Wurlitzer, the Mighty, or Wingnut Welfare Wurlitzer - Professional media outlets dedicated specifically to promulgating right-wing propaganda, such as Regnery Press or Fox News. In the modern era of media consolidation, it may be difficult to separate the deliberate organs of misinformation from the incessant general tinkle of infotainment. The term 'Mighty Wurlitzer' itself is pre-Internet, said to have been coined by an early CIA operative in reference to Cold War propaganda efforts.
Shirley Sherrod was forced to resign from the Department of Agriculture because of recent remarks she made that, taken out of context, suggested she discriminated against a white farmer. That farmer's wife, however, is saying Sherrod is a "friend for life" who saved their family farm from foreclosure....
....Breitbart had edited the video, of course, and he refuses to release the whole thing, naturally. But that didn't matter in this case any more than it mattered in the ACORN case....
....But I also have to wonder if they know what the optics of this are. If two-bit sociopathic wingnuts can scare them to this extent with obviously doctored videos, what happens when they see a real threat? Are they going to flap their arms like penguins and run around in circles screaming "they're coming to get us, run for your lives!!?" At this point, that doesn't seem entirely ridiculous.
Seriously, this shows tremendous weakness. Andrew Brietbart is a con artist and and right wing entertainer whose antics should always be met with a cynical laugh and a shake of the head. To fall for his schtick more than once is political malpractice....
There is a disadvantage to living in the Kansas City media market - you get the benefit of seeing all of the right wingnut republican campaign commercials on your idiot box. Todd Tiahrt (r) and Jerry Moran (r) are duking it out in the upcoming Kansas republican U.S. Senate primary:
[Todd Tiahrt]
Here in Kansas we're taught to stand up for what we believe.
[Endorsed by Tea Party Express & Sarah Palin]
Yet where my opponent and I stand is very different. He votes to raise taxes and I will do everything I can to cut 'em. He votes to give terrorists constitutional rights. I believe terrorists deserve no rights. And where he saw promise in Pelosi taking over Washington, I saw nothing but trouble and said so.
I'm Todd Tiahrt, candidate for U.S. Senate and I approve this message. Because if you and I don't stand up, who will?
[approved by Todd Tiahrt
Paid for by Kansans for Tiahrt]
Where to start?
You mean this "Tea Party Express" and this Sarah Palin?
Now that's chutzpah.
Hmm. Constitution. Terrorists. Rights. You'd think someone would actually read the Constitution and about its history through the life of our nation. Who then gets to decide who is a terrorist and who is not subject to the processes of our Constitution and system of laws? Todd Tiahrt? Just asking.
So, should Timothy McVeigh have been executed without a trial and a presentation of evidence? Just asking.
...By the protection of the law human rights are secured; withdraw that protection, and they are at the mercy of wicked rulers, or the clamor of an excited people...
...The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times, and under all circumstances. No doctrine, involving more pernicious consequences, was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false; for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence...
[emphasis added]
All about the Constitution during a time of war no less.
...By the protection of the law human rights are secured...
...for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it, which are necessary to preserve its existence...
Refudiate that.
Update: I just saw this commercial for Jerry Moran attempting to refudiate Todd Tiahrt's ad:
"...Then she said she had solutions. The solution that she offered for the pre-existing condition my grandson had was, she offered to bring the family a, a hot meal...."
Missouri's answer to Minnesota's Michelle Bachmann has a television commercial ready to clog the airwaves:
[Vicky Hartzler for Congress. Approved by Vicky Hartzler, Paid for by Vicky Hartzler for Congress] I'm Vicky Hartzler and I approved this message.
Government too often has become the problem, not the solution. To preserve our freedom and our children's future it's time we get America back on the right track.
Narrator: Vicky Hartzler, small business owner. [Small Business Experience] Life long farmer. Former teacher. [Lebanon & Belton Schools] Leader for lower taxes, smaller government, and our values. [Proven Conservative Leader] Wife and mother. [Endorsed by Mo. Right to Life]
Around here, when something's broken, we fix it. [Real Conservative. Real Change.] And that's what I'll do in Congress.
