This is a Test of the Right-Wing Troll Notification System

Way to go, Rocky Mountain Mike!

In Case You Missed It: National Review Alters Obama Photo "Abortion" Signs

Yeah, their signs didn't really say, "ABORTION."
Image from source, JimRomensko.com.

While right-wingers complain that every single media outlet except for FOX "News" and right-wing talk radio is horribly, liberally biased, we keep finding evidence that their side is the guilty one when it comes to skewing the truth. We've had selective Obama quotes in Romney ads. We've had very dodgy "quotes" and "facts" in Karl Rove's (and others') SuperPAC ads. We've had out-of-context quotes turned into the overriding slogan of the Republican National Convention: "You didn't build that!" And, we basically have an entire right-wing bubble running against a cartoonish, exaggerated, alternate-reality version of President Obama.

That alternate version is far more literal when it is presented as the real version, as it was in this National Review cover.

[Excerpt]

National Review: By the way, our Obama cover was altered

Todd Sumlin writes: “I am a photographer at The Charlotte Observer. I was on the photo platform directly behind the President at the Democratic National Convention. Attached is a photo from that same angle. As you can see, the posters the North Carolina delegates are holding were changed from ‘Forward’ to ‘Abortion.’. . .” 

Read more at: JimRomensko.com

Right-Wing World: Republicans Still Believe Iraq Had WMD

Sigh. Sad. And so, so dumb.

[Excerpt]

Thanks alot, Colin. Image from source.

Yes, Iraq Definitely Had WMD, Vast Majority Of Polled Republicans Insist

How misinformed are Republicans about world affairs? If presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney's assertion that Russia is "without question our number one geopolitical foe" is any indication, then the answer would appear to be very. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Right-wing World: Fast & Furious, Dragged from the Fringe to the Capitol

For a long time, I've seen and heard the right wing going bonkers over "Fast & Furious," a failed so-called "gunwalking" program, started under the Bush administration, and continuing under Obama. Now, when it comes to law enforcement programs gone bad, ending in deaths of some people, I say investigate. Go for it. Get to the bottom of it, and make sure that stuff doesn't happen again.

But this isn't really about that. The right's desire is to turn Fast & Furious into a Watergate-level scandal. And it's also an incoherent conspiracy theory, in which Obama is going to take all of your guns away, after turning public sentiment against them, by letting them get into the wrong hands. Or something. It's moved from a very hinky, conspiracy theorist blogger named Michael Vanderboegh, all the way up to the House of Representatives, and Congressman Derrell Issa (a guy with his own problems with guns and whatnot).  Anyway, if it's all Greek to you, maybe this will help. It's (again) Rachel Maddow, and (again) kind of lengthy, but it is interesting, entertaining, and you might at least get an inkling of what your crazy FOX-watchin' uncle is going on about.

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

Right-wing World: Second Scariest Email Ever

I was cycling through my email box this past evening, and what pops up, but the scariest collection of humans--the ones I recognize, mind you--ever in one photo (particularly after I clicked it and it expanded). Don't get me wrong, I have no negative opinion about Tim Tebow. As with Jesus, I am much more leery of his followers. And I think it will be hilarious to watch the rest of those heads explode if Tebow should ever come out of the closet (just a hunch, but I'm often right!). Otherwise, this is a frightening collection of scary, scary people. The former leader of this group, The Christian Coalition of America, was Pat Robertson. He used to seemingly pray that God would wipe out sinners with tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes. I think God could do a lot more good hitting this convention!

Glenn Beck (crazy), Jedediah Bila (no idea), Sarah Palin (also too), Mark Levin (apparently a comic book supervillain) Rush Limbaugh (glamor shot), David Limbaugh (coattail rider), Matt Drudge (closet case allegedly!), Larry Elder (who?), Erick Erickson (who whoerson?), Michelle Malkin (horrid), Ed Morrissey (dunno), Tammy Bruce (quisling), Newton LeRoy Gingrich (pantload), Mary Katherine Ham (mmm, ham!), Sean Hannity (moron), Rick Perry (oops), Karl Rove (turdblossom), Thomas Sowell (ugh), Hugh Hewitt (ugh ugh), James Hirson (hack), Mike Huckabee (goober), Tim Tebow (hail, mary!), Fred Thomson (very tired) and Brad Thor (The Mighty Thor! Spare this one, Jeebus!)

Source: CCA

Incidentally, this was my scariest email ever: Scariest E-Mail EVER: Karl Rove is Following Me!

