A Liberal's Hit List: Aug 29, 2009

Fox Nation: A Website of Division, Not Debate (Time for Another DNS Attack?)

Saturday, August 29, 2009

By Ellen
News Hounds

Fox Nation boasts that it's a community "committed to the core principles of tolerance, open debate civil discourse --and fair and balanced coverage of the news," yet we have repeatedly documented their deliberate efforts otherwise. Today's front page is another good example. One of the top stories "asks" "Why is Obama changing the 9/11 anniversary?" Clicking through to the story brings a paragraph of diatribe of inflammatory invective with no balance, not even a word about what Obama is trying to do or why. Add a sentence accusing Obama of being a racist and it could have been written by Glenn Beck.

Here is the paragraph you get clicking through from Fox Nation's home page, presumably an example of what Fox News considers "tolerant, civil and fair and balanced." It's not labeled as an editorial or opinion but presented as fact:

The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry. This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year's election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.

Radical ‘Birther’ Kreep Launches DefendGlenn.com. Time for a Liberal DNS Attack?

By Brad Johnson
Think Progress

After Fox News star Glenn Beck accused President Obama of being a "racist" with a "deep-seated hatred for white people," a drive by Color Of Change has convinced 46 companies to cancel their advertisements on his show. In response, Beck and FoxNews have launched increasingly vicious attacks on White House official Van Jones, who co-founded Color Of Change in 2005 following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Now radical right-winger Gary Kreep, head of the United States Justice Foundation, is leaping to Beck's assistance. He has established DefendGlenn.com, not to justify Beck's indefensible hate speech, but to spread smears about Color Of Change and Van Jones. On the website, Kreep instructs Glenn Beck fans to tell advertisers that Van Jones "went to prison for inciting the 1992 Rodney King riots in L.A.":

Tell them CoC's founder went to prison for inciting the 1992 L.A. Riots, and accused President Bush of giving troops orders to shoot black people after Hurricane Katrina.

In reality, Van Jones was a legal observer in San Francisco, not Los Angeles, during a non-violent rally that took place after, not before the riots. Jones and hundreds of others were seized in a mass arrest. He was released within a few hours, all charges were dropped, and "the City of San Francisco ultimately compensated him financially for his unjust arrest."...(Remainder.)

Super Cool Billboard Defacing

(h/t C & L)

Obama Praises 'A Lion of the US Senate' (With Video)

By The Guardian

President Barack Obama praised Senator Edward Kennedy as a voice for the poor and powerless in a eulogy today that remembered his achievements as it avoided politicising his death.

Obama hailed fellow Democrat Kennedy as a champion of the landmark Civil Rights Act, immigration reform and children's healthcare, but he did not dwell on what the senator had called "the cause of my life" – overhauling the US healthcare system.

Healthcare reform is Obama's top domestic priority, but amid faltering efforts to drive it through the Congress, the White House was wary of being seen to politicise Kennedy's death. It had said the president would not use the eulogy as an opportunity to rally support for his healthcare overhaul.

Speaking at Kennedy's funeral service at a Roman Catholic basilica in Boston, Obama called him "the soul of the Democratic Party and the lion of the US Senate" who had authored more than 300 laws.

"He was a product of an age when the joy and nobility of politics prevented differences of party and philosophy from becoming barriers to cooperation and mutual respect, a time when adversaries still saw each other as patriots," said Obama, who has often bemoaned the deep partisan divide between his Democrats, who control Congress, and Republicans.

"And that's how Ted Kennedy became the greatest legislator of our time," he said.

In January 2008, Kennedy endorsed Obama, who was serving his first term as a senator, for the Democratic presidential nomination. Many saw the endorsement as the passing of the political torch to a new generation....(Remainder.)

Death, Republican Style: It's the GOP That's Out to Get Granny

By Jacob Weisberg
Newsweek

The republicans charge that Democratic health care reform would, in Sen. Charles Grassley's words, "pull the plug on Grandma." According to Sen. Jon Kyl, the bills before Congress would ration medical treatment by age. Rep. John Boehner says they promote euthanasia. Sarah Palin has raised the specter of "death panels." Such fears are understandable. It's not preposterous to imagine laws that would try to save money by encouraging the inconvenient elderly to make an early exit. After all, that's been the Republican policy for years.

