Like Big Fish In A Barrel

Thomas Lindman recently posted a list of accusations against ACORN from an article by Peter Roff at US News And World Report.

What was snipped from the list in the blogger's post, was the fact that the source that Roff used was not a legitimate House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report. It was released only by the Republicans, not the whole committee.

Lindaman then states: To the Leftists who still think ACORN is a small fish, let me point something out to you. If you shoplift from a convenience store at the same time a murder is occurring on the other side of town, you're still guilty of shoplifting.

Let's continue that false equivalence: Republicans DON'T want the shoplifter to pay for the crimes. The Republicans want the entire convenience store shut down.

If Goldman Sachs, Haliburton, or any other big company is guilty of crimes, I fully endorse investigating them and prosecuting them to the fullest extent of the law. And unlike my Leftist brethren, I hold ACORN to the same standard.

Right. That's why Republicans report so much about Halliburton and Goldman Sachs. And all those other wonderful CORPORATIONS that would be shut off thanks to the anti-ACORN bill. They shot themselves in the foot AGAIN.

But that's nothing new from the right:

All of this boils down to one thing: Republicans want the supression of minority voters. Conservatives are hell-bent on destroying the intentions of ACORN - to provide voting rights for the poor and the disadvantaged by making it look like a criminal organization. ACORN has been around since 1970's, and suddenly, the conservatives are pretending to care, and are now working so hard to destroy ACORN and have been wearing tinfoil hats thinking that Obama promotes criminal activities.

Anything which legally increases voter turnout is a good thing. No accusation about the actual ACORN organization and "voter fraud" has ever gained traction, which is why the right jumped all over the pimp fiasco. Anything to break ACORN and disrupt efforts to increase minority voter turnout. One good thing can come of this: Considering the right has finally shed its last bit of sheep's clothing and revealed its rampant racism ever since Obama came around, the Republicans will now lose what little of the minority vote it ever had.

I Shall Receive

The Leftist blogger who hates me, yet copies everything I do,

You keep leaving out "and refutes it." At least I have the guts to link back to the original source. Even if it is a lying gutless coward like you, Thomas Lindaman.

asked where the posters were to celebrate Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Liar. I didn't say anything about sloppy photoshops that have false quotations. I asked for the partisan bullshit excuses that I knew the right were going to make.

The same partisan bullshit that you kept falsely accusing the left of regarding the olympics. And in that respect, I did indeed "receive."

Well, OF COURSE the Republicans are going to say he's "done nothing" to deserve the prize.

The positive results from the G5+1 meeting with Iran... you know, getting Iran to admit weapons inspectors is kind of a big deal. It's miles better than what Bush accomplished in 8 years. Obama managed to do it by scrapping an overpriced, underperforming weapons system. Diplomacy works, bitches. He single-handedly proposed and pushed through the larges nuclear arms reduction treaty since the NPT. He made fforts against nuclear proliferation since before his election. He has closed hundreds of CIA "blacksites", where prisoners were held in foreign countries, outside of the reach of US law. He has made every effort to close Guantanamo, despite massive pushback from congress. He has opened negotiations with Cuba for the first time in most Americans' lives. He continuously works for bipartisan solutions to domestic issues, despite having a supermajority in both houses of congress. Concrete efforts to reduce carbon emissions, shattering global assumptions about 'racist' America, re-elevating the ambassador to the UN to a cabinet level position. The social implications of the health care push, and even his history of turning down big bucks after Harvard to work (quite successfully) for a non-profit. For Hamas talking to Fatah, and thinking to recognize Israel. For Turkey establishing diplomatic relations with Armenia after 16 years. For influence on Mugabe to share the power. For peace in Kenya last year.

The list goes on... but I guess it all amounts to "nothing" to you right-wingers. All the teabaggers can go and protest in Norway.

Oh, wait... I don't think any teabaggers can afford to buy two seats apiece for a trip to Europe.

UPDATE: DEAD SILENCE from Lindaman. He loses again.

