Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

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

Infrastructure week. at last.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This really is a full service blog.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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

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

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Riding across the desert on a fine Arabian charger

Riding across the desert on a fine Arabian charger

by | 145 Comments

This post is in: 

Believe it or not, the best thing about this story isn’t that Patriot Depot was charging 4K for it (it’s Andrew Breitbart, for those not sufficiently familiar with his piercing blue eyes and ruddily handsome Celtic features):

It’s that they had to stop selling it due to copyright violations.

Rock on, wingers. You amuse me a lot more than the centrist pundits ever will.

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  2. 2.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    It doesn’t help that it looks like a medieval bobblehead. Look at the head to body proportions! He looks like freakin’ Prince Farquaad!

  5. 5.

    chopper

    @Keith:

    he could have put obama in the back burning the constitution, but then he’d get another cease-and-desist.

  6. 6.

    Forum Transmitted Disease

    I understand Andrew’s favorite weapon was the bottle, not the sword.

  12. 12.

    Amir Khalid

    They wanted FOUR THOUSAND DOLLARS for this bad Photoshop job? ::rolls eyes:: Given the price was actually $3,999.95, at least the customer would get his Nickelback.

  16. 16.

    Svensker

    Who knew Andy had flippers instead of arms? Also, too, an enormous head.

    I love that Townhall had to take down their post about “powerful art” like this which would SO undermine OWS should those rapist leeches see it! But most of the post lives in teh Goog:

    Being fascinated with butt kicking beasts and people, I was duly impressed when I saw the digital painting that artist David Bugnon (Boo-nyon) did of the late Andrew Breitbart. David absolutely knocked it out of the park with his painting depicting Andrew as the consummate intellectual warrior that he was.

    Bwahahahaha

  18. 18.

    mouse tolliver

    Believe it or not, the best thing about this story isn’t that Patriot Depot was charging 4K for it (it’s Andrew Breitbart…

    $4,000?! It’s not even leather! It needs some bows or something.

  19. 19.

    Alexandra

    Talking of copyright violations, don’t Republican presidential campaigns usually involve the use of theme songs that the recording artists haven’t granted the rights to use?

  26. 26.

    Svensker

    Doug, you neglected to mention that Patriot Depot is offering a real deal on Herman Cain is Able to Beat Obama bumperstickers! Two packs for $1.00 — you save $18.95!

  27. 27.

    MikeJ

    @Alexandra:

    Talking of copyright violations, don’t Republican presidential campaigns usually involve the use of theme songs that the recording artists haven’t granted the rights to use?

    Generally speaking, as long as you pay ASCAP you can play any of their licensed music in public, like at rallies. You don’t have to pre clear every piece of music.

    That’s not to say that the artists aren’t right for not wanting to be associated with them, but the use of music at a rally is probably perfectly legal. Once you start talking about something like a theme song in a commercial, then you would need pre clearance, generally at a much, much, much higher rate than the pennies ASCAP will collect.

  28. 28.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    I guess Gipper worship is losing the rush after so many years, though Reagan didn’t drop dead at 43 from obvious librul plots. Adds to the Mystaque.

  30. 30.

    Ash Can

    From the link:

    it seems only fitting that Andrew Breitbart, who made a career out of selectively editing bits of videotape to make other people say exactly what he wanted them to say, has been memorialized by a hacked-together Photoshop job constructed out of images sundered from their original contexts.

    A hacked-together Photoshop job that has been shitcanned due to copyright violation, yet. As fitting an epitaph for Breitbart as could ever be written.

  33. 33.

    Amir Khalid

    @Alexandra:
    I’ve noticed that the only artists who complain about Republican politicians doing this are all Democrats. And you Democrats complain about partisanship … ;)

  35. 35.

    beltane

    @Svensker: I wish I were more artistically gifted because it would be fun to make something with a few hundred of those bumperstickers, maybe a giant LOL collage.

  36. 36.

    MattF

    Man-boobs encased in forged steel armor… well, chacun à son goo, as Baby Leroy says.

  37. 37.

    Cacti

    @Svensker:

    David absolutely knocked it out of the park with his painting depicting Andrew as the consummate intellectual warrior that he was.

    Which part of the painting depicts intellectualism? Just looks like your standard fascist/militarist fap porn to me.

  39. 39.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    @ruemara:

    I know that much, but look at the original. The head on that is like half the size, WITH a helmet. At least it looks somewhat proportional with that pose, leaning away.

