I remember a time when people still believed that there was a sort of boundary between the mainstream right and bugshit crazytown (you had to tilt your head and squint). It was a gap that spoofers like DougJ used to sneak in some great laughs at rightwingers’ expense. All gone.
Headline at Americablog:
FOX”s Glenn Becks says situation in America: ‘It’s 9/11 all over again except we didn’t have the collapsing building’
CNN has swapped Tucker and Bob Novak for Erick Erickson and FOX interviews with people so crazy that they make LaRouchies nervous.
DOOCY: Now, he is not a Communist. But you just pointed out that you hold up signs and stuff like that and people make fun of you. What do you think about how some on the other political side have tried to diminish or, you know, or marginalize the Tea Party people?
JACKSON: Well, I guess they’re afraid of the power of our passion and our numbers and, you know, you might not say Communist, but I watch Glenn Beck and he’s taught me well. Progressive is the new word for Communist, but it’s the same goal as government control of everything and it’s very obvious that Obama is trying to do that. And I don’t want to brag, but I sort of called it before he was elected and when I was on O’Reilly and I said he was a Communist and I got a lot of hate mail, but I got some that said I was a prescient which means “a prophet.”
[…] Our government is all evil right now and someone’s got to do something.
Hard times, man.
Svensker
I saw that Doocy piece this morning. The capper was when she said she learned about it from Glenn Beck. Doocy couldn’t wrap it up fast enough. I larfed and larfed.
cleek
remember when the Iraq War protesters were the topic of TV and radio stories, day after day, for 12 months ?
danadevin74
‘It’s 9/11 all over again except we didn’t have the collapsing building’
or the fires or the deaths so guess what?
it’s not like 9-11
Little Dreamer
Did I hear him say profit?
Little Dreamer
@cleek:
No, must have been when I was visiting a parallel universe.
El Cid
Shepard Smith is shrill.
eemom
speaking of bugshit crazytown, I really have to stop clicking on FDL. It was good comedy for a while, but let’s hope Lady Jane isn’t secretly a Second Amendmenter, because the latest evidence of her irrelevance — i.e., the passage of HCR — seems to have driven her off the deep end for REAL this time.
Or maybe it’s just me? Perhaps it’s perfectly logical to conclude that Bruce Bartlett’s comment yesterday about Frum PROVES that Obama has been in cahoots with the AEI all along, and that HCR is JUST LIKE IRAQ?
Chyron HR
You have to bear in mind that Republicans view 9/11 as a great triumph for their party, as demonstrated by their giant celebrations every election year. I’m sure he means that passing HCR is a victory of similar proportions for Democrats.
Rick Taylor
Fox “news” picked up Cantor’s tale of being shot at and ran with it. Video here. The right wing in this country is just a joke.
Moonbatting Average
Victoria Jackson was funnier in UHF, this wingnut performance art isn’t really in her wheelhouse
Bulworth
“I watch Glenn Beck and he’s taught me well.”
Trying to think of something witty to say in response to this, but I am at a loss.
dr. bloor
@cleek:
Pfft. There were only millions of us, while the ‘baggers regularly turn out eleventy billion marchers for impromptu meet-up protests.
El Cid
Are you suggesting that Hillary Clinton didn’t lead a Russian-UN invasion of the USA using black helicopter battalions following bar codes on the backs of stop signs? Wow, and I thought I was ‘fringe’.
Little Dreamer
@Chyron HR:
__
fixt that for ya!
Svensker
@El Cid:
He and Daniel Larison may have to run away with each other soon, seeing as how they’re the last sane Repubs.
Comrade Mary
“YOU, alright? I learned it by watching you!”
Robertdsc-iphone
I sometimes wonder what would happen if the President invited Glenn Beck to the White House. I wonder if Beck would accept.
mcc
@cleek: Remember when the huge pro-immigration reform protests last weekend were the subject of a news story?
cuz I don’t
JGabriel
I can think of nothing that better defines the gulf between today’s conservative and liberal mindsets than this: for liberals, torture is evil; for conservatives, the true evil is expanded health care and insurance regulation.
What the hell is wrong with these people?
.
RSA
“And no crashing airplanes. Or Muslim terrorists. Also, it’s getting toward the end of March, not the beginning of September. But otherwise it’s 9/11 all over again.”
slag
Is it possible that Victoria Jackson is playing some wacko version of her SNL character? I know she’s said crazy stuff in the past, but watching that video of her, I couldn’t help but wonder…is this whole schtick just one prolonged practical joke on her part? Stephen Colbert couldn’t possibly do her justice if he tried to parody her.
@El Cid: I liked that part at the end where Smith said something like: “It’s all tied together; isn’t it?”. Yes. Yes it is.
tyrese
I disagree. I think it’s all like Pearl Harbor again, except without the Japs. Or the destruction of the Pacific Fleet.
Bulworth
“JACKSON: I am the tea party people.”
And we’re sure that this isn’t really some comic gag she’s pulling on the reichwing?
Bnut
This is just a pretext for invading Williamsburg, Brooklyn and San Francisco. As we all know, both places are financed by lots of drugs and prostitution. Lots of brown people too (the whites would be collateral damage). I heard they even tried to buy some yellow cake (munchies).
cleek
@mcc:
immigration-what-now?
frankly, that went un-mentioned on most of the lefty blogs i read, too. we’re all too busy watching the teadiddlers.
Kerry Reid
I’ve always loved Eddie Izzard’s joke about 9/11: “We in Britain can’t understand why the Americans are always banging on about November 9th.”
ellaesther
Holy fuck.
Uloborus
@El Cid:
Uh… was that on FOX news? Seriously? I mean, I haven’t watched FOX personally in ages, so I don’t recognize the man. Will they actually let him get away with that?
Sure, he drummed out the ‘both sides of the aisle’, but that doesn’t fly in crazy town, because he called out the actual things that were said, and they’re only being said on one side of the aisle.
