Burns is Back and As Hilarious as Ever

John Burns, the brilliant strategist hailed as the next William F. Buckley by St. Louis Tea Party leader Bill Hennessy, who managed to only be able to get 37% of the St. Louis County population to vote against a tax increase, is back sharing his cutting political insights. Apparently, leading a campaign that manages to change a population from beating an identical initiative to only getting 37% qualifies John Burns to explain exactly how future historians are going to talk about the tea party movement. And, according to him, the tea party will be remembered as having two phases: the Stand Around and Yell Phase, and the new Creep Out Your Neighbors Phase, pioneered by him.

And he's off to a fantastic start to his new movement, explaining to the readers of Hoft's blog how they can get involved on "Titter":



Let's hope Burn's endeavor is exactly as successful as his last one. It certainly looks like he's headed in that direction.

Dana Loesch Links to Birther YouTube Channel that Repeatedly Refers to "Obama Animals"

Dana Loesch thought she was very clever for typing captions on screenshots of a recent preview for an MSNBC special. But, as you might guess from the title of the video she used, she got her information from a very strange place:

The title refers to "Obama-animals." A quick glance at the youtube user, AmericasNewsTodayDotCom shows that the person uses the expression "Obama-animals" quite often:


And a further glance at the America News Today Twitter feed reveals that the person is also a committed birther:

Hmm, she sure knows how to show how rational those tea partiers are. But there was another thing about Loesch's post that seemed bizarre: check out the text she added to this photo:

Whaa? Did Dana Loesch just totally invent a black person at a tea party rally? Because that sure looks just like a middle aged white lady to me.

It does explain one thing though. This must be why Dana Loesch is so convinced that the tea party is really diverse.

Great Moments in Durrr

Actually, Scott Brown is in the Senate, and doesn't have a vote for "House Speaker."

Gateway Pundit Uses Death Threat Against Pelosi as Argument Against Health Care Reform

Jim Hoft, fresh off whining about how the mean old "liberal media" interpreted the tea party burning a photo of Carnahan and bringing a coffin to his house as a threat, today cited a death threat against Pelosi as evidence that the health care reform bill is bad. Hoft refers to Pelosi saying that people are "thrilled" about the healthcare bill, then quotes an article reporting on a death threat against Pelosi. Concludes Hoft:

It’s a thrilling piece of legislation.

I wonder how those durn libruls will interpret this not-in-any-way-completely-creepy statement.

Gateway Pundit Misrepresents Poll Numbers

Gateway Pundit claimed yesterday that a CNN poll showed that 59% of Americans opposed the health care bill and only 39% supported it. However, as Media Matters pointed out, 13% of the people thought that the bill was "not liberal enough," which means that a majority of Americans either support the bill or wish it was more liberal.

Gateway Pundit also claimed that Pelosi's favorable rating was only 11% and Reid's was only 8%. But again, this was a completely misleading representation, since the polls offered a number of options. Pelosi's unfavorable rating was only 37% and Reid's was only 27%, far below any serious danger areas.

Loesch Burns the Phone Lines

10 seconds left. The Tyrannical Union Hippies are leading the Great American Patriots by a single point in the Ultimate Battle for Liberty of ALL TIME. Dana Loesch gets the ball. She's been practicing her whole life for this moment. She stuns one defender by making a loud shrieking noise. Adam Sharp trips another defender, giving Loesch a wide open path to the basket. She drives the lane, goes up for the shot and....CLUNK!

Aww, too bad. In the moment of America's Greatest Peril, Loesch directed her followers to "melt the phone lines" of the wrong person. Yesterday, Loesch told her followers to scream and yell at Representative Jo Ann Emerson: Hmmm, that sure sounds strange for anyone who's been paying attention to the Missouri delegation. Ryan Witt asked her where she heard that: Not to worry! Dana heard it from a TOTALLY reliable source: a Dana listener: Except, after telling all of her people to "burn Emerson's phone lines," it turns out that Loesch hadn't even bothered to call Emerson's office. And, of course, she was completely wrong: Well, that about seals it. In a couple months, union stormtroopers will be in the streets enforcing the new mandatory marijuana-smoking laws. If only they had melted the phone lines of the right person..

Worst "Citizen Journalism" Evah!

The St. Louis Tea Party loves to talk about how they're "the future of journalism." If they're right, we will all be reduced to drooling vegetables a couple decades from now. Check out this amazingly lame "journalism" from Loesch:


Let's see, we have an inaudible tape of a guy that we don't know allegedly saying something that's not really that big of a deal... followed by a dramatic zoom in on an Obama button! Ooooh, so tech savvy! And to top it all off, Loesch co-opts Pink Floyd for her video. Yeah, I'm pretty sure The Wall was all about how awesome mindless patriotism and war-mongering are!

