Obama Addresses Nutroots Clowns

A press aide from MSNBC chimes in, but I don't recognize his face. So nice to see the synergy between the White House and a so-called "news" organization.

Whatever the case, these clowns may be the only ones listening to him any more. Basic theme of his message is to be patient, he's working as hard as he can to screw things up.

Thanks to Doug Powers for the link at Michelle Malkin.

They All Needed a Job

RIP, nutroots blogosphere.

It wasn't as if these buffoons could make it in the real world, so they've been absorbed by the liberal media. As if that's a winning formula.

That didn't take very long. The progressive blogosphere really first emerged onto the political scene in late 2002 over fights like the run up to Iraq, the 2003 Democratic primaries, and Trent Lott's comments at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party. In less than eight years, it went from a loosely knit, rag-tag network of amateur outsiders into a fixture in the world of professional political advocacy and media.

They'll soon wither and die with the rest of the far left media.

We adults with real lives and real jobs who do this as a hobby will soldier on. The right occupies nearly half the spots in these rankings, most of us aren't in it for a payday, and we're clobbering websites and blogs from major establishment media.

Although maybe a few years from now when the dying media relics now employing the Juice Boxers wither and die some on the right may be in demand since nobody is paying attention to these deep thinkers. May they save a few bucks while they're still employed at the first real job any of them has ever probably had.

Update: Not just job insecurity, thumb-sucking insecurity!

Via Instapundit, and thanks for the link.

ManBearPig: 'I Love Van Jones'

I wonder if the overstuffed environmental wacko would like to walk this one back yet?

"In this environment, I think the Obama administration should be very careful of its dealings with anybody who can be labeled communist accurately," said Christopher C. Hull, an adjunct government professor at Georgetown University who runs the public affairs firm Issue Management.

"That's just going to play to the political sensibility that those on the right have that the Obama administration is socialist, literally socialist. ... It is unwise to bring in people who actually do label themselves socialist or communist."

Jones has mellowed considerably since the '90s. In some respects, he is about as mainstream as environmentalists come -- with recognition streaming in from high places over the past few years.

He's won plaudits from former Vice President Al Gore, who declared, "I love Van Jones," in an interview with The New Yorker.

The mayor of San Francisco also has the hots for Jones.

Guess who else is a big fan of Van: (Besides Al Gore.) SF Mayor and CA Gov. candidate Gavin Newsom. The Mayor described Van "a superstar" to us before he introduced him at the 2008 Netroots Nation (Daily Kos) conference.

DOesn't it all just make perfect sense that a radical Communist Truther is the keynote speaker at the Daily Kos convention?



Here's Jones.



Sure seems like Jones had a chip on his shoulder about Fox News long before Glenn Beck was hired.

Everything you've done up until now has just been prologue, it's just been the preface. You proven that you can beat the opposition. You can't have successful opposition movement without opposition media. And you've proven that you can in a very short period of time you built an absolute counterweight to FOX and to Rush Limbaugh, the -- everything the Conservatives built up in 20 years, you were able to match and checkmate and four. It's a huge achievement in the history of human civilization. You did that. You did that. If the republic will be saved, it's because of your efforts, that's true.

Obama Flunkie Heckled By Nutroots

Some people you just can't please. As far left as Barack Obama has lurched, it's just not enough for the nutroots.

More shouts and protests followed. "I can't hear you," Jarrett said. "You know what you've got to do? You've got to figure out a way to get your question on here [pointing to the computer on stage that was receiving emails from questioners]. We are not going to have shout outs from the audience."

The moderator agreed. "This is not a town hall meeting like that," said Baratunde Thurston, of Jack and Jill Politics and The Onion. The crowd got the reference to the boisterous demonstrators at health care town halls. But they didn't stop. From the back of the room, someone shouted a question about why the private security contractor, Blackwater, was still being paid for work overseas.

"Well we are certainly trying to get rid of the no bid contracts," said Jarrett. "He has been very clear about that."

A group of individuals sitting at a table off to the side started hissing. "I hear the frustration and I hear the kind of hissing," said Jarrett. "I hear you. Settle down over there, settle down."
"I'm asking you to trust [the President]," she pleaded. "And I know that's hard. Because I know how pure you are to the cause. But he also has to keep in mind that he has to keep those folks safe."

Jarrett apparently is unaware these people don't give a rat's ass about the troops.

Nutroots Blogger: FBI Orchestrated NY Bomb Plot

Well, at least we know what Maureen Dowd's next column will be about.

If you haven't heard, four African-American Muslims were arrested this evening in New York City and charged with a plot to bomb a series of sites in city, including several synagogues. It appears that this is one of those cases where the group was under surveillance for a very long time and helped along in what turned out to be a bogus plot orchestrated by federal authorities.

Well, that didn't take long and we called this one last night.

It should take the ACLU about two minutes to claim they were set up and the left to portray them as innocent dupes.

Another crackpot here sees the same angle.

Interestingly, we see that the entire "plot" was hatched by an FBI informant

Funny, but the suspects sure as hell seemed like they wanted to reign terror upon New Yorkers, and Jews in particular.

One of the suspects, James Cromitie, a k a Abdul Rahman, bragged that blowing up the synagogues would be a "piece of cake," the feds said.

"I hate those motherf - - -ers, those f - - -ing Jewish bastards . . . I would like to get a synagogue," Cromitie told an informant, according to a criminal complaint.

The alleged terrorists' hatred also included the US military.
...
"During this surveillance, Cromitie pointed to people walking on the street in the vicinity of a Jewish community center and said that if he had a gun, he would shoot each one in the head," according to the court papers.

At one point, Cromitie allegedly lamented that "the best target [the World Trade Center] was hit already."

Yup, sounds like a set-up, no?

In other terrorism news, the Obama administration is just begging for more as they're going to try a Club Gitmo detainee here in New York.

Genius move.

