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Up against the wall, Darrell Issa!
01.17.2011
04:41 pm
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Rep. Darrell Issa, the ultra-conservative Republican congressman from California who will lead the House’s investigations of the Obama administration, has pledged to do whatever he can to obstruct, distract or embarrass the President, because he can. Darrell Issa is the same multi-millionaire politician who bankrolled the successful effort to recall former California governor Gray Davis back in 2003. Sadly for the un-charismatic Issa, who spent a cool million on the recall campaign, Arnold Schwarzenegger stepped in and cock-blocked him. Cold.

Although it was obvious to everyone that Schwarzenegger had caused Issa to drop out of the race, Issa nevertheless strenuously (and unconvincingly) denied this while ceding his dream to become the governor to the former body builder and movie star. At the press conference announcing his decision to withdraw, the foolish looking Issa cried like a little girl. It’s the kind of appearance that’s hard to live down in the age of YouTube (see below!)

Californians have long known of Darrell Issa’s questionable past. When he first ran for office in 1997, there were reports of things like Issa firing someone with a gun, multiple accusations of car theft and allegations that he burned down his business after upping his insurance premiums. Issa denied the allegation of arson and blamed the thefts on his brother who served time in jail while Issa went on to make millions (he’s the richest man in Congress, worth $250 million) from “The Viper” car alarm. (Sweet irony, huh? It’s even Issa’s own voice saying “Please step away from the car.”)

Now that he’s attained a higher rank of sleazy prominence as the new witchfinder general of the GOP, the rest of the country needs to take a closer look at Darrell Issa. This article from The New Yorker is a great place to start:

Issa didn’t even win the Republican primary. Although he outspent his main opponent, Matt Fong, the state treasurer, by some nine million dollars, he lost by five points. His campaign fell apart after a burst of investigative reporting raised serious questions about his honesty and his past. Many politicians have committed indiscretions in earlier years: maybe they had an affair or hired an illegal immigrant as a nanny. Issa, it turned out, had, among other things, been indicted for stealing a car, arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and accused by former associates of burning down a building.

In May of 1998, Lance Williams, of the San Francisco Examiner, reported that Issa had not always received the “highest possible” ratings in the Army. In fact, at one point he “received unsatisfactory conduct and efficiency ratings and was transferred to a supply depot.” Williams also discovered that Issa didn’t provide security for Nixon at the 1971 World Series, because Nixon didn’t attend any of the games.

A member of Issa’s Army unit, Jay Bergey, told Williams that his most vivid recollection of the young Issa was that in December, 1971, Issa stole his car, a yellow Dodge Charger. “I confronted Issa,” Bergey said in 1998. “I got in his face and threatened to kill him, and magically my car reappeared the next day, abandoned on the turnpike.”

What reason other than money—and lots and lots of it could explain how a creep like Darrell Issa came to have such an outsized influence over American politics?

Read more: Don’t Look Back: Darrell Issa, the congressman about to make life more difficult for President Obama, has had some troubles of his own (The New Yorker)

Top Ten Darrell Issa “Hall of Shame” Moments (Daily Kos)

Below, Darrell Issa crying his eyes out at a press conference in 2003 announcing that he was pulling out of the governor’s race after spending more than a million dollars of his own money (but it had nothing to do with Arnold, yeah right, you big crybaby) Tears start at approx. 7:30:
 

 
Thank you Michael Backes of Los Angeles, California!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.17.2011
04:41 pm
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What if the Democrats ran Bernardine Dohrn for the Senate?
01.16.2011
02:59 pm
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The reaction to the post yesterday about Palin, Sharron Angle, Glenn Beck and the radical right’s violent rhetoric coming back to haunt them was an interesting thread to wake up to this morning. Thank you to (almost) everyone who contributed. A few observations:

First of all, my point, in case anyone didn’t get it, was contained in the bold text (”...the genie is all the way out of the bottle for this type of violence, for them, too.”). I’m saying that the potential for a blowback against the folks propagating the majority of this hate talk is rather ripe. If you piss in the wind, don’t be surprised when it comes back to hit you in the face. Then poor Eric Fuller went and proved my point about 3 hours later, to his shame. His story is the very embodiment of my argument in the post. The guy should have been arrested, but it’s sad

I hardly see any evidence there of a “full-throated, hate-filled rant,” either, as I was accused of in the comments by “Metzger’s id,” someone who obviously did not read what I actually wrote. (Steve Doocey IS one of the stupidest people on television. He’s a fucking idiot and I will not back down from this position).

Commenter moflcky scores when he asks “Do you think it’s worse now than it was in the 60s/70s with SDS, the Weather Underground, the SLA, the Black Panthers, the Klan and the race riots?”