The Ultimate Hipsters

Hey kids, do you want be the coolest dudes on the scene?


(photo from Darin Morley)

You can be in it for the money, but still be legit!
You can work to oppress poor people, and still be punk!
You can dress up in costumes from 1776 while wearing tatoos!
You can even talk about Reagan...with a piercing!

Fight back against the people who oppress the oppressors. Join the Tea Party today.

Adam Sharp says to "Keep your eyes on those moonbat neighbors of yours"

Recently crowned ass clown of the week Adam Sharp (who, by the way, won by the greatest margin in the award's history) is warning fellow conservatives to keep an eye on their "moonbat neighbors." Sharp amazingly claims that Joseph Stack, the man who crashed his plane into an IRS building, and John Bidell, the man who opened fire on the Pentagon, were "lefty nutjobs."

Apparently Sharp doesn't recognize the irony of claiming that two government-hating conspiracy theorists who attacked government institutions are "lefties" while simultaneously suggesting that the problem with the country is that the Left "owns the government."

CBT: YOU'RE HELP MAKES A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!

The tea-party spawned astroturf group that calls itself Citizens for Better Transit is apparently neither for Better Transit nor for Better Spelling. Here's an exciting message from them on Facebook:

The Loudons sure know how to pick em!

MOPNS now reduced to sad little pranks

MOPNS, which calls itself a "news service" has been reduced to publicizing childish pranks and potty humor. Someone hacked into MO Senate Candidate Don Calloway's old campaign website and put "free porn clips for all," on the header of the site. MOPNS, showing itself to be a completely non-credible source of information, posted several stories ridiculously implying that Calloway himself was responsible for the message. MOPNS claims that they heard about this through their "tip line." Funny how no other news outlets published a story this dumb from their tiplines.

What's next for MOPNS? Video footage of someone putting a whoopee cushion underneath Jay Nixon's chair?

Is Ed Martin Trying to Commit Political Suicide?

Ed Martin is positioning himself at the front of the line for local extremists trying to destroy public transportation in the St. Louis region. Martin was one of the first people to follow the anti-transit group on Twitter, and yesterday he retweeted the following from Jim Durbin:

Durbin's post, unsurprisingly, is completely misinformed. Durbin claims that the public transportation ad is a "lie" because it says, "Some of us use it, all of us need it." He suggests that the money raised if Proposition A passes will only be used for expansion, and that Citizens for Better Transit is "lying" by suggesting that it's needed for Metro.

First of all, perhaps Durbin didn't notice, but the commercial run by CBT does not even mention the Proposition A campaign. So his suggestion that they're "lying" about the campaign is incoherent. But more importantly, Durbin does not even have the most basic understanding of what the stakes are for Proposition A. Metro had to cut funding last year after Proposition M did not pass. They were bailed out by the state and able to restore some (but not all) services, but they can't keep these services running unless their revenue is increased. The reality is that if Proposition A does not pass, Metro will have to make significant cuts in services, including light rail schedules, bus service, and call-a-ride. So I could perhaps say that Durbin is lying, but that would assume that he actually had some idea what he was talking about.

Back to Ed Martin. Why in the world would a candidate for office in the St. Louis region get behind a campaign that would cripple any future hope for quality public transportation in the city? I'm hopeful that Proposition A will pass, but who knows, maybe Martin, Durbin and other extremists will successfully misinform voters enough to beat the campaign. If so, any hope Martin had of running a competitive campaign will be completely ruined.

Why do I say this? Because just like last time, if funding is cut for public transportation, thousands of people will be left without ways to get to work. The elderly and disabled who rely on call-a-ride will be seriously inconvenienced. It will be a disaster, just like it was last year. And everyone will know that Ed Martin, as a local political personality with a big microphone, is one of the reasons the campaign failed. Does he seriously think anyone in St. Louis would vote for him after he tries to take out a crucial part of St. Louis infrastructure?

Gateway Pundit Extremely Concerned About Sex Lives of Local Undergraduates

Champion of Virginal Purity and All Things Good in the World Jim Hoft, aka Gateway Pundit, was forced to write a post today going into detail about a Washington University undergraduate's sex column in the independent student newspaper Student Life. Hoft, with only pure and good intentions, was so intent on warning his readers about this den of sin that he even decided to post three full paragraphs from the column on "how to give a textbook blowjob." Hoft's fellow middle aged male commenters then took turns alternately wagging their wrinkled old fingers at the downfall of society and calling Wash U undergraduates "sluts."

I'm sure undergraduates around the world will sleep much better knowing that Jim Hoft is keeping a watchful eye on their sex lives.

