SCLM Watch: "News"week Edition

Sorry, Newsweek, that doesn't quite cover your ass. Nobody reads letters to the editor. You should at least update the web version of your Berlusconi-fluffing.

Neologism of the Month

The Republicans have their Santorum and now, the Democrats have their Stupak:

Stupak (n) - The sepsis commonly experienced after unsafe back alley abortions

This makes the baby whale cry.

__________

More on Stupak. (Pun intended.)

And be aware, as Scott Lemieux observes, there are …

… 26 Democrats now on the record as opposing expanded access to health care but who want to make sure that if health care passes despite them it should discriminate against women.

See the full hall of shame.

(pic. source)

Who Says Jon Stewart Can't Do Impersonations?

Juli Weiner says all the blogs love this, but in case you haven't already seen it, this is a must-watch:

(alt. video links: this segment | whole show)

If You Were On Facebook ...

... you could join the group An Arbitrary Number of People Demanding That Some Sort Of Action Be Taken.

Hurry! Before they splinter!

The New Paranoid Style in American Politics

Oh, hey! Looky here! The Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler must be fixin' to give some seeeekrit new marching orders to the RedState Trike Force!

Have I finally been outed? Or … perhaps … arrived?

Or, I don't know … maybe he just didn't like MY tweets? Or the picture?

And about that "them:" Does the Twitter not think Erick Erickson is a man?

(title: cf.)

Lost in the Noise

I'm sure we'll spend the next few days hearing about nothing except Ft. Hood and the Muslins. But please spare a few minutes to read this fine post by John Cole.

Even before today's big news story broke, his opening lament applied: "Why is this not a bigger story …"

Forgot a Link

Oh, and in case you thought I was kidding with the title of the last post, I wasn't.

From the annals of "We Conservatives Know ..."

"... That Libtards Think Stephen Colbert Is Parodying Conservatives But Ha-Ha, We Know When He Seems Like He's Kidding He's Actually Really Serious!!!1! …"

... this:

Click 'em to big 'em!

Screen captures from the home page and elsewhere of the website run by self-appointed "Catholic" scold-in-chief Bill Donohue. Any bets how long they'll stay up?

(h/t: Juli Weiner)

Carrie Prejean Sex Tape!!!

(Okay, yeah. That title was just to torment frantic Googlers.)

Apparently, there's a tape out there of the queen of opposite family values petting her kitten. Only, not really her "kitten."

This made her go away.

Well, at least it made her drop her lawsuit against the beauty pageant people, reportedly within fifteen seconds of being shown the tape. I'm not, however, betting a nickel that this is the last we hear from this woman. She is the Groundhog Day of train wrecks.

I have the perfect next job for her, though: Crazier-than-Carrie lady needs a new chief of staff.

(h/t: Stew)

War Story

Michael Shermer reports on a victory in the never-ending battle of science against quackery, despite the latter's best efforts to intimidate through legalistic means. In this instance, it was a doctor calling bullshit on some con artists who had managed to get published a journal article claiming "scientific proof" for the power of prayer.

(Ironically, the good guy here is named Bruce Flamm. Not reported was whether his nickname is Flimm.)

(h/t: SkepticDoc)

"Victim In Fatal Car Accident Tragically Not Glenn Beck"

(alt. video link)

(h/t: Mr. Trend/Alterdestiny)

Speaking of ...

... blasts from the past and Daniel Davies (which I was, last post), here's something shorter, on a completely different subject, that bears a look.

And don't miss the bonus Carlin quip at the end. (Actually, it's the first comment under the post.)

A Total Find

Thanks to djw, I happened across an old (in Internet time) D-squared post that I somehow missed. You must go read "In Praise of Budweiser (contains extended footnotes)," and yes, read all the footnotes.

(And I say this as a strong proponent (adherent?) fan of IPA. The post is that good.)

Move over, Mark Halperin!

The GHEMRotRSTF intones:

The race has now been called for Democrat Bill Owens.

This is a huge win for conservatives.

I am not making this up.

(title: cf. | x-posted)

---

P.S. Doug Hoffman has his first glass of whine.

[Added] Vote count details.

[Added2] An interesting earlier note.

[Added3] Can't wait to hear the Son of Erick comment on the news from California.

Team (?) of Mavericks!

Via Instaputz, there's some fresh gossip about how Palin tried to force her way onto the stage before John McCain's concession speech on last November 4th.

Sounds almost like one reason Johnny Mac is still breathing today is because they lost that election.

Also, flashcards. And $90 socks. Also.

Because I Know You Junkies ...

... are furiously hitting Ctrl-r, Ctrl-r, dammit, CTRL-SHIFT-R on your favorite sites, dying to know what's going on in NY-23 or (FSM help us) New Jersey, I am here to steer you to some of the good stuff -- political crack, Indiana-style. Pistol-whipping and porn!

See Mr. Riley. Tell him I sent you, it's cool. (Alt. route.)

P.S. You might be wondering about his post title. See the previous one, and read the comments maybe even, for a little help.

SCLM Watch

DougJ and David Weigel on John Solomon: formerly defended by the Washington Post and the Associated Press against charges that his writing was filled with wingnut propaganda, more recently heard claiming that in his new gig as editor of the Moonie Times he had built the proverbial firewall between the news and opinion sections, now admitting (with glee) what his aims have been all along.