Angry Left Reacts Positively to Limbaugh's CPAC Speech

Yeah, right. As if Public Enemy No. 1 is allowed to say anything without it being misconstrued, twisted and made out to be a crime against humanity.

By any measure, Mr. Limbaugh hit the ball out of the park. He may have done so for the team that, these days, many people are rooting against. But the ball did land over the fence.

On the other hand, the "drive-by media" - as Mr. Limbaugh aptly refers to his business competition and ideological foes - portrayed a completely different event.

Clearly taking their cues from Mr. Obama - as well as Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid - the Fourth Estate, without the benefit of a Frank Luntz focus group or an instant poll, immediately labeled the speech as "angry" and alienating to "moderate voters."

The netroots, the mainstream media's devious protector from its left flank (e.g., the Huffington Post, Media Matters and the Daily Kos) also opined as if they had witnessed a hate crime.

Anonymous liberal commentators, the rabid pests of the new media, sought out the most popular conservative blogs to flood the zone with familiar Rush Limbaugh slanders. Their goal: To demoralize the right with layer upon layer of media domination. Only talk radio with its emphasis on Socratic debate over raw emotionalism and with Mr. Limbaugh in the driver's seat has escaped the left's clutches of pure media dominance.

For years, the radio kin of these underhanded online annoyances - coined by Rush as "seminar callers" - have read their Democratic National Committee-produced scripts to muddy the political waters. Talk-show call screeners will be on double duty this week trying to keep off the air anyone who might try to tear down the post-speech unity and elation.

To put it mildly, most anyone on the left reacted with apoplexy, especially those who didn't bother to watch it. They're always the most well-informed of the Limbaugh haters. Seriously, the Hitler analogies can't be far off now.

I'd disagree with Rahm on this one. Limbaugh is not an intellectual force, he's an anti-intellectual force. He's popular fascism with a multi-syllabic touch. And that is exactly why he's so popular with the GOP. From Sarah Palin, to Bobby Jindal, to Joe-the-Tax-Cheat, the GOP loves its intellectual lightweights. Look at Ann Coulter. Not a stupid woman, by any means, but not very bright either. Her trick is that speaks well. She's the intellectual equivalent of a British accent: Doesn't matter what they say, but with that highfalutin Oxford accent, they could read the phone book and it would sound like Shakespeare.

Rush, Palin, Coulter, Joe-the-Tax-Cheat, and the other most public faces of the GOP offer little more than bread and circus. Which isn't just a criticism of them, it's a criticism of the Republican masses who demand nothing more from their leaders than a pretty face and a touch of fascism.

Isn't that cute? Really worked overtime on that kindergarten-level analysis.

Others liken him to fictional mobsters.

If there's any doubt that the GOP's own Paulie Walnuts is now firmly in command of the Party of Lincoln, the "breaking news" style coverage of Limbaugh's bellow-cose rant dispelled the notion. CNN, for one, went wide - with the kind of uninterrupted live footage usually reserved for Presidents and Popes, followed by a panel of analysts to weigh and consider the import of the speech to this republic of ours. There were other dancers on the stage, to be sure - including Ward Connerly, Ann Coulter, Phyllis Schlafly and Karl Rove - but only Limbaugh's hour-long ramble (he went over by 30 minutes) garnered opposition leader status. "As the movement searches for a front-and-center spokesman to provide inspiration and direction, Limbaugh's refusal to tilt toward the center may place him out front in a Republican Party already suffering from a disappearing moderate wing," wrote Tom Schaller in Salon.

Limbaugh is a showbiz talent, and he is taking full advantage of this moment of rudderless, thoughtless spinning in circles by Republicans to seize the stage in full-throated opposition to the overwhelmingly popular new President - and virtually everything he stands for. In rooting publicly for Barack Obama's failure, Limbaugh may be leading the conservative movement to a smaller, fringe-like existence in the halls of power - but it will an existence that he can easily dominate.

These folks still have yet to listen to what Limbaugh has been saying. Yes, he says he wants Obama to fail, just as he would want the opposing quarterback of the team he's rooting against to fail. What is it they cannot grasp about this concept? He's never said he want America to fail, rather he wants Obama's tax-and-grab and reckless spending to fail As do millions of us.

Who wants their political enemies to succeed? Did I somehow misinterpret the raging hatred of George W. Bush for eight years as the left wanthing him to succeed? Of course not, I took it as what it was: The angry left lashing out.

So interpret how you will what Limbaugh had to say Saturday afternoon, but just be sure to do one thing, and you folks on the left all know you will: Tune in today at noon eastern time.

Get those seminar calls ready.

Aww: HuffPoster Terribly Offended by NY Post Chimp Cartoon

These liberal wackos are always looking for hidden messages. Clearly unable to understand what satire is, except of course when they rush to use the satire defense themselves. Here's Obama water-carrier Sam Stein, a nutroots blogger who magically found himself seated in the front row at the Obama press conference last week, so you know he's in the back pocket of the administration.

A cartoon likening the author of the stimulus bill, perhaps President Barack Obama, with a rabid chimpanzee graced the pages of the New York Post on Wednesday.

The drawing, from famed cartoonist Sean Delonas, is rife with violent imagery and racial undertones. In it, two befuddled-looking police officers holding guns look over the dead and bleeding chimpanzee that attacked a woman in Stamford, Connecticut.

"They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," reads the caption.

Racial undertones? In case Stein isn't aware, that chimpanzee story is big news in the New York area. Was the left using racial undertones when they called George Bush a chimp for eight year? Or was that simply satire?

These idiotic racist liberals are always the first to see racism where it doesn't exist.

Meanwhile, never one to miss an opportunity to demagogue, racist huckster Al Sharpton chimes in.

"The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist."

Sharpton called the cartoon "troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys." He said the Post should clarify what point the cartoon was making.

He did. It's a parody.

besides, didn't Nancy Pelosi write the porkulus bill?

