DOWNLOADS: (1636)

PLAYS: (10204)

Embed

Man oh man... all I can say is how'd you like to married to this woman? What's the deal with Republicans acting like spoiled children when they don't get their way and something pisses them off? Lady McCheney had a hissy fit on the air when her husband made the grave mistake of laughing at her when she accidentally said "tea bag people". Here's the bit that set her off while they were discussing Andrew Breitbart and his attack on Shirley Sherrod.

CARVILLE: He's at the fault of it.

MATALIN: The reason they keep repeating the same mistake and they don't take advantage of their teaching moments is because of the presumption of race and that Republicans and conservatives are racist. A year ago today or tomorrow, the president said the Cambridge cops were stupid. The tea bag people -- the Tea Party people -- see, I can't even -- they've call them that so much -- see what I mean?

They presume and they accuse conservatives of racism and they rush to judgment and they manufacture and flagrantly lie about conservatives of all stripes on radio, off the air, and they have this elitist --

CARVILLE: I'm sorry --

MATALIN: -- something despicable attitude and then they want to have --

CARVILLE: I'm sorry --

MATALIN: -- a national dialogue -- I'm not having this conversation with him, John.

CARVILLE: I'm sorry --

MATALIN: Do you want to have a conversation --

CARVILLE: I know. I'm sorry, but the person that edited -- the dishonest person in this was the filmmaker.

Sorry Mary, but no one ever said that all Republicans or conservatives are racist. The NAACP just asked the Tea Party to call out the racists in their ranks. And if you don't think there are any racists in the Tea Party, then maybe you can explain why white nationalists and members of sites like Stormfront are promoting them.

Some of Bill Maher's funnier lines from his New Rules segment tonight.

New Rule: Don't ask me to believe that the hippest President we've ever had doesn't know how to use an iPod.

...But what's with the fuddy-duddy act. If we wanted Luddite block heads who didn't understand gizmos and doohickeys we'd have voted for the ghost and Mrs. Moron.

I know I'm being a little nit-picky but how exactly does President Sanford and Son think he got elected? By CB radio? No, it was through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter and RentBoy.com.

The entire campaign was based on the Internet. But you know in America politicians, they do that because they know Americans conflate out of touch with adorable.

...John McCain thinks an iPad is something women wear on their X-Boxes once a month.

...You know there's a specific group of Americans out there who's name I won't mention but it begins with T and ends with baggers. And they have a habit of saying I want my country back. Well I want my country forward.

Lots of arguing about religion on tonight's show since he brought on fake atheist S.E. Cupp and asked her about her book claiming that the "liberal" media has an anti-Christian bias that Cenk ripped her up for. Bill smelled a rat just like a lot of the commenters here and felt that there's no way in hell that she could write something claiming that Christians are persecuted by the press if she's actually an atheist. He wanted to know if her next book was going to be about her conversion to Christianity.

I could have done with a whole lot less of the arguing about religion and a lot more of what they talked about in the Overtime segment on line which really was the best part of the show. I finally got to hear someone tell John Avlon that his book Wingnuts is full of crap and false equivalencies and even if you don't like Keith Olbermann and think he's obnoxious there's no way in hell you should be comparing him to Glenn Beck. Good for Bill Maher.

You can watch the Overtime segment on Real Time's site here when the site updates with the video.

DOWNLOADS: (1550)

PLAYS: (266)

Embed

Phil Gingrey joins the ranks of John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Michael Steele who went on the Sunday talk shows and called the racist and bigoted rhetoric from the Tea baggers as just "isolated incidents". When Michael Smerconish asks Gingrey if it's fair to hold the GOP leadership accountable for the conduct of some of the protesters he lets Gingrey get away with this.

GINGREY: Of course not. The Tea Party activists don't even represent themselves as Republicans. They have a policy in regard to what they stand for. But I mean when you have literally thousands, I don't know, there may have been twenty five thousand people on Saturday and I stopped and spoke to many of them and they're good red blooded Americans and good honest people who traveled thousands of miles in some instances, some drove, some took buses, so you know, they're frustrated.

In any crowd like that you're always going to get somebody who goes a little bit over the line in regard to their remarks, what they shout out or the signs they carry, but I think Jim Clyburn who's a good friend, I respect the Majority Whip and John Lewis of course in my own delegation, the senior member of the Georgia delegation is a great human being. And we, I think they understand that people sometimes get out of line. But they're not representative certainly of the Republican Party and I don't think of the Tea Party movement in general.

Michael Smerconish failed to ask Phil Gingrey about his participation at that protest which consisted of quite a bit more than just stopping and speaking to a few of them. If you go look at the screen shot in this video, that's Phil Gingrey standing behind Michele Bachmann while she thanks Sean Hannity for providing a forum for her to organize the health care reform protests. Smerconish didn't bother to ask Gingrey how anyone could say that Dick Armey's fake grass roots organization Freedom Works could not be considered just an arm of the Republican Party.

As Thomas Frank pointed out, the Tea Party Movement is Led by Characters from the Jack Abramoff Story. Fox News and Republican astroturf groups started this movement and Michael Smerconish allows Gingery to paint them as some independent group that isn't being used by the Republicans for political gain. Pitiful.

