![Won’t someone please think of the (fabulously well-to-do) children?
Reading is for Snobs:
The Wall Street Journal had an article providing a fairly thorough breakdown of the new tax policies that will now be in effect due to the “fiscal cliff” agreement reached by congress. The article itself wasn’t too bad, really. In fact, it was mostly an objective piece. However, it did include one little thing that I thought was worth highlighting, and that was the comic that accompanied the article [above].
Yes, in that comic, every single one of those families makes a six figure income, the lowest being $180 thousand, and yet because of the new tax hikes imposed by Obama, they all appear as though he ran over the family dog.
Yes, the terribly, terribly well-off will have to struggle to make ends meet, living a blue diamonds lifestyle on a yellow diamonds budget. Look at how sad those children are, knowing that their parents will only be able to afford to take them on one trip to Bermuda this year. Does your heart not break? Are you made of stone? Good God, what is wrong with you?
You might think this was the silliest use of children you’d see today, but you’d be wrong. The wingnut Jawa Report looked at President Obama signing executive orders reducing gun violence and decided it was the worst thing ever. You know who else liked kids? HITLER, THAT’S WHO!!
Thank goodness we have the wingnut media to put these sort of things into perspective. Otherwise, I’d never know that the children of millionaires were living under overpasses or that governing for the benefit of children makes you Hitler.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/f761517c8bd9345bb8b3772d9e1f72c1/tumblr_mgqh3uuqqU1qfengno1_1280.jpg)
Won’t someone please think of the (fabulously well-to-do) children?
The Wall Street Journal had an article providing a fairly thorough breakdown of the new tax policies that will now be in effect due to the “fiscal cliff” agreement reached by congress. The article itself wasn’t too bad, really. In fact, it was mostly an objective piece. However, it did include one little thing that I thought was worth highlighting, and that was the comic that accompanied the article [above].
Yes, in that comic, every single one of those families makes a six figure income, the lowest being $180 thousand, and yet because of the new tax hikes imposed by Obama, they all appear as though he ran over the family dog.
Yes, the terribly, terribly well-off will have to struggle to make ends meet, living a blue diamonds lifestyle on a yellow diamonds budget. Look at how sad those children are, knowing that their parents will only be able to afford to take them on one trip to Bermuda this year. Does your heart not break? Are you made of stone? Good God, what is wrong with you?
You might think this was the silliest use of children you’d see today, but you’d be wrong. The wingnut Jawa Report looked at President Obama signing executive orders reducing gun violence and decided it was the worst thing ever. You know who else liked kids? HITLER, THAT’S WHO!!
Thank goodness we have the wingnut media to put these sort of things into perspective. Otherwise, I’d never know that the children of millionaires were living under overpasses or that governing for the benefit of children makes you Hitler.
What we found in our analysis was that a staggering 93 percent of all occurrences [of climate stories] in the last six months in the prime time news of Fox News were misleading occurrences of climate science. Okay, for the Wall Street Journal opinion section in the last year, we found a surprising 81 percent of the occurrences were misleading. And of the accurate ones, these were all letters to the editor that were submitted in response to misrepresentations in editorials or other letters. So, a broad swath of News Corporation viewers and readership are being misled about the science.
Stories to Watch: 10/6/11
Another gorgeous day. Going to have to do something about all the leaves soon, though. I actually kind of like raking, if the weather’s nice. A good excuse to get outside and just do a pleasant and undemanding chore. It’s all very zen. Now here’s the news…
In the Massachusetts Senate race, Republican incumbent Scott Brown decides that being a dick is a real smart move. He might consider a strategy that involves more friend-making and less enemy-making in the future, since the ‘baggers plan to cut him loose.
Republicans want President Obama’s blackberry messages in a Solyndra probe. It would be poetic justice for the president to tell them, “What George W. Bush said.”
Scientific idiocy in the pages of the Wall Street Journal? Imagine my shock.
Lindsey Graham plays the victim card on Rick Perry’s behalf. It seems that you can’t get away with racism in the south anymore and this is a terrible, terrible thing. Or something. Serious, I can’t make heads or tails of this argument.
Jobless claims seem to be holding pretty steady, hovering “near levels normally associated with improving labor market conditions.” Economists said this is “yet another sign the ailing economy was not falling back into recession.”
Westboro Baptist Hate Cult are now officially clowns.
The health insurance industry jumps aboard the campaign to save healthcare reform.
How to hand down the death penalty — without a trial.
Finally, Bank of America’s decision to charge a fee for debit cards is beginning to look Netflixian in its stupidity. The bank’s website may have actually been brought down several times by all the customers rushing to close their accounts. Of course BoA won’t confirm this, other than to say that traffic has been heavy lately.
News Roundup for 8/31/11
Bitter rivalry
-Headline of the Day-
“Sarah Palin Appearance at Tea Party Rally in Iowa ‘No Longer Confirmed.’”
There was going to be a big tea party rally in Iowa Saturday. Or maybe there isn’t. Who even knows?
