Cheers And Jeers (Leap Year Edition)

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This Leap Year week on the blogs: Mary Matalin is a global-warming hoax spokesmodel; John McCain is unsafe at any speed; What does it say about you when you call a blogger a dumb bitch and leave an IP trail directly to your workplace?; The best blog headlines ever; And Dem vs. Dem has turned into Dem blogger vs. Dem blogger. All this and much, much more, including bookmark-worthy cheers and jeers. Enjoy!

Jeers To Mary, Mary: Quite Contrary (As Usual)

Mary Matalin says global warming is a hoax and a political concoction. Think Progress has the video and the story, including this:

This week, CNN's Wolf Blitzer discussed the right wing's tepid support of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) with right-wing activist Mary Matalin. Matalin explained that McCain is out of step with the far right on several issues, in particular global warming, which many conservatives "loathe" discussing:

BLITZER: They loathe that?

MATALIN: Because it's a largely unscientific hoax. And it's a political concoction.

How about Mary's face work? A hoax? A political concoction? Well, that face certainly is "man made."

Jeers To John "Not Ready" McCain: Unsafe At Any Speed (Especially 33⅓ RPM)

You know John McCain isn't fit to be president. Now, there's documented evidence, compiled in a nifty list for distribution, from Shakesville's Melissa McEwan. Here are a scant few of the sizzlers:

"I hope he has the opportunity to meet Karl Marx very soon." - John McCain, making clear his wish that a (now-former) foreign head of state will die.

Accusing Vietnam veteran and Congressman Jack Murtha of being "too emotional" to be rational about the war. (Late breaking update: Murtha's only R challenger has failed to gather enough ballot petition signatures. Ha Ha!)

Threatening to commit suicide if the Democrats won a majority in the Senate.

Erupting at fellow Republican Senator John Cornyn in a meeting about immigration legislation, during which McCain accused Cornyn of raising a concern just to torpedo a legislative deal, "used a curse word associated with chickens," and shouted " you! I know more about this than anyone else in the room!"

So many reasons; so little column space. Read the rest, and share with your friends. Before you depart Shakesville, get a load of this hate mail sample:

From: (Name and Email Redacted)
Subject: You're a dumb bitch

Thank you for making the dummying down of America complete - so much easier to laugh at you all this way.

There's apparently no room for drooling idiots in your family - you unilaterally get all the credit.

When god (notice the small g) realizes what a mistake she made in creating you, I wonder if she'll finally abort you?

I'd like to note that, despite Name Redacted's opinion that I am a dumb bitch, he sent this email to me from his work email. I now know his full name, where he works, and that he was sending harassing emails from work, presumably during work hours. That means, if I were the sort of nasty person who would do such a thing, I could quite easily just forward his email to his employer and ask if they share his estimation of me, if the email were, say, transmitting an official company policy, or if I should consider their employee's opinion his alone.

So, who's the real dumb bitch here?

Sweet! We all know where Redacted got his "facts"...

Jeers To Fox News: Proof That Dumb Is Spelled With a Capital R

FOX News, with its finger on the pulse of "What scares you to death" Americans, has a new "Be very afraid" survey to flaunt. Mojo Blog explains:

Fox News Asks: "Who Would Usama Want as Prez?"

The results are in from the latest FOX News survey, and we now know the answer to the most important question of the race: "Who is Usama Rooting For?":

Who does Usama bin Laden want to be the next president? More people think the terrorist leader wants Obama to win (30 percent) than think he wants Clinton (22 percent) or McCain (10 percent). Another 18 percent says it doesn't matter to bin Laden and 20 percent are unsure.

This is not a joke.

The real joke was Ann Coulter on FOX News' Something-or-other Show, getting her ass handed to her handily after claiming that Bin Laden was irrelevant. DUer mcg posted the video, and it's really fun to watch. Again and again. And so is TX Gov Rick Perry...

Jeers To Gov. Goodhair And His Boy Scout Sex Problem

Because keeping boys from discussing sex is Job #1 to TX Gov. Rick Perry, he's dedicating his book's revenues to The Boy Scouts Of America. And he's not just concerned about boys discussing sex; he's concerned about boys discussing homosexual sex. Off The Kuff has the details. Speaking of tightie whities...

