I Don't Like You Either

Department of Valedictions: Lefty Bloggers Reflect on W

Did you know that Bush is still president?  It's true.  BUT NOT FOR VERY MUCH LONGER.

Bloggenfreude at Agitprop mourns W's passing.  "We will never see his like again."

As a lefty blogger, I will miss him. Sure he’s a dangerous sociopath, a pathological liar, and a national embarrassment.  But he’s also The Decider, The Commander Guy, and Commander Codpiece.  Think about that as January 20, 2009 approaches....

The photographic tributes are particularly choice.  We recommend clicking.

Snark O' the Day: Roy Edroso's Top Stupid Wingnut Moments for 2008

Roy Edroso posts his "top 10 stupid right-blogger tricks" for 2008 at The Village Voice.  An excerpt:

Pop stars made a video for Obama and the American Spectator compared it to Triumph of the Will. National Review called Obama's national service plan the "Obama Youth." Obama spoke in Germany, and Melissa Clouthier compared his signage to that of the Third Reich.

Jonah Goldberg said liberals only liked Obama because they didn't know any real (that is, poor and dangerous) black people; Taranto said Democrats were intimidated into nominating him, as an old lady might be intimidated into surrendering her purse to a mugger.

Snark O' the Day: How Much do Conservatives HATE AMERICA? Sadly, No! (& Its Commentariat) Attempts to Answer

All during the campaign we kept hearing from Sarah Palin that Obama and his supporters didn't think about America the same way she and the morons who voted for her aspire to think of it or give it the same blind love and loyalty that the wingnuts claim to give it.  In a way, this is true.  We think it's the duty of the citizen of a democracy to place democratic ideals before blind loyalty and that "tough love" is required to keep the country on the right path. 

Joel Stein, who---at least when writing in character--- is a conservative's idea of a liberal, may or may not understand this.   Affecting to speak for all liberals, he said:

Sure, we liberals claim that our love is deeper because we seek to improve the United States by pointing out its flaws. But calling your wife fat isn’t love. True love is the blind belief that your child is the smartest, cutest, most charming person in the world, one you would gladly die for. I’m more in ‘like’ with my country.”

Conservatives had a field day with this, ingenuously taking him at his word and assuming that he is infallible on the subject of liberalism and is appointed by all liberals to speak for them.  And so Clif at Sadly, No! thoughtfully compiled a list of all the things those America-lovin' wingnuts HATE HATE HATE!!!!! about their country.

Snark O' the Day: Betty Cracker on Camille Paglia

by Damozel | I read Sexual Personae Vol. 1 in---what was it? 1992?  A LONG time ago, anyway---and I really enjoyed it.  I love reading other people's literary hallucinations, even when I don't buy into them, and Paglia's hypnotic hyper-visual prose style is exceedingly well suited to the discussion of painting and literature. 

Though I couldn't agree less with her fundamental premises, I enjoyed reading her strange and wondrous reframings of my favorite works of art and literature.  It was like looking at them...um, through a glass, and darkly. Some of her eerier interpretations (on Sade, on Blake, on Baudelaire, on Coleridge on Swinburne) are forever seared upon my memory, not necessarily in a good way or in accordance with my wishes.

So I wish she hadn't ruined it all for me by trying to get herself positioned as some sort of cultural (including popular culture) arbiter.  Not satisfied with being a critic and commentator, she wanted to be Ye Supreme Arbiter of American Popular Culture. 

A Wingnut Marital Aid: Dennis Prager Gives Holiday Sex Tips to Ladies Married to (A Seasonal Snarkfest!)

Yes, it was four days ago that we first tried to ignore this piece by Dennis Prager  [When a Woman Isn't in the Mood: Part I] because we have our own sex lives to think of and we can't afford to have Prager get all mixed up in those thoughts, but at last we decided we had a duty to ourselves to round up the best of the snark generated from Prager's cornucopia. 

It is, after all, a cornucopia filled with highly mockable phallacies (though we have our own thoughts about the "copia" part of the "cornu" in question).

Sadly, many of our favorite cruel bloggers didn't cover this because it came out on December 23.  (We can't WAIT for When a Woman Isn't in the Mood:  Part 2.)   Everyone can play!