Right Wing Goes Bananas Over Obama's "Forward." Slogan

So this is how things work in the internet age. A candidate that "your side" is against says or does something. You must oppose it, even if there isn't anything particularly wrong with it. So, create a Wikipedia page that makes a bunch of crap up, and presto! There's your source! And then every article about it links to other articles about it, until it appears there's something to it!

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

Conservative Word of the Day: "Thug"

Why "thug?" Here's why. . .

She's not wrong.

"If you turned on Fox News today, you’ll see the word “thug” repeated so often that you’ll think you’re watching a gangsta rap retrospective on MTV2. Between Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Karl Rove, the rightwing echo machine is throwing the word “thug” around more than Tupac, Biggie, and Trick Daddy rolled into one. 

From RandiRhodes.com

Why “thug”? Because terms like “bully” just don’t have that extra zing of racism that the rightwing wants. The way they’re using “thug,” it’s a racial slur, and a vicious one at that. They shouldn’t even be allowed to say the word “thug” out loud. It should be called the “T-word.” And when Karl Rove uses the term, it definitely becomes a racial slur. Of course, that’s true of an awful lot of words." 

-- Randi Rhodes

Right Wing World: Is Conservatism a Mental Disorder?

There's a really nasty, awful, almost impossible to listen to right-wing talk show host named Michael Savage. Well, actually, his name is Michael Weiner, but that beside the point. This odious fellow has a saying (and a book, and billboards) that goes, "Liberalism is a mental disorder." As a liberal, I don't think so, but I wouldn't, would I? One thing I do know, is that the most strident ideologues are often suffering from an extreme case of projection. They accuse their imagined enemies of precisely what they themselves are guilty of.

So, are conservatives mentally ill? Not all, certainly. But how does one argue passionately for their cause, when their cause is so very, very often wrong? The excerpted article below is written by a more competent author than myself, and he makes an excellent case. Read on. . .

[Excerpt]

At this point, being a conservative isn't a political philosophy, it's a personality disorder




Dear Conservatives, all of your ideas, when practiced, result in Epic Fail. Drill baby drill, BP Oil Spill. Let the banks get Too Big To Fail and police themselves, massive bank collapse. Teach abstinence only, teen pregnancies go up. Cut taxes for the rich while waging war, create a massive deficit. Trust me, I could go on. Your political philosophy is a joke, a tiresome reel of you as Sideshow Bob stepping on rakes, yet no matter how hard your ideas fail you insist that it is only your leaders who fail the ideas, so you have doubled down on stupid and insisted that by being really, really conservative, this time its' going to work, seriously. Modern day conservatives are trying as hard as they can to bang a square peg through a round hole, but don't even get me started on Marcus Bachmann. . .

Read more at: Daily Kos

Every Sperm is Sacred Amendment Introduced in "Personhood" Bill

I'm going to say this without equivocation. "Personhood" bills are stupid. I understand that abortion is a contentious issue. I don't quite understand why it fires people up quite so intensely, but I'm pretty sure that the so-called "pro-life" side of the issue is somewhat delusional.

And that's not to pick on them, at least not exclusively. Right-wing world is a fairly delusional place in many areas, some of which have nothing to do with abortion. For example, the right has invented a version of President Obama that bears no resemblance to the real guy. I think they're going to be surprised when Mitt Romney has to run against the genuine article. I digress, back to abortion. The right seems to think that liberals just lo-o-o-ve abortion. They think we get all giddy, and dance a happy dance every time Planned Parenthood's cash register dings. Yeah, not so much.
[Story continues below]



Nobody loves abortion. Everyone wants it to happen less. Nobody loves partial-birth abortion, and there isn't any sane person I've heard who'd want it available except in very extreme circumstances. This really isn't my issue, so I'm not sure where the line between fetus and baby is. Fortunately, it isn't up to me, and I'll never be in a situation where I have to ponder it very hard. But I know an acorn isn't an oak tree, and I know that a "baby" doesn't exist in the first several days. But in their zeal to end all abortion, and define the joining of egg and sperm as a full-fledged baby, the pro-lifers have gone off the deep end.

With these "Personhood" bills, the right is going several steps too far. And people aren't going for it. They've been a dismal failure, even in red states. But they keep trying. More people need to know that these laws effectively outlaws many types of birth control isn't by accident. It's by design. The anti-abortion crowd has a huge contingent that wants to end contraception by law. No joke.

So, how do you battle this kind of insanity, and manage to inject some humor? Monty Python, naturally.

