Worst President ever? Or the failure of conservatism?

Rachel Maddow highlights four events during the tenure of Bush's eight-year term so bad that even one of them could have deemed his presidency an abject failure. Her guest Thomas Frank, author of "The Wrecking Crew," states that Bush is not personally responsible (nor are his policies) for these failures, but rather that conservatism has failed.

It's judgment day for the conservative philosophy of governing.

"March Together for Life" guy's comments keep coming...

from monday, july 10th, 9:46pm until tuesday, july 12th, 4:18am pete received more than 600 comments on his "Satire?" post. it seems that digg and the blogger community are really letting poor pete have it.

a sampling:

Pete, please: listen carefully. "Caroline Weber" does not exist.

The Onion article you attacked is not "her piece." It was written by a comedy writer. Who is not "Caroline Weber," has not just had an abortion, and is more than likely not even a woman.

It is truly stunning that you do not understand this. That you still do not understand this, even after being mocked mercilessly on the previous thread. Even after being told, repeatedly, to get a clue, you're still in dire need of one. Oof.

no amount of stammering is going to get you out of the enormous idiot hole you have dug for yourself. good thing the internet is anonymous because you'd have throngs of people driving past your house, pointing and laughing.

Hey man did you know that Christ is convering to Islam... its (sic) in the same issue.

You haven't given up yet? My my, you are braver than I am. If I had made a gaffe like that (unlikely, as my IQ is above 50), I'd never ventured online again. Unplugged my computer, just to make sure. It's a comforting thought that the pro-life movement consists of drooling halfwits like you.

and just one more (though i haven't even scratched the surface):

Wow...

I don't know what else to say. I mean, it's one thing to misinterpret Onion material as genuine reporting (the "liberal media" has been at it for years), but to follow up with what you wrote? I just... WOW.

Seriously, "Caroline Weber" is a pen name, a character. "She" doesn't exist, and never will.

The Onion is in the business of fake news. In other words, they take topics and twist them to such ludicrous degrees that they become funny and satirical.

The Onion is as real a newspaper as "The Colbert Report" is a real conservative's show.

I used to think that pro-lifers were just as intelligent and smart as me, just that we differed on this issue. The differences clearly go deeper than that.

You talk about how horrible it is to live in a world that tolerates abortion. When you take away the ability, the CHOICE, of a woman to have control over her own body (what's next, a man can't choose to get a vasectomy because that will kill potential fetuses in the future?), you know what slippery slope we'll be falling towards? Facism, where the few powerful people at the top of the governmental food chain will dictate everything a person does with their lives. Is that what you want? Do you really want to turn an American into the next Mussolini or Hitler? Cause that's what you're oppressive goals entail.

And don't forget, the Onion is fake news. Not real. As in: MADE UP!!!

Cheers!
Jason

i love that jason ends that well-written missive with "Cheers!" excellent!

however, the best thing i found in the comments is this gem -- another old school onion article: God Finally Gives Shout-Out Back To All His Niggaz

"Right about now, I want to send a shout-out to each and every nigga who's shown Me love through the years," said the Lord, His booming voice descending from Heaven. "I got mad love for each and every one of you niggaz. Y'all real niggaz out there, you know who you are. Y'all was there for me, and it's about time I'm-a give some love back to God's true crew."

"All y'all niggaz, y'all be My niggaz," the Lord added.

"A pair of shout-out tablets handed down by the Lord."

It's Satire, Stupid.

in the latest edition of, "ummm, you realize The Onion is supposed to be funny, right?"...

this idiot decided to take Caroline Weber, author of "I'm Totally Psyched About This Abortion!", to task in his pro-life blog.

only problems... 1) it's from the onion; 2) it's from 1999. a little late on to be jumping on that hate parade.

anyhoo, he got lambasted in the comments to his blog post and decided to respond.

i'm sorry to ruin the end for you, but it's just too good:

Satire? Was the article aiming at the women who have the abortions or the people who believe it is better to save lives than kill them?

Hmm, let's look up the term satire:

“witty language used to convey insults or scorn; "he used sarcasm to upset his opponent"”

Either way, I think I did a good job of turning the “satire” right back at them, don’t you?

oh yes. i do.

