Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

Second rate reporter says what?

Let’s finish the job.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

We are aware of all internet traditions.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Bark louder, little dog.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

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85Comments

  1. 1.

    wilfred

    Don’t be so queasy – you should see what these people have done with Islamic imagery over the years.

    Of course, that was all about FREE SPEECH – rapidly becoming the last refuge of racists and bigots.

  3. 3.

    schrodinger's cat

    These people are scary. What percentage of the population do they consitute? Any guesses?

  4. 4.

    MoeLarryAndJesus

    Idiot conservatives are using the footage of this woman as “evidence” that the supporters of reform as as unhinged as the birthers. They’re conveniently omitting any mention of the scumbag who started it be stealing and destroying her property.

    Wingnuts suck.

  6. 6.

    Zuzu's Petals

    There’s a little bit of justice, anyway:

    Police arrested a man after he grabbed the sign of veteran activist Maxine Johnson, who ran for St. Louis alderman this year. The sign was not about health care — it was apparently a Rosa Parks poster. ……………………………
    ……………………………………………………………………………….. The Jefferson County sheriff’s office identified the man arrested as James Winfrey, 67, of Cedar Hill. He was held on suspicion of third-degree assault.

  7. 7.

    Jack T.

    Can’t say I’m shocked. The only thing left to do is wait until someone is addressed with a slur during one of these things.

  8. 8.

    El Cid

    Does anyone know if there had been a rule that no posters or signs were to be allowed inside? If so, then that might be some of what motivated old rippyhead.

  9. 9.

    Zuzu's Petals

    There’s a little bit of justice, anyway:

    Police arrested a man after he grabbed the sign of veteran activist Maxine Johnson, who ran for St. Louis alderman this year. The sign was not about health care — it was apparently a Rosa Parks poster. ……………………………
    ……………………………………………………………………………….. The Jefferson County sheriff’s office identified the man arrested as James Winfrey, 67, of Cedar Hill. He was held on suspicion of third-degree assault.

  12. 12.

    Warren Terra

    The text of the post Oliver Willis linked to, because I didn’t know the context and had no idea what was going on in the video:

    This is the only video of what actually happened at the event this afternoon. The news only showed the woman being escorted away by the police. What happened was the women walked in with signs, the crowd booed and yelled at the women. The women rolled up their posters and put them down. A photographer/reporter approached the woman on the end and wanted to see what the poster was. As the woman went to show the photographer/reporter what the poster was, a man from the bleachers stood up and snatched the poster from the woman and photographer/reporter. As the woman went to retrieve her poster the police stepped in and escorted the woman and the man from the building.
    .
    The poster was not of Obama, it was not pro health care, the poster that was taken from the woman and wrinkled up into a ball was of Rosa Parks.
    .
    National news coverage only showed the woman being escorted from the forum and left out the fact that it was the man who started the incident. Not to mention it was a poster of Rosa Parks.

  13. 13.

    Warren Terra

    Eh, all that text after the blockquoting started was supposed to be within the blockquote. I hope the coming update either fixes the gosh-darned blockquoting bug or restores Preview. Both would be ideal, but I’m not picky.

  15. 15.

    lotus

    [Third try on this comment]

    Okay, while WP was fritzing and I was trying to say this —

    Don’t know the criminal statutes of Missouri, but from here in Florida, that sure looks like a misdemeanor assault

    — ZuZu’s Petals confirmed it. Thanks, ZP.

  16. 16.

    Demo Woman

    @El Cid: Signs were not allowed. I was listening to the event and Clair had asked her to put the sign down, which I assume she did. The next thing that I heard was an obvious scuffle and then went to my computer to watch. At this point Clair mentioned that she new after an interesting or disrupted exchange, the news media would all lead with this.

  18. 18.

    linda

    and the video that played and replayed on msnbc last nite focused on the large black woman being escorted out and not the white dude who ripped the sign from her hands.

    i wonder what the take away was….

  19. 19.

