Friday, October 15, 2010

An ode to bartcop . . . . .



Around 10 years ago, on the heels of the GOP impeachment witchhunt of Bill Clinton and subsequent rigged election of George W. Bush, I started to turn away from the traditional media and embrace alternative views and sources of news on the internet.

At that time I had no clue what a "blogger" was, nor did I have any inkling that I would one day become one myself. Nevertheless, as I surfed the web in those depressing days, anxiously trying to find political viewpoints other than the full of shit pap I was getting from the mainstream print, television and radio news, I ran across a couple of blogs called Media Whores Online! (MWO) and bartcop.com. MWO went away (mysteriously?) after a couple of years, but bartcop soldiered on - giving voice and empowerment to we liberals who were forsaken and wandering the political media wilderness.

I remember distinctly one of the very first posts I ever read on bartcop was bart's The Myth of the "liberal" media rant. It was sweet music to this forlorn liberal's eyes and ears to see someone express in writing every thing I always knew, but never heard anyone dare say, about the state of the media in America.

I was smitten.

10 years later I still have that bartcop page bookmarked in my various web browsers, even though I have probably gone through a dozen computers during that time. It is a Picassoesque masterpiece, and the fact that Keith Olbermann recently gave kudos to this inimitable bartcop screed on his MSNBC show, underscores the importance of it's content and the relevance that it has to what is going on in America today.

Therefore - as a one-fingered (stated with liberal brotherhood in mind) salute and with much deference I offer this revised, updated version as a symbol to bartcop of this one reader's devotion to the man and his modest, albeit noble, mission statement:

WELCOME TO BARTCOP.COM: A modem, a smart mouth and the truth

Bart - please forgive me for taking liberties with your proprietary material. It is done to honor your contribution to the good side of the cause - nothing more, nothing less.

And without further adieu -- here is my updated version of bartcop's The Myth of the "liberal" media:

The Myth of the "liberal" media:

Let's do a "what if" so I can make a point. I think it's a good one.
I think it's so good, I'd like to hear from anyone who disagrees.

What if a show like ABC's Nightline did a "hatchet job" on Sarah Palin? It wouldn't have to really be a hatchet job, but any honest appraisal of that idiot's qualifications would prove conclusively that she's a non-thinking, out of touch extremist - and that's all. But honestly - what would happen if Nightline did a deliberately unflattering, mean-spirited portrait of Palin?

I'll tell you what would happen:

Rush Limbaugh would spend days on his radio show saying it wasn't true and offer hours of rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Bill O'Reilly would spend at least two hours on both his radio and television shows saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Sean Hannity would spend at least two hours on both his radio and television shows, saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Glenn Beck would have a stroke spending at least two hours on both his radio and television shows, saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Megyn Kelly would spend at least an hour on her show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Greta Van Susteren would spend at least an hour on her show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Neil Cavuto would spend at least an hour on his show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes would spend at least an hour on their show saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Brit Hume would spend at least an hour on his Sunday show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Juan Williams and Mara Liason would cower like the phony liberals they are saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

John McLaughlin would spend at least an hour on his syndicated show saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Chris Matthews would spend at least an hour on his show, with his hand in his lap, drooling over Palin and saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

G. Gordon Liddy would spend at least three hours on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Fox and Friends would spend at least an hour on their morning show saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Michael Medved would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Sam and Cokie would spend at least an hour on This Week
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Good Morning America with George Stephanopoulos would spend all morning swearing that it wasn't true, and offering rebuttals as to why Nightline was lying.

Bob Schieffer would spend at least an hour on his show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

David Gregory would spend at least an hour on Meet the Press
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Dennis Prager would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Michael Reagan would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Larry Elder would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Mike Gallagher would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Oliver North would spend at least an hour on his radio show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Larry Kudlow would spend at least an hour on his CNBC show giving shitty financial advice and saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Michael Savage would spend at least an hour on his radio show curb stomping puppies and saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Ann Coulter would spend at least an hour on whatever Fox News show she could get her suspiciously masculine adam's apple on saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Still with me? We're close to the end...

Brian Williams would spend at least an hour on his news show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Katie Couric would spend at least an hour on her news show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Andrea Mitchell would spend at least an hour on her news show
saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Wolf Blitzer would spend at least an hour on The Situation Room saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Candy Crowley would spend at least an hour on The State of the Union saying it wasn't true and offer rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

Bill Schneider and Candy Crowley would do an hour special on CNN
saying it wasn't true, and offering rebuttal as to why Nightline was lying.

John Stossel would have an hour long special on Fox: "Is lying OK for liberals?"

Howard Kurtz would write a column and spend 30 minutes on Reliable Sources asking if the media wasn't being too hard on a simple, decent, down-to-earth hockey mom.