See, here’s what happened: Sarah Palin was going to show up for this thing, but then she found out Christine O’Donnell was going to be there too. Christine’s selling this big important book nobody wants, so she’s like all over the place lately. So Sarah sees that Christine’s on the bill and she’s all like, “No way! She’s younger and prettier and — let’s face it — crazier than I am! No way am I going to get upstaged by that witch!”
Which is totally unfair, because Christine is famously not a witch.
Anyway the ‘baggers had to boot Christine or Sarah wasn’t going to show. That was final. So they did. Or maybe they didn’t. It’s all very confusing. Sarah’s saying that the organizers have lied to her. I guess she found out that Christine was going to pop out of a cake and surprise everyone with sparklers or something while Sarah did her big dance routine. I’m guessing. I don’t have the details. Just piecing stuff together from the info I have, like Sherlock Holmes.
Of course, Sarah cancelled. And then she didn’t cancel. And then her appearance was “on hold.” She might even throw together a different shindig someplace else just to show up that snotty little witch. Who knows? It’s all very indefinite and up in the air and crazy right now. And the ‘bagger group, Tea Party of America, is already out $100,000 whether anything happens or not.
You know, it’s organizational skills like this that got us the S&P downgrade. These people couldn’t put together a peanut butter sandwich without incurring a death toll. (Wall Street Journal)
-Doh!-
GOP frontrunners as characters from The Simpsons. 
Click to embiggen
Amazingly accurate. (Reddit)
-Bonus HotD-
“Dim Michele Bachmann Wants To Drill Everglades For Oil That Isn’t There.”
That’s right, Shelly’s energy policy is just poke holes wherever you think there might be oil and screw those crazy geologists who want to dictate to Everyday Americans where there is or isn’t oil. Science is our enemy! (Wonkette)
Stories to Watch: 8/13/11
Rained all night and it is humid. I went out last night for a bit during a break in the rain and you could actually see the steam in the air. I walked into an air-conditioned store and my glasses fogged up. No foolin’. Now here’s the news…
Michele Bachmann is definitely not winning friends in the media. At an event in Iowa, CNN’s Don Lemon gets pushed around, which brings to mind Bachmann campaign staffers manhandling ABC’s Brian Ross about a month ago. This is beginning to look like a habit — and not a good one.
Of course, Bachmann was in Iowa for the Ames Straw Poll today. The cable networks are giving the poll wall-to-wall coverage, making it the most important near-meaningless event of the week. It’s a poll of self-selected respondents, like an online poll. The words “not scientific” should be plastered all over the coverage. It may weed out a candidate or two who never should’ve run in the first place, but that’s about it.
Norman Podhoretz is a jackass. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, he whines about the right being “attacked” by liberals — then he calls the president an “anti-American leftist.” When he gets “attacked” (i.e., criticized) for that, he’ll probably whine some more. It’s becoming a running theme on this blog because it’s true; modern conservatives reflexively play the victim card. Look at Sarah Palin. Her entire argument seems to be that she deserves to be a presidential candidate because the press is so mean to her. It’s always about skinned knees and personal grievance.
David Axelrod “attacks” Rick Perry on national teevee! Oh, the horror…
And the brutality keeps coming as Joe Scarborough “attacks” Michele Bachmann.
Rick Perry makes it official.
Sarah Palin unveils her plan to give herself a heart attack.
Finally, this is great. After Standard & Poor’s said that Republican default-denialism contributed to it’s downgrade of America’s credit rating, GOPers now say they never said that default wouldn’t happen or that it wouldn’t be so bad. Call it default-denialism-denialism. But Brian Beutler has a list of names and details and… Well, the GOP is slinging bullshit here.
News Roundup for 7/18/11
LEAVE RUPERT ALONE!!
-Headline of the Day-
“News Corp.-owned media outlets say people are overreacting to News Corp. scandal.”
Have you heard about the latest “scandal of the month?” Pffft! Something about hacking and phones and who even cares? It’s all way too high-tech for you to understand and it’s just liberal hippies attacking conservative media anyway, so you should probably just ignore the whole thing, all right? Now shut up and eat your Casey Anthony “news.”
That’s News Corp’s take on the scandal rocking a little company called… Let’s see here… “News Corp.” Tempest in a teapot. The Wall Street Journal has an editorial about how everyone’s blowing everything out of proportion. “We… trust that readers can see through the commercial and ideological motives of our competitor-critics,” writes the WSJ editorial board. “The Schadenfreude is so thick you can’t cut it with a chainsaw.”
Oh poor News Corp!
But it was Fox News that really brought the stupid (a safe bet in any situation), with a segment on their morning show that’s such unbelievable bullshit that you wish there was a stronger word for bullshit. Fox & Friends not only wondered what the big deal was, but through very cautious wording, left the impression that it was News of the World that was hacked, instead of being the hacker.
WSJ complains that Murdoch detractors “want their readers to believe, based on no evidence, that the tabloid excesses of one publication somehow tarnish thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world.”
Oh, you guys are providing us with plenty of evidence. I point you again to the brainless Fox & Friends and their lame attempt to confuse the issue.