Gateway Pundit Thinks Yoo Deserves Medal for Saying President Can Massacre Civilians

Jim Hoft, aka Gateway Pundit, today claims that John Yoo, designer of the "enhanced interrogation techniques" of the Bush era, deserves "the Presidential Medal of Freedom, not Presidential Disdain." Yoo's legal philosophy, of course, is based on the absurd idea that the President can basically do whatever he wants, and a recently released legal document showed just how debased this philosophy is. When asked if the President can legally order the massacre of a civilians "massacred," Yoo replied "sure."

Apparently, Hoft is trying to compete with Glenn Beck for the Presidential Medal of Ridiculousness.

Adam Sharp Doesn't Understand Multiplication

Adam Sharp today said the following:

Maher is pretty good at spreading Barry's propaganda. But if you take a closer look at that "taxcut for 95% of Americans," it's not a tax cut at all. Those 95% of people who's taxes went down saw an average of $20 extra dollars per week in their paycheck.

Now, finally, I'm starting to realize why Sharp spends so much time arguing with 8-year olds: they have acquired a skill set that allows them to think in ways that Sharp can't imagine. For example, using the mathmatical operation known as mul-ti-pli-ca-tion, 8-year olds would be able to determine that $20 a week multiplied by 52 weeks works out to over $1000 dollars.
A thousand dollars is actually quite a good sum of money for anyone who's actually struggling to make ends meet. Sharp apparently wouldn't understand this since he is able to spend his abundant amount of leisure time traveling around St. Louis harassing everyone he doesn't like (i.e. everyone who doesn't think Obama is a socialist). Come to think of it: maybe Sharp's upset because Bill Maher so perfectly nailed the fact that people like Sharp are willing to blame Obama for all of their problems.

Is Conservatives of America Website a Birther Haven?

Dana Loesch and Jamie Allman's site Conservatives of America isn't growing very fast, but it does seem to be attracting some interesting people. Marketing Guy, who is regularly the featured post on the site, posted a video questioning whether Obama was born in Hawaii:

The video also suggested that Barack Obama might not be his real name:
The entire video is crazy: if you've got the stomach, you can watch the whole think here.
The post was also featured on the Conservatives of America facebook page, meaning that it definitely had official approval:
So why did Dana Loesch and Jamie Allman go out of their way to start up a birther website? And could this be the reason that the site is doing so poorly? And what in the world are they doing with all the money they're raising?

KTRS "Analyst" Proudly Displays 2nd Revolution Flag

Earlier, I mentioned that KTRS's political "analyst" Gina Loudon thought Joseph Basel was a hero for tampering with phone lines in a New Orleans office. In that same post, Loudon also posted a picture of the "2nd Revolution Flag":

(picture from teh analyst's blog)
Think Progress had previously reported on 2nd Revolution flags being at a Scott Brown Rally. Of course, in that case, the right could just say that Brown is not responsible for the flags at his rally. But Loudon proudly posted a picture on her blog.
So what's the flag about? Think Progress quotes the creator of the flag, Jeff McQueen, as saying that it could either of two meanings: the 2nd American Revolution or the 2nd Amendment. McQueen further calls for spitting the country in half (via Think Progress):

We are now as divided as America was in the 1860s. When two people find they can no longer communicate, while living under the same roof, they often split apart and go there seperate ways. So what if . . . we took the United States and just split it in half . . . 24 states become The United States of the Democrats and 24 states become The United States of the Republicans (including Ron Paul supporters and Libertarians etc . . .). California and New York can be split in half and go the the side they choose.

Apparently, the first step in Gina Loudon's march towards a new revolution is to attempt to destroy public transportation in St. Louis.

PS For wingers keeping track at home, this post is covered under the fair use doctrine.

As first misreported...

Jim Durbin, the right wing blogger who thought that the Animal Control Department was involved in a Massive Government Conspiracy and seems to think that editing LinkedIn profiles is a clear indication of membership in the Illuminati, has now taken to starting his blog posts with "As first reported on 24th State..." Durbin apparently fancies himself as the Last True Journalist and regularly taunts the Post-Dispatch for not reporting his conspiracy theories, and he wants to make sure that he's given his due credit.

Unfortunately, the new tag has not changed anything about Durbin's reporting style: he still takes a tiny sliver of truth and then stretches it to fit an absurd right-wing narrative that turns out to be completely false. Last week Durbin scored a media scoop by reporting that Obama was going to be in St. Louis. Unfortunately, however, he managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by claiming that Obama was only coming for McCaskill and that this was a clear sign that Robin Carnahan was trying to distance herself from the President. But, as Jake Wagman reported today, Obama is actually coming to raise money for both McCaskill and Carnahan.