    @gypsy howell:

    But Farquaad is both comical and loathesome.

  40. 40.

    SatanicPanic

    @Svensker: There’s some great stuff in there. Bachmann/Palin bumper stickers that say Babes in the Whitehouse 2012 also marked down from $29.95 to $1.99.

  41. 41.

    Alexandra

    @MikeJ:

    Interesting. Thanks for the clarification. I expect it to happen again this time around. For my sins, I have this indelible memory of delegates at the end of Palin’s convention speech rocking out to Heart’s ‘Barracuda’…

    FSM knows what Romney’s campaign theme tune will be, although I’m sure that many here could offer some suggestions.

  44. 44.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    This hysterical, the luzer drinks himself to death at 43 and they want to remember him as Conan the Barbarian.

  48. 48.

    Ash Can

    @pat:
    @NancyDarling:

    Both pics were funny, but that Breithilda slayed me dead. It’s a perfect ‘Shop, and I can just hear the Wagnerian bombast blasting from his mouth in off-key falsetto. Magnificent.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    It’s that they had to stop selling it due to copyright violations.

    The cretinous stupid of the wingtards. It burns!

  51. 51.

    Linda Featheringill

    That whole story is so utterly . . . funny? sad? twisted?

    You know, they could have just painted a picture of the dude. Somebody would have bought it.

  53. 53.

    Linda Featheringill

    @Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):

    Wow. That’s just plain sad. It’s hard to believe just how badly Breitbart wasted his life. Even from beyond the grave, he’s wasting his life.

    You’re right. It was wasted. Hopefully, he was good to his children. Or did he scam them, too?

    People can have interesting lives without being superstars and without massive amounts of dishonesty. They really can.

  56. 56.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Alexandra:

    FSM knows what Romney’s campaign theme tune will be, although I’m sure that many here could offer some suggestions.

    The Oompa-Loompa song.

    Of course, you recall that Heart made it very clear that they did not want their song associated with the Wasilla bimbo.

    I’m sure that whatever song the Rmoney campaign selects, they won’t bother to secure the rights to it.

  60. 60.

    Interrobang

    You just know that one of these idjits is reading this post right now and going Oooooooo those libtards are MAKING FUN of us!

    Apparently they can’t even find an ethic or two in “pathetic.”

  61. 61.

    Jennifer

    Eh….no. The best thing about this “artwork” is that it inspired this contest at TBogg’s, as well as this truly awesome p-shop by Substance McGravitas.

    And also, the huge melon-head and tiny tiny T-Rex arms. You’d think that they’d at least have tried to get the proportions right.

  62. 62.

    Comrade Dread

    The only surprise is that he’s not standing in front of a polling place guarding it with a fiery sword while a couple of panthers slain at his feet, while James O’Keefe leads a black man away in chains in the background.

    Yet another glimpse in the fetishism of the conservative mind. They certainly love them some authoritarian strongmen with hints of homoeroticism imagery.

  63. 63.

    Yutsano

    @Interrobang: And of course the reasoned centrists are furiously hunting for a liberal accused of something similar. Joe Biden plagarized, so both sides do it, opinions differ, etc.

  64. 64.

    cckids

    @Svensker:

    Andrew as the consummate intellectual warrior that he was.

    Holy crap, that is screamingly funny. Andrew Breitbart was an intellectual warrior the way my Pomeranian is a Triple Crown winner. He wasn’t in the same universe as “intellectual”.

  67. 67.

    cckids

    @Alexandra:

    Romney’s campaign theme tune will be

    I vote for Adele’s “Rumour Has It”. At least one line is pitch-perfect . . . “just cause I said it, don’t mean that I meant it. . .”

    It’s Romney all the way.

  69. 69.

    David

    That’s a poster from the upcoming musical Breitbart on Ice. From the waist down he is wearing velvet stretch pants and silver skates.

  71. 71.

    AliceBlue

    @stuckinred:
    I expect he’ll lose most of Boortz’ audience. The redneck wingnuts down here like the idea of black Republicans, but they aren’t going to listen to them. (Nor are they going to vote for them. That’s why Herman Cain isn’t the junior senator from the great State of Georgia.)

  73. 73.

    Zaftig Amazon

    Miniscule quibble: Breitbart is not a celtic name, but rather germanic. Therefore his features would be ruddily Teutonic.

  75. 75.

