GEORGE F. WILL, STILL A CLUELESS GASBAG

Will's latest bloviation in the WaPo is another testament to the inconsistent narratives employed by the GOP. He first notes that the election of Obama signals an end to the Democrats using "identity politics" to win elections and later describes Palin Mania as an example of the GOP succumbing to the same kind of politics.

Some conservatives who are gluttons for punishment are getting a head start on ensuring a 2012 drubbing by prescribing peculiar medication for a misdiagnosed illness. ... These conservatives, confusing pugnacity with a political philosophy, are hot to anoint Palin, an emblem of rural and small-town sensibilities, as the party's presumptive 2012 nominee.

The GOP has played it's own version of identity politics for years and it usually comes down to accusing Democrats and liberals as being unAmerican. Rove was a master at this and that smear is still in the GOP playbook and still being used, as we learned from GOP Representatives Hayes and Bachmann.

KICKING BACK FOR A BIT

For the last 6 weeks, I've been canvassing for a local Congressional campaign (we won!) and against a state-wide proposition that would make life easier for payday loan sharks (it was defeated!) and I'm now a little tired of politics. I don't think I can stand to listen to and comment about wingnut radio for a while because it all seems to be mostly the same crap that I've been hearing for years. The only thing at all new is how these idiots don't seem to think that America rejected their brand of conservatism.

I know that Noise Machine is still around and will get back up to speed shortly and I'll certainly be around to help push back but maybe, just maybe, the wingnuts will be in retreat for a few years.

THERE'S A PARALLEL STORY

Eric Boehlert at County Fair wonders when the MSM will get around to exploring the greater influence of liberal blogs and the larger netroots. The flip side of this should be the declining influence of right-wing radio gasbags like Limbaugh and Hannity.

COULDN'T HAPPEN TO A NICER GUY

Wingnut money bags Sheldon Adelson's company is in deep trouble and with a little luck, it won't survive.

Las Vegas Sands Said to Have Met Singapore, Banks on Financing

By Beth Jinks and Kelvin Wong

Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire who controls Las Vegas Sands Corp., ... Las Vegas Sands seeks funding to stave off defaulting on loans while facing ``substantial doubt'' about its ability to survive, it said yesterday. Casino revenue in Macau, where the company earns about two-thirds of its sales, fell in the second and third quarters for the first time in at least three years.

Las Vegas Sands plummeted 33 percent to $7.85 yesterday in New York trading after saying it might default on loans arranged by Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

THE EXTREMISTS IN THE GOP WON'T CHANGE

I guess if you believe that you have the Absolute Truth then you really can't change; the best you can do is stop listening to others and retreat into your delusions.

GOP bloggers, pundits turn focus to rebuilding
By Mallory Simon
CNN
updated 7:33 p.m. EST, Wed November 5, 2008

Conservative Peter Kirsanow wrote on the National Review that Republicans as a whole must take a hard look at what went wrong, saying "losers usually do" need to reassess their strategy.

Kirsanow urged conservatives to look for opportunities to reach across the aisles whenever possible to help better the country, but to continue to hold steadfast to their ideals.

"On every other occasion, fight," he wrote. "Fight every attempt to entrench a new entitlement. Fight every attempt to redistribute wealth. Fight every attempt to radicalize the courts. Fight every attempt to weaken our defenses. Fight every attempt to restrict political speech. Fight every attempt to revise history. Fight for what's best about America."

Brent Bozell, president of the Conservative Victory Committee and founder and president of the Media Research Center, called Obama's election one of the "greatest political sleights of hands of all time," and blamed the downturn of the Republican party on the liberal wing of the GOP.

While he said that for now, "we are out," he remained confident the party just needs to re-examine its approach.

"Our principles continue to be embraced by the American people," he wrote. "It is our movement that needs rebuilding. That begins today. It's time for conservatives to roll up their sleeves, strap on their boots and get to work."

CHRIS WALLACE IS CHANGING?

I heard Wallace on Imus in the Morning recently and he seemed fairly rational so I began to re-calculate my opinion of him. Later, I saw and read this on Raw Story:

Jon Stewart to Fox host: 'You and Shep...have your moments'
David Edwards and Muriel Kane
Published: Thursday November 6, 2008

When Fox News's Chris Wallace appeared on the Daily Show on Wednesday, Jon Stewart was prepared with footage to confront him on Fox's unrepentant Obama-bashing. However, Wallace revealed himself to be fully aware of Fox's biases and even admitted he had been moved by Barack Obama's election.

