“Real Black”

[UPDATE]:

Rupert Murdoch regrets the error.

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Rupert Murdoch on Twitter last night:

Nobody knows how to be a “real black” person like an elderly white media mogul whose business model consists entirely of using pretty blonde things to scare the crap out of other elderly white people.

Just Folks

Right-wingers have called for the fainting couches because President Obama used the word “folks” when discussing post-9/11 torture. Specifically, he said,

“We did a whole lot of things that were right, but we tortured some folks.”

It apepars Obama’s use of the word “folks” has right-wingers more upset than the actual torture. Last night on Real Time With Bill Maher the Token Conservative™ derided Obama’s use of the word as “glib,” while Dan Froomkin Tweeted that it was a “malapropism” and inappropriate:

Obama referred to the people we tortured — AND the people who tortured them — as “folks.” Neither is really appropriate.

— Dan Froomkin (@froomkin) August 1, 2014

That’s just a sampling of the outrage, you can ask the Great Gazoogle for more.

Meanwhile, let’s take a trip into the Memory Hole and go back to Sept. 11, 2001 and President Bush’s very first comments about the tragedy while he was still at Booker Elementary School reading My Pet Goat:

I have spoken to the Vice President, to the Governor of New York, to the Director of the FBI, and have ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and — and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act.

This was just minutes after the attacks. But the attackers were “folks.” I wonder if Dan Froomkin and the rest called for the fainting couches back then?

But by all means, let’s continue to attack Obama for using the word “folks,” not the Bush Administration for their actual torture policy. Our discourse in this country is so stupid.

Here’s Obama Holding Up A Gas Station

[UPDATE]:

I may owe Jim Hoft an apology. It seems “skeetgate” may have started with … wait for it .. the New York Times.

Here’s their original headline on the skeet story:

Liar Liar Pants On Fire

And here’s what they changed it to after the White House released the photo of Obama shooting:

Yeesh. Remind me again how the internet killed journalism?

Anyway, for those harping on about President Obama’s shooting form, here’s a picture of my sister, taken about 10 years ago when she was visiting from California. We brought her along to a shooting party some friends of ours have in Kentucky every December. What’s in season in December, you may wonder? Mistletoe, of course!

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Maybe Marsha Blackburn will shut her yap now:

So That’s What Happened To Barney The Dog

So, who’s going to be the first wingnut to claim this picture is ‘shopped? My bet: Jim (Dim) Hoft, dumbest man on the internet. Once he gets finished critiquing the president’s form, of course. It’s true: if Obama were to walk on water, Republicans would whine about how he can’t swim. (Editor’s note: the Skeeters have arrived! Perhaps Jim Hoft is only the 22nd dumbest person on the internet!)

Birth Of A Meme

Congratulations, America! On January 10 the dying institution known as the liberal media coughed out a bouncing baby meme for your enjoyment! Let us welcome this 15-pound whopper! It is adorable!

Apparently, according to the mainstream press, President Obama has “got a diversity problem.” This seems to be due to the fact that he’s nominating a man for Secretary of State to replace Hillary Clinton. I mean, I’m trying to think of the reaction if he nominated a woman to lead the Department of Defense, anyone want to hazard a guess? Women still can’t serve in combat, and we’ve got Republicans who think a woman on the front lines would “impair missions” because of lady parts and upper body strength and all. I think a female Defense Secretary would be a non-starter, but then, what do I know.

The “diversity problem” meme seems to have started at the New York Times, which ran a photo in which only Valerie Jarrett’s leg is visible. Hey, if you hide the one woman in the room behind a white guy then yes, you may have a point! Fail.

Anyway, the story has been picked up far and wide now. I’ve seen “Obama’s diversity problem” mentioned on CNN and MSNBC today, and the right-wing media is all over it, too. It’s the perfect talking point for conservatives, who are trying desperately to mask the Republican Party’s own unbearable all-white-male problem. And if there’s one thing conservatives love to do when faced with their own misdeeds and failings is point their fingers at the left and say, “see! You did it too!”

By the way, how many non-white, non-male House committee chairs did John Boehner appoint for the new Congress? That would be zero. How much tsk-tsking did the New York Times, CNN and MSNBC do on the all-white, all-male committee chairs? That also would be zero — or at least, if there was any, I missed it.

