News Roundup for 3/22/12

Rove makes an appearance on The Colbert Report

-Headline of the Day-
"Karl Rove: Bin Laden killing was no biggie."

Republicans just can't let President Obama have nice things. If Obama does something, then it's automatically terrible -- unless you can't possibly spin it that way. In that case, it's trivial.

Karl Rove proved that today in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. In it, Rove uses a 17-minute Obama campaign web movie to point out that the president is just God awful -- unlike that fella Karl served under.

Anyway, Karl's biggest challenge was making the death of Osama bin Laden seem like one of those not-automatically-terrible-so-it-must-be-trivial things and he hit kind of a dead end. There's no way he could do it. Scratch that; there's no way he could do it honestly. This is Karl Rove here, so he quickly overcame this problem.

"As for the killing of Osama bin Laden, Mr. Obama did what virtually any commander in chief would have done in the same situation," Karl writes. "Even President Bill Clinton says in the film 'that’s the call I would have made.' For this to be portrayed as the epic achievement of the first term tells you how bare the White House cupboards are."

Tiny little bit of a problem here: that's not exactly what Clinton said. What Bill said was, "He took the harder and the more honorable path. When I saw what had happened, I thought to myself, 'I hope that’s the call I would have made.'" Contrary to what Karl wants you to believe, Bill's not saying it was an easy decision anyone would've made, he's saying it was a hard decision.

And would Karl's boss have made that call? Here's GWB on the subject: "I truly am not that concerned about [Osama bin Laden]. I am deeply concerned about Iraq... I really just don’t spend that much time on him, to be honest with you."

So I'm going to go out on a limb and say no. (Plum Line)


-The Distracto DeVille Deluxe-



"Guess it's back to calling women sluts, then." (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Ann Coulter Says It Is Now Time To ‘Go After’ The Obama Children."

Ann who?

Oh yeah... She's that one woman who used to say deliberately offensive things for a living. The troll lady... You know...

Man, I thought she'd be insane and homeless by now. I guess I was half right. (Wonkette)

News Roundup for 2/1/12

Helpless victims

-Headline of the Day-
"Obama's Enemies List."

David and Charles Koch have it so bad. Here they are, innocently trying to buy states like Wisconsin and using their vast fortunes to whip up 'bagger frenzies, and all they get for their trouble is misery.

OK, so not misery so much as well-earned criticism.

But never mind that. Dave and Chuck have taken to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to decry the White House's shameless prejudice against meddling gazillionaires.

OK, so not them personally, but their lawyer. Things like speaking to the public -- even through the filter of print -- are entirely beneath them. But this so-called "President" Obama has been talking smack about them and they're not going to stand for it. Enough is enough. They're just people like everyone else -- except when they get a bug up their collective ass, they can hire former Solicitor General Theodore Olson to write them an op-ed in the freakin' Wall Street Journal. I'm sure their butlers hold the page up for them to read it, so they don't get newsprint ink on their hands. Otherwise, they're just folks.

Of course, some people don't see them that way. Some people insist on being distracted by reality.

"On issues ranging from climate change to health reform to tax policy to corporate regulation, in venues far and wide from Congress to state legislatures to Tea Party rallies to every foot of nearly every campaign trail, the Kochs have become an omnipresent force in right-wing politics, and a big factor in the polarization of the country," writes Ed Kilgore. "With the collapse of campaign finance rules, their ability to wield influence with little or no accountability is becoming almost unlimited. Even if you agree with them on every conceivable issue, the idea that they are cowering victims of the big-bad-bullies in the White House has to make you just burst out in derisive laughter. If I, God forbid, were a Koch Brother I’d fire Olson instantly for making me look so weak and feckless."

Olson begins his piece with a question. And it's a question I'm more than willing to answer.

"How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were featured prominently in the president's re-election campaign as an enemy of the people?" he asks, in all apparent seriousness.

Is this for the bonus round? Because it's way too easy: I'd feel like George Soros or every goddam Hollywood liberal or celebrity who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq.

Victim card rejected. (Wall Street Journal)


-The trouble with Februaries in years divisible by four-



But there's also the Summer Olympics this year, so it's all good. (TruthDig)


-Bonus HotD-
"Gay Activists Glitter Bomb Romney, He Calls It 'Confetti' To Celebrate Florida Victory."