Commenters at the Daily Kos are already calling for his career to be terminated.

Such tolerance.

Update: Some leftwing douchebag with a bad case of projection decided to link. Figured you folks could use a good laugh.

But Jammie Wearing Fool will generally say what you think he would say. His pseudonym suggests a self-awareness for which no other evidence has been found. We imagine him as a disheveled, feety smelling man of 5′6″ or so and a silhouette like a fireplug, drinking endless cups of bad coffee as talk radio yells and chatters around him in an endless blare, like the radio in Bad Lieutenant. We like him and think of him in a way as a friend, as our hypothetical Everynut.

Gee, they're on to me. Only off by nine inches. And, well, everything else. I doubt they're bright enough to figure out the genesis of the name, either, so let's just let small minds wander.

Idiots.

Betsy McCaughey Slaps Down Olbermann

It's all well and good that Betsy McCaughey points out that Keith Olbermann is a lying fraud, but don't sit around waiting for an apology. Feel free to sue him if you can, however.

The following is from Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D., the author of the recent Bloomberg.com article, "Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan."

I am requesting that MSNBC and Keith Olbermann apologize and issue a correction.

Mr. Olbermann charges that I, Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D. was paid, directly or indirectly, by the pharmaceutical industry, the biotech industry, the Hudson Institute, or Cantel Medical Corp. to write my analysis of the stimulus bill or speak about that issue. All these charges are false.

I have shown all these charges to be false in a previous statement except the new charge regarding my board membership at Cantel Medical Corp. I serve on the board of Cantel Medical Corp. as a patient advocate and infection prevention expert. No one at Cantel Medical has ever asked me about the stimulus bill or requested that I address the issue. I have not discussed the issue with anyone in the company. I urge those who are interested to contact Cantel Medical directly.

Read the rest.

No doubt Olbermann was probably dumb enough to use his usual nutroots talking points without bothering to check the facts. What a surprise.

Here's the original Bloomberg piece that started it all.

McCaughey last week challenged the factually-challenged Olbermann to a debate. Again, good luck with that.

Olbermann is the king of the cheapshot, ad hominem attack. He couldn't possibly match up with an intellect such as McCaughey. Here's hoping McCaughey goes after MSNBC and their parent company, GE. The time will come when this drive-by outfit is held to account for their lies and promoting leftwing propaganda. They're already at the bottom of the cable news ratings for a reason.

'Now Our Domestic Surrender Monkeys Are In Shock'

Ralph Peters nails the whimpering lefties flipping out over Barack Obama selecting Rick Warren to give the invocation at his inaugural.

AMERICA'S hardcore leftists had convinced themselves they were finally getting "their" president. Boy, were they wrong.

Their latest cause for outrage: Barack Obama has picked the Rev. Rick Warren - a pastor who actually believes in the redemptive power of faith - to give the invocation at the inauguration.

That's what you get for judging a book by its cover - or believing campaign promises.

Months ago, I predicted that, if Obama were elected, the most-disappointed Americans would be the MoveOn.org gang.

Now our domestic surrender monkeys are in shock.

And it's not just Warren, as Peters points out by examining a number of Obama's cabinet selections.

I'm mildly surprised by some of Obama's picks and unsurprised by others, more recently Arne Duncan at Education. Considering the illiteracy rate in Chicago's schools, that one smacks of rank cronyism.

But really, the childish reaction of the far left blogs and radical gay groups is just beyond hysterical with the Warren announcement. Clearly, pragmatism and moderation aren't their strong suit. It's either march in lockstep and cave to their demands or they turn on you.

There never will be a president who appoints a cabinet 100% to my or anybody's liking. You often have to accept some bad with the good and hope in the end your agenda is followed to some extent. Having a temper tantrum and flipping out before your guy is even inaugurated speaks volumes about these people. They really need to grow up.

Previously.

Rick Warren to Give Obama Invocation, Angry Left Meltdown Ensues

Frankly, I could care less who Obama has speaking at his inaugural. I know it'll take a superhuman effort to avoid any of the fawning media coverage when the time comes. Anyway, news comes that Rick Warren, who I couldn't have picked out of a lineup before this summer, will be delivering the invocation at The Messiah's inaugural.

The selection of Warren, whose Saddleback Church in California was the site of a candidate forum with Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain in August, is an early taste of the Democrats' post-election effort to reach evangelical Americans. The effort continues even though Obama's evangelical offensive during the presidential campaign yielded only modest results on Election Day.

I can understand that. Obama isn't a complete idiot. He figures enough suckers will fall for this obvious ploy, so who can blame him? It's smart politics.

What, you expected him to completely drop the facade and have Jeremiah Wright in his stead?

Of course, the selection of this dreaded evangelical has evoked hysteria on the gay left blogs. Not content with focusing their seething rage upon Mormons for them losing on Proposition 8, now they're completely melting down over Obama's choice of Warren.

Once again, a useful idiot has discovered his usefulness has an expiration date.

I'm sure the brain trust around Obama thought Rick Warren would be a great idea. You know, because they're so smart that they're post-partisan. But someone on the Obama team missed the intense anger that erupted after Prop 8 won and we lost rights (or maybe they didn't care). It's visceral. Believe me. Visceral and real. And putting one of the leading supporters of that campaign on the stage at the inauguration is an affront to us.

Oh no. It's both visceral and real! Ooo-ga!

Notice he mentions intense anger. Yet when we point out how angry they are, we're inundated with hate mail.

Go figure. Meanwhile, others are using the time-honored homophobe label. Ooooh! This just isn't the change they were looking for.

Sure Warren may be better known, may have sold a whole lot of books and brings with him the added bonus of sending a dog whistle signal to Christian conservatives that he's their president too, but what about sending a signal to the LGBT community and broader progressive community who, ya know, actually supported him and worked our ass off for him? Reinforcing the false notion that the only real Christians are conservative Christians is NOT change I can believe in at all.