Maybe this is just my own bias speaking, but it seems to me that if you're going to hype up the fact that you "first reported" something, you might want to actually get your story right.

Member of Original St. Louis Tea Party says Group has been "Co-opted by Neocons"

Interesting quote from Steven S. Hoffman on a StudLife article titled "Why tea and politics shouldn't mix":

As one who was present at the very beginning of the modern Tea Party movement, which was hatched in 2006-2007 by libertarians (who were trying to elect Ron Paul) as a protest against the BUSH ADMINISTRATION, and who has watched the movement be polluted and co-opted by Neocons, I feel fairly ambivalent about Tea Partiers (or if you prefer the vulgar Tea Baggers).

Anti-Transit Group Pwns Itself (with help from St. Louis Urban Workshop)

The astroturf, anti-St. Louis City group CBT (Crazypeople for Bulldozing Transit) continues to embarrass itself. Yesterday, they posted on their blog that pro-transit group Citizens for Modern Transit was "lying" because it claimed that the Metrolink delivered 20% of fans to the Cardinals games. The web site stated, "fortunately they allow reader comments," implying that the reader comments proved their assertion.

However, if you look at the comments, you'll see that St. Louis Urban Workshop actually completely dismantled the talking points of the astroturfers. Here's the relevant quote:

Nick – perhaps you should include your math when making an assertion that someone is lying. I did – and I welcome anyone to correct what I’ve figured:
2009 average attendance = 41,000
20% of 41,000 = 8,200
MetroLink 2-car train capacity = 356 x 2 (for one train in each direction) = 712 (and there are likely quite a few more than that, but this is official stated capacity)
8,200 passengers / 712 passengers per train = 11.5 trains needed
2 trains every 15min = 86.25 minutes to transport 8,200 passengers.
Again, I’m sure that there are more people on those trains than the stated capacity. Even so, I calculate 1hr 26min. And this would be 57.5 minutes with the old 10min schedule. With fans leaving the stadium across a time period of 30 minutes or more, depending on the score/weather/etc. it’s seems easy enough to transport that many passengers. Plus, quite a few go downtown early to eat, or stay downtown afterward, further spreading out demand.

So CBT throws out the ridiculous assertion that Citizens for Modern Transit is lying, and then links to a site that disproves their own argument. Nice!

Dana Loesch Attacked a Women Who Recently Died of Breast Cancer Last Week

Several days ago, right-wing radio host Dana Loesch tweeted the following:

The link takes you to a post by Gateway Pundit titled "Obama: St. Louis Campaign Supporter Died of Breast Cancer - Says She Couldn't Afford Exam - But Breast Exams are Free to Poor in St. Louis." As detailed on the St. Louis Activist Hub Blog, the post is a typical right-wing blame-the-victim screed directed at a women they know nothing about without bothering do any basic research.
You can hear more of Melanie Shouse's story here:

So the next time you hear Dana Loesch whine about how she is being "personally attacked" when people point out how she is factually wrong or hypocritical, keep in mind that she is willing to viciously attack a women who just died of breast cancer without knowing the smallest detail about her life, and she does so simply because the woman asked to be buried in an Obama shirt.

Ed Martin Links to Fanboy Blog to Claim he "Got Some Press"

Ed Martin claimed today on facebook and twitter that he got some press on his recent campaign video:


The Globe-Democrat is a right-wing online "newspaper," so the statement sounds believable. But what Martin linked to wasn't press at all, but rather a user-generated blog on the website from someone called "the Unablogger." In other words, anyone can log on the newspaper and write anything they want. Kinda like this post: Ed Martin Abuses St. Louisans Trust.

The Loudons' Role in the Anti-Transit Campaign

The Post-Dispatch ran a story today about the new I Love Transit advertisement featuring a wide range of leaders from the St. Louis region speaking out in favor of public transit. The story included criticism of Proposition A from John Loudon, but said that Loudon, "isn't involved in the formal campaign to defeat it." I'd like to examine this claim in more detail, especially given that yesterday, I suggested that it was pretty clear that well-known right-wing politicians John and Gina Loudon are behind the campaign to gut funding for public transit in the St. Louis region.