…although I don’t know. Does Jane count as our side of the aisle anymore? Actually, it’s kind of disturbing to think the Progressiver-Than-Thou squad are pushing this, too.
Ted the Slacker
Does that mean Rudi Guiliani will be running on a HCR platform in the GOP primary?
ellaesther
@Kerry Reid: Oh, Eddie! Why can’t all the world be a bit more like Eddie?
tyrese
U.S., Russia reach deal on cutting nuke arsenals
msnbc.msn.com/id/36050902/ns/world_news-europe/
more good news
merrinc
Yeah! Our government is ALL evil and so I was LIKE listening to Glenn Beck and he was ALL this is SO communistic and I was ALL LIKE we’ve got so do something and he was ALL Obama is the Anti-Christ and I was ALL that’s right, Mr. Beck and he was ALL…
OMG, I’m ready to have a drink and it’s barely past lunch time. And having Coultergheist sneer at me from the top of the page isn’t helping.
freelancer
“So…Drugs are like things that are not drugs, got it.”
Just like the 100% private economy before TARP.
Tom Hilton
Glenn Beck is right, but he doesn’t go far enough. It’s actually like Pearl Harbor, but without the attack. It’s like the War of 1812, only without any invasion. It’s like a nuclear attack, only without any bombs dropping. It’s like ALL those things put together.
Bnut
Someone on another blog mentioned this, and I have to agree. Beck is sooooo similar to the broadcasts from V for Vendetta. It’s like he’s trying to emulate him.
Zifnab25
It’s just very confusing when you’ve got the news media blaring “Some people say…” followed by the most insane winger talking point. You can’t help but look at your neighbors differently.
I just wish we could get an honest head count. Or, at least, get everyone to wear signs or something.
catclub
svensker
Bruce Bartlett is also [sane]. Unfortunately, I read most his passion as personal anger (likely at GW Bush) rather than
conviction.
Joe Klein is similar. His best articles only appear when he has been personally insulted, rather than any good reason.
Liz
I stand firmly by my belief that the Snuggle fabric softener bear is the anti-Christ.
AB
@Rick Taylor:
It would be nice if they were a joke. But there are so many of them, and they have a really, really, big political bloc that has actual power. That’s not a joke, it’s just terrible.
elmo
I must be living in some alternate reality, because I clearly remember Paul Krugman commenting that the Enron meltdown presaged such trouble in the financial and accounting markets that it would come to be viewed as more significant than 9/11, and the right wing just went apeshit. He was “minimizing” 9/11, he was “dismissing” the tremendous loss of life, he was “trivializing” the Worst Thing To Ever Happen in History, which all showed that he was an irrelevant hippie crank who Hated America, also.
But that couldn’t possibly have happened in this reality, because in this reality, the ‘wingers compare stuff to 9/11 all the time, and nobody ever calls them on it.
So I must be misremembering, or else I’m from the Fringe alternate universe. Or something.
Max
@eemom: I noticed over there, via a link I saw elsewhere this posting…
news.firedoglake.com/2010/03/26/a-progressive-bill-passed-yesterday/
Hang on to your hats for this quote…
Little Dreamer
@Bnut:
I saw what you did there. ;)
JGabriel
eemom:
Err, I don’t think Frum was fired for supporting the HCR bill (he didn’t), but for pushing the thesis that the GOP is now the Fox Party.
Also, I think you’re mischaracterizing Hamsher’s thesis, which is that the health reform laws are largely comprised of historically Republican proposals. I think most people here would agree with that.
The problem is that Hamsher is way angrier about it than we are, unwilling to accept that it helps people anyway and helps more people than nothing, that it was probably the best we could do after a hundred years of failure on the issue, and that we can build on it.
I disagree with Jane’s conclusions, but I don’t think we need to paint her as crazier than she is.
.
tripletee
Redundant tags are redundant.
slag
@JGabriel:
This dichotomy has been making me crazy pretty much since January. It’s the reason I can’t engage with Republicans anymore on any substantive level. Two vastly different worlds.
The Republicans have been wrapping themselves in their freedom flag for so long now that the paradox of promoting preventive detention, warrantless wiretaps, and torture while decrying the expansion of healthcare as being a Stalinist plot seems to have gone completely unnoticed.
And jackasses like Jake Tapper and his “sister organization” Faux News get paid to promote the charade. It’s painful. Just painful.
GambitRF
What I’m learning on twitter right now:
North Korea attacked a South Korean ship because Obama hates America, and we’re now all going to die because Obama is cutting into our nuclear stockpile to the point where we may only be able to destroy the world like 20 times over.
Tonal Crow
OK. Let’s impeach Clarence Thomas and replace him with
Larry TribeAnthony Romero.freelancer
@Bnut:
Oh, I’m sure if you’ve been around here long enough, you’ve seen me link to it every so often.
Eric U.
the Glenn Beck quote in the main post made me laugh. This whole thing is scary, and I wouldn’t accuse anyone of catastrophizing if it worries them. In fact, I’m pretty sure there are 10 McVeigh wannabes out there planning on victimizing innocent people to ward off the impending fascist doom. But the entertainment value of this freakout is starting to grow on me.
I’m not sure, but the wingnut craziness seems to have turned off the machinist at work who makes me listen to Glenn if I want to use the milling machine.
It’s probably obvious to everyone, but the wingnuts saying they have to break the law in order to keep the feds from taking them away to jail just boggles my mind. What do they think is going to happen if they break the law? The feds are going to come to their senses and arrest Obama?
scav
@Liz: ow ow ow ow ow I’m crying from laughter
Bob L
@slag:
I am wondering that myself. That certainly would be one uping Colbert; leading a massive farcical political movement. I mean we let comedians speak truth to power but we don’t let them lead us like the Tea Baggers are.
Little Dreamer
@Liz:
The Geico Gecko is the unholy prophet! (counter-part to the “holy ghost”).
;)
Bill E Pilgrim
The tea baggers say they’re peaceful!
Whew. Glad that’s settled, for a moment I thought maybe all the violence and threats and racial slurs might have been from them. But they say no, good enough for me!