    Jennifer

    @Stuck in the Funhouse: As I noted over at roy’s, the lionization of Breitbart offers a simple example of the devolution of the right over the past 20 years. Back in the early 90’s, they were trying to force Reagan worship on all of us, with attempts to rename everything after Reagan, put Reagan on coins, and etc. Fast forward 20 years…now they’re trying to force on us worship of a guy whose tox screen just came back 6 weeks ago, who’s not even been in the ground but 3 months, and whose greatest accomplishment in life was securing and distributing a picture of a congressman’s cotton-knit-covered schlong.

    Everything you need to know about the rightwing, right there in this example.

  76. 76.

    mdblanche

    Even in death only the great and wonderful Andrew Breitbart can save us from Barrack Obama’s wicked personality cult!

    @Svensker:

    I was duly impressed when I saw the digital painting that artist David Bugnon (Boo-nyon) did of the late Andrew Breitbart.

    That’s an awfully French Freedom-y pronunciation.

  77. 77.

    cckids

    @Comrade Dread:

    The only surprise is that he’s not standing in front of a polling place guarding it with a fiery sword while a couple of panthers slain at his feet, while James O’Keefe leads a black man away in chains in the background.

    That would have required more than 30 minutes to be spent Photoshopping the thing. Or, you know, hiring a high-school art student or something. They’re only getting $4K for it, for Pete’s sake, they can’t be spending time/money like its water on quality or anything.

  78. 78.

    shortstop

    @SatanicPanic: You know who else had baby arms? Tyrannosaurus rex, that’s who. Apropos of Breitbart, would it surprise y’all to know that they now think T-rex was a scavenger, not a terrifying hunter? No, I thought not.

    @dewzke: It is a particularly good one. The 101st Chairborne’s simpering mancrushes are always the tastiest thread fodder.

  80. 80.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @mdblanche:

    Even in death only the great and wonderful Andrew Breitbart can save us from Barrack Obama’s wicked personality cult!

    The wingnuts project like the octoplex down at the Mall showing The Avengers over Memorial Day weekend.

  81. 81.

    Amir Khalid

    @Zaftig Amazon:
    Ah, but you see, Andrew Breitbart was adopted by a Jewish family. So for all anyone knows, maybe his “ruddily handsome” features were indeed Celtic.

  86. 86.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid:

    Ah, but you see, Andrew Breitbart was adopted by a Jewish family. So for all anyone knows, maybe his “ruddily handsome” features were indeed Celtic.

    Good G-d Almighty, haven’t the Jews suffered enough?

  88. 88.

    danielx

    @Ed Drone:

    That’s where the marketing plan for selling this creation went all wrong. They could have reproduced it on black velvet and sold it for $39.95 instead of $3,995.95 and they would have sold a shit ton of them to folks who lack taste as well as intelligence.

    Until the copyright violation appeared…

  89. 89.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Helena Montana:

    Looks like Adolf Hitler’s Aryan dream boy.

    Blond as Hitler, svelte like Goering, with the rugged handsome features of Goebbels.

  91. 91.

    flukebucket

    @AliceBlue:

    I made the mistake of chortling about Herman Cain as a substitute for Boortz on a wingnut site that I frequent and boy did I catch hell. One guy told me that Neal Boortz and Herman Cain were two of the best minds out there.

    That show won’t last a year with Cain at the helm. And good riddance Neal Boortz.

  92. 92.

    Nancy B

    It’s not a copyright violation. It’s Brett Kimberlin stealing their First Amendment rights, again.

  94. 94.

    dmsilev

    @danielx: If I remember correctly, they did actually do this. There were a bunch of different version of the painting available at a wide range of price points. The $4K one caught most of the attention because of the pure absurdity of it, but there were cheaper options.

  96. 96.

    Jennifer

    @SatanicPanic: I’d have a hard time passing those up if they were available.

    I’m gonna have to get around to writing something about McNaughton for my blog. When Thomas Kinkade croaked, the post I had written about him – a year and a half before his death – got over 10,500 reads the first day the news broke (post title – Thomas Kinkade: Painter of Shite). Due to the demand, I followed up with “Painter of Shite Dead at 54.”

  98. 98.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Jennifer:

    Some guy did a Lovecraftian riff on McNaughton’s tripe, and it was, naturally, vastly superior to the original.

  100. 100.

    Bubblegum Tate

    @Svensker:

    Anytime I see quotes like that, I always wonder if the people who say/write them truly believe it in their heart of hearts. because, come on, nobody could actually believe the artist “knocked it out of the park,” right?

