Further and further away...

FRIDAY DOUCHE CHILLS Courtesy of MEDIA MATTERS DOT ORG and THINK PROGRESS This morning, on his nationally syndicated radio show, Neil Boortz said that Representaive Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) ." looked like a "ghetto slut. From MEDIA MATTERS:

Boortz said that McKinney's "new hair-do" makes her look "like a ghetto slut," like "an explosion at a Brillo pad factory," like "Tina Turner peeing on an electric fence," and like "a shih tzu." McKinney is the first African-American woman elected to Congress from Georgia.

More than a couple of rightwing assholes put their pennies in the bucket whilst opining on Jill Carroll's release:

• John Podhoretz of The National Review said: "It’s wonderful that she’s free, but after watching someone who was a hostage for three months say on television she was well-treated because she wasn’t beaten or killed — while being dressed in the garb of a modest Muslim woman rather than the non-Muslim woman she actually is — I expect there will be some Stockholm Syndrome talk in the coming days."


• Don Imus' sidekick, Bernard McGuirk said of Carroll: "She strikes me as the kind of woman who would wear one of those suicide vests. You know, walk into the — try and sneak into the Green Zone."


• Puffy, puffy Jonah Goldberg, also of the National Review said: "Jill Carroll is increasingly starting to bug me. The details are still murky and it’s hard to appreciate what she’s been through. And maybe JPod’s right about Stockholm syndrome. And maybe the media’s selectively choosing what to show of her statements. But it would be nice to hear her say something remotely critical of her captors, particularly about the fact that they murdered her translator in cold blood. I’m very glad she’s alive, but I’m getting a very bad vibe. More, no doubt, to come."


• Back to everyone's favorite creepy pathetic geriatric... McGuirk, the executive producer of Imus in the Morning said: "She’s carrying Zarqawi’s baby. No doubt about it," and "Did you hear her comments yesterday? She’s wearing the terrorist headgear. And everything points to that. […] She’s Taliban Janie, this girl. Taliban Jill or whatever. "


• Jonah Goldberg, responding to Think Progress: "Is it really so crazy to think that someone who hasn’t spent the last 82 days in captivity by Islamic kidnappers might be thinking more clearly than someone who has?"

That's your liberal media folks. Seriously.

Someone needs to stab me in the throat already. I can't take it.

I've spent all day looking at things I can't afford at CribCandy.com

Happy Birthday, Air America! Two whole years?!!?

Scary Mary in the Morning

I'd like to give a hearty FUCK YOU to the major network geniuses who decided Mary Matalin should offer up her whiny defense of Josh Bolton on ABC, CBS & NBC simultaneously this morning.

---Jan van Lohuizen, a Republican pollster sent a memo to Ken Mehlman warning Republicans not to distance themselves from their Dear Leader. The end was my favorite part:

President Bush drives our image and will do so until we have real national front-runners for the '08 nomination. Attacking the President is counter productive for all Republicans, not just the candidates launching the attacks. If he drops, we all drop.

Did everybody hear that? "IF he drops..." Whoa. I don't think it'll work. GOPers are trying desperately to drop the hero zero and get with the hero. Thus far, a hero has yet to step to the plate and resist his Bush's vision of constant war, everlasting debt and total incompetence. John McCain seems to think that Pandering to the knuckle-dragging "base" will get him the nomination even though "the base" has dwindled to quite the minority within the party.

They're totally That Guy that gets dumped by the girl of his dreams then continues to insist that she was a slut anyway and he never really liked her. She was just a piece of ass that caused him to lose all of his money and credibility. Right.

---In other, better news, Pandagon is up and running again, albeit kind of slow this morning. Amanda has a link to the Engine 2 fire station in Austin. Vegan firemen?!!

Ugh...more later.

Evangeliballs

John McCain recently made a speech at Jerry Falwell's college, marking the first visit ever to Liberty University, home of the Fightin' Flames. Flames? Um, Jerry....Freud called and he advised toning it down justa tad. Ever since McCain started cupping Bush's balls in public, he's aquired that weird There's-something-stuck-up-there look on his face. He gets redder, puffier and more GOP-like each day. Naturally, he's starting to pander to the minority of religious nutbags that hold unexplainable power over the Republican party. The McCain myth has been dispelled for years now. Last year, the Arizon Daily Star covered an interview that ran on MTV news:

"Let the student decide." With those well-chosen words John McCain summed up his view on the teaching of "intelligent design" along with evolution in public schools.

Even — or perhaps especially — with controversial topics, Arizona's ubiquitous senior U.S. senator has an uncanny knack for saying things his audience wants to hear.

I think Paul Krugman hit the nail on the head when he said:

He isn't a straight talker. His flip-flopping on tax cuts, his call to send troops we don't have to Iraq and his endorsement of the South Dakota anti-abortion legislation even while claiming that he would find a way around that legislation's central provision show that he's a politician as slippery and evasive as, well, George W. Bush. He isn't a moderate. Mr. McCain's policy positions and Senate votes don't just place him at the right end of America's political spectrum; they place him in the right wing of the Republican Party. And he isn't a maverick, at least not when it counts. When the cameras are rolling, Mr. McCain can sometimes be seen striking a brave pose of opposition to the White House. But when it matters, when the Bush administration's ability to do whatever it wants is at stake, Mr. McCain always toes the party line.