CNN would re-hire Rick Sanchez, make him apologize to the Jews, then let him spend an hour on his new/old show offering rebuttal as to why Nightline is lying.

Armstrong Williams would accept a $240,000 under the table payment to promote legislation that is designed to ensure that Congress never, ever again takes up debate on The Fairness Doctrine.

Newt Gingrich would start a PAC by exhorting donors to fund his television and lecture appearances to offer rebuttals as to why Nightline is lying.

Andrew Breitbart would publish a deceitfully edited video of some of his hired thugs posing as reporters and purportedly getting Nightline producers to admit they were lying and every mainstream media outlet would play it without rebuttal or question.

Michelle Malkin would write a book condemning Nightline.
Dinesh D'Souza would write a book condemning Nightline
Ann Coulter would write a book condemning Nightline.
Charles Krauthammer would write a book condemning Nightline.
Kathleen Parker would write a book condemning Nightline.
Laura Ingraham would write a book condemning Nightline.
Peggy Noonan would write a book condemning Nightline.
Andrew Sullivan would write a book condemning Nightline.
Ross Douthat would write a book condemning Nightline.
Jonah Goldberg would write a book condemning Nightline.
Glenn Beck would write a sappy soft porn fiction novel with a storyline condemning Nightline.

Every single regional AM radio station would put their 24x7 right wing, screeching talking heads to work on their talk shows offering rebuttal after rebuttal after rebuttal as to why Nightline is lying.

Karl Rove, Dick Armey and Glenn Beck, funded by millions of unreported dollars from Texas oil billionaires, will form a 3rd political party which they claim is motivated only by patriotism and love of the constitution, call themselves the Tea Party, field extremist, fundamentalist nutcase candidates and convince Idiocracy Americans to vote for these lying, fascist fuckers entirely against their own economic interests and they would cow the execs at ABC to have Nightline removed from the air.

OK, we're going to call the above "Exhibit A."

Now, everyone on that list has done at least a dozen hit pieces on a major Democrat.

My question is ---- Where is "Exhibit B?"

When all of those conservative hacks and media outlets attack Democrats, who in the mainstream media does the rebuttal for the Democrat?

Even you sloth-brained right wingers have to admit that nobody on that list has fucking EVER - EVUH! defended a fabricated lie against a Democrat.

There is no "Exhibit B," because there are so few liberal/progressive voices on television and radio. The closest you can get is Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC and Bill Maher for a few months out of the year on HBO. But, undeniably, there is barely a liberal whisper on television or radio, because the fact of the fucking matter is that most of the public airwaves airtime is hogged up by DOZENS & DOZENS of bloviating, lying, right-wing, misinforming, apologist shows whose sole livelihood is making shit up about and smearing liberals and Democrats -- and always cowardly un-rebutted!

I am unflinchingly confident that you conservative zombies cannot offer a truthful explanation to this mind-numbingly obvious, eyeball melting double standard.


Many thanks for doing what you do bart and keep that big, beautiful, fucking mean ass, Knuckledrag USA hammer pounding.



----k

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Beck: Americans believe the things I say "because it rings true to them" -- "it feels true"

Ummm -- no Glennda. The few hundred thousand brainless sheep that do hang on your every word as if it's straight from the mouth of Moses -- are just plain and simple -- fucking morons.





----k

Friday, October 08, 2010

The World as seen thru Turdblossom Colored Glasses . . .


Just try and believe that Karl "Turdblossom" Rove actually wrote this dreck chronicling the meanness of this year's political ads by Democrats against their GOP opponents:

"Personal attacks generally don't work unless they're seen as fair, credible and pertinent. Voters must think the character shortcomings are both persistent and relevant. If not, the assaults will fail, even backfire."

That is smug hypocrisy on a level, that up until now, was probably considered unfathomably attainable to most cognitively thinking humans.

And it's only fitting that a steaming pile of scribbled horseshit like that appear in a Rupert Murdoch owned rag.



----k

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Pledge your loyalty to the Fatherland or lose your liberty!!


Miss. judge jails attorney for not reciting pledge

By HOLBROOK MOHR and ADRIAN SAINZ (AP) – 22 minutes ago

TUPELO, Miss. — When a Mississippi judge entered a courtroom and asked everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, an attorney with a reputation for fighting free speech battles stayed silent as everyone else recited the patriotic oath. The lawyer was jailed.

Didn't Americans fight a world war, sacrificing hundreds of thousands of our bravest, against a mega-maniacal tyrant who, under the threat of violence or imprisonment, forced his people to openly worship and recite pledges to himself and his thug government?

Is this where the United States is headed?

This judge is unfit for the office he holds - pure and simple. The U.S. Supreme court ruled in 1943 that it was unconstitutional for school children to be forced to recite the pledge of allegiance or salute the flag. That free speech principle has not been in credible dispute for nearly 70 years.

