Month: July 2009

Uncategorized3 Comments

Another Mission Accomplished…

…NOT: Teenage pregnancies and syphilis have risen sharply among a generation of American school girls who were urged to avoid sex before marriage under George Bush’s evangelically-driven education policy, according to a new report by the US’s major public health body. In a report that will surprise few of Bush’s critics on the issue, the Centres for Disease Control says years of falling rates of teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted disease infections under previous administrations were reversed or stalled in the Bush years. According to the CDC, birth rates among teenagers aged 15 or older had been in decline since … Continue reading Another Mission Accomplished…

So Called Liberal Media3 Comments

They’re Defending the Reporting

Jesus, NYT: NEW YORK A story on The Huffington Post Monday reporting that Sarah Palin’s hairdresser was upset about being inaccurately cited in a New York Times piece drew a response from a Times spokeswoman today claiming the hairdresser had praised the story. The Huffington Postreported that Jessica Steele, named in a July 13 Timesstory on Palin, had objected to the story that said she had told the Times Palin’s hair was thinning from stress. “Now, that stylist is saying it’s not true,” the Huffington Post story said. “In a post on her Twitter account, Jessica Steele, owner of the … Continue reading They’re Defending the Reporting

Stupid Republican Tricks2 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – let’s nuke the DFHs edition

Good Monday morning, everyone – Let’s get suited up and get into the airlock. We’ve got lots of yuck to wade through from the nattering nabobs of Nationalism. Now I know the Freeperati have never really gotten over the 60s – everyone sane seems to have come to terms with the counterculture, but this kind of thing still sets the Freeperati’s hair on fire – so let’s lend them a match, shall we? First up – Freepers ok with nuking an American city – if it’s San Francisco!‏ Beck and Scheuer: Only an Attack By Osama Bin Laden Can Save … Continue reading Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – let’s nuke the DFHs edition

Stupid Republican Tricks2 Comments

Happy Dodd Photo

Because “Joe” the “Plumber” can suck it. Wurzelbacher has a reputation for being a blunt, politically incorrect speaker. Referring to Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., more than once, Wurzelbacher asked, “Why hasn’t he been strung up?” Why hasn’t he been strung up? I don’t know, maybe because this isn’t fucking Deadwood, not that you’d last five seconds there, you miniscule clown. And if Will Bill and Calamity Jane did come strolling down the street and looked at you funny, you’d run screaming for somebody to save you, and wind up peeking up Dolly’s skirts at the Gem, or skulking around outside … Continue reading Happy Dodd Photo

War in Afghanistan4 Comments

‘I Urge Everyone Not to Judge’

This inspired me to gowandering around the wingersphere looking forwhat was being said about the captured soldier’s statements on video. Until the truth comes out, I urge everyone not to judge anything this Soldier says as anything other than coerced and/or under duress. There comes a point where you will verbally give away your first born child if it means extending your life by one more day in order to buy some time for those looking for you. Most troops will not be held accountable for the things they say or do in captivity. Naturally, those that faulted McCain for … Continue reading ‘I Urge Everyone Not to Judge’

So Called Liberal Media2 Comments

Make or Break

This stood out to me, among the usual nonsense (I can’t say any e-mails I sent to people in my years as a reporter would be any less embarrassing, really, albeit aimed at school board presidents and the like rather than governors; you say what you have to say to get somebody to answer the question you want him to answer): When you read the emails by Gregory, King, Stephanopoulos and others, you start to understand why most major network interviews with politicians tend to be a lot less hard hitting than they need to be to really hold their … Continue reading Make or Break

Current Affairs13 Comments

“Tell and show the public what has happened.”

When people would ask sportswriter E.M. Swift if a particular sports moment that was unfolding could be the next Miracle on Ice, Swift was always quick to say, “Shut up. There’s never going to be another Miracle. You can’t get that many things to align again.” Sadly, the same can be said forthe great Walter Cronkite, who died earlier today. In an era of 24-hour news, fragmented audience and micro-consumption of news, you’ll never have another singular anchor like Cronkite. In a time in which facts have been replaced by commentary and thoughts replaced by innuendo, we’re probably less likely … Continue reading “Tell and show the public what has happened.”

