Rand Paul was the wrong messenger for the anti-drone message, and his "filibuster" was nothing more than a grab for 13 hours of airtime to air wingnut theories. Here are just a few samples of what he spewed for the record on Wednesday night:

“I will speak until I can no longer speak.”
“No, no said the queen.”
“Everybody is al Qaeda.”
“Hold your tongue said the queen turning purple.”

“If there’s a gentleman or a woman w/ a grenade launcher attacking our buildings or our Capitol, we use lethal force.”

“No we won’t drop bombs on restaurants.”

“Your notification is the buzz of the propellers on the drone as it flies overhead in the seconds before you’re killed. Is that what we really want from our government?”

“Gobbledy-gook!”

“The leap of logic is so fantastic as to boggle the mind. “

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True story: Billo's rant went on so long I wasn't sure what part of it to clip. This is about 8 minutes in.

Worse yet, where on earth did he get his numbers? In his Talking Points Memo segment, he claims that "means-tested entitlements" have risen 5,500 percent since 1970. Wow, what does that even mean?

The tactic is obvious. This is the ZOMG, we're helping people who need it! ZOMG, ZOMG scare tactic. I mean just think. Claims have risen "five thousand five hundred percent" in 42 years! Be afraid, Billo viewers, be very, very afraid. Of course, the punch line is that it's all President Obama's fault and anyone who wants to cut these lifelines will be viewed as a bad person.

His numbers just seem like argle-bargle nonsense to me. He claims there are about 150 million people receiving some form of direct federal assistance. I can't get there, no matter how I turn the numbers. Here's his Talking Points Memo segment with a lot of really strange and trumped-up claims.

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The Political Carnival: Franken launches full-throated attack on conservative judicial activism

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Hey Jenny Slater: I wish Joe Barton was my dad

Liberal Values: Republicans block Medicare payment fix

Blue Pill Economics « The Confluence: Blue Pill Economics

The Existentialist Cowboy: Cops run amok, suppress video tapes of abuse

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) is feeling bullied by gays. Not because they want equal protection under the law, not because they object to institutional discrimination against them, but because, well...they act gay.

Doesn't this seem a little bit similar to those folks who look illegal? Rep. King thinks they do it to entrap good people into discrimination lawsuits and things.

Raw Story:

If people wear their sexuality on their sleeve, then they want to bring litigation against someone that they would point their finger at and say “you discriminate,” it is an entrapment that is legalized by the ENDA Act, it appears to, and its a violation of the individual rights of employers to, at their own discretion, decide who they want to hire and who they want to fire. We don’t need more federal mandates. And we surely don’t need a political statement, and that’s what this is, too. This is the homosexual activist lobby taking it out on the rest of society. They are demanding affirmation for their lifestyle. That’s at the bottom of this.

OH, that must be why axe murderers don't wear bloody rags on their sleeve. They don't really care much about affirmation for their lifestyle. Or serial killers. They probably don't either.

I mean, come on. This is about as stupid, ignorant and wrong-headed as it gets. What I pull out of King's little rant is that he thinks gays are second class citizens, they're united in some kind of subversive plot to distract us all from matters of concern to their own agenda, and if they'd JUST KEEP THEIR DAMN GAYNESS IN THE CLOSET IT WOULD BE JUST FINE.

You know what? People who make stupid statements like King's are usually in the closet themselves and hate their own reluctance to come out. People are people. I don't care who they love, sleep with, have coffee with or work with, as long as they add something to this collection of human beings we call society.

More fundamentally, because they ARE people and they ARE citizens they are entitled to equal protection and treatment under the law, because that, Rep. King, is what being true to the Constitution really means.

And while we're on the subject of stupid comments about being gay, can someone please explain to me why the question of Elena Kagan's sexuality is relevant to her qualifications for the Supreme Court? (Yes, I *am* looking over at Andrew Sullivan)

Be gay, look gay. Be gay, look straight. Be gay, be single. Be gay, be married. But please, whatever it is, let it be an individual's choice.

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Smacking down Sarah Palin must be similar to swatting a gnat sitting on the table with a big "HIT ME HERE" sign on its back. I hate even writing about her, but when the President smacks down her idiocy, it's worth a post or ten.

In his exclusive interview with George Stephanopoulis yesterday, the President was once again asked one of those cutting-edge, everyone-needs-to-know questions, riffing off of Sarah Palin's rant on Hannity's show the day before. For reference, here's Palin's quote:

It's unbelievable. Unbelievable," said Palin on Sean Hannity's program. "No administration in America's history would, I think, ever have considered such a step that we just found out President Obama is supporting today. It's kinda like getting out there on a playground, a bunch of kids, getting ready to fight, and one of the kids saying, 'Go ahead, punch me in the face, and I'm not going to retaliate. Go ahead and do what you want to with me.'"