Jeers To The Annual Republican Tightie Whitie "Renaissance"

If you missed last weekend's American Renaissance Conference in Herndon, VA, you didn't miss any jousting, turkey leg consumption or shouts of "Hussah!" you missed a bunch of white men lamenting the problems of inferior races being treated as equal by those of us too stupid to know any better. Heavy sigh. The Independent Streak notes the (cough) esteemed (cough) speakers in attendance. Here are a few of them:

Paul Gottfried -"Understanding Conservatism." Prof. Gottfried teaches history and political science at Elizabethtown College, and is the author of many books. His most recent is Conservatism in America: Making Sense of the American Right.

Jared Taylor - "Why is There So Much Resistance to Race Realism?" Mr. Taylor is editor of American Renaissance. He is the author of Paved With Good Intentions, and the primary contributor to the collection, A Race Against Time.

Eugene Valberg - "Understanding the African Mind." Dr. Valberg is an American philosopher who has lived for nearly 30 years in Africa. His observations have led him to surprising conclusions about what Africans think about themselves and whites.

By the way, I visited the American Renaissance site, where you can download "The Color Of Crime," among other titles. Now I need a shower.

Cheers To Blog Headlines: Too Good To Pass Up

Every week, I struggle with those elusive keys to blogging: catchy, yet accurate headlines. This week, I bow to the best. From Mombian:

"She Got Me Pregnant": Episode 16

Helen and I start our vlog this week by explaining the difference between parenthood and lesbian Turkish oil wrestling. Our main topic, however, is storytelling.

From Crooks and Liars:

H&C: Luntz Asks His Focus Group If They Want To See Clinton & Obama "Make Love To Each Other"

FOCUS GROUP PARTICIPANT: I think the Democrats are going to win anyhow, regardless. But we need to get the best candidate out there. And if they're not going to debate each other, what's the use? I mean, they're agreeing with each other. Hillary's nodding her head all night long.

LUNTZ: You wanted them to argue?

(Focus group assents)

LUNTZ: You want them to take it on. You all agree with that?

(Focus group assents)

LUNTZ: How many of you want them to really argue? Raise your hands. And how many of you want them to make love to each other? Alan, go ahead.

Speaking of making love, Firedoglake reports that Monica Goodling is marrying one of the founders of Redstate Blog. The headline says it all:

Just Perfect for Marching to Wagner Together

Ladies and gentlemen, Washington's New Power Couple, Lord and Lady Missionary Position:

Monica Marie Goodling, of Alexandria, is engaged to be married to Michael Krempasky, of Falls Church. The wedding is planned for later this year.

The future bride, a consultant, previously served as senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and White House liaison at the U.S. Department of Justice. She graduated cum laude from Messiah College and received J.D. and M.A. degrees from Regent University.

Mr. Krempasky is a senior vice president at Edelman, a full-service, global public relations firm. He is also a founder of RedState, a leading conservative blog.

And we thought Jenna's wedding was the event of the season?

Eeeeeeeeeew. Just eeeeeeeeeew.

For the snarkiest of the snarky headlines, no one beats Fark.com's headlines, which link readers to news stories and blog posts:

The timeline of terrorist fearmongering, or the timeline of great coincidences (HuffPo link)

Hitler and Frankenstein battle for public office, then it gets weird (Political Gateway link)

McCain '08: "NYT is a liberal hack paper, don't take it seriously." McCain '00: "We must attack Iraq because the NYT says there are WMDs there." Now that's some straight talk, my friends (Daily Kos link)

So many more headlines, so little time.

Cheers and Jeers (Mostly Jeers With Some Seriously Snarky Cheers)

From Daily Kos:

JEERS to the assholes of 2000. America was treated to an unsolicited double-whammy of bullshit yesterday. First, Sandra Day O'Connor wagged her finger in Parade magazine at the politicization of the judiciary, even though she had a hand in the biggest abuse of judicial thuggery in our history: turning over the presidency to George W. Bush by stopping the vote recount in Florida.

(snip)

She also says "precedent" is important, even though she and her conservative cohorts wrote that the Bush v. Gore ruling could never be used as precedent. So you'll forgive me if I exercise my precedent of shredding anything you say anymore, lady. (Not that I'm bitter.)