If they’re typical of your “thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world,” then you’ve got nothing worth defending. (Salon’s War Room)
-The things that really matter-
The deadline for raising the debt ceiling is bearing down on us, so House Republicans decided it was time to take on the scourge of curly light bulb last week. Because nothing in the world is more important than giving Americans the freedom to buy crappy, inefficient, money-leaking light bulbs if they so choose. And so, the GOP’s message is this:
Click to embiggen
Any questions? (McClatchy)
-Bonus HotD-
“Sarah Palin Movie Boasts Solid 0% Rating On Rotten Tomatoes.”
That means no good independent review anywhere. Worst. Movie. Ever. (Wonkette)
Stories to Watch: 7/15/11
Blogging was light today because I had to fix a garage door opener. I narrowed the problem down to the sensors, then found out the manufacturer doesn’t exist anymore. Finally, I found a universal replacement part on Amazon. Until it gets here, the remote is useless for closing the door. You’ve got to hold the button in inside the garage. At least it works at all. Now here’s the news…
We’ve already covered Michele Bachmann’s husband’s assertion that a taped interview featuring him making bigoted statements has been doctored. The blogger who posted the clip begs to differ. “Flat out, I didn’t doctor a damn thing,” says Ken Avidor. “If I did doctor it, why would I have a link to the original podcast, which is no longer up?”
Avidor’s solution to the controversy; “Marcus could get a hold of that original podcast. Just call up his friends at the station.” Ball’s in your court, Marcus. Clear your good name or leave everyone to wonder why it is exactly that you can’t clear your good name.
More heads roll in the Murdoch scandal. Les Hinton, the head of Dow Jones — which in turn owns Murdoch property The Wall Street Journal — resigns. Let the human sacrifices begin.
Speaking of Murdoch, Media Matters looks at the way cable news networks are covering the phone-hacking case and finds that, not surprisingly, Fox News’ coverage was the worst. Fox mentioned the story only 30 times in the past nine days. Surprisingly, supposedly super-commie network MSNBC came in second worst, although with more than twice as many segments (71), and CNN had the most coverage, with 108 segments.
President Obama plays the populist card in the debt limit showdown, while Harry Reid continues to prove himself a hopelessly inept leader.
You’ve probably heard that Sarah Palin’s big debut for her movieUndefeated was a ghost town. Turns out that reporting that fact was the worst thing ever, because it’s unfair to measure her movie’s success on the opening weekend of the final Harry Pottermovie. Which begs the question; what kind of a moron schedules the release of their film on the opening weekend of the final Harry Potter movie?
Red State’s Erick Erickson once again demonstrates why people think he’s a halfwit.
Yesterday, Gallup reported that a “generic Republican” led Obama by eight points. Today, Gallup reports that 58% of GOP voters can’t name any candidate they hope will win. Newt Gingrich — who’s currently a million bucks in the hole — might just change his name to Generic Republican.
Finally, Rupert Murdoch is very, very sorry.
News Roundup for 4/21/11
Average Texan
-Headline of the day-
“Texas Gov. Perry Orders Up Rain Prayers.”
Maybe you’ve been getting a lot of rain lately, but Texas has been dry as a bone. So something needs to be done (short of some sort of water management plan). Science predicts global warming, so clearly there are no answers there — on to hocus-pocus. Like the Great Georgia then-Gov. Sonny Purdue before him, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is asking citizens to pray for rain.
Perry procliams “the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life.”
Here’s my question: if Texans can just pray their problems away and set the state right, what the hell do they need a governor for? (Wall Street Journal)
-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, it’s been a while, but we’re getting another visit from…
Click to for animation
Earth is a very strange place… (MarkFiore.com)
-Bonus HotD-
“Sean Hannity To Host Special Report On Media Bias For Fox News.”
This will be followed by a special on celebrity meltdowns hosted by Charlie Sheen and Lindsay Lohan. (Talking Points Memo)
News Roundup for 4/12/11
Donald Trump’s actual interest in becoming president, on a scale of 1-10
-Headline of the day-
“Fake Republican Candidate Trump May Also Run As Fake Independent.”
There are a lot of places I could go to get this story, but no headline would be truer than the one at Wonkette. The publicity stunt is planning a sore loser publicity stunt if the original publicity stunt fails. And that’s about the size of it.
“I think the Republicans are very concerned that I [may] run as an independent…” Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. “The concern is if I don’t win [the GOP primary] will I run as an independent, and I think the answer is probably yes.”
Trump said, “I hate what’s happening to the country” and called his birtherism “a very important issue” — which does absolutely nothing to explain why he’d be willing to split the GOP vote and hand an easy win to Barack Obama.
Oh yeah, I forgot. It’s all fake. (Wonkette)
-You can read a book by him-
The recent budget standoff was especially hard on John Boehner.
I’ll bet it made him cry. (Bad Reporter)
-Bonus HotD-
“Some statements about Sen. Jon Kyl that are not intended to be factual.”
Go here to get the background, then go here to join in the fun. (MLive)
