Limbaugh now merely a parody of himself

I stopped getting angry at anything at comes out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth long ago. But that doesn't mean that I'll stop pointing it out.

During one of his latest tirades, well documented as always by Media Matters, the drug addicted, bloated one dropped the curtain to give us a deep look into the commode that passes for his soul to reveal his MO for the length of the Obama administration (let's hope it's 8): that he hopes Obama "fails."

All I can say is this: Typical.

I find it pretty stupefying how quickly Repubes have changes course in just over 30 days since Obama took office. For eight years, they whined, sniveled and complained about liberals and progressives "rooting for Bush to fail in Iraq" (among other places), yet now they openly despise Obama while shamelessly rooting for his policies to fail. Talk about Party Before Country.

As much as I despised Bush's policies in Iraq (and will go to my grave with the unflinching belief that our misguided war was and is a wast of taxpayer money, not to mention all of the bloodshed), I never, EVER hoped that our military would fail. I think Bush led us down many disastrous roads, but I do believe that he believed he was doing the right thing for the country and the American people. Well, that's not entirely true, though - I think the last six months of his presidency (and especially during the last three), when he knew Obama was going to be president, Bush quietly did all he could to make sure that Obama got handed a big steaming turd on January 20, 2009.

I do support Limbaugh's right to say what he says, and quite frankly I hope he keeps on saying it. Hey, God bless him - it just reaffirms my belief that Obama is doing something right if he's driving Limbaugh nuts.

I also wouldn't be surprised to see Limbaugh's ratings go up, not down; so many conservatives now feel under siege because Obama is president - you know, that they've losing their country, and blah blah blah.

However, I do think that the government should step in and do something to promote a diversity of voices over our radio airwaves. NO, I'm not advocating that anyone should have his or her "microphone taken away" (already a trite right-wing talking point), but the government should do all it can to strongly encourage companies to provide a diversity of voices on their airwaves. Actually, no, the government should REQUIRE a diversity of voices. I'm sick and tired of right wingers whining about the phantom "liberal media."

I wrote about his last fall before the presidential campaign got into high gear, but perhaps it's best to remember one of Sun Tzu's maxims from The Art of War: It is wise to present your greatest strength as your greatest weakness, and that's precisely what Republicans have been doing for the last 40 years with regard to our mainstream media. (Thanks once again, President Nixon.)

If you think I'm exaggerating, go back and find some Sarah Palin interviews from last fall's campaign - whenever bad news came out, she just went on the offensive, bashing the "liberal media," which is always red meet for the drooling drones on the right.

Anyway, Limbaugh is simply a modern-day Joseph Goebbels, although thankfully many more Americans dismiss Limbaugh than Germans dismissed Goebbels.

By the way, if you're one of the few liberals left who doesn't support and visit Media Matters, I strongly encourage you to do just that. The folks over there are doing tremendously effective and important work.

I'll be back later this evening with lots more, so please check back. (And, as usual, there I'll have lots to share on Sunday.)

A sage This Modern World

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I haven't published a This Modern World cartoon in a little while, and this one isn't the latest, but it is his latest greatest cartoon - how the Republicans keep shooting themselves, even worse than the Democrats for once. (And how many times have I been able to say THAT since I began this blog? Actually, how many times have I been able to say that in the last 30 years? Not many.)

Tom Tomorrow said in a much more sage and humorous way what I've been saying since Obama took the Oath of Office: Republicans whined for years that Democrats wanted to see Bush fail in Iraq (which I found to be mostly a lie - I know I didn't want him to fail, I just wanted to war to END, and I still do), and now Republicans, led by the bloated drug addict, are openly rooting for Obama's economic stimulus plan to fail, which could very well spiral our economy into another Great Depression. Yea, let's root for THAT for the sake of partisan politics.

Well, anyway, what does Limbaugh care? He's got his $100 million+ broadcasting contract, so if the economy tanks, he'll still have money for his Krispy Kremes and OxyContin, right? These people are unbelievable, and by "people" I also mean the Republican "leaders" in Congress. (I'll have more on those laughable clowns in a bit.)

Just in case you didn't already know it...

As if the world needed any more proof that drug addict Rush Limbaugh is one of the most detestable people in our corporate media (and also a complete liar) - here's a little nugget. ...

It seems that now that the tables have turned on the Republicans, families are NOW off limits. Last week, the bloated bigot had this to say on his radio show:

"It is a political tradition that Americans understand that families aren't part of political campaigns."

I'm just wondering if when you're that big of a liar, does one know it? Perhaps all of that OxyContin has given our modern-day Joseph Goebbels a case of selective amnesia. After all, it was Limbaugh who once likened a young Chelsea Clinton to a dog, on his radio program. (He later sheepishly apologized.) I guess one could define it as God's work that Chelsea turned out to be quite a wonderful person... and a knockout. You know, the sort of woman that Limbaugh has to pay money to get near.

The right is taking great pains to go into its hackneyed "lib-rul media" mode, accusing anyone with a microphone of practically burning the Palins at the stake, when in actuality, the reality is much, much different.