I'm sure Obama will be awake nights worrying about this. The funny thing is, it was an overwhelming Obama vote in California that helped pass Prop 8. The angry gay left just cannot rationalize it yet that the guy they poured their gay marriage effort into also brought out the voters who reject gay marriage. When you're a single-issue voter, you're often going to be angry when you don't get your way.

Mrs. Andrew Sullivan, while crestfallen, at least realizes this is all about politics.

Rick Warren will give the invocation at Obama's inauguration. Warren is a man who believes my marriage removes his freedom of speech and cannot say that authorizing torture is a moral failing. Shrewd politics, but if anyone is under any illusion that Obama is interested in advancing gay equality, they should probably sober up now.

I'll refrain from further comment on the alcoholic rate in the angry gay community.

Meanwhile, the always understated folks at one of the insane left blogs call Warren a Rick Warren, Warmongering Torture Apologist, to Usher in Era of Hope and Change.

So to review, Warren publicly chastized Obama for refusing to reject and denounce abortion, said four California judges "threw out will of the people", and openly calls for the murder of a head of state -- but is completely unwilling to hold BushCo morally accountable for torturing.

Great choice, guys.

These people are hilarious.

This selection is clearly not about “change”—it’s about making a high profile decision to give the stage over to a known homophobe; choosing Rick Warren is tantamount to asking any of the professional anti-gay “Christian” set to stand up there. There is no excuse for this; given there are so many leaders of the faith community that are in alignment with equality for all.

I almost feel sorry for Obama having to deal with these children. Sure, they helped get him elected and they feel they have whatever grievance ameliorated. But the childish reaction to any perceived slight just demonstrates their inability to understand that maybe, just maybe, the things they demand the rest of the country does not want. The sooner they grow up and realize that the more people like Obama might actually listen to them rather than just use them.

Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

Memo to Nutroots Bloggers: You Don't Run the Democratic Party

As we've noted a couple of times in recent weeks, it's beginning to dawn on the far left bloggers that their usefulness only goes so far. Clamoring for the change they were promised, they're now close to revolting. Well, actually, they are revolting in the aesthetic sense, of course, but why not give the guy a chance in office first? Isn't that what they demand of us before we dare to criticize Obama?

Liberals are growing increasingly nervous – and some just flat-out angry – that President-elect Barack Obama seems to be stiffing them on Cabinet jobs and policy choices.

Obama has reversed pledges to immediately repeal tax cuts for the wealthy and take on Big Oil. He’s hedged his call for a quick drawdown in Iraq. And he’s stocking his White House with anything but stalwarts of the left.

Now some are shedding a reluctance to puncture the liberal euphoria at being rid of President George W. Bush to say, in effect, that the new boss looks like the old boss.

“He has confirmed what our suspicions were by surrounding himself with a centrist to right cabinet. But we do hope that before it's all over we can get at least one authentic progressive appointment,” said Tim Carpenter, national director of the Progressive Democrats of America.

OpenLeft blogger Chris Bowers went so far as to issue this plaintive plea: “Isn't there ever a point when we can get an actual Democratic administration?”

Even supporters make clear they’re on the lookout for backsliding. “There’s a concern that he keep his basic promises and people are going to watch him,” said Roger Hickey, a co-founder of Campaign for America’s Future.

Seriously, Obama doesn't have a thing to worry about with these people. They're not going anywhere and any attempt at fielding a far left candidate to their liking (think Dennis Kucinich) to challenge Obama in 2012 will leave them out in the cold.

Where they belong.

“There don't seem to be any liberals in Obama's cabinet,” writes John Aravosis, the editor of Americablog.com. “What does all of this mean for Obama's policies, and just as important, Obama Supreme Court announcements?”

Who the hell appointed John Aravosis king-maker of the Democratic Party? Is this guy so far out in left field he can't realize that, for example, Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson, to name two, are liberals?

This isn’t the first liberal letdown over Obama, who promptly angered the left after winning the Democratic primary by announcing he backed a compromise that would allow warrantless wiretapping on U.S. soil to continue.

Not the first meltdown, and sure not to be the last. It's pretty clear based on their behavior they're deservedly on the outer fringe of the party and Obama is wise to avoid their advice.

Case in point: One of the Campaign for America’s Future blogs commented on Obama’s decision not to tax oil companies’ windfall profits saying, “Between this move and the move to wait to repeal the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, it seems like the Obama team is buying into the right-wing frame that raising any taxes - even those on the richest citizens and wealthiest corporations - is bad for the economy.”

Which it is. But sending the American economy is just fine with them so long as they get to stick it to the evil rich right-wingers.

Grow up, kids. Enjoy the fact you have a Democrat in the White House and please, just shut up for five minutes.

Dude, Where's My Change?

A couple of weeks ago we noticed the useful idiots on the left were already having a temper tantrum because Barack Obama wasn't appointing a cadre of freakazoids to his cabinet and was instead looking for more palatable Clinton retreads and assorted centrist types.

Well, they're still whining. This reminds me of little kids who during Christmas season ask every day why Santa didn't come yet. You have to explain to them when Santa is coming but also teach them what Christmas is all about. Santa Obama hasn't even arrived in office yet and the little kiddies are already clamoring for their presents, such as socialism, Hague trials for Bush and Cheney and gulags for radio talk show hosts they dislike.

They don't seem to understand a Cabinet and administration made up of Kos Kidz won't sell with normal Americans.

The more things change, the more they

stay . . . well, you know. And looking at President-elect Barack Obama's top appointments, it's easy to wonder whether convention has triumphed over change -- and centrists over progressives.

