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Assholes

You are here: Home / Archives for Assholes

The Distinction Is Clear

by John Cole|  October 9, 20073:20 pm| 45 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Assholes

You know, it has barely been a month since the Malkin/Limbaugh/Wingnuttosphere freak-out over the MoveOn ad, but I think it is worth noting the clear message:

Questioning a political General is treason, bullying a 12 year old is patriotic.

*** Update ***

And let’s be clear about one thing- the filth that makes up the current Republican party- that is Glenn Reynold’s Republican party. The good professor, who always manages to pretend to be above the fray, has no problem with Malkin’s antics and no problem with Dan Riehl’s “investigation” into the grandparents.

Heckuva job, Glenn. And spare us the weak “I’m not a Republican” bullshit in 2008.

The Distinction Is ClearPost + Comments (45)

When Rhetoric Meets Reality

by John Cole|  October 9, 200712:21 pm| 231 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Outrage

I was talking to Tim via AOL IM, and I decided it was probably worthwhile to bring this up for everyone. One of the things that is so surprising (for me, at least) about the whole Graeme Frost episode is that rather than make their case against this program with their vicious assault against this family, they Malkin/Freeper/Limbaugh brigade are doing just the opposite. Rather than expose this family as a bunch of frauds and lazy slackers and welfare queens, they are making the family’s case.

If you look through this family’s dossier, it appears they are doing everything Republicans say they should be doing- hell, their story is almost what you would consider a checklist for good, red-blooded American Republican voters: they own their own business, they pay their taxes, they are still in a committed relationship and are raising their kids, they eschewed public education and are doing what they have to do to get them into Private schools, they are part of the American dream of home ownership that Republicans have been pointing to in the past two administrations as proof of the health of the economy, and so on.

In short, they are a white, lower-middle-class, committed family, who is doing EVERYTHING the GOP Kultur Kops would have you believe people should be doing. They aren’t gay. They aren’t divorced. They didn’t abort their children. They aren’t drug addicts or welfare queens. They are property owners, entrepeneurs, taxpayers, and hard-working Americans. I bet nine times out of ten in past elections, if you handed this resume to a pollster, they would think you were discussing the prototypical Republican voter. Hell, the only thing missing from this equation is membership to a church and an irrational fear of Muslims and you HAVE the prototypical Bush voter.

They are, however, not without fault. They are unable to afford insurance through normal means (and now that they have pre-existing conditions, probably couldn’t get traditional insurance anyway), and managed to get several of their family members injured in a traumatic accident. And, it appears, those are the big blind spots for compassionate conservatism. That, and the real big sin- allowing themselves to advocate for a policy that the Decider was going to veto. Here it is, so you can see their grievous sin that requires they be destroyed:

“Hi, my name is Graeme Frost. I’m 12 years old and I live in Baltimore, Maryland. Most kids my age probably haven’t heard of CHIP, the Children’s Health Insurance Program. But I know all about it, because if it weren’t for CHIP, I might not be here today.

“CHIP is a law the government made to help families like mine afford healthcare for their kids. Three years ago, my family was in a really bad car accident. My younger sister Gemma and I were both hurt. I was in a coma for a week and couldn’t eat or stand up or even talk at first. My sister was even worse. I was in the hospital for five-and-a-half months and I needed a big surgery. For a long time after that, I had to go to physical therapy after school to get stronger. But even though I was hurt badly, I was really lucky. My sister and I both were.

“My parents work really hard and always make sure my sister and I have everything we need, but the hospital bills were huge. We got the help we needed because we had health insurance for us through the CHIP program.

“But there are millions of kids out there who don’t have CHIP, and they wouldn’t get the care that my sister and I did if they got hurt. Their parents might have to sell their cars or their houses, or they might not be able to pay for hospital bills at all.

