This list of already-debunked right-wing spam e-mail talking points proves just how right I am.Burt, because I care, I'm going to let you know that the following line:
Well, recently, a friend of mine reminded me that just prior to the 2006 election, consumer confidence was unbelievably high; regular gasoline sold for about $2.25-a-gallon; and the unemployment rate was 4.5%....won't resonate with anyone who wasn't going in wingnut lockstep anyway. Blaming the liberal Congressional majority for economic problems stemming from massive deregulation (not a liberal pet issue) and the Iraq war (continuation of such not a liberal pet issue) is preposterous.
Since then, consumer confidence has plummeted; gas now costs about a dollar-and-a-half-a-gallon more; unemployment stands at 5%; American homeowners have seen their home equity drop by over a trillion dollars, with one percent of our homes in foreclosure; and, for good measure, the liberals refuse to eliminate earmarks.
Labels: I Am Sure That This Issue Will Resonate With Voters, Shorter
__________________________We wouldn't have this problem with radical Islam if the damn atheists would just shut their yappers.I will give D'Souza credit for breaking with his ClownHall and Corner bretheren by refusing to paint the War On Terra as the latest battle in a never-ending Muslim vs. Evangelical Christian holy war...but he's still full of shit. Just, you know, a different kind of shit.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Obama's embrace of a wildly successful musical genre is a bad strategy.I love Bozo. The man gets his knickers in a twist when Hollywood doesn't promote popular cheese at award time, but also has broad, sweeping disdain for rap music. Which is popular. It's like he knows we slam him for being a hypocrite, then busts his ass living up to the bill. Additionally, this is totes funnay:
This Jay-Z song boasts about a "middle finger to the law." Harris-Lacewell touted that Obama would like the song "99 Problems," which has an entire verse about being racially profiled by the "mother f---ing law" for "doing 55 in a 54." Jay-Z also tells critics to kiss his whole (rectum).As do I, Bozo. Often.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Obama only wins cuz of black people. Hillary only wins cuz of chicks. Welp, that's a wrap. Good blog entry, me.Interesting hedge by Kurtz here. The fairly irrelevant "devastating revelations" that the clowns over at The Corner have been ignored by voters. Does that mean the revelations were pointless to begin with? No, it just means that these voters are secret racists! Boom!
Labels: Shorter, The Corner Frightens And Confuses Me
__________________________Instead of focusing on that Mormon polygamy case, we should be weary of the shifty sand people and their "religion.""Longer" InstaDoofus because, as they say, Shorter Glenn Reynolds on many occasions is like summarizing a burp.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Last night's debate was great because the candidates got really pissed off!Sigh, sigh, sigh. I love how Brooks isn't even aware of the muck his type has created:
We may not like it, but issues like Jeremiah Wright, flag lapels and the Tuzla airport will be important in the fall. Remember how George H.W. Bush toured flag factories to expose Michael Dukakis. It's legitimate to see how the candidates will respond to these sorts of symbolic issues.Yeah, I remember: It was stupid then; it's still stupid now. Our grandchildren, still paying the debts of the Iraq war, will not look back with fondness on jackoffs like Brooks' attention to "symbolic issues" in lieu of, you know, actual fucking issues.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Ha ha, this whole John Yoo controversy thingy is just so funny! WhatEVER, giggle!I know it seems like I'm sliding over to Instaputz territory w/r/t how much I harp on this noxious jackass, but mercy...this man goes nuts over the slightest Obama gaffe, and yet shrugs off torture advocacy in the most glib way possible. What a knob.
Labels: Glenn Reynolds' House Of Ad Hoc Jackassery, Shorter
__________________________The usual slate of right-wing think tanks agrees with everything I say about the economy. I win again, liberal biznitches!A note for Scripps Howard: This is punditry at its extreme laziest, and yet, it's pretty much half of Ambrose's semiweekly output. It's the same old same old for Jay...the economy's great, the economy's great, the economy's great, and even if it isn't, it'll be great soon! Just ask, um, the Heritage Foundation! And the Cato Institute! And on and on! They're certainly objective voices in this debate!