More on Palin in a bit.

h/t TMW

Dissecting & debunking the Obama smears

I have to admit, it's pretty hard to listen to the audio (above) from two of the world's biggest liars and not become pretty enraged. But, that's how they play - when the truth doesn't fit their paradigm and ideology (and it often doesn't), then just lie, lie, lie. They must say to themselves, "Hey, if McCain can't get elected on his record (which he can't, in all likelihood, but we'll never find out with jackasses like these two around, among others), then we'll just make shit up, and if we repeat it over and over and over again, then people will soon believe it to be true! Hey, cool!" (See the lie about Al Gore saying he "invented the Internet" for a Hall of Fame reference.)

The right's been doing this for the better part of '08 about Obama - the madrassa smear, the Pledge of Allegiance myth, you name it - the litany of lies keeps coming and coming. It's like Hannity and Limbaugh are two addicts, and lies are their crack. (Oops - sorry Rush, I swear I wasn't referring to your OxyContin addiction, really! Am I the only one who thinks it's funny that a drug addict who used to put down other drug addicts before he got caught is named Rush?!? Just wondering.)

From Media Matters:

From the July 29 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:

HANNITY: So how did Senator Barack Obama's oversea trip resonate with voters? A brand-new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that only Democrats were impressed, with 53 percent calling the trip positive. Republicans overwhelmingly reject -- overwhelmingly rejected the trip, while 41 percent of independents held no opinion at all. The poll also reveals voters are twice as likely to classify media coverage of Obama as unfairly positive rather than unfairly negative, and in the case of McCain, the opposite is the truth, with many more seeing coverage of him as negative.

Joining us now, nationally syndicated radio talk show host Mike Gallagher, former [House Minority Leader Dick] Gephardt [D-MO] campaign manager Steve Elmendorf, and Washington Times columnist Tony Blankley.

Mike, you and I talk about this often on the radio. No big surprises here, especially in light of him, you know, abandoning the troop visit because the cameras weren't around -- allowed and the campaign wasn't allowed. I think this is a net negative for him in the end. Your thoughts?

GALLAGHER: Oh, it has to be. I mean, it's -- it's stunning that he's not -- doesn't have a commanding lead right now in the polls. But even with the fawning media coverage, the kernels of truth slip out.

From the July 29 edition of MSNBC's Morning Joe:

SCARBOROUGH: You say that he's stunned by the truth. What is the truth as you see it? Why -- are -- are you suggesting that Barack Obama does not value the service of our men and women in uniform?

DAVIS: No, I'm sure he does. And I'm sure that the men and women in our uniform would've valued the -- the visit that he had indicated early on that he was gonna make, you know, when he -- when he arrived in Landstuhl. I don't know what the truth is, because out of the Obama campaign themselves and Mr. Gibbs in particular, there have been probably 11 separate excuses for why they didn't visit the troops. Now, if they don't know why they didn't visit the troops, I'm sure as heck not gonna figure it out.

Above is video from a recent Hannity & Colmes, with Hannity repeating on camera the same lies he said on his radio show.

Where's the proof, you say? How about NBC's Andrea Mitchell, a reporter who historically hasn't always been very friendly to Obama - she was there, with Obama, unlike Limbaugh and Hannity.

Mitchell's take: "There was any intention, let me make this absolutely clear, the press was never going to go on the trip [to visit the troops in Landstuhl Regional Medical Center].

Oops! I certainly hope people remember this, two months from now, when McCain (or, more likely, 527s and other surrogates who are backing McCain, begin repeating the accusation over and over and over, as if it's a fact that Obama wouldn't visit the troops because cameras couldn't come.) It's not a fact, never has been, and never will be.

But, in a way, the McCain camp (with the help of State TV, Faux News) have scored a small victory, because of course this is all that the press is talking about now, not the very successful trip that Obama had overseas.

It's okay though, because McCain is looking more and more desperate as the days wear on.

Again, Media Matters has much more on this latest Obama smear that's patently absurd, and worst of all, completely false.

Ooo! - Laura Ingraham gets testy

Hat tip to Crooks & Liars for finding this one on the Web.

It's of conservative personality Laura Ingraham trying to rein in her frustration during the early days of her ill-fated show on Faux News Channel, Just In With Laura Ingraham. Okay, I'll admit, it's only mildly amusing, and nothing compared to Bill O'Reilly's now infamous, "We'll do it live!" expletive-laden temper tantrum. And I guess I have to give her credit for "Jesus God in Heaven!" line - I know I would have been much more, ahem, "colorful."

Anyway, just guessing, but perhaps this is why her show on Fox lasted about as long as The Half Hour News Hour the blue M&Ms at Rush Limbaugh's house.

Anything about Ingraham grabs my attention because of her past misdeeds, specifically urging her largely Republican listeners to clog a Democratic Party hotline during the '04 election, which was set up for voters to voice complaints about voter suppression and irregularities. This is also the same Ingraham who regularly boasts about having "gone to Iraq," which consisted of about seven days in the comfy confines of the Green Zone and being spoon-fed reports from the military about how great things were. I guess that's her definition of "progress" in that godforsaken country. (Yet another example of how our "free press" has failed us - real, genuine reporting from Iraq that isn't spun to death by the Pentagon is a rare animal indeed; we hear, read and see what they want us to, and little more, at least from the American press.)

