The Party of Fail ...

Political Wire via Watertiger:

The AP obtained partial results from a GOP poll that showed Republicans "are widely viewed by the public as less competent than Democrats to handle issue[s] ranging from health care to education and energy."

"Democrats were favored by a margin of 61% to 29% on education; 59% to 30% on health care and 59% to 31% on energy. Congress is expected to consider major legislation later this year in all three areas."

...

And it's always the 20 - 30% who believe (the Dead End Quarter), regardless of the facts or what the last 8 years have proven about conservatism (at least, in the American political sense).

Fixer Rule of Thumb: If it comes out of a Republican, you can assume it's bullshit and you're gonna get screwed somehow.

Two ... two ...

Two links in one day, by the same blog! One of the greatest blogs in the world, WTF Is It Now?!?, has seen fit, thanks to the Blogmeister Maru and her partner in crime, UL, to link to one of my posts and one of Gordon's in the same day. I consider it a singular (or doubular, as it were) honor! Thanks, guys!

New logo for the Dead End Quarter

Actually, it's less than a quarter and falling fast. Its demise cannot come soon enough.

Gopasaurus

Stolen from Kos hisself. Who knows where he stole it.

Unbelievably stupid self-serving statement of the day

Think Progress

Speaking with a group of Stanford students Monday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that al Qaeda is a greater threat to the United States than Nazi Germany was because Germany "never attacked the homeland of the United States." [...]

Lemme see if I got this right - a buncha goat humpers who got in a lucky punch on a blind complacent giant are a bigger danger than a madman who took control of Europe and murdered millions as a matter of policy?

A few thousand people, tops, who want to fuck things up and return the world to the dark ages are a bigger threat than an industrial giant with millions of soldiers who wanted to shape the world to their own thousand-year dark ages?

Does she think the Nazis would not have "attacked the homeland (awful term)" if we had not thrown our own industrial might and millions of soldiers at them and stopped them before they could do it? Believe me, they had plans in the works.

I don't think so, Condi.

Update:

"Condi pulls a Nixon."

Ms. Rice, it's over. Sanity has returned to most of this country. The neocons' Thousand Year Reich has been thwarted, and all that remains is to clean up your mess and exact justice on the perpetrators, of whom you are one. Say what you will to try and stay out of jail, but I suggest you go home and get your affairs in order.

Live Whiskey-Blogging President Obama's News Conference

The Rude Pundit loves him some whiskey! Frees him up to say what he wants. Heh.

Frankly, the Rude Pundit doesn't give a happy monkeyfuck about what day this is in the President's presidency. Of course, of course, there's significance to round numbers and such shit. But, you know, it ain't like there's jackshit we can do if we don't like what's happening. Barack Obama ain't a bottle of wine that you sip and send back. But, hey, like a sickeningly in-love couple giving gifts on their one-month dating anniversary, we're gonna celebrate.

8:02 - He calls it "H1N1," not "swine flu," thus proving how he's actually Muslim. If this was Bush, he'd be telling us to shoot on sight anyone who was coughing.

8:08 - Sweet Jennifer Loven asks about quarantining and closing borders. Expect AP article on how Obama was too cool about the coming pandemic and how he needs to bug the fuck out, shit himself, and tell everyone we're fucked.

Good point. This administration hasn't used near enough fearmongering yet to panic folks into giving them what they want like the Bush cabal did.

8:17 - "We could have gotten this information in other ways," he says. Sean Hannity's forehead explodes.

8:26 - Some bald dude from Reuters asks about withdrawal from Iraq. Obama is so comfortingly boring. That sounds idiotic, but after eight years of a scowling drunk glaring at us and yelling, "Eeevil" like a senile gypsy in a 1930s film, it's just nice to hear that the President is more concerned about the minutiae of policy. We're just getting used to it still.

8:32 - He bitch slaps the Republican idea of bipartisanship.

8:41 - Tequila makes the Rude Pundit an angry drunk. It's like a bar fight in a shot glass. Good, deep whiskey works a different nerve. It's more of a massage than a slap.

"Bar fight in a shot glass" is an excellent description of cactus juice. Heh.

8:57 - Gives a list of the shit that he's gotta deal with as a way of saying, "Jesus, are you fuckin' kidding me," and he's out.

And it's over. Once again, he was the President, man, the guy who knows his shit, keeps his cool, and will not be fucked with. There was some bob and weave, sure, on accusing the previous administration of crimes on torture, but there's very little the man's gonna give away until he's ready. The Rude Pundit's said it before and he'll say it again: Obama plays rope-a-dope. That's his game. Sit back and watch who's the dopes next time.

