Exactly right, @MadBastardsAll

Chris Thompson nails it:

The Cardinal Way isn’t playing the right way, it’s making a big fucking deal out of playing the right way ...

Way back, when I was a kid and dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I loved me some Bob Gibson and Lou Brock, to the point where my maternal grandfather banished me from the house during the 1967 World Series.

Not sure when it began, but I did at some point, some years later, start becoming sick of the sanctimony of the St. Louis Cardinals. Or, at least, clowns like Joe Buck (of Fox Sports, of course) intoning about them.

And then, one day, Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols were prominently on display at a Glenn Beck rally. (This is back when that slob was big -- kind of the Donald Trump of his day.) I've never forgiven either for that, and will not, until they publicly apologize.

I do, however, love me some Yadier Molina. So, since they're apparently rebuilding ...

First step, IMNSHO? Make Dexter Fowler happy.

Funding denialism, documented

From the Dec 2013 issue of the journal Climatic Change:

Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations

Robert J. Brulle

Abstract

This paper conducts an analysis of the financial resource mobilization of the organizations that make up the climate change counter-movement (CCCM) in the United States. Utilizing IRS data, total annual income is compiled for a sample of CCCM organizations (including advocacy organizations, think tanks, and trade associations). These data are coupled with IRS data on philanthropic foundation funding of these CCCM organizations contained in the Foundation Center’s data base. This results in a data sample that contains financial information for the time period 2003 to 2010 on the annual income of 91 CCCM organizations funded by 140 different foundations. An examination of these data shows that these 91 CCCM organizations have an annual income of just over 900million,withanannualaverageof64 million in identifiable foundation support. The overwhelming majority of the philanthropic support comes from conservative foundations. Additionally, there is evidence of a trend toward concealing the sources of CCCM funding through the use of donor directed philanthropies.

The journal is peer-reviewed, I believe.

The full paper, sadly, costs a lot of money to see, but there is a bunch of supplementary online material (PDF) available for free.

The Guardian has a good article about the paper. Here's how it begins.

Conservative groups may have spent up to $1bn a year on the effort to deny science and oppose action on climate change, according to the first extensive study into the anatomy of the anti-climate effort.

The anti-climate effort has been largely underwritten by conservative billionaires, often working through secretive funding networks. They have displaced corporations as the prime supporters of 91 think tanks, advocacy groups and industry associations which have worked to block action on climate change. Such financial support has hardened conservative opposition to climate policy, ultimately dooming any chances of action from Congress to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, the study found.

News of the unsurprising, and mighty discouraging news at that, but a shoutout to Prof. Brulle for making the effort to document the atrocities, and a vote of sympathy to him for the character assassination he will doubtless be suffering in the next few weeks.

(h/t: Wired UK, via Ars Technica)

Yeah, suuuuurrrrre

Ajit Pai, the lone Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, is on a personal if quixotic quest to save AM. After a little more than a year in the job, he is urging the F.C.C. to undertake an overhaul of AM radio, which he calls “the audible core of our national culture.”

Being fair and balanced Objective™, the NYT makes you click through to page two before the eight hundred pound pilonidal cyst

is perfunctorily disclaimed:

Mr. Pai said he was not promoting AM to advance conservative talk radio ...

Well, good!

Because there's nothing cultured about conservative talk radio.

(pic. source)

Good night, and good luck

-- or --

Why we so rarely blog about politics anymore, part [manyromannumerals]

Y'know, there's lying to pollsters because Activism. There's tribamalism, there's the decades-long crippling effect of the rightwing noise machine, there's the black-guy-in-the-White-House thing.

&c.

And then there's this set of responses to a survey question ("Who do you think was more responsible for the poor response to Hurricane Katrina: George W. Bush or Barack Obama?"), from within the past week (via):

Twenty-eight percent said they think former President George W. Bush, who was in office at the time, was more responsible for the poor federal response while 29 percent said Obama, who was still a freshman U.S. Senator when the storm battered the Gulf Coast in 2005, was more responsible.

Bonus! "Nearly half of Louisiana Republicans — 44 percent — said they aren't sure who to blame."

I'm walking on sunshine, oo, oo. And don't it feel good.

Michael Bloomberg: Ultimately, a legacy of utter failure

I haven't been paying much attention to his stint as mayor -- he was marginally less creepy than Rudy Giuliani, wasn't he? -- but there is no walking this back:

(h/t: I blame)

[Added] And don't fail to follow this link from the preceding. Not for the first time do I marvel at Roy Edroso's scalpel and how gracefully he wields it.

Maybe this'll just confirm your liberal biases ...

... but Rick Perlstein's Baffler piece from a few months ago, "The Long Con: Mail-order conservatism" is an enjoyable read, in a faintly horrifying way.

Lotta money to be made out there, if only you didn't have a conscience.

(h/t: Julian Sanchez)

Yeah, yeah. Fish in a barrel. But when the master is holding the shotgun ...

TBogg on Geraldo Rivera being very sad about not becoming your next U.S. Senator from New Jersey?

I was going to say it could not get any better, but then I happened to hover over the first link in TBogg's post, to the authoritative news source that, according to the Blogger Ethics Panel, must be cited before commencing to snark.

The flagship of the Right Wing Noise Machine, ladies and gentlemen.

It's almost hard to believe that conservative outreach to minority groups still isn't doing any better.

Play this. Loud.