Anyway, much, much more in a bit - I'm gathering up plenty of video and articles from the past few days - I've got plenty on my mind. Back in a bit.

Rush criticizes 10th grade essay - hilarious!

Okay, one more quick one from my backlog from last week. I picked his one up off of Crooks & Liars, and I just had to share it with you if you haven't seen it. In his seemingly inexhaustible zeal to attack Barack Obama on his radio show, the rotund pill popper decided to Google the Great Depression to educate his viewers all of the "liberal propaganda" he would find. The problem is, one of the pieces he found was written by a tenth grader. Wow, it takes an intellectual giant to attack a tenth-grade paper:

The best story I've heard this week by far was told today over lunch. Apparently, a co-worker of mine named George listens to the Rush Limbaugh show in his car, and yesterday heard him discussing Barak Obama's comments about similarities between the recent housing crisis and the lead-up to the Great Depression. I imagine the comments were referring to the obvious similarities between those who obtained ridiculous sub-prime loans and those in the 1920s who bought stock they couldn't afford on margin. However, Limbaugh decided that Obama's comments were the result of a crazy "liberal education" - and even remarks how "lucky" he is that he didn't graduate from college, thus allowing him to escape the perils of actual knowledge.

To prove his point, Rush says he did some Google searches for "Great Depression" and then proceeds to attack each of the results as liberal propaganda. Because we all know that college professors teach straight off of Google results pages. So my friend is listening and hears something rather striking... the name of one of our mutual colleagues - Paul Alexander Gusmorino ("The Third!" - I love the way Limbaugh says that).

Limbaugh found among the top results an essay written by Paul, entitled "The Main Causes of the Great Depression." He quotes Paul's essay and refutes each of its claims, dissecting them as if they were part of a Harvard professor's lecture on the subject. He doesn't pull any punches either. "Mr. Gusmorino, you better check Karl Marx and see if you plagiarized him in putting this piece together."

Ouch. Those words would be harsh if they really were for a Harvard lecturer. But that's not who wrote this essay. It was my friend who works as a program manager at Microsoft. When he was in 10th grade.

Read on...

Rush really is the right's Rosie O'Donnell, as someone in the comments section of this story points out. I also love how Rush considers it some sort of a badge of ignorance honor to have not graduated from college. Maybe Rush and Sean Hannity can get together to have an Uneducated Conference on Right-Wing Punditry. Hey, I'd go. You can't pay for entertainment that good these days.

By the way, the story does check out - it's on the drug addict's Website.

Photo from Crooks & Liars

Matthews frames Rush's Chaos perfectly

Just one more note on Limbaugh's supposed influence on the Democratic primaries earlier this week. Of all people, I found myself agreeing with MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who vented on Limbaugh late Tuesday night about Rush's urging Repubes to cross over and vote for Hillary.

Matthews is 100 percent right. Morons who did it ought to be ashamed of themselves. I for one wouldn't switch my party registration for 15 minutes, let along long enough to vote for a Republican in a presidential primary. I'm not married to the Democratic Party, either, but I certainly am closer to it than the Republican Party. Actually, if Independents were allowed to vote in the primary in Pennsylvania, I would be registered that way, but that's not the case.

At any rate, I applaud Matthews for takin' Limbaugh behind the woodshed.

Limbaugh's Chaos falls flat

I meant to post this a few nights ago, but it's certainly still worth a mention - Rush Limbaugh's supposed Operation Chaos - his urging of his followers, the self-described Dittoheads, to cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Primaries, has more than backfired. Too bad, drug addict - looks like McSame is going to have to face Obama in the fall. Aside from the endless Rev. Jeremiah Wright commercials, the right's got no answer for Obama. As I've mentioned before - I can only hope and pray that McSame does something brilliant, like asking Condi Rice or Rudy 9iu1ian1 to be on the ticket.

Apropos of nothing, but I think Limbaugh's followers are a cult of sorts. They are so closed minded about just about anything politically substantial, and they believe anything that comes out of their favorite drug addict's mouth, so perhaps it's not wacky to at least consider the possibility. By the way, Dittohead has to be about the most unflattering thing I've ever heard followers of anyone call themselves. It certainly doesn't suggest any sort of independent thinking, or any sort of educated opinion on the part of the sheeple who follow him. I guess that's an indication of their collective intelligence level - they couldn't come up with a better name than that?

Bill Maher's crack about a McCain/Obama match-up is the best I've heard yet - it's gonna be Feeding Tube vs. YouTube. The juxtaposition of Obama and McCain is going to look downright hysterical.

Speaking of switching party affiliation, I know a great many Republicans here in Pennsylvania, a critical swing state, who are so unhappy with the state of affairs in our country, they've permanently (as permanent as a party registration is) changed their party affiliation and are enthusiastically voting for Obama in the fall.

Also not mentioned in the clip above is the 25 percent of Republicans who rejected McCain in the North Carolina primary this past Tuesday. That should tell you a lot about how unenthusiastic Republicans are about their nominee. I'm hoping a so-called "real conservative," like former Congressman Bob Barr, enters the race to siphon votes off of McCain. Maybe Democrats should even do what it was widely reported Republicans did in '00 and '04 with Ralph Nader when the party contributed to Nader's campaign and helped him get on the ballot in all 50 states. Perhaps Barr, if he enters the race, could use that kind of "help," too. After all, turnabout is fair play in the world of politics.

