The Republican rump:
House Republicans are calling on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to step down or be fired in the wake of a controversial department memo that has sparked indignant battle cries from conservatives and some veterans.
“Singling out political opponents for working against the ruling party is precisely the tactic of every tyrannical government from Red China to Venezuela,” said Texas Rep. John Carter, a member of the party’s elected leadership who has organized an hour of floor speeches Wednesday night to call for Napolitano’s ouster. “The first step in the process is creating unfounded public suspicion of political opponents, followed by arresting and jailing any who continue speaking against the regime.”
These people are seriously not going to last four years. We should probably take out a few more of them in the 2010 elections just so they can take a breather and pull themselves together, because they clearly didn’t get the message in 2006 and 2008.
The Republican Study Committee is fundamentally no different from the wingnuttiest blogger.
*** Update ***
Speaking of the Republican Study Committee, I believe this guy is a ranking member:
The title of that video, hosted on Rep. Joe Barton on his youtube channel, is “Energy Secretary puzzled by simple question.” Barton then tweeted the following:
Yeah. You stumped the Nobel Prize winner. Like I said- wingnut bloggers ran the McCain campaign, and wingnut bloggers are all that is left of the GOP.
(via)
JC
Red China… Really? When was the last time someone used that phrase? The Korean War?
jake 4 that 1
IronyOmeter go boom.
Bill Teefy
what Republicans under Bush did every second of every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every year of their rule.
Again. Republicans point at the mirror and and yell.
Take a note: That reflection is you! Morans.
Fencedude
…so…did the last 8 years just…not exist…at all?
The hypocrisy, while expected, is just stunning.
Unabogie
OT Sheppard Smith gets righteous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEtFMj6ZiHM&feature=channel_page
TR
That’s not as catchy as “You’re either with us, or with the terrorists,” but it’ll do.
Libertina
Yup, it’s just like
…or Karl Rove…mmmmm…just sayin’.
Bill Teefy
@JC: Actually it was only on holiday during the Bush Administration – kind of like States Rights.
Remember Red China was who Clinton was in bed with (tee-hee) as opposed Green China which was making every item in Walmart and buying up American Tobacco products and our Bush-era Debts.
J. Michael Neal
@Unabogie: Ol’ Shep clearly wants to get fired.
Fencedude
@Unabogie:
Shep’s the one who was openly mocking Beck a month or so back, right?
How is he surviving on Fox?
Shygetz
Okay, I just watched that video. Rep. Barton’s constituents should be demanding their money back. That was embarrassing for Barton.
Ninerdave
In case you all missed TBogg today:
Ladies, John Ziegler is available:
and this is John Zeigler on a reality dating show:
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2009/04/22/so-i-guess-a-handjob-is-out-of-the-question/
4tehlulz
I predict that Republicans will be talking about the dangers of demon rum within six months.
merl
I think he was just baffled by the utter stupidity of that questioner. I know I was.
dmsilev
Dr. Chu’s mistake was that he didn’t say “God put the oil in Alaska for the greater glory of Sarah Palin”. Trying to explain plate tectonics to a moran like Barton is just a waste of time.
-dms
Dennis-SGMM
Repeat after me: Armed violence is not “working against the ruling party”.
Brick Oven Bill
Janet Napolitano was a lawyer for Anita Hill when she accused Justice Thomas of doing things with Coca-Cola cans and pubic hairs. This was the highlight of her short private sector experience. She was then hired by the Clinton Administration.
She just told the Canadians that the 9-11 hijackers came into the United States through Canada. This woman is now in charge of Homeland Security.
You can tell that President Obama is a confident leader and has no personal hang-ups because he is willing to take on assistants that are more talented than he is. This is what is taught in business school as the sign of a strong leader. One who does not fear day-to-day personal challenges.
mcc
Now wait for the debate when the Matthew Shepard act / hate crimes bill comes out of committee later this week (?), when the Republicans will claim that a bill which covers acts such as assault and murder is limiting their rightful free expression.
It’s funny that “they supported everything the Republican President did, and they’re opposing everything the Democratic President does” is the charitable explanation for how the Republicans are behaving at this point. The other possibility is that the rights they’re defending now (forming armed resistance groups, assault and murder against the disadvantaged) are the rights they actually value, and the rights they let slip away during the Bush years (checking out books from a library, speaking on the phone free from arbitrary surveillance) are in fact things they just don’t care very much about.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
God put it in the ground, that we would find it and use it to light our way to Him?
Or, trees.
Olive trees, to be precise.
gopher2b
I WANTED TO SAY GOD PUT THERE. DAMN!! Too slow this evening.
JenJen
@Brick Oven Bill: Seriously, is *that* what you get out of the DHS Report?
JC
@4tehlulz: WIN!
Soon they’ll go back to the 1884 playbook. Democrat: the party of Rum, Romanism and Rebellion.
Mnemosyne
@Shygetz:
I loved his sneer at “continental drift.” After all, if you can’t sneer at things that were theorized 400 years ago and proven to be fact over 40 years ago, what can you sneer at?
Next up from Rep. Burton: getting someone to explain how gravity works.
28 Percent
That is right and Ms Napolitano if that is her real name is not fit for service after that memo. I know plenty of returning vets who have not committed any terrorist acts maybe if she got to knwo some she would not have released this memo. She should not make sweeping genralization sabout people that is what they do in Russia.