It was Grassley himself who devised the "Throw Mama From the Train" provision of the GOP's 2001 tax cut. The estate-tax revision he championed will reduce the estate tax to zero next year. But when it expires at year's end, the tax will jump back up to its previous level of 55 percent. Grassley's exploding tax break has an entirely foreseeable, if unintended, consequence: it incentivizes ailing, elderly rich people to end their lives—paging Dr. Kevorkian—before midnight on Dec. 31, 2010. It also gives their children an incentive to sign DNR orders and switch off respirators in time for the deadline. This would be a great plot for a P. D. James novel if it weren't an actual piece of legislation.

This is not merely hypothetical. Serious economists take the possibility seriously. In a 2001 paper entitled "Dying to Save Taxes," economists from the University of Michigan and the University of British Columbia examined 13 changes in U.S. tax law since 1917 and concluded that benefactors die in greater numbers just before tax hikes and just after tax cuts. A 2006 study done in Australia, which abolished its inheritance tax in July 1979, reached the same conclusion. Statistics showed that more than half the people who would ordinarily have died in the last week of June 1979—and whose heirs would have been subject to the tax—managed to avoid it by surviving into July. Republicans in Congress have created a similar inducement for Grandma not to die before January 2010, but to make sure she is gone by January 2011.

Is the U.S. on the Brink of Fascism?

There are dangerous currents running through America's politics and the way we confront them is crucial.

By Sara Robinson
Campaign for America's Future via AlterNet

All through the dark years of the Bush Administration, progressives watched in horror as Constitutional protections vanished, nativist rhetoric ratcheted up, hate speech turned into intimidation and violence, and the president of the United States seized for himself powers only demanded by history's worst dictators. With each new outrage, the small handful of us who'd made ourselves experts on right-wing culture and politics would hear once again from worried readers: Is this it? Have we finally become a fascist state? Are we there yet?

And every time this question got asked, people like Chip Berlet and Dave Neiwert and Fred Clarkson and yours truly would look up from our maps like a parent on a long drive, and smile a wan smile of reassurance. "Wellll...we're on a bad road, and if we don't change course, we could end up there soon enough. But there's also still plenty of time and opportunity to turn back. Watch, but don't worry. As bad as this looks: no -- we are not there yet."

In tracking the mileage on this trip to perdition, many of us relied on the work of historian Robert Paxton, who is probably the world's pre-eminent scholar on the subject of how countries turn fascist. In a 1998 paper published in The Journal of Modern History, Paxton argued that the best way to recognize emerging fascist movements isn't by their rhetoric, their politics, or their aesthetics. Rather, he said, mature democracies turn fascist by a recognizable process, a set of five stages that may be the most important family resemblance that links all the whole motley collection of 20th Century fascisms together. According to our reading of Paxton's stages, we weren't there yet. There were certain signs -- one in particular -- we were keeping an eye out for, and we just weren't seeing it....(Remainder.)

Glenn Beck's 'Terrifying America' Delusional Rant

The Obese Oxy-Moron Attacks Ted Kennedy: Screwed Up Everything

The Pig-Man Clearly Doesn't Know What Fascism Is

Right-Wing Cunt, Ingraham, Attacks Memory of Senators Wellstone & Kennedy

The Retarded Baby Jesus Claims Health Bill Doesn't Restrict Undocumented Immigrants

'Tea Party Express' Ads Showing Up on Fox Broadcasts

By David Neiwert
Crooks and Liars

It's not exactly clear why the folks at Tea Party Express are buying up so much ad space on Fox News these days. They could save themselves a whole lot of money by just waiting for Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity to their inevitable "reports" on the event and do the publicity for free.

Of course, said reportage will emphasize the current Fox narrative -- that these teabaggers are just a bunch of "ordinary Americans" who happen to be easily inspired by hysterical right-wing propaganda. What could be more "grassroots" than that?

