Too cute

For all you animal lovers out there — Dog vs. Deer:

AWWWWWWWWW!!!!

P.S.  With that I should add that blogging will be extremely light for the next little while…

(via Andrew Sullivan)

Attention pet owners

Especially owners of the kind of dog whose tails curl upward, exposing their little bung-holes for all to admire.  There’s a New Product that might be just the thing to give your pet a little privacy… “Rear Gear” Butt Covers!:

No, really:

They’re sold out right now, so this looks to be what the well-dressed pet will be wearing this spring.

(via the slog)

I can’t wait, also.

It’s only fitting that Sarah Palin’s new TV show, “Real American Stories”, should debut on April Fool’s Day:

Sarah Palin begins her role as a TV host with “Real American Stories,” which debuts at 10 p.m. Thursday on Fox News Channel.

“On the Record With Greta Van Susteren” will be preempted that night. The first “Real American Stories,” which is a series of specials, will repeat at 9 p.m. Sunday.

I wonder what is meant by “real American”…ya think?

Brooding on Swine of the Week

Last week, I declared GOP minority whip Eric Cantor “Swine of the Week” for his lame attempt to blame the Democrats for the threats they’ve been receiving from teabagger-conservatives outraged over Big Health Insurance’s loss of the right to fuck them over.  Cantor’s claim that he, too, has received threats — which he nonetheless refused to make public — was met with hoots of derision and ultimately, my Swine of the Week award.

Then it was discovered that Cantor had indeed been threatened — on Youtube, no less — by some bathrobe-clad offside nutcase by the name of Norman Leboon.  Gaze into the Face of Terror, if you dare:

Well, it doesn’t matter what the guy’s wearing, or if he looks like he’s three sheets to the wind — a threat is a threat, and this guy made one against Cantor and his family, which is all kinds of Wrong.  It is appropriate that he’s since traded his bathrobe for a prison uniform.

What is a little inappropriate is the GOP’s response to this brain-damaged foul ball and his incoherent threats — some of them are a little too giddy about it, as if a threat to a Republican somehow “cancels out” threats to Democrats.  Forgetting for a moment that Leboon seems to be an equal opportunity hater who also threatened Barack Obama last year (even though he donated to Obama’s campaign), Babe the Pig and others, the GOP’s takeaway from this madness shouldn’t be “Nyeah nyeah nyeah, they do it too”.  It should be an acknowledgment that the escalating rhetoric about the Obama administration in general and health care in particular has provoked all kinds of brainless psychos to slither out from under their rocks, and that is not good for anyone.

Only the ‘baggers

…could think that an online “virtual march” makes any other statement than “I’m a lazy-ass moran who can’t pull myself away from the deep-fried twinkies long enough to exert myself to actually, um, march”.

Go Team Wheezing Manatees!  Take “your” country “back”, one outraged mouse-click at a time!  Click! Clickclickclick!!!

The Daily Catholic Priest

“Hear No Evil” Edition:

Top Vatican officials — including the future Pope Benedict XVI — did not defrock a priest who molested as many as 200 deaf boys, even though several American bishops repeatedly warned them that failure to act on the matter could embarrass the church, according to church files newly unearthed as part of a lawsuit.  [...]

The Wisconsin case involved an American priest, the Rev. Lawrence C. Murphy, who worked at a renowned school for deaf children from 1950 to 1974. But it is only one of thousands of cases forwarded over decades by bishops to the Vatican office called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led from 1981 to 2005 by Cardinal Ratzinger. It is still the office that decides whether accused priests should be given full canonical trials and defrocked.

In 1996, Cardinal Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters about the case from Rembert G. Weakland, Milwaukee’s archbishop at the time. After eight months, the second in command at the doctrinal office, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, now the Vatican’s secretary of state, instructed the Wisconsin bishops to begin a secret canonical trial that could lead to Father Murphy’s dismissal.

Hands up all Catholic Priests who haven’t molested any small boys.  Anyone?  Anyone??  Hello??!?

Maher: new rules

From last night’s show, Bill has some excellent advice for the Democrats:

UPDATE: Meanwhile, last night Poor Dumb Sarah was still screeching bumper sticker slogans about “teleprompters” (as she read from a prepared speech…), “professors of law at the lectern” (…from a lectern), and “How’s that hopey-changey thing workin’ out for ya”.   She seems blissfully unaware of the fact that her side just suffered its worst legislative defeat in decades, with her “help”.