Out with the old, in with the new...

Tuesday night marked a seismic shift in the Democratic Party, and in U.S. politics. It finally looks like Obama is going to prevail in the battle to be the party's nominee, and I'm happy about that on so many levels, and I'd by lying if I didn't say that a big part of that happiness is that Obama is going to face McCain, and not Hillary, despite what some of the vapid personalities on the right, such as Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, are trying to accomplish - to propel Clinton the nomination (more on Limbaugh's Operation Chaos in a separate post). I like Clinton in many ways, and of course I would vote for her, but I just think that Obama is the best candidate right now for the Democrats.

I heard Clinton campaign chair Terry McAuliffe on NBC's Today this morning, and I was actually encouraged by what I heard. I'm paraphrasing, but he insinuated that after the last primary on June 3, that the party would have a nominee.

Good.

I always relish it when the so-called "expert" talking heads get it wrong, or when they don't get their way. The only reason I wish the Democratic race would have been decided long ago is so yaps like Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh could stop flattering themselves, thinking that they are somehow influencing the Democratic race. My theory - their candidate is so boring, the the Republican Party is in such tatters, they really don't have anything better to talk about, so they offer up slander, witticisms and hate speech about the Democrats. Hannity, Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and their ilk remind me of dorks who aren't allowed in to a high school or college party, so they sit out on the sidewalk, hurling insults in a pathetic display of ignorance.

Anyway, based McAuliffe's appearance on Today, the party will have a nominee soon enough. There will be plenty of time to raise money, and to highlight to American would should already be stunningly obvious - that McCain is the wrong man, the wrong personality and the wrong ideology to get us out of the disgraceful state of affairs that Bush has dragged us all into.

Picture from HuffPo

Randi Rhodes suspended from Air America

Click on the YouTube video above, and you'll quickly see and hear why I despise most talk radio, on the right and the left. Randi Rhodes has joined a long list of both liberal and conservative morons who I cannot stand spending 10 minutes listening to - most of it is about attacking and name calling. I used to think that Air America Radio was above most of this, but my naïvetay has received a not-so-subtle dose of reality as of late with what passes for on-air talent at the liberal network these days.

Quite frankly, Thom Hartman, Bill Press and Ed Schultz are the only ones I have any use for. And Stephanie Miller.

Lynn Samuels would make a freight train take a dirt road - her voice is quite possibly the worst I have ever heard on any network, ever. I don't mean to play attack dog myself - she can't help how her voice sounds, but her pure obnoxiousness makes it all the more tougher to endure.

Alex Bennett is another one that drives me crazy, so I don't complain, I just don't listen. He goes out of his way to say that he hates Democrats as much as he hates Republicans. Well, good for you, Alex, but you are working for Air America Radio. Thinking for yourself is always a good thing, but I don't tune in to her his screeds against all politicians of any stripe. Please.

And now we have Randi Rhodes - what a sad example she's setting for liberals and progressives. I constantly am complaining about the likes of Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage and all the rest about their incessant attacks and demonizing of anyone even a nanometer left of center, much less everyone else who doesn't carry the GOP party line, 24-7.

Well, Rhodes is no better. I'd like to know exactly what she thinks she's accomplishing by attacking Hillary with so much gusto. She can't possibly be considering voting for McSame if Hillary is the nominee, can she?

I was just on Air America's Website, and I was reading the comments that follow the announcement of her suspension, and they make for an interesting read, no doubt. Sure, Rhodes is free to say what she would like - we do, after all, have a little something called the First Amendment. But, that doesn't mean that Air America is under any obligation to make her voice heard. There is a thing called standards, and what does it hurt for Air America to take a stand? After all, she couldn't get away with saying stuff like that if she were on terrestrial radio, and most agree it's a good thing that people can't go around saying "fuck this" and "fuck that" on radio that is available to everyone over public airwaves.

Yes, she was saying this during a comedy routine, but AAR is correct in discipling her; broadcasting personalities can't simply make comments like these and not expect to be reprimanded. How long do you think Wolf Blitzer would be employed if during a stand up comedy act he called Ann Coulter "a stupid c---"? Or how about Jonathan Alter of Newsweek, who is a political columnist - what if he called Condi Rice "a stupid bitch" during a comedy sketch? He'd be out of a job tomorrow. The reason is simple - Blitzer and Alter are both reflections of the very public media they work for, and inappropriate, hateful comments would probably be viewed in a very negative light by many of the viewers and readers of those respective media.

I do agree that free speech and censorship are both valid concerns and must be monitored closely, but there are standards that most media will abide by, and evidently, according to AAR, she violated them.

What's more, Rhodes' comments represent the kind of hate speech, as I've mentioned, that the right-wing talking heads engage in just about every day, and Progressive and liberal bloggers the world over (yours truly included) vilify them for it. Isn't it possible for any nationally known broadcaster of any political stripe to comment on a candidate or an issue without it turning into fifth-grade name calling?