Incidentally, this "Tea Party Express" event is being sponsored by the "Our Country Deserves Better" PAC, an offshoot of Move America Forward. It's chaired by Howard Kaloogian, the erstwhile Republican congressional candidate from California.

You may remember the "Our Country Deserves Better" folks. A little while back, they ran a series of ads comparing Obama to Adolf Hitler....(Remainder.)

Glenn "Not Fit to Lick Kennedy's Boots" Beck Attacks Senators Wellstone & Kennedy

Former U-Boat Captain, Wolff Blitzer, Laughingly Thinks McCain Going to Take Over Kennedy Role

Mr. "In Desperate Need of a Lobotomy" Beck Wants Billionaires to Follow Him

Mr. "Too Stupid for Words" Beck Selectively Edits Obama to Fearmonger

Mr. "I Need a 2x4 to the Head" Beck Claims Civilian National Security is Same as SS

Limbaugh Wrong That Obama is Mandating Circumcision

By Catharine Richert
PolitiFact

A new rap song by the hip-hop artist Jay-Z takes a shot at Rush Limbaugh. But the radio talk show host -- referring to the rapper as "Mr. Z" -- said he was honored to be mentioned.

"Does this, Snerdley, mark a new development in my career to be singled out in a rap song by the famous rapper Jay-Z?" he said to his call screener on his Aug. 25, 2009 show. "I guess it is. As far as I know I have never been mentioned in a rap song by anybody. I guess it means I've made it. I'm now in a rap tune by the famous rapper Jay-Z. (The song says) '[T]ell Bill O'Reilly to fall back. Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my balls.' I would remind the rapper Jay-Z: Mr. Z, it is President Obama who wants to mandate circumcision. We had that story yesterday; and that means if we need to save our penises from anybody, it's Obama. I did not know I was on anybody's balls, either. I'm happy to know that they think I am, though! But I didn't actually know that I was."

It's an issue Limbaugh explored on his Aug. 24 show as well, saying, "Not that I'm against circumcision, but it's a family's decision. Leave our penises alone, too, Obama!"

He cited a Fox News story about an upcoming report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that may recommend circumcision for newborn boys as a way to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, because studies show that the procedure can reduce transmission of the disease from women to men. The CDC will be discussing what to include in the recommendations at the National HIV Prevention Conference, which is being held in Atlanta this week.

The CDC is still mulling its decision, CDC spokesman Scott Bryan said in an e-mail.

"It is important to note that the recommendations are still in development and the CDC has made no determination at this time about the final content," he wrote. "There is a deliberative process for our circumcision recommendations that allows for both external and internal CDC experts to weigh in, followed by a period of public comment after the draft recommendations are published. With respect to infant circumcision, it is important to recognize that many options are still being considered in this process, including simply educating parents about the potential benefits and risks in order to ensure they can make an informed decision."...(Remainder.)

The Oxy-Moron Says Obama Wants to be the 'Black FDR' and I Say "YOUR FUCKING RIGHT, YOU PATHETIC BASTARD!"

Sen. Bernie Sanders Calls for Passage of Ted Kennedy's Bill from the Health Committee on Countdown

By Heather
Crooks and Liars

Bernie Sanders says "enough is enough", let's get Sen. Kennedy's bill from the Health Committee passed. As Keith and Bernie note during the segment, here is some of what Senator Kennedy is hopefully remembered for.

Olbermann: Meals on Wheels, AIDS research, other medical research, cancer research, nutrition programs for pregnant women and children, expanded uninsurance to the unemployed, occupational safety regulations. That's just the first few items on the list of things brought to this nation by Senator Kennedy. It is so long it is hard to imagine that there is an America living today whose body, literally body, is not in better shape than it would have been were not for this man. Correct?

Sanders: That is exactly right. I mean among so many other things, pushing Medicare, pushing Medicaid, pushing children's health insurance for eighteen million Americans today who have access to primary health care through community health centers. That program was developed by Senator Ted Kennedy.

Bernie goes on to explain that Kennedy felt that all Americans should have health care as a right of citizenship and how woefully behind we are with other industrialized nations with what we spend on health care compared to our health care outcomes....(Remainder.)