TR
Given that Republicans spent the 2004 election saying John Kerry wasn’t obeying the Vatican enough and have spent the last month talking about Texas seceding from the Union, that might be tough.
But rum? Sure. They’re clearly drunk off their asses on something. Rush has probably hoarded up all the hillbilly heroin, so it’s likely liquor.
SGEW
@Unabogie: Righteous is right, all right.
That was beautiful.
dmsilev
@Mnemosyne:
Intelligent Falling.
Duh.
-dms
Unabogie
Brick Oven is lying:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090422/USA_Border_090422/20090422?hub=QPeriod
Wow, something taken out of context and then repeated as fact?
valdivia
@Ninerdave:
so you guys think I should try going out on a date with him?
Mnemosyne
@Brick Oven Bill:
Yeah, all Janet Napolitano did was successfully get Tim McVeigh’s accomplices to turn on him and agree to testify against him. Too bad she was such a sucky prosecutor that she helped get a mass murderer convicted and his accomplices put away.
What could Obama have possibly been thinking to put someone with a successful record of prosecuting terrorists in charge of homeland security? He should have been smart like Bush and gotten a horse breeder to do the job.
Cain
Where does oil come from? “Well.. first the earth cooled, then the dinosaurs came, but they became too big and fat and died and turned into oil. Then the arabs came.. ”
points if you know where that came from. :-)
cain
Mnemosyne
@28 Percent:
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, both US Army veterans.
You’re welcome.
clone12
Barton is teh FAIL on so many levels here…
Cat Lady
1360 days to go John. You could construct a Mad Lib-like outrage du jour generator, and save us all a lot of agita.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Cain:
Airplane!
sgwhiteinfla
Rep Barton wanted the Energy Secretary to say that God made it rain oil for fourty days and forty nights in Alaska and thats how we got oil there.
Rick Taylor
What’s amazing is that video of Joe Barton wasn’t put up by some lefty to make him look bad. He put it up himself, because he was proud of how he’d stumped the nobel prize winner and wanted everyone to see it. Mind boggling.
gwangung
I’ll be be VERY amused if anyone’s defending Barton in the next few days….
superfly
He turned off the comments on his YouTube page, because people were pointing out that he was the one who looked like an idiot.
Some were even being very polite about it, it was very funny.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
Uh, he was just Uncle Clarence, not Justice at the time.
Now, the crazy fuck is a justice. The man is actually crazier than you are, which is saying something.
Okay, just kidding, not as crazy as you are.
Well, okay, crazier than you are.
But just barely.
Jon H
Barton could have asked Chu how Barton could find his own ass with both hands, and Chu wouldn’t have been able to explain it in six seconds.
HitlerWorshippingPuppyKicker
@Cain:
The Creation Museum?
Mr. Poppinfresh
@Unabogie:
Actually, as much as I hate to feed BOB the Troll, Napolitano’s comments in regards to the US/Canada border were a fucking disaster, especially in light of how much more difficult the border has gotten since the fall. In a time of increased tensions due to American protectionism directed at your largest trading partner, having your DHS secretary making ass-retarded comments and then do a shit-poor job of walking them back is not really helping matters.
But hey, its just Canada, its not like those hundreds of billions of dollars worth of cross-border trade are employing anyone or anything.
4tehlulz
@Jon H: That would truly be stumping, as it is a mystery how Joe Barton finds his ass with his hands.
[Obligatory Larry Craig joke here]
gwangung
Any bets on how long Barton’s video stays up?
And sidebets on how long it takes for some poor Republican with a LITTLE science sense to clue Barton in on what a fool he made of himself?
Jon H
@4tehlulz: “That would truly be stumping, as it is a mystery how Joe Barton finds his ass with his hands.”
I’m sure his hands are usually on someone else’s ass. That’s what GOP pages are for.
Jay B.
After the last few weeks, I think the DHS needs to update their report to include all present members of the Republican party, just in case they missed a few when cataloging the potential threat from neo-nazis, deranged vets, gun nuts, booze-fueled militia types, secessionists, klansmen and end timers.
Jon H
As someone said, it’s like they take pride in being ignorant.
That clip could have come from the Scopes trial.
Laura W
@Ninerdave: Gosh. Thanks. I just can not see that reality show clip enough!
Where are JenJen and Ash Can?
Moderately Rational (is that what he was looking for in a woman? I lied. I watched it once and that was one time too many…),
Laura W.
Ash Can
@Ninerdave: There’s a reason Ziegler’s available.
bvac
Lou Dobbs has been crusting his sock over this since the report was released, and it’s easily the most entertaining thing that has happened as a result of the election of Comrade Barry Soetero-X Hitler.
When DHS/FBI infiltrated far-leftist anti-war/pro-anti-american groups such as the Quakers, they at least had the reasonable suspicion that peaceful, law-abiding groups were being targeted for their political views. All of their hemming and hawing changed absolutely nothing.
Certainly no amount of protest from these right-wingers, who are well armed and openly speak of overthrowing the government, will change anything. Without incident, the next 3.75 years should be quite entertaining from where I sit.
KevOH
@Cain:
Airplane
demkat620
Golden oldie from Barton’s past as chairman. He had a voter arrested who wanted to discuss why Joe Barton wouldn’t allow the 2006 combating autism bill out of committee.
What an asshat!
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
OT – Levi Johnston is on Larry King right now.
