My inbox is so full of right-wing horseshit this morning that I’m putting it all in one post.
* Joe Arpaio’s posse has determined that Obama’s birth certificate is fraudulent. And the sun rose in the East. Since this isn’t an Aaron Sorkin TV show, the AP reports this as if it is news. (via)
* Senate Republicans killed the Law of the Sea treaty — 34 Republicans oppose it and it takes a 2/3 majority to pass a treaty in the Senate. Here’s my question: is there a treaty that would get a vote from those 34? Xenophobia has become so enshrined in the modern Republican Party that I can’t think of one.
* Joe Patrice does some good work debunking a number of stupid little “libruls are so dumb” ploys that will probably end up on your crazy Fox-watching uncle’s Facebook, so take a look if you have one of those.
SFAW
Is there any particular reason you feel the need to be depressing this morning? ‘Cause realizing how fucked-up and insane the right wingers are, and what it means for the future of the country, is depressing.
I would really appreciate it if you could find something real, definitively stating that they’re all moving to Texas, renaming it Dumbfuckistan, and seceding from the Union. Now THAT would bring a smile to my face.
Kathy in St. Louis
I have begun to believe that the AP has been able to save money by laying off all reporters and just asking the Republican National Committee to send what they’d like published. I actually decided this several years ago. This is where Yahoo News, which isn’t, gets all their stories and headlines. How can a new outfit like this have fallen so low?
sherparick
Republicans say Earth is flat, Democrats respond, AP reports the “fact” that opinions differ.
MattF
So, what’s the news here? Wingers lie. Grass is green. Sky is blue.
c u n d gulag
Not ratifying ‘The Law of the Sea Treaty’ will cost this country money – as well as world status, since almost every other country, even the feckin’ LANDLOCKED ONES, has already agreed to it.
We look like FECKIN’ IDJITS – AGAIN!
This isn’t quite the bogus “Debt Ceiling Crisis,” but ‘it’s close enough for Republican government work.’
Bruuuuce
Rush Limbaugh bemoans the fact that one villain in The Dark Knight Rises is named Bain, since that was clearly intended to hurt Willard’s fee-fees. Hey, Rush, let me Google that for you.
Valdivia
So have you guys seen this beauty coming from the Romney camp? Obama wasn’t veted? WTF?
Elizabelle
@SFAW:
I’d be OK with having to use my passport to visit Texas, South Carolina, or Georgia.
Hill Dweller
@Valdivia: They’ve got nothing. Let Romney bring up all that nonsense again, and continue to get laughed at.
jeffreyw
@SFAW:
You need moar kitteh?
The Red Pen
Gen. Fraser of USTRANSCOM recently testified in favor of the LOTS treaty. There was a note about it on the internal blog as ustranscom.mil. There were two anonymous comments on the story regurgitating Sean Hannity’s talking points.
I was floored that on a US military web site accessible only to people working for a Gen. Fraser’s organization, there were comments basically calling him a traitor. That’s how fucked up these people are.
SFAW
@Elizabelle:
Philosophically, no argument from me. Logistically, I was hoping to get them all in a centralized location.
Also, too, driving to Florida would mean you needed to take your passport, or drive a few hundred extra miles. I don’t go there much – 25 years ago was the last time, and that was just a stopover – but think of all the children who would have a tougher time going to see their grandparents!
SFAW
@The Red Pen:
As the saying goes: that’s how they roll.
EconWatcher
@Valdivia:
Let me explain something to you, Mitt. Real slow and simple. People like Obama personally, even people who don’t agree with his politics, except for a few on the barking, foaming lunatic fringe.
They don’t like you. They never will like you. Because, let’s face it, you’re an obvious jerk, the rich brother-in-law who wants to talk about all his bling and business deals over barbecue at the family reunion. People smile weakly and nod. You think it’s because they’re jealous. But really, they’re just thinking, what an a$$#ole.
So shut up with the nonsense about “vetting Obama.” Your only chance is to talk about nothing but the unemployment rate, 24-7, and hope–with a little help from your buddies in Congress–that it gets a lot worse, in a hurry. And truth be told, you do have some chance that way. But don’t kid yourself. That’s the only way this could happen for you.
You’re welcome.