“Shut the fuck up while I slap your face for making noise” seems like an almost mild response to her shrieking idiocy.

Lights out

Between 8:30 and 9:30pm anyway, for Earth Hour:

About one billion people in 121 countries were expected to take part in Earth Hour, a time set aside on Saturday to turn off unnecessary lights for one hour to raise awareness about energy conservation.

People in New Zealand, Australia, Beijing and Shanghai have already had their hour of reduced electricity use between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. local time.

The goal is to draw attention to the need to save power as part of the worldwide battle against climate change.

Some consider Earth Hour to be a pointless exercise, but it does the trick of raising awareness of climate change, which, no matter how much you kick and scream and hold your breath til you turn blue, remains a very real problem.

And hey — depending who you’re with, turning out the lights can be excellent fun.  So why not?  It’s a win-win.

UPDATE: I don’t get this — for those who don’t participate in Earth Hour, that’s cool, but I’m not sure how it’s a big deal to spend it doing exactly the same thing as you do on any Saturday.  Driving around, burning leaves — meh.  Burn your house down, now that’s a protest!

Glory is fleeting, Part Duh

It’s hard out there for a professional ex-fetus:

Tebow reportedly requested the room bow their heads in prayer before the Wonderlic. Another player reportedly told him to “shut the fuck up.”

Abomination!  Certainly the other players rushed to Tebow’s defense?

Other players in the room then laughed.

Cue the bitching and whining about religious persecution in 3…2…1…

(h/t tbogg)

Dear conservatives

An open letter.

They’ll leave a light on for you.

(via Dr. Dawg, CC and DDBG)

It’s not you, David…

…it’s them:

After criticizing Republican Party leaders for their total opposition to President Obama’s health-care plans, former Bush speechwriter David Frum announced that his relationship with the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank was terminated.

Come to the Dark Side, David… we have cookies.  And facts!  Lots of facts!

UPDATE: At least they gave him a few days to empty out his desk rather than throwing all his stuff out on the front lawn.

Swine of the Week (so far)

Beating out even the brainless jerkoffs and lowlife scum who cut gas lines, sent faxes with pictures of nooses, and left threatening voice mails at Democratic congressmen’s HOMES (“you’re a baby-killing motherfucker who should bleed out of your ass, get cancer and die”), is GOP minority whip Eric Cantor:

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor just gave a brief speech accusing Democrats of using reports of recent threats of violence for political gain, and saying someone shot a bullet through the window of his campaign office this week.  [...]

Cantor said a bullet was shot through the window of his Richmond, Va., campaign office this week, and that he’s gotten threatening emails.

“I will not release them because I believe such actions will only encourage more to be sent,” he said.

This is nothing but the panicked gibberish of a mentally incompetent street racer who suddenly realizes in mid-rollover that he’s about to crash.

Way to make a veiled threat, though:  Stop talking about the terrorist tactics of our supporters or there will be more where those came from!

UPDATE: SHRIEK!  Bullets and threats and threatening bullets, oh my!… and then, there’s Reality:

A Richmond Police detective was assigned to the case. A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds.

Wingnuts play their own

Yeah, let’s talk about “angry fascist mobs” shutting down free speech, you little freak:

“But there were ‘concerns’, you see, for ‘public safety’.” Ooooh… do I detect a tone of sarcasm?

The “concerns” mocked by this half-bright little dimtwit were expressed by the organizers of the event, not the university.  The decision to shut down the event was made by the organizers of the event, not the university.  So this bozo should properly take his beefs to the organizers of the event…

Organizers for the American’s tour of Canada scrubbed her much-anticipated speech at the University of Ottawa when students crowded the entrance before her arrival. A spokesman for the organizers said about 2,000 “threatening” students posed a security threat to the darling of the American right, and she was advised against appearing.

“It would be physically dangerous for Ann Coulter to proceed with this event,” said conservative political activist Ezra Levant inside Marion Hall.

…not the university.

Since the odds of that happening are about 99.9 to zee-row against, I have to ask:  how’s it feel to be played by your own side, dumbass?

Like FAIL on steroids, I bet!

The totally spontaneous cancellation of Coulter’s speech due to Danger! Danger! Danger!

Yeah, RIGHT:

American right-winger Ann Coulter’s speech at the University of Ottawa was cancelled Tuesday night due to security concerns after thousands protested outside the venue.