It's about fourteen minutes long, and it deserves your attention.

(alt. video link)

As you probably already know, I am not a rabid anti-gun person. As you probably also know, I wonder why we can't have SOME small amount of common sense concerning who gets to own guns. The Second Amendment does speak of a "well-regulated militia," after all, as KK and others have noted.

I'd also say that I wish my president would be this plain-spoken and angry about a whole host of issues. Maybe this can be a start?

Well, there is always hope.

(h/t: Rebecca Schoenkopf)

Line of the Day: 2013-03-03

You've heard about the conservative pundits taking money from certain Malaysians to write favorable things about certain Malaysians, and unfavorable things about certain other Malaysians, in America? Featuring the comedy stylings of Josh "You Must Include The Tilde To Show How I Am Not Racist" Treviño and his ignorance of the ignorantia juris non excusat principle?

Quick overview here, if not.

And now for the LotD.

It seems that some years ago Malaysia’s ruling party took a good look at leading pundits and policy intellectuals in the conservative movement, reached a judgment about their personal and intellectual integrity or lack thereof, and acted in accordance with that judgment.

Funny how Malaysia gets who these people are and what motivates them — while our own press corps doesn’t.

-- Paul Krugman

PK includes in this gimlet-eyed view some observations on the Heritage Foundation's related antics.

Whoops. Should have warned you to sit down there first, as the man says.

[Added] Speaking of whom, we now have a tie for LotD:

"According to Rich Lowry in Politico" is a phrase which proves Chomsky's idea that mastering the fundamental structures of language allows you to invent statements more horrible than you thought possible.

(Inadvertent) Line of the Day: 02-13-2013

An amazing Bill O'Reilly talking point. twitpic.com/bdsgjw

— Andrew Kaczynski (@BuzzFeedAndrew) February 14, 2013

(h/t: @Jim_Newell)

Line of the Day: 2013-02-01

From Timothy Egan's latest post:

Many in the press and on the political stage are still afraid of him, but they should remember the words of the late Molly Ivins: being attacked by Limbaugh, said the bard of Texas, “was an experience somewhat akin to being gummed by a newt. It doesn’t actually hurt, but it leaves you with slimy stuff on your ankle.”

Not true. Actually, he's going to send the Black Panthers to BURN IT DOWN.

[ + ]

Media Matters patiently cleans up the latest spewage from the puke funnel.

(h/t: Wonkette)

Good thing we had an election, then, isn't it?

[ + ]

Okay, yeah, so it's just more grousing about Teh Librul Media. But for one brief, exciting moment, I thought we had a genuine Kinsley gaffe.

Sinking ship to squeaky rat: GTFO

In case you haven't heard, FoxNews made He®self a contract renewal offer that even she was able to refuse.

Probably a premature declaration of victory by @TomJunod ...

... but his guest post on Pierce's blog, about watching the inauguration on FoxNews, is a fun read, filled with vivid phrases that are almost impossible not to steal.

(h/t: General Armchair)

---

[Added] A response.

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout

He's coming to take your guns, haha! He's coming to take your guns, hoho, heehee, ha-haa!

Trending topics right now: ATF, #guncontrol, #FastAndFurious, NRA, #POTUS & President Obama.Wingnuts: relax. Your precious guns are safe..

— bjkeefe (@bjkeefe) January 16, 2013

[Added] Also, the NRA has a new ad out, posing the entirely reasonable question, if the President's daughters have Secret Service protection, then why can't your kids have armed guards in their schools?

---

This'll shock you: FoxNews agrees with Jim Hoft about how fake this whole global warming thing is

If by some chance the post title did not make you faint dead away, have a look at Ars Technica's report on FoxNews's dismissal of the latest temperature data sweeping the liberal media denialist wolverines.

Document the atrocities.

Gutsy!

The conclusion of a piece on how even his colleagues are now laughing at sad clown Dick Morris:

At one point, after Media Matters began seeking comment from Hill staffers, a "mass email" went out to the paper's reporters "specifically instructing us not to talk," according to one staffer who had agreed to speak, but indicated it would not be possible after receiving the email.

Managing Editor Bob Cusack then emailed Media Matters stating: "I am the best contact for any piece you are writing about The Hill. Thanks." He later requested questions via email rather than participate in a phone interview.

Media Matters emailed Cusack several questions asking about his view of Morris, the columnist's future at the newspaper, and what Cusack thought of staff members' concerns.

His email response: "We're not going to comment."

(h/t: Taylor Huffman)

Bubble? What bubble?

Let me introduce you to my red state friends.

49% of GOP voters nationally say they think that ACORN stole the election for President Obama. We found that 52% of Republicans thought that ACORN stole the 2008 election for Obama, so this is a modest decline, but perhaps smaller than might have been expected given that ACORN doesn't exist anymore.

The exact question (PDF), in case you were wondering if these people were somehow tricked:

Q8 Do you think that Barack Obama legitimately won the Presidential election this year, or do you think that ACORN stole it for him?

Interestingly enough, 2% of those who voted for Obama also believe ACORN stole the election for him. (Don't tell Willard. It will just make him sadder.)

(h/t: Jack, via email | pic. source: plognark)

Oh, daddy, not again.

Guess who just barely caught the caboose on the wingnut welfare gravy train?

Rick Santorum To Join World Net Daily As ‘Exclusive Columnist’

(h/t: Wonkette| pic. source)