  101. 101.

    danielx

    @SatanicPanic:

    Now there is the idea of a person who knows marketing. I’d have bought one of those cups in a heartbeat just so I could customize it with a permanent marker.

    @Nancy B:

    You’re probably right, stealing being among the least of his many sins. It’s fun to watch wingnut freakouts about Bret Kimberlin, but he really is a slimy little shit. I met him once about a million years ago in a vegetarian restaurant he owned at the time and even at that time he struck me as a genuinely sociopathic little fuck. He was and I have no doubt still is the kind of person who makes you want to wash your hands after you shake hands with him, I don’t care how rehabilitated he’s supposed to be.

  102. 102.

    Mike in NC

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    I’m sure that whatever song the Rmoney campaign selects, they won’t bother to secure the rights to it.

    Because (1) paying for intellectual property rights offends wingnuts, who think everything should be free, and (2) Willard is actually a cheap penny-pinching bastard, like most people with obscene wealth.

  103. 103.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @slag:

    They’re natural serfs, the lot of them. Utterly unworthy of the freedoms and liberties so many have fought, bled, and died for, because they’d give them away in a heartbeat for a pat on the head from their imagined betters.

  105. 105.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mike in NC:

    Mike, I’m not sure if it’s even paying for it that’s the issue. It’s asking permission, which is all most artists really want, and the inevitable response from the artists, which is that they don’t want their work associated with Rmoney.

    I mean, look at 1992, and the use of “Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow” by the Clinton campaign. They went to Fleetwood Mac and asked permission, and got it. Not to mention the enthusiastic support of the Macs.

    No Republican can command that sort of reaction from a popular artist with a few outliers…and the outliers are guys like Ted Nugent and Hank Williams Jr. Washed up has beens who never really were.

  107. 107.

    quannlace

    Wow, that website is pretty funny and not a little pathetic. Looked at their bumper sticker page and really… Still selling Herman Cain stickers? And anybody still whinging about Acorn is just a fool.
    And how come no Romney stickers yet?

  108. 108.

    patrick II

    I think the painting is a wonderful piece of art — dishonest, tasteless, and self-delusional — it is the perfect homage. Only an artist with similar gifts could see into the essence of Brietbart’s soul so completely.

  109. 109.

    SatanicPanic

    @danielx: There may be a good market for spoofs out there. Nah, you’re right, it’s more fun to personalize.

  110. 110.

    bemused

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Speaking of Ted Nugent, disgusting Nugent is doing robo calls for Gov Tommy Thompson. I’m amazed but probably shouldn’t be that Nugent is still considered an asset to rightwinger’s campaigns.

  111. 111.

    quannlace

    When Thomas Kinkade croaked, the post I had

    As far as the popularity of Kinkade- eh. As a starving illustrator, I’m all for anybody managing to make a good living with their artwork. I just wish he was a little better at it. The man couldn’t draw- don’t take too close a look at some of those cottages (expecially the later paintings), they’re about ready to tumble into the charming inlet. And he couldn’t draw people for shit. One time he did a Norman Rockwell like Christmas street scene, and the people looked like melting wax figures.
    ****
    But going back to this digital ‘painting.’ Were they really asking 4 thou for a print? I guess it was on gen-u-ine canvas.

  112. 112.

    SRW1

    Just a guess, but the copyright violation concerns a depiction of Sir Lancelot, am I right?

  113. 113.

    shortstop

    I missed the beginning of the Kimberlin thing and decided to ignore it, figuring that by the time I bothered to learn what was going on, it would be old news. But it doesn’t seem to be going away. Can anyone point me to a source that encapsulates the drama? Thanks in advance.

  115. 115.

    PurpleGirl

    @harlana: That’s from Ghostbusters 2. It’s the portrait of Vigo the Carpathian which Dana is restoring at work. Vigo’s spirit has taken over her boss and wants him (the boss) to find a body he (Vigo) can take over.

  116. 116.

    SatanicPanic

    @shortstop: He has a wikipedia page which pretty much outlined it. Shorter- he’s filing a bunch of nuisance lawsuits and possibly calling the cops on right bloggers. He sounds like a scumbag.

  117. 117.

    The Red Pen

    @Svensker:

    But most of the post lives in teh Goog:

    Better to read it on Free Republic where it’s annotated with hilarious commentary!

    Only thing the painting needs is a Cross on his chest!

    Actually, most of the Freepers hate it, and they picked up on the Hitler comparison.