Man, do I feel sorry for that guy. He’s still just a teenager.
Laura W
@Ash Can: There’s my girl! Simu-posting with me.
Krista
Meh — I didn’t get too wound up about it. It is true that security here probably isn’t as stringent as it should be. I’m not talking necessarily about the Canada-U.S. border. That border needs to stay relatively easy-ish, solely due to the sheer amount of trade. But as far as people coming to Canada from other countries? I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that we could do a better job.
Besides, Napolitano’s comments aren’t really news. We’ve heard this song before about how terrorists get into the U.S. via Canada, due to our policies being more slack.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@KevOH:
Sorry Kev, I beat you by 17 posts.
:-)
Ash Can
@Laura W: Yes, that was a hoot. I must say, though, that it was another poster, whose handle escapes me, who broke that story. I just hyped it on a couple of threads because it was so damn funny.
Brick Oven Bill
” [“Nonetheless, to the extent that terrorists have come into our country or suspected or known terrorists have entered our country across a border, it’s been across the Canadian border. There are real issues there.”
When asked if she was referring to the 9-11 terrorists, Napolitano added:
“Not just those but others as well.”]”
The 9-11 terrorists actually flew into US airports on commercial flights, with reportedly valid paperwork from the government.
This Janet is a very qualified woman. She also knows the mechanics and techniques of the Coca-Cola can and pubic hair legal charge. She was on the losing end of that hearing too. But this was good exposure to the private sector, in any case.
KevOH
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Technically it was Airplane II
SBW
Wow, Barton looks like one smug a**hole. (Alas, a completely unscientific opinion.)
But contra Steven Chu, he let himself be trapped.
I don’t think he should have attempted to answer that question at all, it would have taken a while to explain how oil is chemically formed in the first place, before even going on to list the geological reasons it is concentrated in certain physical locations.
A Nobel prize in Physics makes him Chu a brilliant physicist, not an expert in other fields (not a criticism of him personally, but he could have pointed out he is not a subject expert ).
I’m picky about this because I’ve noticed a similar pattern: many a geologist (in print or in debates) getting (seemingly) creamed by creationists due to the asking of asinine questions that disallow proper rebuttal due to debate format (either lack of time, or in speaking debates, lack of ability to show large amounts of data ), and hence ending up looking like over credentialed imbeciles.
Which is not true, but public perception matters, and essentially anti-science movements (perhaps groups sound less ominous) control the framing of many debates.
There is nothing embarrassing about explaining ‘Sorry Congressman, that subject matter is too complicated to explain in a few minutes, we can meet later to cover it more completely if you want.’
And yes, I am fully aware that Barton would never follow up on such a statement.
r€nato
BOB, let me help fill in Napolitano’s CV for ya. You seem to have left out that she was a very successful law-and-order US Attorney for Arizona during the Clinton administration. She ran for governor in Arizona and won. She ran for re-election in 2006 and not only won, but won BIG. The GOP in Arizona could not convince any of their first-string, nor second-string, nor third-string to run against her so they settled on the virtually unknown Len Munsil as their sacrificial lamb, a social conservative who, as far as I know, has never held a job in the private sector except for a stint running a PAC which lobbies for conservative Christian issues.
Napolitano was a political ally of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, which did not exactly endear her to Arizona liberals.
Napolitano brought stability and competence to state government after her predecessors badly mismanaged the state; Fife Symington was a crooked developer who was forced from office due to a corruption scandal while his successor, Jane Hull, was a well-meaning former legislator who signed off on a disastrous ‘alt-fuels’ bill which was badly abused mostly by conservative Mormons to buy government-subsidized large SUVs outfitted with propane tanks but which usually ran on gasoline most of the time anyway. That fiasco cost the state hundreds of billions of dollars.
Now, you were saying? Oh yes, Janet Napolitano is going to throw all Republicans and veterans in FEMA concentration camps. Well, the silver lining there is that maybe you fuckers will listen next time we spend 8 years warning you about the dangers of allowing the executive branch to run roughshod over our civil rights, including the 4th Amendment and habeas corpus.
Oh and by the way… Thomas DID proposition Anita Hill. He’s a pig. Kudos to Janet for defending her against you hyenas.
Martin
As was Eric Rudolph.
Why do I sense that Barton’s next question was going to be “Why can’t we take advantage of Santa Claus’ sleigh and flying reindeer technology to reduce our dependence on foreign oil? How does he do that, anyway?”
Ash
I just really don’t understand (which is something I’ve said in like every comment I’ve made this week about Republicans), are they COMPLETELY unaware that this whole report was already being compiled long before Barry Xenu Allah Obama was put into office by ACORN?
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@KevOH:
D’oh! Damn technicalities!
jnfr
We are totally going to take out more of them in 2010. Count on it. I hope after that they kick back, rethink and regroup, but I’m not confident.
mcc
Which is not true, but public perception matters
In this particular case I think public perception is more likely to turn out well for Chu than Barton.
Jay B.
Holy shit Barton’s a fucking tool. Watch that thing. Chu makes a perfectly understandable, as-succinct-as-possible, top-level explanation of what happened over hundreds of millions of years and Barton is mocking the entire notion.
It’s mindbreaking.
He might as well have said: “You mean to tell me son, that in its 6000 years of existence, the Earth has geological epochs? Pffft. Nonsense. It’s obvious that when Alaska was warm (perhaps when Columbus landed there as the first human settler and by the way, doesn’t this fact disprove global warming somehow?) oil somehow melted into its ground. It’s impossible to think this took more than five, ten years, tops.”