    Zach

    I kind of like not being able to blockquote paragraph breaks… quoted walls of text are annoying. It’s a feature!

  20. 20.

    Perry Como

    Damn union thugs with their thuggish posters that say thuggish, Union things.

    Wait, the poster was about Rosa Parks?

    I meant, “n*gger! n*gger! n*gger!”

  21. 21.

    Punchy

    I cant believe how fucking bold that guy was. I’m pretty sure the new modus whateveri is to make as much a mess as possible, thereby guarenteeing TV reporting, thereby guarenteeing a spot interview on Fox and MSNBC, allowing them to further their message.

    The worse they act, the more likely they get their 15 minutes of fame. That’s the message.

  22. 22.

    Notorious P.A.T.

    “Does anyone know if there had been a rule that no posters or signs were to be allowed inside? ”

    I heard that there was such a rule. But come on. And anyway, the dickhead ripping up the poster, it wasn’t his job to enforce the rules.

  23. 23.

    a1

    I’m absolutely amazed by how low-key these town hall participants have behaved. Think about it – how much of the population grew up in a time where a black person wasn’t considered qualified to be an NFL quarterback? And now not only is one of “those people” is the President of the United States, the most powerful man on Earth, but there’s nothing that they and the rest of the “Real Americans ™” can do to stop it. And when you combine their political impotence with the actual impotence many of these middle-aged white guys are getting familiar with, you have this toxic bottomless pit of hysteria, anger, and desperation. And just what do you think people in such a state are going to do – show some perspective? I’m shocked that Pat Buchanan’s worldview hasn’t been widely adopted by the white community yet.

  24. 24.

    JK

    God forbid that any cable news talking head should provide context for video of an angry black woman.

    Of course, none of the cable shows, with the possible exceptions of Olbermann and Maddow, will provide any clarification to this story.

    Lawrence O’Donnell just interviewed one of the questioners at Specter’s townhall event. Talk about shit for brains. This woman wasn’t packing a weapon or holding up a stupid sign but she told Specter she doesn’t want this nation turning into Russia.

  25. 25.

    El Cid

    @Notorious P.A.T.: I wasn’t trying to justify anything. Just looking at the video dude looks like he goes over before he even sees what the poster is of, so I was wondering why his actions were so automated.

  26. 26.

    Anne Laurie

    I want some brave soul to show up with a poster of the Blessed Virgin & Child and the tagline “No Obamacare for Illegal Immigrants & Their Anchor Babies ! ! ! “

  27. 27.

    steve s

    I can’t much tell what happened in that vid. Did I just see a white person go rip a sign out of a black person’s hand, and the crowd cheer?

  30. 30.

    Leelee for Obama

    Anyone catch Cong. Scott from Ga. this afternoon? His e-mail from a “constituent” told him he would always be a N___a. There’s your epithet and Death to all Socialists, with Obama/Joker Poster in the e-mail. I’m sick of these shitheads, just so sick of them. It’s almost time to wish the UK would invade and save their wayward colony from itself. The experiment has obviously been a complete bust.

  32. 32.

    DougJ

    Did I just see a white person go rip a sign out of a black person’s hand, and the crowd cheer?

    Yes.

  33. 33.

    Jacob Davies

    These people are scary. What percentage of the population do they constitute?

    I was just looking at this poll over at Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/weeklypoll/2009/8/6

    No direct polling on healthcare. But I have to think that the screaming loonies are pulled almost entirely from the rump of Republican Party support, which outside the South is between 5% and 11% of the population. So in the South they may represent a larger segment, but in the rest of the country I think they’re strictly in the 5-10% range. That’s my guess.

    I think there’s a lot of doubt in the general population about healthcare reform, but that’s only natural with changes this big (and the chaotic & confusing way that legislation is made in the US). What I think is mistaken is the identification of doubt about the plan with the tiny but extremely noisy group of astroturf-driven protesters. I think if you polled the general population on whether they were worried that healthcare reform was going to mean stuff like “death panels” you’d find a sharp distinction between those who have “doubts” and those with “crazy paranoid fears”. And I think that latter group would overlap closely with the birthers and the remains of the Republican Party’s support.

