Following up on John’s “Mission Accomplished” post, check out the second from-the-top story at Halperin:
The hosts of the daytime show aren’t smiling at Obama’s chuckles about the economy in his “60 Minutes” interview.
Hasselbeck: “Nobody’s laughing… It’s not a joke.”
That’s right, one of the most important developments in American politics today, at time when a complex controversial plan to shore up our banks is being unveiled, while American troops are occupying two countries, while the economy is plunging into the worst depression since WW II…is what fucking Elizabeth Hasslebeck thinks about Obama’s jokes.
Is it any wonder we’re in such bad shape?
Hannah
It’s pretty obvious that the president was smiling/laughing at either 1) Kroft’s stupid questions or 2) the absurdity of the situation he finds himself and our country in as he starts his term. Or both.
Better to laugh/smile than tear one’s hair out, scream or lose one’s mind.
Far sadder was the 60 Minutes story about the mentally ill musician. No laughing matter that.
KG
I miss being able to tell slightly off color jokes. Well, actually, I don’t because I do it all the time. I miss the fact that people use to understand them to be jokes and wouldn’t seek to send me to The Hague for violating human rights.
joe from Lowell
One week ago, Robert Gibbs made a gaffe – it was labeled a gaffe, and the usual suspects harrumphed about it – during a press conference.
No looking: can anyone tell me what that "gaffe" was?
It was just at the beginning of last week.
Joshua Norton
Maybe he should have smirked about it like her president did.
Punchy
She throws more off-the-mark bombs than her husband.
chuck
@joe from Lowell
Comparing Dick Cheney to Rush Limbaugh, correct?
What I’m finding fantastic about that is, that’s now considered a grave insult.
Tom
Politico-Drudge are pushing this as story-of-the-day instead of the substance of the Obama interview with 60 minutes. Why help them out?
DougJ
Now that’s harsh.
JenJen
@joe from Lowell: Something about Cheney being part of the Republican cabal, and how Rush wasn’t available?
Earth-shattering, wasn’t it? Devastating, huh? :-)
Hunter Gathers
My one true hope is that all of this stupidity will kill off most of the MSM. I could personnally give a rat’s ass if every newspaper and cable news outlet went the way of the Dodo. What good is ‘freedom of the press’ when the press uses thier freedom to essentially not do thier job? Why talk about the huge problems the country has right now when we can focus on the comments spewed forth by some vapid piece of conservative eye candy? I mean, aren’t Hasselbeck’s views more important than the financial crisis? These pig fuckers are as lazy as they are stupid.
smiley
Finally watched the 60 Minutes clip and, good dog, what a tempest in a teapot.
TheHatOnMyCat
The preachers are all out preaching to their choirs.
Let them. Nobody who saw the interview and was paying attention would think that Obama was laughing at the economy. He was laughing at himself as he faces strong opposition to his plans.
Hasselbeck? We are down to quoting Hasselbeck?
Okay. I have a neighbor with Alzheimer’s who might chime in later.
JenJen
@Tom: Talking about how ludicrous this talking point is —> opposite of "helping them out," IMO.
John S.
Ouch. My wife doesn’t call her the Alan Colmes of The View for nothing.
jnfr
This is so stupid, and Andrea Mitchell and Chuck Todd just had to spend five full minutes replaying the clip and worrying that Obama isn’t serious enough. Idiots.
joe from Lowell
Good, chuck.
How many non-political junkies do you think can remember that?
The GOPers are running themselves ragged, chasing these day-to-day little eruptions. They can’t keep a sustained message going for more than two days, and are happy to completely contradict the message they’ve been pushing if a minor event one day gives them a change to launch a zinger. In the end, nobody can remember anything they said.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama keeps plugging along in a disciplined manner, sticking to his longterm strategy.
OMG, I totally think Obama has to suspend his campaign, too.
evie
Halperin is obsessed with the View. Same as they are with Drudge.
Jim
What are the odds Steve Kroft (or Hasselbeck, or Barbara Walters) were in the audience for Bush’s "Lookin’ fer WMDs in the Oval Office" skit a few years back?
Libby
Of course, I posted on this today too. The way I see it Kroft sucker punched journalism right out of the ring with that ridiculously inane question.
Meaningful journalism is well and truly dead or least brain damaged beyond repair.
TheHatOnMyCat
Let ’em. The reason why Obama is doing a media blitz is to basically go around the talking heads, and he is quite good at doing that.