PhysicsFun
I’ve worked with some very talented scientists who communicated with the public and I know that look on Steven Chu’s face, I’ve seen it lots of times.
It’s “Oh lordy, lordy, this person is ignorant as pigf**k, and worse, ignorant of their ignorance, perhaps willfully. Even if the universe turns out to be infinite, there’s not world enough nor time for me to get them to understand. What’s the quickest diplomatic way for me to respond so that I can go on to something that will be productive?”
Dr. Chu had the good fortune to spend much of his career interacting daily with individuals who were brilliant, well-informed, thinkers. Now, he has to talk to congress. Let’s hope he survives the transition.
josefina
Jee. Zuss. Kryst. The ignorance combined with the arrogance…
In case no one’s posted it yet, you may express your appreciation to Rep. Barton through his (horribly designed) website.
Be polite. No profanity. You know how sensitive these nutjobs are.
burnspbesq
@valdivia:
I would like to think that you have never been that desperate.
jcricket
Nothing to see here. Move along. No reason to pay attention,
Brick Oven Bill
Question:
What do the vast majority of illegal guns in Mexico that originated in the US have in common with the 9-11 terrorists?
Answer:
Both were the direct result of federal government approvals.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Jay B.:
“It’s mind-bottling…You know, when things are so crazy it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle?”
El Cid
I think that Republicans finally ought to have the guts to go after Napolitano and the traitor liberals on what they’re doing to Republican bodily fluids through fluoridation.
And I’m really proud of Representative Barton for not referring to Dr. Chu as “Fu Manchu” or “Chinaman”.
r€nato
@Brick Oven Bill:
huh?
Iowa Housewife
@Jay B.: Thank-you. I watched the video and read all the comments here and I kept thinking…..why did he ask that? what was he looking for? Creationism. oh….I am so dumb.
Tom65
Let me get this straight: a US Congressman from TEXAS doesn’t know where oil comes from?
End times, indeed.
Max
I’m starting to get a little suspicious… The GOP has been so teh fail, that I am beginning to think they are pulling the rope a dope on us.
A collective group of individuals can’t possibly circle the drain this much this quickly.
We love you Denver! City by the Bay.
jcricket
Or asking him to change his name to Steve Smith, or something otherwise easily pronounceable by “real muricans”
TR
That’s generally my reaction to everything he writes.
It’s adorable, really. Reminds me of a demented great-uncle.
Litlebritdifrnt
“red china”? Talk to me when you have been there, I am guessing the majority of these dumb fucks haven’t left the United States.
The Cat Who Would Be Tunch
@superfly:
Turned off the comments, eh? What a cowardly act. Couldn’t take the heat for his stupidity.
@valdivia:
Yes, especially if you’re a guy.
I kid, I kid. I would never wish something that terrible on you.
28 Percent
@El Cid: thank you El Cid it is a real problem I am glad that you agree it is serious and about time!
As for the others talking about McVeigh and Nichols and Rudolph I do not know them and that dose not matter it is the politicisation of thought and makeing it so that our VETS who SACRIFICED adn DIED for our FREEDOM AND COUNTRY are suspected of being the TERRORISTS well what do you think they are fighting, huh? You do not have an answer for that do you? You are trying to take away speech from brave men and ladies who have DIED FOR YOU saying that they are violent you should be ashamed but a revolution is coming and then you will all pay.
Jay B.
@Iowa Housewife:
I don’t think it’s creationism necessarily, but a way for him to try and tricksterly point out that Alaska’s North Slope used to be a veritable Eden, ipso fatso, global warming has already happened! And if we’re undergoing global warming NOW, and we think it’s man made, how do you account for Alaska having vegetation back then, huh, mr. Nobel Prize Winner? Yet, at the same time, I’d bet my eyeteeth that Barton’s on the 6,000 year old Creationist tip too, which brings in certain, um, contradictions in his other idiotic assumption.
El Cid
@Iowa Housewife: No, actually, I don’t think Barton’s main thrust in this was Christian Creationism.
I really think Barton thought he had Chu pinned down in an anti-global warming ‘gotcha’ — if Alaska used to be hot enough to have dinosaurs (really plants, but, whatever) to make oil, then this would mean that Alaska used to be hot, and this means global warming is wrong.
Forget the changing climate and energy budget of the entire planet, dude was completely unprepared for the suggestion that Alaska used to be somewhere else.
joes527
OK, so I am not youtube savy enough to do this, but someone should post a video response to the Barton clip.
Post exactly the same video with the title:
Congressman puzzeled by clear answer.
valdivia
@burnspbesq:
trick question?
I was actually just kidding but it *is* true that some of my friends have accused me of dating politically reprehensible men (loooooong story). Ziegler is just too out there, for anyone with a brain, no wonder he is alone.
so the answer is absolutely *not* that desperate.
El Cid
@Jay B.: X-post!
Iowa Housewife
@Jay B.: Which is nuts, I don’t understand the wingnut need to not believe in global warming, what have they got invested in that?It doesn’t address anything biblical, so why, what gives?
bvac
Someone just tell me straight up, is 28 Percent a spoof?
dmsilev
Ahem: The name of the prize is Nobel, not Noble.