Must be some other Glenn-Beck led movement of extreme right wing Republicans. I assume the tea baggers of Florida will get right on the job of looking for the real killers. Hope so!
Dreggas
@Liz:
completing the unholy trinity, add to that:
Tickle Me Elmo
Furrbie
Little Dreamer
@Eric U.:
__
Only 10? You must be a conservative. ;)
Remember November
The Jackson interview would have been gold if she was in a tickle fight.
jibeaux
@Max:
Erm, yes. I will be carefully monitoring the internets for other non-FDL websites noticing and appreciating this.
Comrade Kevin
I can’t imagine why anyone thinks Jackson is engaging in some sort of performance art, or elaborate joke. She has NEVER been funny, or show any evidence that she’s capable of being funny, or particularly bright.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Shorter Beck: “Whoops, I crapped my pants!”
(But apparently in ReaLAMErica, only one building was destroyed in the attack.)
Remember November
@Bill E Pilgrim:
Basketball’s a peaceful planet we have no weapons!
joes527
@Bob L: Waiting for her joint news conference w/ Andy Kaufman: You’ve been Punk’d!
Paul in KY
Bnut, who said up above: ‘Someone on another blog mentioned this, and I have to agree. Beck is sooooo similar to the broadcasts from V for Vendetta. It’s like he’s trying to emulate him.’
We can only hope that the same treatment the TV Host in ‘V for Vendetta’ received is visited upon our hero Mr. Beck. Nothing permanently disfiguring, though.
Little Dreamer
@Eric U.:
They’re going to declare the 2008 election null and void because Obama is a Kenyan commie so they’ll send him and his family to Gitmo, they’ll kick Biden out of the White House as well and they’ll install Sarahdipity because everyone knows that McCain is TOO OLD to be president!
Cacti
@cleek:
Remember how they were called a major political movement, even when their national convention drew 600 people?
Comrade Dread
1. Bombing the bejeezus out of a country to send a message, killing millions, displacing millions more, and unleashing hellish political, sociological, and environmental miseries on millions more, all the while violating the constitution at home, and the Geneva conventions is perfectly good, or at best, simply an honest mistake that anyone could have made.
2. Creating a new health care entitlement is evil.
Seriously, at this point, if the MSM were really all liberal, interviews like this would consist of pointing out the above and telling people to stop sniffing glue and STFU.
Mayur
@Bnut:
I disagree. Prothero is about on par with O’Reilly. I honestly think Beck is one of those cases that’s stranger than fiction; if Alan Moore or the film screenwriters had tried to script him in, he wouldn’t have been sufficiently believable.
Midnight Marauder
@eemom:
I just went over there and read that.
Wow. Fucking.insane.
Brick Oven Bill
The problem with the modern Left’s criticism of Glenn Beck is that, personal smears aside, Glenn Beck’s analysis can be proven to be correct. The policies of this Administration all weaken the ability of this country to function, either by stupidity, or by malice.
The health care bill expands non-sustainable programs, costing money, and weakening the currency.
Immigration reform would introduce more third world people to first-world social benefits, costing money, and weakening the currency.
Cap and Trade would drive manufacturing out of the country and cause energy rates to skyrocket, in the words of Barry, costing money, and weakening the currency.
As government benefits are indexed to inflation, we witness an out-of-control currency feedback loop which will destroy our currency and institutions.
Is it that currency guy Soros, whose Hedge Fund is not required by the SEC to disclose his short positions, pulling the strings?
Stooleo
The only reason I go over to FDL now is for updates on Tboggs basset hounds. Poor Fenway has been sick.
slag
@Bob L:
This is an interesting point that I had never considered before. Could you imagine how fast Jon Stewart’s stock would drop if he showed up to lead an anti-war rally or something? In a serious fashion, that is. It just wouldn’t work. I guess there is a gap between sarcasm and earnestness that can’t be bridged.
Little Dreamer
@Midnight Marauder:
You know the really sad part about all this new healthcare stuff? We’re going to have to give permanent disability to all those crazy wingers because they lost their fucking minds.
Robin G.
@Robertdsc-iphone:
Beck would cream himself, suck up like a little fangirl the whole time he was there, then return to his show and go right back to saying all the same stuff. And none of his audience, experts on cognitive dissonance that they are, will have a problem with it.
Citizen_X
So, because of HCR we’re going to invade, what, Chad or something?
mr. whipple
@Comrade Kevin:
Yeah, and she’s been a nutter fo a long time. If this was just a joke, she’d have sprang it long ago.
She’s a nut.
Dreggas
Man who taunted person with parkinsons at HealthCare rally apologizes
May be too little too late but this is somewhat heartening.
scav
@Citizen_X: silly, chads are for hanging.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Brick Oven Bill:
Don’t look now, buddy, but the US ranks 50th in life expectancy– that’s fifty countries with better overall conditions than ours– I wouldn’t be so glib with that “first world-third world” stuff, we’re second-world at best in terms of health care, by many measures.
soonergrunt
According to Bloomberg News,
So the big gubmint is OK really. What exactly are they pissed off at? It looks like the only thing that really bothers them is that there is a guy working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who is blackity-black-black, but isn’t serving the mint juleps to his betters.
Pangloss
Maybe they should just scrap the Republican party and start over with a blank sheet of paper.
And Another Thing...
@Robertdsc-iphone: He’d accept in a heartbeat. He’s dying for the White House to pay attention to him. He had a red phone prominently installed on his set…so the White House could call him directly. Some days he rants about why the WH hasn’t called, and other days he almost begs. For awhile he had some poor flunkie sit by it for the full hour. He was ferklempt at meeting Palin. He’d be overwhelmed at meeting any President – even Obama. He rarely has any interviews on his show with other than the usual Fox inhouse pundits. I don’t recall seeing him interview anyone who might challenge him. His show is a fractured monologue…interrupted by ads for buying gold and now a new one selling this tube that contains seeds that you can bury in your background so you can feed yourself after the ???.