Much, much more. Enjoy.

Ridiculous ...

[A big Brain welcome to Maru's readers - F.]

That CNN has the balls to give Obama a "grade" for his first hundred days. It'd be nice if we could give CNN a grade on how well they "kept them honest" during the Bush administration:

...

This whole 100 Days ritual navel gazing has always been stupid, but they've reached unprecedented heights this time. They've turned it into a Major TV Event, in which the only thing that actually happens is that the usual fatuous gasbags blather on for hours about nothing in advance of a mundane press conference. Talk about riveting television.

...

Late ... See yas later.

Not that it means shit ...

But after 100 days, I give Barry a B-minus. Woulda got a B-plus or A had he not tried to keep Bush's "unitary executive" bullshit going.

Knob job

I'm sorry, but I just can't seem to get too serious today. This didn't help:


Caution: Under no circumstances should you click any of the thumbnails after the video. Heh.

Thanks to advucol, Greece.

The Specter of Republican marginalization

Paul Krugman

What strikes me, however, is the extent to which this is a self-inflicted wound. If Pat Toomey of the Club for Growth weren’t so diligent about enforcing supply-side purity; if Republicans hadn’t made Rush Limbaugh the effective head of the party; Specter might still be GOP, and the Obama agenda much more limited.

Instead, though, we have a party that seems to be in a death spiral: the smaller it gets, the more it’s dominated by the hard right, which makes it even smaller. In the long run, this is not good for American democracy– we really do need two major parties in competition. But I’ll settle for getting that back after we get universal health care and cap-and-trade.

I'll settle for it after I'm dead.

100 Days Of Opposition

Think Progress, links and comments at site.

In the first 100 days of the Obama presidency, the conservative movement has undergone a period of radicalization. From knee-jerk opposition to the President's policies, to petty insults and conspiracy theories aimed at smearing Obama, to the embrace of the radical tea party protests, the Republican party has responded by lurching further to the right. ThinkProgress's Victor Zapanta compiled a video report on the radical right's 100 days of opposition. Watch it:

In pivoting to the extreme right, the Republican party has all but abandoned moderates and independents. Yesterday, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter left the party to become a Democrat, and today, Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) warned that "being a Republican moderate sometimes feels like being a cast member of 'Survivor.'"

I think the way the Repugs are going, by the end of Obama's first year they'll look like a cross between 'F Troop' and 'Lost', although not as funny as either one.

Cruise Ship Fights Back Against Pirates

Sky News (UK). Cool photo gallery too.

An Italian cruise ship that came under attack by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean fired back with pistols and water hoses.

But in a new twist to the increasing scourge of Somali pirate hijackings, private Israeli security forces aboard the MSC Cruises liner returned fire.

He said as soon as the pirates "saw our fire and also the water from the water hoses" they retreated.

"It was a piece of cake to give them the hose job" said Israeli Special Agent Ziva David.

I mighta made part of that up...

Also from Sky News. Same attack, different story:

Wyn Rowlands was celebrating his 62nd birthday with a dream cruise onboard the MSC Melody near the Seychelle Islands when he spotted armed pirates in a speedboat trying to clamber on to the vessel.

Mr Wyn, a retired engineer from Bangor-on-Dee, picked up a deck-chair and flung it down at the gang before raising the alarm.

The ship’s captain Ciro Pinto was then able to out-manouevre the pirates to prevent them boarding the cruise ship.

Mr. Wyn is recovering from injuries sustained just after his 300lb. wife, who was sunbathing in the deck chair when he threw it at the pirates, was winched back on board.

I mighta made part of that one up too...

A Derepugdemic?

[Welcome to UL's readers - F.]

Tony Peyser

A great many Republicans are now all up in arms

Loudly calling this move outrageous.

They look at Collins & Snowe, think about swine flu

And hope Arlen won’t be contagious.

Outbreak Of Swine Flu In U.S. Traced To Rush Limbaugh

CLG

The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta announced on Tuesday that they have traced the origin of the flu to talk show host Rush Limbaugh. “This is extremely troubling,” said Sarah Tinsdale of the CDC, “as Limbaugh has contact with millions of Americans every day.”

Doctors say the symptoms of swine flu are getting hot under the collar with fever, the sudden inability to think for yourself, lack of appetite for the truth and diarrhea of the mouth.

“One minute I started sneezing,” said Roger Wombat of Hickory, North Carolina, “and the next minute I said I wanted President Obama to fail.”

More.

Just as an aside, 'oink oink' in Spanish is 'cui cui'. Rushole's a pig in any language.

Control your enthusiasm ...