-dms
JGabriel
SBW:
Honestly, I’m pretty sure that can be scientifically established.
.
Montysano
@Unabogie: Shep was twitching like Frank Constanza. Amazing.
We live in interesting times.
JGabriel
bvac:
Must be. No one who really believed that shit would have the ironic sense to call themselves “28 Percent”.
.
Fencedude
@bvac:
And not a very good one at that.
Booooooooring.
valdivia
OT–wasn’t BOB saying a few months ago that Obama would be almost bellow 50% by his 100 day mark?
joes527
puzzled
@El Cid: But the fact that plate tectonics hadn’t even occurred to him, along with the fact that he didn’t even seem to acknowledge the possibility (much less understand it) puts him clearly in the young-earth camp.
So yeah it is even more bizarre the more you analyze it. He was clearly fishing for “Alaska used to be a tropical paradise” but unable to accept the very idea of change on a geological time scale. Obviously god put it there to let us know that we should MAKE alaska a tropical paradise. (by 2012)
El Cid
@joes527: I don’t doubt that Barton was inspired by those models of people riding saddled dinosaurs at the Creation Museum.
JGabriel
PhysicsFun:
Time for a new thread. No one’s gonna top that one.
.
Ash
It’s truly fucking scary how stupid some Congresscritters are. It seems like Barton had seriously never even heard of plate tectonics.
28 Percent
@JGabriel: I do not know what you mean by spoof I am a REAL PATRIOTIC 100% AMERICAN you are trying to take away my free speech by calling me a so called “spoof” but I will kick your ass I was in ‘Nam.
mvr
@Rick Taylor:
Barton is a little confused about which of the characters in that video did not understand how to correctly answer that question.
He’s lucky that Chu (pardon me if I misspell his name) gave him the benefit of the doubt and answered the question as though it was serious.
And I suppose we’re lucky that those who oppose a serious climate change policy are such idiots as to post evidence of their idiocy on their websites.
OldDave
Please tell me “28 Percent” is a spoof…
JGabriel
Brick Oven Bill:
Republican owned companies, like gun manufacturers and Halliburton, profited from both. The Republican slogan really should be: “Your misery is our financial gain.”
.
Iowa Housewife
@bvac: I vote spoof
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@joes527:
Someone needs to brief Barton on Pangaea.
TR
Yeah, I’m thinking spoof. If not, a total fucking idiot.
Either way, not worth the effort to engage.
28 Percent
I am a Master of three martial arts including ninjitsu, which means I can wear the special boots to climb walls. I will be completing my ninjisu training in a little over 8 months, and then I will be a Master of Ninjitsu, a true “Ninja”. But it is not my martial arts skills that make me so vital to the security of the mall, it is my tactical and strategic skills honed by years of intens on-site on the job training. You all who are makeing fun of me have never been threatened by jailed drug dealers, serial killers, and shoplifters, or fired at by high powered rifles or to protect honest shopkeepeers from mindless teenyboppers who go to the Hickory Farms store, and then take double samples of fruitcake and cheeselog, you warn them that they will be charged with a felony(grand theft), and that if they attempt to fight and run, they will be, unfortunately, first tazered, and if they continue to resist violently with intent to maim, then wounded.
Meanwhile, my ass is one the line so your fat butt can go to the mall and pick up the latest copy of “Computer Gaming Monthly” without getting jumped and sodomized in the mall bathroom. I was in a firefight just last month because of liberal slike you the SWAT prettyboys were overpowered by the Gap, and we Backup RTF’ers had to resume our roles, and basically put everything five by five. The takedown was actually applied with SW weapons, SW3’s. It happened a while agao, and there is no way you would know what city I am in, so I can reveal these details. If you want to laugh at somebody, try laughing at the sheep out there who go to the mall unarmed trusting in me to stand guiard over their lives like a God.
Ash
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Hogwash. God never would have put us so close to Africa for heaven’s sakes.
eric k
I didn’t think Barton was going for the Creationism angle, I thought he was trying to get Chu to say it used to be a lot warmer in Alaska, the Global warming isn’t an issue because 500 million years ago it was warmer argument, just as stupid in a different way.
Iowa Housewife
@El Cid: I guess I tend to sum up the creationism/anti-global warming/anti-science/anti-education other than religion and abstinence into one category…..it all fits.
JGabriel
28 Percent:
Really? Then what are you doing here amongst us treasonous libtards when you could be spending time with more like-minded folks at Michelle Malkin’s or Pamela Gellar’s blogs?
.
Iowa Housewife
@28 Percent: Observe and Report was a bad movie.
demimondian
@Iowa Housewife: Hardly. 28 Percent is a TRUE, BLUE, AMERCAN, the kind of Very Serious Person who puts the Ruth in Truth. No member of the 101st Chairborne, he, but rather the toughest of the tough, the roughest of the rough, broadly trained in the marital arts.
Ash
@eric k: Global warming deniers, creationists, all the same brand of stupid.
Laura W
I pray you are never on defense duty when my 94-year-old grandmother runs amuck in a Costco.
toujoursdan
As much as I don’t want to feed the troll, Janet Napolitano’s comments about the Canadian border have touched off a diplomatic incident between Canada and the U.S.
CBC News: Canada more lax than U.S. about whom it lets in, Napolitano says
Read the rest of the article:
Yes, it’s just Canada, but it’s important to keep in mind that Canada is America’s largest trading partner (and the largest trading relationship between any two countries in the world) and America’s #1 energy supplier and 5 million American jobs are directly tied to the Canadian economy.