Just a thought.

GOP voters taking orders from Limbaugh?!?

I got a pretty big kick out of this one - drug addict Rush Limbaugh imploring Republican voters to cross over and vote for Hillary Clinton to keep the Democratic fight for the nomination going. Talk about overestimating his power; Limbaugh ought to be worrying about his own party's fate this fall. Don't think for one second I'm not loving the fact that Limbaugh has to hold his nose and support McCain. Notice in this short little piece that Limbaugh fails to mention McCain by name, saying "our party's nominee is chosen" and "I want our party to win."

It's going to be a long 2008 (and really, a long four years) for the likes of Limbaugh and his sheep Dittoheads narrow-minded idiot followers who will believe anything he says.

The sad part is that millions listen to this guy, and take what he says as gospel truth, at face value. Many are predicting the death of right-wing talk radio, but I'm not one of them. Sure, people like Limbaugh might be a little less influential than they used to be, as well as people who underestimate the Clintons, do so at their own peril.

Great TMW 'toon

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I haven't posted one of his cartoons in a while, but Tom Tomorrow really hit the nail on the head this week. As his blog notes, did anyone really honestly believe that the GOP fools at bottom of the political barrel, a.k.a. the GOP hate mongers Ann Coulter, Bill O'Lielly, Sean Insanity and Rush Limbaugh, were all really going to sit on the sidelines and not support McCain vs. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? Yea, sure.

They may not love McCain, but they certainly aren't going to sit idly by as one of the aforementioned Democrats makes a spirited run for the White House. It's going to be a very ugly campaign indeed, and some of the b.s. has already begun. The latest New York Times report about McCain having an inappropriate relationship with a lobbyist just gives the far-right blowhards an excuse to half-heartedly get behind Judas John's candidacy.

Thoughts on Gore's Nobel Prize

One of the saddest things about the political discourse in this country, specifically from the right, is its inability to even acknowledge the accomplishments of its opponents in any meaningful, respectful way.

For instance, my first thought when I heard that Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize was, "I wonder what the scum on the right will do to try and smear Gore with this time." You may recall that after Gore's movie on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, won Oscars and received international accolades, the radical right, the very next day, came after Gore for his electric bill. (And I'm sure it was a total coincidence that the attacks occurred less than 24 hours after the Academy Awards, right?) Also, never mind the fact that the organization that went after Gore is completely funded by right-wing blowhards. (Amazing how little press that received.) Anyway, more on Gore's electric bill Here.

Anyway, it didn't take me long to find out if the right would come after Gore once more following his Peace Prize win.

The most notable feckless rhetoric came from OxyContin spokesman Rush Limbaugh, who whined on his radio show Friday after Gore won it (from The Politico:

"So now 'Algore' will join Yasir Arafat among the list of noble Nobel peace laureates," Rush Limbaugh said with much sarcasm at the top of his broadcast today. The Norwegian committee, Limbaugh said, has "rendered themselves a pure, 100 percent joke."

Citing Arafat, the former Palestinian leader, and former President Jimmy Carter's award in 2002, Limbaugh added that "The Nobel committee has lost all credibility since long before they awarded this award to 'Algore.'"

I love it - yet another institution responsible for recognizing a prominent Democrat who really wants to drive positive change in the world that gets vilified by right-wing blowhards. People like Limbaugh can't handle the truth - that Gore has done more to promote goodwill and positive change around the world in the past year than Bush has done since he was appointed president.

However, Limbaugh isn't the only one who can't handle success and recognition of a liberal. Laura Ingraham had this to say about Gore's win (again, from the Politico):

"I confess, I have been in a bit of a funk after learning of the Gore/Nobel news," conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham said in an e-mail. "I really thought Cindy Sheehan should have been recognized."

Yea, considering Sheehan might not have been a bad idea. I know this - Gore and Sheehan both deserve a great deal more recognition for promoting peace and progress in humanity than anyone, anyone, in the Bush administration.

Of course, Limbaugh had a few suggestions of people who should be considered for the award. His suggestion? "I call on Albert Arnold 'Algore' to redirect his Nobel Peace Prize to genuine agents of peace."

Rush had an idea of who that could be - Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. troops in Iraq. "If there has ever been an engine of peace, it’s the United States military," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh must be bucking for a comedy act with that comment. Surely a career in comedy would last longer than his career at ESPN, which lasted about as long as a Twinkie on his breakfast table. Our military during the Bush presidency has wrought more death and destruction than arguably any other military on Earth. I don't fault the military specifically, because they are doing what they are told, but to even suggest that our military and its leaders should be awarded the Peace Prize makes Limbaugh fit for a straight jacket. Limbaugh may have been saying that quote tongue in cheek, but with him, is it out of the question that he wasn't?

And by the way - that Nobel Peace Prize? If war criminal Dr. Henry Kissinger could win it, just about anyone is fair game. I'd rate his winning it a few levels above Gore winning it on the outrage scale.