Elizabelle
Actually, I think the AP story is a pretty good slap-down of Arpaio’s claims.
From the very first words:
Do you see Deputy Dawg and Yosemite Sam? I sure do.
Valdivia
@Hill Dweller:
Rezko, Blago (!), cocaine. I mean WTFF?
Also– you can read that Romney is seething like a MoFo over this. Sincerely that kind of rage scares me, not because it might work, but because it says something about the man. This man should not be allowed near a seat of power, he is pathological me thinks.
Xenos
I am not sure of the exact sequence of events, but it appears someone at the DCCC made reference to Adelson being a shady character and commented on the pervasive practice of prostitution at Adelson’s cashinos in China.
In response, Adelson is threatening to sue the DCCC for defamation BECAUSE THEY CALLED HIM A PIMP, A DIRTY PIMP!!
This could make for a really amusing defamation case, with all matter of fun discovery at hand.
(Thanks for taking this out of moderation… I must have hit at least three forbidden words. Very careless of me.)
SFAW
@jeffreyw:
Thanks, but we gots our own kitties. But I do appreciate your thoughtfulness.
On the other hand: do you really think it’s appropriate to let beautiful kittehs – even if it’s only pictures – be near ANY mention of Rethugs, wingtards, and other anti-American clowns? I might have to call the ASPCA on you, for cruelty to animals or something.
WereBear
I have told some area wingnuts that everything that gets them so upset about President Obama is a lie; so who should they really be angry with?
They look stunned for a second before repeating that they don’t believe me…
Southern Beale
And the GOP is trying to astroturf the country music vote. Which I find very, very strange.
dmsilev
@Valdivia: The first comment on that story pretty much summed things up: “Hey guys, great idea, let’s try the same shit we tried in 2008, that worked so well.”. I mean, Tony Rezko? Seriously?
TheMightyTrowel
@WereBear: …wait… are you telling me obama is really a blond blue eyed farmer’s kid from Iowa???
Valdivia
@EconWatcher:
obviously the Mitt is so angry he is just going to go full wingnut with all the billions he has.
@dmsilev:
I think they really do think that their billions of corporate cash will make a difference. It didn’t work because it wasn’t really shoved down the throats of Americans. Also–note that Romney is now on record believing every wingut meme about the President. Coming right up: the whitey tape! :)
BigD
Joe Patrice’s Logic is impeccable. He must have gone to college.
Mattminus
So,Arpaio’s allowed to make Obama wear pink underwear now, right?
The Republic of Stupdity
@Elizabelle:
You forgot Barney Fife… prolly a simple oversight on yer part…
jwb
@Valdivia: I think we’re going to see the first large chunk of the GOP ad budget spent accusing Obama of crony capitalism and every ridiculous scandalous financial irregularity they can dream up. It doesn’t matter that the accusations are farcical. What matters is that it clouds the issues around Bain and Romney’s taxes. At this point, I think they are going to try to create as much noise as they can about financial matters because the usual shiny objects are not working.
Ron
In many ways the most depressing of those is the one about the treaty. The first one is “Sheriff Joe” is a nutjob, but the media will report it. The third is “the right wing is stupid”. Both of those are a little depressing, but don’t affect actual policy. The one about the treaty just depresses the hell out of me.
Valdivia
@jwb:
I agree. They will try that and throw everything they can at him. I do think Obama has an advantage: he can stick to one story about Romney. The Romney Team is going to be trying a million things at the same time, and a lot of those things will be ridiculous and undercut his own argument.
Elizabelle
@The Republic of Stupdity:
Oh yeah. Barney Fife.
Although there was something kind of innocent and dumb about him … but he would seem to fit.
Elizabelle
@Valdivia:
Yeah, I heard “a voter” complaining that all politicians are crooked on NPR last night.
Easier to say that than to sort the pols out, or to have to admit that you’re backing a team of losers.
YellowJournalism
My favorite part of that Liberal Logic post is the comparison of Obama and Romney via pictures. They use Obama taking a toke, and they don’t even bother to use a clean-cut young adult picture of Romney, they use one of him as a kid that looks like Opie was doing a 1950s ad for Chevrolet.
pseudonymous in nc
The Treaty of Everyone Adopting the US Constitution as The Founding Fathers, Rush Limbaugh, Antonin Scalia and Lord Baby Jesus Understand It.
