The Political Genius of Barack Obama

Remember when Joe Biden was the Gaffe-o-Matic? (h/t: Protein Wisdom)

Here is what the president actually said, catching himself almost in time but not quite:
"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that."
The president has been muffing lines all over the place recently. Last week, also peddling his jobs plan at a bridge that won't qualify, he hailed America's building of "the Intercontinental Railroad." You don't seem to hear much about these gaffes in the media for some reason.
Maybe in Saturday night's speech Obama was thinking about all those talks on Israel in New York.

Maybe. Or maybe Obama thinks that Jews are heavily represented in the sanitation industries. Or maybe as soon as the word "billionaire" is uttered, "Jews" pops immediately to his mind.

In any case, more than mere wingnuts were dissatisfied with the President's recent speechifying. Maxine Waters found it "curious": (h/t: Memeorandum)

She says Obama didn't address Hispanics in such a blunt manner and would never use that language in a speech to a gathering of gays or Jews.
...
In Saturday's fiery speech to the caucus, Obama told blacks to "put on your marching shoes" and "stop grumbling.'"

Never has an incumbent so masterfully gathered his forces for the campaign.

The Cuban Missile Crisis on Twitter

Ladd Ehlinger, Jr. spares none of the principles.

As a Kennedy hater, it fills my belly with warm, sticky snark.

How Not to Be Crazy

Frank Fleming schools the net loons. Plus this dig:

If you want a role model, try to be more like Andrew Sullivan. When it was revealed in 2008 that Bristol Palin was pregnant and thus couldn’t physically have given birth to Trig Palin, even the most hardcore conspiracy theory nuts gave up on that one, but not Sullivan. He stuck with it despite it being “the government is concealing the fact that 2 + 2 = 5!” crazy. And yet he’s still treated by many as a serious pundit because he has the discipline to make it so it’s not blatantly obvious to a casual reader that he’s Kleenex-boxes-for-shoes, the-squirrels-are-spying-on-me, kung-fu-fighting-invisible-ninjas crazy.

Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is a RAAAAACIST

She's going to have fun being the bete noire of the rightosphere. She's got the silly name, and she put her foot in her mouth so far during WeinerGate that she swallowed her own knee Game On.

Is This Blog On has the skinny:

About 25 percent of African-American voters don’t have a valid photo I.D. I mean – and – and the reason it’s similar to a poll tax is because you’ve got the expense. You’ve got the effort.The – there’s difficulties for s- many people in getting photo I.D. So, you’re literally just throwing a barrier in the way of someone who’s trying to exercise their right to vote.

Now it would seem that W-S is speaking on behalf of African-Americans, which would seem to preclude all accusations of racism. But such childish remonstrances will not deflect from the obviousness of Debbie's White Privilege. I will prove it five ways, one for each of the A's in "RAAAAACIST":

WienerGate: Synopsis.

I always feel bad for people surnamed Wiener. Everyone who dislikes them has an instant, lazy insult. So I have steered clear of Anthony Wiener (D-NY), however silly and irritating he would seem to be, because it's just too easy.

But for a man, surnamed Wiener, to (allegedly) send a picture of his...(*sigh*) wiener to a woman not his wife? On Twitter?  Seriously?

The Anti-Retards are Serious

They have a web site. And nearly a grasp on the situation:

When they were originally introduced, the terms “mental retardation” or “mentally retarded” were medical terms with a specifically clinical connotation; however, the pejorative forms, “retard” and “retarded” have been used widely in today’s society to degrade and insult people with intellectual disabilities

So I pointed out when I last addressed this issue. But they fail to carry the water all the way:

Why "intellectual disability" is replacing "mental retardation"

The R-word, “retard,” is slang for the term mental retardation. Mental retardation was what doctors, psychologists, and other professionals used to describe people with significant intellectual impairment. Today the r-word has become a common word used by society as an insult for someone or something stupid. For example, you might hear someone say, “That is so retarded” or “Don’t be such a retard.” When used in this way, the r-word can apply to anyone or anything, and is not specific to someone with a disability. But, even when the r-word is not said to harm someone with a disability, it is hurtful.

Because of this, Special Olympics and the greater disability community prefers to focus on people and their gifts and accomplishments, and to dispel negative attitudes and stereotypes. As language has evolved, Special Olympics has updated its official terminology to use standard, people-first language that is more acceptable to our athletes.

The treadmill is there, but they refuse to see it.

I found this website via Popeater, which has done more to advance intellectual disability than any other corner of the 'net.

Kim Kardashian could not be reached for comment,
as she has a big retarded wedding to plan.

Wonkette, Snarking Sarah Palin Right into the Oval Office

Instapundit is wrong. Wonkette's Trig Palin-flameout has nothing whatever to do with the lack of Ana Marie Cox's steadying hand. It's always been exactly that lame:

Her blog is fun for a day or two until you realize that she doesn't have anything to say. It's all schoolgirl giggling and taking joy in the word "tits." Nothing wrong with that in small doses, but absent anything of greater substance it becomes as interesting as bathroom stall graffiti; if one didn't know otherwise, one would swear it was scripted. I can't be the only one who made the "how appropriate" eye-roll when I discovered that her last name was Cox.

