Pwned by Rachel

"And I have to tell you, because we’re making this about you and me, is that I personally think that you and the folks who do what you do are a parasite who gets fat on Americans’ fears."

Rachel Maddow to Tim Phillips of Americans for Prosperity

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Glenn Beck pines for what life was like in TV ads and then cries

Glenn is gettin' all misty pining for simpler times, like when Joe Greene threw lil' Glenn his Steelers jersey. Or when his home movies were narrated by Paul Anka, courtesy of Kodak, who had ZERO intention of shilling a product, just capturing the golden hue that was little Beckeroonie's salad days.

Yes, don't you wish we could go back to days that never were. Where dad never worried about his job security or making a mortgage payment. Where mom was never screwing the postman. And the milkman. Together.

Or was it the simpler time before women had to mess up the vote and negroes still knew where the back of the bus was?

Then he tells us we're at a beer party we shouldn't be at and we need to get home before Ward whips the Beav. Or we get into an accident and Jan and Dean have to write another teenage death anthem: "Glenn Went Over The Guardrail (Head First)".

Is this conclusive proof he's crazy? No. But when one pines for a simpler time that wasn't, questions have to be asked.

30 Republicans vote against rape bill to protect Halliburton

(Huff Post)
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration--a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.

This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees to sign away the right to sue. It passed, but it wasn't the slam dunk Jon Stewart expected. Instead the amendment received 30 nay votes all from Republicans. "I understand we're a divided country, some disagreements on health care. How is ANYONE against this?" He asked.

4th grader asks Obama: "Why do people hate you?"

(Huff Post)

At a town hall meeting in New Orleans Thursday, fourth-grader Terrence Scott earnestly asked the question that has probably been on many people's minds as they witnessed the rage that has been directed at Obama these last few months: "why do people hate you?" The young man seemed genuinely concerned as he asked the question, and he went on to tell Obama that "They supposed to love you."

Obama responded by giving the young man a hug while saying, "That's what I'm talking about."

Then came the hard part of actually answering his question.

Obama To Critics: Don't Tell Me I'm Holding The Mop The Wrong Way

(Daily Kos)
Now, to the non-Democrats who may be watching today -– (laughter) -– I want everybody to know we believe in a strong and loyal opposition. I believe in a two-party system where ideas are tested and assumptions are challenged — because that’s how we can move this country forward. But what I reject is when some folks decide to sit on the sidelines and root for failure on health care or on energy or on our economy. (Applause.) What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. (Applause.)

Another way of putting it is when, you know, I’m busy and Nancy's busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else’s mess –- we don’t want somebody sitting back saying, you’re not holding the mop the right way. (Applause.) Why don’t you grab a mop, why don’t you help clean up. (Applause.) You’re not mopping fast enough. (Laughter.) That’s a socialist mop. (Laughter and applause.) Grab a mop –- let’s get to work.

Jon Stewart shreds CNN

So the insurance companies want to go to the mattresses?

Daily Kos

BULLETIN -- POLITICO’s Carrie Budoff Brown: This morning, Senator Schumer is going to say, in light of the insurance industry report warning premiums will rise under reform, Dems should push to revoke the health insurance industry's antitrust exemption as a floor amendment. This will be at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, where Majority Leader Reid is also testifying." 10 a.m., Dirksen 226, "Prohibiting Price Fixing and Other Anticompetitive Conduct in the Health Insurance Industry."

GOOD!

If the insurance cartel wants to threaten to jack up rates because they don't like the direction of the health care bill, then hit them where it hurts.

Good for Schumer. We need a wartime consigliere.

Karma is a linebacker Rush, and you're the quarterback who just got sacked

(Dave Zirin)
Yesterday I was referred to on air as "scum" by Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh called me out by name on his radio show because, along with Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Drew Sharp of the Detroit Free Press, I challenged Limbaugh's efforts to own a NFL team, saying that his history of racial bombast should count against him.

Limbaugh said of us:

They are the ones with prejudice and bigotry coursing through their vanes [sic], through their hearts, and through their souls. They are consumed with jealousy and rage. They are all liberals--and make no mistake: That's what this is about. It is about ideology. It isn't about race. It's about their being jealous and attempting to discredit me, and they've now sunk to the low of repeating fabricated quotes that they cannot source.... These people are scum.

What we all did was carry a quote from Limbaugh that he absolutely insists he did not say. The quote is:

We didn't have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back; I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.

For all the dittoheads out there, here is how we came up with the quote: it was in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Detroit Free Press, the Washington Post, and in the book 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America by Jack Huberman. It has been out in the ether for years. Now that it is endangering his chances to become an NFL owner, Limbaugh is serving up a full heaping of indignation..