When you have a combination of tinfoil hatted idiots and cowards who don’t want to upset the tinfoil hatters, then governance fails.
Punchy
TPM brings Teh Funneh.
Countdown till Bill Frist, former Senate GOP Leader, is labeled a liberal socialist communistic gay-loving pocket democrat in 3….2…1…
NotMax
The post deserves a Lloyd Dobyns/Linda Ellerbee “And so it goes.”
danielx
@Elizabelle:
But Hawaii is an “exotic” destination (just ask Cokey Roberts) and hence not really part of the real United States (except that Pearl Harbor place), hence any pronouncements by state officials are complete fabrications.
dmsilev
@Valdivia: How long until Mitt goes overt-birther?
Donald Trump for VP!
Ridnik Chrome
If I had a crazy Fox-news watching uncle who was on Facebook, I just wouldn’t friend him. Or I’d hide his posts. Less aggravation all the way around, I say…
Xenos
I am not sure of the exact sequence of events, but it appears someone at the DCCC made reference to Adelson being a shady character and commented on the pervasive practice of prostitution at Adelson’s cashinos in China.
In response, Adelson is threatening to sue the DCCC for defamation BECAUSE THEY CALLED HIM A PIMP, A DIRTY PIMP!!
This could make for a really amusing defamation case, with all manner of fun discovery at hand.
Here is the complaint, for those interested.
Hal
@Bruuuuce:
I saw this on Rachel Maddow last night and thought it was hilarious because I remember being a teenager going out and buying these issues when they first came out. The only time I would have ever been inspired to call into Limbaugh’s show.
PS. I also like how he blasts Obama for sitting around in college smoking pot. I guess if you don’t have a maid to illegally wrangle up some hillbilly heroin for you, you have a serious problem. Or maybe he figures weed is for stinking hippies.
Dork
This seems really funny. Mostly b/c 95 year olds aren’t all that cogent and reliable.
NotMax
@danielx</a.
Or John Sununu, blabbering on about "when he [Obama] finally moved to the U.S."
They can't even count the stars on the flag right.
Lex
In fairness to the AP, their standard tone is so rigid that it’s hard to tell sometimes, but this is about as close to laughing someone out of the room as I’ve seen them come in their news writing. “Volunteer posse” was the tell; it translates as, “Some random group of idiots.”
Elizabelle
@Dork:
Yeah. Saw that and left it out lest Brachiator show up and accuse me of “elder-bashing.”
But that 95-year old could be susceptible to planted or missing memory.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Don’t forget, that the Egyptian protests that lead to Sec. Clinton’s car being pelted and attacked?
It was due to the belief that the US backed the Muslim Brotherhood in the election and secretly jiggered the vote for theme. Now where’d they get that idea? Why….from Michelle Bachmann, Frank Gaffney, Gen. Boykin, and Glenn Beck, who they believed with all credulity to be unbiased arbiters of what the US is REALLY up to.
I wish to fucking god I was kidding.
El Cid
Wouldn’t burning the Confederate flag be patriotic?
NotMax
@Elizabelle
The 95-year-old was generally correct about the codes as they stood after being changed in 1968.
Obama was born in 1961.
Hal
Um, ok. And?
Also, it slays me that the AP is kind enough repeatedly refer to this group of idiots as The Posse, as if they are some official, secret black ops team right out of Mission Impossible.
Bruuuuce
@Hal: I don’t know that I would vote for someone who HADN’T tried pot by the time they graduated college, at this point. How straitlaced, hard-assed, and narrowminded do we want our candidates to be? Trying something isn’t an endorsement of it, but it IS an indication that they are open to new experiences.
All of which just tells the trolls here that I’m a deranged weed addict who needs FBI surveillance 24/7. (I get something like that; I live in New York and work for an investment bank.) (I do desktop publishing and graphics, not banking per se)
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
Guh…
More I read about the Treaty bullshit, the more I feel an aneurysm come on. Seriously, the froth over ‘OBAMA WANTS TO GIVE UN ALL SOVEREIGN RIGHTS TO US WATERS!’ Bircher tinfoil bullshit…and this is what fucking rules our world.