    Of course I think 5-10% of the population have every right to protest and make their voice heard, and if they have strong feelings they have the right to make their points strongly. But they could have done that by attending these townhalls and making their points the way everyone else does. These are not highly-scripted events from what I can tell; they certainly can’t be screened like the Bush Social Security townhalls were, since the loonies are having no problem getting in. So the yelling, screaming, shoving, showing-up-with-guns thing is only about preventing discussion, as far as I can see.

    I don’t believe that protesters from the left are or were usually trying to do that. On the occasions where they are disruptive it is usually because their voices are being excluded entirely from the discussion. e.g. the aforementioned Bush townhalls. I can’t think of parallel cases where leftist protesters were attempting to shut down discussions in which they would have been perfectly able to make their points.

  34. 34.

    Leelee for Obama

    ((Lawrence O’Donnell just interviewed one of the questioners at Specter’s townhall event. Talk about shit for brains. This woman wasn’t packing a weapon or holding up a stupid sign but she told Specter she doesn’t want this nation turning into Russia.))

    Yeah, just from the viewpoint of a woman, Mother and Grandmother to girls, I wanted to shake her. My husband takes care of “all that”. Are you fucking kidding me? In 2009? And war is commonplace. Orwell lives! “We have always been at war with Oceania!” Baby Jesus wept!

  35. 35.

    Zifnab

    @steve s: That’s just what the Obamabots wanted you to see. If you play it backwards, he patches it back up and hands it to her.

  36. 36.

    steve s

    “I’m absolutely amazed by how low-key these town hall participants have behaved. Think about it – how much of the population grew up in a time where a black person wasn’t considered qualified to be an NFL quarterback?”

    A significant fraction of the population, including that white dumbass in the video, grew up when black people weren’t even allowed in school with them.

    President Blacky McNegro is a pill they just can’t swallow. Good. I hope they choke on it.

  37. 37.

    HumboldtBlue

    Can’t say I’m shocked. The only thing left to do is wait until someone is addressed with a slur during one of these things.

    Go read angry black bitch who attended McCaskill’s meeting …

  38. 38.

    LABiker

    Looks like three cops hustled the “angry black woman” out of the place, with reinforcements in white shirts on the way, while only one cop was deployed to deal with the teabagger who tore up the lady’s sign.

  39. 39.

    You Don't Say

    In my experience, people who scream “I don’t want the government telling me what to do!” love to tell everyone else what to do.

  41. 41.

    Incertus

    If I’m generous–and I’m not tending toward that at the moment–I say that the guy tearing the sign up has no idea who Rosa Parks was and wouldn’t recognize her if she refused to move to the back of the bus. If I’m less generous, I’m glad he got arrested for being a douche.

  43. 43.

    KG

    ten bucks says some wingnut makes the mistake of using the n-word to describe Obama at one of these events. another ten bucks says that will be peak wingnut.

  45. 45.

    The Moar You Know

    A significant fraction of the population, including that white dumbass in the video, grew up when black people weren’t even allowed in school with them.

    @steve s: You know, this had honestly never occurred to me. Thanks for pointing that out – I think it’s a pretty big deal.

  46. 46.

    Incertus

    @Zifnab: That’s just what the Obamabots wanted you to see. If you play it backwards, he patches it back up and hands it to her.

    You sound like Bill Hicks doing his Officer N–Hater bit. “Look at the balls on that guy!”

  47. 47.

    freelancer

    @KG:

    ten bucks says some wingnut makes the mistake of using the n-word to describe Obama at one of these events. another ten bucks says that will be peak wingnut.

    No bet on your first wager. I’ll see the ten on your second wager. Peak Wingnut is like a radioactive half-life.