[Excerpt]

Dem state senator adds ‘Every sperm is sacred’ clause to ‘personhood’ bill

A pro-choice Democratic legislator has taken a novel approach to fighting an Oklahoma “personhood” bill. According to the blog Jezebel, State Senator Constance Johnson of Oklahoma City has introduced a measure that calls to mind the famous Monty Python “Every Sperm is Sacred” sketch from the 1983 film “The Meaning of Life. . .”

Read more at: Raw Story

Jobless Rate at 3-Year Low

Less of this would be a good thing! Image from Reuters

A lot of the "facts" you hear from right-wing world are at best, not facts, or at worst, lies. For instance, the tea party sprang up--immediately after Barack Obama's inauguration day, don't forget--allegedly becaused they were Taxed Enough Already. They claimed it had nothing to do with the fact that Obama was black, it was about objections to his policies. Even though he didn't have any yet. Even though his campaign promises were to not raise taxes on anyone making $250K or less. And as far as I know, he didn't. I'm sorry, taxes on cigarettes and tanning beds are just too stupid and to ridiculous to bitch about. Oh wait, I forgot we were talking about the tea party here.

Anyway, that's just one, "Obama's raising taxes!" Put that in there with "The stimulous didn't create one job." "Government can't create jobs." "Obama is from Kenya, and has a fake birth certificate, and anyway, his parents weren't both citizens. . yeah!" "Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme!"
Well, I guess to all of those you can add, "Obama's ruining economy, causing unemployment to soar!" Nope.

[Excerpt]


Unemployment near three-year low

U.S. employment growth accelerated last month and the jobless rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.5 percent, the strongest evidence yet the economic recovery is gaining steam. . .

Read more at: Reuters

Newt Gingrich: Kids, Get to Work!

Am I the only one that remembers this
stuff from school?

Do you remember social studies class? I don't remember all of it, but some of the stuff that sticks with me has to do with the late 1800s and early 1900s. I remember the pictures of tenement apartments. Crowded living, dirty people, unsafe factories, and child labor. This, along with corporations run wild, robber barons and no safety regulations, all were considered a bad thing.

So, why do we have one political party--including in this case, presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich--ready to take us back to that squalid time?





[Excerpt]


Gingrich Calls Child Labor Laws ‘Stupid’, Wants To Replace Janitors With Poor Kids



In an anti-government diatribe that would be funny if he weren’t serious, GOP presidential candidate New Gingrich told a crowd at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government yesterday that child labor laws are “tragic” and “stupid” and have “done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy.” In a proposal that he freely admitted was “extraordinarily radical,” he called for firing all school janitors and replacing them with poor students. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Captain Obvious: Another Study Shows Ignorance of FOX "News" Viewers

What's it going to take to get people to turn off that ridiculous channel? Scratch that, it's pointless to try. I spent a long time arguing on Facebook with one of FOX "News"'s target audience members over gay marriage, religion and theocracy. Needless to say, it was like banging my head into a wall. There is an impenetrable bubble these folks live in that will never be breached.

[Excerpt]

Fox News Viewers Know Less Than People Who Don't Watch Any News: Study 

The poll surveyed New Jersey residents about the uprisings in Egypt and the Middle East, and where they get their news sources. The study, which controlled for demographic factors like education and partisanship, found that "people who watch Fox News are 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians overthrew their government" and "6-points less likely to know that Syrians have not yet overthrown their government" compared to those who watch no news. . .

Read more at: Huffington Post

Hank Williams Jr. Compares Obama to Hitler

Every time a liberal entertainer says something politically controversial, the right wing predictably stands up and says in unison, "shut up and sing!" or, "shut up and act!" or whatever fits. But when a conservative entertainer gets political, they're all for it. Ronald Reagan (now sainted), Arnold Schwarzenegger (when he wond the Governorship of California), John Voit, Kelsey Grammar, even the tremendously batty Victoria Jackson are now right wing heroes. Now, Hank Williams Jr. may be bumped off the list. But I doubt it. When Ted Nugent made nasty, offensive references to Hillary Clinton, he stayed in the right's good graces.

The Real Right Wing Agenda: Gays and Abortion (Anti. . .Duh)

This is possibly the best political cartoon ever. This encapsulates a big chunk (25%?  33%?) of the electorate's priorities, astoundingly.