Labels: Shorter, The Hacktacular Adventures of Jay Ambrose
__________________________LOLOLOLOLOLZ!!! Obama likes veggies! BAHAHAHAHA!Aaaand our democracy dies just a little bit more.
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__________________________Deeeep breath...Okay, so it's totally wrong that we're going after torture memo author John Yoo because, um, it's bad and like a McCarthyist witch hunt or something, and it's a farce that war criminals be tried for human rights violations because, um, well, it's like a witch hunt, and law professors like me should have jobs in the government, heh indeed, and it's so hypocritical of the left to oppose torture while being OK with, um, stopping global warming and what would they say if we did, like, a McCarthyist witch hunt on them? Also, we should seek out the murderous socialist Obama and kill him, or something.This is the type of educator your tax dollars are paying for, dear Tennesseans.
Labels: Glenn Reynolds' House Of Ad Hoc Jackassery, Shorter
__________________________There's not a recession. There's not a recession. There's not a recession! But even if there were, it's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's a good thing! There's not a recession!La la la, can't hear you, etc. Heard it before, Nero.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Governmental assistance is so totally an unconstitutional sham.Yo, Walt...want to know a pretty solid definition of "loathsomeness"? That would be someone who finds favor in the following:
Then there was Franklin Pierce who said, after vetoing an appropriation to assist the mentally ill, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for public charity," adding, "To approve such spending would be contrary to the letter and the spirit of the Constitution and subversive to the whole theory upon which the Union of these States is founded."It is so, so, so, SO absolutely telling, Walt, that you've spent the last 7 years habitually ignoring the unconstitutional behavior of the Bush Administration while getting your feathers in a wad over foie grois bans, smoking restrictions, and the like. Or that you'd just plain ignore something like John Yoo's torture memo while gleefully extolling the virtues of withholding assistance for the mentally ill.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Watch me call Obama out and render him un-electable for something he said in 2000, despite the fact that I supported Mitt Romney, who once ran on a platform supposedly more liberal than that of Ted Kennedy.And by "supported Mitt Romney," I mean "pathetically carried the water for."
Labels: Hugh Hewitt Is Not A Journalist, Shorter
__________________________My father's life is evidence that if you're sick or poor, you need to quit your bitchin'.Think his tough-it-out work ethic is compatible with your wingnut welfare, Jay?
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__________________________We're winning! We're winning! We're winning! We're winning! We're winning!We've heard it before. We'll hear it again.
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__________________________What colleges should be doing is dissing those little snot-nosed Muslims and Athiests.Bonus (and real) Mike S. Adams:
It's time for conservatives and Christians to stop whining about how secular liberals are dominating our college campuses.Too late.
It is time to take action and reach out to college students who are stuck on stupid.I'm sure that your students who aren't Christian love that their professor calls them "stupid."
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Okay, okay, watch my logic here, people. 1) I went to a charity event. 2) I didn't see anyone from what I'll call the "intellectual/political/journalistic class." 3) THUS, THOSE PEOPLE AREN'T CHARITABLE! Burned! See what I did there?Guh-guh-guh-whaa? Additionally, what does Ledeen consider himself, if not a member of the "political class"? He's certainly moreso than, say, I am...
Labels: Shorter
__________________________I'm not worried about a wealthy superclass holding all the power in this country. I AM worried about city councils controlling budgets, and laws that determine stuff I can or can't do!Although certainly there's a lot in libertarianism that I like, there are various buzz phrases that'll crank up the Looney Tunes theme in my head. The following from Kling is one of them:
Inequality and excess political power is getting worse at a faster rate than inequality and excess in monetary income. As I pointed out in We Need 250 states, political power is far more concentrated and insulated from the voters than was the case 200 years ago.Yep, we'll just file this next to "We should privatize the Interstate System!" in the Big Book o'Unworkable Libertarian Fetishes.