Hey, when life gives you lemons, you lie about it and say it's lemonade, right? (ThinkProgress)

Stories to Watch: 1/28/12

The Washington Post has changed the address to Greg Sargent's RSS feed. Why do sites do that? It's a total pain. I'm going to have to edit it into the Superfeed, but I'm not going to be able to do it right away. For the time being, items marked "[Greg Sargent]" are actually general WaPo news stories. That'll be fixed later today.

I wish I would've noticed it sooner, because I added the Maddow Blog to get Steve Benen's new home into the feed this morning. I was already under the hood once -- I could've done it then. Now here's the news...


John Nichols notes that if you take all the votes in the GOP primary so far, break them down as a percentage of the electorate, and compare them to the number of signatures turned in to recall Wisconsin Republicans, you find that the Wisconsin recall is about twice as popular as all the GOP candidates combined. That may seem a little off in the weeds at first, but his point is that the numbers show a much more important movement than the media is giving us credit for.


For his part, Stephen Moore mostly agrees. In a Wall Street Journal piece in which he calls the recall the "most important non-presidential election of the decade." Of course, being the WSJ, that means sheer terror at the thought that unions could be making a comeback.


Mitten's opens up a big lead in Florida. However, that'd be the third time this month that the frontrunner has switched from Romney to Gingrich or vice versa (the last being just eight days ago) -- and new polling is expected tonight.


Sarah Palin attempts to remain relevant.


Grover Norquist wants to impeach Obama if he wins reelection and doesn't extend the Bush tax cuts. "High crimes?" "Misdemeanors?" "Democracy?" What are these things of which you speak?


Obama takes on an obstructionist congress.


Mittens has lost the independent voter.


Finally, Obama and Democrats are working to bring the Buffet Rule -- which would have the wealthy paying more in taxes than their help -- up for a vote. This is probably going to be a big one, so keep an eye out.

Related articles

• Late Night FDL: Crime and Punishment, by Grover Norquist (firedoglake.com)
• How Out There Is Grover Norquist? (andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com)
• Mitt Romney turning off independents (dailykos.com)
• What Romney Would Pay Under His Tax Plan (alan.com)

Stories to Watch: 12/21/11

Pretty much done with my Christmas sourdough pancake project. I still have more to make, but they can wait. I've got to make some for a buddy who's over in Czech and won't be back until after the holidays -- and a batch to make for myself. When you're making everyone else pancakes, you really develop a hankerin' for a stack to call your own. Now here's the news...


Mittens takes up residency in an alternate universe where the crazy-assed stuff they say on rightwing talk radio is true, true, true. It's a tremendous strawman argument where President Obama tries to "create equal outcomes" in an "entitlement society," in which "everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort, and willingness to take risk." Needless to say, this resembles the things Obama has said and done in absolutely no way. "This is nuts, Glenn Beck–level insane," writes Jonathan Chait.


On the other hand, old Romney habits are hard to break -- even as you're trying to convince GOP voters that you're Herman-Cain-league insane. Mittens just can't bring himself to form an opinion of the House Republicans' payroll tax cut debacle.


Romney's also having trouble agreeing with himself on the issue of the Iraq War.


And on the question of that debacle, Karl Rove agrees with the Wall Street Journal.


If you're trying to make the GOP's position on the payroll tax cut fiasco look good, this is not the way you want to do it.


Ron Paul is now the frontrunner in Iowa. I stand by my assertion that this will be meaningless outside of Iowa.


Wisconsin's own big-bottomed GOP Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner is a jackass.


The EPA sets new limits on mercury emissions from power plants.


Man, is Iowa religious freak Bob Vander Plaats ever fickle.


Finally, this must really steam anti-gay Republicans.

Related articles

• Scott Brown Denounces House Republicans Over Payroll Tax Cut Deal (huffingtonpost.com)
• Republicans Walk Out on Payroll Tax Vote, Cut Off C-SPAN Cameras (littlegreenfootballs.com)
• Tom McMahon: Merry Christmas, Middle Class! House Republicans Just Voted To Raise Your Taxes By $1,000 (huffingtonpost.com)
• WATCH: Maddow Hammers John Boehner And House Republicans (huffingtonpost.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/13/11

Sorry for the late headlines, but for some reason a windows update was sucking up all my CPU power. Never did that before. I couldn't get anything to work, so I decided to let the updater run its course while I got something to eat. Seems to be working fine. Now here's the [somewhat abbreviated] news...