This is a very good point and worth thinking about. However, I think contrasting the difference of then vs today is best served by comparing *the media* that exists today vs. what we had at that time. With just three TV networks, I think the center could hold very easily back then. In the realm of “public opinion” it was much easier to achieve a broad general agreement 40-50 years ago and so there was, by and large, a very strong “centrist” majority. The GOP of Nixon’s era has very little to do with the GOP of today, they’ve moved far, far to the right of the positions they held in the 70s. And the Democrats of today are pretty much standing in the same place, ideologically speaking, as most of the Republicans were at that time. Nixon, it can be argued, was to the left of Bill Clinton, in many respects.

The political elites of both parties moved significantly to the right in the past 40 years, even if the general public did not. As the politicians shifted rightwards, the population, or some of the population, anyway, reacted by going in the other direction and eventually—sometime in the 90s—modern progressive politics is born (just as the Great Society and Roe vs. Wade saw an awakening of the religious right/Moral Majority as a political force in the late 70s).

You could say it was “the dialectic” or “zeitgeist” in motion or even just a “generation gap”—I refer you to Spiral Dynamics or the work of William Strauss and Neil Howe. I think both get it right. The generation up and coming looks at the Tea party and largely sees a bunch of ignorant, cranky old white people. As the younger citizens of the United States grow up, the folks who are attending these Tea party rallies will be dying off.  And as they do, something else will happen that no one can anticipate at the present time. That’s just the way it works.

The Weather Underground didn’t get face time to argue their beliefs on MSNBC in 1970, although admittedly they might today, depending on the ratings potential. I don’t think they had ANY influence on the general public. The same cannot be said of the radical right Tea party-types and folks like Tony Perkins, Bryan Fisher, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin and the rest of them.

There is a huge chasm between some misguided grad students who most people were appalled by, and few supported, and an obviously doomed Republican Senate candidate telling her supporters that if they don’t win at the ballot box, they’ll win with guns? This isn’t some group of hippies who appear to be freaks to 99% of the population talking, this is a lemon-faced church lady-type who faced off against the Senate Majority leader and raised a record amount of cash (most from from outside of her state).

William Ayers was brought up in the comments. I find bringing up Bill Ayers, specifically, in this context (and nearly all others) to be utterly meaningless and tiresome. How is he relevant in 2011 or is this situation comparable? Can someone please remind me?. I’ll say it again: the biggest difference between the Weather Underground in 1969 and the Tea party in 2011 is that the Weather Underground never had their own cable news outlet (The Weather Channel?) and 15% of the dumbest and least educated portion of the population did NOT follow or sympathize with their ideals.

Imagine the Democrats were running Bernardine Dohrn for the Senate? Wouldn’t THAT would be the flip-side of the GOP running Sharron Angle? WHO is the equivalent to Sharron Angle on the mainstream Left? (There is NO nuance in advocating “Second Amendment remedies! It’s not a statement open to that much wiggle room in the interpretation!)

Make no mistake about it, this is what MORE THAN HALF of the country is hearing when we have to listen to this Tea party bullshit: These folks want MINORITY RULE.

They will not get it, obviously, without violence.

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.16.2011
02:59 pm
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Sarah Palin’s breath
01.13.2011
01:46 pm
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Again, no amount of “sincere” breathing is going to win her an Oscar.

 
(via TDW)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.13.2011
01:46 pm
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In a moment of sobriety… Glenn Beck finds his son
01.12.2011
03:09 pm
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Good Lord is this disturbing! And yes, I know the photo has been tinkered with.

(via BB Submitterator)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.12.2011
03:09 pm
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Stephen Colbert Couch
01.12.2011
12:15 pm
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Yep! It’s a Stephen Colbert couch to liven up your living room by Etsy seller Matt Charlan. The couch is priced at $2,008.87 (for now). It might work nicely with the demon rug.

People will gravitate to the percise place in the room looking for where the face is most accurate. While you round them up make sure your finger is ready on the dead switch to the trap door to you basement where you keep all Colbert Couch huff puff nay sayers.

The price of the couch is automatically calculated using a sophisticated algorithm like Goldman used to inflate its assets (Way to drop $300 M on facebook, Goldman). The price is directly proportional to the number of people who look at this listing.

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(via Nerdcore )

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.12.2011
12:15 pm
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Sarah Palin will never win an Oscar, that’s for sure
01.12.2011
10:50 am
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Take a moment to be utterly flabbergasted at how inappropriate and opportunistic Sarah Palin’s self-serving “blood libel” statement is regarding her supposed influence on the AZ shooter, Jared Loughner…

I know people are dumb, especially the vast majority of folks who call themselves Republicans, but they can’t be that dumb (or can they?) to think she’s doing anything more than “acting” statesmanlike or pretending to give a shit – especially when she’s such a bad fucking actor. The whole thing’s so amateurish. Her speech is just rambling nonsense. And they couldn’t even work out how to stop the teleprompter reflecting in her glasses. Whenever she even attempts empathy, she comes across like a glove puppet. An inarticulate glove puppet, at that.