InstaSnark: All Sorts

Hey!  Go easy on them, dude; they're not used to it.  Fact-esque: Squealing Like Stuck Pigs: Bushies Respond to a Modicum of Truth

We knew there had to be a reason....  Bats Left, Throws Right: Oh, So That's Why The Times Hired Kristol

The war on the War on Christmas..... Brilliant at Breakfast: Ah, yer all a buncha pagans... :.  Heh.  Indeed.  Hehindeed.  Heh indeedie deedie do....

Right-wing male theocrats:  indistinguishable the world over, especially as regards their views on women and teh gays......Betty Cracker:  Mullah Warren;  Alas, a Blog;Rick Warren Blatantly Lies; Katha Pollitt on Warren’s Misogyny;  Chicken, er um Turkey Yoghurt: Benedict XVI: making a list, checking it twice

Sean Mullen ain't surprised.    GOP:  They Don't Get It.  They Never Will. We ain't surprised either.

Best O' Wingnut Douchebaggery 2008: Vote Now for the Year's Greatest Smears (& Blots); Bonus Poll: Vote for Your Favorite Right-Wing Loathly Hag

by Teh Nutroots | WHICH WINGNUT NOMINEE SHOULD WIN EACH OF THESE COVETED AWARDS FROM THE POOR MAN'S INSTITUTE?

Chickenhawk of the Year:

We are talking about rhetorical courage, the puffed-chest bravado and keyboard-rattling grandiloquence from which true heros are made.  Whether they are warning off the Moorish hordes, threatening to start a civil war if they don’t get their way, fearlessly yelling racial slurs from behind a pseudonym on the internet, or steadfastly proclaiming their indomitable will to continue blabbing on about all the super-butch things they’d do if only they hadn’t already made plans to play Starcraft, these Warriors of Words are truly our last line of defense against not having to listen to them.(The Poor Man)

Dennis Prager Wants Minorities to Apologize for The Sins of Fellow Minorities

Apparently, in Prager's universe white Christians, especially white Christian males, are always apologizing.  Who knew? 

Prager thinks it's about time for minorities to "express shame."  Prager himself, as you can see, has none.  

Clif at Sadly, No! sees this one off in Town Hall of Shame.

Basically it appears that Prager thinks that individual members of minority groups should apologize for the bad things that other members of that group did which forced the majority to enact discriminatory laws against the entire minority group and then feel vaguely guilty years later for doing so....

Attackerman: "Dey Know (Blago)"

Like Ackerman said, he's so gangster.  Via HuffPost.

Jon Swift on Derrierism, the Sensible Conservative's Answer to "Hollyweird"

Conservative Andrew Breitbart intends to start a new website on which conservatives will review films. Derrierism, a new school of film criticism that Jon Swift identified in August 2007---and a tag which made its way into the Urban Dictionary--- has evolved from "an esoteric school of film criticism championed by a few forward-thinking critics." (Swift 12-9-2008).  Quoting extensively from Mr. Swift, the Urban Dictionary defines derrierism as follows:

The critical method of judging movies by whether your buttocks moves in the seat while watching them. Derrièrists dispense with such niceties as subtlety and thought in movie criticism, believing that intellectuals, relativists, existentialists, pacifists, and no doubt the Communist Left have had the upper hand in film-making for too long.

In short, a "derrierist" is a film reviewer who pulls film reviews out of his---or indeed her---ass.

Snark O' the Day: Obama's Birth Certificate---The Ongoing Questions

Now that Obama has a real scandal on his plate, this birth certificate one looks sort of sad and sketchy and tattered.  At the rate we're going the Right will be calling for impeachment before he's inaugurated.... But anyway, here's Gavin M. bringing the eyerolling fun. 

The Economic Crisis: A Tragedy for Those Who Feel

At The Left Coaster, Paradox has put up a post arguing that it's time for a little less detachment about the impending Depression [see The Agonist] and a little more thought about the damage that's already been done, and being done, and the suffering that's already started.

InstaSnark

Heh.  Indeed.

Heh heh.  INDEED.

UGH.  Um---::suppressing gag reflex::--- indeed.

Only Obama can save us from the disappointment of Bill Richardson's beardlessness and "the Curse of Taft."  But will he act in time? 