[snip]

"We're all very happy," Wallace replied to Stewart. "Except for Sean Hannity, who's too busy in the bathroom crying."

That line alone makes Wallace acceptable to me.

I AGREE WITH THE WINGNUTS

Boy, that was a little difficult to type. Chris "Leg" Matthews just helped confirmed the wingnut meme about the MSM being in the tank for Obama. Here's what he said (via Columbia Journalism Review):

MATTHEWS: You know what? I want to do everything I can to make this thing work, this new presidency work.

SCARBOROUGH: Is that your job? You just talked about your being a journalist.

MATTHEWS: Yeah, that’s my job. My job is to help this country.

SCARBOROUGH: So your job as a journalist is to make this presidency work?

MATTHEWS: To make this work successfully, because this country needs a successful presidency, more than anything right now....

I agree that we need a successful Obama presidency but that is NOT Matthew's role. As Jake Tapper of ABC News observes:

There seems to me to be quite a difference between hoping the U.S. President succeeds in his endeavors -- "Let every American hope for the success of the new president and the country we all love," Karl Rove wrote today in the Wall Street Journal -- and a journalist thinking it's his job to help a new administration.

I think it's time for Matthews to do the right thing and retire.

THE WINGNUTS ARE STARTING TO PANIC

I'm coming across several Doomsday Scenarios on wingnut sites, like this one from The American Spectator:

The erosions of conservative rights will be incremental. Each one will have its own justification. Each one will be supported by the establishment media. Each one will be timed so as to allow the general public to become accustomed to it, to accept it as unremarkable, or even to come to regard it as a public good for the sake of keeping conservative "troublemakers" from fomenting disorder.

Will this reach a fever pitch by Inauguration Day?

PRETTY MUCH OLD NEWS

But this time it's a little more forceful -

Senior Iraqi backs Obama withdrawal plan
Thu Nov 6, 2008 9:46pm EST

By Peter Graff and Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A senior Iraqi official on Thursday explicitly backed U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's plans to withdraw combat troops from the country by mid-2010, Baghdad's clearest endorsement yet of Obama's exit strategy.

Asked to comment on Obama's pledge to pull combat troops out within 16 months of taking office, National Security Adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Al-Arabiya television: "We think 16 months is good."

"Obama's presence at the head of the U.S. administration will give new blood, new thoughts and new plans. We want to be in a fundamental alliance with the United States," Rubaie said.

YOU CAN'T DO BOTH

David Frum argues that the GOP has only two paths to renewal:

1) Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, the Fundies and Sean Hannity

OR

2) Expand the base to include more college-educated

Well, you can't do both and if Frum is correct, that means the GOP will be a minority party for a long time.

THE MOTU DON'T GET IT

I don't know how much this woman knows about the elite on Wall Street but if she's even half right, we need to make sure the MOTU have a serious attitude adjustment.

Insight: The masters lost our trust
By Aline van Duyn
FINANCIAL TIMES
Published: October 30 2008 17:43
Last updated: October 30 2008 17:43

The general public’s confidence in Wall Street is worse than ever, yet Wall Street still does not understand how it is perceived.

”Our industry’s image is at an all-time low,” said Blythe Masters, a senior executive at JP Morgan Chase who has played an important role in the development of credit derivatives in the last decade. Speaking at a conference this week, she said some on Wall Street would ”bristle” at the thought of taking blame for the current crisis, but that doing so was essential. She is absolutely right.

The focus now has become the nine US banks which are receiving $125bn of public money. They have spent or reserved $108bn for employee pay and bonuses in the first nine months of 2008, nearly the same as last year. ... For Wall Street to really restore the confidence, it needs to understand why its pay make others not just bristle, but angry. Getting paid as much as last year looks really bad, it is as simple as that.

WHO OUR PRESIDENT COULD HAVE BEEN

Fox News Hounds has the video clip of this now-famous interview by Bill O'Reilly of FAUX reporter Carl Cameron. IF McCain/Palin had won, there was a non-negligible chance that Palin would have to take McCain's place. Here's what we dodged¹:

O'REILLY: That's what happened to me. That's what happened with me. I talked to her on the phone. She wanted to do the interview, and then the McCain people wouldn't put her out there alone. The senator had to sit next to her. And logistically, we just couldn't pull it off.