President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

Wow, that so-called Epic Fail was even shorter than I expected:

Obama Wins 2009 Nobel Peace Prize

I'm just amused that less than a week after the right screams 'World Rejects Obama', he gets the Nobel Peace Prize. As you can see, the world reaction has been overwhelmingly positive.

Now we'll see a lot of "Epic Win" Obama posters from the right-wingers, right? Just kidding, they'll hate the win just like the Taliban and the Islamic Jihad are hating it.

Conservatives cheered America's loss of the Olympics. I have no doubt they'll boo America's win of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Of course, right-wingers already hate the Nobel Prize, because it awards those who make efforts towards science, art, culture, peace, and humanity.

Come on, conservatives. Let's hear it! Let's hear the "partisan bullcrap", let's hear the "excuses, excuses", let's hear the "world media", let's hear the "conjecture based on partisanship", let's hear the "lame attempt to divert attention" from the win. And for a bonus, throw in some stuff about "Arafat" or "eleven days"!

Let's hear it! We're all ears! I can't wait! Especially from that gutless shithead known as Thomas Lindaman!

The Soda Tax

Just to clarify some confusion by Thomas Lindaman over a possible tax on soft drinks:

http://www.cspinet.org/new/200909301.html

It's only for soda and other beverages with added sugar.

Right-wingers are idiots.

Picture Debunked

Trying to make Obama look bad, this sloppy poster was made by Thomas Lindaman:

Here's the actual video:

Again, they have to just make stuff up. Do they also think Fred Rogers was a sniper in Vietnam? The picture IS funny. Though the caption, being completely irrelevant to what's in the picture, sucks out all the humor. Probably written by a republican, since they aren't known for their understanding of comedy. Even putting "Daaaaaamn!" at the bottom would have worked better. These, however, ARE real:

UPDATE: Guess we know who the writer is now (Thomas Lindaman), since he had to scramble to put up another one. This is all they've got folks. lol

Conservatives Say: "Yay, America Lost!" Part II

Lindaman responded to Part I, so here we go:

And Leftists Say: "It's Bush's fault!"

Bush turning world opinion against the US certainly didn't help matters, no.

On the contrary. The world media have all but blamed Obama for Chicago not getting the 2016 nod. They've said it was an embarrassment, and rightfully so.

"all but"? Don't use weasel words. Just say it. Are you using weasel words to avoid having to use a citation?

It is interesting to see right-wingers pretend to actually respect the opinions of anybody outside the US. Historically, they have worn any rejection by the international community as a badge of pride. Except now, of course.

Flying all that way so the President and the First Lady could give a speech where their entire reason for having Chicago host the 2016 Olympics was "because we want it"?

Did you even hear the speech? And I don't quite see how Obama's involvement could reasonably be described as "costly". He took a trip to Denmark to support our country. Is that considered an unreasonable expense? Only if the President is a Democrat.

Ah, "standard practice." That's why no previous President appeared before the IOC to plug a particular American city...

Again: This. Year.

No. What he would have been saying is "I'm following what other Presidents have done. Besides, I have a country to run." Part of being a leader is delegating authority. Couldn't Joe Biden, the Obama Administration's alleged foreign policy expert, taken this one? Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State? Or, here's a novel idea. Why not let the people who have been actually working on the proposal make the pitch?

Every nation sent a head of state/government...but only Obama was arrogant? Is that what you're saying? Or are you saying he CAVED and did the same thing as the rest of the world?

Ah, but there's a world of difference between meeting with the IOC in a primarily ceremonial capacity, and actually making a pitch at the final vote. Of course, the Left is going to try to spin this anyway they can to take the stink off Obama's pitiful performance.

Spin what? He pitched for the USA. Didn't work. Are you saying it would've worked for somebody else? That's like saying you're an EPIC FAILURE for not winning the lottery last week.

Excuses, excuses. Chicago was seen as the odds-on favorite to win prior to the Obama-Oprah Express showing up in Stockholm. Besides, if all of these factors were in play, how did Chicago even get considered in the first place?

Oh, bullshit. Chicago was never the odds-on favorite.