The Retarded Baby Jesus Wants to Run For Office

Frank "Really Bad Wig" Luntz Thinks Wingnut Town Hall Morons are Average Citizens

Frank "Really Bad Wig" Luntz Tells Faux & Fiends 'Death Panels' Going to Far

Morning Joe: Marsha Blackburn Won't Refute "Death Panel" Charge-- "That Door is Open"

By Heather
Crooks and Liars

Jebus. Marsha Blackburn won't pull back from the fear mongering on "death panels" and it's even too much for Joe Scarborough to take. Blackburn actually says " but to have that heavy, long arm of the Federal government reach into something that is a very, very personal, personal decision is distasteful to me, and I think it is distasteful to our nation's seniors".

I've got two words for you Marsha. Terri Schiavo....(Original.)

Glenn "Not Fit to Lick Kennedy's Boots" Beck Attacks Wellstone & Kennedy

Rupert Murdoch Says 9/11 is Bullshit and Should Be Forgotten

By Mark
News Corpse

The faux patriots at Fox Nation are making a habit of exploiting the image of 9/11 and contriving false and negative associations with Democrats. Last week the Fox Nationalists published an article accusing President Obama of desecrating the memory of 9/11 because he supported a National Day of Service to be held in conjunction with other memorials. The view at Fox is that Americans coming together to make a better country is a horrible insult to the anniversary of the terrorist act. So Fox Nation posted this image juxtaposing the burning World Trade Center towers with the President:

Their undisguised intent was to visually associate Obama with a horrific event that he had nothing to do with. Well, today Fox is at it again with an even more repulsive and dishonest defamation:

Just three days after the death of Sen. Kennedy, Fox Nation found a way to denigrate his memory in the same fashion as they did with Obama. In this case, however, they really had to test their capacity for lying because the headline attached to the image is 100% false. The Fox Nationalist’s editors title the item “Huffington Post Compares Kennedy Death to 9/11.” But the Huffington Post did no such thing. There was no article about Kennedy and 9/11 at all, much less one comparing them. The headline is a blatant, brazen, bald-faced lie....(Remainder.)

Full Mental Beck

By Jed Lewison
Daily Kos

Twelve minutes of the craziest conspiracy theory rants you’ve ever heard on television, all from Glenn Beck, all targeting Barack Obama, and all delivered during the past week:

Neo-Nazi Group's Dirty Linen Aired in Leaked E-mails

By Sonia Scherr
Hatewatch at SPLC

Like most hate groups, the National Socialist Movement (NSM) conducts virtually all its business in secret. So leaders of America’s largest neo-Nazi group couldn’t have been happy last week when hundreds of its private E-mails appeared on the Internet.

The messages — more than 600 of them dated between July 2007 and August 2009 — are posted to the website wikileaks.org, which publishes leaked documents. They were sent to a hotmail account maintained by an NSM member identified as William Herring, a self-described ex-con who handled correspondence for the group. They provide a glimpse into the inner world of the NSM, whose members seem to spend almost as much time at each other’s throats as they do standing up for the white race.

Among the highlights was a major dust-up in fall 2007 that featured claims of Jewish collaboration and led to the ouster or resignation of several key members, including the group’s 2008 presidential candidate. On Oct. 3, 2007, NSM leader Jeff Schoep wrote an “internal party memo” urging members to stop squabbling. “When Col. Bishop and I have to play babysitter, and talk to people about drama, it makes us, all of you, and our Party look foolish,” he wrote. “America is being overrun with Mexicans and other invaders, instead of expelling certain people, these members and the Party are better served if the drama is saved for the playground, and we all get back to work.” Two weeks later, he adopted a harder line in another E-mail to NSM members. “The NSM does not operate as a Democracy, your pledge of Loyalty is to the Party and its Leadership. Honor your Oath, and your Pledge of Loyalty to the Party, or get out of our Ranks now while you still can!”...(Remainder.)

CNN: Death Threats Against Obama Increase by 400%!