She can’t even say “God bless America” as if she means it! Those three words are the cornerstone of her schtick!
 

 
Thank you Chris Campion of Berlin, Germany!

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.12.2011
10:50 am
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Art from chaos: Sonic cut & paste master Steinski salutes Pima Country Sheriff Dupnik
01.11.2011
12:44 am
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Talk about timely. Within a day and a half of Sheriff Clarence Dupnik famously speaking truth to the far right’s moral abyss on the Tuscon massacre, Steve Stein—a.k.a. Steinski, probably the most influential producer in hip-hop cut & paste—posted up a tribute to the man.

Notes the great Stein:

My apologies in advance to Sheriff Dupnik. May you always speak your mind as clearly as you did on this occasion, sir.

No apologies needed. Here’s “Soul Searching (Sheriff Dupnik’s rmx).” Download it here.
 

 
Get: Steinski - What Does It All Mean? 1983-2006 [CD]

 

Posted by Ron Nachmann
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01.11.2011
12:44 am
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U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is on Sarah Palin’s hit list
01.08.2011
02:51 pm
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This shit isn’t cute, never was. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) and at least 15 others were shot at point blank range today. Is it a coincidence that she happens to be in Sarah Palin’s cross-hairs ?

Twenty House Dems from districts that McCain carried in 2008 voted for the health care bill, and Sarah Palin has a target on every single one.

The targets were released on the six month anniversary of Obamacare, and include a lot of familiar names such as John Boccieri (OH), Chris Carney (P N) Gabrielle Giffords (AZ) and Ann Kirpatrick (AZ). The site invites donations, social networking, and the unbeatable Sarah love that has led to a 26:11 win/loss record of candidates in GOP primaries. Granted, some of those were in safe districts, but she’s also pulled off massive upsets that probably outshadow her less successful picks.

Regardless, this site should go a long way towards knocking off the politicians who put their party affiliation ahead of their constituent’s demands. It was announced via a tweet from SarahPalinUSA: “Lies, Damned Lies – Obamacare 6 Months Later; It’s Time to Take Back the 20!”

tweet from Palin: “Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: “Don’t Retreat, Instead – RELOAD!” Pls see my Facebook page.”

Metaphor, no more…

 
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via Tbogg@FDL

 

Posted by Brad Laner
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01.08.2011
02:51 pm
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Sad images of American airport security theater
01.06.2011
03:43 pm
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A handful of images of the current goings-on in the airports of America. This is where we’re at, saw it for myself while traveling over the holidays. How do these pictures make you feel? It seems almost too obvious to state that I find this security theater horrifying and deeply depressing. We’re too stupid to take care of our sick and poor and we’re too stupid to be bothered by random public humiliation. What’s next?
 
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More groping of the elderly, the infirm, children and nuns after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Brad Laner
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01.06.2011
03:43 pm
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Progressive hero Rep. Alan Grayson exits swinging at both parties
01.03.2011
02:39 pm
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I must say how very, very sorry I am to see Alan Grayson leaving Congress. He’s a true progressive hero and I do hope we’ll still be seeing a lot of him in the future. Judging from the sentiments he offered The New York Times in this fiery “exit interview.” I don’t suspect Grayson’s planning to go quietly. Let’s hope not, this country needs more—many more—like him. It’s inspiring to read such clear-headed thoughts coming from a Democrat:

During the long conversation, Mr. Grayson, a 52-year-old father of five, faulted Democrats for failing to deliver for some of their most potent constituencies, among them labor unions and antiwar voters.

“What did the environmentalists see over the last two years?” he asked. “A proposed monumental increase in subsidies for nuclear power industry and offshore drilling.”

As for gay voters, he said: “What they got to see was a judge order that ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ no longer be enforced and a Democratic president appeal that decision. That is what that constituency saw before Nov. 2.” (The law was repealed in the final hours of the 111th Congress.)

By Election Day, Democratic voters in many districts felt that they had no real choice, Mr. Grayson said.

“If you want people to support you, then you have to support them,” he said. “You have to think long about what you did for people who voted for you, made phone calls for you, who went door to door for you.”

Mr. Grayson, of course, finds much to like within the Democratic Party. He offered a glowing assessment of the departing speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi of California, giving her an A “without reservation.”

And he considers the political right to be intolerable. He called the Republicans “a hopeless sellout party that will never do anything constructive for ordinary people in this country.”

“I don’t have to speculate about it anymore,” he said. “I worked with them for two years.”

If the execs at CNN have a brain cell amongst them, they will sign Grayson up for his own talk show before MSNBC does!
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.03.2011
02:39 pm
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