Category: Blogroll

Rush’s Ego Almost Catches Up to His Waist

Trish
As Susie Green would say, “Rush, you fat f*ck!”

It would appear that Rush Limbaugh’s recent spate of publicity is going to his fat head. How else to explain Rush’s obviously full-of-himself offer to Pres. Obama to appear on his show?

Get real.

“If you can win at this, then come here and beat me at my own game, and get rid of me once and for all, and show all the people of America that I am wrong,” said Limbaugh. “If you take me out, if you can wipe me out in a debate and prove to the rest of America that what I say is senseless and wrong, do you realize you will own the United States of America?”

Rush, do you realize (in the words of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s Susie Green character), you fat f*ck, that he is already the president of the United States? He probably doesn’t see winning an argument with you (which you would never concede no matter how poorly you showed) as the green light to “own” the United States. More likely, he already had something like that feeling on Nov. 4, 2008. And again on Jan. 20, 2009.

Maybe you and Ann Coulter should go off somewhere together and see if you can plot even more outrageous ways to get attention and adulation from your loser fan base. Try a bright, shiny object. They’ll probably be transfixed.

So-Called Liberal Media Skews Obama Approval Ratings…Downward

Trish

That pesky liberal media is at it again. Here’s the headline from CNN:

68% Give Obama Speech a Thumbs-Up

Hmmm…so if 68 percent liked it, then I guess 32 percent didn’t, right? Wrong. Actually, almost everyone liked it.

Sixty-eight percent of speech-watchers questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey had a very positive reaction, with 24 percent indicating that they had a somewhat positive response and 8 percent indicating that they had a negative reaction.

Hold on, 68 percent were very positive, while another 24 percent were somewhat positive? So 92 percent were positive? But the headline says only 68 percent gave the speech a “thumbs-up.”

In fact, only 8 percent gave it a thumbs-down. But wait, there’s more.

Eighty-five percent of those polled said the president’s speech made them more optimistic about the direction the country is headed in over the next few years, with 11 percent indicating that the speech made them more pessimistic.

Eighty-two percent of speech-watchers say they support the economic plan Obama outlined in his prime-time address, with 17 percent opposing the proposal.

Yes, 85 percent said the speech made them feel more optimistic and 82 percent say they support it. And yet, we were told that only 68 percent give it a “thumbs-up.”

If that was the liberal media, I guess we can expect this headline from FOX:

Just Over Half of Americans Like Obama Plan

Republicans Rewrite the Tale of the Little Red Hen

Trish
Red Hen Republicans?

Once upon a time there lived a man in a big white house. He looked outside one day and saw many, many people suffering. “Hey everybody,” he said, “people are suffering and things are going to get worse fast. Who wants to help me write a stimulus bill?”

So Democrats and Republicans started putting together a stimulus bill but there was trouble almost immediately. “We don’t want to help everyone,” Republicans said, “we just want to give more tax breaks to our rich friends even if it wrecks the economy once and for all.”

Their leader, Michael Steele, even complained that Democrats don’t know how to create wealth. He was right that the best way to make some people rich is to let the people with the most money keep it all and borrow from others to pay for wars and private contractors and new bureaucracies that Republicans invent and give names like Homeland Security. That really does create wealth, just not for everyone.

So the Democrats pitched in to write the legislation and then the man in the big white house asked, “Who will help me pass the stimulus bill?”

Again, Republicans refused.

Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said, “…our efforts continue to keep the measure from being a spending free-for-all…Having been disappointed with both bailout measures, I believe my vote in opposition was appropriate.”

Democrats passed the package anyway, and the man in the big white house signed it and said, “Who will help me spend the money in the stimulus bill?”

Mica elbowed up to the front of the line.

“The timing couldn’t be better,” Mica said in a joint statement with [Democratic Florida Rep. Corrine] Brown, regarding $750 million in transportation funding in the bill, some of which is likely headed for the [Central Florida Commuter] Rail project.

“I applaud President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future,” Mica said in a separate statement.

And so, the man in the big white house worked very hard to get a bill to help the people, and even though the Republicans didn’t help him, he shared the money in the stimulus package with them anyway.

“He’s a socialist,” the Republicans said. “Why, he’s practically red.”

Bush Not the Worst President Ever?

Trish

A survey commissioned by C-Span has found that, despite Pensito Review’s opinion, George W. Bush is not the worst president ever. There were, esteemed presidential historians found, six even worse.

