Shopping find of the day: a Pat Robertson voodoo doll is being sold on Ebay, 100% of proceeds to benefit the Red Cross:

After an exclusive deal with devil, we are finally able to bring black magic into your very own home! The lucky winner of this auction will attain the soul of Televangelist PAT ROBERTSON in a handheld figurine comprised of the finest straw, cloth, and other organic natural materials! BID NOW to own your very own physical representation of the dark, dark soul of Pat Robertson.

As of this writing the bidding is up to $520.00.

h/t James Jolly (00Bama), who is still waiting to hear from his relatives in Haiti. Our thoughts are with you and your family, James.

DOWNLOADS: (1805)

PLAYS: (3008)

Embed

It didn't take Lou Dobbs long to appear on Fox News, and Bill O'Reilly was the joyful host. He initially tried to get Dobbs to slime over his departure, but Dobbs said that in all his years he was never told what to do or say and was never "talked to" about how he ran his show. As the interview wound down, Bill needed something a little juicy, so instead of asking Dobbs how he felt about Obama's policies so far, he phrased it as if President Obama will eat your babies, corrupt your spirit and lure you to sell your soul.

O'Reilly: Barack Obama, is he the devil?

Dobbs: He's not the devil, but he is certainly the man who is not making it easy to understand why he is making the public policy choices that he is. There has to be a better understanding from and can only from his expression to the American people, what is taking so long for his decision on Afghanistan. Why is it so necessary to turn 1/6th of the economy into the United States government, which has not showered itself with glory.

O'Reilly: So you don't think he's Satan, but you think he's mismanaging the country at this point.

Dobbs: I think, absolutely.

O'Reilly: OK, sorry I put words in your mouth.

Dobbs: No, I was excited. It was a pretty good choice.

Yeah, Bill. You only asked him if Obama was the Devil. What a jackass. And Dobbs just loved Obama being compared to Satan. Well, Dobbs should try and be the teabagger King. He'll fit right in. Maybe Tancredo can help on his campaign. he mimics every anti-Obama slur there is.

I think BillO is watching the CW's show "Supernatural". What a despicable way to ask Dobbs about Obama. Hey Lou, is President Bush the savior? Well, he sure is. If only those evil liberal devil worshipers would go away and let him blow up the entire Middle East, I believe the country would be better off, Bill.

This is interesting. The administration's new regulation proposal contains procedures that will essentially quarantine financial companies in trouble, making it easier for the feds to step in and isolate problem operations. The devil, of course, will be in the details:

They are the biggest of the big — the Citigroups, the Goldman Sachses, the AIGs and other financial behemoths. The Obama administration doesn't want so many around anymore.

Financial regulations proposed by the president would result in leaner and simpler institutions that don't carry the weight of the system on their marble columns.

Around Washington and Wall Street they have come to be known as TBTF — too big to fail. It's not just size, though. These companies are so far-flung, so intertwined and so precariously leveraged that a single one's collapse can create systemwide tremors that imperil the finances of millions of Americans.

With that fear in mind, the government stepped in to bail out Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and American International Group Inc. with tens of billions of public money last year.

Looking to avoid such a costly intervention, President Barack Obama's regulatory plan calls for large, interconnected companies to pay a heavy price for the systemwide risk they pose.

So far, however, congressional debate has centered on the administration's plan to put the Federal Reserve in charge of these "systemically significant" companies. Less attention has focused on the potential effect on the institutions and the financial system's hierarchy.

Under the administration's proposal, companies such as Citi, Goldman Sachs and others in a broad top tier engaged in complex transactions would face stricter scrutiny and have to hold more assets and more cash as cushions against a downturn.

Continue reading »

Kevin notes the latest Democracy Corps poll that suggests Bush has helped drive a generation of young people into the Democratic Party’s open arms.

This is about what you’d expect, but Democracy Corps has released yet another survey demonstrating that the Republican Party is losing young people in droves. Among 18-29 year olds, 50% have a favorable view of the Democratic Party compared to only 35% for the Republican Party. There are plenty of reasons for this, but basically they hate George Bush, they hate the Iraq war, and they hate religious conservatives.

The good news, of course, is that people are brand loyal. Once they make up their minds in their twenties which party they like better, they generally stick with it for the rest of their lives. So the Republican Party’s deal with the devil to embrace the Christian Right might have helped them out for a while, but in the long term it’s a disaster.

In 1984, Reagan won 59% of the youth vote. Four years later, H.W. Bush won 52% of voters in this age group. It’s been downhill for the GOP ever since, and now only 25% of 17- to 29-year-old voters identify themselves as Republican.

