Category Archives: Politics

Not all that funny. Or “Fair and Balanced” for that matter

John Stewart went on Fox News Sunday and basically got Chris Wallace – a journalist who became a shill apparently without even knowing it – to admit that FAUX is pushing an ideological agenda.

We all know that they are, but he’s their prize reporter, the guy they turn to whenever people call them talking-point-driven liars. Even he knows he’s pushing a side.

Stewart calls out the fake coverage of some of what he said (and he knows from fake journalism, right?) and then lays down a volley of things said on FAUX that have never been corrected.

Ta-Nehisi Coates over at The Atlantic reminds us of Stewart’s core argument: he’s a comedian that runs a show mocking the news.

Having Chris Wallace try to compare Comedy Central to FAUX is hilarious. In short, he points out that Comedy Central’s jesters are folks like Pamela Anderson getting roasted with jokes about Tommy Lee’s dick. And FAUX’s jester – until he’s unemployed next week – is Glenn Beck, the guy who wants to be taken seriously as a “prophet” who laments the fact that no one has shot the president yet.

For more on what conservatives view as fun, read this. Then, if you can stomach it, you can watch the video. The material isn’t the worst thing I’ve heard from a conservative’s mouth, but the vile, gleeful, lusty laughter from the crowd just makes you want to instantly hate these people.

‘Sovereign Citizen’ Killed After Trying To Steal Cop’s Taser In Altercation

Here’s the story. A “sovereign citizen”, aka traitor, goes for a cop’s taser and gets shot dead.

Once again: someone who doesn’t believe in the United States government and wants to make up his own rules tries to take a weapon away from a badged officer who is tasked and entrusted to uphold the same laws this guy refuses to accept protects and restrains him.

Cop shoots traitor.

So take your time, read the story, and then plunge into the babble of the comments. There’s a Zogby poll I take whenever they send them. In the political leaning list I usually pick liberal. Granted, like everyone, I pick and choose philosophies. Like, I don’t mind every home having a firearm – probably a shotgun – for safety. IF they want one. But I think handguns are dangerous and folks who have them and don’t train on them are idiots out to hurt themselves. Statistics prove this.

That’s just one example.

Point is, I never pick the “progressive” option. Want to know why? Folks who call themselves progressive are the only in the comments on this story concerned about three things. One, is the poor dead traitor mentally unbalanced? I don’t know, but I kind of imagine he might have been to have rejected the reality of his existence so soundly.

Two, were there other eyewitness accounts that contradicted the cop? Turns out, there might have been, but my immediate reaction was not to think the officer was lying. I don’t even like law enforcement that much. I had some individual officers pull some dirty crap on me and my friends when younger. But I don’t hate and distrust cops immediately. I treat them like snakes. They’ve got a job to do. If you stay out of their way, hopefully they won’t randomly bite you.;

Three, aside from feeling sorry for the guy GRABBING FOR AN OFFICER’S GEAR BELT and blaming the cop for that happening, I also don’t want to condemn anyone who think it is a good thing that these sovereign traitors get a look at what happens when they pull their “I’m my own nation” crap and try to steal a weapon our taxes paid for.

So yeah, I’m not into backstabbing and knee-jerk distrusting law enforcement. In fact, isn’t that EXACTLY what the sovereigns would do?

Weekly Address: Celebrating Father’s Day

What most of his detractors forget when they are calling the President some kind of Muslim, Kenyan, socialist destroyer of America is that he’s got kids.

He’s a father, and apparently a good one. And a much better man than those who yell epithets and cheer for someone to kill him solely because of the color of his skin.

Happy Father’s Day Mr. President and to all you other fathers trying to raise your kids to be good people.

Osama bin Laden is dead

The right wing’s chief bogeyman is dead.

Sure, he was a dangerous, unpleasant man. He was also a zealot who used religion as a bludgeon to silence others and to make good men look evil in the eyes of his followers. Yeah, thought that sounded familiar too.

So, why are those who use his same tactics the most gleeful at his passing? I don’t know; they must not be getting the message I am.

Either way, the Bush apologists trying to glom onto the glory are at least entertaining to watch. Here’s how reality looks to the rest of us folks.

Your boy outsourced the job of catching this guy, just like he allowed a lot of other American jobs to leave the country. In this case, the guys we farmed the work out to used to fight alongside Osama so it really wasn’t any surprised the failed to complete the task assigned.

He didn’t follow through and some argue that was by design, though that’s a little Oliver Stone-ish for me. Just a little.

So be glad it happened, just give credit where credit is due. The job wasn’t rushed to influence last year’s elections (and boy, wouldn’t this have helped?), nor was our recently dead Fear-Colored Terror Panties system jacked up to maximum rainbow of death levels.

We had an adult at the helm giving the chief guy in the field, Petraeus, one last shot to do the job. He had the time and resources he needed. The CIA wasn’t being left twisting int the wind to make shit up, and – surprise – it worked! To kudos to the men who did the work – and the guy who stepped back and let them.

Here’s how the President announced it:

More on the attack writ large, plus info on raid particulars, the proper police work followed to find him, and another story on the same.

Some more reporting on the compound. Apparently this was no “spider hole”.

Predictably, someone from Rumsfeld’s crew leaked the story. None of those clowns were going to give Obama his moment.

Fans of Osama are in denial over his death. To be fair, Republicans are already calling the President a liar. Like the long form birth certificate issue, even when you give these a-holes EXACTLY what they want, they won’t believe you.

Indeed, some conservatives openly wished their dreams that the President himself were dead. Even the transcription/subtitle feed had it written out. (I had examples of this, but the internet has gotten scrubbed over the years.)

The view from (part of) Britain.

And some technical limitations on why a ground assault had to be the way to go.

And, finally, a bit on the burial at sea. Which i approve of. Let there be no burial monument to the cretin.

Now, stop questioning Obama’s legitimacy

There aren’t that many conservative pundits or politicians I’ll even listen to anymore. Most of them have embraced racist craziness and gone with the treasonous mob.

David Frum is one of them and even I’m surprise by how much sense I find him making in this article.

Thing is, he’s just advocating decency. Why should that be shocking?

Oklahoma GOP Lawmaker Demonizes African-Americans in Bid to Eliminate Affirmative Action | AlterNet

Psst! Oklahoma! Your racism is showing.

Again.

And yes, I lived there a few years. In a fairly enlightened college town. And I still heard associate deans teaching foreign students how stupid foreigners were compared to Americans. And that’s actually a half-decent example of how folks behaved there.

Don’t start me on the ROTC marching with weapons through the (mostly international) family housing section after 9/11.