A Reuters story trying to tie the 99-percenters to George Soros is so weak that even a Reuters blogger can't get behind it.


A Wall Street CEO writes a very strange op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that seems to blame President Obama for ungrateful panhandlers.


Remember how Michael Bloomberg said the Wall Street protesters could stay as long as they wanted? Yeah, that was bullshit. He's trying to run them out again.


Americans support Occupy Wall Street and oppose the Tea Party. This is a fact the 'baggers don't seem to like much.


Can we all stop pretending that Paul Ryan is some sort of economic genius now?


Finally, Ron Paul's got the mange or something.

Related articles

• This Week In Occupy Wall Street Signs (huffingtonpost.com)
• Why Liberals Should Welcome Occupy Wall Street (huffingtonpost.com)
• Mayor Bloomberg Needs To Keep His Word, Let Occupy Wall Street Stay in Liberty Plaza (treehugger.com)

Stories to Watch: 10/6/11

Another gorgeous day. Going to have to do something about all the leaves soon, though. I actually kind of like raking, if the weather's nice. A good excuse to get outside and just do a pleasant and undemanding chore. It's all very zen. Now here's the news...


In the Massachusetts Senate race, Republican incumbent Scott Brown decides that being a dick is a real smart move. He might consider a strategy that involves more friend-making and less enemy-making in the future, since the 'baggers plan to cut him loose.


Republicans want President Obama's blackberry messages in a Solyndra probe. It would be poetic justice for the president to tell them, "What George W. Bush said."


Scientific idiocy in the pages of the Wall Street Journal? Imagine my shock.


Lindsey Graham plays the victim card on Rick Perry's behalf. It seems that you can't get away with racism in the south anymore and this is a terrible, terrible thing. Or something. Serious, I can't make heads or tails of this argument.


Jobless claims seem to be holding pretty steady, hovering "near levels normally associated with improving labor market conditions." Economists said this is "yet another sign the ailing economy was not falling back into recession."


Westboro Baptist Hate Cult are now officially clowns.


The health insurance industry jumps aboard the campaign to save healthcare reform.


How to hand down the death penalty -- without a trial.


Finally, Bank of America's decision to charge a fee for debit cards is beginning to look Netflixian in its stupidity. The bank's website may have actually been brought down several times by all the customers rushing to close their accounts. Of course BoA won't confirm this, other than to say that traffic has been heavy lately.

Related articles

• Scott Brown May Have Just Lost His Senate Seat (buzzfeed.com)
• Scott Brown On Elizabeth Warren 'Keeping Her Clothes On' During College: 'Thank God' (mediaite.com)
• Poll: Massachusetts Senate race heats up (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com)
• Bank Of America Debit Fee: D.C. Woman Gathers 137,000 Signatures In Protest (huffingtonpost.com)

News Roundup for 8/31/11

Bitter rivalry

-Headline of the Day-
"Sarah Palin Appearance at Tea Party Rally in Iowa 'No Longer Confirmed.'"

There was going to be a big tea party rally in Iowa Saturday. Or maybe there isn't. Who even knows?

See, here's what happened: Sarah Palin was going to show up for this thing, but then she found out Christine O'Donnell was going to be there too. Christine's selling this big important book nobody wants, so she's like all over the place lately. So Sarah sees that Christine's on the bill and she's all like, "No way! She's younger and prettier and -- let's face it -- crazier than I am! No way am I going to get upstaged by that witch!"

Which is totally unfair, because Christine is famously not a witch.

Anyway the 'baggers had to boot Christine or Sarah wasn't going to show. That was final. So they did. Or maybe they didn't. It's all very confusing. Sarah's saying that the organizers have lied to her. I guess she found out that Christine was going to pop out of a cake and surprise everyone with sparklers or something while Sarah did her big dance routine. I'm guessing. I don't have the details. Just piecing stuff together from the info I have, like Sherlock Holmes.

Of course, Sarah cancelled. And then she didn't cancel. And then her appearance was "on hold." She might even throw together a different shindig someplace else just to show up that snotty little witch. Who knows? It's all very indefinite and up in the air and crazy right now. And the 'bagger group, Tea Party of America, is already out $100,000 whether anything happens or not.

