolf, and killed him. "the horse, joyful and relieved, thanked the teabagger, and said: 'now that our enemy is dead, remove your bridle and saddle and restore my freedom.' "whereupon the teabagger laughed loudly and replied, 'the hell you say. giddy-ap, dobbin,' and applied the spurs with a will."

(* see "giddy-ap" from january 2008)

the art of the backdown iii

kentucky's spanking-new libertarian teabagging senate nominee rand paul opining on that part of the 1964 civil rights act that he would have tried to "modify":

well, there's 10 — there's 10 different — there's 10 different titles, you know, to the civil rights act, and nine out of 10 deal with public institutions and i'm absolutely in favor of ... one deals with private institutions, and had i been around, i would have tried to modify that. ... should we limit speech from people we find abhorrent? should we limit racists from speaking? ... i don't want to be associated with those people, but i also don't want to limit their speech in any way in the sense that we tolerate boorish and uncivilized behavior because that's one of the things freedom requires is that we allow people to be boorish and uncivilized, but that doesn't mean we approve of it.

rand spokesperson jesse benton:

civil rights legislation that has been affirmed by our courts gives the federal government the right to insure that private businesses don't discriminate based on race. dr. paul supports those powers.

finally:

i've never really favored any change in the civil rights act ... they seem to have unleashed some of the loony left on me.

---

update: greg sargent @ the washington post underscores why the question of what's in paul's heart is neither irrelevant nor a matter of sheer speculation:

i think people still aren't focused enough on the core issue at the heart of the controversy over rand paul's comments about the civil rights act. specifically: paul, the darling of the tea partyers and one of the highest profile GOP senate candidates in the country, cannot bring himself to say — clearly and unequivocally — that the federal government should have the power to prohibit private businesses from discriminating on the basis of skin color, religion, or national origin. sure, paul has now said he would have voted for the civil rights act. and his spokesman has clarified under questioning that, yes, paul believes the federal government should have this power. but paul himself can't manage to say this. he visibly doesn't want to say this. it's remarkable..

everybody's biatch

the problem with RNC chairman michael "i'm the de facto leader of the republican party" steele's brand of baldfaced b.s. is that it only works if his fellow republicans go along with it.

however ... when even conservative sanctuary fox news won't take you seriously ...

steele says he doesn't know who the republican 'establishment' is; cavuto responds: 'you, you, you!'
citing rand paul's victory in the GOP kentucky senate primary against establishment choice trey grayson last night, neil cavuto asked RNC chairman michael steele today about "dysfunction in the republican party" as the GOP establishment clashes with the tea party. steele denied tension, saying he told the tea party in kentucky that "if we have a situation where your guy prevails, we're backing that candidate, we're very much looking to supporting rand and if our guy prevails, we'd like the same support."
cavuto responded that tea partiers had told him that they view the GOP establishment negatively, leading steele to reply, "i'm telling you as the national chairman of the party there's no bad blood between the republican national committee and the tea parties." cavuto persisted, however, in claiming that there was tension between the "establishment" and the tea party. steele responded by saying that he didn't even know who the republican establishment is, leading cavuto to note that steele is the establishment:
cavuto:	michael, the tea partiers didn't like senator bennett.
steele:	that's fine.
cavuto:	fairly or not, they didn't like him. the established republican party did.
steele:	ok, that may be ... but wait a minute —
cavuto:	i'm just saying that for you to say there is no angst between the two ...
steele:	neil, don't mix. please stop.
cavuto:	there clearly is.
steele:	[exasperated laughter] please do not mix the republican party establishment — i don't know who that is, by the way —
cavuto:	you! you! you! you —
steele:	— with activists, i, no ...
cavuto:	— you! you! you! you! you!
steele:	neil, have you been reading my press lately? i don't think, the last thing you could say about me is that i'm part of the establishment.
cavuto:	well, that's true because everybody hates you. but, i'm kidding ...

heh, that neil ... such a kidder ...