Ah, the "it was Brazil's turn" lie. Given the outcome of the previous IOC vote, logic would dictate that it would have been Madrid's turn to host the Olympics, given that they lost the bid by 2 votes. Speaking of which, why hasn't the IOC made it Africa's turn to host the Olympics? I would say if it were anyone's turn, it would be Africa's.

Maybe, who knows? But it sure wasn't Chicago's.

Ah, making more excuses for Obama's failure. It's not Obama's fault; it's those eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevillllllllllllllllllllllllll religious right wingers...who by and large CONDEMN VIOLENT ACTS DONE IN THE NAME OF RELIGION.

Yes, if it's the Muslim religion.

And you'd be wrong. The world media said it was on Friday, Saturday, today...

Nope, not wrong. But keep saying "world media." Keeps things nice and vague.

If Obama gives another speech like he did on Friday, conservatives won't have any problems winning elections again.

Coming from a guy that said Obama would lose the presidential election.

Conjecture at best. Partisan bullcrap at worst.

"Partisan bullcrap"? Coming from YOU? The one who said the Swift-Boaters were telling the truth? The one who still said Saddam had WMD's even after it was proven otherwise? The one who said the Democrats lied because they put the bills forward that they said they would within the time limit they said they would, because... the Republicans fought the bills?

Besides, wasn't it the Left who screamed about Bush "taking vacations" while there were problems to deal with in America?

Not me. I preferred it when he WAS on vacation. When Obama starts spending three months at a time in the Vineyard, however, give me a call.

"The war is lost." --- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid

You were saying, Mr. Obama Apologist?

And he was absolutely right. He just should have said it sooner. The war was lost from the moment Bush decided to go to war. We wanted Bush to end an illegal war. But leave it to you guys to equate stating matter-of-factly the truth about an illegal war, to CHEERING AMERICA LOSING.

Were you the one that put up that "Mission Accomplished" banner?

I haven't seen a single conservative cheering that. More Leftist conjecture to try to cover up Obama's failure.

Every mouthpiece you defend is cheering it.

Conjecture based on partisanship and love for Obama. Besides, conservatives have other more important things to do than to jet across the globe to make a failed presentation before the IOC, like WORK.

I'm still trying to figure out how an endorsement of the USA is a failure.

Work? Then why are the majority of right-wing states, (you know the ones with the sister-screwing toothless hillbillies) also the states that are the most dependent on government money rather than money they actually earned? Rednecks of today aren't like the farmers of the past. They're the laziest, fattest people you'll ever meet.

And you do realize that Obama met with the general on board Air Force One prior to leaving Copenhagen, don't you? Among several other things?

"There are two places in the world right now that would be a complete disaster to hold the Olympics: The Middle East and United States."

Gee. What conservative said that?

You were saying, Mr. "I Put Country Before Country"? Or would reading what you typed earlier and quoting it directly showing that I don't have the "speck of intelligence" you were just talking about?

Yep, I'd rather the Olympics NOT be here. But do you see me loudly cheering that America lost?

By the way, I'm assuming you meant Mr. "I Put PARTY Before Country". Since you were talking about people going back to school due to an error. [Update: DEAD SILENCE from Lindaman on that one]

Funny, but I don't recall using that story to pimp a particular political party. Instead, I posted it to point out a wonderful story, something that would most likely have gotten glossed over in other areas.

Right, areas like Congress or a Presidential edict. The fact that they're both Democratic at the moment have nothing to do with that, of course.

Like, say, the blog site where you bash me while simultaneously copying me? Where's YOUR compassion, Mr. Leftist?

Then you shouldn't have backed down from those face-to-face challenges. Hell, that's the only reason you're dealing with me now!

Not like posting on a blog on a Sunday night, huh? That's when REAL people with REAL social lives do their blogging, right?

Considering Sunday night isn't a Friday or Saturday night, yep. Are you such a loser, that you don't know when people go out and have social activities. Jeez, I pity you.

And for the record, Mr. Leftist, that was sarcasm. Look it up and have a conservative explain it to you.

Nice side-step. You guys can't even figure out what "lipstick on a pig" means. The best humor you can come up with is Mallard Fillmore.