I’ve seen several long-term forecasts that suggest Dems are in trouble over the next couple of decades. People are moving away from “blue” strongholds (particularly in the Northeast), and relocating to “red” states that will grow in electoral significance.

But there’s a flip-side -- the Bush era has driven the future in Dems’ direction.

If you haven't heard about Conservapedia yet, you've missed the biggest story of internet hackery since Malkin's last diatribe.

Telegraph.co.uk:

It may sound like a resource for fans of jam but Conservapedia is an attempt to redress the supposed liberal bias in Wikipedia. Not content with having their own news channel, America's conservatives want their own facts too. Soon they'll be breaking off and forming their own country.

Among the criticisms the founders of Conservapedia make of their better-known rival are its use of BCE/CE for dates instead of BC/AD and the fact that it sometimes uses British rather than American spellings.

I've mentioned before two major problems all wikis must face: inaccuracy and vandalism. The fact that Conservapedia is openly partisan amplifies both problems.
[..T]he site is a massive target for anyone with a contradictory point of view. Bill Clinton's page, for example, contains a very obvious dig at President George W Bush: "Bill Clinton managed to serve two terms without botching the prosecution of two wars, manipulating intelligence, engaging in a systematic program of torture, or mishandling the federal response to flooding of a major American city. Obviously, he is the devil incarnate."
The website that results is very odd indeed. Some entries are clearly fake. There is no such thing as a tree octopus, obviously.

Elsewhere it gets harder to tell what's real and what isn't. For some entries, the author may have been a little too enthusiastic in their beliefs or barking mad or a malicious liberal. It's really impossible to be sure.

Jack and Jill blog found some interesting discrepancies in Conservapedia's entries and calls them on their racist agenda. Blogenfreude finds his own little gem. For those of you who missed its inclusion in the Blog Round Up, Jon Swift covers some of Conservapedia's own special learning.

I wish my headline was just hyperbole, but it's not: it's the truth.

A minor blog outed one of the victims of Mark Foley's sexual predations. This violation of an abused kid's privacy was immediately linked and given heavy Internet traffic by leading right-wing bloggers Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit and Roger L. Simon of Pajamas Media.

Pajamas is so disgraced by this act that they should immediately close their doors. Since they won't, its few remaining liberal members should quit immediately.

As for the right-wing, what can I say? This act is vile beyond description.

It's stunning, isn't it? There is literally no act of evil that the Right isn't willing to perpetrate to keep itself in power. There's more on the GOP as the Party of the Devil here.
(via Atrios)

Broadcast News, 1987

Aaron Altman: I know you care about him. I've never seen you like this about anyone, so please don't take it wrong when I tell you that I believe that Tom, while a very nice guy, is the Devil.

Jane Craig: This isn't friendship.

Aaron Altman: What do you think the Devil is going to look like if he's around? Nobody is going to be taken in if he has a long, red, pointy tail. No. I'm semi-serious here. He will look attractive and he will be nice and helpful and he will get a job where he influences a great God-fearing nation and he will never do an evil thing... he will just bit by little bit lower standards where they are important. Just coax along flash over substance... Just a tiny bit. And he will talk about all of us really being salesmen. And he'll get all the great women.

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you, this is a repost from last night.

DP World Says It Will Divest Itself Of American Interests

georgia10 has the story:

"The Senate is debating whether to accept a Democratic amendment to the lobbying reform bill which block the Dubai deal. Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner, just read a press release from DP World in which the state-owned company says it had agreed to divest itself of all American interests in the interests of the U.A.E.-American relationship. Senator Schumer says it is a positive development, but "the devil is in the details."...read on"

Westboro Baptist Church is part of the extreme religious right. Sorry Circus Clowns, he's one of your own. Deal with it.

DC Media Girl has this Phelps letter: "Why did your son die in Iraq? Because you raised him for the devil and Hell. You hated him. You taught him "It’s OK to be gay," and other God-rejecting lies, that brought the wrath of God Down upon this evil nation. Why did your son die in Iraq? Because God hates America and has purposed to destroy her. They turned America over to fats; they’re coming home in body bags."

Arthur has some good thoughts: "I see that Drudge has now launched what promises to be a full-scale war against Howard Dean, making Dean into the devil incarnate. I’m sure it will be all over the right blogosphere within hours, if it isn’t already. Take the major warning: if you dare to tell the truth in unflinching, unapologetic terms, the rightwing propaganda machine, aided by our craven, servile media, will destroy you." read on

Its not surprising Dean is the target. The slime machine is in overdrive. Fox will pick it up and run with it. Here's the link they will talk about. Since things have been so bad for the Republican party they'll just vilify Howard.