The people don’t listen to Andrea Mitchell. Nobody here ever has. Why would they start now?
Face
Ok, Israeli apologists, use your best spin
I’m sure O’Rielly and his ilk will be condemming this, right? Right?
TheFountainHead
Tomorrow Halperin is going to tell us what the Jonas Brothers think of Geithner’s plan.
Cat Lady
@Hunter Gathers:
Agreed that the MSM is authoring their own demise. Good riddance. They won’t even know that it’s happened, because the courtiers are only tweeting for each other now.
Elie
— Its just an old fashioned dominance move to try to control him (Obama) — get him to be self conscious and therefore pushable to their opinions. He knows that. It won’t work. He knows that too but they have to try — old Beltway stuff… want to have him back peddle and uhm and ah and apologize and restate himself so that they can find another thing to poke a hole in and get him on the run and in retreat.. That’s why Croft’s style was unwarm and slightly pushy — his mission is as stated above — not to help reassure or inform the nation but to get this guy on the run…
NonyNony
@joe from Lowell:
Admit it – you cut and pasted this from an old comment about the McCain campaign circa last October, didn’t you?
(I have to say, I have been struck by how much the Republican machine seems to be continuing to do the same things they did during the McCain presidential campaign. It’s kind of mind-boggling. Partly because there isn’t a campaign going on anymore, so it’s hard to see what the purpose of it is. But mostly because it didn’t work a few months ago. Normally when I try to do something and it doesn’t get me to where I want to be, I start thinking about doing something different.)
gnomedad
Zat’s not funny! … hoho, die Flipperwald gersputt!!
Darius
Meanwhile, Gallup has Obama’s approval rating at a healthy 65%.
The American people aren’t as stupid as Halperin and his ilk think they are.
Elie
NonyNony — but you don’t try something different if you actually don’t know where you want to be — and that is the Republican party right now – run by people of marginal intellect and dominated by idealogues and religious reactionaries — they haven’t a clue about much except making it up as they go along — just like they did during the Pres election for McCain
Dork
Charles Todd is quickly becoming the David Gregory of WH reporting. Vapid, breathless nonsense proffered as important, breaking news. I watch him almost daily on Today and I simply cannot believe how stupid redunkulous his "important" stories are.
His transformation from solid pre-election go-to analyst to NBC corporate shrill has been just stunningly fast.
HyperIon
@Jim:
exactly what i thought. there was no question what Bush meant and yet the media laughed out loud.
and you’ll read about it here!
Hunter Gathers
Just wait until Holder releases more of the torture memos this week. The MSM and the GOP will collectively scream ‘distraction!’ for about two days, accusing the Administration of creating ‘a diversion to turn attention away from the economic crisis’. Besides, it’s not like Bush/Cheney actually tortured people. These detainees only suffured under ‘enhanced interrogation’. Only whiney liberal ‘critics’ consider it torture.
Michael
Here is a fun exercise – state what have you heard from the GOP since inauguration day that sticks in your mind about the following:
1. A plan to shore up the banks and strengthen manufacturing sectors of the economy;
2. A plan to stabilize housing;
3. A plan and commitment to contain the costs of health care AND health insurance; and
4. A plan to re-energize the middle class.
Little Dreamer
@Punchy:
Somebody actually married that whiny thing? Please, tell me it isn’t so.
sarah
@evie: rachaelworkman (presumably Rachael Workman) over at The Page seems to do all the postings on The View. for whatever that’s worth.
Michael
Less daily punditry time and shameless self-promotion, more time digging.
Michael
She is very tappable, until she starts talking.
passerby
…so…why are we even talking about this?
Joshua Norton
@Michael:
Drum roll:
TAX CUTS! ! !
JenJen
Since we know that the MSM is (for the most part) a short-sighted, jealous, insular and snippy bunch, I also sense that some of the push-back against Obama’s 60 Minutes interview last night has more to do with Steve Kroft Envy than the President himself.
I can only imagine the Gregorys and Dowds and Snuffleupaguses of the world, trying to figure out why POTUS has seemingly chosen Kroft as his go-to interviewer. Some of this sentiment, in my mind, is trickling down.
Next (if they haven’t already), they’ll just go ahead and attack Kroft. Wait for it… it’s coming.
Dork
Dunno. Saw her on Leno and thawt she was a bit Crisco.
TenguPhule
Well there’s the problem right there.