And Now, Here is Today's "Dog Bites Man" Story

Another election, another boatload of evidence-free Republican claims of voter fraud.

Zachary Roth's article on the right's latest efforts to pre-spin any possible losses by Republicans in today's elections, using one of their favorite old chestnuts, is worth a look. It's also another nice effort at documenting how the rightwing noise machine's pipeline works: wingnut blog posts → Fox "News" → The Wall Street Journal.

Or, as old school baseball fans might say, Tinklers to Fretters to Rants.

(?)

Another First!

It's not like I'm spending all my time trying to find these, truly,* but look who's #1 again! (Click image to embiggen.)

Smaller total number than last time I happened to have a moment like this, but a search term I'm more proud to be associated with.

The guy who really deserves to be at the top for that search, I'm happy to say, is the guy featured in that post, Roy Edroso. Catch him at his day job at Runnin' Scared and home at night at alicublog.

(Is it still there?)

(Oh, and here's the actual link to that post, if you want.)

---

* (In this case, I was just about to follow my usual route to Wingnuttia Search (what?) but I hit "enter" instead of "space," just to see what would come up.)

Headline of the Day

Juli Weiner wins the morning!

Hamid Karzai Is Declared President—But Was He Even Born In America??

Extra points for the "biased coverage" catch further down, Juli.

First among 53,600,000!

So, I was looking for an image to make a visual comment to someone, and I thought I'd type in some key words to Google and then click the link for the "Images" results but then … whoa!

Click image to enlarge, if you'd like to see how I won the Internet how small things amuse this small mind.

(Is it still there?)

(Oh, and here's the actual link to that post, if you want.)

Look, up in the sky!

After being that sort of perfect fall day that makes the northeastern United States THE place to live at this time of year, the sky began to cloud over near dusk. Right now, it is almost completely dark, and the airplanes descending to the airport a few miles from here are casting glowing cones several times their own lengths ahead of them.

I'm not sure why I find such an image so comforting, but I do.

Flowchart!

Over at Rational Resistance, Jack McCullough will help you choose the best religion for you!

The Fat Kid Tries Another Tired Shtick

When not advocating violence to achieve his political goals, or lining his pockets by selling products to people even dumber and more deranged than he is, The GHEMRotRSTF sometimes likes to put on his intellectualizin' cap.

And when he does, he sees that Obama = Hitler.

And how does he know this? Jonah Goldberg told him so!

(x-posted)

Another Ex-Scientologist Goes Public

Tony Ortega has a copy of a long letter that Paul Haggis has "written to Scientology's current national spokesman, Tommy Davis, 'Crash' director Paul Haggis [explaining] why he is leaving Scientology after 35 years.

Yeah, that Tommy Davis.

Actually, it's probably more accurate to say that rather than having gone public, Haggis has been outed in some sense. His letter was not, it appears, an open letter, but was instead sent by Haggis to Davis, with copies to "a handful of people," one or more of which leaked. Obviously, one could suspect this was Haggis wanting the letter to be shared but wanting to retain some deniability, but whatever. I don't much care. I'm glad it's out there, and if you're interested in cults, you'll probably find it an interesting read, too.

I dunno, Frank Rich ...

... but if it's okay with you, I'm going to continue to "luxuriate in a warm bath of moral superiority" for not having watched a second of the Balloon Boy coverage, much less tried to make it the hook for anything I've written since.

That aside, please pass along my congrats to Mo D for reaching number one on the "Most Emailed" list, although I have to say I don't even have a bluff answer for why a piece bemoaning the plight of nuns in the Catholic Church struck that many people as worth forwarding. Righteous? I guess. Something we've not heard about a million times already? Not even close.

I guess this is what Burke meant by "New York fresh" -- a bagel that breaks your tooth. (No, not that guy conservatives are always claiming to have read, the other one. This is more of a Vachss day, if you catch my drift.)

Plus, It Gives You Time To Change Out Of Your Pajamas

Heh. Just heard these for the first time: Bemoaning the Instanet and, in response, joining the slow blogging movement.

I could imagine the first one getting tiresome pretty quickly, especially in the wrong hands, but I really like the second one.

(h/t: Andrew Revkin | x-posted)

The Fat Kid And His "Metaphors" Of Physical Violence. Again.

Here's what the Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler of the RedState Trike Force told some Republican rag (via, via):

“Grass-roots activists need to start infiltrating the party,” said Erickson. “The only way to start getting [the establishment] back is to start pounding them with every fist we have.”

Guess he finished shooting all the dishwasher detergent Nazis.

[Added] I guess I can imagine where he draws some of his inspiration. (via)

No Easy Answers

Dexter Filkins has a long piece on [some aspects of the situation in] Afghanistan, "Stanley McChrystal’s Long War," in last Sunday's NYT Magazine. Unsurprisingly, given the author, it's highly recommended.

As you might have guessed from the post title, or already long since figured out for yourself, you won't find anything in the way of a happy ending in the piece, but if you want to know what one of our best reporters has been seeing and hearing, give it a look.

(h/t: TS/Instaputz | x-posted)

From the annals of "He's Just A Comedian!!!1!"

Here is a two-minute clip of Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.), still not kidding around:

(alt. video link)

Hat tip to Blue Texan, who's got some more context, if you want it.