A spokesman for the group that organized the event said there were fears for Coulter’s well-being after about 2,000 people gathered outside the venue to protest her presence there.

Although the event was cancelled, organizers said her Canadian tour will continue, wrapping up at the University of Calgary on Thursday.

You don’t need a degree in marketing to know what sells and what smells.   Well played, wingnuts.

AND FURTHERMORE… Could it be any more obvious?  Coulter gets protesters everywhere she speaks.  She’s had pies thrown at her from close range.  This isn’t someone who’s freaked out by protesters — protesters are a given at any Coulter event.

The University of Ottawa put this faux “cancellation” debacle in motion when they warned her to watch her mouth and the media picked it up and ran with it.  Now she’s gotten another day of publicity (read: another day to flog her book) and the wingnuts get to wank and run their mouths about being persecuted — mission accomplished!

Palin wants a 3rd party

What a difference a month makes, when you’ve got a brain the size of a walnut.  Just a few short weeks ago, Sarah Palin was advocating that the GOP absorb the teabaggers (“absorb” — like how the Quicker Picker-Upper absorbs your dog’s accident on the floor).  But last night she was on Hannity’s show, jabbering about how a 3rd party would be a good thing:

“A 3rd party candidate could shore up a Republican candidate” –  I concur!  That’s common sense conservatism and I like it!

Biden drops the f-bomb

I know I know, big fuckin deal:

But it’s still fuckin funny.

(via balloon juice)

And that’s (no) bull

On Sunday I saw many apocalyptic predictions about how US health care reform would cause the market to crater, crawl into a subterranean cave and die.  “Just watch the Dow!” they cried, “Just watch!  Just watch!  Just wa…“:

That is what’s known as a “rally” — big time.

Oddly, nobody’s talking about it now.

Glory is fleeting

The bad news just keeps on coming for Bart “Baby Killa” Stupak:

An anti-abortion group has stripped Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) of a “Defender of Life” award he was supposed to receive Wednesday night.

Stupak was to be honored at the annual Campaign for Life Gala of the Susan B. Anthony List for his efforts to get the Stupak amendments toughening up restrictions on abortion funding inserted into the healthcare bill voted on Sunday night.  [...]

“By accepting this deal from the most pro-abortion President in American history, Stupak has not only failed to stand strong for unborn children, but also for his constituents and pro-life voters across the country,” Susan B. Anthony List Candidate Fund President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement.

Think Stupak might have learned something about what happens when you lie down with rabid, flea-infested curs?

Me neither.

Who cares what Ann Coulter says?

She’s a comedian.  She has about as much political drag as the Trailer Park Boys.  (Oops, maybe “drag” was an inappropriate word to use in this context… influence is what I meant.)  And even if she was the world’s most inflential wingnut, so what?

What is this, a police state?  “Watch your mouth”?:

Ms. Coulter catapulted to international notoriety two days after the 9/11 attacks with a column in the National Review in which she advocated conquering Muslim countries and converting the people to Christianity. But as the columnist prepares to visit Canada this week to speak at three universities, a senior University of Ottawa administrator has warned her to use “restraint, respect and consideration” when speaking at the school.

I don’t think her audience is paying to see “restraint”.  But I think it’s a better idea to let them make the call on whether her routine is acceptable or not by using some of those tried and true old messaging strategies like “applause” or “walking out”.

The year of yelling dangerously

So who was the classless douche that yelled “baby killer” at Bart Stupak?  Nobody seems to know, and predictably, nobody has the parts to own up to it.

A tweet that went out last night saying it was California Rep. George Radanovich has been recanted by the tweeter, but not before it was added to his Wiki page (via Gawker):

That has since been scrubbed and Radanovich has denied being the Baby Killer Guy.    GOP Rep. John Campbell has admitted it was a Republican, but only said that it came from the row behind him where Texas Republicans usually sit.  To me it definitely sounded like a southern accent.

If I were to speculate (because it would be irresponsible not to), I’d bet it was probably that nutbar who was at the teabagger protest the other day, claiming that demons had invaded the capital, and that he “brought an abortion” to the protest with him (whatever that means).

If these fetus fetishizing whackjobs are so proud of their “principled” stand against abortion, why is nobody coming forward to admit he was the Great American Hero that yelled “Baby Killer” at the hapless Bart Stupak?  Fess up, clowns!