Leave it to George to ask the question burning in all of our minds:

STEPHANOPOULOS: I want to get to some of those broader issues. Because you're also facing criticism on that. Sarah Palin, taking aim at your decision to restrict the use of nuclear weapons. Your pledge not to strike nations, non-nuclear nations, who abide by the nonproliferation treaty. Here's what she said. She said, "It's unbelievable, no other administration would do it." And then she likened it to kids on the playground. She said you're like a kid who says, "Punch me in the face, and I'm not going to retaliate." Your response?

OBAMA: I really have no response. Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues.

Undeterred by Obama's non-response, GSteph presses forward:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the string of criticism has been out there among other Republicans as well. They think you're restricting use of nuclear weapons too much.

OBAMA: And what I would say to them is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But not concerned about her criticisms?

OBAMA: No.

I think the President put Sarah Palin's opinion about nuclear weapons in the proper perspective. But there was a troubling aspect to her remarks for me, as a parent.

I've always taught my kids that the scorched-earth 'beat-the-crap-outa-them-if-they-touch-you' approach is fairly barbaric. There are always better, savvier, less violent ways to handle things. Now that they are adults, or nearly adults, I can say my approach seems to have worked. They've never been beaten up, are able to get along with others without a fuss, and actually have the ability to listen to a point of view which might not be perfectly in line with their own.

So is Palin saying that Republicans think the only way to handle an affront is retaliation? Why is that not surprising to me? Ronald Reagan would even have a field day with her. Please, please, let her keep making her case for national bullyhood so the President can keep smacking her down with a smile and absolutely no violence.

I wonder what the so-called Christians who exalt her would say about her denial of Christ's teaching to 'turn the other cheek'. Don't you love her selective Christian "family values"? I know I do.

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Just in case there was any doubt about what he was implying the day before, Glenn Beck yesterday cleared things up and removed all doubt about the meaning of his garbled rant about administration radicals who advocated violence:

Beck: You see, what they've done is they've radicalized The Man. These people are in the center, but who's down here? They know that these people always lose -- because they experienced it. The crazy teabaggers in the streets.

Why would a government continue to poke you, and poke you, and poke you, and poke you? Why would they say these things? Why have these people said these things about good Americans? Because they need to separate these people from these people.

They know exactly how you feel when the president of the United States says that. ... These guys remember. When these guys said, 'These crazy dope-smoking hippies,' they knew how it felt. They knew and it drove them nuts, and it drove some of them -- it drove this guy and this guy -- to start throwing bombs!

They're counting on it. The Man made them do it. And they learned that once they threw a bomb, they were done. Martin Luther King changed the world without a single act of violence. Gandhi was right in many ways.

This might be the most dangerous monologue I've ever done, because I am telling you now: They need you to be violent. They are begging for it! You are being set up! Do not give them what they want.

The rest of the rant is an ass-covering plea for non-violence -- a lame attempt to cover the fact that he's spent the past year using violent rhetoric to whip people into a state of hysterical paranoia.

And best of all, what Beck's doing here is providing right-wingers with a ready-made excuse for the violence when it does break out: Why, this was what the liberals were planning all along! It's their fault! Even if they are the victims of it.

Wottapiecawork.

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(via CNBC)

Remember Rick Santelli's rant that put the bow on the tea party movement for FOX News? The media seems to willfully forget how important this rant was to mobilize them and shift the blame for the mortgage crisis from Santelli's Wall Street fat cats to the working class. The poor under-appreciated mortgage lenders and CEO's were the victims of people who couldn't afford to pay for a mortgage because they were too stupid to understand the legal documents, but got themselves a house anyway.

CNBC had one of their talking head panels with Larry Kudlow at the helm which focused on financial reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Once the idea of predatory lending comes up the CNBCers get their freak on and blamed the uneducated poor people for all the destruction the housing bubble caused during the Bush administration as usual except for Janet Takakoli.

Matt Taibbi takes the lead:

Look at about the 5-minute mark of this video — Janet Tavakoli debating Rick Santelli about predatory lending. You basically have a whole panel of CNBC goons pooh-poohing the idea that predatory lending took place, setting up the inevitable revisionist history that the 2008 crash was caused by individual homeowners borrowing beyond their means.

My favorite part of this comes roughly at the six-minute mark. Tavakoli has just deftly explained how a lot of the predatory practices worked — people with limited financial literacy were presented with long and complicated mortgage deals, and told they would have a fixed payment in perpetuity or a guaranteed re-finance, or were nailed by fraudulent appraisals. Then she mentioned the big one, the fact that investment banks then took all these mortgages and with eyes wide open securitized them and sold them off as worthy investments to suckers on the other end of the chain.

While she’s saying all this stuff, Santelli, who is one of the fathers of the Tea Party movement, is shaking his head furiously, video-scoffing at everything she’s saying. When he finally does get a chance to speak, this is what he says:

Here’s my problem with this. It takes two to tango. You can’t cheat an honest man.