Law/Justice6 Comments

One Last Thing We’ve Both Still Got

I’d love to say I don’t get the resentment. I really would. I’d love to say I don’t see where they’re coming from, whiny Lindsey Graham and bitchy Jeff Sessions and condescending John Cornyn, with their pointy little questions about what makes Sonia Sotomayor so special anyhow. I’d love to say I don’t understand it. But I do. I hear this stuff all around me, in the bluest state there is, all the time: I’ve worked hard. I’ve done my best. And if only I’d been a gay Native American vegan raised by an interracial family on a Buddhist mission … Continue reading One Last Thing We’ve Both Still Got

Of Interest6 Comments

It’s Not Like a Problem or Anything

You know, Dennis Hastert for years was on TV pretty much every day as Speaker of the House, and that man looked like cartoon drawings of Humpty Dumpty dressed up like a Weeble. Strangely, I do not recall stories about how he was setting a bad example for America by wobbling but not falling down. Dr. Regina Benjamin, on the other hand, apparently has some problems to overcome, one of them being she’s not a tiny little stick insect person thing.But that’s okay, because, well, take it away MSNBC: Besides, weight aside, Benjamin does bring some rather impressive bona fides … Continue reading It’s Not Like a Problem or Anything

So Called Liberal Media2 Comments

Nobody Ever Wants Less

Scout sends this over: In London, the Saturday editions plop on your porch with the weight of a white paper on Afghanistan, except that they’re full of color magazines and free offers. You think: Did I drink too much Friday night and sleep all through Saturday? They look like American Sunday papers, fat and overstuffed, even with news. Then Sunday comes around, and it all happens again, more heft, more color magazines, more scary stories saved up for brunchtime. The UK newspapers have maintained a quaint tradition of competition between the daily and Sunday editions of the same nameplates, under … Continue reading Nobody Ever Wants Less

Uncategorized1 Comment

Home is where $2 Lobster is not

The reason I’ve been quiet most of the day is because I just finished a week-long “home to Mom’s, Mom’s to cousin’s in another state, back up to Mom’s, up to the North Woods for another birthday party, back down to Mom’s, to the airport, four days in Vegas, back to Mom’s and finally back home” run of about eight days. Sufficient to say, the only thing I saw that involved our president involved him throwing out the first pitch at the All-Star Game and the only reason I was watching that was because I had $20 on the NL. … Continue reading Home is where $2 Lobster is not

Diary7 Comments

Friday Ferretblogging

Sometimes Mr. A and I forget and leave stuff where the ferrets can get to it. Like on the table, the piano, the floor, in the closets, higher than we ever thought something the size of a football could jump, etc. Today it was his briefcase. Nothing says “I have a serious presentation to make and you should listen to me because I speak with authority” like needing to lint-roll your laptop first. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging

Afghanistan, Jude13 Comments

Other Shit That Should Be Obvious

Read this shit some time. Read this, as well. I tried arguing about Afghanistan with people back in 2001; naturally, no one listened. I understood that, after 9/11, we would be attacking somebody. You don’t outspend the rest of the world militarily and then not use that military when attacked. However, I did not expect an invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. I thought it was a stupid idea then, and I think it’s a stupid idea now. One of the big justifications for the war was the removal of the Taliban, that group of fundamentalist assholes who imposed their own … Continue reading Other Shit That Should Be Obvious

So Called Liberal Media3 Comments

Can I Get a HELL YEAH?

This is one of the best, most sensible things I’ve read about the newspaper “crisis” in months. Way to be, Post-Tribune. Fight for what’s yours. In Gary, it’s inspirational. “Can a newspaper work as an ESOP?” asks a FAQ on the new Web sitebuytheposttribune.com, then answers, “Yes it can,” and points to the Blethen ESOP as evidence. To getPost-Tribune employees behind an ESOP bid, the guild reminds them they have nothing to lose. “How much worse can it get?” Grimm asks. He tells me the working assumption is that sometime this fall “we’ll have a new owner and the company … Continue reading Can I Get a HELL YEAH?

Uncategorized1 Comment

Epic

From2Millionth Web Log You’ve got theGhost of GOP Past and theGhost of GOP Future…which I guess puts Jeff Sessions, Lindsey Graham and John Cornyn in the role ofGhost of GOP Present. Sure, the Democratic Party is merely the lesser of evils for the most part, but that’s some evil on the other side of the aisle. Continue reading Epic

Do Something, Propaganda, Religion, Science3 Comments

Two sides to the fight

The Texas State Board of Education enjoyed its fair share of bad press lately, and rightly so. Strike 1: In Friday night’sWorst Person in the World segment, Keith gave the finger to Goodhair for considering Cynthia Dunbar as a leading candidate to head up the SBOE. Not just any old run-of-the mill religious conservative, Dunbar is in the Obama-is-Hitler cult and also thinks (when she thinks at all) that public school is a “tool of perversion,” “unconstitutional,” and “tyrannical,” choosing to homeschool her own offspring rather than subject them to actual education. So naturally, our august governor thought she’d be … Continue reading Two sides to the fight

Law/Justice12 Comments

Charles Grassley is an Asshat, and other things you already knew

From last night’s All Things Considered, wherein Robert Siegel tried to kill me by interviewing Chuck Grassley on Sotomayor: Grassley:…[U]nder our system of checks and balances system of government it’s very important that judges judge, in other words interpret law, and that legislators make law. Siegel:But this is what Justice Samuel Alito said at his confirmation hearing, before the very committee–he said, and I quote, ‘When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender, and I … Continue reading Charles Grassley is an Asshat, and other things you already knew

Congress8 Comments

MANIMAL!