Instead of asking ourselves what we can do about Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, we should be asking ourselves about what we can do about the Clintons and the Spitzers. Those who want more and more power should be our biggest concern.Nevermind the fact that he apparently thinks the monied elite in this country don't "want more and more power"...are we really to believe that this country hasn't done a thorough job of questioning the Clintons and Spitzer? Really?
Labels: Shorter
__________________________America-hating Manchurian Muslim and racist Barack Obama should repudiate some random guy who says that Iraq war-supporting John McCan is a "warmonger." Also, Obama hates America.Good to see the InstaDoofus outrage-o-meter back in action.
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__________________________Clearly everything is going great in Iraq, becuase this cartoon woman I drew says so.See also: Clearly conservatives don't have race issues, because Chris Muir's black guy says so.
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__________________________Liking patronizingly maudlin bullshit makes me counter-culture!Is there any move more laughable than Bozo acting like mainstream cheese is somehow cutting-edge, just because various trendsetters ignore it? Repeating this argument ad nauseam doesn't mean it's any less wrong, and yet it's half of Bozo's schtick (the other half is constant pleading for the nanny state to turn his TV off for him).
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__________________________It is an outrage that we can't trust our public officials on...what's that? What's that about torture memos? No, I'm talking about Obama smoking!How big of a lightweight shill is Jake Tapper? Even friggin Glenn Reynolds, who hates him some Obama something fierce, says this is bogus.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Those jackasses with those Darwin fish thingies on their car...why don't they diss Islam, too? It's not faaaaair!I believe the argument can be made that we should take the damn kid gloves off w/r/t mocking all religions. I also believe that Jonah Goldberg is one of the last people who deserve to make this argument.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________You know, I think we can take a liking to this Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy thingy.Yo, HillBots. Pleeeease explain to me how staving off the concept of "post-feminism" automatically means we have to embrace Karl Rove and Richard Mellon Scaife. No, really. I await answers.
Hillary appears to have adopted a concerted strategy of telling local media in states that will vote after Pennsylvania that Obama and his supporters are opposed to allowing those states' residents to vote.Um, this is absolute bullshit, as Obama has said this:
Hillary appears to have adopted a concerted strategy of telling local media in states that will vote after Pennsylvania that Obama and his supporters are opposed to allowing those states' residents to vote.Now, it is true that some Obama surrogates have been begging Clinton to leave the race, but those are surrogates. And considering the way Hillary's been chugging, and considering the people she's been hanging out with, could we not use this bogus logic and say that Richard Mellon Scaife's age-old comments that the Clintons murdered Vince Foster should be a position that Hillary has endorsed? Hmm.
Labels: Realpolitik, Shorter
__________________________Kids were mean to me in middle school, so I'm a neoconservative now.Yes, such a piece of manliness, this Ace of Spades. Maybe not on the Capote-ish level of one Glenn Reynolds, but pretty buff-n-tuff nonetheless:
The other thing is I think guys still all smart from the "strategy" employed by the middle-school studs (I say middle school because that's where the most intense memories of rejection and the unfairness of life began; by high school it was already just accepted... mostly). That "strategy" seemed to be: Act like you don't give a shit, act like you could have anyone else you wanted, act like you're doing a girl a favor to be seen with her.Do me a favor, Ace. Instead of acting out your adolescent issues using politics as a tool, why don't you just go see a friggin shrink?
Labels: Shorter
__________________________I was going to vote for John McCain, but then he was all like, "blah blah blah democracies blah blah blah torture bad blah blah blah," so nuh-uh.How's that Draft Huck For VP thingy working, Star?
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__________________________I desire more brown-skinned villains in my action movies.Poor white guys. Just can't get a break.