Fix it? Really? And how would you do that? Just asking.
....SMP: And, and you've told your story in a variety of, of places. Last week you attended a, another forum for, in this area. Could you tell me about that?
Randy Huggins:...Last Thursday I went to a health care information forum, I guess you could call it, Vickiy Hartzler [a declared Republican candidate for the 4th Congressional District seat] held here. And she had concerns about the legislation and she had things that she liked about the legislation. Then she said she had solutions. The solution that she offered for the pre-existing condition my grandson had was, she offered to bring the family a, a hot meal. [pause] We're hungry, but that's not gonna help his heart, so.
SMP: And so, do you, do you feel some frustration when, when dealing with this, you know, the subject of health care reform and when you feel like people give you solutions that really aren't solutions?
Randy Huggins: Absolutely it's frustrating. [pause] I, I just, I don't understand where they're coming from. Why they can't see the need to fix, the system's broken. And they don't see any need to fix it or to change it in any way. Just....
"...To preserve our freedom and our children's future it's time we get America back on the right track..."
Unless our children happen to have a pre-existing medical condition, then, tough luck on that future preservation thing, eh?
Wingularity, the - the point at which the insanity from the far right and those controlling the Republican Party [continues] to grow exponentially until it reaches an unsustainable weight and collapses upon itself. This is also known as the Purity Spiral, wherein the density of wingnut increases compared to mainstream conservatives to the point of pure wingnut. As the ratio rises, this creates a phenomenon wherein no logic or sanity can penetrate or escape. When rightwing argument has become completely inaccessible to the uninitiated, it has reached the Wingularity...
Our U.S. Constitution is small on purpose because the function of the federal government is supposed to be small.
[It's time to stand up]
Federal government, Barack Hussein Obama, and your liberal ilk, leave us alone.
[Brian Nieves
Energy, Passion, Experience
Paid for by Nieves for Senate, Dave Bailey Treasurer]
Steve Martin is informing electoral strategery in Missouri?:
....I mentioned that, earlier in the show, a drug joke - and I hate to do that, because it creates a mess, and I'm not into drugs any more. I quit completely, and I hate people who are still into it. Well.. I do take one drug now - for fun - and, maybe you've heard of it, it's a new thing, I don't know if you have or not. It's a new thing, it makes you small. [ indicates size with fingers ] About this big. And, you know, I'll be home, sitting with my friends, and, uh.. we'll be sitting around, and somebody will say, "Heeeyyy.. let's get small!" So, you know, we get small, and uh.. the only bad thing is if some tall people come over. You're walking around going, "Ah hahaha..!" Now, I know I shouldn't get small when I'm driving.. but I was driving around the other day, and I said, "What the heck?" You know? So I'm driving like.. [ extends arms high in the air like he's reaching up to a giant steering wheel ] And, uh.. a cop pulls me over. And he makes me get out, he looks at me and he says, "Heyyy.. are you small"? I said, "No-o-o! I'm not!" He said, "Well, I'm gonna have to measure you." They have this little test they give you - they give you a balloon.. and if you can get inside of it, they know you're small. Now, I've already talked it over with the cast - they've been working all week, it's a tough thing to do, come out here live. Immediately after the show, we're all gonna go out.. and get really small!....
MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION
CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR - TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION
Bernie Davis
O'Fallon MO
Back to Basics Christian Bookstore
6/30/2010
$26,000.00
[emphasis added]
That's a lot more than the perks you get from working at a national fast food chain franchise, don't you think?
Yes, one of the most incomprehensible right wingnut members of the Missouri House (and that's saying a lot) is running for the seat in the 2nd Senate District, challenging a republican incumbent in the primary. The candidates on the August 3rd primary ballot:
Adam Smith's invisible hand has found its way into California politics.