Source: VoenixRising

Right Wing World: Really, Really, Really BIG Government

When Republicans claim to be for smaller, reduced government, they don't mean it. Sure, they don't like social programs that help people. They don't want any of their taxes going for stuff they don't like (art, science, helping people).  If government is spending money on things they like (guns, bombs, wars), and supporting things they like (prisons, border fences), it's all good. But nowhere does the hypocrisy shine more than when you look at what they really focus on, as soon as they regain power:

- Abortion
- Anti-gay legislation
- Pro-religion anything
- Pro-gun anything

It doesn't matter that they got in by promising to do something about the economy and jobs. Those aren't their real priorities. And when they tick off those four things? They go deeper into crazy town to things like contraception. Yes, seriously.

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

Right Wing World: Free Republic Silent on John Ensign Scandal

If you want to see what liberals, progressives and/or Democrats are saying about an issue, you can go to Daily Kos, or to Democratic Underground. If you want to see what conservatives, tea baggers and Republicans are saying, there are a few places to go, like FOX Nation, Red State or Hot Air. But if you want to read distilled, hard-core conservative commentary, you can do no better (or one might say, worse) than Free Republic. FR is not for the faint of heart. Before you go there, dip your toe in right-wing talk radio. Watch a couple days of FOX News, especially Glenn Beck, Hannity and Huckabee. Then you might be ready.

Here is the mission statement of Free Republic (reduced in size due to length):

As a conservative site, Free Republic is pro-God, pro-life, pro-family, pro-Constitution, pro-Bill of Rights, pro-gun, pro-limited government, pro-private property rights, pro-limited taxes, pro-capitalism, pro-national defense, pro-freedom, and-pro America. We oppose all forms of liberalism, socialism, fascism, pacifism, totalitarianism, anarchism, government enforced atheism, abortionism [sic], feminism, homosexualism [sic], racism, wacko environmentalism, judicial activism, etc. We also oppose the United Nations or any other world government body that may attempt to impose its will or rule over our sovereign nation and sovereign people. We believe in defending our BORDERS, our constitution and our national sovereignty.
 
Free Republic is private property. It is not a government project, nor is it funded by government or taxpayer money. We are not a publicly owned entity nor are we an IRS tax-free non-profit organization. We pay all applicable taxes on our income. We are not connected to or funded by any political party, news agency, or any other entity. We sell no merchandise, product or service, and we offer no subscriptions or paid memberships. We accept no paid advertising or promotions. We are funded solely by donations (non tax deductible gifts) from our readers and participants.

We aggressively defend our God-given and first amendment guaranteed rights to free speech, free press, free religion, and FREEDOM of ASSOCIATION, as well as our constitutional right to control the use and content of our own personal private property. Despite the wailing of the liberal trolls and other doom & gloom naysayers, we feel no compelling need to allow them a platform to promote their repugnant and obnoxious propaganda from our forum. Free Republic is NOT a liberal debating society. We are conservative activists dedicated to defending our GOD-GIVEN rights, defending our constitution, defending our republic and defending our traditional American way of Life.


Our God-given Life, Liberty and freedoms are NOT negotiable!!


For God, Family, Country, Life and Liberty!!


If you cannot live with the above, fine, but keep your mouth shut about it while on FR. Don't fight against us on ANY of our deeply held beliefs!!


DON'T TREAD ON ME!!

Anti Life & Liberty trolls will be ZOT on sight!!  [Source: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2627159/posts]

And you'd better believe, they mean it. You won't last long if you sign up, and then do anything to go against that screed, like mention that gays are human, or that atheism is Constitutionally protected. And if there is an issue--big or small--that can make Democrats look bad, Free Republic will be all over it. It can be extremely speculative, with the flimsiest of "facts" to build the story on, it doesn't matter. They'll go for anything that boosts "conservatism" (in quotes, because their idea of conservatism strays so far from what it used to mean), and anything that tears down liberals, particularly President Obama.

So, I've made Free Republic a go-to site, whenever there is a big story that I think they'll be either shrieking in horror about, or having libertygasms over. They rarely fail to deliver the most hyper-partisan take on whatever the story is. But occasionally, they do fail me. While they usually will eventually get their shit together on a unfavorable conservative story, in the early days, they are often utterly silent.  I went there this evening to see what the FReeper take on the John Ensign scandal was. Surely they have something to say about it, right? No, not so much.

My best guess is, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levine, Michael Savage and the B- and C-listers must not have the Ensign story on their radar. Or if they do, it must be either very muted, or very muddled. The FReepers don't know what the "official line" is yet, so they're just clamming up about it.