Half the country didn’t see the interview and will get their information from second hand sources.
And half of them don’t pay attention unless a white woman is missing.
Laura W
HA!
Obama? Too unserious for his shirt?
"Gallows humor" indeed, folks.
(Edit: Add the funny at #18, 22, and any other post that is about to make me chuckle. This is one good reason why most of us voted Obama. Dude values humor.)
Libby
FWIW, I think Joe from Lowell has a good point. It’s just the daily media obsession being used to avoid having to think about the substance of Obama’s remarks. This "laugh-gaffe" most probably doesn’t even register with the average Jakes. If they watched the interview, they’ll understand how empty the coverage is. If they didn’t bother to watch it, they aren’t going to care whether Obama laughed.
TenguPhule
Why do you hate your braincells?
Perry Como
Who the fuck is Elizabeth Hasslebeck? Seriously, is this someone I should know about? Why should I care what she has to say?
Brachiator
@NonyNony:
I think the Republicans would say that they are sticking to their core values.
But your are dead on that it is a loser strategy.
By the way, I am somewhat surprised that Hasselbeck is still on "The View." My problem with her is not that she is conservative, but she so clearly gets input from GOP strategists and passes off their suggestions as her personal opinions. She is of course not the only media personality who engages in this kind of thing, but it definitely violates the premise of the view that the show is about women with their own independent take on the world.
ImJohnGalt
@Dork:
As in "Fat in the can"?
Libby
@HyperIon:
The first thing I thought of was the WMD skit as well. And then I remembered all the times that Bush smirked his way through press avails and laughed at really inappropriate points in his remarks. What I couldn’t remember is the media ever even mentioning it. Only the lefty blogs were pointing it out then.
IOKIYAR rules will never die.
The Populist
Hey Lizzie,
Nobody IS laughing you harpy. Why is it all these cons can do is fake their outrage? Do they have any ideas or ANYTHING to contribute to the national debate.
Nope. Fucking harpies is what they are.
GSD
The Twitteratti will do anything to keep the rabble from going all French Revolution on their asses.
-GSD
guest
critics nail him for being too doomsday, and accuse him of talking down the economy. or they nail him for being too optimistic and not cognizant of our dire straits. sometimes both at the same time. obama will forever be hit from both sides of an argument. unprincipled criticism should be recognized for its opportunism and ignored. it’s just so tedious. but i’ll settle for ridicule.
Tom
@JenJen:
I disagree, Jen. The game is link-whoring. They love inciting the left blogosphere with outrageous shit and sit back and laugh about it while they count their page views. You think they give a shit what we think of them? Nope, they don’t. Politico is driving the story of the day, and inciting the left blogosphere is a big part of that.
Ash Can
I posted on this in another thread, and I’ll repeat it here: This is why so many people are complaining that Obama isn’t communicating well enough on the economy and what he and his administration are doing about it. He’s continually explaining things clearly and sensibly, without going into more detail than the average shmoe can easily understand, in venue after venue — press conferences, town halls, news programs, weekly addresses, Leno, etc. If you happen to see the actual interview or speech, then you’ve gotten the message. If you wait to get the summary from a secondary source, though, you’re going to be SOL — you’re going to get "Special Olympics" or "punch drunk" instead. The message itself will have hit a dead end, and has to be repeated yet again.
@Dork:
LOL! I’ve always liked that expression.
NonyNony
@Perry Como:
She’s married to some football player. And she’s one of a number of hosts of a daytime talkshow (The View) moderated by Barbara Walters.
No.
Only if you like mocking fairly stupid people. The best clips will show up on "The Soup" on E!, though one of her co-hosts is a creationist who likes to ramble on and on about stupid stuff, so when they show up on "The Soup" at all, she’s usually the one who gets the clip. (Sometimes Whoopie Goldberg gets the clip, because she also has a tendency to ramble on about stuff and will at times shove her own foot deep down her throat. But usually is the really dumb one.)
Occasionally her stupid statements will show up on YouTube for a while, but it’s no fun mocking stupid people on YouTube. It’s like shooting fish in the frozen fish section of a supermarket.
@Brachiator:
Huh. My problem with her is that she’s an idiot who has a TV show, so people don’t seem to realize how dumb she is. But of course, I have a list of people who that applies to, so it’s more of a problem with TV in general, rather than anything about her specifically…
passerby
Let’s head the wingnuts off at the pass by playing "The Talking Points/ Headline Game". Since they make this shit up as they go along, we can beat them to the punch by making it up for them. They’re predictable and shallow so this should be a cake walk.