By The Public Record

Below is the transcript of Sanchez’s report on the meteoric rise in death threats made against President Obama:

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: I’m going to be telling you about a story that we just learned about. This is amazing, this e-mail I received moments ago. It is an e-mail that came from a pastor who recently in a sermon said that he wants Sasha and Malia to be fatherless and that he wants Michelle Obama to be a widow.

That’s just the beginning of what you are about to hear. I will take you through it.

SANCHEZ: All right. Hello again, everybody. I’m Rick Sanchez with the next generation of news. This is a conversation. It is not a speech. And it is your turn to get involved.

It is my duty as a journalist to make you aware of a deeply disturbing trend taking that is taking place in our country and how it ironically folds into yet another story that I shared with you just last week.

A CNN source with very close to the U.S. Secret Service confirmed to me today that threats on the life of the president of the United States have now risen by as much as 400 percent since his inauguration, 400 percent death threats against Barack Obama — quote — “in this environment” go far beyond anything the Secret Service has seen with any other president.

Cheney ‘Ok’ With Interrogations That Violated Guidlines

By Muriel Kane
The Raw Story

In an interview with Fox News to be aired this Sunday, former Vice President Dick Cheney said he is "OK" with CIA interrogations that violated Justice Department guidelines and condemned the prospect of any investigation of abuses as potentially "devastating" to morale.

"The approach of the Obama administration should be to come to those people who were involved in that policy and say, 'How did you do it? What were the keys to keeping this country safe over that period of time?'" Cheney stated. "Instead, they're out there now threatening to disbar the lawyers who gave us the legal opinions."

Calling the extreme interrogation techniques "absolutely essential in saving thousands of American lives," Cheney insisted, "It was good policy, it was properly carried out, it worked very, very well."

Cheney has consistently asserted that when reports on the interrogations are released, they will show that torture of detainees worked. However, recently declassified documents show no such thing.

For example, Cheney's claim that "the individuals subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques provided the bulk of the intelligence we gained about Al Qaeda" does not necessarily mean that any usable intelligence resulted from the use of torture on those individuals rather than more conventional techniques....(Remainder.)

Romanoff Planning Primary Challenge to Bennet for Senate Seat

By Ernest Luning
The Colorado Independent

Former House Speaker Andrew Romanoff is readying a primary challenge to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, The Denver Post reports Friday night.

Supporters urged Romanoff to mount a primary challenge to Gov. Bill Ritter, whose surprise appointment of Bennet left some party activists angry, the Post’s Michael Riley and Christopher N. Osher report, but the 43-year-old Denver Democrat has instead decided to take on Bennet.

Romanoff has offered a campaign staff position to a “veteran Democratic strategist,” the Post reports, and plans to make an announcement next month. Romanoff’s campaign could rely on supporters — including labor groups — who “pledged to back him” if he challenged Ritter.

Labor leaders have been angry at Ritter since the governor vetoed two Democratic bills backed by unions.

“It is unclear whether the same level of enthusiasm would exist for a challenge of Bennet,” the Post reports, adding that some have cautioned Romanoff against taking on Bennet when the incumbent has already raised $2.6 million through June this year.

A Romanoff challenge to Bennet could rend Colorado Democrats. U.S. Sen. Mark Udall, who was elected just months before Bennet won appointment, formally endorsed Bennet earlier this summer. Freshman U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, who took over Udall’s 2nd District House seat, is raising campaign money for Bennet through a fundraising committee....(Remainder.)

Court Orders Pro-LGBT Oklahoma City Teacher Reinstated

By Dawn Marks
NewsOK

Terminated Oklahoma City teacher Joe Quigley is on his way back to the classroom.

Joe Quigley emphasizes a point while speaking during the Oklahoma City gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered third annual "State of Our Community" meeting at the Epworth United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City, Monday, January 30, 2006. By Matt Strasen

He’s awaiting word on where he’ll be assigned to teach, his attorney said.

Oklahoma County District Judge Barbara Swinton ruled Tuesday that Quigley was wrongfully terminated and did not neglect his duties, attorney Timothy Melton said Wednesday.