UPDATE: O'Reilly plans to publish list of "internet smear sites." be on the lookout for yours truly -- oh i hope i hope i hope! :)

I'm glad the smear sites made a big deal out of it. Now we can all know who was with the anti-military internet crowd. We'll post the names of all who support the smear merchants on billoreilly.com. So check with us.

crooks and liars is encouraging people to email him and request inclusion in the hit list. more, more and more.

he's basically called me a traitor for simply living here and voting the way i do. i'm not calling for his resignation or saying that he should be fired. i just think he's an ass.

Bill O'Reilly and San Francisco, part deux

Bill-zilla,
hat tip to monk.

i was in kansas city and missed part one, but here's a link to the audio of the controversial spot on his radio show that started it all. the transcript is below, but suffice it to say that o'reilly launched into a bit of a tirade against my fair city for putting a measure on the ballot last week that would urge city schools to reject military recruiters from campus recruitment.

and because i couldn't have said it any better, here's today's follow-up:

O'Reilly vies for "Best Editing" Emmy.

On last night's O'Reilly Factor, Bill defended his previous statement regarding an attack on San Francisco. How? By completely editing it out. O'Reilly claimed that his statement was merely a "satirical riff."

To prove his point, O'Reilly played the audio clip from last Tuesday's Radio Factor:

"I hate to be pickin' on you guys in California. I hope you don't take it personally. One lady did yesterday. It isn't about you, the individual Californian, it's about how crazy your state is. In San Francisco they're voting on two initiatives. One would ban military recruiting. Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not gonna give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the President of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little Presidential podium, and I say, 'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not gonna get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."

O'Reilly chose that moment to end the clip. Here's what he decided to leave out:

"And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead. "

When one of his guests questioned the editing of the most controversial lines, O'Reilly claimed it was because the clip was too long. How convenient.

You might as well show a documentary about the KKK and stop when they leave the meeting with white cloaks and torches. Are they all going for a nice walk? We can only assume.

via Sweet Jesus, I hate Bill O'Reilly, Intl.

o'reilly is not only defending himself but also going on the offensive, claiming that his rant "needed to be said."

What I said isn't controversial. What I said needed to be said. I'm sitting here and I'm looking at a city that has absolutely no clue about what the world is. None. You know, if you had been hit on 9/11 instead of New York, believe me, you would not have voted against military recruting. Yet the left-wing, selfish, Land of Oz philosophy that the media and the city politicians have embraced out there is an absolute intellectual disgrace.

via ThinkProgress (full transcript and audio)

i guess it's left-wing, selfish, squirrely politicians who drafted the anti-discrimination laws... my in-house attorney (i.e. wifey) tells me that the root of the on-campus recruiting problem stems from anti-discrimination code. schools have rules that say that organizations who support discrimination on its face are not allowed to recruit on-campus. the government does just that -- supports discrimination on its face. thanks to president clinton, we have the lovely don't-ask-don't-tell policy and well, if you tell you're toast. but i'm sure mr. bill doesn't want to make this a gay issue. lord knows that would only fan the flames.

Mayor Newsome had a few words of his own in response:

I've never been impressed with what he's had to say, and I'm not impressed now. Consider the source. Remember, this is the guy who wanted me arrested after (San Francisco sanctioned same-sex marriages last year). He never let his opinion get in the way of the facts.

i like this Newsome guy more and more.

Poll: Bush would lose an election if held this year

At CNN.com:

In the latest poll, 55 percent of the respondents said that they would vote for the Democratic candidate if Bush were again running for the presidency this year.

Thirty-nine percent of those interviewed said they would vote for Bush in the hypothetical election.
...
Democrats preferred on issues

On separate issues, a majority of those questioned felt the Democrats could do a better job than Republicans at handling health care (59 percent to 30 percent), Social Security (56 percent to 33 percent), gasoline prices (51 percent to 31 percent) and the economy (50 percent to 38 percent).

Forty-six percent also believed Democrats could do better at handling Iraq, while 40 percent said the GOP would do better.

Wait, wait wait.... the Democrats won on issues, too?? Those are pretty big numbers. WTF?

Just goes to show you what a huge section of the country really does sit on the fence, blowing as the spin blows. We'll see who wins the spin wars come next year's mid-term elections.