Uncharacteristically, right-wing world went all wobbly about the Osama bin Laden shooting. For once, they must not have taken a meeting to decide what their line would be. Different talking heads had different things to say about it, different people to praise or criticize. It was kind of a mess, other than they tried really hard to avoid giving President Obama any credit. Eventually they settled on "Obama is taking all the credit for himself. He's arrogant. (And did you notice, he's black.)"  Right now, as it pertains to the Ensign story, I think they're doing what they usually do: waiting to see what Limbaugh and the rest decide the storyline should be, or better yet, hoping the story will die out and go away.

Bin Laden's Location Not Revealed by Waterboarding

Image from source, DailyKos

The right-wing world spin of the day is that torture works! But it turns out, not so much. And how disgusting anyway. . .I mean, if on the rare occasion, torture did work, does that make it right? We've usually as a country been on the side of prosecuting torturers, not committing it. It astounds me that we have a huge percentage of Americans who are suddenly for torture.

[Excerpt]

Waterboarding did not reveal Osama bin Laden trail

. . .Marcy Wheeler has much more on the torture timeline that disproves this ongoing effort to credit Bush's torture policies for leading U.S. intelligence to bin Laden. She writes at emptywheel. . .

Read it here: DailyKos

Birther Balloon Pops? Don't Count On It!



This is MY conversion of the PDF file
into JPG format. Click to embiggen.
(I hope it spawns whole new theories!)

 "Why doesn't he just release his birth certificate? If he did that, all of these questions would just go away." This refrain has echoed through the internets for the last two to three years, as a germ of a conspiracy theory took root. No doubt--no doubt--fueled by racism, the theory gathered more and more outlandish embellishments, all of which have been debunked (go here to see, if you don't believe me).


It was difficult getting through my work day knowing--after President Barack Obama released his "long form" birth certificate--that right-wing world was wobbling on its axis. I knew as sure as I draw breath that the release of the long form would not put an end to the issue. On the contrary, it has lit the conspiracy set on fire. They were of course convinced that it was a fraud. Immediately after the announcement, they were already saying "what took so long?" and, "he's had three years to whip up a forgery." And once they had a few minutes and hours to check out the actual document at Whitehouse.gov, they nitpicked and speculated like a 9/11 truther happening upon some new crumb of "evidence."

I'm a graphic artist, so I have a lot of hands-on experience with graphics files. So some of the speculation I see as mere ignorance, fueled by a desire to cling to the conspiracy theory. Some of it is flat-out stupidity being sold with unwarranted confidence. All of it is wrong. I can't prove that the document released today is the genuine article, but most likely, it is. The birther contention that Stanley Ann Dunham Obama travelled to Kenya late in her pregnancy--with no evidence--and then back again is ludicrous on its face when you factor in the logistics of the trip in 1961. The newly released document confirms known information (such as the hospital's name), provides a little new information (such as the doctor's name), and does nothing to further the birther cause. Unless you're a birther. To wit. . .

"Why were the signatures made so long after the printed date of birth?"

Editor: Because paperwork piles up in hospitals? My birth certificate is signed a few days late as well.

[There was a white copy of the BC released as well as the green one above] "The white one does not show the white marks around the lettering. They should have just released the non-green one as it does not show the forgery."

Ed.: Duh. White marks on white paper?

"Obama’s people have had over 3 years to FORGE 336 characters/certificate marks. Even for a D student you can do a bang up job if you have available a free 3 days per letter to work on forging a document. It needs to be scrutinized and verified. "

Ed.: You can tell he is serious, because he did the math!

"The letter “K” in box #16 doesn’t match the rest of them. Why no mailing address for the mother?"

Ed.: There was an old-timey machine called a "typewriter," and it sometimes typed out of line. Dummy. And the mailing address is missing because she didn't fill it in, obviously.

"[D]ocuments can be falsified...and I expect that the power of the POTUS has the available resources to make a damn good forgery."

Ed.: Well you've got us there. This one is unfalsifiable. Obviously, this guy would accept nothing as proof.

"Okay ... what’s up with the odd page curl and the fact that this document was placed on that green background?"

Ed.: Zero deductive reasoning skills here. The page is rolled because it is scanned/copied from a bound book. The paper is not distorted because the paper is new. It was a newly ordered copy. Duh.

"FAAAAAAKKKKKKKEEEEEE !!!!! Grab the PDF off the Drudge Report Zoom in to 300%. All the typing is surrounded by white space. All of the typing has white inside the letters. This is cut and paste. Do they really think we are that stupid."