It may not be a big deal south of the 49th parallel, but 75% of Canadians live within 100km of the U.S. border.
Why she would repeat such falsehoods is beyond me. The only known terrorist that crossed the U.S.-Canadian border was the “Millennium bomber” and in that case, U.S. Customs officials were tipped off by the RCMP that he had explosives. There is really no evidence that Canada is any softer on terrorism than the U.S. or that terrorists have a safe haven here. Making the border harder to cross is going to cost both economies billions in lost trade, tourism and productivity.
It’s sad to see the paranoia of the Bush years continue. The last thing the U.S. needs is to be an armed camp.
Iowa Housewife
@Laura W: Never go to Costco on Monday. Always a disappointment, snackwise.
demimondian
@Iowa Housewife: That’s _Observe and Deport_, don’t you mean?
Martin
Because acknowledging that people can impact global climate means that there is an additional external constraint on our behavior. To the GOP, God is the only acceptable external constraint. They attack liberals for advancing the idea that other governments are an external constraint. It’s all about doing whatever we want until God drowns a city for being too gay.
But if they accept that climate change is real, that opens the door that we need to exhibit self restraint. For some reason, the GOP feels that we should be above that. See the Ayn Rand “Exploit the earth or die” arguments. That’s the GOP.
Maureen
Don’t know if this has already been mentioned but has anyone seen the following video of Shep Smith dropping the F-Bomb during a discussion about torture as in “THIS IS AMERICA AND WE DON’T F***ING TORTURE”
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/22/723294/-Shep-Smith:-We-do-not-f***ing-torture!UPDATED-w-VIDEOS
I will not watch Faux News but good on Shep!!
El Cid
Sure, and while you’re at it, make sure and do it speaking in Sanskrit and put all numbers in Hexadecimal, because it’s just as likely to penetrate as showing him 1,250 Discovery / National Geographic / BBC channel documentaries on the Earth’s formation.
Martin
I have proposed to my family that Costco should offer up a ‘Sampler Pizza’, taking the various free samples being offered that day and using them as toppings. Every day would offer a different pizza, and lazy folks could save a bunch of walking.
demimondian
@El Cid: Reunite Gondwanaland! Stop the Laurentian drift!
demimondian
@Martin: Yeah, you know, I kind of want to avoid the mosquito repellent pizza, if that’s all the same to you.
Dennis-SGMM
@El Cid:
I guess you missed the part where asked Dr. Chu how his people got those little pieces of paper into fortune cookies.
Martin
I would assume all items edible. Teriyaki chicken, lasagna, trail mix, and multivitamin pizza – you could find worse, you know.
Laura W
@Dennis-SGMM: Phew! Ouch. Hurts.
M. Bouffant
Yeah, especially those who died. Wait ’til the Zombie G. I. terrorists come to get us all.
Wazzat? G. I. Zombie want Bush brains? Not too happy at being killed for nothing by the recent President? That’s a little different, then.
Comrade grumpy realist
Oh yes, 28 percent is one of our pet spoofs. Took over from DougJ. Gives us good practice. Very good at the dingbat-crazy. We hone our arguments on him.
(Speaking of spoofs, whatever happened to Birdzilla? Now that guy is EPIC.)
demimondian
@Martin: Um…yeah.
Listen, now that you mention it, I think that DEET sounds _just fine_. Could I also have a slice of the double fudge brownie-orange juice pizza?
Fern
@toujoursdan:
Thanks. Her comments sure annoyed this Canadian.
Litlebritdifrnt
I think Shep Smith said what the majority of Americans said in the last eight years…. “we do not fucking torture” I like Shep Smith, he has not drunk the Foxnews Koolaid.
Mike in NC
We ordered Chinese take-out tonight. My fortune cookie said “You will always get what you want through your charm and personality”. Spooky how accurate those things can be…
gopher2b
Looks like SNL got their opening skit.
“Wait, wait….so you’re going to tell me that there are these “plates” under the ground that move. Are you f#cking kidding me.” Blago should be involved somehow.
Cap'n Phealy
John Carter? Isn’t he of Mars?
mcc
An interesting coincidence that this occurred so close to 4/20.
gopher2b
Does anyone know a good 5th grade science text book we could buy for him. We could all pitch in-maybe Cole could set up a PayPal.
Mnemosyne
@toujoursdan:
I think she was referring to the millennium bomber, who traveled pretty freely between Afghanistan and Montreal and who operated a terrorist cell there. I haven’t seen any references to the customs office in Washington state being tipped off by the RCMP, though the guy was a known terrorist being watched by the Canadian government.
The problem was that she tried to expand out past the known Algerian terrorists operating in Montreal and link them to the 9/11 guys, which was more than a little tenuous, even if they were all technically al-Qaeda.
El Cid
“Wait — I heard a this once’t. Are you one a’ them a’ Chinese type people think that our country lives on a bunch of plates that is stacked on other plates and then is on a bunch a’ elephants and them’s on a bunch of turtles allaway down???”
demimondian
@El Cid: Tonight, I think that’s pizzas.
toujoursdan
@Mnemosyne
Wikipedia is your friend:
He was pre-cleared by U.S. authorities BEFORE taking the ferry to Washington. The RCMP already tipped them off. US Customs should have alerted American INS officials of the threat so they could have stopped him before he got on the ferry in the first place. He could have blown up that ferry and killed the other passengers.