You know, I’m no fan of grafting human ears onto mice because that shit just looks weird walking around, but you know what nobody worries about? Human-meerkat hybrids. I’ve seen that show once or twice, and those crafty little fuckers are already looking for ways to rise up and conquer human civilization. Give them thumbs and access to the Hair Club for Men and it’s all over for us. A. Continue reading MANIMAL!

Uncategorized4 Comments

Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – Potpurri edition

Good morning everyone! I’m still disposing of old drums of toxic Free Republic waste, so bear with me on the topicality thing – because it’s always open season on stupid.

Before we get to the older stuff, though – Free Republic honcho Mike…er Jim Robinson posted a thread about a Daily Kos thread about a Free Republic thread.

I sense an imminent collapse of web punditry into a singularity.

One more from the left: Free Republic Pulls Thread Bashing Malia Obama

DailyKOS ^

| Fri Jul 10, 2009
| by CatM

Posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 11:53:00 AM byJim Robinson
Yesterday, theHalfrican posted a link to the Free Republic Website
where several of its regular members were bashing Malia Obama for
wearing a peace symbol t-shirt. The thread had several derogotary,
racist, and sexual remarks about Malia. It also included a picture of
Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that was accompanied with a racist
caption.
I wrote the media contact at Free Republic yesterday,
kristinn@bellatlantic.net, questioning the nature of the posters and
the site:
Hello. I am an independent writer developing a book
about the grassroots conservative movement online, of which your site,
Free Republic, is included as a primary online gathering place for
conservatives.
Could you please tell me how the owner of the site feels about posts like this one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/…
…in
which conservatives who post regularly at the site make several racist
statements about the 11-year-old daughter of President Obama for
wearing a t-shirt adorned with a peace symbol? Remarks included the
following:
“We’re being represented by a family of ghetto trash.” “Looks like a bunch of ghetto thugs. A stain on America.”
“Looks like a typical street whore.”
“What
we now are sending the ghetto over to represent us. and if so who the
hell is that flea bag who looks to be dragged from the trash dumpster.”

“you could go down any ghetto right now and see exactly the same.”
“could
you imagine what world leaders must be thinking seeing this kind of
street trash and that we paid for this kind of street ghetto trash to
go over there”
“the world must be laughing like mad right now at that we have this kind of street trash in our white house.”
“Wonder when she will have her first abortion.”
“sad isn’t it that we now have ghetto street trash over there representing us in Europe.”
“This disgusting display makes me more and more eager for the revolution.
“They
make me sick… The whole family… mammy, pappy, the free loadin’
mammy-in-law, the misguided chillin’, and especially ‘lil cuz… This
is not the America I want representin’ my peeps.”
In addition,
the thread includes a picture of Michelle Obama speaking to her
daughter with the caption, “To Entertain Her Daughter, Michelle Obama
Likes to Make Monkey Sounds.”
Before you dismiss this as only a
minority of posters at the site, out of 100 posts on that thread I
found only 1 that criticized such remarks. This is not the first time I
have seen such an exhibition of blatant racism at Free Republic by
members who regularly post there.
(snip)

To: Jim Robinson
That just proves this site doesn’t put up with
crap comments like that if the post was pulled, while KOS not only
keeps crap like that up, they encourage it.
It isn’t what was said, it is how the sites deal with it that shows the difference.

5
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 11:56:31 AM
bymnehring

I do believe you’re right.
The thread at Freeperville wasrestored after being pulled “for review”.
Out of the mouths of babes…

To: Jim Robinson
I didn’t see the original thread butI have
been frequenting this site for years and have never seen that type of
stuff posted. Is this for real?
I agree Jim. The kids didn’t pick their commie pinko pansy of a father. Nor did they choose to be put into the spotlight.
But Obama/Soetoro is fair game and so is his witch of a wife.

8
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 11:57:58 AM
byNoobRep

Apparently, NoobRep has been frequenting FR for years, but with his monitor turned off.

And now we have about twenty-five versions of “He pushed me first”, which I didn’t even let my kids get away with when they were five:

To: Jim Robinson
Yeah I’m sure the Daily Kooks removed every nasty thing said about Willow, Piper, Bristol, Track, and Trig Palin right

3
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 11:55:37 AM
bySarah Barracuda

To: Jim Robinson
Indeed.. I’ve never seen such love and devotion as was lavished on Trig and his dear Mom.
What a fine example of humanity they are.