Meanwhile, Bush/Cheney enabler Ralph Nader said yesterday that he's running again. He got 2,882,955 votes in 2000. He got 411,304 votes in 2004. If that trend holds...(let's see, 40, 80, 95, carry the 2, divide by 12, multiply by 50)...he'll still be a dick.

P.S. My spellchecker doesn't recognize Nader. Lucky duck.

CHEERS to Surge Mania! It's working so well that yesterday close to 50 Iraqi civilians surged all the way to the hereafter. And not a single thank you for General Petraeus from any of 'em. Dead people---it's always about me me me me me.

JEERS to McCain the Magician (via Kossack bg). Professor Juan Cole, the Middle East expert at Informed Comment, has written a post on a certain Republican presidential nominee's coziness with Pakistan's dictators, wherein he nails what a McCain presidency would be like on the war front:

McCain is the Pied Piper of Hamelin; he'll be glad to get rid of your rat problem, but at the price of making your children disappear.*

*Young Republican chickenhawks not included.

The Sad McTrain Wreck Express

Oh, the irony. Who else but Republicans would try to derail The New York Times after using the paper as a mouthpiece for so damned long? WTF Is It Now? makes the case against R. McHypocrites:

STFU already

The Fox Nooze White House accuses the NYT -- who repeatedly ripped the Clintons new ones, the paper of Bill Kristol, Maureen Dowd and David Brooks, the same paper who endorsed McCain for president -- of anti-GOP bias.

The White House sided with Sen. John McCain and accused the New York Times on Friday of repeatedly trying to "drop a bombshell" on Republican presidential nominees to undermine their candidacies.

Oh fucking please.

There's much more at the link. As for our own Dem v Dem primary season...

Cheers To Skippy: Advice For Both Sides In The Dem Primary

This week's best post on Dem vs. Dem/Blogger vs. Blogger sniping comes from an old time favorite blogger, Skippy, who doesn't even have a dog in the primary fight:

let's remember, we're on the same side here. it doesn't help to burn any bridges that we might have to cross again after denver, when we need to ban together to defeat mclame.

if someone you admire seems to be going over the edge, the best way to handle it, in our opinion, is with a private email. and make sure it's a polite email, and well-thought out, and prefaced with a plethora of your positive opinion of that blogger.

we need each other. we don't need to fight.

we must hang together, as ben franklin said, or we will surely hang separately.

Well said, Skippy! This week, at least one blogger (in this case, Open Left) looks ahead to November's potentially unstable electorate.

Obama appears to be headed to the nomination with the support of many of the same voters who backed Bradley in 2000 and Dean in 2004. McCain was also elected with a different base of support than the one that made Bush the Republican nominee in 2000. According to exit polls, Romney always outperformed McCain among Republicans who were either "enthusiastic" or "satisfied" with the Bush administration, while Huckabee cleaned up on the white evangelical / born again vote.

(snip)

If primary voters were willing to choose different sorts of candidates than the ones both parties have recently nominated, this sort of fluidity and uncertainty comes with the territory. It also means that we should take nothing for granted, either or positive or negative, in this election. Assuming he is the nominee, maybe Obama can win Kansas and Virginia, and maybe he can lose Oregon and Massachusetts.

While Open Left sees an opportunity for excitement, I can't help but see a new and improved way for Republicans to cheat. Sure hope I'm wrong. Finally, Monk philosophy on everything under the sun has some silly Leap Year tips for saving money:

1. Propose on 29th Feb.

2. Get attached on 29th Feb

3. Marry on 29th Feb

4. Get a partner with his/her birthday on 29th Feb

Hm. Maybe this Leap Year advice is the only way to survive the Bush economic disaster we're in. An extra day of Bush, however, isn't my idea of a good thing in any year. The only saving grace: an extra day for the next Dem president!

Keep those great blog links coming, and keep fighting for Democratic principles and democracy. See you next week.

-- Delilah

[Demeter]

1. Excellent Juan Cole Quote!

Well worth the price of admission.

[NMDemDist2]

2. K&N (can we get one more folks?) n/t