First of all, as I posted yesterday, there were only three people following the anti-public transit (and anti-St. Louis) Twitter page (misleadingly named "better transit" despite the fact that they don't actually propose any "better transit"): John Loudon, Gina Loudon, and Save Our Secret Ballots, which is an account created by John Loudon:

Hmmm, kinda funny that John and Gina Loudon had heard of the campaign before everyone else, if they weren't involved in it. But there's a lot more evidence than that, much of which was kindly provided by the tea party.
First, in Gina Loudon's post on her blog, she featured a picture of the anti-transit campaign "spokesperson" John Burns at the recent tea party convention:

She listed John Burns as one of her "heros" in the post. Furthermore, she described an incident where "her group" confronted some "liberal protesters" at the convention. From one of Bill Hennessy's posts, we can see who was in the group with her:

The guys in suits: John Burns, Bill Hennessy, and Joseph Basel, one of the teabuggers charged with tampering with phonelines in New Orleans.
This is what Gina Loudon wrote about the incident:

Then there were the “protesters.” They make for great sport, too! Our group was having lunch when we got word that the “Protestors” were in the convention hall. We dropped our forks and moved straight out to give them some fun. The only problem was, they met their match in protestors.

In other words, Burns was clearly in Hennessy and Loudon's "group." Loudon also goes on to describe how every night at the convention her core group would "retire to watering holes" and discuss strategy. Gee, I wonder what the Loudons and Hennessy would be discussing with Burns every night? Perhaps the anti-transit campaign which started the Thursday of the next week which was promoted only by Bill Hennessy? John Loudon was already on record criticizing public transit in the Post-Dispatch as recently as January 12.
Not only that, but Gina also described strategizing the weekend before last in Dallas, TX, and included this picture of her St. Louis group, again with John Burns in the picture (in the back, to the right of Bill Hennessy)

Wouldn't it be a pretty remarkable coincidence if John Burns just happened to be strategizing with John Loudon at conservative conferences two weekends in a row, and then miraculously decides to start a new group on Loudon's pet issue the week after? Yes, it sure would. Which means its pretty obvious that John Loudon and tea party leader Bill Hennessy are behind this campaign. The only question is, why are they trying to hide Loudon's invovlement?

"Political Analyst" Gina Loudon Thinks Basel is Hero for Teabugging

KTRS's resident "political analyst" (i.e. promoter of right-wing propaganda) Gina Loudon wrote recently that Joseph Basel was a "hero":

The weekend was filled with heroes, and none of them were politicians or party bosses. They were people like Joe Basel, who was arrested with James O’Keefe for his phone prank on Senator Mary Landrieu when she refused to speak with constituents who PAY for those phones, and the office she uses every day!

Huh? Basel's a hero for trying to tamper with a congressperson's phone line? I could understand why some right-wing conspiracy theorist would think that James O'Keefe was a hero, since he successfully damaged ACORN's reputation with his highly-edited videos, but Basel doesn't have any similar claim to fame. Loudon thinks Basel's a hero simply for apparently committing a crime.

Or maybe Loudon was referring to Basel's previous history, detailed in the beautifully-titled piece Portrait of a Con Artist as a Young Douche. Apparently Basel, while he was at the University of Minnesota, posted fliers that said "End Racism Now: Kill All the White Males" and managed to offend people enough to get the entire black student union to walk out from a presentation he was forced to give.

Quite a "hero," no? And that makes Loudon quite the "political analyst."

Tea Party's Anti-St. Louis Rally was a huge failure

The St. Louis Tea Party, who have apparently decided that they hate jobs, the Cardinals, and the St. Louis region in general, held a rally today to protest a ballot initiative that would prevent the Metro from cutting services and pave the way for future public-transit expansion.

The good news is that the rally was a huge failure. Only a handful of people showed up, and no legitimate media outlets covered the event (although the right-wing propaganda outlet Globe-Democrat cut-and-pasted the press release without bothering to check any of the facts). You can see how sad the "rally" was from the Globe-Democrat picture.

Other interesting facts: the spokesperson for the group, John Burns, is the same person who organized multiple St. Louis actions with two of the four teabuggers who were charged with tampering with Senator Landrieu's phone lines. Burns' behavior at those events would be quite damaging to any campaign, and I will be all-too-happy to go into in more detail in future posts.

Also, there appears to be good evidence that familiar right-wing extremists Gina and John Loudon are behind the group:

Why do the Tea Partiers hate the St. Louis Cardinals?

Question: what do the people in the following commercial have in common?

If you answered, "They're all radical communists trying to destroy the American way of life," sorry, wrong, please resume posting borderline racist comments on the Post-Dispatch website and leave this blog alone.

What all of these leaders actually have in common is that they all have a vested interest in the success of the St. Louis region. The President of the St. Louis Convention and Visitor's Commission and the President of Ameren UE are not doing commercials for public transit because they are flaming Marxists who love "big government." They know that if St. Louis is going to succeed as a city, it needs to have a viable public transit service that can help people get to work and take cars off the road.