7
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 11:57:53 AM
byxcamel
(The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it. – H. L. Mencken)
Poor kids. I hope they’re not “punished with a baby”.
Hopefully they won’t deal cocaine like the Kenyan.

23
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 12:01:29 PM
byevets
(beer)

Then they get all paranoid:

To: Jim Robinson
I wonder if some of this was the work of Obama trolls intending to make FR look bad?

17
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 12:00:42 PM
byastounded
(The democrat party is a clear and present danger to America.)

Then they get nasty:

To: Jim Robinson
The truth is that conservatives do not know
the meaning of Jesus’ words despite how much they love to use them when
it suits their inner hatred of all those who are different. Worse, they
lack basic human decency, as they demonstrate time and again. Yeah pal- but I’m Jewish. I’d rather remember the words of my sages:
If someone wakes up in the morning to kill you, wake up earlier and kill him first”
You people drew first blood.

21
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 12:01:25 PM
byNachum

I’ll just leave the irony of a Jew calling someone “you people” as an exercise for the reader…

p>And then – suddenly – one of them gets a clue, like awaking from a fever dream:

To: Jim Robinson
The recent uptick here in racist vitriol,
aimed at Barrack, Michelle and their children has made me wonder if I
belong. My objection to Obama has nothing to do with skin tone. Is the
ugly stereotype of Conservative racism true?

44
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 12:05:28 PM
byfullchroma
(I want my country back.)

Is it? Good question. Let’s ask the other posters in this thread:

To: cripplecreek
Not for nothing, But these things are said
constantly about Children of other politicans…Kids should be off
limits! 100%. Watching the left and Media try to destroy Sarah Palin
and her children..Including an infant with special needs....

I don’t feel much pitty(sic) for some bad comments on a blog you can
CHOOSE to read or not to read. .
I’m sick and tired of the LEFT telling me WHAT I CAN’T SAY.
Meanwhile they say the most dispicable(sic) things and claim FREE SPEACH(sic).
QUID PRO QUO my commie friends…

37
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 12:04:06 PM
byjakerobins
( NO)

That’s a“Yes”.

To: allmendream
“Is that any better? To call the First Lady “ghetto”?”

You can also direct that statement to the black property owners/renters on Martha’s Vineyard.

47
posted onFriday, July 10, 2009 12:06:52 PM
byRebelbase
(Obama–POtuS.)

That’s a“Hell, yes!”.

To: norton

Ya know, I was born and raised in the city, as
diverse as one can be or as diverse a neighborhood can be and I’m so
sick of all this PC crap. Personally, I think it’s from people that
have no clue what it’s like to live in a freakin’ ghetto, yeah a
ghetto. Fortunately, the area in the city I grew up in wasn’t what it’s
like today. It was getting there, which is the reason I got out 20
years ago. But it was a ghetto of sorts. And today it’s much worse. And
many people got out which is why the city is what it is today. WTH
chooses to live like that?

I don’t give a damn if I’m called a racist or anything else…some
of us not only lived in the so called ghetto, we were able to WORK our
way out of it. And I’m damn tired of paying for those who don’t get up
off their asses and work. I don’t give a damn what color/race one is
but I know the so called minorities in this Country get a free pass on
some things.

509
posted onSaturday, July 11, 2009 1:06:19 AM
byTwink

And that’s a“Fuck yeah, and what’s it to ya??”.

More (and vintage) craziness after the jumparoonie…

Continue reading “Today on Tommy T’s Obsession With The Freeperati – Potpurri edition”

Jude, So Called Liberal Media6 Comments

Again? This Stupid Country.

Sometimes, you just want to choke the assholes in the media whoget the vapors whenever people use unauthorized language. You know, the same dipshits who read the Starr Report and salivated over every salacious detail, but who think that it’s The End Of Western Civilization if you use the word “blowjob” instead of “oral encounter.” Behold: Oh, dear me. Look, I can see the Huns approaching! Bonus points for whoever gets the title reference. UPDATE: At the end of the video, Shuster apologizes, and refers to the broadcast as a “daytime, family-oriented” program. Right. ‘Cause you just know all the … Continue reading Again? This Stupid Country.

Terrorism6 Comments

Take Them at Their Word

Why is it that if you actually assume everything Bush-Cheney et al say is true, it makes things worse, not better? It was asassinations of Al Qaeda operatives. Okay, awesome! Who doesn’t want to hunt down and smoke out and hang high our nation’s fearsome enemies? Tell Congress all about it! It’s not like any of them have Osama on speed dial, no matter what Rush says, so for fuck’s sake, what’s the problem here? Right after 9/11 congressmen were falling all over themselves (and most of them still are) to cross the finish line of Most Hardcore first. You … Continue reading Take Them at Their Word