Also, these scolds have failed to mention that Obama’s first choice for Secretary of State was an African American woman. Woops. As Joan Walsh pointed out:

It’s rich when the very forces that made sure we didn’t have an African-American woman secretary of state complain that our first black president’s Cabinet lacks diversity. But that’s what they’re doing.

Y’all know that Obama is half white, right? I guess it’s his white half making the cabinet appointments in his second term.

/sarcasm

I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that this meme came straight from the Frank Luntz School of Republican Talking Points, fully vetted and tested by an array of (all white, all-Republican) focus groups. It’s just shocking when the so-called “liberal media” repeats this crap, but if there’s one thing we know about the “liberal media,” it’s that they are desperate to not appear “in the tank” for Obama. The media is and always has been totally fascinated with all things Republican, as the make-up of any Sunday morning panel shows. Back when Bush The Lesser was president we were told, it’s because Democrats aren’t in power. Now we’re told it’s because we’re not in the opposition. Can’t win for losing.

So, yes. Well played, Republicans.

Wingnut Bait, Christmas Edition

Did you get your First Family Christmas Card yet? Yes? We got ours at the Beale household about two weeks ago. For those of you not on the Soros-approved Holiday Muslim-Mas Socialism Distribution List, here’s a look:

Isn’t it adorable? It’s First Dog Bo, prancing in the snow in front of the White House. I opened my card and my first thought was, “What? No manger scene? No virgins or angels or Christmas trees? Why does Barack Hussein Obummer hate Jesus!” Actually, no. I thought, “Wow what a cute card.” But I have a brain.

Others, unfortunately, decided to go all “war-on-Christmas” over Card-gate, mainly the hysterics at Fox News (I know, it must be Tuesday, right?). By the way, the card was painted by an artist from that bastion of Commie secularism, Des Moines, Iowa.

And lordie, I haven’t got to the message inside the card:

Again, no Christmas, no Jesus, just “the season.” Oh, the horror!

Now, the reason I mention this is not because wingnuts are having hissy fits, which is as predictable as the sun rising in the east. No, I found it interesting because I thought, “Obama’s messing with them.” He is! POTUS knows the wingers are gonna get in a tizzy no matter what he does, and he probably also knows that this “War on Christmas” phony baloney BS is not something anyone with a brain gives a shit about, and it just makes conservatives look more unreasonable and extreme. It does! And here he dangled this nice little piece of wingnut bait out there and guess who bit: some wackjob named Todd Starnes, who last made headlines calling for the Feds to investigate “South Park.”

Okay, so now that it’s official that Obama has replaced Jesus with Bo the Dog, here’s a video of Bo giving the White House decorations his seal of approval:

KitchenAid Flunks Social Media

KitchenAid, purveyor of crappy kitchen appliances made in China (and a division of Whirlpool, last seen shipping American jobs to Mexico), made a huge social media boo-boo last night. One of their social media team members sent this Tweet under the company profile:

Ha ha that’s so funny, joking about the president’s dead grandmother! Hilarious! I almost forgot to laugh!

Needless to say, there’s probably a job opening in the social media division of KitchenAid today.

Dog Whistles

People are wondering what this whole Tucker Carlson-Matt Drudge-Fox News fail parade could possibly be about. The video is old, was well-covered in 2007 (even by Tucker Carlson!) and isn’t the shiny-sparkly game changer that had been promised.

But people, it’s not about you. It’s a wingnut dog-whistle for “reparations,” as the Fox chiron Tweeted by Salon’s Alex Seitz-Wald makes clear:

“Katrina victims shortchanged by government”? Oooooh. I get it! It’s another way of saying if Obama is re-elected, he’ll make sure black people get your money because of slavery ‘n stuff.

This is a classic dog whistle and what’s really curious to me is that it’s being used at all. Is the Fox/Drudge/Carlson crowd worred the folks to whom this message is directed — i.e., the racist base — won’t bother to vote? What do they know that we don’t?

It’s really quite puzzling that they keep throwing more red meat to the far right, the folks you’d think were pretty convinced that Obama is a danger to the republic on account of being a Socialist-Muslim-wealth-redistributing-blackety-black man. You’d think they’d be trying to appeal to the less crazy people. But maybe there are none.