You can’t cheat an honest man? What the f*&k does that mean? This whole scene sort of encapsulates what’s wrong with the Tea Party movement

Amen, brother Taibbi. Not many people watch these CNBC programs, but this is the narrative that Santelli and his brethren like Melissa Francis have helped to propagate into the main stream.

Digby caught Taibbi's post and observes Santelli at his circus clown best:

The Fox/CNBC types have very cannily latched on this narrative to rewrite the history of the financial crisis. They know that Tea Partiers will go for any narrative that puts blame on poor (and especially poor minority) homeowners, because the idea of poor blacks and Hispanics borrowing beyond their means fits seamlessly with their world view. But this is a situation where poor minorities were really incidental to a much larger fraud scheme that culminated in a welfare program — the bank bailouts — that dwarfs the entire “entitlement” infrastructure. But the millions of people who are actually in the Tea Party movement seem to have absolutely no idea that their so-called leaders, the Santellis of their world, are shilling for tax cheats and crooks and welfare bums of the sort they would despise (perhaps even more than their black and Hispanic neighbors), if they could actually see them.

Unfortunately all the elites, political and otherwise, have a vested interest in keeping the rubes focused on the blacks and browns so it's hard to see the mechanism by which they will be revealed. And that's the whole purpose of right wing populism.

Anyone who has taken out a mortgage knows how complicated the paper work is and you depend on the mortgage broker to be honest with you. That's not what happened when the money was flying around and these predators were sucking on the economy like Vampires in heat. Only they didn't stop with their usual victims (the American people) because of their blood lust and they sucked on it all the way through their own system as Taibbi points out until it crashed and burned.

(h/t derekthered)

(Original story and full letter can be seen at The Washington Independent)

Much has come out about Andrew Breitbart's now-infamous "Hooker & Pimp" charade, and smear campaign against ACORN. Now that ACORN has been cleared and it has been proven that the video was heavily edited and that James O'Keefe was in fact not dressed as a pimp, the community organizing group is firing back and the rats are scattering, begging for help.

Hannah Giles, who posed as a hooker in Breitbart's hit piece, is now appealing to wealthy, Republican donors to help pay her legal fees. Her appeal has come in the form of a letter, (pictured above) which can be described as nothing less than a delusional, right wing rant that is sure to trigger your gag reflex. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Sean Hannity himself wrote it. Notice how she claims credit for the video, referring to it as "my undercover video."

Poor thing, she chose to lie down with dogs and now she's crying about the fleas.

Limbaugh is always a good little racist.

Rush said that "we're all in the crosshairs" and that Obama and his administration are gunning for everyone that is successful. Rush concluded the hour by declaring that the health care bill is really a "civil rights bill" or "reparations."

Rick Santelli's rant was his attempt at blaming minorities for the mortgage crisis. Rush continues that trend.

BTBFE: 'Blame the Blacks for Everything.'

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(h/t Heather)

Chris Matthews went on a rant against the 'netroots" yesterday when he was talking to John Heilemann from the New Yorker, saying that we're not real Democrats who vote and all we do is back-seat bitching because we're criticizing the LieberCare sellout health-care plan.

Think Progress:

When Heilemann noted that the “Democratic left” has been “trashing the health care bill” this week, Matthews said that those people were part of the “netroots” and not “regular grown-up Democrats”:

MATTHEWS: I don’t consider them Democrats, I consider them netroots, and they’re different. And if I see that they vote in every election or most elections, I’ll be worried. But I’m not sure that they’re regular grown-up Democrats. I think that a lot of those people are troublemakers who love to sit in the backseat and complain. They’re not interested in governing this country. They never ran for office, they’re not interested in working for somebody in public office. They get their giggles from sitting in the backseat and bitching.

I started blogging in 2004 because I was passionate about returning America to the great country it was before conservatives got their hands on the government in 2000 -- and it was because of the phony justifications that media elites like Chris Matthews sat back and used to persuade Americans to back such an outrageous position like the Iraq war that drove me into online activism.

We don't do anything? Really?

Atrios helped expose Trent Lott's love of Strom Thurmond back in 2002, which rocked the political world.

Macaca, anyone?

There are many excellent PAC's out there, but Blue America PAC/a> has raised over a million dollars since we started to do some governing, as we helped many great progressive politicians get elected like representatives Alan Grayson and Donna Edwards and Sen. Jeff Merkley, just to name a few.

The netroots have exposed FOX News to be the propaganda arm of the GOP when the MSM stood idly by and let them disseminate as manyLuntz-polled press releases masquerading as news as they could.

I've been asked to run against Jane Harman in CA-36, but I've held off making a decision until the New Year is upon us. We've broken stories like the scandal over the Bush administration firing seven U.S. Attorneys, and have given an incredible amount of content to news networks because of our commitment for truth. And they use that content without crediting many of us, while sneering at us as dirty f&*@king hippies.

I can go on and on, but I'll debate Chris Matthews anytime he wants about the things we actually do and we actually achieve in the real world -- both inside and outside the Beltway, too.