    Peak Wingnut happens when they start using GOPs stale talking points to start arguing in favor of liberal positions. Then when someone points this out, that this is a normal, reasonable position, they immediately flip a switch and start arguing against it…

    http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2009/08/12/newt-gingrich-changes-whats-left-of-his-mind-on-end-of-life-care/

    Awww Shit. Can we get a cogent definition of Peak Wingnut again?

  48. 48.

    alhutch

    @The Moar You Know: It is a big deal. For some of us under 40 (such as myself), this mindset is hard to wrap my brain around.

    Sure, I’ve been around “cranky” old white folks that might let things slip (like ‘Jimmy “The Greek” got fired for speaking the truth’, etc.), but the world really has shifted beneath their feet. Now with Obama actually elected and governing, it must be killing them inside.

    I guess these folks were right in saying that the country wasn’t ready for a black president (the country that still exists only in their “it was better in the 50’s” mind).

  49. 49.

    parksideq

    I don’t care if Mr. Hanky was on the poster, what made that guy think it was ok to snatch someone else’s property and deface it?

  50. 50.

    Leelee for Obama

    Awww Shit. Can we get a cogent definition of Peak Wingnut again?

    Not possible. Peak Wingnut is unreachable because unlike those it affects, it evolves. It will simply continue to change to suit the bullshit du jour. As to a virus, we, the body politic must develop immunities.

  53. 53.

    Frustrated

    So my last post got moderated out, in which I posted James Winfrey’s phone number.

    Understandable, I suppose.

    I will not repost it, I will merely state that for anyone who lives in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area who wishes to contact Mr. Winfrey (the racist in the video who stole the sign), it isn’t that difficult – his home telephone number is listed in the 2009 White Pages.

  58. 58.

    Demo Woman

    In Gainesville, GA a black man with an Obama shirt was asked to leave a town hall meeting. He did not say anything but was hoping to ask a question. The town hall was being run by Nathan Deal, and Phil Gingrey. I posted this above but felt that it was important enough to post again. I’m looking for a video and the local nbc station but I can’t find it.

  60. 60.

    geg6

    I see wingnuttery more in biological terms, mainly because I understand that better than astrophysics. And to me, it’s like bacteria or a virus–extremely adaptible, always changing to overcome whatever innoculation or anti-bacterial is used to battle the infection. The more we attempt to keep ourselves safe and build firewalls to keep them from harming us, the more they adapt and become resistant to all of our efforts to protect ourselves. Thus peak wingnut will occur when the world is filled with no other organisms other than wingnuts and cockroaches.

  61. 61.

    freelancer

    @Leelee for Obama:

    Mother of Fuck! I just watched that segment.

    Shorter Katy Abrams: “I’m too stupid to know things like words or details. My husband takes care of that. Also, I got mine.”

    Sounds like every conversation I have with people who self-identify as conservative simply because their parents did. There’s nothing there. They didn’t pay attention in school and now they get a cop-out cause the edukashun system in this country has been infiltrated by libruls!

    They aren’t aware of anything resembling a logical fallacy because their two biggest virtues are Swaggering Hubris and Sanctimonious Godbot-ing, both of which abhor thought.

    How’s that shit-taco tasting Katy?

  63. 63.

    Leelee for Obama

    @geg6: @freelancer:I still can’t believe the level of 1950s, I’m too stupid to think, but I’m kinda cute and don’t look nuts, so they used me.

  64. 64.

    Leelee for Obama

    @geg6: This was where I was heading, but I defer to astrophysics, because those people put us on the Moon! Or did they?

  65. 65.

    lotus

    @The Moar You Know:

    A significant fraction of the population, including that white dumbass in the video, grew up when black people weren’t even allowed in school with them.

    You know, this had honestly never occurred to me. Thanks for pointing that out – I think it’s a pretty big deal.

    Know what, keeds? Being that I’m a Mississippi-born Boomer, what y’all said makes me feel both very old and very hopeful. Way cool.

