I assume this surprises absolutely nobody:
Former Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska has signed on as a contributor to the Fox News Channel.
The network confirmed that Ms. Palin would appear on the network’s programming on a regular basis as part of a multiyear deal. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The latest example is the “dean” of the Washington press corps claiming underwear bomber is somehow equivalent to 9/11:
Was Christmas Day 2009 the same kind of wake-up call for Barack Obama that Sept. 11, 2001, had been for George W. Bush?
…
Both presidents had had plenty of warnings in the form of threats and even incidents. But both were caught off guard: Bush reading to a classroom of youngsters; Obama on a family vacation in Hawaii.
…
Many have been looking for a similar shift of tone in his dealings with the dictators in Iran and North Korea and even in his tolerance for the politics-as-usual maneuverings of many Republicans and some Democrats in Congress.
The intellectual laziness of the national press is stunning, but even more amazing is that people take the results seriously.
This time from anchor Brit Hume:
“[Tiger Woods Is] said to be a Buddhist,” Hume said. “I don’t think that faith offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that is offered by the Christian faith. … Tiger, turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery.”
What a shithead.
You know all those DC thinktankers that parrot platitudes about standing up for freedom? And how right-wing talking points are always harping on freedom? And the teabaggers constantly stand around and complain and moan about freedom? And Glenn Beck invokes his revolutionary schtick in the name of freedom? It’s all bullshit. Now this is what demanding freedom looks like:
I image the real Boston Tea Party felt somewhat like this, a far cry from the sniveling demogoguery we’ve got today.
Luckily, in America, we don’t have a need for the physical violence that’s called for in Iran. But we do need mental toughness and discipline, and that’s seriously lacking within the DC beltway and media “news” outlets.
Via Twitter [note that this is the prose exactly as she published it]:
Earth saw clmate chnge4 ions;will cont 2 c chnges.R duty2responsbly devlop resorces4humankind/not pollute&destroy;but cant alter naturl chng
This is the de facto leader of the Republican Party, arguing that people not only are not changing, but actually can not change the climate, something even the most deranged scientist in the pocket of the energy industry wouldn’t dare say.
I believe (not based on much evidence I admit) that there will be a more honest political environment some day. But this day seems a long time yet to come.
Sometimes I’m torn about what to think about the whole political process. It’s a truism, of course, that politics always sucks. One look at health care reform has all the evidence you need here: insane Republicans, spineless Democrats, pathetic media analysis, clueless gasbag pundits, ugly dishonesty on Fox News and talk radio, disingenuousness of the worst sort from Holy Joe Lieberman, and that’s just a partial list.
On the other hand, we might get some elements of needed reform (disallowing letting people die due to pre-existing conditions comes to mind) that will genuinely make the system better.
So does it make sense to say, ignore the sausage factory and be glad that we live in a world that’s getting better? Or be angry with all the scummy people that work in the sausage factory? Both?
I think I’d be able to let go a little easier if it wasn’t for the last presidential administration. We have two individuals who either definitely committed war crimes (Dick Cheney) or likely did (George Bush) and it’s just hard for me to wave it all away as a game. It’s hard to pretend that it’s not serious, even if all the participants in the system treat it that way.
Republicans should ask themselves if they really want Sarah Palin to be the defacto leader of the party. She’s at it again, this time as an expert on climate change:
Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference. The president should boycott Copenhagen.
She’s talking about the “climategate” scandal, which has already been proven to be mostly bullshit, and in any event does not negate the overwhelming evidence of the threat of climate change. In essence, she’s trying to suggest that there is a conspiracy of epic proportions. It’s amazing to me the way these minds work:
Here’s a rebuttal to Palin’s op-ed point by point.
I know politics is not a reality-based occupation, but at some level there needs to be some level of internal consistency. Without that, it really does devolve to mindless leadership worship. And I guess Sarah Palin is the ideal candidate for that job.
It’s been bad enough that Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE) wants to throw in with the Republicans and disallow health care plans from offering abortion coverage, to the point of torpedoing the entire health care reform effort.
Now, we get his brilliant idea that, instead of borrowing or taxing to finance the war in Afghanistan, we can sell “War Bonds” instead!
I mean, really, do they ever think before they do stuff like this? Is reality ever a concern to these clowns? Are they huffing WD-40 on the right side of the Senate floor?
The right of center wing of the legislature sure is a bunch of losers. This guy, too.
As in many pseudosciences, there are two categories: the (sometimes willfully) stupid, and the outright deceitful. Here’re a couple of good examples:
In the first category we have Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, who has delusions of grandeur. He really is a Viscount, but he also claims to be a member of the House of Lords (he isn’t) and to have won a share in the Nobel Peace Prize (he didn’t). Monckton has a degree in classics and no training or experience in science or mathematics but he churns out papers full of equations (which he misinterprets) and graphs (which are wrong) that purport to show that global warming isn’t happening. Monckton recently gave a speech with 2 million viewings on youtube where he declared that that Copenhagen treaty will institute a COMMUNIST WORLD GOVERNMENT. In short, Monckton is a crank.
Now, if Monckton’s pet theory was, say, that the moon was made of cheese or the sun was made of iron nobody would pay any attention to him. But because his theory involves global warming denial, he is now chief policy advisor at a think tank called the Science and Public Policy Institute and touted as an expert on climate science. Hoggan describes a whole gaggle of such think tanks, all with fancy titles and funded by the fossil fuel industry. None of them produce science to be published in peer-reviewed journals but rather opinions than can be published in opeds or quotes for journalists to balance their stories and match a quote from a scientist at a research institute about their data shows global warming is a problem with a quote from a “policy analyst” from a think tank saying that no it isn’t.
Which brings us to the second category of person described — someone who knows when he is lying. An example of this sort of person is Steve Milloy. While Monckton wil say things that are outrageously false and outright crazy, Milloy is much more careful. Instead of telling everybody that cigarette smoke is good for you, he will raise lots of plausible sounding (but poorly founded) objections to studies that show that it is harmful. Milloy would raise these objections at his website junkscience.com, which pretended to be a place devoted to debunking bad science, but actually was devoted to debunking the notion that cigarette smoke was harmful. You won’t be surprised to learn that Milloy was secretly funded by tobacco companies
I’m sure you’ll be making your holiday shopping decisions primary based on how Christian the stores are. I guess this is easier for them than dealing with things that, you know, actually matter. I’m feeling a bit too tired right now to give this the mocking it actually warrants. I guess we can fall back on unintentional self-mocking:
I noticed the Muslims milling about the store [Old Navy], but no mention of Christmas anywhere…so I didn’t bother to spend any of my money here.
Update: Is there a smarmier prick on this planet than Bill O’Reilly? What a sanctimonious asshole.