Oh to live in a world where ‘American Exceptionalism’ didn’t mean ‘this is exceptional BECAUSE America does it’ or any other base contrarianism for the sake of contrarianism.
NotMax
@Hal
My birth certificate’s space for first name is empty.
So I guess I must not exist.
Kathy in St. Louis
@Hal: The problem is that Rush would never remember these from his teen years. He spent most of them stuffed in a locker, and I do mean stuffed, because the other kids hated him. Not enough light in there to read comics.
Jay C
Actually, I don’t think the Senate’s actions so much “killed” the Law Of The Sea Treaty as (again) confirmed the US’s refusal (along with such powerhouse nations as San Marino, South Sudan and Uzbekistan) to sign it: the Treaty and its provisions are still in force as international law for the rest of the world.
Also, AFAIK, the provisions of the UNCLOS are basically operative for the US as well: IANAML, but I think various Administrations (beginning even with Reagan, who led the initial opposition to US ratification) have instituted all sorts of work-arounds to structure US maritime legal diplomatic and Naval policies to conform to most LOST provisions anyway, wherever applicable. It’s only a formal ratification by the US that is lacking.
And will be forever, as long as Republicans have their way: the opposition to the Treaty perfectly encapsulates their driving ideologies: untrammeled economic greed (over exploitation of seabed mining, of which there isn’t any AFAIK, but never mind) wrapped in BS jingoistic blather about “sovereignty” to get votes from UN-hating wingnuts.
After all, these are the same clowns who think urban bicycle programs are a sinister UN plot, and a prelude to invasion…
NotMax
@,a href=”https://balloon-juice.com/2012/07/18/insane-clowns-posse/#comment-3461578″>NotMax
Misspoke. Been a long time since last looked at it. The spaces for both first name and middle name are empty.
So I don’t exist².
Kathy in St. Louis
@NotMax: Or your parents were so disinterested that they never named you. Either way, this is not looking good.
joes527
@Bruuuuce: Dude. Bane was _obviously_ added to the batman canon retroactively!
NotMax
Presented sans further comment.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@NotMax:
I bet he even allows them to use his bathroom instead of banishing them to the litter box like the animals they are. The awful cad.
Joey Maloney
@SFAW: If we let them have Georgia for South Central Dumbfuckistan, we have to keep Hartsfield airport. And if we don’t station some blue helmets there preemptively, I’m afraid Buckhead would become a concentration camp.
Mr Stagger Lee
@The Red Pen: For whom the gods destroy, they first make mad. American Empire we hardly knew ye!
Jay C
@NotMax:
So, to go by your nym, your name really isn’t “Max”??
;)
Scott S.
@Kathy in St. Louis: He also wouldn’t remember them from his teen years because Bane was created for the Batman comics in the ’90s.
joes527
@SFAW: @SFAW: Some days I wonder if we wouldn’t be better off as North Eascoastia, South Eastcoastia, Flyoveria, Wescoastia and the Sovereign State of Texas. (Alaska can be independent for the few hours it will take for Russia to annex them, and I have no idea what to do with Hawaii)
Dennis
@Kathy in St. Louis:
Shorter Kathy: “Bullying is kinda cool when it’s done to people I don’t like.”
NotMax
@The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
The next time someone brings up Gore not winning Tennessee in 2000 (yes, people still do mention it), I’ll bring this up.
These troglodytes were there then, just not as organized.
Omnes Omnibus
My wingnut, gun nut cousin is a member of the Maricopa County volunteer posse. She was ever so proud of being selected and completing training and all that. At least that is what she posts on FB. I don’t see much of her.
Ben Cisco
@TheMightyTrowel: Who only works in outer space.
Joey Maloney
Moderation? What’d I say?
redshirt
@Bruuuuce: I was joking about this a few days ago right here on this blog, but bam! Here it is for real. I suppose I should stop being surprised at their insanity, but here I am, a bit surprised.
They’re all fucking nuts.
Jay C
@NotMax:
I especially liked this bit: as if they’d unearthed old McCarthy-era paranoia, crossed out “communist” and inserted “Muslim” or “Sharia”:
“Kookogey”?? No comment….
scav
@NotMax: come on everyone, the obvious one, when they asked what your name was and heard “NotMax” what else could they put?