  70. 70.

    steve s

    “August 12th, 2009 at 6:04 pm Reply to this comment
    KG
    ten bucks says some wingnut makes the mistake of using the n-word to describe Obama at one of these events. another ten bucks says that will be peak wingnut.”

    It didn’t occur to me, but now that you mention it, I almost wonder how it hasn’t happened yet. The social taboo on that word is pretty strong, though.

  71. 71.

    Citizen_X

    What appalls me most about this video is the big cheer that goes up for Defacey McRacist there. I guess free speech is only for the Right and White, hmm?

    As for Peak Wingnut, I believe–and hope–that will occur at about 11 PM EDT, November 6, 2012. It’ll be building to a fever pitch before then, but will rapidly become detumescent as everyone watches the US map turn nearly solid blue.

    (Unless the economy doesn’t turn around. In that case, I’ll be stockpiling ammo, plotting escape routes to the border, and in other ways preparing for the Palin Reich.)

  73. 73.

    Leelee for Obama

    @freelancer: Trust me, I know. I was just funnin’. It gets to the point where you think, how do these people breathe without help?

    BTW-did anyone hear about the guy who told Specter that prayer and God got his wife a heart transplant. ( Of course the VA and Commonwealth of PA were His instruments.) So Specter said, well, that’s the government. I’d have paid money to be there for the reaction.

  75. 75.

    Chad N Freude

    “Thus peak wingnut will occur when the world is filled with no other organisms other than wingnuts and cockroaches”
    How will we tell them apart?

  78. 78.

    flukebucket

    @lotus:

    Know what, keeds? Being that I’m a Georgia-born Boomer, what y’all said makes me feel both very old and very hopeful. Way cool.

    Hope you don’t mind me quoting you lotus but I know exactly what you are talking about.

    It seems to me that there are quite a few southern born and southern bred folks who post here. Sometimes I have to let the harsh criticisms of the south roll off of my back. It can be frustrating to be lumped in with the crazy but the crazy does not have to be brought to my attention because I have lived with it every day of my life.

    But the times they are a-changin’. And what we are seeing, as ugly as it is, is nothing more than changing times. The last throes. The death rattles of a civilization gone with the wind.

  79. 79.

    feebog

    Flukebucket:

    Its not just the South. I had an interesting conversation with my 92 year old Uncle last year. He was born and raised in Iowa, and I doubt he ever interacted with a black person while growing up. He served with the Seabees in WWII, again no black sailors were allowed in the Seabees. His father (my Grandfather) regularly used the word “nigger” when refering to black people, because that was the term he had used all his life.

    During our conversation, my Uncle talked about a black man that he had hired to work on a city maintenence crew. He referred to him as a Negro, and then stopped and somewhat sheepishly said, “is that right?. I never know what to call black people these days”.

    My point is that here is a decent guy, who served his country, worked hard all his life to provide for his family, but would still be considered a racist by many. He knows history has passed him by, and is a bit bewildered by that fact.

  80. 80.

    flukebucket

    yeah. I know it is everywhere but what is hell is to be considered a racist simply because of the state you were born and raised in.

    Stereotypes suck but I guess everybody has to deal with it at some point in time. I am sure the guys in West Virginia get stereotyped too.

  81. 81.

    RememberNovember

    “Free Speech” is just another buzz word used by ideologues to justify their stupidity and racism.

  82. 82.

    RememberNovember

    As opposed to exercising one’s Freedom of Speech to articulate a viewpoint/idea/position.

  83. 83.

    Avenger

    I don’t believe in violence, but so help me if I ever go to a town hall meeting and see ANY man bullying a woman like this, I will personally kick his ass. James Winfrey deserves a beatdown and then should be forced to crawl back under the rock he came from.

  84. 84.

    Will

    I think I need to go to a town hall meeting when one is held near me. I’m not a violent person by any means. But I wish a racist old prune would snatch any of my property from me or any of my family members and friends. Oh how he would regret it for the remainder of his tired and sad life. He would remember me every time he looked in the mirror!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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