Protesting herself

Joanna Wilder seems like a good person. A good person who has been convinced to protest against herself:

After a lifetime of working, paying taxes and raising three children on her own, Wilder is struggling.

She said she retired on disability from M&T Bank three years ago after undergoing knee replacement and back surgeries. She lives on her Social Security and disability benefits. Last year, she petitioned the bankruptcy court for protection from creditors.

She said she did not have to pay federal income taxes last year because her income was too low.

“I don’t want to see this country turn into a welfare, nanny state, where we stand in line for groceries, and we’re in welfare lines, and in socialized medicine lines,” Wilder said.

Yes, Joanna Wilder is protesting the fact that she’s not homeless, as she would be without government help.

HT Duncan

–WKW

This is what a real protest looks like

Above are women in Afghanistan protesting the recent misogynistic law that codifies rape and other atrocities against women.

Think about that. These are women in Afghanistan, protesting with the very real chance of being murdered. That is courage. That is a real protest.

See Melissa for more.

–WKW

QOTD: These are the most informed people in the U.S.?

“This group is one of the most informed groups in America, that’s the difference,” — Michelle Malkin, on the Tea Bag protesters and why they are right and the 60+ percent that support President Barack Obama are wrong.

–WKW

Shepherd Smith trashes Conservatives bleating over “right-wing extremist groups” DHS report

Several times over the past year, Shepherd Smith has stood firmly against the tide of Fox News and has injected common sense into the discussion. Talking with former CIA agent Mike Baker, Smith just about laughed off Conservative bleating over the Department of Homeland Security’s report that warned of potential attacks from right-wing extremists.

Smith, who for some reason won’t view things through the prism of Fox News ideology, basically told conservatives to chill out – the report wasn’t about them. The best line in his discussion with Baker – who agreed wholeheartedly that conservatives were knee-jerking their way to faux outrage over the subject – came when the two started giving conservatives some advice on how to live their lives

“So, you’re saying, listen to views that are not your own?” asked Smith.

You know, I really like Shepherd Smith. And I’m willing to bet that Rupert Murdoch sends him to CNN in exchange for Lou Dobbs and an ideologue to be named later.

Update: Maybe it’s just me, but Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs is just not drinking enough of the kool-aid these days. On the front page of LGF, they trash the overreaction of the right on the DHS report, admit ambivalence over today’s tea parties, and trash Glenn Beck. What in the hell is going on over there?

–WKW

Pittsburgh Pirates attack Houston Astros, commandos shoot and kill starting line up

PITTSBURGH – Following the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 7-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Tuesday, armed commandos burst into the team’s clubhouse and killed the entire starting line up.

“We can no longer allow the Pirates to take the fight to us,” said an administration official. “We saw our opening and took it. Pirates are a real danger and must be killed on sight.”

While many in Pennsylvania decried the act of violence, others said they felt much safer.

“They are Pirates, after all,” said Pittsburgher Joey Motta. “And they were going to lose 90 games again this year anyway, so I think the government acted appropriately.”

Still, there are many who feel that the overwhelming show of force was unnecessary.

“As far as I can tell, these Pirates haven’t hurt any one in 30 years,” said Bob Sneed. “But, hey, as long as they leave the Steelers alone, I’m cool with it.”

Pirates’ officials said they will still be fielding a team tonight against the Astros, with Ross Ohlendorf starting for Pittsburgh and Mike Hampton pitching for the Astros. While no further attacks on the Pirates are expected, Tampa Bay officials say the Buccaneers have been put on red alert.

–WKW

Jonah Goldberg – Super Genius

One of the biggest obstacles in becoming a well-known writer is the fact that my parents were in the trucking industry. While I’m quite proud of their work, it would have been a bit more helpful to me if they had media and political backgrounds. But hey, we can’t all be Jonah Goldberg.

Speaking of Goldberg, Glenn Greenwald has a nice little snippet that truly showcases the intellectual power behind this loud voice from the right:

The Right’s self-victimizing outbursts are always as fact-free as they are self-pitying. Just marvel at this (h/t sysprog):

Jonah Goldberg, today:

“Yes, DHS has done reports on anti-war, environmental, and other groups. But my understanding is that they didn’t — and wouldn’t — use the all-purpose term “left-wing” to describe those threats. . . . If the Bush administration had issued a sweeping indictment of “left-wing” groups in America, arguing that they needed to be monitored, something tells me we’d be hearing a lot about it.”

From the very same Washington Times article he linked to that started the whole scandal:

“In January, the same DHS office released a report titled ‘Leftwing extremists likely to increase use of cyber attacks over the coming decade.’ ”

That was in the precise article that he linked to. Also, the Bush Department of Energy published an April, 2001 document entitled “Left-Wing Extremism: The Current Threat.” The woe-is-us whining (this would never happen to the Left — only us!) is just revolting.