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__________________________Voting undermines the public's faith in government. We should have our leaders annointed by party insiders instead.And lest you think I'm taking Sowell out of context, let's hear from the man himself:
Back in the bad old days of the smoke-filled rooms, people with a long-term stake in their party had to take into account what the American public at large wanted, because that would determine who would actually get elected to the White House and the Congress, who in turn would then decide who would be put on the federal courts across the land, including the Supreme Court.You gotta be shitting me. Why this should be news to a supposed brilliant economic/political thinker is beyond me (perhaps Sowell is massively overrated and a horrible philosopher? just a thought...), but just a minor note: The comparison isn't between the system as is and the smoke-filled rooms, you dope, it's between the system as is and one that will enfranchise more people into the democratic process. You know, the movement that's been going on through every party shift in American history? MORE enfranchisement, not less?
It is by no means clear that "the people" voting in primaries have made better choices than those made in the smoke-filled rooms. More important, those who regard the present system as sacrosanct don't even want to make such a comparison.
Back in 1944, the Democratic Party's leaders, knowing that President Franklin D. Roosevelt was in such frail health that he was not likely to live out his next term, decided that the choice of vice presidential nominee was too important to let go by default to the current vice president, Henry Wallace.I love this part. You can picture the apparently 200-year-old Sowell staring out the window and drifting off as he tells you idiot kids about that one time when Henry Wallacezzzzzzzzzzz...
They proposed that little-known Senator Harry Truman be put on the ticket instead, and FDR went along with it. You would have to know what a dingbat Henry Wallace was to realize how the smoke-filled room saved this nation from disaster.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________It will be thus the editorial policy of The Onion AV Club that Husker Du is indeed walking through that door. Dinosaur Jr is indeed walking through that door. The Replacements are indeed walking through that door. And seeing how we expect them to walk through that door, we will no longer worry that they're going to be gray and old.(FWIW, the actual Rick Pitino quote in reference is somewhat unlike how everyone says it. So it goes. Anyway)
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Who is this David Petraeus of whom you speak?Truly, the irony-o-meter hits overload when a man whose political homies endorse the most partisan military leader in U.S. history says this:
That tradition -- vital to the preservation of liberty and to an effectively functioning Army, Navy and Air Force -- is civilian control of the military with all the nuances and subtleties of that arrangement intact. Richard Kohn, a leading scholar on the subject, writes that a chief means of maintaining this tradition is a military that has "internalized" subordination to civil rule. He says you have to have a "military establishment" that is "trained, committed and dedicated to political neutrality."Heh. Indoozle.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Fuck you, Obama! I obviously only read like a paragraph of your speech, but I'll say you suck anyway!Yes, Herr Debyshire (Andrew Sullivan came up with it, not me), you are certainly the most objective dood in the world to talk about race relations. Also, if you think people are going to hear/read the speech and think "OMG SOCIALISM!", well, no.
Labels: Shorter, The Corner Frightens And Confuses Me
__________________________I agree with Byron York! Fake but accurate! I am in no way a definitive hypocrite!For a more nuanced InstaDoofus slam, we'll go now to one Barack Obama (h/t: Instaputz)
Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.InDEED.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Bill Kristol's error-riddled, factually-bogus column was a godsend because it exposed the truth about Obama.Rathergate means nothing to these people. Anymore, that is.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________I am distraught over the Pentagon's report that there were no ties between Saddam and al Qaeda. Thankfully, the dulcet tones of neocon spinmeisters will soothe my spirit.ADDITIONALLY: The Corner is all sorts of fail today. Check out this screed from Mona Charen:
My own theory, FWIW, is that Obama acquired his far left views at least in part to make himself as authentically black as he could to compensate for having a white mother. His mother, of course, was very left herself. But looking the way he does, and having been raised among only white people (mother and maternal grandparents) he felt the need to better identify with his black heritage. That struggle is what the book is all about.Mercy, these people are a piece of work. And not a Hagee mention among them, natch.
One can have sympathy for his psychological predicament . But that sympathy certainly does not extend to electing him president of a country that I sincerely believe he does not love.
Labels: Shorter, Wingnut Web Wackiness
__________________________The Mittster's spinelessness is indeed an asset.It's amazing, the right-wing fascination with Mittens Romney. They know the emperor has no clothes, and yet they prefer him this way.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Ahhh yeah, it's nice being on vacation. Don't have to put our cartoons or anyt...SPITZER HIRED PROSTITUTES? To the cartoonistmobile!And for the record, YES, Spitzer should step down.