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
Ooh, sexy, big boy. If you really want to make us come, tell us about how the gold standard will fix all our problems.
.
mr. whipple
Ding ding ding!
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@soonergrunt:
This.
Jimmy Carter sometime in the last month or so said more or less the same thing, only a bit more diplomatic.
Which means none of the Beltway Press Corpse understood what he said.
Tonal Crow
@Pangloss:
Win!
LuciaMia
And it’s just like Hurricane Katrina, except without the destructive winds and flooding.
Justin
Hey, Brick Oven Bill! You know who has longer life expectancy than the U.S.?
Cuba.
matt
I don’t know if I’m splitting hairs here, but I wanted to point out that Beck actually is a goof, he’s a former morning zoo radio host, for God’s sake.
He’s literally a performance artist, and not in the same way we talk about, say, Ann Coulter, he’s genuinely, imo, goofing. I think the fact that it came out the he actually rehearses his crying moments goes about as far as proving this as possible without actually being able to look into his mind.
In a sense, he’s enormously talented.
james hare
@Liz:
That fits so much more with the description in the bible.
eyepaddle
@Comrade Kevin:
That and she has been showing “bugshit crazytown” tendencies since the early Clinton years. I remember seeing her on The 700 club (which we were watching while being very high for shits and giggles) back in the early 90s.
NOBODY keeps a bit going this long, especially when they are in complete obscurity for the intervening 15 years.
slag
@Comrade Kevin:
This may be true. But it’s hard to believe, when watching her, that anyone could be that freakishly, unselfconsciously stupid in real life. It’s like believing in God or the Easter Bunny. Sure…it could be real. But what are the odds?
gnomedad
This is just like World War II except for Pearl Harbor and the Nazis and Fascists and Imperial Japanese and the Holocaust and London getting bombed and …
mss
BOB’s bizarre classicism was a lot funnier than his attempt at monetary policy analysis. I’m guessing economics texts have too many big words and italicized Greek letters for him.
Here’s a hint to get you started: countries in recession generally benefit from weaker currencies. Unfortunately, nothing else BOB says is accurate, either, so there’s no reason to expect Obama’s policies to have the side-benefit of depreciation.
mr. whipple
A portion of my conversation with the tea party person, who called my business to solicit my support.
So, what are you guys about?
We are concerned with the deficit.
Where were you doing the Bush years?
That’s not the point, we’re here now.
We also want jobs created.
How should we do that?
The government should give tax cuts.
Ok, but Obama gave 95% or working people a tax cut. Why are you against Obama?
We need more!
But doesn’t that increase the deficit, which you don’t want, either?
We need to slash gvt spending!
Really? Are you saying in the middle of a recession, you want the gvt to slash spending?
Yes.
Can you name me a single credible economist that would say that?
Yes.
Name one.
(crickets).
This went on for about 15 minutes. Perhaps the dumbest person I have ever talked with.
MikeJ
OK, I didn’t actually see BoB say this (he said something about pie) but Reuter’s seems to think he’s wrong
reuters.com/assets/print?aid=USTRE62P0P320100326
And Another Thing...
@Brick Oven Bill: Wondered how long it would be before your Beck hagiography would start.
“..Glenn Beck’s analysis can be proven to be correct…”
By whom? Someone with a Ouija Board or a crystal ball?
The only way to “appreciate” Beck is as performance art…lunatic paranoid performance art.
I wonder how much gold his sucker viewers actually buy – at abt $1100 oz. There are at least 3 different firms selling gold on his show.
His job is to scare the shit out of his audience so that he can pump the money out of their pockets..books, lectures, survivalist products.
Uloborus
@Brick Oven Bill:
You know what’s hilarious? None of those things are provable. Some of them are actually disprovable. You just think they make sense, which isn’t the same thing.
And they’re the most reasonable things Beck pushes.
Bob L
@Brick Oven Bill:
I have seen people make very persuasive arguments using math to “prove” the earth is flat, the sun is made of coal and the stars are made of diamonds. Pretty much anything can be proved if you twist reality enough. Unless you are some post modernest, clever arguments that selectively ignore facts only prove nonsense.
But, as typical of a conservative, you are being disingenuous because the whole argument against HRC isn’t it’s viability, it is helping people in need is somehow an evil and immoral act up there with mass murder. The philosophy behind HRC is what offends the Right with it’s bizzaro world morality, not mechanics of it.
Mark S.
@mr. whipple:
He didn’t say Glenn Beck? Are you sure this was a teabagger?
Rhoda
Shit like this is what makes me angry about Hamsher going cuckoo for coco puffs. It’s like she’s willfully rewriting history, when it’s all very simple.
Obama passed a plan that looks a lot like Mitt Romeny and Ted Kennedy’s MA compromise and something the Heritiage foundation thought up and that Bob Dole proposed in opposition to Clinton’s plan; the difference. He spends shit load of money to provide subsides so that people can enter a broken market and purchase insurance and he adds a lot of regulations to hopefully correct the market. In the end, we have a foundation we can build on when the insurance market inevitably collapes. We had to go this conservative because health reform failed in ’94 and the whole fucking world had acid flashbacks of the house being lost and Clinton’s presidency being crippled.
This time, through, Obama won. And that means next time, reform is easier.
So, instead of ragging on the President and the endless compromises made why the fuck not set the stage for the next round of reforms. We can get progressive challengers running against the democrats that abandoned the party on this historic vote (the five that went from yes to no are a prime example) and have these folks run on the public option and building on the reforms that have been enacted.
That’s more progressive than fighting a fight you lost and working to create some illogical connection between Iraq (hello, Obama was against it) and this health reform. Which was a fucking asinine connection to attempt, by the way.
Trinity
@mr. whipple: Wow. I don’t think I’d have made it that far before I collapsed in fits of laughter.
catclub
Citizen X
Canada
KDP
@Liz: And the Geico gecko is his archangel
licensed to kill time
Behold as we apply mathematics and analytical skills to quantifying the average quality of a follower of Glenn Beck:
Victoria Jackson + Brick Oven Bill = o~O woowoo/emrf! x 2
Martin
@Brick Oven Bill:
If this is a truism, then America has been on a downward trajectory since the 15th century.
Bulworth
@mr. whipple:
“We need to slash gvt spending!
Really? Are you saying in the middle of a recession, you want the gvt to slash spending?
Yes.
Can you name me a single credible economist that would say that?
Yes.
Name one.
(crickets).”
Was there a particular government program(s) the teabagger wanted to slash?
Brick Oven Bill
If you were to break down life expectancy in America vs. life expectancy in the country of origin, you will determine that things are not too bad here, given our affinity for government-funded cream puffs. Consider the information from the Progressive web-site Calvert-Henderson:
“Average life expectancy for all US whites is 77 years compared to 62 years for blacks.”
The CIA teaches us that the average life expectancy in the country of Zimbabwe, is 45.8 years.
In England, the Wikipedia teaches us that the life expectancy is 79.4 years.
Now, using Mathematics, we conclude that the American health care system has the following impact on people being introduced:
[(minus) 2.4 plus (62 minus 45.8)] divided by two equals the American health care system providing an additional 6.9 years of life to its Citizens, relative to the country of origin.
This is very nice of us.
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
@matt: I get the same sense… but what does it matter?
Orson Welles scared the living crap out of a lot of people with a one-night radio show. Beck’s “performance art” is on every day, and his audience is not in on the joke.
When one of his audience members starts shooting, calling it “a performance art piece” makes it more heinous.
Justin
I don’t know how many of you have visited BOB’s blog, but one awesome indicator of his place in the Great Internet Conversation is that all the comments are spam.
Justin
Really, Bill? You’re going with “America: Better than Zimbabwe!”? Really?
eemom
@JGabriel:
Errr, I didn’t say Frum was fired for supporting HCR. And errr, Hamsher’s “thesis” is a long way from “health reform laws are largely comprised of historically Republican proposals.”
Go read what she wrote, and then, errr, tell me what I “mischaracterized.”
John S.
Glenn Beck has watched Network one too many times, and actually thinks he is Howard Beale.
That really explains it all.
Martin
Shorter BOB: Stupid niggers can’t even figure out how to stay alive.
ericvsthem
@Max: Dayen was linking to his blog post on Twitter yesterday. Had to unfollow him.
MikeJ
@Bulworth:
I’ve been in similar discussions. When you suggest that perhaps the DoD could get by spending less than every other country on earth combined they think you are being obtuse.
JGabriel
Bob L:
Oh, that’s easy. Put a black hole or a quantum anomaly in the right spot, and you can “prove” pretty much anything.
Glenn Beck is like the right wing equivalent of a black hole…
OH MY GOD! GLENN BECK IS THE WINGULARITY!
.
Little Dreamer
@KDP:
I already said that.
:P
John S.
And Brick Oven Bill is a racist asshole.
That really explains it all.
Steeplejack
__
Can’t believe this didn’t get the Hoekstroika tag (one of my personal favorites). If ever a statement deserved it . . .
Little Dreamer
@JGabriel:
Win!
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
@Brick Oven Bill:
In a world where the amount of fail you demonstrate is directly proportional to the scale of your assertions, Bill ….
Average life expectancy is about as useful as average weight. Let’s say the average weight of American adults is 161 lbs. I just made that number up, I have no idea what it actually is.
But the point is, that average is a particular expression of a range of weights. Adults may weigh from 60 to 600 lbs, let’s say, and the average weight means absolutely nothing about any individual adult.
So it is with average life expectancy. The thing about our healthcare system is that while it serves many people reasonably well, it serves many others poorly, and in many cases, tragically poorly. Cruelly. And that’s one of the imperatives driving the need for reform.
It’s not good enough to say the average is this, or that the majority of this group of people are doing fine, when large numbers of others are suffering, or going bankrupt, or dying for lack of care, or placed into desperate straights.
Averages are academic exercises, with particular meanings. In this case, the case of life expectancy across a very large population, these numbers only serve to nod us toward the realities faced by real people. Those realities, regarding which you seem completely incapable of understanding, are the real truths about American healthcare. The existing system is tragically and cruelly dysfunctional, regardless of what the “average life expectancy” might be for any particular population or part of the population.
Not only is it cruel, it is costly and cruel at the same time, and will bankrupt the whole country unless fixed. And in case you are not paying attention, standing by the side of the road and watching insurance companies own this system is not an acceptable option. Somebody has to change the rules. In recent American history, that somebody is us, Democrats, because the Republicans have demonstrated over and over that they can’t and won’t do it.
SLKRR
@slag:
I don’t know… Al Franken seems to be doing OK.
Punchy
anyone got a diff link to the VicJax link than media matters? company firewall no me gusta that link…
amazing i cant find at least 6 diaries at DKos on this….
YellowJournalism
I think the passage of HCR was more like sex at Glenn Beck’s house, except with more crying in the bathroom afterward.
Pangloss
@Justin: That’s a nice free-market touch, don’t you think?
Face
@Martin: Why are so many people here responding to an obvious spoof?
BOB is a made-up pseudonym for a regular commentator here. No need to “correct” him/her, as it’s all a spoof.
Edit: what, exactly, in the above puts me in moderation?
Zuzu's Petals
God, it wasn’t an act after all.
And Another Thing...
So here’s what scares the shit out of me. It’s the industrial grade stupidity all around us.
If you ask a civilian R or an elected R, the one thing they like is eliminating the pre-existing condition exclusion. And what’s the thing they hate the most? The individual mandate.. And a baker’s dozen of state Attorney’s General want to sue to overturn the individual mandate. Well, what happens to the for profit insurance industry if they can’t exclude people with health problems but people don’t have to buy insurance until they’re sick? These Republican AG’s would destroy the insurance industries business model. That’s like letting people buy fire insurance while the fire trucks on the way.
THE STUPIDITY IS JUST STUNNING.
Bulworth
I’m not sure why Doocy didn’t warmly affirm wingnut Jackson’s claim that Obama is a communist. That’s pretty standard fare among teabaggers and at his own network, although I repeat myself.
Mark S.
@Bulworth:
I don’t know how accurate this survey was, but it seems that conservatives aren’t very good at cutting the budget. The only thing specific that got 50% was foreign aid, which accounts for damn little of the federal budget.
Dork
OT: anyone see this?
First part:
But then this:
Shorter: Holy fuck, they’re doing what we asked them! Bail! Bail! Bail!
Randy P
@Justin: I think BoB’s, er, reasoning was that all people classified as “white” would be in England if they weren’t here. And all people classified as “non-white” would be in Zimbabwe if they weren’t here.
Or something.
YellowJournalism
Watching the Shephard Smith clip, you have to wonder what it’s like if and when he’s ever in the same room as Glenn Beck. You can tell he thinks Beck’s act is total bullshit, and dangerous at that. I was just waiting for Smith to say “Beck” or “Hannity” as he was talking about how people need to rethink their rhetoric and quit with the Marxist stuff. Is Fox only keeping him on as their “we’re not that bad” example?
Elie
@JGabriel:
THIS — absolutely THIS.
I shake my head…dunno dunno
I think at some level we are just observing a huge tantrum of 2 year olds who after saying nothing but ‘No’ and in other ways being totally immature and uncooperative are chaffing at being sent to time out —
They do not know what to do and are afraid that they will disappear into complete irrelevance if they don’t scream and wave their hands to let everyone know that they are still around.
And Another Thing...
@Brick Oven Bill: HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!
And it’s not England you asshole, it’s the United Kingdom. As I said, Industrial Grade Stupidity.
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
@And Another Thing…:
It’s a failure of education. I think it would be useful to teach high schoolers what insurance really is, what risk pools and risk management and actuarial tables are really all about.
Insurance only works when the policyholders who are not suffering losses at the moment are paying premiums alongside those suffering the losses. Otherwise it’s just a subsidy arrangement.
You can’t have big pools of coverage unless the healthy people are paying premiums. This is pretty basic. How you structure this, what you call the payments, is not all that important. Call it a tax, provide tax credits, enforce it through the tax system, whatever. It’s still the same principle.
It’s daunting to realize that most people have no idea of the most basic truths about insurance, or how it works. Considering how important risk sharing is in a complex economy, you’d think that this would be more widely understood.
Even BOB can understand this stuff, if you talk slowly.
And Another Thing...
@Justin: WIN.
YellowJournalism
@Zuzu’s Petals: If it’s not an act, the woman is a goddamn genius! She and Orly Taitz should go on the road together…and never come back.
mr. whipple
@Bulworth:
“Was there a particular government program(s) the teabagger wanted to slash?”
Dunno. That was just part of what went on for about 15 minutes. It was, um, amazing.
I almost felt sorry for someone that stupid, but figured they were probably a bagger for racist reasons, so why feel bad?
Sly
@Max:
Yeah. That post pretty much encapsulates the obtuseness of FDL. Jane wants to be more than a minor advocate; she wants to be a king-maker in Progressive politics. But without a constituency, politicians don’t respect you (or, as I suspect Jane prefers, politicians won’t fear you). She’s a blogger. You can’t have a constituency as a blogger. And all the self-reverential nonsense in the world won’t change that fact. To wit:
There’s a difference between hate and contempt. No one ever called her the “devil’s spawn”. No one on the left hates Jane, because she’s not worthy of such a strong emotion. She’s a superficial demagogue who cares more about her own cache in Progressive politics than actually implementing policy. Hate would perhaps be justified if we all didn’t know that her cache was worthless. But that’s really a moot point. We know its worthless, even if Jane and her sycophants don’t.
Yeah. Congress cut out the middle-man on student loans because of posts on Firedoglake. Too bad Jane wasn’t more insistent on the Public Option, huh? But I guess that would sound “immodest”.
lacp
The President is a Communist? I thought he was an Islamosexual. Well, shut my mouth.
IndyLib
OMFG, the asshattery just never stops.
Tea Partiers To Hold ‘Conservative Woodstock’ Event In Harry Reid’s Hometown
edit – link tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/tea-partiers-to-hold-conservative-woodstock-event-in-harry-reids…
robertdsc
@Max:
Tom Harkin specifically mentioned using reconciliation for the student loans bit because he made a mention about not having enough votes to pass under regular order. So the idea that the Firebaggers are responsible for it passing is silly.
Bulworth
@IndyLib: Any idea which bands are playing?
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
@Sly:
Pretty sure you mean “cachet” and not “cache.”
Brick Oven Bill
Pardon me while I sip some United Kingdomish Tea.
I still have not observed any of Glenn’s premises be proven wrong. Glenn is a target because he is an effective communicator.
There is a decent chance that he will be the first Executive of the country upon the failure of the currency.
So be nice to Glenn. Also be nice to Ron Paul.
JGabriel
TPM via IndyLib: Tea Partiers To Hold ‘Conservative Woodstock’ Event In Harry Reid’s Hometown\
And then they’ll go to Reid’s house and cut his gas lines.
.
Little Dreamer
@Brick Oven Bill:
__
Only to those who’ve never understood LOGIC!
__
Yeah, just what we need, another movie star!
IndyLib
@Bulworth:
The Caribou Barbie Trio, Victoria Jackson and the Whackjobs, Andrew Breibart and the White, Drunk, Sloppy Idjits, and Joe the Not Plumbers.
jibeaux
@mr. whipple:
It kind of seems oddly entertaining. I want one of those people to call me sometime. I guess I have some untapped masochism.
Somewhat related, a co-worker was telling me about a facebook conversation involving as step one, the debunking of the death panels. Apparently there is some fake language about the doctors empowered to write a death order complete with page citation, so that makes it seem real official-like. The co-worker provided a CNN fact check link. So the person came back and said she would learn more about that issue, but wasn’t it worrisome that the government would now have access to all of our bank accounts?
We agreed that a person who would believe that a health care reform bill empowers the government to access the bank accounts of all Americans, would literally believe anything.
view
OT but wanting this to go VIRAL:
Boycott the Discovery NetworksTo remove Sarah Palin from host of Discovery’s Sarah Palin’s Alaska
thepetitionsite.com/21/boycott-the-discovery-channel-networks
This petition is to inform the Discovery Networks of our intentions to boycott the following channels in response to their decision to have Sarah Palin as the host of Sarah Palin’s Alaska, to air on TLC. It’s reported she will recieve 1.2 million per episode.
Palin’s policies, such as her lack of belief in evolution, are harmful to the scientific theory. She also has an ugly record of animal rights abuses. Her encouragement of aerial wolf hunting using a $150 bounty per wolf, was luckily overturned by the AK supreme court.
Also, Discovery wants viewers opinions here:
blogs.discovery.com/discovery-insider/2010/03/hot-off-the-press.html#comments
Comments running 10 to 1 NEGATIVE
Sly
@ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty:
Whatever, Frenchman!
But yeah, you’re right.
And Another Thing...
@ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty: You’re right, and that’s a good explanation.
Sometime in the last couple of weeks, Beck was doing his blackboard routine and drew a bunch of small circles, and then pointed to one of them and said this one’s got “malaria eye mumble mumble” and said the equivalent of “and all these other circles pay their premiums but all the money goes to pay for the “malaria eye mumble” – and it agitated him. I played it backwards & watched it a second time and no, that was his point and he’s ticked about it.
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
It’s like listening to a 7 year old cry, “You can’t prove Santa doesn’t exist!”. Or a Randian blame the recession on too few free markets in America.
.
licensed to kill time
@Randy P:
Speaking of people classified as white, I was just reading this book review of The History of White People which perhaps BOB would benefit from reading as well. Given BOB’s fascination with ancient Greeks he might be surprised to find that:
and that:
Sly
@Brick Oven Bill:
I’d give Beck and Paul a shot if our currency fails. Their antics in the Oval Office would prove to be a nice distraction from an economically imposed diet of gravel and raw sewage.
eemom
On a happier note, it has just come to my attention that today is Nancy Pelosi’s birthday!
This calls for its own Post, imvho.
Svensker
@catclub:
Yeah, I read him over at antiwar.com periodically. Not sure that he’s not capable of going nuts again tho, whereas Larison and Smith seem to be fairly balanced folks.
slag
@Sly: Agreed. FDL doesn’t have any significant, positive influence. Yay for all of us!
And Another Thing...
@IndyLib: Turns out the afternoon is full of laughs…fun thread here and bonus Bagger comedy. Obviously none of these guys have been to Searchlight, and have never driven through BARREN Nevada to get there. It’s the effing Garden of Eden I tell you. Please tell me it’s going to be this summer.
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
@Brick Oven Bill:
Really?
So, Beck seems to think that the social justice aspects of civil rights are code words for Nazism? In other words, the equal protection clause of the Constitution is really dog whistle for Communism?
This changes everything.
Little Dreamer
OMG!
Please, make Michele Bachmann stop before I pee my pants!
Mark S.
@IndyLib:
As in, not very close at all.
But, man, Joe the Plumber (Country Joe and the Plumbers?), Victoria Jackson, screaming crazy man (aka Breitbart), and Sarahcuda? An all-star lineup.
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
True story: my father, up until about a year ago, used to argue that Fox News wasn’t any more biased than the other networks … until he saw Glenn Beck. And then Dad finally admitted that, yes, Fox is biased against Obama and Democrats.
So, BoB is actually right for once. Glenn Beck is an effective communicator.
Edited to add: BTW, my dad is a paranoid schizophrenic — no exaggeration, clinically diagnosed and everything. So the fact that even he sees that Fox is biased gives us some benchmark level by which to measure the rest of the Fox Party.
.
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
@Sly:
;)
demo woman
Does Sarah plan on campaigning today with her six-shooters by her side and no I don’t mean McCain’s bags.
Little Dreamer
@And Another Thing…:
September 26th, warm enough for you?
Such a small little town, I hope the residents pack up and head for other parts that day. I wouldn’t want to be there for that. I’m sure the few diners that are on the roadway there will run out of food in the first two hours. Hope they bring water (haha!).
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
No, the world is full of effective communicators.
Beck is a target because he is a liar, and a manipulator, and has been given a huge megaphone by a network mogul who pimps him for profit.
That’s why.
Betsy
@Little Dreamer:
How can anyone, ANYONE, be that dumb?
Sly
@ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty:
Not the clause per se, just the rational application thereof.
Svensker
@YellowJournalism:
Why did you have to go and say that? Why?
licensed to kill time
@IndyLib:
Re: “Conservative Woodstock” – I think they’ve ignored the warnings and taken the brown acid already. It explains a lot.
Svensker
@Mark S.:
And the repubs cut aid to Israel as their contribution to a balanced budget! Think of all the heads that would explode.
Third Eye Open
@eyepaddle: Thats awesome, I know exactly what you mean, except in Colorado it was late nights with the four-footer and Jack Van Impe. That guy is comic gold!
And Another Thing...
@Little Dreamer: Geez..a death wish. On the other hand, most of these folks thought that invading Iraq, another desert oasis, was a good idea.
Let’s review the bidding…we’ll call ourselves teabaggers, send tea bags to Congress, and then when security says “No you don’t” sends faxes of tea bags. The park service won’t let em dump a truck load’s worth on the Mall. Send salt to Olympia Snowe, etc. etc. Now they want to do “Woodstock” in Searchlight. (pro tip – upstate NY is green) I’m hoping that someone is keeping good notes for the book that will try to explain this particular democratic spasm.
Bulworth
@And Another Thing…: Wow, this just sounds really awesome. I hope they bake out there.
ExtremismInTheDefenseOfLiberty
@Sly:
Heh. Earl Warren is one of my earliest heroes. I am but a poor disciple.
Whenever his name comes up, I always like to paste in this blurb from Wikipedia:
A Republican who set the bar for progressive policy thought and jurisprudence. I put him up there with Lincoln. A true giant.
Little Dreamer
@Little Dreamer:
Whoops, wrong date. September 26th was a previous Searchlight protest apparently, it happened already.
The currently scheduled one seems to be set for tax day.
Apologies!
Andy
@Robertdsc-iphone:
He would excuse himself to go to the restroom so he could poke around in the medicine cabinets.
And Another Thing...
@Bulworth: It’s 80-100 south of Vegas, less than 1000 people and the largest town within abt an 80 mile radius.
The Baggers ought to learn to use the Google, it would save them a lot of grief, including calling themselves Tea Baggers.
Andy
@Brick Oven Bill:
I am nice to Ron Paul. He’s my rep, and I think I speak for all his constituents when I say, “thanks for the $400M in earmarks you brought to the district last year. I’m sorry you had to then vote against the bill containing your earmarks, but we all understand — that’s because you’re a man of principle.”
Tony J
Geek fact.
Marvel Comics are currently running a big crossover event in which one of the strands is the POV of the fictional journalists tasked with covering this latest incident of superhuman mayhem. There’s a pastiche of Glenn Beck in there called ‘Todd Keller’ and, let me tell you, the writers are pulling very few punches when they present Right-Wing Hate TV as the natural ally of comic book bad guys.
IMHO, when you’ve got comic book writers using you as shorthand for “Rating obsessed fake with contempt for his audience of bitter, whining failures”, it’s a clear sign that you and your kind have jumped the actual Conventional Wisdom shark (not the IOKIYAR version promoted by the MSM) in a very big way.
Andy
@And Another Thing…:
It will be so awesome for 10,000 ‘baggers to descend on that. I give them 15 minutes, tops, before they start bitching about the lack of public services to accommodate their numbers.
Little Dreamer
Well, I guess in trying to find info on this Searchlight thing, it appears I’m not the one who should have done the search.
This event is tomorrow (this Saturday), kicking off a multiple city series of teabagger events that are culminating in a protest in Washington on Tax Day (and apparently they’re also supposed to be sticking around for the April 19th fun with guns event right outside D.C. but, that’s not mentioned AFAIK in this Associated Press release.
Pangloss
@Mark S.: Instead of bad acid going around, it’s bad oxycontin?
Origuy
According to TPM, the Wingnut Woodstock in Searchlight is this weekend. I have actually driven through there on my way from Vegas to Anza-Borrego State Park (in California). There’s not much there; a couple of cazinos and a McDonalds are probably the highlights.
Oops, I said the C-word and it’s too late to get out of moderation.
Little Dreamer
@Andy:
AP is stating they expect ten times that many, but they put the population of Searchlight at 10k (I know it’s small, but not sure that the info on that press release is wrong). The page said ten times the amount of population.
Imagine if 100k or more show up, OMG! What a zoo (and a disaster).
Zuzu's Petals
@IndyLib:
Maybe we should add Reid to the ActBlue donation page … and all donate on the day of the uh, festivities.
And Another Thing...
Watchin’ Palin & McCain on CNN and oh.my.god. they coulda been POTUS & VPOTUS. She’s in black leather & perky, perky & he’s cadaverous.
BruinKid
@Max: Well, so did us in Bruin Democrats, but I guess because that lobbying was offline and behind the scenes, it doesn’t count in FDL’s eyes.
Sheesh.
toujoursdan
GODWIN ALERT:
Hitler was an effective communicator.
So what?
And Glenn Beck has been proven wrong:
youtube.com/watch?v=DGeZQrpZbjI
Here he said that Canadians must go through a lottery to see a doctor.
Factually wrong.
celticdragonchick
@El Cid:
Shep, your spot at MSNBC is waiting. We will trade you for Ed Schultz.
celticdragonchick
@tyrese:
FTW!
I wanna try, though…
It’s kinda like Little Big Horn, but without Custer, the 7th Cavalry, Chief Sitting Bull or any Native Americans…
It’s kinda like the Bataan death march, but without the starvation, beatings, roadside executions, Japanese guards or the forced march…
It’s kinda like the London Blitz, but without the Luftwaffe, the bombs, explosions or air raid shelters…
It’s kinda like the destruction of Pompeii, but without the volcano, the 800 degree centigrade pyroclastic flows or the choking layers of ash and pumice…
maus
@Moonbatting Average:
When you’ve built your career on being a dipstick, you have to travel real far and stoop really low to find someone who finds you brilliant.
Origuy
@celticdragonchick:
Better. And throw in Mika, too.
celticdragonchick
@Origuy:
Heh! ;)
Origuy
Wikipedia quotes the 2000 census as saying 576. Southern Nevada’s had a growth spurt in the last decade, but I dunno.
Triassic Sands
Ah, Victoria Jackson. Every time I see her, all I can think is that she is trapped inside one of those endless SNL sketches that don’t work, but go on and on and on…
No matter how loopy the Right Wing gets, Victoria will be there to occupy the Right Wing fringe of the Right Wing fringe. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if she “took up arms” and stormed the
KremlinWhite House.les
@view:
Jeebus, the comments are 100% negative. Amazin’.
GordonGuano
If HCR passing is like 9/11, does that mean those who don’t stand with the President are giving aid and comfort to the enemy, i.e., traitors?
Viva BrisVegas
@And Another Thing…:
But I assume that there is a whorehouse. There’ll need to be.
Nellcote
@celticdragonchick:
fix’t. I’m not a big Ed fan but Ratigan is a closet teabagger.
Nellcote
@Viva BrisVegas:
I hope someone remembered to order the port-o-potties!
soonergrunt
@Triassic Sands: It’s like she’s bitter over that series of failed and forgotten movies that she made was in and holding it against the rest of us.