What Would Jesus NOT Do?

via Oliver Willis:

The manifestation of the all-knowing? Ummmmmm.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/NonStampCollector

Gail Collins Twitters From Texas

Gail Collins has a great op-ed at the NYT.

What about those Tea Parties from the epicenter of wasteful spending and subsidized oil checks:

"Have you ever noticed that the states where anti-tax sentiment is strongest are frequently the same states that get way more back from the federal government than they send in? Alaska gets $1.84 for every tax dollar it sends to Washington, which is a rate of return even Bernard Madoff never pretended to achieve. Yet there they were in Ketchikan waving “Taxed Enough Already!” signs and demanding an end to federal spending."

And Gov. Rick Perry and Texans wanting to secede while waiving American flags:

"Remember the time when Michelle Obama said, in a moment she spent an entire campaign trying to take back, that 2008 was the first time she could remember ever feeling really proud of her country? Can you imagine how the conservative base would have reacted if she said that it was the first time she didn’t feel like renouncing her citizenship?"

The GOP hysterics are so laughable. They have been sucking on Bush's balls for so long, I guess teabagging and wanting to runaway in shame are natural reactions.

Source: NYT

Most Texans Would Tell Gov. Perry To STFU

Typical Republican, out of touch:

Though Gov. Rick Perry (R) insists Texans are talking about secession in response to federal tax policy, a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds that 75% of Lone Star State voters would opt to remain in the United States. Only 18% would vote to secede, and 7% are not sure what they'd choose.

Can you imagine what would happen if Texas was a liberal state? I can see the Fox News headline now: "18% of Texans Are America-Hating Traitors"

Fair-weather Americans, I love it.

Source: Rasmussen

Not One Ticking Time Bomb

How many actual "ticking time bombs" scenarios are there in the ICRC report and the OLC torture memos? Not one.

When did Bush start his torture programs? In 2004. Well after the panic of 9/11.

President Bush referred to waterboarding prisoners as "asking them questions." If that's the way it is, I'd love to ask Bush some questions.

As all the brutal truth sinks in, you ponder: You couldn't make this stuff up. But life has imitated art. Andrew Sullivan draws a comparison with Orwell's 1984 and the Bush torture crew:

"It is this professionalism and bureaucratic mastery that chills in the end. Not the brutality of "the program," but the modernity and banality of the apparatus around it. As Orwell predicted, the English language had to disappear first. The president referred to waterboarding prisoners as "asking them questions." Bringing prisoners' temperatures down to hypothermia levels was simply an "alternative set of procedures." The entire process is "enhanced interrogation." Even the press has to find a way to call it merely "harsh", a term now changed to "brutal" in the NYT, even though nothing we found out yesterday was more brutal than anything we knew about before."

Source: Andrew Sullivan

Bush is the only deadly ticking time bomb America ever had. Bush is the one that removed the English language as he butchered every line. Bush spied on us. Bush is Big Brother:

Bush The Activist President

All this talk by conservatives about activist judges is complete bullshit. At least liberals try to expand people's rights and freedoms.

Look up Activist Judges:

Judicial activism is a philosophy advocating that judges should interpret the Constitution to reflect contemporary conditions and values. Most often, it is associated with (modern) liberalism in that it seeks to expand the power of government through broad interpretation of the Constitution, which can then be applied to specific issues.

The Bush Administration had the broadest and most liberal interpretations of US and International laws ever. Bush used his activism to take away freedoms, to shred 50 years of human rights and civil rights, to expand Governmental power, to eliminate Congressional oversight through Unitary Executive Theory. He was worst of the worst. He chipped away everyone else's freedoms to give himself more power.

It's a classic conservative attack: they accuse you of doing what they do even more. You can not get any more activist than George Bush.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judicial_activism

Wash Down The Bush Torture Memos With Some Tea?

Try to square these two:

1. Bush said America does not torture.

2. The interrogation methods were authorized beginning in 2002, and some were used as late as 2005 in the C.I.A.’s secret overseas prisons. The 14 approved techniques, including waterboarding, were among the Bush administration’s most closely guarded secrets, and the documents released Thursday afternoon were the most comprehensive public accounting to date of the program.

How can you have a report if it never happened? So Bush lied, his administration stood for lying. He actively lied. He was an lying activist President of massive proportion.