You know, it's organizational skills like this that got us the S&P downgrade. These people couldn't put together a peanut butter sandwich without incurring a death toll. (Wall Street Journal)


-Doh!-
GOP frontrunners as characters from The Simpsons.


Click to embiggen

Amazingly accurate. (Reddit)


-Bonus HotD-
"Dim Michele Bachmann Wants To Drill Everglades For Oil That Isn't There."

That's right, Shelly's energy policy is just poke holes wherever you think there might be oil and screw those crazy geologists who want to dictate to Everyday Americans where there is or isn't oil. Science is our enemy! (Wonkette)

Stories to Watch: 8/13/11

Rained all night and it is humid. I went out last night for a bit during a break in the rain and you could actually see the steam in the air. I walked into an air-conditioned store and my glasses fogged up. No foolin'. Now here's the news...


Michele Bachmann is definitely not winning friends in the media. At an event in Iowa, CNN's Don Lemon gets pushed around, which brings to mind Bachmann campaign staffers manhandling ABC's Brian Ross about a month ago. This is beginning to look like a habit -- and not a good one.


Of course, Bachmann was in Iowa for the Ames Straw Poll today. The cable networks are giving the poll wall-to-wall coverage, making it the most important near-meaningless event of the week. It's a poll of self-selected respondents, like an online poll. The words "not scientific" should be plastered all over the coverage. It may weed out a candidate or two who never should've run in the first place, but that's about it.


Norman Podhoretz is a jackass. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he whines about the right being "attacked" by liberals -- then he calls the president an "anti-American leftist." When he gets "attacked" (i.e., criticized) for that, he'll probably whine some more. It's becoming a running theme on this blog because it's true; modern conservatives reflexively play the victim card. Look at Sarah Palin. Her entire argument seems to be that she deserves to be a presidential candidate because the press is so mean to her. It's always about skinned knees and personal grievance.


David Axelrod "attacks" Rick Perry on national teevee! Oh, the horror...


And the brutality keeps coming as Joe Scarborough "attacks" Michele Bachmann.


Rick Perry makes it official.


Sarah Palin unveils her plan to give herself a heart attack.


Finally, this is great. After Standard & Poor's said that Republican default-denialism contributed to it's downgrade of America's credit rating, GOPers now say they never said that default wouldn't happen or that it wouldn't be so bad. Call it default-denialism-denialism. But Brian Beutler has a list of names and details and... Well, the GOP is slinging bullshit here.

Related articles

• Straw poll the "graveyard" of some candidacies (cbsnews.com)
• Sarah Palin Visits Iowa Ahead Of Ames Straw Poll, Stokes 2012 Speculation (huffingtonpost.com)
• Michele Bachmann Feels The Heat On Eve Of Ames Straw Poll (huffingtonpost.com)
• As Sarah Palin wavers, Rick Perry may fill niche (sfgate.com)

News Roundup for 7/18/11

LEAVE RUPERT ALONE!!

-Headline of the Day-
"News Corp.-owned media outlets say people are overreacting to News Corp. scandal."

Have you heard about the latest "scandal of the month?" Pffft! Something about hacking and phones and who even cares? It's all way too high-tech for you to understand and it's just liberal hippies attacking conservative media anyway, so you should probably just ignore the whole thing, all right? Now shut up and eat your Casey Anthony "news."

That's News Corp's take on the scandal rocking a little company called... Let's see here... "News Corp." Tempest in a teapot. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial about how everyone's blowing everything out of proportion. "We... trust that readers can see through the commercial and ideological motives of our competitor-critics," writes the WSJ editorial board. "The Schadenfreude is so thick you can't cut it with a chainsaw."

Oh poor News Corp!

But it was Fox News that really brought the stupid (a safe bet in any situation), with a segment on their morning show that's such unbelievable bullshit that you wish there was a stronger word for bullshit. Fox & Friends not only wondered what the big deal was, but through very cautious wording, left the impression that it was News of the World that was hacked, instead of being the hacker.

WSJ complains that Murdoch detractors "want their readers to believe, based on no evidence, that the tabloid excesses of one publication somehow tarnish thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world."

Oh, you guys are providing us with plenty of evidence. I point you again to the brainless Fox & Friends and their lame attempt to confuse the issue.