How much you want to wager that the Teabaggers come down overwhelmingly on the side of the judge in this case? Myopically overlooking of course, their own visceral hatred for the current government and the man and political party leading it and the revulsion they would feel having it loudly pointed out to them that the President is the freely elected leader of the United States of America and their pledge of allegiance to the United States is equal to a pledge of allegiance to the commander in chief? That would tie their panties in a knot wouldn't it?

It is nothing short of absolutely fucking mind-boggling to hear of something like this occurring at this stage of this country's history.



----k

Friday, October 01, 2010

The Human Race: Sheep blithely meandering their way to slaughter . . .



From: Andy Soos, ENN
Published September 17, 2010 02:37 PM
2010: A Hot Year Indeed


Weather is always an easy topic of conversation. The first eight months of 2010 tied the same period in 1998 for the warmest combined land and ocean surface temperature
on record worldwide. Meanwhile, the June—August summer was the second warmest on record globally after 1998, and last month was the third warmest August on record. Separately, last month’s global average land surface temperature was the second warmest on record for August, while the global ocean surface temperature tied with 1997 as the sixth warmest for August.

The monthly analysis from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, has supplied the following weather/temperature highlights for 2010.


To me the global climate change debate can be summed up in an uncomplicated analogy I heard made awhile back.

The analogy is -- if your child who's been suffering terrible migraines is diagnosed with a brain tumor who are you going to trust - the 100 neurosurgeons who are recommending removal of the benign tumor because they are all in agreement that it will kill your child if left untreated --- OR --- your local Fox News watching pharmacist who is telling you to go home, give the suffering child some Children's Tylenol and don't worry about it - because it will go away on it's own?

That's pretty much the scenario when it comes to the debate between the world's most reputable climate scientists and the right-wing armchair "scientists" over the issue of global warming and the question of whether or not human industrial activities are contributing factors.

Cutting to the chase and simply put - I will trust the majority opinion, which is being advanced by dedicated, non profit motivated scientists, in a heartbeat, over the screeching right wing baboons and the glorified t.v. weathermen that the oil & gas industries underhandedly employ to pollute the dialog with their easily disprovable, Fred Flintstone-like counter arguments.

In a fucking heartbeat.



----k

Monday, September 27, 2010

Grayson bitch slaps Taliban Dan . . . and shows rest of Dems what courage and standing up for one's convictions means

This is what I admire about Florida Congressman Alan Grayson. He's not at all afraid to go for the jugular when it comes to tangling with right wing conservatives and is not the least intimidated by the GOP thugs and their cadre of media ratfuckers.





It's not pretty, and in fact is a bit ruthless. But considering the type of people Grayson is dealing with - it makes all the sense in the world.

As a result, I consider Congressman Grayson one of only a handful of Democrats that I would consider donating my hard earned money to at this point in time.



----k

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The Legacy of Selfish Politics . . .




This is the American Dream future life for which the free market economy can do no wrong, deregulate everything, Teatard crowd has in store for all of us:

Flight for survival
Toxic emissions force family to leave home
By Brandon Evans | Published Thursday, September 23, 2010

Her husband and her 7-year-old daughter, Emma, felt sick as well.

"My daughter began having severe nosebleeds," she said. "She'd wake me up at 6 a.m., crying, covered in blood."

Emma was just diagnosed with asthma. She'd never had any respiratory problems. Emma also started breaking out in rashes and having stomach problems.

Bob also suffered from nosebleeds.

"I'm 50 years old and probably haven't had more than three or four nosebleeds in my entire lifetime," Bob said. "All of a sudden I'm getting them three times a week. It was odd."

"I hired someone to do water and air sampling at the home," she said. "The methane level in my daughter's room was at asphyxiation levels. And it was barely lower than what it was outside our home."

She showed the results to her doctor, who told her to leave her home within 48 hours.

"The doctor told me right then," she said, pausing as her voice cracked and a tear streamed across her left cheek, "I had to move immediately. Because if I did not, we would have to spend more time and money on hospitalization, on chemotherapy and morticians for my whole family."

On Saturday, Aug. 28, the Parrs said goodbye to their formerly idyllic home and moved into Bob's office in Denton. They don't know how long they'll have to stay.

"What we are going through is one of the worst things a family could have to go through," she said. "Having to leave this house and explain to my 7-year-old daughter that we've been run out of our house."

Bob and Lisa Parr aren't the sickly type. Bob built his home in 2001. He's enjoyed a long career in stone masonry and raising cattle. His home reflects the rugged, outdoor lifestyle he enjoys. Walls bear the trophies of big-game hunting in the wilds of Alaska. Black bear, mountain lions and elk are mounted on high wooden walls.