A quick run-down: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who supported the Iraq war until she initiated her presidential bid, has been handed the Cabinet's big plum: secretary of state. And Bush's second defense secretary, Robert Gates, will become Obama's first defense secretary. The Obama foreign policy adviser regarded as the most liberal in his inner circle, Susan E. Rice, has been picked for the U.N. ambassador slot. Obama is elevating this job to Cabinet rank, but he's still sending Rice to New York -- and in politics and policy, proximity to power matters. For national security adviser, Obama has picked James L. Jones. The retired four-star general was not hawkish on the Iraq war and seems to be a non-ideologue who possesses the right experience for the job. But he probably would have ended up in a McCain administration, and his selection has not heartened progressives.

Obama's economic team isn't particularly liberal, either. Lawrence H. Summers, who as President Bill Clinton's Treasury secretary opposed regulating the new-fangled financial instruments that greased the way to the subprime meltdown, will chair Obama's National Economic Council. To head Treasury, Obama has tapped Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the New York Federal Reserve, who helped oversee the financial system as it collapsed. Each is close to Robert Rubin, another former Clinton Treasury secretary, a director of bailed-out Citigroup and a poster boy for both the corporate wing of the Democratic Party and discredited Big Finance. Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board will be guided by Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman whose controversial tight-money policies ended the stagflation crisis of the 1970s but led to a nasty recession. (A genuinely progressive economist, Jared Bernstein, will receive a less prominent White House job: chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.)

Corn goes on to cite the typical laments of nutroots bloggers, and warns if they don't get their way, there'll be trouble.

That doesn't mean Obama deserves a pass for (so far) bypassing progressives. When he announced his foreign policy advisers last week, he declared that he was a "strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions" and wanted "a vigorous debate inside the White House." But he has largely left liberals out of the debate. If strong progressive voices are not included in Obama's wild and woolly free-for-alls at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., they will have little choice but to find outlets on the outside (remember the Internet?) -- and become their own agents of change.

Translate that as they'll take their party off the cliff no matter what Obama does.

It's pretty clear the far left isn't open to diversity after all. If you don't march in lockstep with all their grandiose progressive goals they have no use for you.

Obama: No Fear of 'Enraged, Impotent' Nutroots

The children are having an online temper tantrum. How funny is this?

Barack Obama isn't even President yet, and he's already angering some of his most devoted followers on the party's left wing. This is the mark of what could be a very successful presidency.

"With its congressional majority, the Democratic Party has refused to seriously try to end the war, to stop the bailout and to stop the trampling of civil liberties, just to name a few off the top of my head," wrote David Sirota on the popular liberal blog OpenLeft, decrying the serial betrayals of Obama and the congressional Democratic majority. The Democratic Party, he wrote, has "faced no real retribution" for its manifold heresies, something that Sirota believes he and his band of angry bloggers must change. "We better understand why this happened," he fumed.

Allow me to provide an answer. You don't matter.

That the Netroots - the fabled bloggers who, in 2004, carried Howard Dean from being an unknown governor of a small state to a Democratic presidential front-runner - are not the potent political force that the media portrays was confirmed this past week when Senate Democrats resisted their "demand" that Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman be punished for endorsing John McCain for President (Lieberman was reelected as an independent in 2006 and caucuses with the Democrats). Ever since Nov. 4, when Democrats increased their majority beyond the point that Lieberman's allegiance was necessary for them to maintain control over the Senate, punishing Lieberman has been the primary goal of liberal bloggers. For weeks, they pounded their keyboards, huffed and puffed on their Internet radio shows and called on their readers to flood the offices of Democratic senators with phone calls and e-mails demanding that Lieberman be stripped of his chairmanship over the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Yet on Tuesday, Democrats voted an overwhelming 42-to-13 to let Lieberman keep that chairmanship.

"He wasn't sanctioned," seethed Markos Moulitsas, founder of the Daily Kos. "And Senate Democrats trying to make that claim are dishonestly trying to cover up the extent of their betrayal of the American people's vote for change."

Given the intensity of blogger rage over Lieberman, one can understand how their defeat at the ends of their own party would lend itself to hyperbole, but when did the "American people" appoint Markos Moulitsas their spokesman? And while there are many ways to interpret the outcome of this year's presidential and congressional elections, that voters across the country wanted Joe Lieberman to be stripped of his committee chairmanship is not one of them.

Indeed, the only people who seemed to give a fig about Lieberman were the "Netroots." Along with abandoning Iraq to Iran and Al Qaeda, punishing the "traitor" Joe Lieberman was their paramount concern (know that in the minds of Netroots, Lieberman hasn't only committed treason against the Democratic Party; a quick perusal of the more popular liberal blogs will also find the words "Zionist" and "Likudnik" attached to his name). Most Americans probably recognize Lieberman as the guy who ran with Al Gore in 2000. But to the Netroots, Lieberman is an obsession, an individual who inspires mania. He is the worst thing possible: not only someone who disagrees with them about foreign policy, but a liberal who disagrees with them on foreign policy.

As we noted the other day, the useful idiots are no longer useful to Obama.

Let them bask in their own irrelevance.

Would 'Jesus The Community Organizer' Have Attended Jeremiah Wright's Church for 20 Years?

One of the more offensive political statements in memory is now making the rounds as the Democrats pick up on the nutroots line that "Jesus was a community organizer," in a rather weak retort to Sarah Palin mocking Barack Obama during the GOP convention.

Really, how vain can you get comparing Barack Obama, a two-bit Chicago hack, to Jesus Christ? Really, are they so insane to think that's going to win over religious voters?

But it begs the simple question: Would Jesus have sat in a pew for 20 years listening to the psychotic rants of Jeremiah Wright? Just in case you've forgotten who Wright is (since the media is reticent to remind you), have a sampling of Obama's buddy:



Would Jesus have tolerated that? No, I don't think so.

Yet the moronic Democrats continue to utter the absurd comparison. Remarkably, this boob Steve Cohen claims he wasn't comparing Obama to Jesus, then again compares him to Jesus. Real slick, dude.

U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen's House floor speech suggesting that both Barack Obama and Jesus were "community organizers" has lit up the blogosphere, produced heated partisan exchanges and, on Thursday, landed him on "Hardball."

