Beck confuses art, attention whoring

Normally, I’d just let this slide. Glenn Beck’s just trying to generate some free press coverage by being a prick and I’d usually be disinclined to oblige. But Wonkette’s headline is just too funny.

May every outlet take him as seriously.

News Roundup for 4/8/11

Strangely, this isn't what gay people are like

-Headline of the day-
"Strategist For Anti-Gay Marriage Group Comes Out In Support Of Marriage Equality."

Doesn't seem like much of a strategy, if you ask me, but it turns out that Louis Marinelli of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) is now for same-sex marriage.

According to the report, Marinelli -- who drove the bus during a national tour and "ran NOM’s Twitter account and Facebook page" -- "credits exposure to the NOM tour as the very thing that led to his change of heart." Turns out that he had crazy ideas about gays and lesbians because he'd never actually met any.

"Even though I had been confronted by the counter-protesters throughout the marriage tour, the lesbian and gay people whom I made a profession out of opposing became real people for me almost instantly," he confessed. "For the first time I had empathy for them and remember asking myself what I was doing."

The report goes on to say that "public opinion polling has found a correlation between knowing gay people and being supportive of equal rights for the LGBT community." See when you find out they aren't Nazi child-rapists who want to destroy western civilization and Christianity, they get a lot easier to like.

Weird, huh? (Wonk Room)


-So long, human joke factory-
Jon Stewart says goodbye to the cancelled Glenn Beck in the only fitting way -- by mocking Beck's "Professor Crazypants" shtick one last time.



Now I understand that some people outside the United States may not be able to get that embed to work, because Viacom are pricks. I don't know what to tell you, other than you totally shouldn't resort to torrents, because that would be wrong. (Mediaite)


-Bonus HotD-
"Bob Vander Plaats Tells ThinkProgress Homosexuality Is A 'Public Health Risk' Like Smoking."

Sounds like a certain Iowa anti-gay activist needs to go on a NOM bus tour. (ThinkProgress)

Stories to Watch: 4/6/11

I am golden. No one I voted for yesterday lost. Even the referenda won. Off to buy a lottery ticket. Now here's the news...


The GOP spin on liberal JoAnne Kloppenburg winning the Wisconsin Supreme Court race? It's a big victory -- for Gov. Scott Walker and Republicans. No, really. Greg Sargent breaks down all the ways in which this is laughable BS. And here's another reason why losing isn't really winning, straight from within the Walker administration itself.


Glenn Beck will "transition off" from Fox News, which is fancy-talk for "he's being fired for lousy ratings and general nutjobbery."


After reading his budget proposal, people are wondering if Rep. Paul Ryan has broken with reality. Side note: Ryan's from Wisconsin and things did not go well in his district last night.


Boehner on the budget standoff: "Boo-hoo-hoo!"


A new Gallup poll shows that people don't want a shutdown and aren't happy with the way the GOP is handling things. Maybe that's what Boehner was crying about.


This is how insane the GOP base has become; a Wall Street Journal/NBC poll puts Romney at the head of the Republican pack, followed by... Donald Trump.


More fun with polling: people think John Boehner sucks. There's just so much for him to cry over!


Finally, bad news for Wisconsin recall target Spanky Kapanke, followed by more bad news.

News Roundup for 3/28/11

Only porn-addicted commies know what any of this means

-Headline of the day-
"Are Your Kids Reading Reddit.com & Should You Be Worried?"

Glenn Beck's fake-news site, The Daily Blaze, asks those two questions and can only answer one; YES, YOU SHOULD BE AFRAID! FREAK OUT! FREAK OUT!!

See, Reddit is "part news aggregator, part message board, and it's driven by viewer-posted content. Innocent enough. Until you realize it also features porn."

Oh my God... Porn... On the internet. Sweet Jesus...

Of course, this makes it like pretty much every social bookmarking site. So what makes Reddit stand out for DB scrutiny? If you read through the report, nothing really. There are some porny subreddits you can subscribe to or not subscribe to -- nothing's forced on anyone and, if you want to find them, you've really got to look. Mostly it's goofy photos of cats and complaints about AT&T's bandwidth caps.

Wait, did I mention that Reddit is overwhelmingly liberal or left-leaning? Yeah, here's the front page of the politics subreddit, which ought to give you an idea what sort of a problem Beck's site might really have with Reddit. It's all "Yay for Wikileaks" and "war sucks" and "rich people aren't taxed enough" and "Glenn Beck's squirrelly."

"Could it be time to add it to your list of blocked sites?" asks concern troll DB. "Or, is it just free speech at work?"

I vote the latter and suspect that's Beck's problem with it. Why knock yourself out fighting for censorship when you can convince gullible morons to do all the censoring for you? (Daily Blaze, via porn-riddled Reddit)

-Trapped in the narrative-
When Republicans won big last year, the media was all like "everyone wants to cut spending big time!" Never mind that polls show people want jobs and Republican candidates promised jobs -- Republicans are cutting spending, Republicans won, and that means everyone is supposed to want to cut spending. Except they don't.

This is confusing if you're a media type.

