Stories to Watch: 12/27/11

Everyone have a good holiday? Mine was pretty good. The food was awesome. Now here's the news...


***
Digby is not happy with Ben Nelson. While it's a setback for Democrats' effort to retain control of the senate, I don't think it's the disaster she thinks it is. I'm with Chris Cillizza on this one; "The Nelson retirement isn’t good news for Senate Democrats. But it is far from a death blow to their hopes of retaining the majority either."

I bring up Digby's post for a reason, though; she's happy to see Nelson go, she's just unhappy with the consequence. The other side of the coin is Michelle Malkin, who's likewise happy to see Nelson go. My point is a simple one -- when you try to play on both teams, everyone thinks you're a dick. And rightly so. It's a shitty way to save your political hide, as the fact that he's no one's hero so thoroughly demonstrates. Pick a side and fight for something other than your own reelection.


***
Gingrich's past support of "Romneycare" comes back to haunt him. Not sure who's to blame for this one, since you could argue that it hurts Romney as much as Newt.


Ron Paul didn't always deny having written those racist newsletters.


Is it time to do away with the debt ceiling altogether?


Righty and lefty bloggers agree on one thing; SOPA is awful and must die. I doff my cap to my otherwise crazy-assed brethen on the other side of the digital divide.


If you ever wondered if Newt Gingrich was legitimately insane, this will probably seal the deal. It also reinforces my personal belief that people who wear bowties are almost always evil.


North Carolina's concealed carry law is a dismal failure.


Finally, this is quickly becoming a pet peeve with me; Politico runs a story about Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker complaining about recall laws. That's fine. If Walker wants to talk smack about the rules, that's legit news. But nowhere in the piece is any mention of the fact that Walker got his previous job as Milwaukee County exec in a recall under the same laws he hates so much now. This opportunistic flip-flop is an important part of the whole recall story and nearly every national outlet misses it every time. In my opinion, that's journalistic malpractice.

Related articles

• Democratic Senator Ben Nelson to retire in 2012 (shortformblog.tumblr.com)
• Gingrich In 2006: Hey RomneyCare Is A Great Idea! (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Walker On The 'Koch' Call: 'It Was Stupid' (alternet.org)
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Addresses Recall Efforts On Fox News - Mediaite (mediaite.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/5/11

Damn it's beautiful today. Seriously. Now here's the news...


Any residual reason for the media to give a damn about Sarah Palin dies, as she announces she won't run for president. Try not to let it get you too down.


Meg at Cognitive Dissonance finds a good piece; Michelle Malkin claims that the Occupy Wall Street protesters are "99%" white -- because that's just such an oh-so clever thing to say. FoxNation.com gets all excited about the observation, runs it as a piece on their site, and chooses a photo that proves Shelly wrong to accompany it. How stupid do you have to be to believe the crap at FoxNation.com? If this is any indication, pretty goddam stupid.


99-percenters have a friend in Russ Feingold. There's also some support coming from elected dems, but none of the names are extremely surprising.


Chicago traders are assholes.


Senate dems rewrite Obama's jobs bill, adding a "millionaires' tax" to embarrass Republicans who vote against it.


Lamest hit job ever: RedState attacks the reporter who started Rick Perry's "Niggerhead" scandal by revealing "public criminal records in multiple states stretching across 4 time zones." This crime spree consists in its entirety of bouncing a check, failing to obey a highway sign, and two counts of speeding. That ought to make that whole racism story go away right pronto!


You know how people are always saying that America's won't do the jobs migrant workers do? Turns out that's pretty much on the money.


Finally, is it just me or is Michele Bachmann just slightly more incoherent than normal?

Related articles

• Herman Cain Blasts 'Occupy Wall Street' Protesters, Says It's Their Fault They Aren't Rich: VIDEO (towleroad.com)
• Occupy Wall Street Protests Go Global (kaystreet.wordpress.com)
• "Niggerhead" (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)

News Roundup for 9/13/11

Noted hypocritical lunatic Shelly Malkin

-Headline of the Day-
"A few more words about Koward Krugman."

Michelle Malkin is really pissed off at Paul Krugman. You might remember that Krugman wrote a 9/11 anniversary post about how the right has snatched up 9/11 for personal and political gain. Of course, they have, but that's beside the point -- it's poor manners to point that out and Shelly will not have it. Such things simply are not done.

So she goes off on a tirade of grievance, following the rest of the rightwing blogosphere in failing to address Krugman's argument in any way. It's all bluster and outrage and oh-my-god-it's-the-worst-thing-ever, but no actual rebuttal to the claim that wingnuts have taken 9/11 as their own political totem -- mostly because there is no possible rebuttal. They clearly have.