I am not in denial about it. Now we need to find out what happened.

"Within minutes of the release of the memos, Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that the memos illustrated the need for his proposed independent commission of inquiry, which would offer immunity in return for candid testimony."

Nice. That's the representation you get with taxation.

Source: NYT

John Oliver Reps British Tyranny

John Oliver from The Daily Show gives a history lesson to the teabaggers.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Tea Party Tyranny
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

Does China Have Teabaggers?

Stimulus is working in China. Republicans still deny there was a crisis.

China’s economy, the world’s third largest, may rebound this quarter as Premier Wen Jiabao’s 4 trillion yuan ($585 billion) stimulus package cushions the effects of the global recession.

Add it to the list of denials for the GOP. This is all just an elaborate global plan to prop up Obama's stimulus package to them.

Source: Bloomberg

Do They Know It's Torture? Of Course They Do

Via Kevin Drum:

"Reading the OLC torture memos is enough to make you ill. The techniques in question are plainly and instinctively abhorrent by any common sense definition, and the authors of the memos obviously know it. But somehow they have to conclude otherwise, so they write page after mind-numbing page of sterile legal language designed to justify authorizing it anyway. It's not torture if the victim survives it intact. It's not against the law if it takes place outside the United States. Waterboarding is OK as long as it isn't performed more than twice in a 24-hour period. Sleep deprivation of shackled prisoners for seven days at a time is permissible as long as the victim's diaper is changed frequently. And on and on and on.

Do they know this is torture? Of course they do."

You ask you're own people to give you answers you want to hear to continue doing what they know you want to do.

Source: Kevin Drum

75% Get Refunds

Considering 75% of tax returns filed get refunds, and most of them are filed before April 15, were the teabaggers celebrating getting money back from the government?

Wonder is they spent their tax refunds buying the teabags for their protest?

Over 250,000 Angry White People

Nate Silver has a rundown of the attendance at yesterday's parties:

"Based on news accounts of 306 "Tea Party" protests in different cities across the country yesterday, I get a cumulative attendance of 262,025, with a fair number of (probably mostly smaller) events still unaccounted for."

I wonder how many of the 262,025 protesters call themselves independents or voted for Obama in 2008? These are just angry white Republicans, the Palin lower percentiles, the racialist bottom feeders who hate anything that a Democrat does.

Why Obama could pass the largest tax cuts in our history and they would still be mad. To which he did, and they are.

Let's compare to single Obama campaign speeches from last year:
200,000 Berlin
100,000 St. Louis
80,000 Denver
75,000 Portland

Source: www.fivethirtyeight.com

You Can Tell A Right Winger Anything Except The Truth

Janeane Garafolo on Olbermann. These teabaggers are all about hating a black man.

"Fox News loves to foment this anti-intellectualism because that is their bread and butter".

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Source: MSNBC

The Bush Free Pass

The Bush Free Pass™ continues for conservatives. Once you start breaking the laws and shred the Constitution, why keep count?

via Andrew Sullivan:

"No mention of the torture memos appears right now on the Drudge Report (which provides news of a prank at Dominos pizza), Instapundit (which mentions the new DVD for the Lord of The Rings trilogy), Pajamas Media, or Michelle Malkin.

They are reacting to the evidence of war crimes committed by the president of the United States the way they did at the time the crimes were committed."

Never calling your own out for massive failures is their Code Of Honor.

Source: Andrew Sullivan

Why Does Texas Hate America?

Texas wants to secede. George Bush lives in Dallas. Seems the anti-America vibe is a way of life in the Lone Star State. Bush and Texas use the good name of America to get what they need, but when it comes to living up to its traditions and high standards, they try to skirt the obligations with fake bravado and a selfish "me first" attitude. Stale.

You can add Alaska and Palin to the anti-Lower 48 posse. People move to Alaska because they don't like the rest of America.

Why are the biggest starts in the GOP such haters of the USA?

Does Good News Matter To Teabaggers?

Those tea parties sure look cool now. In lock step, out of touch. Mad at the Administration that's turning this economy around, not the one that screwed it all up.

"Claims for U.S. unemployment insurance unexpectedly dropped last week and single-family housing starts stabilized in March, providing more evidence the economic slump is easing."

And the teabaggers must hate this nugget:

"In another sign the housing slump may be nearing a bottom, the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo’s confidence index rose this month to the highest level since October, the group said yesterday.