UPDATE: “Old Yeller” was Texas Republican Randy Neugebauer.  Supposedly he was talking about the bill, not about Stupak.  Oh sure.  Because “baby killer” isn’t a routine aspersion fetus fetishists cast against doctors, women, or anyone else who won’t do things their way.  (h/t fern hill in the comments)

#explodingheadsville

The new name for #tcot.

The sobbing, the whining, the shrieking, the out-of-control apocalyptic hysteria over the passage of a health care reform bill so conservative that Richard Nixon would have loved it is really something to behold.  I wonder what would happen if they’d passed single payer health care instead of just a few lame little insurance reforms!?  Not that I mean to understate the positive effect these reforms will have on some people, but the vast majority will find that life goes on, the sky remains unfallen, abortion remains unfunded by public money, the death panels won’t have started calling the Roll of the Doomed and the insurance policy they currently hold is as rotten as ever, just the way they like it.  In another 6 months, health care reform horror stories will have been all but forgotten, and people will be shaking their heads and wondering “What was that all about?”

What then?

David Frum makes some excellent points, from a conservative perspective.  The GOP decided early on to cast their lot with the furious brainless extremists in their midst and refuse to legitimize the Obama administration by allowing it as major a legislative achievement as health care reform.  Had they chosen instead to work in a bipartisan manner, it could have been their achievement too.  Now, with not one Republican vote having helped pass reform into law, the GOP will forever be known as the Party of Fuck You, the Party of No Healthcare, the Party of You Lie! and Baby killer!, the Party of Bullshit about Death Panels and Government Takeovers, and the Party of Pre-existing Conditions and all the rest of the odious villainy visited on American citizens by the health insurance industry.

Wear that in November, motherfuckers.  It looks great on you.

Waterloo

US health care reform just passed with 219 votes.

Congratulations, USians.

Stupak voting yes on HCR

Health care reform is in the bag.  (Edited to change link.)

This was what sealed the deal.

UPDATE: And the teabaggers are not happy:

DEATH MERCHANT!!!!11!

UPDATE II: Really not happy.  (h/t balloon juice)

Countdown to HCR, teabaggers go apeshit

A little over 24 hours before our neighbours to the south will take the first tentative steps on the road to health care reform, anti-reform, anti-Obama, anti-Democrat teabaggers are predictably going full-metal berserko.  A few frenzied thousand of them converged on DC today in a furious last-ditch effort to “let their voices be heard” and some of those voices are getting ugly:

Things seem to be getting pretty heated in the Capitol with crowds of anti-Reform/Tea Party activists going through the halls shouting slogans and epithets at Democratic members of Congress.

As our Brian Beutler reports, a few moments ago in Longworth office building, a group swarmed a very calm looking Henry Waxman, as he got on the elevator, with shouts of “Kill the bill!” “You liar! You crook!”

Rep. Barney Frank got an uglier version of the treatment. Just after Frank rounded a corner to leave the building, an older protestor yelled “Barney, you faggot.” The surrounding crowd of protestors then erupted in laughter.

(Barney Frank, for those who don’t know, is an openly gay congressman from Massachusetts.)

I’m sure not all teabaggers are brainless, homophobic epithet-screeching cretins and mockers of the disabled, but this seems to be the prevailing tenor of their protests, and it’s escalating into mindless hysteria even as their numbers dwindle.

The original tea partiers, the Ron Paul supporters, started this whole thing long before Obama was elected, and have somehow gotten lost in the shuffle — which is regrettable, because they made some fair points.  It was only after the 2008 election, when professional fake “grassroots” organizers like “Americans for Prosperity” and “Freedomworks” took over and dragged every half-bright religious whacko and dull-eyed fascist freak out from under their rocks to protest the Islamocommie Kenyan usurper’s “government takeover of health care and forced abortion plan”, that things got ugly in a hurry.

And one other related point of interest:  if the baggers are truly concerned about spending, why was Dick Cheney, who was arguably partially responsible for the huge debt and deficit the USA runs today, given such a warm welcome at CPAC last month, where many teabaggers were represented?  Shouldn’t they have greeted him with a barrage of rotten tomatoes?

It will be interesting to see what happens to this little cult after the bill is passed — especially if it benefits some of them.

UPDATE: Yep, it’s getting ugly alright.

UPDATE II: Racist and homophobic epithets, threats of gun violence, congresspeople being spat on… to paraphrase wingnuts, where are the moderate teabaggers?

(image from Wonkette)

Bloggerock

Listen up:

psa has left the building.   Go say congratulations!