Fighting the Tighty Righties

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This week's hot blog topics: "The Republican Party Has left Me"; a guy named Castagana against multiculturalism; Bush in Vietnam; V at the White House; and another Bush blames bloggers. All this and much, much more.

The Asshattery 2.006 Comment Generator

How else could freepers and assorted other wingnuts come up with the crap they post on rightwing blogs? Fortunately, Grebrook reads them so we don't have to:

GOP IMPLOSION - Blogosphere rage, Malkin, FR, LGF, Hot Air: All-Out-Civil-War

Has anyone been reading the right-wing blogs? Over at Hot Air, Free Republic, Little Green Footballs there is pure rage over the fact that the RNC is now going to be chaired by a Hispanic, Mel Martinez of Florida, who is ok with comprehensive immigration reform.

(snip)

Quotes:

"I'm scared and disoriented."
"It really is time for a 3rd, conservative party. F- the RNC."
"Ugh. The RNC has lost touch with its conservative base. So much for 2008."
"That's it. I'm starting my own party."
"Screw the RNC. I'm goin' home."
"Now I know how Zell Miller felt. The Republican Party has left me."
"Fortunately, there's the Constitution Party a waitin'! Join me in starting grassroots branches of it all across the country. Please. Let's send a message."
"The GOP does not like real conservatives. They are not party elite and are to be shunned."
"This news brings vision of a 3rd party closer to reality."
"I agree. Sometimes there's just that one little straw that breaks the back. I've had it."
"And now the Republicans pour gasoline on their train wreck..."
"This is a disaster."
"'08 disaster is guaranteed with this choice."
"I am SO ready for a new party..."
"The Republican party is a bunch of idiots."

Further Adventures In Asshattery: Will the FBI hang Chad?

Did you hear the one about the (alleged) Freeper arrested for (allegedly) sending fake Anthrax terror letters to (allegedly) liberal celebrities? ysbee (at Kos) has the story, the links, and the best set of comments on Chad Castagana, whom the FBI/Joint Terrorism Taskforce arrested this week and who (allegedly) posted on freerepublic.com that...

The future is not with the Liberals, not with the Multiculturalists (both hate America), and it is certainly not to be found in Canada!

Anyone else still trying to figure out how someone named Castagana could be against multiculturalism?

While we're on the subject of multiculturalism: wouldn't you think that someone, anyone, in the Bush White House would be able to identify the correct Vietnam flag on the day George W. leaves for the country he avoided oh-so-easily 35 years ago? Guess again. Kpete has the embarrassing details:

As Bush Goes To Vietnam, WH Website Displays The WRONG Flag

As Bush Goes To Vietnam, White House Website Displays The Wrong Flag

Today, President Bush visits Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, "looking to burnish his foreign-policy credentials." He's off to a miserable start.

Yesterday, the White House website featured a graphic with the flags of the three countries he's visiting on his trip - Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia. One problem: instead of displaying the Vietnamese flag, the White House graphic featured the old flag of South Vietnam. That flag hasn't been the official flag of Vietnam since South Vietnam surrendered to North Vietnam in 1975.

The display of the old flag is highly incendiary to the current Vietnamese government. NPR reported last year the display of the old flag anywhere in the United States - much less on the White House website - "could create tension amid warming relations between the United States and Vietnam."

Sad. Sounds like we need someone to set these "morans" straight…

STFU, Asshats!

What should Republican losers do? Bob Cesca has the roll call, along with their asinine antics, and some advice to Democrats:

Clearly Speaker-Elect Pelosi and the Democratic leadership have the daunting task of working with the White House to not only push through vital pieces of legislation, but they also must do so in a way that doesn't raze their chances for further pickups in 2008. It goes without saying that any misstep in the face of this Republican Party (and its media lapdogs) could spell disaster. So they have to play nice in some ways, but you and I are best served by remaining on the attack and never hesitating to tell those who deserve it to shut the f*** up.

Need proof that FOX is guilty of catapulting Republican propaganda? While you're at Huffington Post, be sure to check out the memo, written by the network's vice president of news, which some brave person smuggled out of the belly of the beast. We always knew this was going on; now, there's proof.

V Goes To Washington

What sends chills down a patriot's spine? And WTF are our children learning? From We The People:

As "V" and the videographer walked from one location to the next, he met and conversed with many people. About half of the people smiled; some said they had seen the movie. About half clearly did not know what to make of "V" and avoided eye contact.

Some people were interested in conversing with "V," including a group of 6-10 college age young people who were waiting in a line to tour the Capitol. During the conversation, "V" said he wanted to quiz them on their knowledge of the Rights covered by the First Amendment. "V" asked if they could name the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. Two or three immediately said "Speech." After a moment or two one said, "Worship God." "V" restated that freedom for the young man. Then another said "Guns." "V" corrected him.

That was as far as the young people could go in answering the question. "V" then engaged the young people in a discussion of all five of the freedoms and the four outstanding Petitions for Redress. The young people stayed with the conversation, expressing an interest in learning more, until they had to move along in the line.

Why They (R's) Lost

What do you call words and phrases which on the surface seem vague but in reality are meaningless? Give it up for DUer Wetzelbill, who nails it like a pro:

The point is one party cannot run on nice sounding words and phrases alone, while collectively screwing up the whole country and half the world. You cannot be "Strong On Security" while presiding over some of the biggest intelligence failures in history, and losing two wars at the same time. You cannot brag about "cutting taxes" when people are losing jobs, taking pay cuts, watching health care, tuition and utilities bills skyrocket. You cannot run on "Family and/Or Moral Values" when you have a string of corruption and sex scandals and their coverups rocking your party.