My mother’s got a cousin with two different separate birth certificates. Talk about providing solid alibis for the actions of your invisible evil twin.
NotMax
@joes527
Not sovereignty, please.
No country should be saddled with a monarch named King Bumpy.
Bruuuuce
@redshirt: Proving once again that there is no story crazy-sounding enough that it cannot be made real in the minds and mouths of the right wing.
NonyNony
@Kathy in St. Louis:
I doubt it. Rush doesn’t strike me as the insecure “I was bullied as a child so that’s why I lash out” type (Michael Savage Weiner maybe, Limbaugh not so much).
Limbaugh seems much more like he would have been the bully back in the day. Or the “smart kid” that gathered a few dumb thugs around him and came up with funny plans to torment the weaker kids. (Mitt Romney was that kind of bully apparently – that’s the role I see Limbaugh more likely filling).
Ben Cisco
@Elizabelle:
When I pin the righties down around here, that’s usually their go-to quote. “Kick ’em ALL out!” “Clean house and start over!”, etc. ad nauseam, ad infinitum.
They simply WON’T accept the fact their guys are full of sh*t. There HAS to be pushback.
Villago Delenda Est
@El Cid:
Only if you use it to wipe your ass first.
Roger Moore
@joes527:
The could go back to being independent as they were before 1898. If they don’t want that, those of us in Westcoastia would certainly be happy to accept them. Who doesn’t want a tropical island vacation spot as part of their country?
NotMax
jay C
Well played. :)
My longtime and most common cybernym is voxd.
I use NotMax as an alternate sometimes, and because it is what I first used here, continue doing so.
Actually, Max was a grandfather, born in the 19th century, who lost everything fleeing the Nazis pre-WWII, and a humble, noble, wise man, whom I can but hope to aspire to emulate, but likely not equal, thus NotMax.
NonyNony
@EconWatcher:
I’d agree, except that only brings to people’s minds the fact that Mitt Romney got rich by destroying other people’s companies and laying off workers via leveraged buyouts.
Oh please Mr. Romney, don’t give us a reason to air ads and have media discussions about what “leveraged buyouts” are and how they can lead to people making money even if they bleed a company dry. Please don’t make this a referendum on “no rules” vulture capitalism and how these days people make more money by destroying companies than building them. Please don’t throw us into that briar patch, I don’t think the popcorn industry could take the demand…
Villago Delenda Est
The entire “Bane” thing ignores the fact that “bane” has been a word associated with a nemesis long before Bain Capital was a glint in Mr. Bain’s eye, that he turned over to OvenMitt to run, assuming that if it flopped, OvenMitt wouldn’t be held responsible in any way for it flopping, but if it succeeded, OvenMitt would get all the credit (and dump trucks full of benjamins) for its success.
But then again. El Rushbo is a fucktard, so what the hell would one expect?
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax:
Well, I’m glad you cleared that up. I was assuming you were making sure we all knew you were not TimF’s dog posting here.
Just Some Fuckhead
Don’t know anything about LOST but “wide bipartisan support” doesn’t give me comfort.
El Cid
@Jay C: The Muslim Brotherhood was used by the Egyptian governments as well as the West including the US as proxies against Egyptian communists, labor, and leftists in general.
But then, these days they don’t even remember that Reagan supported the 1986 amnesty as a way of aiding his death squad government in El Salvador as their shit economy then depended upon remittances from refugees who fled Reagans’ gleeful bloodshed and worked to sustain Southern California’s shitty service economy of the time.
(Now what probably happened is that Obama let all the illegals in in 1986 as part of the Fast and Furious gun running scam as part of his plot to put Bill Ayers in charge of the NRA and take all our jobs and guns away.)
redshirt
@Villago Delenda Est: Truer still!
And yet, Slimebaugh has something with this. It’s entirely co-incidental, but it will indeed serve as negative reinforcement for Rmoney. Bane-Bain-bane of my existence. Woe! I’m running for Emperor, for Pete’s sake!