I’m thinking that it’s probably better that my Mom wasn’t a famous journalist/literary agent/gadfly. It just can’t be pleasant to have a mind so detached from reality.

–WKW

Oscar De La Hoya – Out

While I haven’t always been a big Oscar De La Hoya fan, I have always respected his willingness to take on the toughest competition. And for completely non-nefarious reasons, I’m quite happy that he’s decided to hang up the gloves.

“I’m announcing my retirement because I’ve been doing this since I was five years old and it’s just the love of my life for boxing is my passion and it was what I was born to do. And when I can’t do it any more and come in at the highest level, it’s not fair to me, it’s not fair to the fans, and it’s not fair to nobody. I’ve come to the conclusion that’s it’s over.”

Aside from continuing on as a fast-rising boxing promoter, De La Hoya says he is also branching out into the world of soccer.

“Soccer, with the Houston Dynamo, now we’re involved in a different sport where we have the opportunity along with everyone else involved in the MLS to grow the sport, to make it as popular as it can be here in the States,” De La Hoya said. “To make it the sport among our kids. It’s a great responsibility, so we embrace it. We at Golden Boy are hard workers, ambitious people and realize the potential that these sports have.”

Thanks for the punching, Oscar. Here’s to you becoming boxing’s most important ambassador.

–WKW

Where do Ben & Jerry stand on controversial camel cloning issue?

Two weeks ago, Ben & Jerry’s started a scare campaign over cloned animals in the food supply. Being that their April Fool’s joke lost all momentum on April 2, maybe they should head over to Dubai, where an insidious cloned camel now walks the land:

A scientist says the world’s first cloned camel has been produced in the desert emirate of Dubai. Nisar Ahmad Wani, a senior reproductive biologist at the government’s Camel Reproduction Center, says the cloned camel is a six-day-old, one-humped female called Achievement or Injaz in Arabic.

The horror.

–WKW

Virginia Republicans: Gay Marriage leads to mass murder, but lesbian porn is hot

Virginia may or may not be for lovers, but Virginia Republicans believe that gay lovers lead to mass murder (“A total of $300,000 was provided to Morality in Media through two earmarks Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) placed into spending bills, according to Peters.”)

Of course, that doesn’t mean Virginia Republicans won’t promote lesbian porn on their YouTube site, See Not Larry Sabato for more, as well as the NSFW video.

At their current pace, by the time Virginia Republicans are done, they’ll have moved their state from solid red to San Francisco blue.

–WKW

Sarah Palin: Champion of Global Warming

Climate change skeptics lost one of their own yesterday, as Sarah Palin is now firmly on board the global warming bandwagon. Apparently, after publicly squabbling with Levi Johnston and nominating and nominating a misogynist douchebag for Alaska Attorney General, she saw the light:

We Alaskans are living with the changes that you are observing in Washington,” she said. “The dramatic decreases in the extent of summer sea ice, increased coastal erosion, melting of permafrost, decrease in alpine glaciers and overall ecosystem changes are very real to us.”

In the past, Palin has questioned the science behind predictions of sea ice loss. Her administration sued the federal government to block endangered species protections for polar bears, whose habitat is melting. When she was the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008, partisan crowds cheered her on by chanting, “Drill, baby, drill.”

But at Tuesday’s hearing, she made it clear that she recognizes the problem of global warming, and she cast energy development as part of the answer. “Stopping domestic energy production of preferred fuels does not solve the issues associated with global warming and threatened or endangered species, but it can make them worse,” she said.

Palin acknowledged that “many believe” a global effort to reduce greenhouse gases is needed.

“Simply waiting for low-carbon-emitting renewable capacity to be large enough will mean that it will be too late to meet the mitigation goals for reducing [carbon dioxide] that will be required under most credible climate-change models,” she warned.

In this world where even the weather is a partisan issue, science still doesn’t mean much to those on the right. But political necessity works every time. Welcome aboard, Sarah. For now.

–WKW

Fair & Balanced Fox & Friends – 67 percent tea-bagging

To be fair, Fox News is not spending all it’s time promoting tea parties today. Only 67 percent. They are also talking about Pirates and Lindsay Lohan.

7:00 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:01 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:02 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:03 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:04 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:05 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:06 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:07 a.m.: Pirates

7:08 a.m.: Pirates

7:09 a.m.: Pirates

7:10 a.m.: Headlines (Obama to Mexico, Obama on the economy, pork-barrel spending report, Iraq, immigration czar

7:11 a.m.: Headlines

7:12 a.m.: Lindsay Lohan

7:13 a.m.: Tax questions

Commercials

7:17 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:18 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:19 a.m.: Tea-bagging

Commercials (including promo spot for Glenn Beck tea-bagging)

7:23 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:24 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:25 a.m.: Tea-bagging

7:26 a.m.: 911 Home Invasion call, what’s in Vanessa Hudgen’s bag?