Dodd & O'Lielly battle; Dodd gets the KO

This one got my blood boiling, but not in a bad way. Sen. Chris Dodd, a Democratic candidate for president (who'd not doing so hot in the polls), really takes it to O'Reilly about his laughably absurd jihad against the Website Daily Kos. Watch the hilarity ensue as BOR's crossed eyes nearly go straight as he foams at the mouth in the wake of Dodd's calm, steady barrage. BOR gets even angrier when his usual tactic of shouting someone down falls flat.

Quite frankly, Dodd hits the nail right on the head - it's not the few offensive comments on the site out of tens of thousands that BOR is mad about, it's the site's prevailing political point of view. (This is the same reason O'Lielly hates Media Matters, The Huffington Post, too; they expose him for the serial liar he is, period.)

I've written it before and it bears repeating - if Fox News is so Fair and Balanced, where was Billy's outrage when Rush Limbaugh accused the Clintons of murder on numerous occasions, when Ann Coulter accused 9-11 widows of enjoying their husbands' deaths, or when Dick Cheney and George Bush asserted on an almost daily basis leading up to the '04 election that "if the Democrats win, the terrorists win"? Of course O'Lielly was nowhere to be found, because calling out those agents of hate would have gone against his right-wing agenda. But, I won't let facts get in the way of a good Billy rant. It just occurred to me what BOR really is - the Jerry Springer of political talk shows. Both productions share similar traits: a few million watch, but each show enjoys about the same amount of nano-credibility; all but a few know the shows are staged bullshit to entertain; and even fewer say the words credible and either O'Reilly or Springer in the same sentence.

Hey Bill - aren't there some women you need to sexually harass? Better yet, go home and polish your Peabody Awards you didn't win (yet you publicly claimed you did).

Bill O'Lielly - giving hope to losers & liars everywhere.

BOR bores with more Kos crap

I have to confess, I'm beginning to have a fetish for Bill O'Lielly's fetish about Daily Kos. It's actually getting pretty hilarious. His latest outrage is a picture that appeared on DK. Here it is...

Personally, I laughed for about five minutes when I first saw it. Okay, no one ever accused me of being the most mature person in the world, 24 hours a day, nor to I portray myself to be. But, this picture is using humor to make a serious point, and that point is that Joe Lieberman is a flat-out liar. Where do I get that from?

When Lieberman ran as an Independent in 2006 after he lost the Democratic Connecticut Primary to Ned Lamont, he promised that if elected he would caucus with Democrats that that he would remain a Democrat in spirit. I'm still waiting to see it.

He has continuously supported the Bush administration regarding the War in Iraq since he was elected last year.

BOR calls Lieberman a patriot. Hardly. As far as I'm concerned, Lieberman has just as much blood on his hands as Bush and Cheney.

Oh, and as for BOR whining that DK traffics in hate? Hmm, I wonder if Bill's brain is out to lunch, perhaps sexually harassing someone other than Andrea Mackris so he doesn't get sued. (More on that in a minute.)

But seriously, where was BOR when Rush Limbaugh was accusing the Clintons of murder, or when he called Chelsea Clinton the White House dog? Or when Ann Coulter was on television saying that the 9-11 widows are enjoying their deaths? How about this doozy - when Dick Cheney suggested that people who don't side with the administration on terrorism (Read: Democrats), they are siding with Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden or fill in your terrorist here that the administration tries to scare the American public about: _________. Oh, and Cheney has been on Rush Limbaugh's program numerous times, most notably early this year.

I'm not going to make a laundry list here, because why bore you with what's already mostly understood - that BOR merely spits out GOP-authored subjects and ideas.

Even one of the segments on his show is dubbed Talking Points Memo !!

Bottom line, and I've written it so many times it's bordering on trite - if you dare disagree with O'Lielly or Fox News and you call him/the network out on their lies, then you're a hate monger or you're operating a hate site.

Color me happy - O'Lielly thinks I'm a hate monger. Sweet.

Please do me and yourself a favor - visit Daily Kos each and every day. (Click logo above to go right to the home page.) Take a look around. Kick some tires. If you're a Progressive, you're going to like what you read. In addition to that, it's a way to support the Website, which is more than worth supporting. I just signed up for a Daily Kos premium account a few hours ago - it takes about two minutes. I urge you to do the same - it's a way to support the site and keep it going to fight the good fight against blow hards like Bill O'Lielly.

If you missed it: KO's take on Libby pardon

If you think I'm done with the Libby pardon, think again. Not even close. Yes, I'm calling it a pardon, even though the White House is not. I know that two year's probation and the $250,000 fine is an incredible hardship, but I'm sure Libby will, ahem, "survive." I wonder if Halliburton has an opening? One phone call from our favorite Dick will land him a job just about anywhere in the right-wing industrial complex that our creep veep controls. I let out a yelp when I saw that Libby wrote out a check for $250,000 last week to pay his fine. Hmm. Wondering where that generosity came from? But, I digress.

I meant to post this last week, but with the holiday, I forgot. It's still as powerful now as it was when Keith Olbermann delivered it last week.

As usual, Olbermann nails the Libby pardon just as he has so many other Bush missteps in the past few years; it's just too bad that Olbermann wasn't around from about 2002 on - I wonder if all of the things he exposes and offers biting commentary on about this administration would have made just enough of a difference in the 2004 election. We'll never know, but hopefully he'll make a huge difference this year and next.