This is just part of a long line of “blame Canada” memes coming out of the U.S. It was Pataki that initially blamed Canada for the 2003 blackout of the Eastern Seaboard before it was traced to a plant in Ohio.
jrg
You are a genius, sir. Wait a minute, are you the Filthy Critic?
You’d like Joe Barton [R] – He’s a mall Ninja. A scientific bad-ass too, from what I hear.
Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse
Yes, Napolitano stepped in it with her border remarks.
A Word from the Director General of RCMP Border Integrity: Securing the Canada/U.S. border – Facts, Fiction and Realities
r€nato
@valdivia:
a wingnut – girlfriend’s uncle – confidently predicted to me shortly after the inauguration that in six months, nobody would admit to having voted for Obama.
hell yeah I’m gonna rub that one in his face come July 20.
Just Some Fuckhead
@4tehlulz:
Republican agenda stalls.
valdivia
@r€nato:
ha! I will toast to you on that day, go rub his face in it.
(hmm does that sound lewd?)
El Cid
@r€nato: By this time in his Presidency, George W. Bush hadn’t even gotten full steam at telling all the people trying to warn him of imminent terrorist attack to go f*@% themselves, you’ve covered your a**.
Joshua Norton
Dude, I love you. That is GOLDEN!
ellie
Didn’t Eric Rudolph’s brother deliberately cut his hand off with a saw to make a point? What a bunch of loons.
28 Percent
@Joshua Norton:
At last, someone who appreciates my art.
El Cid
@ellie: What? Did his hand offend him, and thus he thought Jesus commanded him to cast it off?
Jay Severin Has A Small Pen1s
The answer is:
God put it there.
Mnemosyne
@toujoursdan:
Yes, because Wikipedia is known for being 100 percent accurate 100 percent of the time. There’s no possible way that incorrect information could ever make its way onto Wikipedia.
passerby
@Unabogie:
Thanks for the Shep clip. I need a cigarette now.
@Maureen:
Yep, great clip. Unabogie @5 beat you to it.
bago
Dude, that was straight copy/paste mall-ninja. It worked on some people though.
Rick Taylor
I’m sure before Adam and Eve sinned it was a lot warmer and more pleasant.
toujoursdan
@Mnemosyne
So are you saying that this detail is incorrect in this case? Because it is a detail that is often mentioned on Canadian news reports when this story is aired. Do you know something they don’t?
burnspbesq
@toujoursdan:
Napolitano’s speech is payback for allowing Mark Steyn to write for Maclean’s.
Minionero
28 Percent = DougJ ?
toujoursdan
LOL. Well you got me on that. Mark Steyn is a “moran”
Kyle
All the Repigs have left is fomenting fear amongst the stupid.
Ben
That video with Chu is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever seen. The smug bastard smirking at the idea of continental drift is one of those moments that captures the current state of the Republican Party perfectly.
Zuzu's Petals
So I notice Politico mentions complaints from “veterans groups” but neglects to include what the head of the largest veterans group in the country has to say:
asiangrrlMN
Oh good fucking grief. What a major idiot! I can’t believe he posted it himself. Poor Dr. Chu looked like he was thinking, “I gave up my day job for this?”
Republicans! Back away from teh Twitter. You suck at it!
P.S. I was going to make a joke about wanting Ziegler, but my stomach isn’t that strong.
Cain
@KevOH:
Ding ding! We have a winner. :-)
cain
Cain
@OldDave:
He is as real as everyone else here. ;) He’s part of the eco-system here like BoB with his strangely poetic postings. Now if myiq2xu came back, we’d have some fun. 28 percent was hilarious during the Obama/Clinton primary.
cain
Cain
@28 Percent:
I love you.
cain
Zuzu's Petals
@toujoursdan:
Canada is, as GWB pointed out, “our most important neighbor to the north.”
Zuzu's Petals
I wonder if anyone has bothered to point out to Mr. Barton that it was probably never “a lot warmer” at the North Pole because it isn’t land, but ice.
Andrew
Lame, 28 percent is plagiarizing the Mall Ninja.
More, better original spoofs please.
4jkb4ia
John may not have noticed this freak accident in the joy of Philly’s imminent humiliation.
Ed Sky
Joe, you don’t help the cause of conservatives by being ignorant of geological history. Crack open a book other than the Bible. For the record, I am a conservative and don’t believe in man-made GW.
OriGuy
@gopher2b: How about this one. It’s for ages 9-12. Maybe an aide could explain the big words to him.
Mnemosyne
@toujoursdan:
Let me put it this way: when all of a sudden an “international incident” comes along that just happens to make Napolitano look bad when Republicans are already howling for Napolitano’s head for daring to point out that US military veterans have committed terrorism against their fellow Americans before, I can’t help but wonder if said international incident is perhaps a tad overblown with the help of right-wing media on both sides of the border. There’s a reason this story is running on Fox News here in the States, and nowhere else. I can’t even find it in the Canada News section of Yahoo! News as of 11:30 pm Pacific time.
Mnemosyne
I’m also not seeing anything about Napolitano on Yahoo! News Canada, though it looks like your prime minister pissed off the Turks.
Turkey should just admit that it was a genocide and apologize to the Armenians instead of throwing a hissy fit every time someone brings it up, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.