DOWNLOADS: (207)

PLAYS: (271)

Embed

I didn't expect anything else from them since the Republicans don't want to take any responsibility for their party whipping the Tea Party protesters into a frenzy. John Boehner, Michael Steele and Eric Cantor all tried to blow off the hateful rhetoric directed at members of Congress the previous day as isolated incidents. Sorry guys but as John said, "They aren't just a sliver of the make-up of the crowds. They ARE the crowds."

GREGORY: Let me interject a question about the tone of this debate. This was the scene on Capitol Hill yesterday where you had tea party activists protesting the vote. And in some cases it got quite ugly, where we had instances of anti-gay epithets being hurled at Congressman Frank, racist epithets, as well, hurled by protesters. Are you concerned, Leader Boehner, that the Republican Party is in any way associated with tea party activists who are among these protesters?

BOEHNER: Well, listen. There were some isolated incidents on the Hill yesterday that were reprehensible and should not have happened. But let's not let a few isolated incidents get in the way of the fact that millions of Americans are scared to death and millions of Americans want no part of this growing size of government here in Washington. We've got the best healthcare system in the world, and we're about to take this dangerous step, very dangerous step toward the government running the whole thing. That's not what the American people want.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (117)

PLAYS: (397)

Embed

On Hardball Mike Pence is asked about the Tea Partiers who mocked the man with Parkinson's disease at the rally in Ohio. You can tell it was killing Pence to even have to answer him because he's been out there helping to whip these people into a frenzy and doesn't want to cross them. Pence calls the behavior "despicable" and awful and claims he doesn't want to excuse what the man did and then goes on to excuse it in the next breath and says they have a right to be angry. Never mind the part he's played in helping to incite them along with his fellow members of Congress. I cannot imagine the Democrats going out there and giving the kind of speeches we've heard out of the likes of Bachmann, Pence, DeMint and the rest of them and not being asked if they felt any responsibility for the actions of the protesters by the media. As always IOKIYAR.

From The Daily Show Feb. 8, 2010:

Barack Obama's teleprompter rhetoric is no match for Sarah Palin's hand-scribbled buzzwords.

DOWNLOADS: (168)

PLAYS: (296)

Embed

During the Tea Party Convention in Nashville Sarah Palin gives the Tea Baggers and their movement way too much credit for the election of Scott Brown. Somehow she forgot to mention the influence of Mitt Romney and his team for Brown's success.

Mitt Romney's Man:

If Scott Brown pulls off an upset in the race to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate, he may have Mitt Romney to thank. Samuel P. Jacobs on the 2012 GOP presidential hopeful's hidden hand.

There are a number of forces driving Republican Scott Brown’s surprising surge in the Massachusetts special Senate election campaign. He’s benefiting from public anger over the Obama administration’s health-care reform plan. He’s buoyed by a tide of cash from around the country, donated by conservatives eager to send a message by upsetting Democratic front-runner Martha Coakley. And then there’s the lackluster campaign Coakley herself has run.

Largely overlooked in assessing Brown’s prospects: the hidden hand of Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor headlined at a fundraiser for Brown last October. And Romney has helped Brown raise money outside the state as well. “I know Scott and how determined he is to win. I've campaigned for him, raised money on his behalf, and we're doing all we can to help him over the finish line,” Romney wrote supporters last Monday. Brown, 50, raised $1.3 million that day. Read on...

Heaven forbid that would sway Sister Sarah from giving this food for fodder to the good folks who forked out all the money to see her speak. Scott Brown is about as grass roots as Palin and Dick Armey and Tim Phillips and the rest of these Republicans who are making fools of those who are clueless about the money behind this astroturf movement.

Palin: And I am a big supporter of this movement; I believe in this movement. Got a lot of friends and family in the lower 48 who attend these events and across the country just knowin’ that this is the movement and America is ready for another revolution and you are a part of this. I look forward to attending more Tea Party events in the near future. It is just so inspiring to see real people, not politicos, not inside the beltway professionals come out and stand up and speak out for common sense conservative principles.

And today I want to start off with a special shout out to America’s newest Senator thanks to you, Scott Brown. Now in many ways Scott Brown represents what this beautiful movement is all about. You know he was just a guy with a truck and a passion to serve our country. He looked around and he saw that things weren’t quite right in Washington. So he stood up and he decided he was going to do his part to put our government back on the side of the people. And it took guts and it took a lot of hard work. But with grass roots support Scott Brown carried the day.

[…]

You know considering the recent conservative election sweep it’s time that they stopped blaming everyone else. When you’re 0 for 3 you’d better stop lecturing and start listening. The only place that the left has to blame is on their agenda so some advice for our friends on that side of the aisle. That’s where you’ve gotta’ look because that’s what got you into this mess. The Obama, Pelosi, Reid agenda—it’s going to leave us less secure, more in debt and more under the thumb of big government. And that is out of touch. And it’s out of date. And if Scott Brown is any indication, it’s runnin’ outta’ time.