“Now I’m back to school. One of my vocal chords is paralyzed so I don’t talk the same way I used to. And I can’t walk or run as fast as I did. The doctors say I can’t play football any more, but I might still be able to be a coach. I’m just happy to be back with my friends.

“I don’t know why President Bush wants to stop kids who really need help from getting CHIP. All I know is I have some really good doctors. They took great care of me when I was sick, and I’m glad I could see them because of the Children’s Health Program.

“I just hope the President will listen to my story and help other kids to be as lucky as me. This is Graeme Frost, and this has been the Weekly Democratic Radio address. Thanks for listening.”

Pretty strong stuff. I can see why this rabid dog needs to be put down with the full force of the wingnutosphere. And it just goes downhill from there. We learn from our intrepid “reporters” on the right that $45,000 is now rich, which is news to me and everyone else who remember mocking Democrats when they tried to claim $100k combined income was considered rich. You righties do remember that, don’t you?

At any rate, let’s look at some of the pithy advice offered from the right for how the Frost family should deal with millions of dollars of medical bills:

I think the property was valued at around $225,000. I dunno, I have no sympathy for them. Looks like they have more than enough money for luxuries they won’t sacrifice, yet they expect everyone else to sacrifice for them. My family had to sell our house because we couldn’t afford to keep it, have one used minivan and a clunker my husband uses to get back and forth to work, and until this past weekend we didn’t have a television because it was a luxury we couldn’t justify spending on. No private schools for my 3 kids- can’t even afford daycare. Yet we manage to afford health insurance, keep our rental home comfy, and have food on the table. I’m content with what I have and certainly don’t want anyone else paying for what I can afford, after cutting out the luxuries.

And:

15 years ago, when my then-wife and I discovered we were going to have a child – I had a job with no health insurance.

I changed jobs – period. I was stupid and willing to go without insurance for myself – but with my child there was no way I was going to risk it.

These parents have the same opportunity.

They chose not to find jobs that offered health insurance – and they chose to spend their money elsewhere.

Then, when tragedy strikes, they’re held up as models of “what’s wrong with this country”.

Sorry – but they should be held up as models of “What’s wrong with many Americans”.

My bad- they don’t have any advice other than “SUCKS TO BE YOU” or “SELL YOUR HOUSE” or “GET ANOTHER JOB.” Because, as we all know, the hallmark of responsibility is making your children homeless so they can maybe get healthcare. Nobody even pointed to the numerous charities that we conservatives are supposed to expect to fill the gap so the government doesn’t have to pay for things. Instead, it was taunts, catcalls, contempt, and jealousy (because these folks are in SUCH an enviable situation).

I simply can not believe this is what the Republican party has become. I just can’t. It just makes me sick to think all those years of supporting this party, and this is what it has become. Even if you don’t like the S-Chip expansion, it is hard to deny what Republicans are- a bunch of bitter, nasty, petty, snarling, sneering, vicious thugs, peering through people’s windows so they can make fun of their misfortune.

I’m registering Independent tomorrow.

*** Update ***

They have even pissed off Joe Gandelman, which I didn’t think was possible. The harshest language I have ever seen him use is “drat,” or “shoot.”

When Rhetoric Meets RealityPost + Comments (231)

Profiles in Class

by John Cole|  October 8, 20074:27 pm| 456 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Assholes, I Read These Morons So You Don't Have To, Outrage

Michelle Malkin, incensed by the presence of the children engaging in SCHIP advocacy, has now gone the extra mile:

Update 2:50pm Eastern: I just returned from a visit to Frost’s commercial property near Patterson Park in Baltimore. It’s a modest place. Talked to one of the tenants, Mike Reilly, who is a talented welder. He said he had known the Frosts for 10 years. Business is good, he told me, though he characterized Frost as “struggling.” Reilly was an outspoken advocate for socialized health care without any means-testing whatsoever and an insistent critic of the Iraq war. Despite all that, he did agree with me that going without health insurance is often a matter of choice and a matter of priorities. Or maybe we were speaking two different languages.