A straight-talker, he ain't, folks.

A quick gripe

I try to do my part from time to time in the form of donations to social organizations as well as political cadidates. This year, I've made small contributions to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Howard Dean and the DNC, Ciro Rodriguez, the Sierra Club, the ACLU and the National Organization for Women. I don't mind these organizations sharing my address with like-minded groups, but please, for the love of Christ stop trying to get me to pay for a fucking stamp when I'm sending you money. The envelopes provided are almost always marked as pre-paid postage, but there's always a little note that says you'd be helping the cause by dishing out the .39 cents. Today, I recieved a little packet from the Center for Reproductive Rights that had a little note (in computer-cursive) that read : "Your stamp will help ensure reproductive freedom for you and your family." I have half a mind to send them a book of stamps if it means solving the reproductive debate once and for all.

Le Vomit

Molly Ivins is pissed. Everyone else should be too:

Mah fellow progressives, now is the time for all good men and women to come to the aid of the party. I don’t know about you, but I have had it with the D.C. Democrats, had it with the DLC Democrats, had it with every calculating, equivocating, triangulating, straddling, hair-splitting son of a bitch up there, and that includes Hillary Rodham Clinton. Take “unpatriotic” and shove it. How dare they do this to our country? “Unpatriotic”? These people have ruined the American military! Not to mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world. Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs and hurricane relief. We can raise our own money on the Internet, and we know it. Howard Dean raised $42 million, largely on the web, with a late start when he was running for President, and that ain’t chicken feed. If we double it, it gives us the lock on the nomination. So let’s go find a good candidate early and organize the shit out of our side.

Down with fake Texans in '06!!

Kos posted a current list of Senators voting for censure:

Daniel Akaka Max Baucus Byron Dorgan Dick Durbin Dianne Feinstein Daniel Inouye Jim Jeffords Ted Kennedy John Kerry Herb Kohl Mary Landrieu Carl Levin Joe Lieberman Blanche Lincoln Barbara Mikulski Patty Murray Jack Reed Harry Reid Jay Rockefeller Chuck Schumer Ron Wyden

Actually, this is an old list of Senators that voted to censure Bill Clinton, because getting a blowjob is much worse than the Commander in Chief admitting he broke the law. Granted, there are all kinds of explanation and time-sensitive nuances to take into consideration, but it's still a clear indicator of the party's current misguided priorities. Democrats have to stand up and be willing to take a few punches and lose a couple of battles, even at the risk of looking weak. The news cycle ends eventually. By dominating the discussion and framing the issue, the GOP always wins. Always. And finally, in an attempt to further its reputation of sheer irrelevance, the New York Post published a late Valentine to Kate Moss's ex boyfriend, Pete Doherty, the frontman for Babyshambles and the former co-frontman for The Libertines. *yawn*

His most frequent accessories include a porkpie hat, safety pins, a lit cigarette and open sores oozing from his nose and ears - yet for a certain segment of downtown New York, he is the man other men most want to look like.

"He's an old-school romantic rock star, a rebel, and the more drugs he takes, the better he tends to look," says NME deputy editor Alex Needham...

Isn't heroin chic like soooooooooo over? Porkpie hats and safety pins?!! How very.

Fuckin' sick. I hope he dies and gets buried with the editors of the NY Post.

Results, not Rhetoric

*Yawn* I had the most fortunate experience of watching John McCain’s speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Instead of acting on his so-called “maverick” Republican status, he chose the safe route, crouching down to get a better angle at which to kiss Bush’s arse. More on the conference HERE. He spoke of the fantastic Supreme Court appointees that Bush put forth, and asked that the delegates vote for Dubya as a symbolic gesture of support. The AP reported that “McCain's nod to Bush gives the front-runner from Arizona some political cover if he fares poorly in the contest.” I don’t buy it. McCain’s always been a camera-whore, sticking to the Republican script time after time. If anyone were to take a look at his record, they would see that he not only toes the straight Republican line, he fucking leaps over it and lives in the far right side of the spectrum. He lost all of his credibility when he breathlessly supported Bush in the 2004 after Bush completely trashed him and his family during the 2000 elections. What a sorry excuse for a man. Bill Frist, the cat-killing, videotape diagnosing freakazoid won the informal poll. Trent Lott, speculating that Frist rigged the poll by busing in supporters, gave his unofficial thumbs-up to McCain, a man who sold his soul for his 2008 nomination a looooooong time ago. In the end, none of it matters. Everyone except for McCain thinks Bush is a jackass, Trent Lott is still bitter because Bill Frist yanked the Senate majority leader title, and Lindsey Graham still looks like a creepy baby bear.