RememberNovember
@28 Percent:
Thank you Seth Rogan, or is it Kevin James. Mall cops rule!
kay
I knew it was coming.
She’s the new Janet Reno for the black helicopter crowd.
Svensker
@SBW:
I don’t think Chu had any idea. He’s a sane guy, trying to answer an insane question, but he was courteous about it and took the question literally.
Svensker
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Is stalls a noun or a verb?
Cyrus
@Martin:
Could be, but I always thought the main reason was that if global warming was real and human-influenced, then it means that we should make changes, and that’s bad for business.
someguy
And if that doesn’t prove that vets bear government monitoring, nothing does.
Comrade Darkness
@Cyrus, I think Martin has it. If you listen over the shrillness of the right’s base on this topic, they accuse the left of having a “religion of environmentalism”, which tips their hand on the psychology of it. From a lobbyist perspective, it’s all about business, but that’s starting to balance out with the wind and nuclear industries getting in there to rumble.
I thought a bit about whether I agreed that environmentalism is a religion, I’ll admit. I decided that if it is a religion, then there is also a religion of NASCAR, a religion of baseball/sports fans, and a religion of beer/wine, among many many others. If the right is willing to admit that, then I’ll concede the point.
SenyorDave
Here is another link to the video on Youtube. Interesting that most people’s take on it is that Chu was shocked by the shear stupidity of Barton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=symYfq51aho
I honestly believe you could take the average person off the street and they would have more common sense and intelligence then this pompous ass. What’s scary is the amount of power someone like Barton has.
jonas
Did a United States congressman just evince skepticism of continental drift in a public hearing?
A Fun Time Waster
Barton has four different offices (3 in TX, one in DC). Call each and offer to make a donation! At first the staffer on the end (if you’re calling one of the state offices) will say “we can’t take donations” and might try to redirect you to the DC office – but then clarify and let them know that you’re not actually offering money, but that you’d like to donate some elementary level science texts, that way the good Rep. and his staff can bone up on plate tectonics and basic geology – the kind of things that most 5th/6th graders are taught.
The reactions have been pretty good! And I think the donation piece kind of throws them – they can’t tell at first whether you’re a creationist/global-warming-denier supporter of his or a smart ass, but the donation offer is too good to turn down!
Here are the numbers:
WASHINGTON OFFICE
(202) 225-2002
ARLINGTON OFFICE
(817) 543-1000
ENNIS OFFICE
(972) 875-8488
CROCKETT OFFICE
(936) 544-8488
Evinfuilt
@Unabogie:
Beautiful.
He’s one of the best reporters on any network, amazing how Fox keeps him around.
Evinfuilt
By the way… Its the ferns not the dinosaurs that gave us our petroleum. Same period (kinda, most of our oil and coal is older than the dino’s) but wrong life form.
Joel
Doctor Chu,
Why is the Sun so hot?
Got you there, smartypants!
Comrade Darkness
@Joel,
*Dr. Chu, why is the sky blue?*
Well, what do you know about the refraction of different wavelengths of light?
*Light has wavelengths?*
I don’t think I can explain this, then.
*I PWND you, nah nah nah, nah nah nah.*
HyperIon
@Iowa Housewife: carbon tax
HyperIon
@28 Percent: is that you, dougj?
HyperIon
@Minionero:you beat me to it. as did someone further upthread.
Pangloss
“If it was anybody else, I’d say what’s going to happen to you would be a lesson. Only you’re going to need more than one lesson. And you’re going to get more than one lesson.” — Boss Jim W. Geddes
El Cid
“Are you tryin’ ta tell me that Alaska was once consortin’ with them hot latitude Latin or Ay-rab countries?”
bartkid
>“Yes, Canada is not Mexico, it doesn’t have a drug war going on, it didn’t have 6,000 homicides that were drug-related last year,” she said.
Uh, actually, Vancouver does have a drug war, but it is two orders of magnitude lower.
The drug war is there, but it is on the same order as US deaths due to tasering.
James Weatherby
@Bill Teefy: A typical idiot Democratic response. Bush kept this country safe and now the left wingers want to hang his administration out to dry. Obama yo’ mama needs to be concerned with his own stupidity and that of his brain dead appointees. I don’t think it would have taken Bush four hours, much less four days to do away with the pirates. Obama is a wuss and so are you.
Terrorists don’t water board they just cut off heads.
James Weatherby
@Mnemosyne: IDIOT.
James Weatherby
@Mnemosyne: I’d rather have a horse breeder than a dyke.
James Weatherby
Stupid, stupid and more stupid. Some people cannot see past the end of their own noses. Obama and crew are doing their damndest to ruin this country. He wants to talk about Bush. As a matter of fact, that is all he knows to talk about. Someone needs to let him know that the election is over. And by the way he wasn’t even running against Bush. I don’t think he knew that. Obama has already gotten more money to throw away than all American presidents put together, and two of them funded world wars. I hope you are all happy when our taxes double or triple. I’m sure you will love him then. The man just can’t seem to get that addition thingamajig down. Yo, Make no senze. I got pleny mony.
Up with the Republic of TEXAS!!
Man do I feel safe with our Dept. of Homeland Security ? Hell I don’t even know what to call her. Words will just not express my appreciation of her kind words since I am a veteran and a terrorist.
James Weatherby
@Kyle: Hi Kyle, are you afraid yet?