Commercials

Fox & Friends 30-minute breakdown:

On Air: 21 minutes

Tea-bagging: 14 minutes

Pirates: 2 minutes

News Headlines: 2 minutes

Lindsay Lohan: 1 minute

Tax Questions: 1 minute

Promos of upcoming segments: 1 minute

–WKW

There will be no Tea Bagging in the Cayman Islands today

I hope the Tea Baggers have a fun time today. I also hope they realize who it is they are protesting for:

A Senate report estimated in 2008 that the United States loses up to $100 billion a year in tax revenue to offshore tax havens (PDF). In a report released Wednesday, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group offers a state-by-state breakdown of the cost to taxpayers of tax revenue lost to “shell companies and sham headquarters” in places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

The practice soaks dutiful taxpayers in every state for hundreds of millions of dollars, according to U.S. PIRG. The citizens of New York and Texas shoulder over $8 billion a year, and the good people of California are on the hook for an extra $11 billion.

–WKW

Dear Right-Wing Extremists: get over yourselves

First they came for the left-wing extremists, but the right-wing extremists said nothing because they weren’t left-wing extremists …

“LEFTIST EXTREMISM IS ALIVE AND WELL…”

“New Documents Show FBI Targeting Environmental and Animal Rights Groups Activities as ‘Domestic Terrorism’ “

“Left-wing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyberattacks Over the Coming Decade.”

(Jan. 26, 2009)

… seriously, get over yourselves. And, after all, it’s not like Obama was the one who commissioned the report, anyway.

–WKW

Could Robert Gibbs be less of a snarky jerk?

Prior to the election, Robert Gibbs was a stellar surrogate for Barack Obama, easily swatting away conservative nonsense and staying on message. As the White House Press Secretary, however, Gibbs is quite of fond of acting like a pompous jerk with reporters.

From Mother Jones:

I posed a follow-up: Have you spoken to the Spanish government about this case? He seized on my use of the word “you” and, with a broad smile, said, “I have not spoken with the Spanish.” Reporters in the room laughed. I obviously did not mean him personally; the “you” had referred to the Obama administration. Nor did I mean, I added, Bill Burton, the deputy press secretary, or any of the other press aides in the room. The point was whether the administration had been in contact with the Spanish government about the Bush Six investigation. “The Justice Department?” I asked. Gibbs, though, essentially brushed off the question: “I would send you to Justice. Like I said, I’ve not spoken” to the Spanish government.

That, too, was to be expected. Often White House press secretaries say, take your query elsewhere. Yet moments later, when a reporter asked Gibbs if Obama had any reaction to the conservative groups organizing “tea parties” of protest on tax day, he replied, “I’ve never monitored them nor spoken with the Spanish about them.” People in the room laughed. And when the questioning in the room turned to the all-important subject of the Obama’s new Portuguese water dog, Gibbs continued the joke. Noting that the dog might be spotted on the White House lawn later in the day or that it might not, he added that “the dog has also not talked to the Spanish about impending torture cases.” More laughter. But I wondered, had the press secretary just made a joke about a torture investigation? Gibbs, like other press secretaries, uses humor to disarm, deflect, or dodge. But was this untoward?

Apparently, change in Washington won’t be including the press secretary, who has assumed the typical press secretary attitude by offering vague answers and treating the press like they should just be happy they are there. Less than three months into his job, Gibbs is far too often a snarky jerk who shows a complete disrespect for reporters, if not outright disdain. The Obama Administration would do well to encourage Gibbs to show some professionalism. If he can’t, the job’s not for him.

–WKW

Moderate Conservatives must have courage to stop radical Conservacists

For too long now, naive bleeding-heart types have proclaimed that Conservatism is an ideology of peace. Yet, compared with other mainstream U.S. ideologies, it is quite obvious that there’s is an ideology of hate.

Recent government documents have unveiled what we all know – that Extremist Conservatives, or “Conservacists,” are a danger to every American.

Understandably, moderate conservatives are taking heat for their Conservacist cousins. They tell us that the Conservacists have perverted and distorted their ideology. But moderate conservatives must do more. It is time that they gained the courage to stand up to these Conservacists and stop them.

We as a country can only do so much. It is time for moderate conservatives to take action, and put a stop to the extremist acts and dialogue of Conservacists. That is, if these “moderates” even exist.

–WKW

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