DOWNLOADS: (218)

PLAYS: (289)

Embed

Is anyone else as tired as I am of watching Anderson Cooper bring these two on his show night after night to talk about this non-existent middle that the President is supposed to be catering to without acknowledging that the Republican Congress has been one of the most obstructionist in the history of our country?

This John Avlon who continually looks like he's trying to prove the points he made in his "Wingnuts" book rather than talk about the reality of our political situation in this country is particularly annoying. Given this guy was the Chief Speechwriter and Deputy Policy Director for Rudy Giuliani's 2008 Presidential Campaign I guess nothing that comes out of his mouth should be too surprising.

Anyone who can equate Alan Grayson to Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin frankly just needs to just STFU and get off my television screen IMHO. Instead he's given a platform night after night or on CNN's morning show to convince Americans that if the Democrats just give the Republicans everything they want those "Independent" voters will love them and all will be well.

And David Gergen thinks the President needs to get out there and listen to those tea baggers and their complaints. Yeah, that's going to work David. If he just talks nice to them maybe they'll put away those Joker and Hitler signs they're carrying and start to love him. I'm sure if he tried you'd all be talking about how the uppity black man who's out of touch with the common folk is "lecturing" them.

I agree with Gergen on one point. The public did send President Obama to Washington to get results and not just to give speeches. The public is going to calm down if they see things getting better in their daily lives and not worse. Since the Republicans have absolutely no desire to govern but instead destroy government so they can prove their own talking points that government doesn't work and use that as an excuse to privatize everything, they and the ConservaDems that share their philosophy are not going to allow that to happen.

Maybe when the pitchforks finally start coming out because people are so fed up they'll finally change their tune. I don't think we'll see the likes of Gergen or anyone in our mainstream media admit what too many of our politicians actually think government is good for before hell freezes over, which is lining the pockets of those that get them elected and then using that money to get elected again. We need some real campaign finance reform before that's going to change.

Transcript via CNN below the fold.

Continue reading »

From The Rachel Maddow Show Dec. 30, 2009. Rachel vows to keep covering the right wing extremists that her show has done such a wonderful job of going after all year in 2009. So all you astroturf groups, tea baggers, religious zealots, gay bashers and C-Street Family members, you're not going to get a break in 2010. Good for Rachel.

Anyone else think they ought to have her on earlier instead of giving Tweety two hours -- one a reair most of the time -- to pollute the airways for the most part before her show comes on? She's got the best news show on cable television, hands down IMHO.

MADDOW: So, happy new year. When this show launched in September of last year, there was absolutely no ambiguity about what we would be spending most of our time covering. We started the show during the very last lap of the presidential election.

And we here at MSNBC and at this show, specifically, covered that election wall to wall for what sometimes felt like 25 hours a day. There was election night coverage itself. And then after Obama won but Bush and Cheney were still in office, there was the "Lame Duck Watch" to attend to. Remember the "Lame Duck Watch" intro?

(MUSIC)

I live and hope for there to be another duck-related presidential news item that would justify us using "Hail to the Chief" with the quack at the end of it. We do have it on file in case that ever happens.

After the lame duck period was over and the inauguration happened, this new young show of ours, along with everybody else in the media, settled into a year of covering this new presidency and the news and politics of our country this year.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (869)

PLAYS: (6084)

Embed

Rachel Maddow takes another shot at Dick Armey in response to his cheap shot at her during his tea bagger rally. Rachel explains why Dick Armey might have been aggravated enough to go after at her in the first place. As Adele Stan at AlterNet reported, apparently Armey's "die in" didn't go so well along with his appearance at the National Press Club. I'm sure he's still mad about losing that lobbying gig as well. Keep giving him hell Rachel.

MADDOW: That was Dick Armey getting big yucks from the crowd, giving my name the old Norm Crosby treatment. Today, we learned what might have put Mr. Armey in such a contentious mood as he took the stage mid- afternoon.

About an hour prior to that taping you just saw, Dick Armey had scheduled a 12:30 p.m. luncheon at the National Press Club, an event, a big press event, starring him, talking about his favorite issues and reportedly for him to launch his new political action committee.

As it turned out, there was no turnout. The Dick Armey luncheon was canceled. Canceled by whom? By Dick Armey? Not exactly. After Adele Stan at "AlterNet.org" reported that she had tried to attend the Dick Armey national press club event only to find it called off.

We reached out to communications and event manager at the National Press Club, Melinda Cooke, to find out why. She told us that the luncheon was canceled because, quote, "They didn`t have enough reservations."

Ooh, not enough people wanted to luncheon with Mr. Armey. We then asked the minimum number of interested reporters required to hold on to a reservation for such a luncheon. And Ms. Cooke quite diplomatically responded, quote, "Let`s just say there`s a minimum required and they didn`t meet it."

Mr. Armey`s noontime fizzle wasn`t the only torch-and-pitchfork grassroot-sy, tea baggish event that failed to launch yesterday. The Tea Party Patriot`s anti-health reform group planned a die-in in Senate offices yesterday. They were going to show up in droves at Senate offices and pretend to die because the health reform is a secret plot to - whatever.

Continue reading »