Ironically, Bush might have Barack Obama to thank for his relatively mild assignment by historians

This is hard to imagine, given some of the categories on which the former presidents were judged. For example, Bush ranked only 40th (out of 42, of course) on economic management. His score on crisis leadership — 25th — is especially surprising, since one of the survey’s leaders is Douglas Brinkley. Brinkley wrote The Great Deluge about Hurricane Katrina, which he witnessed firsthand as a faculty member at Tulane. And in international relations, Bush was only 41st. William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days into office, was rated worst.

Ironically, Bush might have Barack Obama to thank for his relatively mild assignment by historians to the ranks of bottom ten (36th, to be exact). The world began to hold America in a different light on Nov. 4, 2008 and relations only continue to improve since Obama’s inauguration. Had the prissy and hot-headed Sen. John McCain been elected, Bush’s failed policies would have continued and been allowed to run their faulty course. Instead Obama is reversing almost every Bush initiative, blunting some of the damage.

One other interesting note is that only four of the top ten presidents were Republicans: Lincoln (1st), Teddy Roosevelt (4th), Eisenhower (8th), and Reagan (10th).

Quote du Jour

Trish

“This town talks to itself and whips itself into a frenzy with its own theories that are completely at odds with what the rest of America is thinking. If you watched cable TV, you’d see our support was plummeting, we were in trouble. It was almost like living in a parallel universe.”

— David Axelrod (1955 – ), Obama senior advisor, describing how Republicans and the media keep mistakenly counting Obama out, most recently on the stimulus bill

Homeless Woman Handed the Mic at Obama Meeting

Trish

The extraordinary thing about this clip from Obama’s recent town hall in Florida is not his reaction to a homeless woman who wants, not a car or a park, but a kitchen and a bathroom for her family. No, the extraordinary thing is the fact that she was allowed in the room. Can you imagine someone like this being at a George W. Bush or John McCain or Sarah Palin — or any other Republican — event? And being on the front row? Could not happen.

Big ol’ h/t to Steve Schale.

Republican Blows Iraq Security by twittering About It

Trish

Hoekstra’s twitter feed

Just when you thought you could hold no more contempt for Republicans, along comes this bit of news: the former chair (when Republicans ran things) of the House Intelligence Committee breached security by twittering about a secret trip to Iraq — while he was there.

Security for the excursion was so tight that even the few media outlets that knew about it agreed not to report it. But that didn’t stop Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) from twittering away on the subject like a tourist at Disneyworld.

“Just landed in Baghdad,” messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets…

Not only did Hoekstra reveal the existence of the lawmakers’ trip, but included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page, until he suddenly stopped, for some reason, on Friday morning.

Hoekstra, like most Republicans in politics, has never served in the military. What he has done, however, is build a long and distinguished history as a dumbass. It was Hoekstra, after all, who erroneously announced in 2003 that (chemical) weapons of mass destruction had been located in Iraq. A few years later, in 2006, a web site he created, along with Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) was shut down after the New York Times reported the site was helpful to anyone who would like to create their own nuclear weapon.

Which might explain why he posted top secret security information for the world to read in real time.

Since it’s already a matter of public record, here are some of Hoekstra’s twitter dispatches, typos and all, delivered in just 140 characters or less:

“On the way to Andrews Air Force base.12 hour flight to mid east. Be back on Mon instead of tues. Votes mon. I’ll keep you posted,” he wrote on Feb. 4

In his last dispatch today, he wrote: “Moved into green zone by helicopter Iraqi flag now over palace. Headed to new US embassy Appears calmer less chaotic than previous here [sic].”

It does not explain what House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner was thinking when he included this moron on the trip.

Hoekstra is planning to retire at the end of his current term. We can only hope he won’t have the opportunity to pass along any other vital information first.

Email Your Senator. This Means You.

Trish

It’s not that hard to write your senators and urge them to pass Obama’s economic stimulus plan. There are only two senators per state, after all. I just sent this message to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.). I sent the same message to both, ignoring the fact that Martinez wrote the tax cut alternative plan.

Tax cuts are all well and good for people who have jobs and therefore, taxes to pay. For people without jobs, they’re a lot like on-site child care for non-parents — a great workplace benefit, for someone else.

Please support and help gain passage of Obama’s economic stimulus plan, and do it fast. We need jobs, not tax cuts, and we need new, green-energy and good-paying infrastructure jobs the most. Thanks!

Takes two seconds. Google your person and the word, “contact.” It will take you right there.

This is urgent, folks. FOX Snooze and talk radio are beating the drum, and there’s a rightwing flood of calls and emails pouring in. We need to rouse ourselves and let them hear from us.