(hat tip to think progress)

a birther platonic dialogue: the motion picture

finally coming to the small screen: barackryphal's classic inauguration day expedition into the mind of a birther, which answered the question "should president obama hang onto that tenner?"

go read the comments on the youtube page to see genuine birther trolls play to script. it's a self-perpetuating parody — they just can't help themselves!

stir of ethics

every once in a while, even faux news remembers what the rules are:

angry fox news executives ordered host sean hannity to abandon plans to broadcast his nightly show as part of a tea party rally in cincinnati on thursday after top executives learned that he was set to headline the event, proceeds from which would benefit the local tea party organization. rally organizers had listed hannity, who is on a book tour, as the headliner of the four-hour tax day event at the university of cincinnati. the rally, expected to draw as many as 13,000 people, was set feature speakers such as "liberal facism" author jonah goldberg and local tea party leaders. participants were being charged a minimum of $5, with seats near hannity's set going for $20, according to the cincinnati enquirer, which reported that any profits would go to future tea party events. media matters for america noted that hannity's personal website directed supporters to a link to buy tickets for the cincinnati rally. but senior fox news executives said they were not aware hannity was being billed as the centerpiece of the event or that tea party organizers were charging for admission to hannity's show as part of the rally. they first learned of it thursday morning from john finley, hannity's executive producer, who was in cincinnati to produce hannity's show. furious, top officials recalled hannity back to new york to do his show in his regular studio. the network plans to do an extensive post-mortem about the incident with finley and hannity's staff. "fox news never agreed to allow the cincinnati tea party organizers to use sean hannity's television program to profit from broadcasting his show from the event," said bill shine, the network's executive vice president of programming. "when senior executives in new york were made aware of this, we changed our plans for tonight's show." critics of fox news have accused the network of promoting tea party even as it covers the political movement as a news story. a spokeswoman for the network said that neil cavuto was the only host other than hannity at a tea party event thursday, stressing that cavuto was covering the atlanta event for both fox news and fox business channel, not attending as a participant. carl cameron provided news coverage of the tea party events around the country out of washington.

i am the tea party people

her voice is just the icing on the cake:

doocy:	... and joining us right now is former "saturday night live" star victoria jackson joining us from los angeles. good morning to you!
jackson:	[waves] good morning!
doocy:	so, are you ready to , ah, join the tea party people?
jackson:	i am the tea party people! we're, um, beginners at this political activism and it's all new to us and it's kind of cute 'cause we're shy, we hold up our signs like this, you know, despite what they say about us, i have never done anything like this, but we have to because the president is a communist!
doocy:	now, he is not a communist. but you just pointed out that you hold up signs and stuff like that and people make fun of you. what do you think about how some on the other political side have tried to diminish or, you know, or marginalize the tea party people?
jackson:	well, i guess they're afraid of, uh, the power of our passion and our numbers and, you know, you might not say communist, but i watch glenn beck and he's taught me well. progressive is the new word for communist, but it's the same goal as government control of everything and it's very obvious that obama is trying to do that and, um, i don't want to brag, but i sort of called it before he was elected and when i was on o'reilly and i said he was a communist and, uh, i got a lot of hate mail, but i got some that said i was a "prescient", which means a "prophet."
doocy:	yeah ... and i'm sure that was his "word of the day" one day. ah, victoria, what is going on in the country politically that you feel so, uh, motivated to go out to searchlight, nevada this weekend?
jackson:	well, for one thing, i am thrilled to get to meet sarah palin, 'cause she's my hero, and, y'know, we need, um, people who are not politicians in political office, people who don't want power, people who are honest, people who don't take bribes, people who don't lie and cheat and are tax-cheats — our government is all evil right now and someone's gotta do something! and i just can't sit at home and watch tv and bite my nails, so i think that's ...
doocy:	yeah ...
jackson:	... how all the other people feel. we gotta get out there and do something!
doocy:	i have heard a lot of that, where people say "i've never been political but now is the time to act." all right — ah, victoria jackson, who's gonna be in searchlight, nevada along with governor sarah palin this weekend. thank you very much for joining us live.
jackson:	[waves enthusiastically]
doocy:	[after an awkward, silent beat, waves back]

ow.

sarah palin speaks: "i had a dream"

(photo of gaylord opryland by kbilancini via flickr)

---

* see? it's all in good fun, y'betcha!