Which describes Alexander Burns over at Politico. Burns writes that you've got all these Republican governors going crazy with the spending cuts and -- WTF? -- nobody likes it. Their polling numbers are crashing and, in places like Wisconsin, everyone's all "recall those bastards!" Seriously, what gives?

So Burns talked to a bunch of Republicans (because they're the only serious people on the planet) and it turns out that voters are just crazy and we don't know what they want. Sure, GOP governors are taking a whole bunch of stuff away from us, while handing over the keys to the bank to corporations and the wealthy, but that's just what serious budget-cutting looks like. Really, it's all just belly-aching and people will come around. Don't you worry.

"The gist of the piece is that 'we' all agree that the message of the 2010 election was that the public has decided that government is too big and wants dramatic budget cuts," comments Josh Marshall. "But now it seems like the governors who are really going whole hog on this -- overwhelming Republicans -- are getting really unpopular. Ergo, the public isn't really ready for the 'grown-up conversation' about budgets that it seemed they might be."

The problem isn't that Republicans aren't listening to constituents -- although, they aren't. The problem is that constituents aren't listening to the governors. Until voters are eager to hand over their wallets to insanely rich people, voters aren't really serious about deficits. (Politico)


-Bonus HotD-
"After ThinkProgress Video Stokes Controversy, Herman Cain Disavows Pledge Not To Appoint Muslims."

That's what you like about Republicans: they have the courage it takes to stand by their convictions -- until those convictions prove unpopular.

Then they never held those convictions at all. (ThinkProgress, with video)

News Roundup for 3/7/11

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

-Headline of the day-
"Scott Walker Believes He's Following Orders from the Lord."

You ever notice how people who think God's telling them what to do are complete screw-ups? And have you ever noticed these same people are never told by God not to do things they want to do? It's almost like they're just making shit up to justify ideas that everyone thinks are really bad.

Anyway, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is one of those guys. According to the report, Walker -- who is the son of a Baptist preacher -- "said that God has told him what to do every step of the way, including about what jobs to take, whom to marry, and when to run for governor."

This reminds me of an old saying: people who think they're talking to God are praying, people who think God's talking to them are schizophrenic. (The Progressive)


-Republicans' home life-
How to get anything you want:



THE COMMITTEE HAS SPOKEN! (Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal)


-Bonus HotD-
"Glenn Beck’s Ratings Falling; May Be Dropped From Fox News (Conspiracy!)"

I blame the Illuminati, the Communists, and Charlie Sheen. (Wonkette)

Stories to Watch: 2/17/11

I'm finally getting the hang of this sourdough thing. I've been making bread, but it hasn't been rising the way I'd hoped. So yesterday, I made some dough, let it rest an hour, punched down what little rising it had done, then covered it, and put it in the fridge overnight. I figured that would slow, but not stop, the rising and I'd bake it the next day.

I got up today, checked, and saw the dough had barely risen. So I pulled the dough out, turned on the oven for a few minutes to warm it up, and stuck the loaf in there for an "assisted" rise. Took off like a shot. I rose the hell outta that dough. Now I got me a loaf of actual sandwich-worthy bread and I'm not going to do things any other way from now on. Now here's the news...


The nation amazed to discover Democrats with guts living in Wisconsin. Such a creature was long thought to be extinct. National Democrats rub up against them in hopes that gutsiness is catching. Here's hoping it is, because from what I've seen, these protests make the tea party look like a Boy Scout meeting. This is what it really looks like when the people hit the streets.


In related news, the anecdotal evidence I've been seeing is confirmed: Wisconsinites are none too happy with Walker's scheme to bust unions.


Karl Rove hates on the birthers. Meanwhile, Michele Bachmann kisses their butt.


The GOP seems set on burning through whatever goodwill voters have toward them with a Gingrich-like plan to shut down government. Already, John Boehner is being forced to pretend he gives a crap about unemployment.


Finally, here's the next octogenarian Glenn Beck will sic his psychos on.

News Roundup for 2/7/11

Not a real porn star

-Headline of the day-
"Christina Aguilera wasn't the first one to botch the national anthem."

But she was the latest. In case you missed it, the former Mickey Mouse Club cutie-turned fake porn star got to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the Super Bowl and didn't do so well. According to the report, "Repeating a line and flipping a word she sang 'What so proudly we watched at the twilight's last gleaming' instead of' 'O'er the ramparts we watch were so gallantly streaming.'"

You know what? The Packers won.

I say do it that way all the time. (War Room)


-Yes, it is called "Titletown"-
This morning's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.



I guess a lot of people woke up feeling a little hungover today. In other words, just a normal Wisconsin day. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)


-Bonus HotD-
"The Brewing Kristol, Beck Feud."

In a rare moment of lucidity, Bill Kristol says that Glenn Beck is crazy for thinking that a popular uprising in Egypt is part of China's plan to take over New Zealand (no, really. Glenn says this). So, of course, Beck has an on-air meltdown over it.

And so the battle between the neocon GOP establishment and the fruitcake base begins. Frankly, I couldn't care less who wins. They're both just as crazy.

Enjoy the show! (Political Animal)