When we see a "gaff", predict the headline or talking point. Points to be awarded for having the closest verbatim prediction.
Rainy
The media likes to talk about things, like this laugh and etc. The American people are not thinking twice about this kind of stuff. It just seems like people take what is constant chatter on the cable news as public outrage or something. It is so far from the truth. Obama’s ratings are in the mid 60’s, because people know it will take time to get things done.
TenguPhule
Because a thousand idiots like her rule the airwaves and control the message feeding to the ignorant masses.
The GOP longterm plan has always been Idiotocracy.
Surreal American
@John S.:
I’m not a Colmes fan by any definition, but really, that’s too harsh to Alan.
Colmes wrote at least one book that I know about. The jury’s still out on whether or not Hasselbeck has even read one.
sus
Halperin is right. We should be Teabagging. Now that’s serious.
smiley
@GSD:
Glenn Beck has been invoking the French revolution lately on his radio show. Of course, in his version, democrats in congress are the French aristocracy and his we-surround-themers are the French people.
guest
@joe from Lowell:
what was the question again?
jonas
When Obama gets up in front of the press corps at a White House dinner and does a dumb sketch making fun of people whose houses are getting foreclosed on, or who have lost their jobs, then maybe people like Hasselbeck will have a point. Until then, they can just sit back and enjoy a big, steaming mug of STFU.
The Moar You Know
@joe from Lowell: Who’s Robert Gibbs?
JenJen
@Tom: I’ve heard this for years and I just disagree. Not making fun of the media when they’re being predictably stoopid would be a missed opportunity.
It’s like that age-old message board argument: "Don’t post links to Drudge or you’ll give him more hits!" As if Drudge would be buried, if only message board commenters wouldn’t link to him.
I think the commenters here are savvy enough to be able to handle a Politico or RedStateBrigade or Drudge link from time to time, I really do. These memes don’t write themselves, you know.
Oh, wait… :-)
TenguPhule
Glenn Beck has a date with Ms. Gull as an enemy of the People.
Michael
I’ve enjoyed this video a lot today.
Slightly NSFW – The Dirty Fucking Hippies Were Right
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKEZoY-TMG4
dmsilev
@Michael:
That’s easy.
Tax Cuts.
Tax Cuts.
Tax Cuts.
Tax Cuts and stopping The Gay from taking over society.
-dms
NonyNony
@smiley:
And I rack up another data point on my "Glenn Beck is too stupid to understand what he’s doing" scorecard. Seriously – the man is a multimillionaire and he’s flogging a "French Revolution" narrative? He might want to take a step back and see which side had the multimillionaires, which side didn’t, and which of those two sides ended up with their heads in wicker baskets.
(And it’s another data point for my "You don’t have to be smart to be on teevee" scorecard as well. Oh wait – I see I already had Beck listed. In bold. And underlined. And circled. And with multiple asterisks….)
JL
It seems like yesterday that we had a post up discussing whether or not President Obama was to angry. What a difference 24 hours makes.
GOP memo number 1: He’s not a communicator
GOP memo number 2: He’s angry
GOP memo number 3: He laughs
What will the memo be on Wednesday morning?
Surreal American
So much for the Burkean aspect of American conservatism.
gbear
Todd was a guest on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me a couple of weeks ago. He basically said that politics was all a game (he used to do sports) and the thing that he finds most fascinating is who sells their message most successfully. The message (or the truth, as it may be) is secondary, the success at putting it over is what turns his crank. He’s predisposed to listen to the noisy wankers.
I wanted to post a link but WWDTM doesn’t have the 3/14 show on their archives yet.
Svensker
Actually, Elizabeth is married to Tim Hasslebeck, who is a not very well-known Giant. Tim’s brother Matt is the QB for the Seattle Seahawks.
So, yes, she’s married to a football player, but not THE football player.
Ash
@gbear: I can’t believe people ever thought Todd was a worthy heir to the MTP spot. Not that Gregory is in any way competent, but Todd just likes playing with maps and being lame.
JD Rhoades
Remember when being upbeat and positive was regarded as a good thing?
TenguPhule
@NonyNony
Isn’t your card a solid line of black by now?
JenJen
@smiley:
You’re not making this up, are you? Shite.