For those who feel that Olbermann is the left's equivalent of Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, I'd say you don't listen to any of them. I have, and Olbermann is the only one who deals with the facts, not hatred, intolerance or demagoguery. Okay, he does take off on O'Lielly quite a bit, but I overlook that, because that's long overdue, and deserved.

Dennis Miller: unfunny GOP hack

When I think about the 2008 election and all of its implications, my biggest worry about the Democrats' seemingly bottomless capacity to shoot themselves in the foot can be summed up in two words: Harry Reid.

What a disaster Reid has been for the Democrats, who surely must be ruing the day that they ever elected him to be Senate Majority Leader. Sitting through a session of the U.S. Senate with the current leadership must be a lot like sitting through a student council meeting in junior high - lots of complaining, but nothing gets done.

Having said that, nobody screws up a valid political point like Dennis Miller. Is there anyone less funny than Dennis Miller right now? He appears weekly on Fersatz News' Half Hour News Hour to deliver a 2-3 minute rant. Unlike his former HBO show, Dennis Miller Live, Half Hour is the worst bore in the history of television. As I've previously written, it's so bad I hope Fox sticks with it. By the way, has a show ever been more appropriately named than this one? After watching two episodes in their entirety (cue canned applause track, just like the show), my first thought was, "What a great name - this show sucked so bad, the half hour really did feel like an hour."

Anyway, Miller's rants aren't like his old rants on his HBO show, where he's start off with, "Now I don't want to get off on a rant here..." These are much worse than that. For instance, in the clip above, it takes Miller nearly two-and-a-half minutes to say what I can say in five seconds:

Harry Reid is an incompetent pussy.

Instead, Miller takes us through a verbal tour of his dictionary, thesaurus and laundry list of non sequiturs. Just awful. But, I'm not surprised - only a hack like Miller could screw up what should have been his dream job - color commentary on Monday Night Football. In a 2006 ESPN SportsCenter poll, Miller was once voted the worst color commentator in MNF history. No doubt only because he beat out Rush Limbaugh for the job in 2000.

What's more, you know that Miller sucked when conservative blogs were flogging his Reid rant as "the most devastating take-down in political history." Maybe to people with an attention span of three months. I can think of many more that were better.

Right off the top of my head comes then-vice presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen, famously telling Dan Quayle, "Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."

An even better one is from a recent issue of Rolling Stone, when my favorite Republican candidate, Rudy Giuliani, gets gangsta slapped in a piece by Matt Taibbi entitled Giuliani: Worse than Bush. An excerpt:

Rudy Giuliani is a true American hero, and we know this because he does all the things we expect of heroes these days — like make $16 million a year, and lobby for Hugo Chávez and Rupert Murdoch, and promote wars without ever having served in the military, and hire a lawyer to call his second wife a "stuck pig," and organize absurd, grandstanding pogroms against minor foreign artists, and generally drift through life being a shameless opportunist with an outsize ego who doesn't even bother to conceal the fact that he's had a hard-on for the presidency since he was in diapers. In the media age, we can't have a hero humble enough to actually be one; what is needed is a tireless scoundrel, a cad willing to pose all day long for photos, who'll accept $100,000 to talk about heroism for an hour, who has the balls to take a $2.7 million advance to write a book about himself called Leadership. That's Rudy Giuliani. Our hero. And a perfect choice to uphold the legacy of George W. Bush.

. . .

Like Bush's, Rudy's career before the bombing was in the toilet; New Yorkers had come to think of him as an ambition-sick meanie whose personal scandals were truly wearying to think about. But on the day of the attack, it must be admitted, Rudy hit the perfect note; he displayed all the strength and reassuring calm that Bush did not, and for one day at least, he was everything you'd want in a leader. Then he woke up the next day and the opportunist in him saw that there was money to be made in an America high on fear.

For starters, Rudy tried to use the tragedy to shred election rules, pushing to postpone the inauguration of his successor so he could hog the limelight for a few more months. Then, with the dust from the World Trade Center barely settled, he went on the road as the Man With the Bullhorn, pocketing as much as $200,000 for a single speaking engagement. In 2002 he reported $8 million in speaking income; this past year it was more than $11 million. He’s traveled in style, at one stop last year requesting a $47,000 flight on a private jet, five hotel rooms and a private suite with a balcony view and a king-size bed.

While the mayor himself flew out of New York on a magic carpet, thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the "WTC cough." This is the dirty little secret lurking underneath Rudy's 9/11 hero image — the most egregious example of his willingness to shape public policy to suit his donors. While the cleanup effort at the Pentagon was turned over to federal agencies like OSHA, which quickly sealed off the site and required relief workers to wear hazmat [sic] suits, the World Trade Center cleanup was handed over to Giuliani. The city's Department of Design and Construction (DDC) promptly farmed out the waste-clearing effort to a smattering of politically connected companies, including Bechtel, Bovis and AMEC construction.

. . .

Did Giuliani know the air at the World Trade Center was poison? Who knows — but we do know he took over the cleanup, refusing to let more experienced federal agencies run the show. He stood on a few brick piles on the day of the bombing, then spent the next ten months making damn sure everyone worked the night shift on-site while he bonked his mistress and negotiated his gazillion-dollar move to the private sector. Meanwhile, the people who actually cleaned up the rubble got used to checking their stool for blood every morning.