Which is why, though I'm one of the least sympathetic people to the local tea party, even I was surprised to see that the local tea party has actually founded a new astroturf group to oppose Proposition A, the ballot initiative in St. Louis County to raise the sales tax 00.5 % in order to fund transit. The tea party site is full of misleading talking points and distractions, and is completely indifferent to the fact that failing to pass Proposition A would not only prevent the expansion of public transit, it would actually lead to massive cuts in service similar to what we saw last year before the state of Missouri helped St. Louis out (which would not happen again). In other words, hundreds of people would lose their jobs if Prop A doesn't pass, thousands would not be able to get to work, and Call-A-Ride services for people with disabilities would be massively scaled back. And yes, as the title of this post alludes to, failing to fund public transit will make it more difficult for people to get to Cardinals games in the future. Yet this new astroturf group proposes gutting the funding of Metro in the name of "better transit" without even explaining where any additional funding would come from. It's complete nonesense.

And, by the way, the head of this new organization is listed as John Burns. Is it this John Burns? Because, if so, that would be hilarious.

How to argue like Dana Loesch

For any aspiring Fox News and Pajamas Media TV contributors out there, I've assembled a handy five-step guide for how to respond to criticism exactly like Dana Loesch in every possible situation:

1. See if the criticism is merely pointing out things you were completely factually wrong about. If so, ignore, because who really cares about that? If not, proceed to step 2.

2. Check Big Government to see if if Andrew Breitbart wrote something on the subject. If so, link to his article and pretend like that's sufficient proof. If not, proceed to step 3.

3. See if there's any possible story you can invent to claim that the person is racist or sexist. If so, state that this proves that really it has been liberals who are responsible for all of the racism and sexism in the country. If not, proceed to step 4.

4. Check for any typos or punctuation mistakes, like a missing apostrophe. If so, pretend that this invalidates the entire argument. Now would be a good time to use a phrase that shows how hip and relevant you are. If not, proceed to step 5.

5. Proceed to incoherent name-calling. Phrases like "stalker" or "troll" are empty enough that you can use them on anyone who criticizes you. Or, if you'd like to get really creative, you can invent new expressions like "rattling the specter" that will be sure to confuse your readers.

And there you go! Just follow these simple steps and you'll be well on your way to a lucrative career spreading propaganda for the noble corporations that as we all know are not responsible for any of the world's problems.

Dana Loesch Insanely Jealous of Meghan McCain

Dana Loesch has a habit of trying to pick fights with people who have more Twitter followers than her to try to build up an audience. One of her favorite targets for this is Meghan McCain, daughter of John McCain, who has 82,000+ followers on Twitter compared to Loesch's 7,000+. Far right-wingers hate Meghan McCain because she has the audacity to suggest that maybe the Republican Party shouldn't be homophobic, she believes that climate change is real, and she has suggested that the tea party is too extreme. So naturally Loesch freaked out in jealous rage after McCain recieved recent media attention:

Notice how Loesch immediately suggests that McCain, who has reasonable ideas that certainly are worthy of actual debate, is somehow ditsy or shallow. But of course if anyone said something like that about someone Loesch likes, Sarah Palin for example, Loesch would immediately brand them as sexist.
But who knows? Maybe if Loesch continues to spend every waking second on self-promotion as she has been, she will someday be as popular as Meghan McCain is now.

Bill Hennessy Excited By New Future of Middle-Aged White People

Bill Hennessy went to the Tea Party Convention in Nashville last weekend marked by birtherism, homophobia, and racial paranoia and was very excited by the 600 mostly white, middle-aged people who he thinks represent the future of America.

Check out Hennessy's fired up tweets:




Hennessy then goes on to say in a blog post about the convention:

Standing near the door that opened to a parking lot, you could almost feel the wind blow out the flame on the candle of liberalism. The torch wasn’t passed. It was extinguished.

Wow, who knew that 600 mostly middle-aged white people willing to shell out $500 to hear Sarah Palin speak could so perfectly represent the entire USA?

St. Louis Tea Party Blog Now Features Articles on Bathroom Sex

Adam Sharp, who's favorite insult of people who are schooling him is a sarcastic intonation of "classy," has decided to class up the St. Louis Tea Party site:



Sadly, this is probably the highest quality journalism to ever grace the pages of the blog.

Yesterday's Funniest Headline

Gateway Pundit as of about 10 PM last night:
Tea party favorite Adam Andrezejewski finished 5th out of five candidates.
We all knew Gateway Pundit was completely disconnected from reality on national politics, but it's still impressive to see how wildly delusional he is about his own state.

Gateway Pundit Misleads on SOTU

Gateway Pundit kept up his usual absurdity today, creatively interpreting his handed-down right wing talking points to attack Obama. First, he claims that the blog Think Progress, "caught the president's dishonest attack on Bush," referring to Obama noting that he inherited a financial disaster from the Bush administration. But actually Think Progress defended Obama, writing, "stating facts is not blaming Bush," and linking to this explanation of the deficit claim.