Ed.: Yes, we think you're that stupid.

"This is at 600% In my limited experience with photoshop, that sure looks like a lot of dithering around the signatures (note none on the typed part in upper left corner)--IME that is a dead giveaway that somehow the image has been manipulated..."

Ed.: All along, the birthers have pointed to flaws in documents and pictures found on the internet as though they are high-resolution originals. They are not. They are digital scans, and manageable internet-ready resolutions. Compression (especially in JPEG files) causes pixelizations, distortions and other artifacts. "Limited experience with PhotoShop" is right.

"You're right. African is a nationality and not a race. Hawaii was a state then and the descriptor used would be "negro"."

Ed.: Possibly the dumbest contention of the lot. If BO Sr. put "African" for his race, then that is what he PUT. No mystery there.

"Rush mentioned that if you put the .pdf file in Adobe Illustrator, it would show multiple layers. I did; it does. That means they added the elements that show in the blue bounding boxes THEN FORGOT TO flatten the image." 

Ed.: This one sounds really good, unless you are familiar with the software involved. In some software, when you scan in a document, isolated bits of the image can be saved as separate elements. They are in effect "clipping masked" into their own graphic image. If you take the file into a program like Adobe Illustrator, you can separate out all of the individual objects. The fact that the elements here are so random (such as an "R" being on a different layer from the rest of the president's name) lends credence to this idea. It does not prove forgery. Even the element that is left behind--the green background with white voids where all of the copy was--lends credence. It also explains the white halos around the text when you zoom in. This is proof of nothing, except that they probably should have scanned it to a high-resolution, non-lossy TIFF file. But would that have stopped them from finding something?

"Also, the Certs are only one day apart, yet they show a completely different signature as Registrar, and obama's shows no signature for a Director of Health."

Ed.: Yes, because there is only one Registrar in all of Oahu.

Find much more here: Free Republic or Free Republic (and there are many, many, many more threads on the subject).


Of course, this is all academic. The real issue isn't the birth certificate, and never was. It was something on which to hang their dissatisfaction with the current resident of the White House. Feel free to speculate about what their real reason for that is, I've already given you mine. But the fact that they're picking these results apart and/or saying he's not legitimate regardless shows that the release of this document was pointless (to crazy people). It will settle the matter, one hopes, for the more sane among us.

Right Wing World: FOX "News" Attacks Obama on Brazil Trip, Other Crap

By now, it is obvious that it doesn't matter what President Barack Obama does or says (or doesn't say or do) that will garner a positive response from a big chunk of right-wing world. It's also clear that talk radio and FOX "News" work in tandem to set the narrative, and let all their followers know the storyline: Obama's dithering. He's too slow to act. He's not a leader. He didn't ask Congress! He jumped in without permission! Often this leads to contradictory storylines, sometimes from the same talking head. But it doesn't matter. Cognitive dissonance is par for the course.

But it just sounds kind of desperate when they start whining about the first lady, the kids, the extended family. The very notion that if the President is in South America, he's just tra-la-la on vacation, and not doing anything else. Obama's itinerary is probably busier on any given day than most of us tackle in a very busy month. It is evident that Obama has finally clued in to the notion that the right is going to hate him--and gin up faux controversies--no matter what, and isn't caring as much anymore. Good for him.

The vaguely creepy Chris Wallace, host of
FOX "News" Sunday, Image from Media Matters

[Excerpt]

Fox Attacks Obama's Brazil Trip As A "Vacation" Then Refuses To Air His Speech



Today, President Obama spoke in Brazil, highlighting that country's rising economic power, growing middle class, and transition from military dictatorship to thriving democracy. The speech capped off a visit meant to promote the United States' economic relationship with Brazil and the entire South American region, with the stated purpose of encouraging job growth. . .
 
Read more at: Media Matters

GOP Uses "The Gay" to Gin Up Their Base

I almost filed this under Captain Obvious. The GOP uses gay people to get their base to the polls in much the same way that evangelical shysters use it on their flocks to get them to open their pocket books. Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link.

[Excerpt]

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

Former right-wing gay Republican confesses GOP uses gays ‘to gin up their base’



David Brock, the former closeted gay Republican-cum progressive media watchdog, appeared Wednesday on Chris Matthews' Hardball to discuss the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and the creation of his new watchdog group fighting for gay equality, "Equality Matters. . ."
 
Read more at: Raw Story