Hey, is anyone watching Gibbs’ presser right now? OMGZ HE LAFFED.
neil
Is it any wonder that Mark Halperin’s career is tanking?
Brachiator
@jonas:
Of course, Obama gets criticized for NOT attending the Gridiron Dinner (from the NYT political blog entries for March 13):
Obama instead went to Camp David with his family. So he missed yuckfests like the following:
JL
@smiley: So not only does he not understand the French Revolution but he also sold out Burke.
guest
@dmsilev:
even that’s a lie. i just found out grassley pushed to raise taxes on college funds in ’06. who knows what other small bore regressive tax increase they’ve pushed through under the radar.
pelosi’s recent push to tax bonuses was savvy in terms of boxing republicans and undermining their strongest card. that vote is going to come back to haunt them.
TenguPhule
The Kings and Queens of the Media are accountable to No Man!
Tom
@JenJen:
I don’t disagree with you in principle. I’m just saying it’s part of their game. Here’s Jay Rosen on the Ideology of Fluff:
See, Politico takes that little slice of trivia every day and rides it for all it’s worth. We just fall into their trap every single day it seems. Why do it? I see the liberal blogosphere becoming more and more like its own echo chamber, at the expense of intelligent discourse.
Joshua Norton
Any chance of them using a real tank to hurry it along?
Has anyone who signs his paycheck ever noticed that he makes Bill Kristol look positively erudite when it comes to matters of politics? We’d get better informed coverage from Miss Cleo and a dart board.
jibeaux
Eh, I’m totally not above watching Oprah and I think Ellen is great. I’d even watch Martha Stewart if I had absolutely nothing else to do. But I would skip a meal a day for a month before I would watch the View, it just sounds too awful and pointless. Good grief. The sketches lampooning it on SNL are quite enough.
JenJen
@Joshua Norton:
Actually, I always figured the Miss Cleo Method is exactly how Halperin reaches his conclusions.
Senyordave
This whole thing just reinforces my opinion that the closest thing to journalists on TV are Stewart and Colbert.
Joey Bananas
> Politico-Drudge are pushing this as story-of-the-day instead of the substance of the Obama interview with 60 minutes. Why help them out?
LOL.
What substance was there to that interview? I didn’t know whether I was watching 60 Minutes or Entertainment Tonight.
If a Republican president or congressperson had gone around showing off his/her "digs" – the work out rooms, playground, &c. the way Obama did, the press would have had a field day pointing out that life of luxury in the midst of economic crisis.
guest
guess who forget to take their crazy pills?
http://nomoremister.blogspot.com/2009/03/treasonous-pastor-strikes-again-main.html
Joey Bananas
> pelosi’s recent push to tax bonuses was savvy in terms of boxing republicans and undermining their strongest card. that vote is going to come back to haunt them.
Oh, yeah… after the democrats initially voted for the amendment allowing the bonuses in the first place…
savvy = driving home the mere possibility that the gov’t can swoop in and take 99% of someone’s earning any time it wants to?
Michael
For a second there, I thought that we’d had a major resurfacing of Gene Chapman or Roy Moore (or for amusement’s sake, both).
smiley
@JenJen:
@JL:
I might have it a little wrong. It might be "liberals" in general rather than congressional Democrats. He may not understand the French revolution but he is using it as an example of the people rising up against the elites. We (the people) surround them (liberals).
Machina
@Joey Bananas:
after the democrats initially voted for the amendment allowing the bonuses in the first place
There was no amendment to allow the bonuses. The bonuses were allowed via the language in the initial payout to AIG by Treasury back in Sept.
There was an amendment to cap pay and bonuses added into the ARRA, but was stripped for legal concerns.
Tom
@Joey Bananas:
LOL. Too bad, and Obama tried so hard to keep it simple, so simple minds could understand. Ah well, we smarter people can only dumb it down so much. Funny, my sixth grader got the substance of it. What does that make you? LOL
jibeaux
If you forgot to take your crazy pills, wouldn’t you be sane?
guest
@Joey Bananas:
those bonuses were pre-baked. even the wyden/snow amendment wouldn’t have blocked all of them.
Michael
And if anybody is unaware of who Gene was…..
http://genechapman.blogspot.com/
The Libertarian and Constitution Parties will sure miss his…energy.
This blog has a load of really funny snark at Gene.
http://www.chapmanforpresident.blogspot.com/
pharniel
OT but NPR had a good story on how egypt and other middle eastern countries hare having problems with internet / tv mullahs
"SOmeone can just get a webpage and say anything! it’s horrible!" because they just issue hudnreds of random fatwahs (religious rulings).