El Cid
@Hal: I don’t think the term ‘posse’ has any contemporary positive meaning — I think most people hear either ‘yokel mob in cowboy movies’ or ‘jobless hangers-on surrounding rap stars’.
I don’t think too many people hear ‘posse’ and think ‘hey, that sounds like a brave and brilliant team of volunteer heroes’.
redshirt
@Just Some Fuckhead: Lost? Magic Island, dude. Explains everything.
hueyplong
No, you cannot get any treaty ratified. Period.
If you gave them everything they wanted in a treaty, they’d just change their minds about what they want, purely because Obama is for it.
That scenario rings a bell. On the tip of my tongue. Something about health care, I think.
Redshift
@El Cid:
Retroactively.
GregB
So, Barack Obama, the socialist communist who knows nothing about making money and has no one who has ever worked in the corporate world close to him is actually a master of crony capitalism who takes care of his big business friends and makes them lots of money.
Way to shit on your meme Mitt.
NotMax
@NotMax
Amending (I blame the semi-cheap wine I’m sipping).
Should read:
who lost everything else while fleeing the Nazis with his wife and 2 daughters pre-WWII
Redshift
@hueyplong:
I think it’s a little different, actually. I don’t think most Republicans ever supported their health care plan; they just needed something to talk about to while opposing Clinton’s plan, to pretend they cared about solving the problem. And the evidence for that is that rather than being introduced in Congress, it went straight down the memory hole as soon as a Republican was elected president.
That’s why I don’t buy “they just didn’t want the Dems getting credit; if a Republican president had proposed the same thing, they would have cheered.” No modern Republican president would propose it, because it involves government doing something positive (even if it’s just reshaping the insurance market), and would undercut their message that government is always bad (except when it’s dropping bombs or locking up more brown people.)
NotMax
@GregB
Them Kenyans are super-sneaky, don’tcha know. ;)
Kathy in St. Louis
@Dennis: Actually, shorter Kathy would be, ” It’s really not so bad to have a fantasy that the quintessential bully of our times has gotten it back at some point in his life.”
I am not even slightly repentant.
SFAW
@joes527:
Return it to Kenyan ownership, as it had been from 1959 to 1962.
bcinaz
I think it’s time to dismantle the nuclear stockpile. You can’t be a Super Power while governing by Conspiracy Theory.
gwangung
@Bruuuuce:
Rush is the only fat, middle-aged, opinionated socially challenged white guy who ISN’T familiar with comic books.
Bubblegum Tate
Man, I know wingnuts like to soothe their butthurt over the 2008 election by chanting, “He just wasn’t vetted, otherwise we would’ve won!” but I didn’t think they were actually this serious about it.
joes527
@SFAW: I think that it is pretty funny that I partitioned the US, gave Alaska back to Russia, and the only part that elicited comments was what to do with Hawaii.
The Other Chuck
@gwangung:
Rush might full well know that Bane has nothing to do with Bain. He’s never let truth get in the way of his grunting and screeching before, why should he now?
Rush isn’t stupid, but his listeners damn well tend to be.
And hey wingnuts: what if there were some conspiracy? So what? I don’t give a fuck if the villain is named Mitt. You fascist shitbags on the right been shitting on “Hollywood Elites” for so long that you shouldn’t be surprised if they want to see your name dragged through the mud before being keelhauled and drawn and quartered, just for our fucking entertainment. Don’t get into a war of words with people who buy ink by the barrel, and don’t declare a culture war on people who buy film by the mile.
El Cid
@The Other Chuck: And by this point, Rush doesn’t even have to care whether or not he knows something to be true or not — in order to choose to lie about something, you’d have to give enough of shit about it to spend the mental energy, even for a fleeting moment, to decide.
SRW1
Whats up with the four stars on the collar of Arpaio’s shirt in this pic?
Did Arpaio promote himself to Field Marshall of Maricopa County
El Cid
@NotMax: If only those plotting Kenyans had been better at throwing off their British yoke earlier. Or maybe they learned all their cleverness from Jomo Kenyatta at independence.
Canuckistani Tom
Re: Bane/Bain in TDKR
Anyone else remember the nontraversy that came out a decade ago, when people complained that Peter Jackson had the gall to cash in on 9/11 by naming his second Lord of the Rings movie ‘The Two Towers’?