OK. So all of this now makes perfect sense up to, say, a week ago. Then there were reports that Sarah Palin herself, under the pressure -- and she was under enormous pressure -- started to crack. Is that true?

CAMERON: Yes. There are stories that say she would look at her press clippings in the morning and throw what has been described to me as tantrums. The way I understand it, there are times when she would be so nasty and angry at staff that they would virtually be reduced to tears. There was the throwing of paperwork and things of this nature.

¹Fox News Network
November 5, 2008 Wednesday
SHOW: THE O'REILLY FACTOR 8:38 PM EST
How Strained was McCain-Palin Relationship?
BYLINE: Bill O'Reilly, Carl Cameron
SECTION: NEWS; Domestic
LENGTH: 1403 words

BIPARTISAN? HOW???

The remnants of the congressional Republicans are mostly the extremists so how can there be a realistic chance for bi-partisanship?

SOMETHING HANNITY WON'T TELL YOU

Sean Hannity has been criticizing Obama for months, perhaps longer, because Obama decried the killing of Afghan civilians by U.S. airstrikes. As usual, Hannity turns this into an attack on out troops. This is what Hannity won't tell his listeners:

End Civilian Deaths, Karzai Tells Obama
Afghan Says Airstrike Killed Dozens

By Candace Rondeaux
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 6, 2008; Page A03

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 5 -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday called on President-elect Barack Obama to end U.S. airstrikes that risk civilian casualties after coalition forces allegedly killed dozens of people at a wedding party in southern Afghanistan this week.

Karzai said that about 40 civilians were killed and 28 wounded Monday after coalition forces in Kandahar province bombarded the village of Shah Wali Kot during a clash with Taliban fighters in the region.

Karzai has repeatedly called on NATO and U.S. forces this year to reduce their reliance on airstrikes after several high-profile bombings that resulted in scores of casualties, including a strike in August that U.N. and Afghan officials said killed at least 90 civilians. Under pressure to soothe the public, Karzai has in recent months publicly excoriated Western military forces for their reliance on airstrikes to counter the fierce insurgency that has taken root across the country.

FOOD FIGHT!

The aftermath of McCain's crushing defeat is disarray among conservatives. FAUX News reports that advisers to Granpa say Palin was an ignoramus and Michelle "Internment" Malkin steps up to defend Caribou. Red State vows to haunt these advisers and work against any politician who hires them!

This is all good and I hope there's more dirt in the future.

A NEW PRINCESS OF IRONY

I love it when conservatives whine about "the facts" when the success of movement cons is based in large part on lies, smears and half-truths.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008
What Freaks Me Out About This Election [Kathryn Jean Lopez]

is how oblivious to facts people have been. Everything about Obama's judgment and radicalism — whether Sean Hannity or Stanley Kurtz or Andy McCarthy etc. is telling you about it — was essentially deemed irrelevant...

Lopez could've tried for a little introspection but she simply can't part with her delusions.

THE RADIO GASBAGS AND THE GOP

Today I heard Sen. McCain call into Sean Hannity's show and I came up with a simple test to see if the GOP has returned to sanity & adulthood: When major GOP people no longer give the gasbags the time of day.

Until then, remember that for all the talk of family values & patriotism, the CORE of the GOP is filled with angry, ignorant lunatics.

YES, PALIN DOES HAVE A FUTURE IN THE GOP

I disagree with Josh Marshall on this. More than just about anyone else I can think of, she's IS the talk radio candidate. She has sounded just like Sean Hannity or even Mark Levin and that explains her popularity with a significant part of the GOP's base. Palin would fit in nicely with the GOP wackos like Sen. Inhofe who will most likely be re-elected.

JTP IS A BIG HIT WITH THE EXTREMISTS IN THE GOP

And that's probably why McCain has him out on the campaign trail. Joe can get away with calling Obama's patriotism into question and no one in right-wing talk radio world will even raise an eyebrow. In fact, today I heard Joe do a spot for the Laura Ingraham radio show: "I am Joe the Plumber and this is the Laura Ingraham Show."

THE GASBAGS' NEWEST MEME

"The polls are wrong!"

That's what Fats Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Tammy Bruce, who was subbing for Laura Ingraham, all said today as they encouraged their listeners to vote. This seems to be the equivalent of a GOTV campaign for McCain except that it didn't cost McCain or anyone else a dime. This seems to be an abuse of the public airwaves.

DID PAULSON SCREW AMERICA?