By the way, thanks for posting the links to the blog posts so everyone can see Obama's OLYMPIC SIZED EPIC FAIL!

Yep, you better thank me. Since after all these years, I'm still the only reader you have.

They already do. Ronald Reagan ring a bell?

This Ronald Reagan?

By the way... Reagan tried to force prayer in school. Didn't happen. So he's an epic failure, right?

Winning the majority of the Presidential elections over the past 20-30 years?

That's your idea of an accomplishment? Elections?

And you have...Barack Obama being the first President to make a final pitch before the IOC...and fail miserably.

Oh, please. If McCain had won the 2008 election, the President would still have gone to Copenhagen. Chicago still wouldn't have got the Olympics. Liberals would have been disappointed. The Republican pundits like Malkin and Limbaugh would've pointed out things like recent hosting, and positing that the IOC wanted a chance to have the first South American games. And they would be using it as evidence of rampant anti-Americanism in the world at large... A world we must continue to be fearful of.

And there you have it. Another attempt to slander Glenn Beck from a Leftist who can't defend Obama's OLYMPIC SIZED EPIC FAILURE. I guess when you can't defend President Obama, you have to scream "GLENN BECK! GLENN BECK!" or "RUSH LIMBAUGH! RUSH LIMBAUGH!" or "FOX NEWS! FOX NEWS!" in a lame attempt to divert attention from the failure that is the Obama Administration.

Uh, how is Glenn Beck "slandered"? The church a person attends is all that matters, right? Not the person, the church! It sure seemed that way when you were discussing Obama's church!

And I have yet to see any "failures" with the Obama administration.

You guys have NOTHING. You keep throwing soundbites like birth certificates, "secret Muslim", and now this nonsense, against the wall in the hopes something will stick.

Right-wing douchewads are focusing on the manufactured "failure" of Obama, despite Chicago's bid coming before Obama was elected president, and that bid being heartily endorsed by Bush, they have convinced themselves that this was some underhanded Obama machination to pay back Chicago cronies...or something.

You reactionary right-wingers are blowing your load way too early on petty, meaningless crap. If you keep it up, it isn't going to be long before conservative outrage is just taken for granted and loses its potency, even when directed against a matter of actual significance.

If that should happen, and the economy does turn around, or employment bounces back (as many leading economists are now predicting it to), or Health-Care Reform passes and proves successful, you will have absolutely nothing to run on in 2012.

Enjoy this week's soundbite while it lasts, folks, this will make ZERO difference to his administration/image/re-election in the long run. But what WILL be remembered, is the fact that you right-wingers showed your true colors, by loudly cheering America's loss.

UPDATE: DEAD SILENCE from Thomas Lindaman.

A (Numbers) Correction

A correction on a previous post:

In that post, I was referring to how right-wingers are using word counting to make Obama's education speech look like he cares more about himself than he does about education.

The right-wingers were pointing out that in Obama's education speech:

Obama says "I" 56 timed.
Obama says "education" 10 times.

The right-wing blogs were saying that since Obama used "I" more than he used "education", this obviously shows he cares more about himself than he does education.

So, I linked to a PDF file of an education speech by George H.W. Bush to show how many times he says "I" vs. "education".

Since I couldn't grab the numbers off TheFoxNation like others did for the Obama speech, nor did I have time to hand-count, I converted the PDF to a DOC and used word-counting software. The conversion unfortunately garbled the text and gave incorrect numbers.

Thomas Lindaman pointed this error out and gave corrected numbers. I'm going to assume his numbers are correct, so the corrected numbers are below:

H.W. Bush's Education Speech:

Bush says "I" 31 times.
Bush says "education" 8 times.

And no, I did not point out how many times "school" "teacher" "learn" "homework" or "student" were used in the Bush speech. Nor the times "me" or "my" were used. Because that wasn't the criteria used for the Obama speech. No context, remember?

So even with the corrected numbers: Bush says "I" much more than he does "education." So going by right-wing standards, Bush is an egomaniac that cares about himself more than he does education, during an education speech.