The Wall Street Jackass ("This is me not listening to you") saves Bush the trouble of writing his own resume....

Speaking of Wall Street and jackasses, Blue Texan discusses Noonan's post hoc ergo propter hoc argument that at least Bush kept us safe, except of course--as he points out---for the people in New Orleans' 9th Ward during Katrina and the kids we sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.   P.S.  At her "sparkling" GOPfest, she still could not see the foreclosure signs.  Walk her out in the morning dew, this morning.

Concern Troll Olympics!  Read 'em all!  Collect 'em!  Trade 'em with your friends!

In the Great White North, Jeff Fecke heralds the coming of a new right wing douchebag.

InstaSnark

Heh.  Indeed.

Heh. Heh. Heh.  INDEED.

Bastards....!

Right wingers do it right-eously and often.

Thanks to Bush, we're all screwed.

A  breakthrough at RedState?  John Cole is gobsmacked.

Douchebag atheists?

K-Lo "has tan lines...and she's not afraid to share them."

Festive at your local mall!

The disappointing beardlessness of Bill Richardson....

Who indeed, who indeedie deedie do, was this?  The Ghost of Christmas Future Visits a Minneapolis Churchyard!

Dept of "And the Scales Fell from His Eyes": Townhall.com Lets Itself & Marc Ambinder Down

Marc Ambinder is clearly pained that Town Hall is "spot-lighting" a certain questionable fund-raising plea "from a foundation that wants to prove, in court, that Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States and is therefore ineligible to be president and therefore wants to do a whole lot of bad things involving amnesty, illegal aliens and the United Nations. Obama'd be the "Usurper in Chief.""

Jon Swift: Why Bush Should Pardon the Wal-Mart Shoppers

Our co-blog Buck Naked Politics rounded up blogger commentary on the trampling/stampeding death one Wal-Mart employee as a result of over-enthusiastic Wal-Mart shoppers here.  Mr. Swift has a somewhat different take.  Like William Kristol, who urged Bush to pardon wiretappers and torturers (see our nutshell summary), Mr. Swift would like to see Bush pardon the Wal-Mart shoppers and---following Kristol's lead---award the offenders the Medal of Freedom.

Snark O' the Day: IOZ on the Secularization of the Season

by Damozel | Writing on Henniger's dog-whistling about the secularization of the season, IOZ says:

Adam Smith it ain't.

It takes no particular perspicacity to note that our holidays-without-the-holy came about not through the secularizing efforts of "Northerners and atheists," the gangs of post-doctoral post-modernists slavering to gnaw on the soft edges of Christendom, but through the commercializing efforts of the various and sundry pillars, columns, flutes, and scrolls of American state capitalism. The gradual erosion of "Merry Christmas" in favor of "Happy Holidays" doesn't mark a moral retreat in the face of religious multiculturalism or anti-Christian laïcité. It marks the commerce-driven extension of a shopping season, one that now extends from before Halloween to the post-New Year sales. "Happy Holidays" isn't culturally inclusive; it's commercially inclusive.

Which --- as the sinners of Hadleyburg remarked in a slightly different context --- has got the Hallmark on it.

Turkeygate Part 2 (I Can't Believe I'm Defending Sarah Palin)

by Blue Stockings | I can't stand Sarah Palin, but the squeamishness over Turkeygate doesn't sit well with me.   I said why here, but IOZ says it better.  Thanksgiving Day seems like the right time to make this point.

Snark O' the Day: Jon Swift Advises Us to Celebrate Thanksgiving Before Barack Abolishes It

by Mr. J.Q. Public | Swift's Thanksgiving Day post is an unusually savage one.  But there is a reason for that. 

Thanksgiving celebrates the day that Pilgrims and Indians sat down to eat together before the gay secularist Indians divided this country and tried to foist their atheism and savage decadent culture on the God-fearing pilgrims.

The "Spite Caucus": One Right Wing Woman's Personal Journey...

by Damozel  | ....wielding Jonah Goldberg's hilarious, oxymoronic diatribe as her personal weapon of choice.  As chronicled by Gavin M. of Sadly, No!, this tale is (partly, though only partly) the tale "of her New York rampage, baying through the streets with book awave."

