Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Just got back from the vet, and Tunch’s weight is down slightly from the last visit. In a completely pleasant change, Tunch actually behaved and did not turn into a spawn of Satan and bleed every nurse and vet that tried to check him out. The vet was actually shocked, since we are used to holding him down with multiple towels.
At any rate, the fat bastard is apparently healthy and has a couple more pounds to lose.
I was threatened in the last one, so here are some pics of Ginny and Guesly:
Have at it.
*** Update ***
By request:
Tomorrow we hit the vet, btw.
So a crazy person got up at one of Glenn Beck’s 9/12 get-togethers (and I realize that “crazy person at a Glenn Beck funtion” is redundant) and started ranting about who knows what, and LGF has the video tape and a transcript:
OF course, because Charles Johnson has noted these are crazy people, the usual suspects are amassing to attack… Charles Johnson. The problem for the right is not Charles Johnson, but all the crazy people in the party. Dan Riehl states that the guy talking is a “fairly obvious nutcase gets up in an open mic forum and makes some outlandish claims.”
Oh really? What I heard was pretty standard fare for mainstream Republicanism. Here is a transcript, starting at 2:20:
This is a 50 year plan that is coming into culmination right now. This is not something that just happened with Obama. George Soros is the money man behind Barack Obama. I say, and I know it, I’m in the marketing business…
The only thing missing was a little ACORN love, and this rant from an “obvious nutcase” is fundamentally no different from ANY afternoon at the National Review’s Corner. Nothing he said is any different from anything you would hear on an O’Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck show. Nothing he said was fundamentally any different from anything you would hear at the McCain/Palin rallies last fall. You had a Vice Presidential candidate saying the current President didn’t like America and palled around with terrorists. You spent months peddling nonsense about Obama not putting his hand over his heart or being sworn in on a Koran or not being an American citizen. This week, you had the former chief strategist for Bush, a former Republican Senator, and a Washington Post columnist all basically questioning the loyalty of the President. This guy’s fault isn’t just that he is a nutcase- his problem is he just believed the bullshit pushed through the right-wing email lists.
And even then, the problem isn’t one nutcase. The problem is that you are whittled down to nothing but the bitter rump, and you are discovering that not only does the camera add ten pounds, but it also adds a heap of crazy. When you play back the nonsense you have been spewing for the past couple of years, you don’t like what you see. I guess you have something in common with the rest of the country.
The best part about all the attention the tea parties will get the next couple of days is that it will all be on film. The usual suspects are already trying to do damage control, pretending that they will have been infiltrated by no-gooders (who else- Soros funded ACRON!), but that is pure nonsense, and the country is going to get a good look at some pure, undiluted, right-wing crazy.
This righteous rant in the Daily Beast boils it down for what is left of the GOP:
What about the Republican Party right now? Isn’t it on radio and TV claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility and American power? Bypassing the stupidity of these claims, I am on radio, on what is called right-wing radio, and it is easy for me to see that my loudest colleagues, who compulsively repeat the cant of Conservatism for Dummies, are not sincere students of the Republican Party but rather barkers, hookers, establishmentarian jesters, cultists, and, in the worst instance, just thatch-headed whiners.
But don’t worry. You surround us. And you have teabags.
Morans.
Steve Benen (with the help of Rick Moran of all people) nails exactly what’s so scary about the Glenn Beck gasoline stunt video that John wrote about earlier:
But that’s not really the interesting part. Alex Koppelman added, “Unfortunately, not captured in the video is what happened next, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry came on and Beck asked, ‘Governor, you’re regretting being on this program at this point, are you not, sir?’ Perry responded, ‘Not at all, Glenn Beck. I’m proud to be with you.'”
And that, in a nutshell, helps explain what’s gone terribly wrong with conservative Republicans of late. Beck appears to be in desperate need of medication, and the chief executive of one of the nation’s largest states is “proud” to appear on the show, just moments after Beck pretended to set a colleague on fire.
Credible, serious public officials would ordinarily want to avoid making eye contact with a deranged figure, but Gov. Perry was delighted to chat with the Fox News lunatic. Maybe it’s because Perry actually finds Beck’s madness compelling; maybe it’s because Perry has a big Republican primary coming up and wants to curry favor with Beck’s followers.
Either way, it’s a problem for the party and the conservative movement. Conservative blogger Rick Moran said yesterday, “Beck worries me. Conservatives worry me. I worry about myself. I feel trapped in a huge ball of cotton, trying gamely to make my way out but don’t know which direction to start pushing. I am losing contact with those conservatives who find Beck anything more than a clown — and an irrational one at that.”
I never thought I’d say this, but, Rick, I feel your pain.
Update. Even LittleGreenFootballs is frightened by some of this stuff.
Glenn Beck’s descent into sheer madness, something I think that started as an attempt to boost his ratings, has now devolved into him simulating pouring gasoline on people in the studio. I’m really not sure how much of an act it is anymore, and as far as I can tell he has seriously lost the plot and needs help.
Also, in a somewhat related vein, Sullivan is exactly right– these are not tea parties, they are tea tantrums.
And It’s Too Late To Lose The Weight You Used To Need To Throw AroundPost + Comments (85)
I’m always harsh on Jake Tapper when I think he is chumming the waters with nonsense, so here is a shout-out for two really solid pieces in regards to the duplicity from the Obama administration over State Secrets.
Look, the housing crisis is a disaster, and it really sucks that millions are out of work and at risk of losing their homes or have already lost their job or their home or both, but when I read this story, it really pissed me off:
When the woman who calls herself Queen Omega moved into a three-bedroom house here last December, she introduced herself to the neighbors, signed contracts for electricity and water and ordered an Internet connection.
What she did not tell anyone was that she had no legal right to be in the home.
Ms. Omega, 48, is one of the beneficiaries of the foreclosure crisis. Through a small advocacy group of local volunteers called Take Back the Land, she moved from a friend’s couch into a newly empty house that sold just a few years ago for more than $400,000.
Michael Stoops, executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, said about a dozen advocacy groups around the country were actively moving homeless people into vacant homes — some working in secret, others, like Take Back the Land, operating openly.
In addition to squatting, some advocacy groups have organized civil disobedience actions in which borrowers or renters refuse to leave homes after foreclosure.
These people aren’t just “squatting” or engaging in “civil disobedience” or striking a blow against tyranny or whatever the hell else you want to call it. They are stealing, they are trespassing, and they are breaking the damned law. And while the NY times may think it is glamorous or sexy or a real power to the people moment, they should be clear about what is going on here and what a mess this sort of behavior causes for the authorities. If they can’t figure out why this is problematic, maybe they should read their own damned NY Times magazine about the problems squatters and illegals and looters cause in Cleveland. Give Tom Brancatelli a call and ask what he thinks about this.
How About a Moment of Clarity, NY TimesPost + Comments (109)