boston tea party '76

as the teabaggers put away their signs and flags and depart nashville, heady and spent after another uplifting weekend of patriotic self-affirmation, this weekend's display of racism, birtherism and homophobia recalls for the rest of us nothing recognizable of the historic boston tea party they claim to embody but instead the infamous boston bicentennial event immortalized on film by stanley j. forman and explored in prose in louis p. masur's "the soiling of old glory: the story of a photograph that shocked america":

some two hundred white students assembled for the march to city hall plaza. they attended for every reason, and for no reason at all: they despised forced busing, they hated blacks, they feared change, they followed their parents' lead, they welcomed days off from school, they wanted to hang out with their friends, they felt like they were part of a group. "we all wanted to belong to something big," recalls one teenage protester, "and the feeling of being part of the anti-busing movement along with the rest of southie had been the best feeling in the world." southie meant more than just the geographic place south boston. it meant neighborhood and community and ethnic pride. thinking of the long day ahead, some packed a snack. some made signs that said "RESIST." one student, before leaving his third-floor south boston apartment, grabbed the family's american flag. from the start, the anti-busing movement identified itself with patriotism. the activists saw themselves as defending their liberty against the tyranny of a judge run amok. the celebration of bicentennial events in 1975 and 1976 only reinforced the idea that they were carrying on in a tradition of american resistance; one anti-busing group had as its motto "don't tread on me." at rallies and boycotts, protesters carried american flags and frequently sang "god bless america." protesters against the vietnam war had often burned Old Glory, but not here, not among the mainly working-class irish of boston.

(boston herald)

ted landsmark was late to a meeting. a lawyer for the contractors' association, he was headed to city hall for discussions on minority hiring in construction jobs. dressed well on this mild april morning, he was wearing a favorite three-piece suit, and enjoying the brisk walk.

the protesters spotted landsmark and turned on him. one went to trip him up. a couple of them yelled "get the nigger." a few of the anti-busing protesters at the front jumped him. he was being kicked and punched. another unidentified black man hurried away from the scene. the flag bearer, joseph rakes of south boston, circled around and began to swing the flag at landsmark.

(patriots turned hate-riots: this photo won forman the second of three pulitzer prizes)

age 17, rakes had loved school but had stopped going entirely a year into the protests against busing. he worked part time to help his parents pay the bills, which now included tuition to send his older siblings to a private academy formed to educate those students who refused to attend south boston or charlestown high school. rakes' anger at a situation beyond his control was never far from the surface. he attended most rallies against busing and, on this day, he rushed into the fracas. some officers of the police mobile operations patrol and some adults intervened, but too late. the incident lasted maybe fifteen or twenty seconds. landsmark's glasses were shattered and his nose broken. he was left drifting, bloodied and dazed.

(stanley forman)

(boston herald)

some of the students who did not participate, indeed who recoiled with shock at the assault, trembled with disbelief. at the time, someone said landsmark must have provoked the attack by making a gesture, but an incredulous landsmark told reporters, "i didn't have time to make an obscene gesture." several years later, lisa mcgoff, whose family was profiled by j.anthony lukas in his pulitzer-prize winning book common ground, an examination of the busing crisis told through the lives of three families, informed lukas that she imagined that landsmark instigated the incident. according to lukas, mcgoff's first thought was that "this has to be a trick, because no black guy in his right mind would walk smack into the middle of an anti-busing demonstration." but it was no trick. landsmark told a writer who wondered how this could happen to such a well-educated and well-respected person that "i couldn't put my yale degree in front of me to protect myself. the thing that is most troubling is that it happened not because i was somebody but because i was anybody. ... i was just a nigger they were trying to kill." to another reporter landsmark said, "i was just out there walking to city hall in my three-piece suit. i was anyone." and suddenly, someone tried "to kill me with the american flag."

as the "browning of america" proceeds with irresistible momentum, crystallized for the fearful by the seating of a brown man in its highest office, "patriotism" becomes their last refuge.

quote of the day

charles blow @ the new york times:

the attack on the republican establishment by the tea party folks grabs the gaze like a really bad horror flick — some version of "hee haw" meets "28 days later".

farewell to summer

observing 9/12

matt yglesias @ thinkprogress:

as we know, back in november most people voted for barack obama. most people voted for a democratic house candidate. and most people voted for a democratic senate candidate. today, most people prefer obama’s approach to the approach of congressional republicans. but this is a very large country. and a large minority of the population is out of step with the views of the minority [sic: matt meant "majority"]. you’ve got your anti-abortion guys, your tenthers, your birthers, your medicare-hating congressmen, etc. something called the ayn rand center for individual rights is among the sponsors of the rally. and so, fine, there are a lot of people with far-right political opinions. but the idea that this is actually some kind of response to specific things barack obama has done is pretty off-base. it’s just the usual suspects getting fired up.