I also passed by the Frosts’ rowhouse. There was an “01 – 20 -09″ bumper sticker plastered on the door and a newer model GMC Suburban parked directly in front of the house. I’ve seen guesstimates of the house’s worth in the $400,000 plus range. Those are high.

Citizen journalists, at your doorstep. Maybe she can get some of her flunkies at Hot Air to sit with binoculars and see what they have for dinner. Better not be government cheese, or the SHIT is going to hit the fan.

The Malkin wing of the current Republican party makes me fucking sick.

*** Update ***

An update from the truth detector:

A word for all the faux outraged leftists accusing conservative bloggers of waging a “smear campaign:” Asking questions and subjecting political anecdotes to scrutiny are what journalists should be doing.

When a family and Democrat political leaders drag a child down to Washington at 6 in the morning to read a script written by Senate Democrat staffers on a crusade to overturn a presidential veto, someone might have questions about the family’s claims. The newspapers don’t want to do their jobs. The vacuum is being filled.

Yes- the national void of “NOT HAVING WINGNUTS EYEBALL YOUR HOME AND DETERMINE IF YOU SHOULD RECEIVE GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE” has now been filled. Thank you for fulfilling that vital role in our national discourse.

Idiot.

You know what grates at me- didn’t she, for one minute, think- “Gee- this is kind of creepy and like that lunatic Mike Stark who stalked O”Reilly. Maybe I should call the Frosts and try to arrange an interview, rather than do drive-bys of their house using information dug up by Freepers?”

Because that is what a normal, sane person would have done. I think I answered my own question.

*** Update #2 ***

Before the site is overun with Malkinites offering pithy rejoinders such as calling us socialists and libtards, let me point out my shock is not a defense of the SCHIP program, as personally, I oppose this incremental expansion. I am tired of incremental growth of government. I feel the same way about this that I felt about the hideous Prescription Drug Plan- it is going to end up costing MUCH, MUCH more than advertised. Most of my readers and commenters would probably disagree with me, but I don’t like the program, despite its allegedly noble purpose. I would prefer a radical overhaul of the medical system rather than this incrementalism.

Regardless, this is not about the SCHIP program. This is about the base instincts of the modern right, and the attempts to intimidate and smear and label it as “investigating.” I don’t have a problem with opposing SCHIP, I don’t have a problem with opposing legislation by anecdote (which is why I, unlike Michelle, hated the Schiavo legislation). I do have a problem with publishing a desperate family’s financial information, scouring pictures of their kitchen to determine the value of their appliances, and stalking their abode. Even if they were used at a press conference by Democrats.

What Michelle has done here is creepy and weird and wrong.

If you can’t figure out the difference, Malkin’s site is that-a-way.

*** Update ***

A flashback

Profiles in ClassPost + Comments (456)

Friday Games

by John Cole|  October 5, 20075:38 pm| 47 Comments

This post is in: Politics, Assholes, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing, General Stupidity

Tim im’d me this link to Captain Ed:

On Wednesday, I received a proof copy of Kenneth Timmerman’s new book, Shadow Warriors: The Untold Story of Traitors, Saboteurs, and the Party of Surrender, which tells the tale of the alleged war against the Bush administration within the CIA and State Department. Timmerman is always a fascinating read, but I just haven’t had the chance to get to the book yet.

Traitors? Saboteurs? Party of Surrender? I wonder which party that is about? At any rate, I bet this book is a real objective telling of history- might even have some links to conservapedia and the Washington Times as references. Better run right out and get that, Ed, so you can share the wisdom contained within, although I can save you some time:

“President Bush was acting legally, and doing everything he could to protect us all form being over-run by the Islamofascist masses, who want to come here and make us wear Burkha’s and ass-rape us, but the democrats, the Clinton and Carter hangovers at State, and Valerie Plame’s buddies at the CIA did everything they could to get in the way of defending this nation because they have BUSH DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

There. I just saved you 20 bucks and a few hours.