As Jason Whitlock, with whom I have had every manner of political disagreement over the years, writes:

Limbaugh claimed on his radio show Monday that his staff could not find any proof that he ever joked about slavery. I'm sorry. Limbaugh doesn't get the benefit of the doubt on racial matters.... You can argue the comments are presented out of context and were meant as jokes. Then I'd argue that Limbaugh needs to get on the comedy-club circuit and out of the business of attempting to influence presidential politics. Limbaugh wants to be taken seriously.

But let's take Limbaugh at his word, for now, that he didn't say it. We should also look at the myriad of quotes on record he makes no effort to dispute. We can only assume that he is proud to have said, "The NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons."

Or these other gems:

The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies.Have you ever noticed how all composite pictures of wanted criminals resemble Jesse Jackson?

To an African-American caller:

Take that bone out of your nose and call me back.

Upon hearing that Spike Lee said that black schoolchildren should take off from school to see the movie Malcolm X:

Spike, if you're going to do that, let's complete the education experience. You should tell them that they should loot the theater and then blow it up on their way out.

Or calling Barack Obama "Halfrican-American" and saying:

In Obama's America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, "Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on".... We need segregated buses--it was invading space and stuff. This is Obama's America.

The real reason Rush is doing a slow-burn on his show and setting loose his army of Internet flame throwers is that his dream of owning an NFL franchise is going up in smoke. After seven players and the union went public and stood up to Rush getting his mitts around the most powerful cultural and athletic brand in America, commissioner Roger Goodell finally spoke out. Goodell said on Tuesday that Limbaugh's "divisive comments" had no place in the NFL. "I have said many times before, we're all held to a higher standard here," Goodell said to reporters. "I would not want to see those kinds of comments coming from people who are in a responsible position in the NFL. No. Absolutely not."

Goodell's statement was complemented by Colts owner Jim Irsay, who told ESPN, "I, myself, couldn't even think of voting for him.... I'm very sensitive to know there are scars out there. I think as a nation we need to stop it. Our words do damage, and it's something that we don't need. We need to get to a higher level of humanity, and we have." Other owners issued decidedly lukewarm comments about the possibility of sharing space with Rush.

Some are surprised that ownership isn't welcoming Limbaugh with a passionate embrace because most owners are to the right of Attila the Hun. They are billionaires who have feasted at the public trough of corporate welfare while basking in tax breaks for the rich. In other words, they constitute Limbaugh's base. But his membership in this exclusive fraternity of billionaires would violate the first rule of ownership: protect the bottom line.

The inconvenient truth is that no matter how much he rants and raves, no matter how often he calls columnists like Burwell, Sharp and me "state-run-media scum," it's the commissioner and the owners who believe that his history of ugly vitriol would be just too harmful to the NFL brand. You reap what you sow, and Rush Limbaugh has reaped a whirlwind.

Wyden Free Choice Amendment Lives!

(Bob Cesca)
If you recall, the Wyden "free choice" amendment was shitcanned in the Finance Committee -- Baucus didn't allow it to come up for a vote. But it looks like Baucus and the White House might've cut a deal with Wyden to secure his vote on the Finance bill. Basically, Wyden might get a version of his free choice amendment inserted into the Finance/HELP hybrid bill. More from Ezra Klein.

Just a reminder: the Wyden amendment is possibly the only chance for expanding accessibility to the public option and the healthcare exchanges. In other words, as it stands now, this is the only way Americans with employer-based insurance will have access to the public option. And it would go a long way towards helping to define the "robust" in the phrase "robust public option."

Fox ignores Gay march on D.C., the one *without* the teabagging.

RNC Website FAIL!

(Bob Cesca)
The Republicans relaunched their new and super-buggy website today and it's hilariously awful.

It's nearly impossible to click anywhere beyond the front page. There's actually not much of anything above the fold, and below the fold there's a "Republican Heroes" banner that appears to be ballyhooing someone named Pickney Pinchback. No offense to Mr. Pinchback, but nothing says "new and exciting" like a guy from the 19th century named "Pickney Pinchback."

Some other observations from Ambinder:

- In a section devoted to "future leaders," there were none.

- The last GOP accomplishment cited on the accomplishment page was from 2004.

- Administrator passwords were accidentally posted.

- The first question on the conference call was from an Hispanic Republican who asked why the GOP site didn't have a Spanish-language page and noted that the White House had one.

Oh, and when the accomplishments page finally loaded for me, this was the actual logo at the top of the page:



Is that really the face you want replacing the "O" in your logo? The Ardipithecus?

Is this what passes for rational discourse?

Glenn Beck is a race-baiting ass who takes advantage of the limited mental skills and lack of objective rational skills of his audience.