HA! they’ve got televangelists! they’re so boned.
ksec
Theyll use any chance they can to attack Obama.
Personally I try to ignore these clowns.
JenJen
@smiley: So it’s just a coincidence that Joe Scarborough uses Delacroix as his Twitter background?
Whew!
The Populist
Her claim to fame is appearing on fucking Survivor and then marrying a balding backup QB named Tim Hasselbeck (whose brother is the Seattle Seahawks’ Matt Hasselbeck).
Saddest is this harpy jerkwad (she’s not hot, she’s dumb as a rock) has avoided the reality tv curse to become a fixture on the View.
Wow. We are all doomed.
Ash Can
Shorter Joey Bananas: "Hey, I’m not paying attention either."
different church-lady
Stop reading "The Page". The Page exists for no other reason than to drive you nuts. It’s written by the kids on the bus, for the kids on the bus. Nobody else gives two figs.
Dan
In response to some of the comments upthread, we’re not supposed to remember the specifics of Obama’s chuckles or Gibbs’ gaffe; we’re supposed to remember the general perception these anecdotes are designed to create. Then, when the perception becomes accepted, arguing the specifics becomes futile because "everybody knows that…." For crying out loud, I can’t be the only person who remembers the press’s "Gore the liar" efforts?
The Populist
Uhhh, genius…if MY tax dollars were used to bail out these scumsuckers you are damn right the government (as majority shareholder) can ask for that money back and can legislate it too.
When Bush spied on Americans, it was okay because he wasn’t "liberal." I can keep going on and on about precedents set by your heroes GW Bush and the Rightie Congress yet NOW it matters.
NOW you care about precedent. Funny stuff. Haha.
The Populist
I will say this as simply as possible for slow right wing dingbats:
The "precedent" of taxing AIG for the bonus money is not going to expand beyond that UNLESS the company in question took a bunch of TAX PAYER DOLLARS to stay in business.
Punchline: Fuck you if you are going to hand out bonuses to a-holes who got us into this mess and use MY money to do it.
guest
@Joey Bananas:
savvy = driving home the mere possibility that the gov’t can swoop in and take 99% of someone’s earning any time it wants to?
you guys make up your mind. i thought conservatives didn’t support welfare. those bonuses were tax payer funded.
TheHatOnMyCat
@joe from Lowell:
Exactly, precisely right.
Luckily, though, the blogs are here to act as archivists for their horseshit and focus undue attention on it every day.
Instead of being the anti-media, the blogs have become media camp-followers.
If I were the media and the blogs, I’d be looking over my shoulder for the next thing in information flow. Once an alternative is available, the media and blogs are going the way of daily newspapers.
The Populist
Another point of order:
Righties, if you are so concerned about Obama chuckling at Steve Kroft, think hard a-holes:
Your hero GW Bush chuckled, smirked and joked about many more inappropriate things than this. Gee where do I start…
2 that come to mind: The unfunny WMD video and the famous golfing video where he was asked about Osama Bin Laden and he asks the reporter to watch his golf swing while snickering.
The Populist
Joe The Plumber, hero of the right bragged he used Welfare. He was for it before being against it. Funny, the right love to talk the talk but they sure as HELL don’t walk the walk.
guest
@Joey Bananas:
another area of vulnerability is that republicans are on record opposing caps on executive pay. but as soon as the wind changes direction, run for the doors to vote to block bonuses. ah, the good ole days. remember when conservatives used to crow they knew what they stood for?
The Moar You Know
@The Populist: Apply the color bar to welfare recipients and the GOP would promptly become its biggest supporters.
Can’t be having those filthy Negroes getting a free ride, you know.
someguy
If conservatives weren’t racist and sexist and generally against any benefits for people with disabilities (and for that matter not trolling for strange in airport bathrooms) I’d be more inclined to take their concern trolls over mildly off-colored jokes and other people’s laughter seriously.
Shawn ins ShowMe
It’s already here — The Real Shaq on Twitter. Once the season is over and he can commit full-time, the blogs are done.
JL
According to Huffington Post
Who the hell is Tammy Bruce?
kay
@Tom:
The substance part of the interview was the part where the current President said that the former Vice President had adopted a deeply radical and twisted view of the Constitution, and used that fringe interpretation to hold people indefinitely without charges.