  118. 118.

    alicia-logic

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    No Republican can command that sort of reaction from a popular artist with a few outliers…and the outliers are guys like Ted Nugent and Hank Williams Jr. Washed up has beens who never really were.

    Washed-up has-weren’ts?

  120. 120.

    Jennifer

    @SatanicPanic: There’s a bit more to it than that, plus no evidence that he or anyone associated with him was responsible for the SWAT calls. I mean, it’s not really all that hard to believe that there might be more than one person who dislikes Patterico or Erik Erikson enough to make those calls. And so far he’s prevailed in all of those “nuisance” suits.

    I think it’s more a case of people who are used to bullying getting bullied in response, and of course they don’t like it. That doesn’t mean that I agree with Kimberlin’s approach necessarily, nor that any of the rulings that have gone his way will or should stand up to appeal, but the rightblogger reaction? It’s classic “schoolyard bully gets the crap knocked out of him with a baseball bat.”

  121. 121.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Doug Giles art

    Curiously he seems a bit better than a photoshop hack like Breitbart piece. Then again his stuff doesn’t have that romance novel cover look that sells well in Wingnut land. He kind of does hotel lobby art, sort of looks nice, nothing to really upset anyone.

    Now if he had REAL talent he would have The Ascendant Breitbart Warrior Angel trampling on the a metrosexaul anti-colonist while a tearful Lady Liberty thanks him for saving her. Ultimate the picture is a disappointment over what it might have been.

  122. 122.

    PurpleGirl

    @Jennifer: Also there are claims that Kimberlin has cronies trying to hide his criminal past while Kimberlin has written himself about it and admits to having one.

  124. 124.

    Tod Kelly

    It’s like my mom always taught me: If you’re a good conservative when you die you spend eternity in Heaven. But if you’re a very good conservative when you die you spend eternity on the side of a van circa 1977.

  126. 126.

    Paula

    He has a mullet. That’s weird looking with the fantasy medieval flipper armor.

    Seriously, that’s so out-of-proportion that it’s monstrous-looking.

  127. 127.

    Stuck in the Funhouse

    @Tod Kelly:

    But if you’re a very good conservative when you die you spend eternity on the side of a van circa 1977.

    Before ED, After ED

  130. 130.

    LanceThruster

    For the record and my own understanding, it would be “fair use” up until that point they started charging for it, right?

    What a bunch of maroons!

  131. 131.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Forum Transmitted Disease:

    They should have ‘shopped Deadbart’s face onto the Demoman from Team Fortress 2, it would have been a much better depiction; a drunken Scot with one eye running around with explosives blowing shit up while carrying a bottle of booze to swill from. Every time he’s able to blow something up he lifts his kilt and flashes Mr. Happy in triumph.

    Sounds just like him, right?

  132. 132.

    Roy G.

    Where have you gone, Thomas Kinkade? ‘Winger Nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

  137. 137.

    g

    Riding across the desert on a fine Arabian charger

    Nay (neigh!), ’tis upon a dressage horse!

  139. 139.

    Anne Laurie

    @Zaftig Amazon:

    Miniscule quibble: Breitbart is not a celtic name, but rather germanic.

    As Amir Khalid said, Breitbart was adopted. He said he’d met his birth father, who was “a Celtic musician”. The ruddy-Celtic-features trope was very popular among a certain class of fReichtards who aren’t… how to put this politely?… one hundred percent certain that “Christians” should embrace the “Judeo” prefix. On the other hand, as another Ruddy Irish Celt, Breitbart’s ADD-assisted ragegasms did remind me of all the worst family occasions of my misspent youth.

  141. 141.

    maus

    @quannlace:

    As far as the popularity of Kinkade- eh. As a starving illustrator, I’m all for anybody managing to make a good living with their artwork. I just wish he was a little better at it. The man couldn’t draw- don’t take too close a look at some of those cottages (expecially the later paintings), they’re about ready to tumble into the charming inlet. And he couldn’t draw people for shit. One time he did a Norman Rockwell like Christmas street scene, and the people looked like melting wax figures.

    You’re actually very incorrect. Kinkade was an excellent painter and illustrator, prior to his career making schlock. He dumbed it down, he made terrible things. Why? Because fuck his customers and investors. This is what they want, he’s going to give them their terrible art, and the worse he makes it, the more they love him.

  142. 142.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I know this thread is dead but for any stragglers who want to see what The Bug has to say about his ‘creating’ his ‘masterpiece’ depicting Deadbart, check this story of his out.

    He never set out to make money from it…lol! Fucking LIAR.

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