Oklahoma City School Board members voted in May to dismiss Quigley, an English teacher, on grounds that he repeatedly neglected his duties and didn’t follow school policies like posting of zeros in his grade book and sending mass e-mails. Quigley’s attorneys said that his advocacy for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students was the reason Northwest Classen High School administrators singled him out.

Quigley appealed the board’s decision to district court arguing that he did not neglect his duties.

"His outspokenness made him a very visible teacher in that district,” Melton said. "The administration at Northwest Classen High School has, for the last two years, done its best to set Mr. Quigley up to fail. Fortunately, he is too good a teacher and too strong a personality to be defeated by petty, nonteaching bureaucrats who put rules ahead of the children.”...(Remainder.)

NOM is Getting A Lot of Attention — From Election Officials in Maine & Iowa

By Joe Sudbay
AMERICAblog

Brian Brown, the gay-obsessed leader of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage, was profiled in today's Washington Post. There is the perfunctory "I have gay friends" line, even as Brown campaigns full-time against equality. I'm sure Brian loved that profile. It repeatedly makes the point that Brown is very straight, very married and has six kids. (That point is made over and over in case we didn't get it.) His boss, Maggie Gallagher, made Brown send the article out to the NOM mailing list. According to Maggie, "The Washington Post profile just nailed him!" Yes, the article makes Brown look so manly as he obsesses over the gays.

But, NOM is also getting a lot of attention from election officials in states where the group is engaged in anti-gay electioneering.

Gerald Weinand at DirigoBlue reports that the Maine Secretary of State wants more info. on NOM's involvement in Maine. This is based on a complaint filed by Fred Karger from Californians Against Hate. Karger knows the way NOM and its allies launder money. The Maine Sec. of State is going to investigate:

Karger claims that National Organization for Marriage (NOM) has funneled contributions specifically intended for S4MM without disclosing the names of the donors, as is required by Maine campaign finance laws.

Today, the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics sent a letter to Joseph Keaney, Treasurer of S4MM and Brian Brown, Executive Director of NOM, stating that the Commission will consider the request at its regularly scheduled meeting on 1 October 2009. The meeting will be held in Room 208 of the Burton M. Cross Office Building, 111 Sewall Street in Augusta, beginning at 9:00 a.m.

It should be noted that this meeting will explore if a formal investigation is warranted, and is not an investigation itself.

At Least 50,000 Attend Kennedy Wake

By Brian R. Ballou, Peter Schworm and Andrew Ryan
The Boston Globe
Photo: Wendy Maeda (Boston Globe)

At least 50,000 mourners came to bid farewell to Senator Edward M. Kennedy over the last two days, waiting in a seemingly endless line that at times stretched for a half mile outside his wake at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.

At least 25,000 people filed past his closed, flag-draped casket on Thursday, with mourners continuing to stream into the library until 2 a.m., according to the senator's staff. The crowd began gathering again before dawn, and another 25,000 endured the interminable wait to spend a few moments walking past Kennedy as he lay in repose, according to figures provided by Boston police and library officials.

Police began turning away mourners at 1:20 this afternoon, stopping buses and cars from entering the parking lot, but allowing people already in line to file inside. At 3 p.m. the doors to the library closed to prepare for this evening's memorial service.

"It's too bad I couldn't see him for the last time,'' said a crestfallen Frank Voci, a retired Medford truck driver just missed the cutoff. "He cared. He cared with his heart.''

The line today snaked back and forth across the parking lot, a two-hour wait for mourners who came from across New England and beyond. They shuffled slowly in a line eight-people wide as a dozen Boy Scouts helped pass out water to the waiting crowd and offered the elderly a steady arm or help with wheelchairs....(Remainder.)

GOP Noise Machine Continues to Claim “Cash for Clunkers” Was a Complete Failure

By Eric Boehlert
Media Matters

Conservatives, led by an army of bloggers, announced months ago that the "Cash for Clunkers" program would be a disaster; that the government could never help spur car sales. Except that, of course, the brief program moved nearly 700,000 new cars off car lots during the traditionally slow summer months.