For the rest of you, a game. Below is a list of prominent right-wing bloggers. Starting tomorrow, let’s see who can, in the course of their normal daily blogging, go the longest without:

a.) Calling Democrats traitors, defeatocrats, cheese-eating surrender monkeys, or some variation of the sort.
b.) Linking to someone doing the above.
c.) Linking to an Instapundit link, in which the Instapundit links to someone doing the above but doesn’t discuss it so when called on it, he can claim he was not endorsing it, just throwing it out there.

Hugh Hewitt and Dean Barnett
Michelle Malkin
Ace
Instapundit
The NRO
The Weekly Standard
Captain Ed
Hot Air
The Powerline
Red State
Dan Riehl
The Gateway Pundit

My bet is Captain Ed, and I give him five days. Although he has proven himself to be susceptible to this sort of hackery, I think he isn’t completely gone. That, and the weekend starts tomorrow, so blogging will probably be lighter than usual. My guess for shortest is a tie between the Powerline, Malkin, and Hewitt, although NRO, with the multiple posters and the double dumb duo of Levin and Lopez, might run away with the prize. Since I have to guess, though, I am going to go with the Powerline, and I bet they will snap by 4 pm tomorrow.

Place your bets!

*** Update ***

The competition starts tomorrow, nubs.

Friday GamesPost + Comments (47)

We’ll File Thus Under “Supporting the Troops”

by John Cole|  October 5, 20071:35 pm| 72 Comments

This post is in: Military, Politics, Assholes, General Stupidity, Outrage

Assholes:

When they came home from Iraq, 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard had been deployed longer than any other ground combat unit. The tour lasted 22 months and had been extended as part of President Bush’s surge.

1st Lt. Jon Anderson said he never expected to come home to this: A government refusing to pay education benefits he says he should have earned under the GI bill.

“It’s pretty much a slap in the face,” Anderson said. “I think it was a scheme to save money, personally. I think it was a leadership failure by the senior Washington leadership… once again failing the soldiers.”

Anderson’s orders, and the orders of 1,161 other Minnesota guard members, were written for 729 days.

Had they been written for 730 days, just one day more, the soldiers would receive those benefits to pay for school.

“Which would be allowing the soldiers an extra $500 to $800 a month,” Anderson said.

That money would help him pay for his master’s degree in public administration. It would help Anderson’s fellow platoon leader, John Hobot, pay for a degree in law enforcement.

“I would assume, and I would hope, that when I get back from a deployment of 22 months, my senior leadership in Washington, the leadership that extended us in the first place, would take care of us once we got home,” Hobot said.

Both Hobot and Anderson believe the Pentagon deliberately wrote orders for 729 days instead of 730. Now, six of Minnesota’s members of the House of Representatives have asked the Secretary of the Army to look into it — So have Senators Amy Klobuchar and Norm Coleman.

Quick. Someone throw on a lapel pin!

We’ll File Thus Under “Supporting the Troops”Post + Comments (72)

Stay Classy, Protein Wisdom

by John Cole|  October 3, 20078:20 am| 57 Comments

This post is in: Assholes, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

I really love what you all are doing with the site!

And after you put all them pesky faggots in their place, could you move on to the colored people?

Stay Classy, Protein WisdomPost + Comments (57)

Profiles In Idiocy

by John Cole|  October 1, 20074:05 pm| 17 Comments

This post is in: Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

AJ Strata is blaming Democrats for Iraqi civilians who WERE NOT killed:

If the Democrats in Congress had done what their BDS crazed base had desired the killings and repression of Iraqis would NOT be going down. It would have gone up as al-Qaeda attempted to take over the country we were abandoning.

Up Next: How Democrats are to blame for the cold you don’t have.

Profiles In IdiocyPost + Comments (17)

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