Labels: Bad cartoons, Shorter
__________________________Whatever just happened...it's bad for Democrats.I especially like this:
Her campaign doesn't depend on the enthusiasm of upper-middle-class goo-goos.Says the man who looks like this:

Labels: Shorter, The Epic Fail of Punditry
__________________________Dammit, I miss the days when Ruby Tuesday's had a bunch of crazy stuff on the walls.Hey, at least when he's committed to this level of banality, InstaDoofus isn't plotting war against Iran.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Yesterday's edition of USA Today had a story about Barack Obama's grandmother in Kenya, in which she slams the Clinton campaign for circulating photos of Obama in Muslim garb—and then states that she is a Christian: Obama's grandma slams 'untruths'.How very noble, Chuckles! I think OBAMA = MUSLIM!!!1 is bogus, too! And it was so nice of you that you went on the warpath Monday against anyone insinuating the smear:
Hillary Clinton is doing a classic political sleaze maneuver, saying she doesn't believe Barack Obama is a Muslim—but still leaving the door open...Ahh, BUT...this is Chuckles, so there's bound to be shenanigans afoot. Let's go back to that first post and read all of it, shall we?
Just one little problem with this statement.Oh Charles. You make Shorter so easy!
In April of last year, Sarah Hussein Obama told the New York Times she is a devout Muslim.
...
That didn't take long; the Diggbats are already calling this post "racist..."
It's horrible for people to smear Obama with Muslim rumors, just as long as we define "people" as Hillary Clinton.A WARNING: Because he so completely believes in the marketplace of ideas, Johnson is fond of redirecting links to his site once he figures out people are onto the BS. So be careful.
Labels: Shorter, Wingnut Web Wackiness
__________________________The rule of law is a friggin disgrace.Though, give Mikey McStrawman credit...he didn't find it necessary to show either 1) another plane ramming into the WTC or 2) a mushroom cloud blowing up Washington, like he's done so damn often in the past. And look, what a great pun! Meddle of Dishonor. I see what he did there.
Labels: Bad cartoons, Shorter
__________________________These Obama = Muslim rumors are so not fair...because Obama gets a leg up for disproving them!Ahh, so this is it. As Glenn Greenwald has pointed out, one of the more refreshing aspects of Obama's campaign has been his ability to swat down right-wing bullshit memes before they reach mainstream acceptance. The ball is thus in the court of the bullshit spinsters, and if Althouse's response- that the attacks on Obama are unfair because he can look good easily disproving them- is a signal of their next tactic, then they've still got a lot of work to do.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________I am the new face of moderation in the Republican Party.Yep, I'm just as shocked as you.
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__________________________Obama must denounce, decry, reject, and separate from any possible bad thing in the universe or his campaign has failed and I won't vote for him.Shorter me: You weren't going to anyway. You won't be missed.
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Obama's wrong about something, but I don't have the time or the desire to figure out what, so we're gonna just roll with that.
The question is rhetorical really, but still: how dumb is Joe Klein?
Labels: Shorter
__________________________Not only are we going to New Hampshire ... we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico! Were going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeeeeeeah!
And I don't want the next Republican president to be lonely. And that is why we got to take the House, retake the Senate, and make sure our states are governed by Republican governors.
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__________________________This is bogus! A forgery! A photoshop! A lie!UPDATE: Apparently it wasn’t bogus, forged, photoshop, or a lie, but nevertheless, pffffffffft. I win infinity points!
But dude. Our troops are using Taliban weapons. I’m guessing this isn’t just because they’re just in the mood. I’m guessing this is because they have to.
Which = NOT A GOOD THING. And the inability to see THAT from the trees is very unfortunate, though completely typical.
Sadly, yet another Obama “controversy” swirls around the drain. I can’t wait for ManchuriNader to get in on the act. These people are made for each other.
Labels: Shorter
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