Furthermore, Gateway Pundit suggested that this was, "the worst state of the union address sin history." But in fact a CBS poll showed that 83% of speech watchers approved of the proposals Obama made in his speech, and 70% thought that Obama shares the same priorities for the country as they do.

And in the update to this post, GP and his friend Darin Morely from Reboot Congress apparently approve of calling Obama a ratf***** and "hating" him.

Fringe of the fringe.

Great Moments of St. Louis Tea Party FAIL - The Counterprotest

Bill Hennessy put out a call for a counter-protest to yesterday's MoveOn rally:

Only two people showed up, conservative bloggers Adam Sharp and Doug Edelman, and they were successfully kept in line by a high school principle, who as Sarah Jo pointed out, knows how to deal with children.

But there was some good news for the tea party. They coined a new motto that perfectly sums up their ideology: "even lies are free speech."

Adam Sharp Fails Miserably

This is hilarious. Adam Sharp goes to a MoveOn rally holding a sign "I want free abortions" clearly trying to misrepresent the message of the protesters. The protesters call him out on it, and exercise their right to free speech by holding their signs in front of his. Sharp, as usual, starts crying about how oppressed he is:

"Are you videoing these classy people"

"What are you so afraid of, trying to block dissent."

Actually, they weren't trying to block dissent, because Sharp didn't have the decency to dissent. Instead, he was obviously trying to hold a sign up to deceive the passing traffic and the media. The protesters completely kicked Sharp's ass, and rightfully called him a liar.

Watch the hilarity of unintentional right-wing self-parody:

MoveOn.Org Astroturf Rally 1-26-10 from Doug Edelman on Vimeo.

Best line from Sharp: "Even lies are free speech."

When you have to point out that lies are free speech, you've pretty much lost. Nice work by the MoveOn crew!

Great Moments of St. Louis Tea Party FAIL

Bill Hennessy put out a call begging "courageous CEOs" to comment on his post and tell the world how evil Obama is. Hennessy noted that he especially loves Fortune 500 companies. But unFortune-ately (heh) no CEOs answered his call, and his CEO hall of fame remains stuck at three people. It's not for lack of trying, though, as the astroturf St. Louis Tea Party repeatedly defends corporation who make a profit by screwing over the middle class, including the big banks who crashed our economy,

Dana Loesch's "race card" hypocracy

Dana Loesch today got into an argument on Twitter and fell back on one of her usual empty attacks: she accused @queenofspain of playing the "race card" for pointing out that the GOP and tea party attacks on ACORN were politically motivated by the fact that ACORN played a central role in registering minorities to vote. Queen of Spain pointed out that this was not a claim that the GOP was racist, but simply that they were willing to use these (unethical) tactics to win elections. Thus, it really wasn't "the race card", but that didn't stop Loesch from tweeting the following:

And

And

After this last one, Loesch says:

Well apparently Loesch is an expert on lazy and inherently bigoted debate, as we can see from her own history of actually playing the race card, unlike Queen of Spain.
First, in an argument with the St. Louis Young Dems, she repeatedly suggests that anyone who doesn't think that Kenneth Gladney was "brutally beaten" by "union thugs" must be biased because Gladney is a black man:


But, of course, serious questions have been raised about the right-wing story about Gladney, so much so that Gladney was named the Riverfront Times' Ass Clown of the Week. There are a lot of reasons to question the story, so Loesch is both "lazy" and "inherently bigoted" to suggest that the only reason people would question it is because Gladney is a black man.
And if that's not enough, check out this tweet from Loesch:

Huh? She's claiming that someone is racist for "ignoring the contributions of brilliant black conservatives." What does that even mean? Since "ignoring" in this context apparently means, "not mentioning," why is Dana Loesch "ignoring" the contributions of brilliant black liberals?
When Loesch routinely violates here own stated principles, it's pretty hard to know what she stands for other than an unfaltering commitment to self-promotion.

Ultimate Irony! Ed Martin Ducks Out of Debate with Primary Challanger!

Ed Martin, as part of a publicity stunt, challenged Congressman Russ Carnahan to attend a "townhall meeting." Carnahan, like any smart politician, ignored Martin because if he didn't everyone would think that he could be easily bullied. Of course, Martin and the right wingers freaked out about the fact that Carnahan wasn't at their fake town hall.

But get this: earlier in January, Ed Martin had already agreed to debate Republican Primary challenger John Wayne Trucker, and then chickened out! So Mr. "I heart free speech" Martin was afraid to have a honest-to-God democratic debate, and then turned around and tried to attack Carnahan for not attending his astroturf event.

Maybe someone should have told Mr. Trucker than Martin only attends debates in Todd Akin's district.