Last week, a nonprofit group called the Adam Smith Foundation, based in Jefferson City, Missouri, gave $498,000 to the campaign to repeal California's greenhouse gas law. That's quite a contribution, considering the group's entire revenues for the last two years were just $30,000 per year.
What's more curious is how the donation fits in with the group's stated mission. According to documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service, the Adam Smith Foundation describes itself as "an advocacy organization committed to promoting conservative principles and individual liberties in Missouri. The Adam Smith Foundation was created to defend judicial reform, government accountability, education reform, tax and spending reform and protecting private property."
So how did the fight to repeal AB 32 get on the foundation's radar? And who gave money to the foundation to give to the campaign in California? Unfortunately, federal records don't show us that. The phone number on their federal forms has been disconnected, and an e-mail sent through the group's Web site Monday was not returned....
The Adam Smith Foundation filed its annual report with the Missouri Secretary of State on July 17, 2009. Its officers and board:
Pres: John Elliott, Smithville, MO
Asst Sec'y: Thomas J. Shupe, Jr., St. Louis, MO
Board of Directors:
Kurt Killen, Platte Woods, MO
William Clark Hardin, IV, St. Charles, MO
John Elliott, Smithville, MO
The Adam Smith Foundation's registered agent is Registered Agent, Ltd. at the address of Lathrop & Gage in Kansas City, Missouri.
Like a "B" horror movie or a political party bereft of ideas and in serious decline, they keep coming back with the same cheesy plots.
Tony Messenger posted on the opponents of the Missouri Court Plan via Twitter this morning:
Better Courts for Missouri group announces they have filed petition hoping to get on the ballot to change how judges are chosen in Missouri. about 1 hour ago from TweetDeck
JEFFERSON CITY - Stymied by an unwilling Missouri Senate, opponents of the current method of choosing many judges in the state will head to the ballot and ask voters for help....
....Asked if this was simply part of the political pressure being put on the Senate to make changes, Harris said his group was "serious" about the petition process. He would not, however, tell reporters who was backing the process financially.
[emphasis added]
Ah yes, right wingnuttia and irony impairment go hand in hand.
Special thanks to Michael Bersin and RBH who were instrumental in doing the research that backs up my smartassery. This post would have been a couple hundred words of mostly wisecracks without them and a conference room in the Plaza Branch of the KC Public Library.
*****
We have been pretty gleeful in heaping abuse and scorn on Cynthia "Fagin" Davis for her comments about hunger serving as a motivator for poor children to get jobs, and with good reason.
She is, quite simply, nuts, and unfit to serve as the chair of the state's standing committee on children and families. In case you have forgotten, she was one of the co-sponsors of HJR-34, the "birther bill" - legislation aimed at keeping President Obama's name off Missouri ballots in 2012. The bill was withdrawn and the texts removed from the Missouri general assembly web site - in the hope that everyone else would forget it ever happened. But, the Internets are forever, and we have a copy in our archives:
...Section 8. We the people of Missouri adopt a voter's bill of rights as a defense against corruption, fraud, and tyranny. Missouri voters shall have the following rights:
3. The right to have only qualified candidates placed on the ballot. The secretary of state shall determine that each person is qualified for the office he or she seeks, according to the law, before placing his or her name on the ballot. For candidates who are required by the Constitution of the United States to be natural born citizens, the secretary of state shall request an official copy of the candidate's birth certificate. Other certifications, such as a certificate of live birth, shall not be accepted. Should any candidate fail to provide an official birth certificate within thirty days of the request by the secretary of state, his or her name shall not be placed on the ballot.The secretary of state shall verify the qualifications of any elected officeholder who was previously placed on a Missouri ballot. Should any elected officeholder fail to provide the required documentation or birth certificate within thirty days of the request by the secretary of state, the secretary of state shall turn the matter over to the attorney general who shall within twenty days file suit to obtain the required documentation...