If they're typical of your "thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world," then you've got nothing worth defending. (Salon's War Room)


-The things that really matter-
The deadline for raising the debt ceiling is bearing down on us, so House Republicans decided it was time to take on the scourge of curly light bulb last week. Because nothing in the world is more important than giving Americans the freedom to buy crappy, inefficient, money-leaking light bulbs if they so choose. And so, the GOP's message is this:


Click to embiggen

Any questions? (McClatchy)


-Bonus HotD-
"Sarah Palin Movie Boasts Solid 0% Rating On Rotten Tomatoes."

That means no good independent review anywhere. Worst. Movie. Ever. (Wonkette)

Stories to Watch: 7/15/11

Blogging was light today because I had to fix a garage door opener. I narrowed the problem down to the sensors, then found out the manufacturer doesn't exist anymore. Finally, I found a universal replacement part on Amazon. Until it gets here, the remote is useless for closing the door. You've got to hold the button in inside the garage. At least it works at all. Now here's the news...


We've already covered Michele Bachmann's husband's assertion that a taped interview featuring him making bigoted statements has been doctored. The blogger who posted the clip begs to differ. "Flat out, I didn't doctor a damn thing," says Ken Avidor. "If I did doctor it, why would I have a link to the original podcast, which is no longer up?"

Avidor's solution to the controversy; "Marcus could get a hold of that original podcast. Just call up his friends at the station." Ball's in your court, Marcus. Clear your good name or leave everyone to wonder why it is exactly that you can't clear your good name.

***
More heads roll in the Murdoch scandal. Les Hinton, the head of Dow Jones -- which in turn owns Murdoch property The Wall Street Journal -- resigns. Let the human sacrifices begin.


Speaking of Murdoch, Media Matters looks at the way cable news networks are covering the phone-hacking case and finds that, not surprisingly, Fox News' coverage was the worst. Fox mentioned the story only 30 times in the past nine days. Surprisingly, supposedly super-commie network MSNBC came in second worst, although with more than twice as many segments (71), and CNN had the most coverage, with 108 segments.


President Obama plays the populist card in the debt limit showdown, while Harry Reid continues to prove himself a hopelessly inept leader.


You've probably heard that Sarah Palin's big debut for her movie Undefeated was a ghost town. Turns out that reporting that fact was the worst thing ever, because it's unfair to measure her movie's success on the opening weekend of the final Harry Potter movie. Which begs the question; what kind of a moron schedules the release of their film on the opening weekend of the final Harry Potter movie?


Red State's Erick Erickson once again demonstrates why people think he's a halfwit.


Yesterday, Gallup reported that a "generic Republican" led Obama by eight points. Today, Gallup reports that 58% of GOP voters can't name any candidate they hope will win. Newt Gingrich -- who's currently a million bucks in the hole -- might just change his name to Generic Republican.


Finally, Rupert Murdoch is very, very sorry.

Related articles

• Murdoch's Sham Investigation (thedailybeast.com)
• Phone hacking: both Murdochs agree to face MPs following jail threat (guardian.co.uk)
• Murdoch Scandal Roils WSJ (thedailybeast.com)
• Rupert Murdoch: His empire under attack, a media potentate stumbles (csmonitor.com)

News Roundup for 4/12/11

Donald Trump's actual interest in becoming president, on a scale of 1-10

-Headline of the day-
"Fake Republican Candidate Trump May Also Run As Fake Independent."

There are a lot of places I could go to get this story, but no headline would be truer than the one at Wonkette. The publicity stunt is planning a sore loser publicity stunt if the original publicity stunt fails. And that's about the size of it.

"I think the Republicans are very concerned that I [may] run as an independent..." Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. "The concern is if I don't win [the GOP primary] will I run as an independent, and I think the answer is probably yes."

Trump said, "I hate what's happening to the country" and called his birtherism "a very important issue" -- which does absolutely nothing to explain why he'd be willing to split the GOP vote and hand an easy win to Barack Obama.

Oh yeah, I forgot. It's all fake. (Wonkette)


-You can read a book by him-
The recent budget standoff was especially hard on John Boehner.



I'll bet it made him cry. (Bad Reporter)


-Bonus HotD-
"Some statements about Sen. Jon Kyl that are not intended to be factual."

Go here to get the background, then go here to join in the fun. (MLive)