Adam Sharp Blames Obama for all of his problems

Add another guy from the Party of Personal Responsibility (bankers excluded) who claims that President Obama is responsible for all of his financial problems. Adam Sharp of Sharp Elbows, Dull Wits wrote a blog post saying that for the first time in 11 years he didn't get a raise, and of course it's all Obama's fault. As all astute observers know, the financial collapse that occurred during the Bush Presidency had no effect whatsoever on the economy.

But wait, I'm confused. I thought if you were a hard worker, it doesn't matter at all what your life circumstances are? That's why we don't need to provide aid to low-income communities: if they want to move up the ladder independent of educational opportunities, social support, and mentorship, all they need to do is work harder. Yet in Sharp's case, it has nothing to do with how hard he worked; it's obviously the fault of the President? And couldn't Sharp have worked more hours or gotten a second job instead of spending hours every week running around with a camera trying to annoy people?

I guess personal responsibility only matters for people they don't like.

Dana Loesch's Phony Outrage

Ready the fainting couch: Dana Loesch has got the vapors. She's just so offended that Jeff Roorda used the term "teabaggers" when he was speaking on the floor of the Missouri House of Representatives.

However, as pointed out here: Loesch makes "teabagger" jokes frequently, and doesn't seem to be offended by herself:

Oh yeah, and the term was originally used by right-wing activists.

Nobody does completely disingenuous outrage like the Right.

Gateway Pundit: Bush was "World's Greatest Liberator Since WW II"

Yes, he really said that. This is what the tea partiers long for: a return to George Bush. I'm speechless.

Gateway Pundit Pisses on Ted Kennedy's Grave

In case you ever wondered what motivates someone like Gateway Pundit, here's your answer: pure hatred.

Jim Hoft put up a blog post today titled "This One's For You, Mary Jo," referencing Mary Jo Kopechne, the woman who died in Kennedy's 1969 car accident (the source of numerous right-wing conspiracy theories). Hoft also featured a picture of the car being pulled out of the river. Pretty hard to see any motivation for Hoft posting that other than pure spite.

Of course, we learned quite a bit about Jim Hoft's character when he posted a race-baiting video from a white supremacist website and refused to take it down.

Gateway Pundit Promotes Tea Party Scam

Gateway Pundit, while busy trying to hype up the fabricated story that President Obama ordered "union thugs" to beat people up at an August 6 townhall, promoted the national bus tour called the Tea Party Express last fall.

The only problem? Two thirds of the spending from the "Tea Party Express" went to the political consulting firm that created it. That's over $850,000 going to the operatives who run the GOP consulting firm based in California.

But since Gateway Pundit is so interested in the truth, I'm sure he will issue an apology on his blog anytime now.

Conservatives of American Continues to FAIL

The site Conservatives of America, led by local right-wing radio hosts Dana Loesch and Jamie Alman, continues to be a giant flop. Just checked in today, and they still can't even manage having a "Today's Top Post":

This, of course, is similar to a few weeks ago.

The group, which calls itself the "conservative version of MoveOn" as do a million other groups, currently has 800 people after about 40 days, which means it will take them 684 years before they reach the 5 million members that MoveOn currently has. As I said before (but now have to change because they suck even worse) Watch Out 27th Century Liberals!

Update: Yes, COA is not very impressive, but I'm removing some of my taunts as I think they detract from the rest of the site. See other posts for more info.

Gateway Pundit 's Commenters on his Post Attacking Michael Steele

In light of recent right-wing bloggers (including Gateway Pundit) declaring that Harry Reid is a flaming racist, I thought it might be interesting to examine how the commenters on Gateway Pundit's site reacted to his recent post attacking RNC chair Michael Steele. Gateway Pundit, remember, has linked to videos from white supremacist web sites on multiple occasions while trying to promote his agenda, and has refused to remove such links even after being told that they are offensive (in fact, he deletes comments that mention this). Since he deletes comments on his site that criticize himself, it follows that he could easily delete any of the following comments. But he doesn't.

You will not be surprised to know that most of the people on his blog despise Steele:


That's fine: everyone is entitled to their own political opinions. Less fine is the fact that many commenters use Steel'e flaws as an excuse to pretend that affirmative action is the root of all societal evils:





And worst of all, and really the subject of this post, is the fact that many of the commenters seem to believe that Steele is involved in a secret conspiracy to destroy the Republican Party from the inside:





Hmmm, so Steele is a mysterious "Other" who pretends to be like the rest of us but is really something Different who is trying to secretly destroy the entity he leads from the inside. Sound familiar? Like, uh, exactly the same thing these fringers believe about Obama?

One person even spells it out:


It's a shame Gateway Pundit encourages these kinds of comments on his site.