Which is nonsense, of course. I am NOT actually saying that H.W. Bush's speech was centered more on himself than on education. The point is exactly the same as in the original post, which is simply this: Word counting is meaningless. What matters is context.

If you wish to word-count the Obama speech, the term "You" is apparently used 158 times. Again, I did not hand-count and am using a better counting method than before. You can check the validity of the number with whatever method you prefer. The speech transcript is here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-in-a-National-Address-to-Americas-Schoolchildren/

Using the bizarre standard of word-counting rather than context, it "proves" Obama isn't self-centered.

But the actual point is meaningless, since all that matters is that the numbers were wrong. Correct? That's why Lindaman only focused on the word count numbers being wrong instead of the point that word-counting is nonsense.

That's why Lindaman closes with this:

Looks like there's a certain Leftist who needs to go back to school. Class dismissed.

Since software is school, apparently. And the school should teach Intelligent Design, right?

Why don't we start picking apart spelling errors and grammar, rather than the point, while we're at it?

One good thing did come of this: This is the first time I'm aware of, that he's directly linked up to a citation (the PDF itself).

UPDATE: DEAD SILENCE from Lindaman. The coward couldn't dispute the actual facts, as usual. He loses again.

When Desperate, Conservatives Word Count!

A fun bit of right-wing insanity:

Barack Obama gave his education speech today. In that speech, he referenced education 10 times, but he used the word "I" 56 times. If the speech was about education, shouldn't "education" have been said more than "I"?

This is one of the newer desperation techniques used by just about all Conservative bloggers: Word-Counting of Obama's speeches. Having no original thought, this blogger was trying the same technique.

The reason the Conservative bloggers do this, is because they can't find anything in the actual context of the speech that's wrong. Being desperate, Conservatives have to simply count individual words and spin it to make it sound negative.

Here's an example of how this works:

Here's an education speech by George H.W. Bush. It's MUCH shorter than Obama's speech:

Number of times Bush said "I": 52 31 times (updated with corrected number)
Number of times Bush said "Education": 0 8 times (updated with corrected number)

You see, conservatives, context is what's important. Not word-counting.

Granted, Conservatives have to read things out of order and out of context. Otherwise, their bible would be revealed as bullshit even to their empty heads.

If Obama had said "Childrens do learn" during an education speech, THEN it would've been worth talking about. Fortunately, no president has ever been stupid enough to say that during an EDUCATION speech, right?

Oops! It looks like ONE has.

Conservatives Say: "Yay! America Lost!"

Sorry Conservatives.  You can set up all the straw men you like, but Obama had nothing to do with the failure to get the Olympics in Chicago.

It was the standard practice this year for the national leader to present the bids. Tokyo's bid was presented by Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama. Rio de Janeiro's bid was presented by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. And Madrid's bid was presented by King Juan Carlos. The heads of state of all 4 Olympic finalists went to speak at the IOC. This included the King of Spain himself.

President Obama gave a ten minute speech presenting Chicago's bid.  Obama was respecting the international community by going. Had he not he would have essentially been saying "I'm too good for this, unlike the rest of you kings and presidents who have to grovel". Going to Stockholm was the proper thing to do.

Last January 8th, does anyone have a clue what President George W. Bush was doing that day?  He was in Chicago, meeting with the IOC in an effort to support the bid of Chicago for the Olympics.  You know why? Because it's the right thing to do to support your country and the individual governmental entities in it, if you are the head of state.

And let's not forget the reason the IOC ditched Chicago during the first round: The Republican-led Salt Lake City bribery scandal. The International committee is pissed that we exposed their delegates for the whores that they are during the Salt Lake bidding process, where Salt Lake bribed their way into hosting the games and got caught.  Another big factor was the Atlanta Olympic bombing by right-wing nutjob Eric Rudolph.

And the big deal-breaker was how intrusive our customs and immigrations policies have become since 9/11, particularly the fingerprinting of foreign tourists.