Don't break into "The Dance of Joy" just yet. Skippy shows us the reality of the "60 vote majority":

...

we are not so sure that a 60 seat majority would automatically assure that the democratic agenda get passed easily...there are still, after all, many a blue dog still running around ...

Republican 'vision' ...

For Rethugs, thinking long-term is wondering what they're gonna have for dinner. The RNC token 'chairman':

Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele defended GOP opposition to pandemic preparedness funding in the stimulus bill in an interview with CNN Tuesday, saying the party had no way of knowing that such a threat might actually materialize. "Did we know this at the time of the vote?" Steele asked. "Don't come back and make this link six months after the fact ... we don't know what tomorrow holds." He added, "I'm not going to sit here and accept that connection."

...

So, we should only worry about stuff is if it's a threat now. Sort of like volcano monitoring and hurricane prediction (run away!!!). They're sure into spending a lotta money to counter the Soviet ballistic missile threat though.

Oh ... wait ...

Obama's Stress Position

Gleeped from YubaNet.

Mount Olympia ...

Will Ms. Snowe be next? Sounds like she's putting out feelers:

...

But Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, who also supported the Obama administration’s economic stimulus legislation, said Mr. Specter’s decision reflected the increasingly inhospitable climate in the Republican party for moderates.

"On the national level of the Republican Party, we haven’t certainly heard warm, encouraging words about how they view moderates, either you are with us or against us," Ms. Snowe said. She said national Republican leaders were not grasping that "political diversity makes a party stronger and ultimately we are heading to having the smallest political tent in history for any political party the way things are unfolding."

...

Looks like she's about had it too.

Great thanks to Dr. Atta J. Turk (Podiatrist to the Stars) for the link.

Quote of the Day

PhysioProf on the Sphincter Specter defection:

Rat deserts the sinking ship.

Guv Goodhair thinks we're jealous of Texass

Political Carnival

Stop me if you've heard this one before. It's a real knee-slapper... Gov. Ricky thinks we're jealous of his state:

From the link:

AUSTIN — Darling of the Tea Party conservatives, a bad whiff of the Old South, or Gov. Who?

All three. Wasn't 'Gov. Who' a Brit TV show?

See, now Ricky's accusing us of being jealous. Of Texas. Economically. Choose any of those last three points and do what you will with them:

To those who might poke fun at Texas or call it backward, he says, they are “most likely jealous of this state’s position ... economically.”

Chagrined or incredulous might be more accurate, some say.

Some very well might. Why, here's Some now! Larry Sabato:

“This was a throwback to the Old South, a South that was out of the mainstream and viewed as something of an embarrassment. You think of people like George Wallace when you think of the claim of states’ rights. I don’t think that’s the image that modern Texas wants,” Sabato said.

Want it or not, that's the image they got. I'm old enough to remember when Texas was a Western State. Not any more it ain't. Sorry, West Texas. Maybe you should have your own state. Fuck the South.

I'm also old enough to remember how glad we were when Alaska became a state because it shut those Texas loudmouths up about being the biggest everything. They can lay claim these days to being the biggest failed state.

Jealous of you? Bite me, Goodhair.

Music aside, the best thing to ever come outta Texas is Interstate 40. I can remember when it was US 40. The Interstate is a big improvement. You can get outta Texas faster.

Swine flu linked to Smithfield Foods factory farm?

Facing South

Grist Magazine online has a must-read story by North Carolina-based food editor Tom Philpott examining a possible link between the outbreak of swine flu and Smithfield Foods of Virginia, the world's largest pork producer and processor.

Philpott notes that the Mexico City daily La Jornada has reported on the possible connection between the flu outbreak and Smithfield's operations, noting that a Mexican health agency has acknowledged that the original carrier of the disease may have been the flies that breed in the company's hog waste lagoons.

"Hog waste lagoons." Sounds like a dream destination resort, huh? Blechhh...

The swine flu outbreak has led to a drop in Smithfield's stock prices, with analysts increasing their loss estimates for that company has well as Arkansas-based Tyson Foods due to consumer concerns about pork.

I've seen Smithfield products on the shelves and I think I've bought some over the years. Not again.

I don't buy anything with the brand name 'Tyson' just because of Tyson's Repug connections, and I check to see where store-brand chicken comes from. I use California-based Foster Farms products when I can.

It's interesting that the flu outbreak may be tied to a large corporation, nez pas? Gee, I wonder which brand of politicians Virginia-based Smithfield gives money to? I wonder...

The Repug gasbags are trying to blame this deal on Obama. Probably closer to the truth to lay it at the feet of the Repugs who are famous for removing laws that protect consumers. Watch them try to cover up this part of the flu story.