People sooner or later will call you on your bullshit. The simple fact is, Republicans sound good, but they can't govern for shit. Especially not the Bush administration, who is in a special class of dumbfuckery all by themselves. While Karl Rove was seeking to make a permanent Republican majority, solely with buzzwords, hate and smoke and mirrors, his anointed Boy Emperor was putting together the worst and most disastrous presidency of all-time. GOP clowns in Congress did little more than rubber stamp all of this monumental stupidity. It was pure power mixed with catastrophically terrible policy.

People can be tricked by words for only so long. Then they look around them and see that the emperor has no clothes.

That's what happened on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, The Big Picture explains Barron's mega-miscalculation on who would retain power in Congress:

Why was even the worst case scenario significantly off? I can think of two explanations: First, an analytical error in the overall, and second, an economic one. Bad theory was compounded by poor recognition of the facts. Other than those two small items...

Let's start with the theory. This is the classic example of one of my favorite analytical foibles: Confusing *correlation with causation. This is one of the most common errors of deductive reasoning and logical analysis we come across -- and one that can be easily avoided with a little forethought.

In the present instance, there is a presumption that the candidate with "the largest campaign war chest" will be the winner of the election because of that monetary advantage. There are at least three methodological flaws with this approach:

1) It fails to consider that the perception of likely victory is what may attract campaign donations to the eventual victor; It assumes a causative relationship where there may be none;

2) It ignores the advantages of incumbency -- in raising campaign donations, as well as getting re-elected;

3) Voters can and do hold incumbents responsible for current economic conditions - and those economic conditions are less than ideal;

In other words, the McTague Methodology gets causation precisely backwards: People donate money to whom they think will win, in order to secure official favors, legislation, etc.

As for "being nice" and "not seeking revenge"... Think Or Be Eaten has the recipe for dealing with the SORS (Same Old Republican Shit), which will work quite nicely on those pundit pappery cable shows:

What's all this sniveling, smarmy determination to be "fair to the Republicans"? What's all this chatter about "not treating them like they treated the Democrats"? Excuse me, but this is the perfect moment to kiss my butt. With both lips.

(snip)

One final point regarding Debate and Inclusion of the Republicans as the Democrats start whacking their way through the jungle of filth: WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? Who is it that they're supposed to debate with? We KNOW the neo-con agenda. It's why we kicked them out of Congress! They've got nothing to input, not an iota of valid ground to consider. THEY have burned their bridges. THEY have lost credibility. THEY have destroyed every last shred of trust. Anyone who still trusts them is a flaming idiot. There is no evidence whatsoever to show there is reason to "trust" them. Get a grip. This is serious. Washington DC needs to be scraped to the walls and sterilized! It's infested with criminals who are capable of more damage than this world can take.

Remember this blog post when R Sockpuppets spout that "Back To Reagan Ideals" crap as an excuse for why the very BushCo people they wholeheartedly supported got the boot. Somebody's got to go to prison. In fact, a lot of somebodies have got to go to prison.

It Was Bound To Happen!

Need a good laugh? Take a gander at The Right Was Right's Republican Boogeyman list of predicted Dem doings, guaranteed by wingnuts to be immediately implemented upon a Democratic sweep of congress. Here are the first 10 gems from the 25-point manifesto:

1. Mandatory homosexuality

2. Drug-filled condoms in schools

3. Introduce the new Destruction of Marriage Act

4. Border fence replaced with free shuttle buses

5. Osama Bin Laden to be Secretary of State

6. Withdraw from Iraq, apologize, reinstate Hussein

7. English language banned from all Federal buildings

8. Math classes replaced by encounter groups

9. All taxes to be tripled

10. All fortunes over $250,000 to be confiscated

Read the rest and consider how you feel about olive branches. But no olive branch for you, Michael Steele! Josh Marshall's TPM Muckraker has the 411 on Steele's outright abuse of Philadelphia homeless people on election day in Maryland... and now Steele wants to head the RNC? Frankly, this would be a great move... for us!

I Saw It On The Radio!

Liberal Talk Radio isn't just an aural medium anymore. In fact, for those of us constantly wondering about liberal talk radio's future, we can thank - are you ready? - Liberal Talk Radio, the blog simply brimming with news and features for those of us interested in the new blue wave of radio-based democracy. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you, LTRadio!

Take Time Out To Thank A DUer!

Many thanks to Shred for posting a pictorial evolution - of sorts - of a fallen Bush:

Bush went from...

...fishin' with Daddy:


Playing the guitar while comforting the afflicted:


Answering important phone calls:


To now this:

To DeepModem Mom for posting The New Yorker's Nov. 20th cover:


And finally, to Philosoraptor, for posting this:

trent lott proves the repubs are stuck on stupid.

To appoint this racist pig as the number two republican man at this particular time in history is mind blowing at the least, revolting at best, but, this is the party that's run flat out of ideas, which they claim of our party.

trent lott? Now? Why?

Stuck On Stupid. Perfect description.

Fuck-Ups Of Our Fathers

Finally this week, former President George H.W. Bush blamed bloggers for the "ugly political climate," which will surely hobble his dirty rotten scoundrel son, Ruprecht W. Bush. Think Progress has the transcript and the video. Sorry, GHW! Bloggers are only fighting back against your party's ponderously long chain of despicably dirty deeds. But thanks for playing. We have some lovely parting gifts for you.

Keep those great blog links coming and keep on fighting the tighty righties!

-- Delilah Boyd

[trogdor]

1. Michael Steele should get ten years...

...in federal PMITA prison </officespace>. So says Chuck Schumer about people who approve these misinformation campaigns. I happen to agree.

[DRoseDARs]

2. With regards to RWR's 25 list: Raise the MinWage to $25/hr? The horror!

I mean, seriously wtf? I for one wouldn't complain. Apparently these people would. "No, damn it! We want our employer to decide what a 'fair' wage would be..." :eyes: