Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.

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

The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Not all heroes wear capes.

I am pretty sure Katy Tur wasn’t always such a bootlicking sycophant.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Second rate reporter says what?

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

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84Comments

  1. 1.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    I’m a little bothered that they didn’t mention that Deen didn’t credit the Luther properly when she introduced it, calling it a Ladies Brunch Sandwich or some such nonsense.

    Also, I’m hoping this comment will actually post, unlike the handful I’ve tried over the last two days.

  8. 8.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    About the Paula Deen entry–I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t call her out for making the Luther without calling it the Luther. I mean, plagiarism is plagiarism, right?

    And how does Bush, with that scathing statement, only come in at 29? I’m guessing that maybe there’s some Bush fatigue at this point, or maybe it would just feel like piling on.

    (Buy my book)

  9. 9.

    drew42

    Jumping on the open thread opportunity, to comment on TPM’s official coming out party:
    http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2011/01/the_deal_with_palin.php

    TPM has been moving away from the quality journalism / political advocacy model, toward the mixed journalism / sensational B.S. model for some time. But it’s nice to see Josh spell it right out for us.

    It’s got it all — from the “We can’t control what’s news” argument, to the “Liberals need to get their heads out of their asses” jab. Classy!

  10. 10.

    Damien

    @#5. Look, I’ll agree that he’s doing the best job he can, but can you honestly argue with what they said?

  13. 13.

    geg6

    @Brian S (formerly Incertus):

    Well, if Paula Deen is on the list, I’ll be forced to go read it even though I didn’t want to. She is loathsome. Not quite as loathsome as Rachel Ray from a cooking standpoint, but somehow more loathsome for me because of her southern accent. I really can’t take southern accents (and don’t get me started on country music).

    Went to her restaurant years ago with the ex when we vacationed in Savannah. Hated it. Just hated it. I insisted on a vegetarian place the next day just to clean my system of all that disgusting oil and fat. What isn’t fried there is drowned in butter so that you can’t taste anything else.

    Guess you can take the Yankees to the South, but you can’t make ’em like it.

  14. 14.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Damien:

    Whether it was a “robust” public option, real net neutrality, importing prescription drugs, barring lobbyists from serving in the White House, meaningful Wall Street reform or ending the Bush tax cuts for the disgustingly wealthy, our President caved like the Metrodome under the weight of a bloated oligarchy. Most irksome, he seemed dignified doing it.

    I’m guessing the Bully Pulpit(tm) could have fixed all that.

  15. 15.

    Rhoda

    So, I learned how exactly the banks are to blame for the foreclosure crisis. Like, I finally grasped it all. I’m phenomenally stupid at this kind of stuff so I can’t recommend this enough. Pass it around to those who are slow, like me.
    *****

    As the foreclosure crisis has escalated over the past several months, one overarching debate has been about who bears the most blame: homeowners or banks?

    After everything I’ve learned and written about the foreclosure mess, my verdict is: The banks are responsible for 90% of the problem, troubled homeowners 10%.

    Yes, every foreclosure involves a homeowner not paying his mortgage. But every foreclosure also involves a bank that made the loan. And usually another bank, or several more, that profited from securitizing the loan. And still another bank, or several, that profited from servicing the loan. Together, those banks have done three things that created the massive glut of foreclosures choking America’s legal systems and laying waste to its real estate markets:

    * They knowingly made millions of loans doomed for foreclosure as soon as the check was written.
    * They deliberately and/or incompetently failed to modify many salvageable mortgages.
    * They were so careless with their paperwork and processes that they’ve undermined the rule of law, clouded the title to untold numbers of properties and complicated the processing of the massive backlog of foreclosures that hurts the economically crucial real estate market.

    Let’s take a closer look at each factor.

    http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/credit/whos-to-blame-for-the-mortgage-mess-banks-not-homeowners/19803636/

  16. 16.

    Ija

    Is it too late to nominate Michelle Obama? Apparently she is a pedestrian killer. The stupidity here would be mind-boggling if only these people have proven that they actually have, you know, brains.

  17. 17.

    Dilford

    How long before the Republicans start defending ICP as victims of the (excuse me, I mean “teh”) Left’s War on Christians?

  18. 18.

    Walker

    @geg6:

    As a born and bred Southerner, let me just say that her food isn’t even good for Southern food.

  20. 20.

    Ija

    @Brian S (formerly Incertus):

    This is the new conservative meme in 4,3,2,1. I’ll eat my shoes if Malkin, Reynolds, Althouse et al don’t link to this pretty soon. Maybe even the folks at Reason – example of nanny-state gone bad, you know. Heck, maybe even ED wants to join in the fun.

  21. 21.

    shortstop

    #51: Buffalo Beast, for creating the means by which we shall be forced to listen to Sarah Palin whinge 24/7 about hypocritical liberals who seek to destroy her “message” by inciting ursine violence against her.

  22. 22.

    Brian S (formerly Incertus)

    @Ija: Next thing you know, there’ll be a claim that Obama wants people to die in car accidents because he’s pushing for higher CAFE standards. You know, better gas mileage means people can afford to drive farther, which means they’ll be exposing themselves to more potential accidents.

  26. 26.

    rickstersherpa

    Douglas Holz-Eakin and Greg Mankiw, once semi-reputable conservative economists, now just hacks carrying water for Republican talking points. Sentence: Repeatedly reading the Lehman Bankruptcy case file in Hell’s 8th Level http://www.4degreez.com/misc/dante-inferno-information.html. They now help propel the Zombie that the greatest Financial meltdown since 1929 was all the fault of poor (Black and Brown) people and Gubmint policies designed to help them buy houses. http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/johnson16/English

    Simon Johnson on how the poor and middle class dominate American politics (NOT).

    “…Acemoglu breaks down the Republican narrative into three distinct questions. First, is there evidence that US politicians respond to lower-income voters’ preferences or desires?

    The evidence on this point is not as definitive as one might like, but what we have – for example, from the work of Princeton University’s Larry Bartels – suggests that over the past 50 years, virtually the entire US political elite has stopped sharing the preferences of low- or middle-income voters. The views of office holders have moved much closer to those commonly found atop the income distribution.

    There are various theories regarding why this shift occurred. In our book 13 Bankers, James Kwak and I emphasized a combination of the rising role of campaign contributions, the revolving door between Wall Street and Washington, and, most of all, an ideological shift towards the view that finance is good, more finance is better, and unfettered finance is best. There is a clear corollary: the voices and interests of relatively poor people count for little in American politics.

    Acemoglu’s assessment of recent research on lobbying is that parts of the private sector wanted financial rules to be relaxed – and worked hard and spent heavily to get this outcome. The impetus for a big subprime market came from within the private sector: “innovation” by giant mortgage lenders like Countrywide, Ameriquest, and many others, backed by the big investment banks. And, to be blunt, it was some of Wall Street’s biggest players, not overleveraged homeowners, who received generous government bailouts in the aftermath of the crisis…”

  28. 28.

    Ija

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    No, OTB is the good guy here. They made fun of the madness. This is Joyner’s comment on it:

    Second, while I don’t pay much attention to the social campaigns of First Ladies, I don’t recall Mrs. Obama telling people that they should get drunk, strap on an iPod, and go wandering around the streets reading their BlackBerries. She’s advising people to get some exercise, not to go wander around in traffic. Yes, that’s technically a form of exercise. There are others.

  33. 33.

    shortstop

    @Ija: Maybe so. Maybe so. But what about all the people pulling shoulder muscles from weeding their organic gardens? She can’t wiggle out of that one.

  35. 35.

    bjacques

    Pretty good. Pointless swipe at Islam, in (deservedly) trashing the Xmas FAILbomber, but I liked it. But, as with Txas BBQ potato chips, it’s hard to stop at 50.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    Maybe so. Maybe so. But what about all the people pulling shoulder muscles from weeding their organic gardens? She can’t wiggle out of that one

    Some people say that there has been a whopping 0.00003% increase in skin cancer cases brought on by people weeding their organic gardens. I think Beck needs to get on this right away, especially if he can tie it back to George Soros.
    (“These people had gardens, Hungarians had gardens – coincidence? I think NOT!”)

  37. 37.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @cleek: My mom has a special plate for microwaving bacon. It has ridges so that the bacon stays out of the grease and gets crispy. I am telling you, this is American ingenuity at its very peak.

  40. 40.

    Quarks

    Obama’s listed, and BP and Rush Limbaugh aren’t?

    I honestly was expecting BP at the top of the list.

  44. 44.

    NonyNony

    Two thoughts from the top of the list –

    1) Alvin Greene? On the most loathsome list? And he outranked Kim Kardashian and Rick Sanchez? Really?

    2) Did anyone ever figure out where he got that 10K to file as a candidate?

  46. 46.

    tomvox1

    I think they forgot Rick Santorum:

    The question is — and this is what Barack Obama didn’t want to answer — is that, is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well if that person, human life is not a person, then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say, ‘No, we’re going to decide who are people and who are not people.’

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @tomvox1: It is possible that some, like Santorum and Limbaugh, are so loathsome that their numbers have been retired. I mean, you have to make room for the new talent, right?

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

    This list is very good news for John McCain, as both he and his VP pick made it, along with enablers like Roger Ailes and the zillionaire Koch brothers.

    Was unaware their dad founded the John Birch Society. Wow.

  52. 52.

    Ija

    Speaking of loathsome, William Saletan is back concern trolling about abortion. I’m sure his best bud Douthat will chip in tomorrow. And then they will conversate more in sorrow than in anger about all those poor women who just don’t know how to treat their uterus. Someone please hand me a mallet so I can hit myself in the head now. That will be less painful than watching this trainwreck developing. But somehow, I can’t help myself. I must haz Saletan and Douthat. They are like drugs. I need it for my outrage meter.

  53. 53.

    NonyNony

    @Quarks:

    Obama’s listed, and BP and Rush Limbaugh aren’t?

    Rush Limbaugh. Hm. I remember that name. Wasn’t he some kind of radio guy a few years back? Like Glenn Beck, except without the TV show?

    Seriously though – Limbaugh has kind of become like Ann Coulter. Still there, still saying shit, but who the fuck cares because there are crazier people out there saying crazier shit and sucking up the oxygen. I’ve come to the conclusion that right-wing crazy is kind of like heroin – the more you use it, the more you need to pump up the dosage to get the high you used to get. Limbaugh used to be enough, but now the nutters need a vein full of Glenn Beck to get the kind of high Rush used to give ’em.

  56. 56.

    shortstop

    @NonyNony: That’s it, innit? The unthinkable is now the commonplace and the bar goes ever lower. But the gigantic doses of unmitigated crazy have nothing to do with armed and emotionally vulnerable people losing their shit, so don’t start saying they do.

  57. 57.

    shortstop

    @Ija: Not yet. But they will be soon since they’re not eating preservatives, thanks to Stokely Hippie Chick Carmichael.

  62. 62.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SFAW: I’ve heard that before and I will say now what I always say, “You simply aren’t trying hard enough. Now get to work.” Charming, aren’t I?

    Edited for improved coherence. Absolute coherence not guaranteed. Do not exceed recommended daily dosage. Not valid in Rhode Island.

  63. 63.

    Buffalo Rude

    If you feel someone was unjustly left off the list, odds are they were included on a previous list. Read the archives. Especially 2006-2009 (they were really on a tear for a time.) I miss the Beast.

  64. 64.

    SFAW

    I’ve heard that before and I will now what I always say, “You simply aren’t trying hard enough. Now get to work.” Charming, aren’t i?

    Eh, I’ve seen worse. (Steelers fans, for instance.)

    In any event, I’ll get to work on it ASAP. Just as soon as I finish organizing my sock drawer, etc. Your wish is my command-to-be-ignored!

  67. 67.

    cmorenc

    @de stijl:

    Any “Most Loathsome” list that omits Nancy Grace is just insulting.

    I agree completely that Nancy Grace richly deserves a slot in the “50 Most Loathsome”, obviously far more deserving than Obama (at #14 !???). Her tabloid-journalism program on “HNN” focuses almost entirely on incidents of a “missing young white girls” where criminal causation might arguably be involved, and leaves no minor detail, no avenue of speculation, no tidbit of sensational gossip, no snippet of video potentially prejudicial to an eventual fair trial unturned.

    Unlike say, Sarah Palin, Nancy Grace is trivially easy to avoid within our own homes simply by never watching the HNN network channel that Grace’s presence is entirely confined to. UNFORTUNATELY it’s difficult to go about in many common public places without now and then needing to dwell for at least a few minutes in an area equipped with a television tuned to the Nancy Grace program, in a setting where the channel choice is outside your control. For example, the lobby of an otherwise decent Marriott Hotel I stayed in for two nights in Salt Lake City had HNN (and seemingly incessant repeats) of the “Nancy Grace” program playing every time I went through the lobby to the elevators to my room, and often, at my local YMCA workout room, one among the bank of four TVs is tuned to HNN and “Nancy Grace” is on during the particular hours when I’m most likely to be there. Now, if a Y member particularly wants the channel on one of the TVs changed to something else and no one objects, and goes to the trouble to get a staff member to do so, we can. However, that fact raises a troublesome question: for the TV to be on HNN and Nancy Grace in the first place, someone at some point during the day deliberately wanted that tv tuned to Nancy Grace. The collective group of viewers who are responsible for this loathsome, pestilent woman inflicting public viewing space deserve their own spot on the “top 50 most loathsome” people. So many candidates, only so many spots.

  68. 68.

    ET

    Just to interject a laugh and a bit of fun, I am going to provide a link to the Hyperbole and a Half post on Wolves. The anticipation of doom with a few simply drawn panes is hilarious.

  72. 72.

    SFAW

    Turn right to go left… That was my doing.

    Enjoy it while you can … Christie is trying to make it into “Turn left to go right”. But only on heavily trafficked two-way roads, of course. I don’t think he realizes he’ll lose a ton of his base with that move.

  73. 73.

    de stijl

    @cmorenc:

    I checked the archives and Nancy Grace was ranked #42 in 2005.

    My faith in the world has been renewed.

    Also, your description of her methods is spot-on, but you failed to mention her voice. Crikey Moses, that voice! Gaaah!

  75. 75.

    gpleigh

    @drew42: Josh’s piece this morning disgusted me. I wrote an extensive email to them explaining why I thought they were making a big mistake and I got back a snarky email back from Josh. They really don’t seem to care what they’re doing as long as they can write a few paragraphs a day full of incomprehensible grammatical errors and make cash in on the right-wing fringe. UGH.

  77. 77.

    daveNYC

    It doesn’t really take much to create a word in English. Look at “pwn”.

    Doesn’t even take vowels these days.

  80. 80.

    shortstop

    @gpleigh: Seriously, I’ve never corresponded with him, but I know at least five people who’ve gotten inappropriately dismissive emails from him. I happened to have read several of the missives to which he was responding so defensively, and they could all be fairly characterized as cordial, respectful and exceptionally mild criticism–in some cases, just requests for clarification.

    On the plus side, Marshall’s responses were blessedly short and free of his usual can’t-afford-an-editor-here’s-my-rambling-and-repetitive-stream-of-consciousness style.

  82. 82.

    timb

    @Mike in NC: the salient point is that he did after helping Stalin in the 20’s industrialize the Soviet Union and making a killing, while around him Stalin and the NKVD just killed.

    After he made his fortune, he suddenly developed a conscience and a hatred for Reds. Makes you wonder how nuts the Koch brothers really are. I guess I’ll give a pass to the one who ran off with lots of money to live in Europe and paint castles. He might have nothing positive to contribute to humanity, but at least he’s not a negative force

  83. 83.

    timb

    @Brock: Robert Welch was its head, but one of its founding members was Fred Koch, founder of Koch Industries, one of the largest private corporations in America.

    I remember that from Perlstein’s first book

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