The IOC works on a principle of "turns" and on countries being due.  South America has never had a turn. Brazil (as much as China) is transitioning from a poor country to an important country.  By the standards the IOC uses outside of the technical standards so long as Brazil made it to the finals they were going to win.  Anyone who follows IOC politics knows this.  Madrid wasn't getting it, Tokyo wasn't getting it, and after Doha got punted (who technically had the 4th best bid) and Rio was allowed to move into that slot, Rio was going to win. If Doha hadn't had that one major flaw in their bid it would have been the 2016 Olympics in Doha.  The IOC was looking from a country from the global south to host.  Africa, Middle East, or South America, if they had a technically proficient candidate that candidate was going to win.  South America is just next in line for the Olympics. Last I checked, we don't live in South America.  Rio was always the leading city to  get the Olympics. Rio put up three times as much money as Chicago did.  We've already had the Olympics 7 years ago. It's not like we're being shut out.

There are two places in the world right now that would be a complete disaster to hold the Olympics: The Middle East and United States. The chance of domestic terrorism from a religious conservative is just too great to ignore in these places. Religious fanaticism is starting to take it's toll on this country much like it has in the Middle East.

That's why the United States didn't get the bid.  The IOC said as much on Friday.

Obama had nothing to do with the failure to get the Olympics in Chicago.

But Conservatives cheer America losing anyway.  Really? This is the best you Conservatives can come up with? This is what you're going to run with in your talking points?  I thought it couldn't get any lamer than birth certificates and the "war on Christmas", but there ya go.  I mean, holy shit. There's grasping at straws, and then there's mind-blowing idiocy like this.

Do Conservatives really not see how bad it's making the conservative side look for the rest of the country to see Conservative talking heads crowing with delight at the idea that our country won't get to host the Olympics, just because Obama made a simple ten minute speech supporting Chicago's bid?  Do you have any idea how insane it makes all Conservatives look? Do you ever want to win an election again?

And remember this well: If Obama hadn't gone, Conservatives would have blamed the loss on the president... failing to go.

Remember when Bush bid for NYC to host the Olympics?  I do.  The celebrations were attended by Paul Simon and Whoopi Goldberg and Barbara Walters and all kinds of other "intellectual New York liberal/commie/black/jews". They weren't there booing the president. They didn't decide to renounce their support for the New York bid when Bush lent his support.

Remember when liberals cheered "Yay!  The United States lost!" When Bush's NYC bid failed?  No?  That's because liberals didn't cheer.  We don't celebrate America losing.  That's what Conservatives do.

That's right, folks. Conservatives are cheering: "Hooray!  The United States lost!"

Three years ago, these Conservatives would have called for someone to be tarred and feathered in the town square if they cheered about the US losing the bid to host the Olympics in 2016. Fast forward to the Obama years and Conservatives are leading the pack to cheer the US failure to win the bid.

Conservatives have been building up this illusion of patriotic duty and morality for years. Mom and apple pie and honorable military service to a great nation that's here to save the world from itself. But now everyone is starting to realize that Conservatives / Republicans don't really care about morality or even the rule of law. It's all been a lie. Now Conservatives aren't even bothering to pretend to play along anymore.

Conservatives are happy the United States didn't win the bid to host the Olympics.  These folks are TRUE PATRIOTS!



It's basically what anybody with even a speck of intelligence already knows: Conservatives don't care if America loses, because they put Party before Country.

But hey, what do you expect from right-wingers?  Just look at the right-wing bloggers who exploited a story about a terminally ill child for partisan reasons?  Never mind the fact that the FedEx story is such a RARE occurance, that the right-wingers break open the champagne and stumble all over themselves to point this story out!  They are inadvertantly reenforcing what the liberals were saying all along.  Yet again, the right-wingers shoot themselves in the foot.

And I'm sorry, anybody who has nothing better to do on both a Friday night and Saturday night than post on a blog, really shouldn't be pointing out who is or isn't an EPIC FAILURE.

But hey, maybe someday the GOP will actually have a real accomplishment to boast about.

And we'll leave you now with this Olympic Flashback: '02 Salt Lake Games Tainted By Scandal, Bribery and Glenn Beck's Church.