Sales of both new and existing home rose in February and regional reports suggest the gains may continue."

Still a tough road ahead, but even with all the lack of effort from the Right, we'll get through this.

Source: Bloomberg

Comparisons For People Who Failed History

Look at these oxygen thieves. If he is Chairman Maobama he is about to kill 60 million of you. I guess that fits into your comparison nicely.

Bush wrote IOUs to the Chinese for 8 years by selling our debt to them. We have to pay them back with interest.

Bless these retard-licans for they know not what they do.

Snatch Wars

When Cockney monkeys meet the Dark Side.

"Meet Brick Vader, London's Lord of the Sith. The world of Guy Ritchie's Snatch and Star Wars collide on the Eastend of the Death Star. Goody gumdrops! Enjoy it or we'll cut your f**kin' jacobs off."

Teabagging Needs Balls

How can Republicans "teabag" when they have no balls?

"The Party of No" and "No Ideas" is really the "The Party of No Balls". Fake culture wars covered by fake news channels is a cultural and intellectual castration. You've been clipped.

I think Marshall Applewhite and the Heaven's Gate crew would fit right in.

GOP's Reality Blackout

How out of touch do you have to be? The GOP suggest a reality blackout.

1. Phil Gramm says we're a nation of whiners.
2. John McCain says on the campaign trail last fall that the fundamentals of the economy are sound.
3. House Republicans torpedo the bailout as everyone else sits in fear that the market is in a tailspin.
4. Nearly every single Republican votes against the stimulus package.
5. Numerous Republican governors reject their own state's stimulus money, threatening their own local recovery and the national recovery.
6. Eric Cantor says Democrats are "overreacting" to the economic situation.
7. Michael Steele says he still sees lots of people shopping at the malls.
8. Conservatives, led by Gingrich and Armey, hold nationwide Teabagging protests today in opposition to the stimulus package that was necessary to stop us from going into a depression

The only cohesive message they have is that they don't want to do anything. These top GOP leaders are saying from their plush offices, "you're on your own".

Source: AmericaBlog

Conservatives Go Nuts For Tea Bagging

MSNBC's David Shuster is pretty funny:

"Tea bagging is not a spontaneous uprising.... The people who came up with it are a familiar circle of Republicans, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, both of whom have firm support from right wing financiers and lobbyists. [...]

"We can only speculate why widespread tea bagging made [Fox News' Neil] Cavuto think of the Million Man march, unless he got them confused with Dick Armey.

"And in Cavuto's defense, if you are planning simultaneous tea bagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey."

You may want to bookmark UrbanDictionary.com for your next manufactured event. Is there a Joe The Teabagger yet?



Source: ThinkProgress

The Tea Parties, Brought To You By Billionaires And Fox

Can't wait to see how the "grassroots" tea parties, funded by Republican billionaires and lobbyist, coupled with Pajamas Media's heavy investment in the events and FreedomWorks' coordinating website, then promoted 24/7 by Fox News, turn out.

Kind of sums up the Republican mindset, about 200 years behind the times. Stealing unrelated ideas from 1773. As Paul Krugman, describing the tea parties, put it:

"Republicans have become embarrassing to watch."

Tell me again, what does taxation without representation by the King of England have to do with today's democratically elected government. Tea was dumped because England was making money on the taxes that were not voted on. What does that have to do with our current Congress and how are laws are passed? The Tea Tax went back to England. The taxes raised now are spent in America on Americans.

If the conservatives were looking for a historical image to get crazy white people fired up about half-truths and conspiracies, then focus all the problems of the day on a single person, usually a black person, they could have just called it a lynching and been more honest about it.

Reagan The Snitch

Just to give some perspective on the current conservative patriotism, Ronnie Reagan was a FBI snitch during the Red Scare of the 1950s. He snuck around behind his friends' and SAG members' backs and destroyed their lives.

An article from 2001:

It was revealed that the future President played another role as well: as a secret FBI informant, code name T-10. According to an article published in the San Jose Mercury News, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that Reagan and his first wife, Actress Jane Wyman, provided federal agents with the names of actors they believed were Communist sympathizers.

Reagan the opportunist saw this as a way to destroy his personal enemies by blackballing them. Great guy. That same opportunism runs throughout the modern conservative movement. Some things never change.