Steven Crowder, on the other hand, is right on the money (h/t: Hot Air):



It's actually kind of annoying to have to constantly defend this woman, by which I mean constantly object to the tasteless, spittle-flecked rage with which progressives berate her. And if you imbeciles keep it up, you're going to unite the GOP behind her, and possibly enough independents (who most object to politics when it gets tasteless and dirty) to retire Emperor Golden Dancer to the lecture circuit early.

Don't say you weren't warned.

Lileks Sticks it to the Man

That is, the Woman, in the person of 1945 Poet Laureate Louise Brogan:

There was no glory in the smart circles to finding the poetry in the lives of Nice People. No, the souls that had been damaged by banging their heads against the stone walls of this prison culture, and had naturally sought refuge in brain-scrambling chemicals until they soiled themselves and stood in the park yelling for EZRA POUND TO COME OUT FROM BEHIND THAT TREE I SEE YOU AND YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE – these were the vanguard, the mystics, the seers, and everyone else seemed a whiskered Victorian by comparison, harumphing behind opera glasses as they beheld the truth of Life, man, life.

 Poor fellows going under the novocaine today. Read the whole thing.

Oil Prices Start Dropping again.

Daily Caller:

Oil and gasoline prices soared last week as the rebellion in Libya halted oil shipments from the country. On Monday, oil dropped on reports that a tanker bound for China was loading oil in the Libyan port of Tobruk and Saudi Arabia was boosting exports.

" the Woodrow Wilson Institute for Liberals Who Want To Seem Smart About Foreign Stuff"

That there's funny, I don't care who you are.

It's all about Meghan McCain. Especially when it isn't.

This gentleman came to Meghan McCain's GWU speech, heard her, and posted a YouTube video in response.



Most of it is a polite pointing out of Meggie's self-contradictions, but the most damning indictment comes at the four-minute mark, when he points out that the crowd of protestors she assumed were demonstrating against her were in fact protesting something else and didn't even know she was there.

How Do You Separate the Writers From the Children at HuffPo?

With a crowbar.

So when did proggy intellectuals become all about the jailbait?

If the Republicans are an Eternally Barking Dog, Democrats are a Zombie Apocalypse

Frank Fleming rules:

It’s Godzilla-smashing-through-a-city level of suck — but a really patronizing Godzilla who says you’re just too stupid and hateful to see all the buildings he’s saved or created as he smashes everything apart. Or, to use Obama’s favorite analogy, you have a car stuck in ditch, so you call the mechanic, but the only tool he brings with him is a sledgehammer. And then he smashes your car to pieces and charges you $100,000 for his service. Finally, he calls you racist for complaining.

 Read the whole thing.

Because, Funny.

I have nothing to say on the subjet of Meghan McCain, because Meghan McCain is not nearly annoying enough to be interesting. But when SnarkandBoobs rips her into tiny tiny pieces and laughs at the pieces lying on the floor, I respond with lusty huzzahs:

Others may not have had my fortitude, so forgive them if they failed to ask about your fancy-pants Uggs, your inane “big tent” comments, your “crazy-sex” tales, or your tragic over-use of commas. Your book was basically a tale told by a useful idiot. Full of shrieking sound and temper tantrum fury, signifying nothing.

 Also, I decide to add her to my linksheet. Because, snark. And boobs.

Observations From Fox and MSNBC Last Night:

1. Rachel Maddow always sounds as though she's telling a joke and has forgotten the punch line.
2. For some reason, Sean Hannity is less irritating on television than on radio.
3. Listening to Chris Matthews speak is like watching a dog dance on its hind legs. You're kind of impressed that he does it at all, and when he falls flat on his face, you're not suprised.
4. Cynthia Tucker has an almost Brezhnevian talent for making propaganda like "right-wing noise machine" sound like an insurance seminar. At least Michelle Malkin manages to put some punch into "thug-in-chief."
5. After half an hour of Hannity, you begin to remember the positive charms of Bill O'Reilly. Matthews, on the other hand, does not make one wish Maddow was back, nor look forward to Olbermann.
6. Stewart and Colbert only think that they're mocking this script rather than joining in it.

A Moment of Honesty about the Gulf Spill..

Theorem: Chris Christie is the Greatest Politician in the History of the Universe.

Proof: (Hat Tip: Ace)

Gov Christie calls S-L columnist thin-skinned for inquiring about his 'confrontational tone'

Roman Polanski the real victim, says Roman Polanski

In other news, Roman Polanski is a lying sack of crap with delusions of persecution.

It meets the same standards of journalistic evidence.

This *IS* Cable News

I don't know how I missed this -- but I did. It's the greatest thing ever:


Breaking News: Some Bullshit Happening Somewhere

And Your Farts Smell Bad, Too...

The Clean Car Myth, exploded.