Rather than acknowledge they were wrong, or better yet, just keep quiet, right-wing bloggers are now in pretzel mode trying to explain how the stimulus program was actually, you know, a failure.

And I'm not sure anyone has made a lamer stab at it than Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:

Now, what happens to the companies that make parts for these cars? Under normal circumstances, people would replace parts as they fail while keeping the cars on the road. Suddenly, the after-market parts industry has 700,000 fewer cars for maintenance. And since Americans mainly traded American cars for foreign vehicles, that parts market will not bounce back for years.

Smooooooooth move.

Of course! it's all about the after-market parts business. (Stop laughing!) Morrissey claims "Cash for Clunkers" was a disaster because 700,000 car owners are no longer buying spar parts....(Remainder.)

Idaho GOP Leaders Criticize Rex Rammell for His ‘Joke’ About Hunting Obama

By Faiz Shakir
Think Progress

Despite coming under widespread criticism for his "joke" about hunting President Obama, Idaho Republican gubernatorial candidate Rex Rammell wrote a tweet this morning doubling down on his own tasteless humor:

Rammell is facing fire from allies in his own state. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) issued this statement:

Rex Rammell's comments are in very poor taste and should not have been said. … Remarks like these should not even be made jokingly. We are engaged in a critical national debate over many major issues facing our country today. Remarks like these are not only unhelpful in that debate, but they undermine it. He should apologize for those remarks and for the perception they may have created.

Race-Based Protests Directed at Obama Go Beyond Health Care Town Halls

By Sam Stein
The Huffington Post

Race-based attacks and criticism of President Obama have been on the rise during the dog days of August. And they're not just happening at health care town hall protests.

A reader sent over a picture of a group of protesters camped outside Rep. Susan Davis's (D-Calif.). "Neighborhood Day" event this past week, brandishing signs calling the president a Black Supremacist and suggesting he's a Nazi disciple.

"Black National Socialism Is Not Utopia," reads one poster.

Another has a picture of Obama's former preacher, Jeremiah Wright, juxtaposed with a picture of Adolph Hitler and one of picture of Obama and Wright together. "Obama's Church: Black Supremacist," it reads.

The protesters, the reader writes, were small in number. But their presence outside the event indicates that four weeks into August, the highly personal and often racially tinged vitriol directed at the president shows no sign of abating....(Remainder.)

Michele Bachmann Gets Her Ass Kicked by Her Constituents

The fun starts around 2:15. (h/t Wonkette)

Storming Camelot: Sen. Kennedy's Death Brings Out Worst from the Right

By Karl Frisch
Media Matters

Following Wednesday's early-morning news that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy had lost his battle with brain cancer, Media Matters posted the following statement from president Eric Burns at 3:51 a.m. ET on the County Fair blog:

"Ted Kennedy was a true American statesman. The values that he so eloquently and tirelessly championed represent the best of our American ideals. He reached across the aisle to get hard work done but never sacrificed principle. Though he is gone, the dream will forever live on. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Vicki Kennedy, the Senator's family, his loyal staff and the millions of lives he touched throughout his historic life and career."

Far from letting Kennedy rest in peace, many media conservatives savagely attacked the Senate's last liberal lion. Leading the charge was radio host Rush Limbaugh, who began his broadcast Wednesday morning eulogizing Kennedy by calling him "the lion of the Senate" before noting that "we were his prey." Hardly finished, El Rushbo would go on to say that "Kennedy screwed up everything he touched." He said Kennedy's opposition to Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination was "the beginning of the dawn of the age of the current hate." He claimed Kennedy "used the government to take money from people that work to give it to people that don't work" and that "most of Senator Kennedy's plans ended up damaging the people he seeks to help." Finally, Limbaugh marveled at the fact that "the Constitution is still there, even after Ted Kennedy in the Senate for 52 [sic] years." All that and more led MSNBC's Joe Scarborough and Politico's Patrick Gavin to agree that "Limbaugh showed great restraint" in discussing Kennedy's death. Can you imagine what Rush would have said had it not been for such "restraint?"...(Remainder.)

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