Maybe there really are no undecided voters left in this election and all the Republicans can do is try keep their side motivated with crap like this.

Just Shoot Me Now

God, fucking liberals, you annoy the hell out of me. As you may have heard, a “reporter” with Tucker Carlson’s right-wing rag The Daily Caller heckled President Obama in the Rose Garden today. The response has been about what you’d expect, with the wingnuts going full-frontal to embrace their new hero and the left … ah, well, let’s turn it over to Chris Hayes, shall we?

What would the Daily Caller say if a Nation reporter did this to an R Pres. I’m sure they’d stand w/ their colleagues, of course.

— Christopher Hayes (@chrislhayes) June 15, 2012

Yes, what would The Daily Caller say if a reporter with The Nation did this? Let’s ask The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel what happened the last time one of her reporters acted like a jackass to the president of the United States. OH WAIT. That never happened!

What is the fucking point of musing about what the “liberal media” would do if a similar thing happened, when both sides do NOT pull this shit. God. You’re killing me here. Just fucking stop it already.

But Katie Couric did ask Sarah Palin what newspapers she read and you’d think she’d asked her to explain thermonuclear physics.

Jesus. Fucking liberals, what the hell is wrong with you people? This is why we can’t have nice things. You act like jackasses.

Neil Munro is just this year’s Jeff Gannon, and Daily Caller is just the latest incarnation of Talon News. That some in the media are defending this tells us everything we need to know about the death of modern journalism.

Just, stop.

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[UPDATE]:

Everyone seems to think Hayes was being sarcastic, but I don’t read sarcasm in his remark. But the point is, he wasn’t the only one. Here’s another:

Had I yelled at a question at the President about screwing over workers, would lefties be criticizing me?

— Mike Elk (@MikeElk) June 15, 2012

Tea Party For Obama

Yes this is a thing. It may not be a real thing, but it exists.

It’s pretty hilarious. I have no idea who is behind it, but they claim to be for real over at Facebook. But c’mon, is this a photo a legit group puts on its homepage?

Anyway, it’s kind of funny. I’m guessing some DNC operation is behind this but who the hell knows. This stuff happens every election; for years a utility pole near my house sported a hand-made “Democrats 4 Ron Paul” sign. It was placed so high, they had to bring a cherry picker out to remove it, which is probably why it stayed there for about five years.

President Everyman

[UPDATE] 2:

Via Echidne, Dana Milbank tells us Obama is the first female president. Just shoot me now.

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[UPDATE]:

Apparently our real first gay president was James Buchanan. I had no idea.

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What is it about President Obama that makes everyone want to imprint him with some idiotic label?

Today we learn that Newsweek has declared Obama our first gay president. The issue is not available online yet, but the cover has been released:

Oh, puh-leeze. Dear media: please stop this nonsense. That’s just the stupidest thing ever. Obama is not gay so he is not our first gay president, just like Bill Clinton is not black and he was not our first black president. Y’all are being too cute by half. It was dumb then and it’s dumb now. Please hold off on the labels for the day when an actual gay man or woman is elected president of the United States. Which, considering they can’t even get married in most states, I’m not holding my breath over.

The media does this all the damn time. It’s childish and lazy but since when has our national punditry been anything else? Obama is a Zelig-like figure in the American media’s eye, someone for whom any convenient label is viewed as a means to sell magazines. Obama isn’t just our first black president or our first gay president, he’s also:

Our first Jewish president? Seriously? After all the wingnuts tried to tell us he’s Muslim? Fascinating! But don’t stop there, he’s also:

A feminist! Of course, maybe not the first feminist president. Newsweek has already been down the label path, though. Remember this one?

I’m trying to get the psychology at work here. I just looked through an image search of magazine covers featuring George W. Bush. They focused on the decisions he made. Bush was the definer in chief, he arrived on the scene fully-formed: resolute even when wrong, man of faith, yada yada.

There’s something about Obama that makes the media want to define him, and that tells me he hasn’t done a good enough job of defining himself, which is weird, considering he’s written two autobiographies. I find it very strange.