Anyhoo, you're here for the fun, not Shelly Malkin's failure to debate while pretending to debate. Don't worry, it's coming. See, Malkin calls Krugman "Koward Krugman" because, for this 9/11 rant of his, he turned off the comments to his blog.

Here's a fun game; go to Shelly's login page and try to register to comment. Guess what? You can't do it. She turned off registration in 2005 and only rarely opens it up to new commenters. And, when you are able to register, your comments damned well better be along the lines of "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE SO AWESOME!!" or you'll be banned right pronto.

So Krugman shut comments down for a day, while Shelly's been allowing only the most fawning commenters for six freakin' years.

I'm sorry, who's the koward again? (Michelle Malkin)


-True patriots go splat-
Tom Toles takes on the right's love for austerity.


Click to embiggen

Don't worry, it'll spur good old American innovation; i.e., you'll figure out how to fly before you hit the ground. (Washington Post)


-Bonus HotD-
"Fox News Cold Freaking Out Over Obama’s Use of Crappy Paper Clip."

No, really. (Wonkette, with video)

News Roundup for 3/21/11

Not atypical

-Headline of the day-
"How Dumb Are We?"

Pretty darn dumb. Some of us, anyway. See Newsweek asked a bunch of people questions from the US Citizenship test -- you know, the quiz that immigrants have to take to become citizens. Turns out that, at this point in time, 38% of natural born citizens wouldn't qualify for citizenship if they had to apply for it.

According to the report, "29 percent couldn't name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn't correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn't even circle Independence Day on a calendar."

And the thing is, the test isn't really all that hard. In order to pass, you only need to answer six questions correctly -- out of one hundred. That's right, you only need to score 6% and 38% couldn't even do that.

Which goes a long way toward explaining what's wrong with our political landscape these days; people who don't know shit have opinions. The report uses our current budget debate as an example, pointing out that a "2010 World Public Opinion survey found that Americans want to tackle deficits by cutting foreign aid from what they believe is the current level (27 percent of the budget) to a more prudent 13 percent. The real number is under 1 percent. A Jan. 25 CNN poll, meanwhile, discovered that even though 71 percent of voters want smaller government, vast majorities oppose cuts to Medicare (81 percent), Social Security (78 percent), and Medicaid (70 percent). Instead, they prefer to slash waste -- a category that, in their fantasy world, seems to include 50 percent of spending, according to a 2009 Gallup poll."

And people wonder how outfits like Fox News can pull the wool over people's eyes so often. The wool's already there, all they do is style it. (Newsweek)


-Trying hard to be offended-
If there's one thing I know about Michelle Malkin, it's that if there's any way to become offended by something, she'll be offended by it. It's like her hobby.

So imagine how outraged Shelly got when she learned that NPR's comedy quiz Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me deeply insulted her family and her heritage. During a regular segment, contestants are given several news stories -- only one of which is true -- and are then asked which one was real. Unfortunately, the Malkin family made an appearance:

Conservative commentator and Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin has expressed her fear that there are Muslims amongst us who are hiding their true identity. The most prominent, she claims, being Barack Obama. However, when she set out to find proof of these undercover Muslims, she found more than she bargained for.
It turns out that there are, indeed, some Muslims hiding their identity to fly under the radar. The most pertinent one for Malkin being her own grandfather.

Yes, Grandpa Malkin, who is from the Philippines but lives with Michelle's parents, had not told the family about his religion for fear of being ostracized and thrown out. "Do you know how hard it is to pray five times a day when your family doesn't know?"

"I had to excuse myself to the bathroom every time I wanted to pray."

"And the ham dinners, don't get me started on the ham dinners."

Malkin was in shock when her grandfather revealed his true identity to her. He explained that he had been closeted Muslim for too long and it was time for him to live his life and be happy with himself. Malkin used the revelation to confirm her argument that Muslims are taking over. First they wanted the youth, and now they’re going after my grandfather? My 90-year-old grandfather? This is sick.

Needless to say, this is the worst thing ever! And it doesn't help that the guy saying all of the lies is a Muslim comedian!

She then goes on to fact-check the piece -- which was revealed later in the show to be untrue anyway -- because NPR is liberal and is trying to get people to think she's a Muslim!

A comedy bit which admits to being untrue must not be allowed to sully Shelly's reputation like that. It simply must be answered.

Preferably, with copious amounts of completely unwarranted outrage. The perpetually offended and infinitely aggrieved teabagging masses who read her blog expect no less. (Michelle Malkin)


-Bonus HotD-
"Scott Walker Touts His Union-Busting Agenda As 'Progressive'."

I guess that makes him a commie then. All you wingnuts have to stop loving him now.

Sorry, those are the rules. I don't make them up. (ThinkProgress)