"We love it here," Lisa said while sitting in a wooden rocking chair on the back porch and gripping her husband's hand. "We're secluded, private. We just wanted to be left alone, and we've been run out of our house. It's not right. What's even more not right is we thought TCEQ would come out and help us - they would clean up this mess.

"We've had no help. We have someone who is contaminating our air. It has affected our cattle. We've lost pets. We've lost chickens. We're all sick, and we've gotten no help," she said. "I want them to fix it so we can come home. I just want to come home."


At some point you have to stand up and say enough is enough.

This country isn't being ruined by Health Care Reform advocates who believe all Americans deserve to have access to affordable care.

It is not being ruined by those who demand accountability from politicians who employ lies to lead us into unnecessary wars, then pass the bill onto our children and grandchildren.

It is not being ruined by those who believe hard working, play by the rules Americans living on Main Street deserve just as much, if not more, of a fair chance at realizing the American Dream as the reckless, selfish gamblers living on Wall Street do.

And it most definitely is not being ruined by those who believe that strong government oversight of ruthless and greed-oriented corporations does the most good for the most people.

No - America is in fact being slowly ruined by everyone who is against all of those ideals. Just ask the Parr family from that Texas story how big of fans they are now of energy industry deregulation. And this is not an isolated story. This horror is playing itself out in communities all over this country on a daily basis.

An argument could be made that this is not a political issue as it could equally effect citizens of any party. I disagree. The people who are zealously pushing to let big corporations and big industry, such as the energy industry, pursue their rapacious business goals without any government interference or any accountability are primarily Republican and now, as an extension, primarily Teabagger. That is a fact.

So basically it comes down to who do you trust more to ensure your children and grandchildren have better futures and live better lives than you? I've chosen which side I am on -- how about you?



----k

Limpballs says: America now has "internal enemies" with "power in our own government" . . .

If there is a god, it's a god with a very mischievous sense of humor and/or a penchant for the theatrically absurd. I make that observation only because it appears that disgraced 1950's communist witch hunter Joseph McCarthy has been reincarnated in the form of a pill popping, pathologically lying, paranoid schizophrenic limp dick named Rush Limbaugh.





What a world class fuckhead.



----k

Friday, September 17, 2010

Trash politics at its most malodorous . . .



Not to be outdone in the Teabagger Loony Tunes department --

NY GOP governor hopeful sends trash-scented flier

The Associated Press
Published: Thursday, Sep. 16, 2010 - 9:56 am
Last Modified: Thursday, Sep. 16, 2010 - 2:26 pm

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Something stinks in about 200,000 mailboxes around New York - a flier from the new Republican nominee for governor.

A garbage-scented mailing by nominee Carl Paladino features the photos of seven Democrats, six of whom have been investigated and two who have resigned in scandal in the past four years.

"Something STINKS in Albany," the mailer says. Paladino spokesman Michael Caputo told The Associated Press on Thursday that the mailer is scented with a "landfill" odor.

He says the smell will get worse the longer it is exposed, just like Albany.


These are the "serious" people that the Teabaggers believe are going to lead America out of the crisis of it's current economic implosion and and put us back on the road to super power glory.

Sigh . . .



----k

Thursday, September 16, 2010

And the world watches with fascination and horror . . .



Even the usually unflappable Brits are of the view that America is deep in the throes of some sinister, maniacal takeover by aliens (and I'm not referring to the Mexican kind):

Matthew Norman: From the US comes a nasty whiff

Wednesday, 15 September 2010


The misfortunes of others being the greatest solace in gloomy, scary times, God bless the United States of America! However alarming the fiscal situation over here, however nerve-jangling the anticipation of the forthcoming Spending Review and its impact of industrial relations, however wretched the prospect of the low level civil unrest that follows the scapegoating of the deprived by the wealthy, glancing across the Atlantic cannot fail to raise the spirits.

Exactly what is unfolding there remains hard to identify even for those better placed by geography, experience and intellect than your columnist. But even at this remove it is apparent that America is suffering some kind of paranoid psychotic episode.....

>
>
>

.....Watching the Tea Party crush centrist Republicans in race after race regardless of the damage this will do the GOP in November, noting the fanaticism at the rallies headlined by Palin and Beck, and recalling from his own childhood the power of crazed but charismatic rhetoric over a middle class grown poor and confused in Wehrmacht Germany, Noam Chomsky sniffs fascism on the breeze.

If that sounds hysterical, please God that it is. But something dark and hateful is stirring in America, and it seems certain to grow as long as unemployment and poverty persist. On Inauguration Day some 20 months ago it felt almost like a curse not to be American. Today it feels quite a blessing to be British.

If the Brits are starting to get queasy about what's going on here in the states, you just know that there's something both extraordinary and unsettling taking place.



----k

2012 . . . . quite possibly . . . . The End of the World As We Know It . . .

Maher hits it out of the park with this observation.

Prove him wrong.







----k