Cohen released a statement on Thursday clarifying his intent in making the remarks Wednesday night, saying, "I didn't and I wouldn't compare anyone to Jesus. Jesus cannot be compared to anyone. What I pointed out was that Jesus was a force of change, and those who work to accomplish change deserve respect."

Then MSNBC imbecile Chris Matthews whips out the race card, repeating the weak assertion that calling Obama a community organizer is racist.

Chris Matthews, the MSNBC show's host, suggested that politicians should avoid metaphors referring to either Jesus or Adolf Hitler, but also suggested that Palin's ridicule of community activists was "code phrasing" pointing to Obama's urban Chicago background.

Do the Democrats really think it's a winning strategy to compare Obama with Jesus Christ and then insinuate that anyone who criticizes him is racist?

If so, I implore them to please keep it up. They'll have only themselves to blame for Obama's landslide defeat.

It speaks volumes that Obama hasn't asked his surrogates to knock off the ridiculous comparison. He obviously agrees he's as important as Jesus.

Bristol Palin Pregnant, Kos Kidz More Unhinged Than Ever

Today brings us the earth-shattering news that Bristol Palin, daughter of GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin, is pregnant.

Naturally, the lovely folks who were afraid of looking stupid for suggesting she's the actual mother of Sarah Palin's five-month-old baby, are having a field day.

First of all, who says that Bristol Palin really is pregnant right now? She could suddenly have a miscarriage down the road and poof baby gone.

Secondly, Bristol could have had a baby back in April, and be pregnant again.

The McSame camp said two things

1. They knew Bristol was pregnant (but neglected to put that in Sarah's remarkable life-story)

2. This announcement was intended to stop rumors on the internet

Well Senator Songbird, we're just getting started.

This goes to core of the corruption of the Republican Party. Sarah Palin's only qualification to be the second most powerful person in the world is that she is against abortion and hates gays. Sound familiar -- it should. Whether it's the coalition provisional authority in Iraq, or the Justice Department here at home, qualifications don't matter, experience doesn't matter, only whether you stand on the "right" side of social issues.

This is even worse.

You can't make this shit up. "Evangelical Christian" Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter is knocked up. No word on the father yet. That'll help Palin's daughter to break the glass ceiling: start out life dragging a screaming kid around. Should work out fine on those job interviews.

Oh, but she's KEEPING IT. Wonderful. What's the name going to be: Bareback?

Palin is quickly being revealed as a White trash Protestant in the vein of Brintney Spears and the drunk Bush clan. What's next? The father of Palin's daughter is the family Pastor?

OF course, this nutcase is accused of being Karl Rove in the comments.

Rove tactic and brilliantly done...

I admit it, I can help but admire Karl Rove's cut throat tactics when it comes to politics. The man is a slug but he does understand what makes people tick.

Posting a diary on Daily Kos that is insensitive, racist, sexist and obnoxious under the guise of being liberal is exceedingly clever. All that is needed now is for a talking head like O'Lielly or Insannity to quote back to it as "an example of what the liberal bloggers are saying".

Bravo Monsieur Rove. Now piss off.

by LiberalCanuck on Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 10:31:06 AM PDT

Meanwhile, over at another freakshow, another commenter also have Rove on the brain.

NHGranite

This is just too Rovian. Again I say, McCain wants Lieberman, and picked a VP who will drop out of her own accord.

Here's another interesting comment. Can anyone translate?

barackobam

this another example of right wing hypocasy at its worse. Can you beleive this? This person is running around talking about family values and lecturing the American public when this is what is going on. This is hilorous and let McSame deal with this!

I'd expect the Politico to keep tabs of their comments, but it's also getting ugly there.

handycapt
Party: Independent

Reply #2
Date: Sep. 1, 2008 - 12:19 PM EST

Of course. A conservative family that can't even control their own daughter's sexual behavior. Is that what we want in a potential President? An unmarried pregnant girl about to have her second child out of wedlock. Her first, unfortunately, has Downs syndrome. Palin is the WORST choice McCain could have made. The man doesn't think with the head on his shoulders.

DSummers
Party: NA

Reply #6
Date: Sep. 1, 2008 - 12:21 PM EST

I knew the stuff going around was true when i was watching her at the 2nd really in Pennsylvanian and she said her daughter Bristol was in the bus with her brother Trig. Follow the bread crubs. McCain is retarded

More from Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, protein wisdom, A Blog For All.

Update: Obama reacts.

Obama used the moment to retiterate his beleif that "people's families are off limits and children are especially off-limits."

More to the point, Obams referred to his own birth, when his mother was 18, to say that the issue, for him, was irrelevant. "That shouldn't be the topic of our politics," he said.

More on how this might play.

A few other factors to remember when trying to figure out how this will play out.

* Palin has a VERY strong following among social conservatives who are nearly certain to give her the benefit of the doubt in this situation. She is a known commodity in social conservative circles and is regarded as "one of them" -- a fact that should lessen any criticism from the right.

* Democrats must be VERY careful not to take a false step here. Some Republicans have already insisted that the Obama campaign is behind the rumor-mongering about Sarah, Bristol and Trig -- although in our experience the campaign has not pushed the story AT ALL, in fact they have been encouraging reporters to focus on the issues of difference between the two candidates rather than personal stories. Any sense that Democrats are pushing this idea will almost certainly turn both Sarah and Bristol Palin into sympathetic figures -- and that spells trouble for her detractors.

They might want to also consider comment moderation. This genius wants to see the birth certificate.

I didn't believe it at first... but I've done just a bit of digging.

Gov. Palin did not announce "her" pregnancy until a month before the baby was born. (She'd have been seven months pregnant when she announced this, and apparently hiding it VERY well.)

Gov. Palin was in Texas when "her" water broke, a month early. While experiencing a high-risk pregnancy (her own age, carrying a Down Syndrome baby, and having signs of impending delivery a month early), she DECIDED TO FLY TO ALASKA to have "her" baby in a town of 4,500
people.