In so many words. That’s what the President said.
No wonder they’re concentrating on the chuckling. I would too.
JL
Here’s the link to the Tammy Bruce story.
Comrade Darkness
@The Populist, just like Thomas. Used affirmative action to get his education, now hates on it. Kinda how Bush got into Yale, only that was affirmative action for idiot children of wealthy parents.
kay
@JL:
I think Michelle Obama is really popular. I didn’t predict that, and I’m surprised by it. I thought she was probably too confident and blunt to be broadly popular as a First Lady.
Look for the ladies of the Right to go stark, raving mad. I’m guessing they didn’t see it coming either.
Shawn ins ShowMe
Looks like Coulter and Malkin have company. Behold, the New Witches of Eastwick.
Ash Can
And while the media folks are running around wringing their hands over Obama chuckling on camera, Michele Bachmann is on the radio calling for armed insurrection against the government. If this doesn’t earn her a little visit from the guys in the black suits, I’ll be genuinely concerned.
Rick Taylor
Right wingers are beginning to sound like someone out of a Black Adder or Monty Python sketch. The tea they were sending through the mail wasn’t reaching it’s targets in congress due to security fears, so now they’re sending pictures of tea bags, or just the label.
JenJen
Speaking of things worthy of a chuckle:
The First Lady of 2012? Meghan McCain Talks To Mrs. Bobby Jindal
JL
@Ash Can: If John is still keeping a list of whacko comments, her comment should definitely be added.
kay
@Rick Taylor:
I hate to say it, but they’re really morons. You can’t put an envelope containing a flimsy paper bag full of dry particulate material through a postal service sorting machine and then get it delivered to the White House, or Congress.
Christ.
They missed the whole anthrax thing? I mean, several people DIED.
Ricky Bobby
So let me get this straight… The Repubs are making waves because the Dems aren’t being PC enough?
….
Irony Meter is done broke fer good this time…
Oh, and BTW, Shrub never made jokes at inappropriate times did he? Like laughing off the Iraqi who was screaming about dead children when he threw his shoe at him? ‘Cause that was just HELLA funny…
I guess Obama isn’t "folksy" enough.
smiley
@Rick Taylor: The dog on cat pic is hilarious.
Those morons probably don’t know what the Boston Tea Party was about. They probably think the protesters were throwing boxes of Lipton’s into Boston Harbor. Now days, they protest tax decreases with representation.
The Moar You Know
@Ash Can: I read it. While I find Bachmann about as loathesome as it gets, she is not calling for "armed insurrection against the government". She is being a full-on drama queen, however. That’s some choice whiny-ass-tittie-baby rhetoric she’s got going on there.
The real question about Bachmann – who the fuck elected her? Christ, remind me to stay out of that part of the country.
Persia
Since they kept talking about ‘no terrorist attacking on American soil since 9/11,’ I’d say yes.
kay
@Persia:
Sure. Take this mail tub full of ripped-up envelopes leaking brown dust over and drop it at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Wear your respirator!
Even their protests are poorly considered and insane.
Tom
@kay:
Exactly, kay. Obama called Cheney out as a torturer on 60 minutes, and all we got was a couple of posts about punch-drunk. My point exactly.
Who’s driving the news agenda? Not the liberals, that’s for sure. Greg Sargent, to his credit, did have a post up.
Did Obama Accuse Dick Cheney Of Torture? | The Plum Line
kay
@Tom:
I was cheering. Screw them. Let’s talk about it.
woody
At #6, chuck asks…
The important question is: to whom?
this is gonna be a LOONNNGGG 4 years, friends.
But then it will be over, and we can spend our declining years in the kind care of the fascisti…
Dork
I hate to say it, but the anthrax letters were not some "attack" on the US. As much as Dunkin’ Black whines about it, it’s just not an attack.
And after I apply my tinfoil hat, I’ll tell you that, personally, I believe it was govt orchestrated.
Ash Can
@The Moar You Know: To me, saying that she wants the people of Minnesota "armed and dangerous" on a certain issue crosses the line. There’s bloviation, there’s insult, and there’s hyperbole, and it’s all part of the game. This, however, goes a little too far. I’m not saying she should be arrested for it or anything that Draconian. But I do believe someone should remind her that there are certain kinds of speech that not only aren’t protected by law, they’re proscribed by it.
The Moar You Know
@Ash Can: The phrase "keeping your powder dry" must really chap your hide as well.