GM To Sell 2 Private Jets

by Teh Nutroots | At Under the Lobsterscope  Bill Tchakirides reports:

This is apparently a response to the Congressional comments on the three auto bigwigs taking private jets to D.C. to beg for $28 Billion.

I look at this as corporate humor.

I'm waiting to hear if any of the CEO's are going to take Charles Grassley's suggestion about cutting their own salaries to save their companies. 

But I ain't holding my breath.

You & Your Health: Write a "Dear John" Letter to the Insurance Industry

by Teh Puppet Mistress | Via Politics After 50, this link to a site where you can tell them what you think of them.  You can write your own letter or use theirs.

But hers is awesome.  "I just had a certain bone to pick, so I picked it," she says modestly.  It's good all the way through, but here are my favorite bits:

Snark O' the Day: WSJ Blames Atheists for the Collapse of Wall Street

by Teh Puppet Mistress | Myers:  The Wall Street Journal is a Very Silly Place

The United States has some serious problems: an ugly war, a shaky economy, a bad government (on the way out, at last). It's been a rough eight years. So of course it must be someone's fault, and Daniel Henninger has a simple explanation: blame the atheists. Especially blame the atheist's successful war on Christmas. He says, "A nation whose people can't say 'Merry Christmas' is a nation capable of ruining its own economy."

Conservatives Declare Us the Victors in Iraq: "THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON"

by Teh Puppet Mistress | I've been steadfastly ignoring this latest wingnut meme all week, but The Toot sees off the most recent attempt of wingnuts who miss blowing hard on the big bullshit horn about their superior superiority and want to feel right-eous and holler and bloviate about something.   They need their fix of self-congratulatory self-righteousness.

Snark O' the Day: Conservatives Mull Over their Defeat Some More

  by Teh Nutroots |   This time it's Jon Henke at Pajamas Media.  I wouldn't be bothering were it not for the awesomeness of Roy Edroso's response. 

At Pajamas Media, Jon Henke looks to rightwing history for guidance:...

...the Left did not retake the executive and legislative branches by being more liberal or more moderate, or by clever political jujitsu. Democrats became the majority because they changed the story.

So true. And what a story it was: "The Republican have fucked this country up so badly that you'll even vote for a black guy to get it unfucked."

The Republicans are welcome to top it if they can. I suspect their offer will be some variation of "we hate fags."  [Narrate This]

Snark O' the Day: Women in the Military

by Blue Stockings |  Res ipsa loquitur.

From Pam's House Blend:

So, I'm elated when I read this:

First Female Four-Star General Promoted

A Swift Examination of Mr Obama's Serial Gaffes

by Mr J.Q. Public | On the heels of Powerline's concern about Obama's recent unseemly gaffes comes Jon Swift's withering summation of Obama's disastrous press conference.  It seems that Mr Powerline---I do not believe that is his name, but I haven't time at present to look him up---may be right after all, despite the mockery to which his piece was subjected by my liberal co-blogger.   Obama does require tutelage in speaking without going awry and should probably take W as his model, as Mr Powerline (again, apologies) suggests.

Powerline: "Undisciplined" Speaker Obama Should Take Precise and Careful Speaker Bush as a Model

by Teh Nutroots | Ha ha ha ha ha ha!  I love watching them clutching madly at straws, only to end up sticking them in their hair.  Via Sadly, No!, here's Powerline's latest air brick:

Snark O' the Day: The Know Nothing Party

by Blue Stockings | First, Hilzoy said that she's done taking the wingtards at The Corner seriously, now that they're washed up as a force of any sort.  And added, "I wish them well, but I will not comment on them unless I see some particular reason to do so. I now have the luxury of debating only thoughtful, sane conservatives who argue in good faith, and I intend to enjoy it."

Compassionate Conservatism & the Katrina Victims: How Dare Those People Lose Everything They Own?

from Nicholas  |  Always keen to explore what’s out there, to seek out new blogs and new civilisations, I boldly went today to a blog called Five Feet Of Fury.    Fury is right.  It’s one of those angry right wing blogs written by someone who is seemingly consumed with loathing for anyone who is not exactly like her.  The conservative blogosphere is like that – they seem perpetually angry, always wanting to make life as miserable as possible for everyone else. Go have a look, if you’re not trying to digest something.