Now Giuliani is running for president — as the hero of 9/11. George Bush has balls, too, but even he has to bow to this motherfucker.

Now that's what I call a Dan Gable-like political take down.

In fact, it's the best beat down of Giuliani I've read yet. And, most incoveniently for America's Mayor, it's true.

Anyway, back to my original point: Dennis Miller is a talentless hack who can't hold down a steady job in TV on any network besides Fox Noise Channel. He's like Sean Hannity with jokes. Now THAT'S funny.

Hmm. That took about 15 seconds, and not one esoteric reference.

Miller's right about one thing, though - Harry Reid is a pussy. He just doesn't need to take so long to say it in his stupid and humorless way.

Monet lives

I had a hard time not laughing at this one when I found it on the Internet tonight.

Evidently, someone wanted to do to Limbaugh's billboard with paint what he does to people every day with his nauseating and hateful remarks.

However, the guy who's responsible for cleaning up graffiti in the city had a comment for The Baltimore Sun that spread around the Internet quicker than Mexican water through a tourist.

"It looks like they took globs of paint and threw it on his face," Robert Murrow of the Department of Public Works told The Sun. "It looks great. It did my heart good."

To his credit, Limbaugh took the whole incident in stride.

From The Sun:

Limbaugh began Thursday's nationally syndicated show with the Baltimore billboard flap.

"I think I'm the one that needs Secret Service protection," Limbaugh said. "All this talk about Obama and these presidential candidates. For crying out loud, I'm the one who needs it."

Limbaugh laughed about the whole thing and -- even as he made hay -- poked fun at the media's overblown ways.

"I'm just waiting for all of the cable news networks," Limbaugh told listeners. "They're probably at this moment sending video crews to Baltimore. And there are going to be round table discussions later on. ... 'What's happening to the civility of our society?'"

I hate to admit it, but I actually agree with the bloated, drug-addicted hate monger, and that's something I don't believe I've ever typed before, or will again.

However, Murrow's superiors were not amused.

More from The Sun:

Kurt L. Kocher, Murrow's supervisor, seethed that his comments were "outrageous."

"I am very upset about that comment, and I've let him know I'm very upset about that comment," Kocher said. "It's his personal comment, and it's wrong. It does not belong out there in any kind of official capacity. As far as I'm concerned, he was not speaking for the department.

"I don't care if it's Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore or Britney Spears. You don't deface anything - period. And you don't endorse defacing anything - period."

I understand Kocher's comment, but please - lighten up. Yes, it is inappropriate to deface anything, but I do find it awfully tough to be upset about someone who has spread hate and intolerance for so long.

It looks like some outraged people in the Baltimore area have had enough of Limbaugh's blarney.

I guess I'm speaking out of both sides of my mouth, but I will anyway. I really don't approve of this type of stuff, but is there an Ann Coulter billboard in Baltimore? Better yet, find a BOR billboard and hit the trifecta.

I wouldn't mind seeing these purveyors of political porn feel some intolerance for once.

Olbermann jumps back into sports

I'm unequivocally a huge fan of Keith Olbermann, and I never miss Countdown, his nightly screed against Republicans and the Bush administration. However, I'm not a fan of his being hired for NBC's Sunday Night Football studio show.

Olbermann will be the fifth voice on NBC's highlights show in the fall, joining Bob Costas, Cris Collingsworth, Jerome Bettis and Tiki Barber.

Olbermann made his bones in the sports world as an anchor of ESPN's Sportscenter. I still miss KO hosting the Sunday night "Big Show" with his tag-team partner, Dan Patrick. But, Countdown has grown hotter and hotter as of late, and fortunately he recently signed a four-year contract extension with NBC.

However, I don't want politics with my football. As a nation, we are constantly bombarded with political messages, issues, and advertisements. On Sunday afternoon and evening, I like to take a break from all of that.

Olbermann will be a success, though. Forget any comparisons to Rush Limbaugh, because there aren't any. Limbaugh is a political hack who knows nothing but cigars, OxyContin, Viagara, hate speech and how to find the partisan angle in everything. Olbermann has a successful history in sports and will handle his new role just fine. I wish he wasn't doing it, but more power to him for getting a second gig.

I just hope Countdown doesn't suffer; for liberals, it's the most informative show on TV.

Dana Perino flatters "The Daily Show"

Acting White House Press Secretary Dana Perino used a line from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart yesterday.

I got a kick out of the footage above. I'm glad that this administration sees fit to use comedy when responding to reporters' inquiries about Iraq.

Stewart should be flattered. I wonder how long she's going to remain acting press secretary, but the million dolalr questions is, will she appear on TDS while in that position? I wouldn't believe that in a million years.

I wonder if Perino, or anyone else in the western world, will find anything funny about The 1/2 Hour News Hour? We'll know for sure about a month later, if the show survives that long.

From the reviews I've read so far, the show is about as funny as murder. But, then again, it probably wasn't a good idea to use Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter to introduce the first show, either.