The Populist
Lesbian activist who used to have a syndicated show in Los Angeles on KFI. She was once a hardcore lib feminist but since 9/11 switched to a more conservative loudmouth pretending to be "independent."
Gee
It’s almost as if she’s part of the same crowd that was criticizing Obama for being too downtrodden a month or two ago.
ps. That isn’t Matt Hasselbeck’s wife. She’s actually married to his little brother, who washed out of the NFL after a half-dozen years riding the bench. Threw for a total of 1,000 yards in his career. Not has-been but never-was.
camchuck
@Senyordave:
Since the Republicans and idiots like Mark Halperin are destroying political satire by living it, it makes since that JS and SC fill the void of close-to-journalism.
If you think about it, edited clips of Obama laughing off various economic problems would be a funny TDS segment. Instead its the message of the day by the fucking opposition party and traditional media.
Jrod
Right, cuz Bush never gave reporters a tour of his ranch. There is, in fact, nothing at all luxurious about buying a ranch when you don’t intend to do any ranching. It’s a down-home real American thing that everyone does.
Jrod
Oh, and to the "mocking wingnuts just spreads their message for them and gives them legitimacy" brigade, fuck off. If we on the left collectively decide to high-mindedly ignore all the right’s stupid bullshit, it won’t just fucking go away. It’ll just go unanswered, just as the lies about Gore went unanswered.
Mocking this shit reduces it’s power, and I’m tired of concern trolls saying otherwise. Sticking our fingers in our ears and singing "LALALALALA" just means that less savvy people are more likely to just hear about how gaffe-prone Obama is, and not about the concerted efforts of the right to foster that impression.
But no, I guess their bullshit should just go unanswered, because making propagandizing easier for Politico is far less bad than giving them a slight boost to their page views. Idiots, go be concerned elsewhere.
Jrod
One final point on the concern troll’s subject:
Why didn’t the smears against Obama work this time? Part of it is just that he was much more charismatic than his opponents. I think a bigger part is that the American public are slowly being inoculated against right-wing smears. Let me ask you, do people get inoculated from a disease by avoiding contact with it, or by receiving a carefully controlled dose?
Shawn in ShowMe
The lies against Gore and Kerry went unanswered because neither of those gentlemen understood how to fight back. That ain’t Obama.
kay
@Dork:
I hate to say it, but the anthrax letters were not some "attack" on the US. As much as Dunkin’ Black whines about it, it’s just not an attack.
And after I apply my tinfoil hat, I’ll tell you that, personally, I believe it was govt orchestrated.
Well, I didn’t say the anthrax letters were an "attack on the US", you did. I noticed at the time that no one appeared to care at all about the postal workers, but I was once a letter carrier, so I would notice.
Incidentally, if Jane Mayer’s excellent book on the Bush Administration is accurate, the government considered it an attack. On Cheney. Inexplicably. Who then retreated to his bunker.
EriktheRed
Does anyone here know how to contact Mr. Halperin or at least Time in general?
Miguelito "Son Cosas De La Vida" Brown
You didn’t get her name right, Doug. It’s actually:
Fucking Elizafuckingbeth Fucking Hasselfuckingbeck
Facts, like how someone should spell their name, aren’t jokes, ya know. They’re important. Like towel safety and proper towel use.
AnneLaurie
Having one’s "own independent take on the world" is not a core Republican value — especially for *women*. What is required for success among the fReichtard/Talibangelical/Robber-baron kakistocracy is repeating this week’s talking points verbatim, as loudly and as often as possible. Hasselbeck has managed to turn her reality-show appearance into a Media Village Idiot career because she’s not a "personality", she’s a talking GOP-blast-fax with blonde hair and tits. And if her "opinions" require the same kind of regular off-camera maintenance as the blonde and the bazooms do, that’s not a problem for the people paying her salary — or the numbwits nodding & grunting their approbation for her on-camera performances.
DougJ
Try the Swampland comments section.
Mako
No.
Mako
@kay:
Years later I’m still getting my forwarded mail irradiated. Ever tried to peel the melted plastic envelope window off an important missive only to find the ink has all bonded to the adjoining page?
But, I’d rather be safe than sorry, never know when someone might distill hydrogen peroxide in an airplane toilet.
Clio
@jonas:
ROFLMAO!!!!!!!
And I’m loving the frequent use of "harpy" in the comments tonight.