Who the hell is Peter Baker?

Bush Weaves Rug Story Into Many an Occasion President Uses His Oval Office Floor Covering as a Metaphor for Optimism and Leadership The headline above was not pulled from the front page of The Onion. Peter Baker penned the aforementioned piffle. Who is this mystery WaPo writer, and why do I get the feeling that he would tongue-kiss the POTUS if he ever got the chance? A couple of my favorite bits:

"He loves his rug," said Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director. "I've heard him describe it countless times." Sometimes Bush describes it as a metaphor for leadership. Sometimes he relates how Russian President Vladimir Putin admired the carpet. Sometimes he seems most taken by the lighting qualities. [Fred]Barnes notes that Bush delegated [rug design] to the first lady. "Typical of his governing style, though, he gave a clear principle as guidance: he wanted the rug to express the view that an 'optimistic person comes here,' " Barnes reports. "The rug she designed is sunshine yellow." "If you walk in that Oval Office," Bush said in Sterling, "I think you're going to say, just like you know it, 'This guy's optimistic.' "

He seems most taken by the lighting qualities? He's like a fucking child...or a mentally disabled puppy. Bush's metaphors are soooooo very.

From Peter Baker's Hunting for Camaraderie With Shotguns and Friends Companions Say Pastime Gives Cheney a Timeout

Long before the shot heard 'round the world, Cheney took refuge from the burdens of leadership with an intricately crafted, Italian-made shotgun, Texas snake boots, a blaze-orange vest and the camaraderie of his fellow hunters. Stalking game birds through marshlands on horseback or from a truck, he has escaped the Washington political wars for days at a time. "Despite the blast of birdshot at Whittington, Cheney's friends described him as a careful, accurate gunman. He's 'an excellent shot,' Lott told reporters last week, adding mischievously, 'He never shot me.' Lott also noted that Cheney 'looks the part,' a virtual Field & Stream model in his hunting garb."

Gross. Peter Baker should take a chemical shower to wash the whore out. He should boil his body. He should get a real job working as a FEMA director or something. It's PRIMARY DAY in Texas, y'all!!!! The Burnt Orange Report will probably have the most comprehensive coverage of the big races throughout the state, and all RGV races can be monitored HERE, though nothing's up as of 10:08 am. VOTE VOTE VOTE

Tom Delay is aces!

Lobbyist's Credit Card Bill Outs DeLay Trip

The paper trail seems so obvious it makes you wonder whether anyone ever worried about getting caught. When Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and his wife flew from Houston to a golf resort in Scotland in June 2000, the first-class airfare cost $14,001, a big-ticket item for a public servant. But someone else paid. The American Express bills of lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty to fraud charges in January, show he footed the bill for the tickets, in an apparent violation of House ethics rules.

Lovely.

Friday-5 oclock-Aveda Salon

Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake posted the touching letter sent to Focus on the Family's James Dobson from Sammy Alito. I will repost it in its entirety:

Dear Dr. Dobson: This is just a short note to express my heartfelt thanks to you and the entire staff of Focus on the Family for your help and support during the past few challenging months. I would also greatly appreciate it if you would convey my appreciation to the good people from all parts of the country who wrote to tell me that they were praying for me and for my family during this period. As I said when I spoke at my formal investiture at the White House last week, the prayers of so many people from around the country were a palpable and powerful force. As long as I serve on the Supreme Court I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me. I hope that we'll have the opportunity to meet personally at some point in the future. In the meantime my entire family and I hope that you and the Focus on the Family staff know how we appreciate all that you have done. Sincerely yours, Samuel Alito

How fucking adorable is that? I wonder if his creepy wife cried as she sealed the envelope. In other, completely unrelated news, the Arbitron radio ratings for Los Angeles just came out for February, and it doesn't look so good for the right-wing blow monkeys. From Hoffmania:

UPDATE: Here are the L.A. numbers from "the money demographic" - 25-54 year olds: Limbaugh: 3.3 to 2.9. Hannity: 1.8 to 0.5. (Ouch) Ingraham: 0.9 to 0.6. Prager/Medved: 1.4 to 0.3. Hewitt: 1.4 to 0.9. KTLK (Air America): Miller: 1.1 to 1.1 Franken/Schultz: 0.7 to 0.7 Rhodes: 0.9 to 1.3. (That's my girl!) Garofalo/Seder/Malloy/Clippers: 0.3 to 1.0.

Limbaugh has always been the ratings guy, AND he's syndicated on 300+ stations. Air America has 80 stations, with more added every month. Hannity dropped by 1.3 points and Randi Rhodes went up by .4 points. Its beginning to smell a lot like the rotting corpses of righty radio stars. Mmmmm... I'm like, totally hungry now. One last thing... Check out these never-before-seen pictures of the Civil Rights Movement published in The Birmingham News.

March 7, 1965: John Lewis, center, leads marchers with fellow activist Hosea Williams across Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge hoping to march to the capitol in Montgomery. Troopers and deputies used tear gas and clubs to stop the march moments later.