Dean Baker and William Greider both report that Warren Buffet got a MUCH better deal on his investment in Goldman Sachs than the U.S. government did. Buffet gets 10% interest, we get 5%. Buffet's warrants are worth $1 to the dollar, ours are worth about 15¢.

There may be a reasonable market explanation for this disparity but I certainly can't think of one.

HANNITY WILL EVEN MORE UPSET WITH LUNTZ

I noted before that Luntz said he thinks Obama will win, but that was over 2 weeks ago. Raw Story caught a more recent interview Luntz gave to the BBC and had this to say:

I cannot foresee a scenario that John McCain is elected the President of the United States

This is good news but let's not forget that the GOP Noise Machine is alive and well. Like others, I suspect that the Shitstorm that Clinton suffered from the Machine will be minor in comparison to what they will try to do to Obama.

THE RECESSION HITS CLOSE TO HOME

Parks & Rec users, neighbors, seniors, hungry may feel loss
City quietly cuts services used by many residents
By Rob O'Dell
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona Published: 11.02.2008

Armory Park Senior Center had to let three part-time staffers go, said Robin McArdle-Landers, the center's supervisor.

One of those staffers is a friend of mine.

I AGREE WITH DIGBY

In a NYT story on Media Matters, Stu Rothenberg says:

“I don’t pay any attention to them,” said Stuart Rothenberg, editor of The Rothenberg Political Report, a Washington newsletter. “Whether it’s conservatives evaluating the media, or liberals evaluating the media, I just have no confidence in any of the ideological stuff.”

Digby thinks Stu is foolish and I do agree. I was also annoyed at the Times for calling MM "a highly partisan research organization." and I think that makes a false equivalency between MM and wacko outfits like NewsBusters and FAUX News. The point about MM is that it is partisan and truthful. The point about the latter two is that they are devoted to perpetuating and defending conservative lies.

In a related story, the Times also draws the same false equivalency between FAUX News and MSNBC:

On any given night, there are two distinctly, even extremely, different views of the presidential campaign offered on two of the three big cable news networks, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, a dual reality that is reflected on the Internet as well.

Whatever the failings of MSNBC, it is nonsense to equate it with the crap on FAUX.

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE FOR CRAP

That's another unofficial GOP campaign tactic. The London Times reports that a GOP activist has tried to get an Oxford to "prove" that Williams Ayers was the ghost writer for one of Obama's books. We have the "revelation" that one of Obama's aunts is living in the country illegally. And, from Brent Bozell's wackos at Newsbusters, we learn that Obama plans to bankrupt the entire coal industry!

In other news, Cheney endorses McCain, which is like Dracula endorsing Granpa Simpson. That kinda overwhelms that late smear campaign and I'm very glad to see that once again, the Obama campaign wasted no time in using this in an ad.

SOME OF THE PERVERSE INCENTIVES BEHIND THE CREDIT CRUNCH

It wasn't just the mortgage brokers who enjoyed the financial benefits of stupid, short-term self interest (Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes said that).

Barry Ritholtz found this article by Prof. John Quigley that explains how so many people turned a blind eye to the growth of the Big ShitPile. Here's a couple of excerpts:

The incomes and fees generated are all transactions-based, that is, payments are made at the time the transaction is recorded. The originator of the loan, typically a mortgage broker, is paid at the time the contract is signed. Brokerage fees have varied between 0.5 and 3.0 percent. The mortgage lender earns a fee, between 0.5 and 2.5 percent, upon sale of the mortgage. The bond issuer is paid a fee, typically between 0.2 and 1.5 percent, when the bond is issued. On top of this, the rating agency is paid its fee by the bond issuer at the time the security is issued. All these fees are earned and paid in full within six to eight months after the mortgage contract is signed by the borrower.

As result of all the early payouts,

The only actor with a stake in the ultimate performance of the loan was the mortgagee. Everyone else had been paid in full—way before the homeowner had made more than a couple of payments on the loan.

That last part isn't quite correct because we know now that we all have a stake in systematic failure of the credit market but the Free Market Fairy didn't think that was important enough to correct.

MORE FROM TEAM STUPID...

Palin seems clueless about her audience and just spews the same BS no matter what. First, she visits a solar energy plant and repeats the mantra "Drill, Baby, Drill," to noticeably little effect. Then she goes to Pittsburgh, home to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and offers congratulations on the Philidelphia Phillies winning the World Series, this time getting booed.