Apparently, the flight crew didn't notice that a woman about to deliver was boarding their plane.

Palin did not take maternity leave. Which is a bit odd on its face, but even more odd considering the challenges of learning how to deal with a premature infant who is born with Down Syndrome.

Of course, this evidence is circumstantial. I'd like to see the birth certificate. And if it's shown that she IS the mother, I'd like to see a genetic test (since she's Governor of the state in which "she" gave birth).

Posted by: Scott S | September 1, 2008 2:40 PM

Some more genius.

Way to go, all you red state born-again Republican hypocrits with false Christian values. First VP Cheney's daughter is a lesbian then a 17 year old is 7 months pregnant. You are great role models for the rest of us.

Posted by: Raraseal | September 1, 2008 2:37 PM

I smell a cover up. I believe that Trig is Bristols and the truth will come out.

I feel really sad because I also feel that Gov Palin is being used by John McCain or whom ever is pulling John McCain's strings.

But at the same time we dont need a Britney Spears mom as VP.

Posted by: Brenda | September 1, 2008 2:37 PM

Yeah Dave the Dems gave Palin 5 kids, a newborn with special needs, and forced her daugther to get pregnant so they can talk about it. If she is soooo smart, she would have declined McSame's losing white house bid and fouced on the important issues at home.

Posted by: Dave's alter-ego | September 1, 2008 2:31 PM

Update: Apparently Bristol's pregnancy was an open secret up in Wasilla. And, surprise, people reacted like adults.

People in Wasilla are Alaskan tough, so not only does a thing like teen pregnancy not seem like anyone's damn business, but it's also not seen as the calamity so many people in the lower 48 might think it is. This is dangerous country — it's not just the roughneck jobs on cable reality shows. It's real life here. I listened to the absolutely heartbreaking story of how the godfather of Track Palin, Sarah's oldest son, died in small plane crash just minutes after having dropped off four kids. Another family invited me into their home and told their incredible story; with one son in Iraq, their other son was working on a conveyor line in Anchorage, got caught in the belt and had his head partially crushed. He lived to stand across the kitchen table from me and his parents, looking fully healed just three months later, grinning at his dumb luck and wondering what comes next in life. "It makes you realize that a thing like a little teenage pregnancy isn't such a big deal," his mom said. "Bristol—and lots of other girl like her out there — are going to be just fine."

Via Hot Air.

Some more, ahem, reality-based opinion.

Let me disclose something. Bloggers and progressive activists talk to each other and strategize together. We didn't want to touch the Sarah Palin pregnancy story with a 10-foot pole and the overwhelming consensus was to strongly discourage anyone that was running with the rumors. These rumors were started in the spring by Republicans in Alaska and not by the progressive blogosphere. We stifled the story as much as we could without deleting people's diaries.

Oh, while we're at it, did you know Todd Palin had a DUI in 1986? That too, apparently, is newsworthy.

To cleanse you palate after that, check out this touching item from Ed Morrissey. Meanwhile, LGF has the reaction from Dr. James Dobson.

Thanks to Ace and Michelle for the links!

Update: The Democrats' 800-pound gorilla checks in with this classy comment.

Another Palin Pregnancy; Unclear if baby is fetus' uncle

Some Jew-hating kooks are getting in on the action.

Next up:

VICE PRESIDENT LIEBERMAN.

These bastard intentionally threw this entire family under the bus on purpose to using a straw man to make the Lieberman selection more acceptable.

Has everyone had it with Karl Rove’s evil act yet?

What Say You Now, Nutroots? 'Solzhenitsyn Biographer: Cross-In-Dirt Gulag Story Never Happened'

Talk about jumping the shark. After John McCain told this story Saturday evening, the frothing psychopaths that call themselves the netroots feverishly pecked out blogposts by the dozens questioning the veracity of John McCain's story, as if these geniuses knew what happened to him at the Hanoi Hilton.

Their favorite theme was McCain ripped off the story from Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

Oops. Time to start backtracking on this one, boys. More likely, they'll just MoveOn and make up some other nonsense. And they wonder why they have no credibility.

There's been a ton of buzz on the web for the last day or so -- beginning with this Daily Kos diary -- suggesting that John McCain patterned his story about a Vietamese captor drawing a cross in the dirt before him on a similar episode from Russian novelist Alexander Solzhenitsyn's time in the Soviet gulags.

But it turns out that this episode probably never happened to Solzhenitsyn at all, and according to a Solzhenitsyn biographer it appears nowhere in his published writing. Columbia University professor Michael Scammell, the author of Solzhenitsyn: A Biography, says the episode "never happened," and didn't appear in Solzhenitsyn's book, Gulag Archipelago, either.

This author still theorizes McCain may have embellished his story, but these jokers would do well to just dummy up at this point instead of shredding what little credibility they still have left.

Nutroots Clown: McCain 'Dangerous and Unstable'

Other than being dangerous and unstable, he's eminently qualified to be President.

It's sort of funny when he's just an unhinged senator. But think for a moment where we'd be if this man were president right now, as he may well be in six months. This man takes the counsel of the people who got us into the Iraq War. On foreign policy, he is in league with the people who were so extreme they've now largely been kicked out of the Bush administration. People like John Bolton and others like him.

It's beyond Obama or political strategy or dinging McCain on this or that policy.

This man is simply too dangerous and unstable to be president. People need to wake up and get a look of the preview he's giving us of a McCain presidency.

Classy.

Sounds to me like this boob is using John Kerry's talking points.

Nutroots Nation Gushes Over Algore

Sounds like the New York Times is handling Al Gore's PR.

After 40 minutes of questions with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Al Gore’s voice came over the public address system, and he suddenly appeared on stage, as the audience gasped, shrieked and gave him a standing ovation. As he began speaking, to rounds of applause, Mrs. Pelosi was overheard saying as an aside to the moderator, “Isn’t it exciting that he’s here?”