Source: Boing Boing

The Growing Right Wing Paranoia

Glenn Greenwald on the Right's sudden concern about government surveillance:

"When you cheer on a Surveillance State, you have no grounds to complain when it turns its eyes on you. If you create a massive and wildly empowered domestic surveillance apparatus, it's going to monitor and investigate domestic political activity. That's its nature."

You reap what you sow.

Conservatives were not concerned about the scale and scope of the Bush-Cheney surveillance state. "If you have nothing to hide, what are you worried about?", they would say. They loved the Executive Unitary Theory then. Now, a complete 180. With Obama in charge, they now consider the Constitution to be a "subversive manifesto."

Greenwald notes the sudden change from the Right Wing bobble heads:

"I was in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the 2008 GOP Convention and witnessed first-hand massive federal police raids and "preventive" arrests of peaceful, law-abiding protesters and even the violent arrests of journalists, and I don't recall any complaints from Jonah Goldberg or Michelle Malkin. I don't recall Glenn Reynolds or Mark Steyn complaining that the FBI, for virtually the entire Bush administration, was systematically abusing its new National Security Letters authorities under the Patriot Act to collect extremely invasive information, in secret, about Americans who had done nothing wrong."

For eight years you sat on your hands. Your words are hollow.

Source: Glenn Greenwald/Salon

If Obama Were Republican

If Obama were a Republican, this graph would be on Fox News.



Source: Andrew Sullivan

DHS Warns Of Rightwing Extremism

Must be nice when your conservative right wing rhetoric is in line with white supremacy groups' and militias' recruitment propaganda. Your mean-spirited message resonates with the unsophisticated and uneducated.

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in "rightwing extremist activity," saying the economic recession, the election of America's first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias. [...]

The nine-page document was sent to police and sheriff's departments across the United States on April 7 under the headline, "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment."

It's like Fox News and the Malkins and Becks of the world are rooting for another Tim McVeigh homegrown nut. All the "country first" and patriotism is an act they contort to justify their shallow and meaningless messages used to scare their idiot following.

If McCain was in, they would say follow your leader 100%. With Obama, it's 100% against. Extremes are always the worst way to balance anything. The contradicting nature that runs throughout modern conservatism highlights this opportunism that comes with having no real message or preventative plan, just fear.

DHS can just start with these upcoming "tea parties", which is just code for angry white people [you will not see one brown or black person at one]. It's not like the Palin rallies were not obvious enough. Just monitor them and you'll find your next hateful, paranoid Fox-spouting wacko.

Source: Washington Monthly

Fox Promotes Tea Parties As Their "Duty"

Why is it called News? Just call it the Fox Conservative Opinion Channel. Host Stuart Varney is all too obvious, “It’s now my great duty to promote the tea parties. Here we go!”

The Bush Six To Be Indicted For Torture Policies

Now we know why McCain was jabbing at Spain during the elections last year.

Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo.

The six defendants—in addition to Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David Addington, and former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith—are accused of having given the green light to the torture and mistreatment of prisoners held in U.S. detention in “the war on terror.”

"Accused"? Sounds like a slam dunk although Obama seems to be pushing back:

The Spanish prosecutors advised the Americans that they would suspend their investigation if at any point the United States were to undertake an investigation of its own into these matters. They pressed to know whether any such investigation was pending. These inquiries met with no answer from the U.S. side.

What's to investigate? They have all the documents and legal opinions they authored with all their signatures. I wonder when Rumsfeld enters the mix? He signed off on all of this.

Source: Daily Beast

Franken Ruled Winner

Far be it from any Republican to follow a court ruling when it is against them, here is the latest they can conspire against:

A Minnesota court has confirmed that Al Franken (D) won the 2008 U.S. Senate race against Norm Coleman (R), the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Coleman's appeal is not reflective of his chances, they are just the motions.

Fair play, just remember all those Conservative hacks who were railing on Gore back in 2000. The "let it go" posse who bullied the Presidential outcome. I'm sure they are no where to be seen now, telling Coleman to take up a fight.

The people of Minnesota have Representatives like Michele Brachman and only one Senator currently. Maybe they deserve all the bullshit they get for electing those fools. They elected Jesse "the Body" Ventura Governor, afterall.

Source: MN Star Tribune