mark mckinnon @ the washington post:

mark mckinnon, a former adviser to sen. john mccain (ariz.) and other republicans, said there is an "opportunity for republicans" to tap into legitimate fears about an overreaching federal government. but he said that "right-wing nutballs are aligning themselves with these movements" and are dominating media coverage. "it's bad for republicans because in the absence of any real leadership, the freaks fill the void and define the party," mckinnon said.

alex pareene @ gawker:

on 9/12, people in new york (and DC) did not feel as "great" as glenn beck. they just felt like shit. they felt scared and confused and depressed ... and only an idiot or an actual terrorist would want to always feel like it was 9/12/01. and eight years later, normal people, with brains and souls, have decided that some emotional distance from that disaster is healthier and wiser than trying to recapture the dread. so thank fucking christ that the commander in chief is no longer subjecting the nation to death porn. no, this year it’s limited to a nutty little cult leader on basic cable who is encouraging his radicalized band of fanatical followers to invade the cities where the tragedy actually happened in order to shock the populace back into fear. glenn beck is an actual terrorist, and the people attending his rally in DC tomorrow are al-qaeda in america.

(art by rottenart @ daily kos)

update: reader feedback

sigh.

i'll type s-l-o-w-l-y so even hillary can understand.

you said that he is on "basic cable"....are you saying that FOX news is "basic cable"...just asking. i mean, what does that even mean???

1) alex pareene said "basic cable". i'm quoting him.

2) basic cable = tv networks "generally transmitted without any scrambling or other special methods and thus anyone connected to the cable tv system can receive them". l-i-k-e f-o-x n-e-w-s.

GLENN HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE 9/12 MARCH!!! it was put together by a completely different group of people who told glenn about it.

from glenn beck's the912project.com:

9/12 SATURDAY – FINAL UPDATE – MORE NEW STATES & EVENTS FOR 9-12-09 ... GLENN WILL BE ANCHORING THE COVERAGE OF 9-12 EVENTS, LIVE ON FOX NEWS ... SEPTEMBER 12, 2009 FROM 1-3PM Eastern time. many have asked about the event in washington dc on 9-12, here are a couple links to help you find out more information from the people who have organized the event and are helping people find the best way to participate. ... HOW DO I FIND A LOCAL GROUP OR EVENT? we have tried to list, by state, every single 9-12 event that we know about. we may have missed one so please share your information with us. you can also look online here. if you cannot go to DC — there are probably events happening CLOSE TO YOU. glenn has always suggested using meetup.com to find like-minded souls in your area and we also suggest looking there for local events that are not listed below. get off the keyboards and on your feet. ... HERE ARE THE LOCAL EVENTS WE HAVE HEARD ABOUT FOR SATURDAY 9-12-09 (SORTED BY STATE, ALPHABETICALLY) [etc etc ]...

"nothing to do with it" must not have anything to do with sponsoring, organizing, promoting and covering it. glad you helped clear that up.

thanks for visiting my little stake on the intertubes. it's nice to have fans, even if some of them are m-o-r-a-n-s.

read arguing with idiots. read common sense. read SOMETHING.

please, hillary, watch something besides glenn beck. a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g.

tough times for teabaggers

the meme that keeps on giving: pundit david gergen mulls over republican woes, but cnn anchor anderson cooper gets to the nut of their problems ...

gergen:	... this happens to a minority party after it's lost a couple of bad elections. but they're searching for their voice.
cooper:	it's hard to talk when you're teabagging.
gergen:	[after a beat] hrruheh heh! heh! heh! heh! heh! heh ... !

quote of the day

msnbc news anchor david shuster, on last night's countdown, delivers a nuclear wedgie to tomorrow's fox news cross-country "tea party" tax protests — can you count the puns? answers below (no peeking!)

if you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you’re gonna need a dick armey.

1) mouthpieces 2) going nuts 3) whipped out 4) toothless 5) full-throated 6) tongue-lashing 7) lick government spending 8) in a nutshell 9) firm support 10) tight-lipped 11) up-close and personal taste 12) dick armey