He is speaking this morning to more than 2,000 bloggers and others meeting at the Netroots Nation convention. His appearance here has been kept hush hush, with word only that a mystery guest would be coming on stage after a question

Memo the The Times: It's former Vice President.

Meanwhile, the brownshirts are eating their own. How dare a Democrat draw a paycheck from the evil Fox News!

RIP, Jesse Helms

The longtime U.S. Senator from North Carolina sure was a lightning rod for controversy but was loved most for sticking it to the left whenever possible.

Rest in peace, Jesse Helms.

Jesse Helms, the five-term Republican Senator from North Carolina, has died, CBS News has confirmed. He was 86.

Helms died of natural causes in Raleigh at 1:15 this morning, according to the Jesse Helms Center in Wingate, North Carolina.

Helms built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during his decades in Congress. He was slowed in later age by a variety of illnesses, including a bone disorder, prostate cancer and heart problems.

Helms retired from the Senate in 2003.

CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss called Helms a politician who knew no middle ground, one of the most conservative men to ever sit in the Senate - and proud of it. Bigger than life in his native North Carolina, he sometimes seemed that way to his political enemies in Washington, too.

Like most Southern politicians of his era, Helms began as a segregationist but later tried to reach out to African Americans.

But on most issues, he never gave an inch.

For 30 years Helms was the voice of the right in the Senate, battling communism, feminism and affirmative action. "Senator No," as he was sometimes known, cut funding for the United Nations and for what he considered "dirty art."

Helms reached the height of his power as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where his distrust extended from the Russians to our own State Department.

The U.N.-basher was never shy about wielding power.

Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President Clinton, said of Helms, "I have seen him kill nominations. I've seen him kill treaties. But all I can say is he is true to his principles."

Naturally, the illiterate left celebrates his death.

Rather than a moment of silence in respect of the memory of Jesse Helms it is more appropriate to bellow a jingoistic, racist, msogynistic, homophobic inconmprehensible diatribe that pushes all the wrong buttons and increases the forces of intolerance because Jesse would have wanted it that way.

The comments are precious.

Or...how could they tell the difference

Let's hear the Hamnnity and Limbaugh eulogies start poring in for their hero.

Hey Helms, I will pour a beer over your grave but not before it has been filtered through my kidneys!

Obama/Dean 08 Strong unions for a strong America

by realwischeese on Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 08:27:54 AM PDT

The Huffington Post just put the story up and has the comments open. This should be interesting (Update: They quickly closed them).

The folks here whine about a long ago election. Get Over. It.

Arn Gunnutes Says:

He once “veil” threatened Clinton, saying “If he comes down here, he’s going to need protection”.

Racist, LIAR, antiamerikkkan.

God rest his body.

His soul is with his MASTER Satan, just like TRAITOR Ronnie Reagan, and the Bushes as they expire…
July 4th, 2008 at 11:25 am

Classy.

Here's a very subtle headline: Racist, homophobe Jesse Helms is dead

Can't even begin to think of anything nice to say about this guy -- but a lot of other people will start praising Helms as if none of the hateful stuff matters. The hateful stuff matters. Let's reminisce on the life of one of America's biggest bigots who ruined the lives of so many.

Who said it wouldn't be a happy Independence Day for the left?

Another touching tribute.

I've never been 100 percent clear on why you're not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but suffice it to say that while there were many more vile politicians in the world than the now-dead Jesse Helms they were pretty much all brutal dictators and the like.

Update: The Kos Kidz are churning out the bilge at a record pace, Charles Johnson notes.

Daily Kos, as always, the epitome of class: Daily Kos: Jesse Helms, you rat bastard, burn in hell.

Daily Kos: A moment of anachronism for Jesse Helms death

Daily Kos: Please Excuse Me While I Dance Upon His Grave

Daily Kos: Jesse Helms Dead - How to Memorialize His Legacy

Nice touch by WRAL: Check out the URL for this story

http://www.wral.com/news/local/politics/story/1755723/?good-riddance (H/T efuseakay).

Thanks to Sister Toldjah for the link and a Google screen cap of the WRAL URL.



Update: Someone claiming to be a WRAL editor left this comment.

The part with the question mark is NOT a part of the official URL and NOT generated by WRAL.com.

The official URL is here: http://www.wral.com/news/local/p.../story/1755723/

Anyone can tack on a question mark and some words to a URL, and the link will appear to load.

The comment came from an IP address in Miami. Indeed, if you do go to that link and add a question mark and text it still will load, so someone is being mischievous.

Paranoid Nutroots Nitwits: 'Violent Crazies Gear Up For Obama'

We're all going to turn into Timothy McVeigh if The Messiah gets elected, according to this psychopath. On the upside, they're finally concerned about terrorism.

In any event, a pattern is already developing, ranging from the Klan fellows who promise that Obama will be shot to the white supremacists who are actually rooting for him to win because they're certain he will fail. We're hearing a lot of language from the racist and "Patriot" right indicating that they expect a Democratic president to enact policies (particularly regarding gun control) that will inspire "civil war." Which means they are looking for excuses to act out.

As always with these folks, there's a lot of projection going on here. Because even if a President Obama follows only the most moderate of liberal agendas, the far right will look upon those policies as cause for "civil war." That was how they responded to Bill Clinton, after all -- a white male Southerner with generally conservative leanings. One can only imagine how a liberal black man from Illinois would fare.

The extremist right went into remission, largely, with the election of George W. Bush; militias disbanded because their followers believed the threat of an oppressive, gun-grabbing, baby-killing "New World Order" had largely passed. They bided their time by forming Minutemen brigades. Now they can see that their "safe" era is coming to an end.

All this time, there really has been hankering for an excuse to start acting out violently, and they see any Democratic presidency as providing that excuse. But an Obama presidency in particular will do so.

How do you even try to explain such nuttiness?