And she is quite the hopper-on of bandwagons, and the wingnuttier the better. Before she got the 'birther' bit in her teeth, she tried to make political hay off the Terri Schaivo tragedy by sponsoring a(nother) bill that went nowhere.
But it isn't just the crazy - it's the hypocrisy.
Cynthia Davis knows first hand that there really is such a thing as a free lunch, but her free lunches aren't the burger and fries that McDonalds employees receive as their shift meal. Her free lunches come from lobbyists.
Yes. The wingnuttiest state rep of them all, the one who says it is the responsibility of the parents to feed their own children apparently thinks it is the responsibility of lobbyists to feed state legislators (and the children of one particular state legislator):
April 2009 Representative: DAVIS, CYNTHIA
Nancy L. Giddens 4/1/2009 Individual Not Amended $8.52 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Dinner
Larry Rohrbach 4/15/2009 Individual Not Amended $17.31 Meals, Food, & Beverage -
William A Gamble 4/20/2009 Individual Not Amended $40.00 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Non alcoholic beverages
Total Amount $65.83
March 2009 Representative: DAVIS, CYNTHIA
Don R. Kissell 3/3/2009 Individual Not Amended $6.33 Meals, Food, & Beverage - SAINT CHARLES LEGISLATIVE BREAKFAST
William A Gamble 3/9/2009 Individual Not Amended $30.00 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Non alcoholic beverages
Total Amount $36.33
February 2009 Representative: DAVIS, CYNTHIA
Jorgen Schlemeier 2/9/2009 Individual Not Amended $5.06 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Lunch
Jeffrey T. Sweet 2/27/2009 Individual Not Amended $12.00 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Lunch provided during Boeing briefing on operations
Jeffrey T. Sweet 2/27/2009 Individual Not Amended $8.00 Gift - Desk clock provided during Boeing briefing on operations
John A. Urkevich 2/28/2009 Individual Not Amended $35.00 Meals, Food, & Beverage - CSD Legislative Breakfast
Total Amount $60.06
January 2009 Representative: DAVIS, CYNTHIA
Lobbyist Name William A Gamble 1/8/2009 Individual Not Amended $67.80 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Non alcoholic beverages
Brad Thielemier 1/9/2009 Individual Not Amended $10.00 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Craig Felzien 1/12/2009 Individual Not Amended $10.00 Gift
C.K. Casteel, Jr. 1/14/2009 Individual Not Amended $33.71 Meals, Food, & Beverage - reception
C.K. Casteel, Jr. 1/15/2009 Individual Not Amended $129.00 Meals, Food, & Beverage - Annual Meeting (2 tickets)
Total Amount $250.51
State Representative Cynthia Davis (r - right wingnuttia) demonstrates that she doesn't quite understand why she's been in the news. In a press release (courtesy of Chad Livengood at the Springfield News-Leader) Representative Davis wears her victimhood on her right sleeve:
...My weekly Capitol Report is a way for me to have two-way communications with my constituents and not a national manifesto for you to mock, distort, and to be quoted out of context...
Uh, you put it out there for everyone to see. You're so clueless that you thought no one would see it? Au contraire! If you give us a slow pitch over the plate or a brightly colored piñata, we're going to swing at it. Welcome to the world your modern republican party created Representative Davis - the rest of us only live in it.
It's this comment on the NPR post "Earlybird Ratings Of 2010 Senate Races" (in itself, innocuous enough) which is so telling:
Putting Missouri in the W column for Dems is silly. I live in the state. Carnahan is out-polling any Republican right now on pure name recognition. I can tell you this. Dissatisfaction with Obama's policies are growing in Missouri with every passing week. By next fall, any politician running for statewide office who's associated with Obama and his radical economic policies is going to feel the wrath of Missouri voters.
Conservative grassroots are up for a knock-down, drag out fight in 2010.
Also keep in mind Obama lost Missouri in 2008. Does anyone really think his popularity is going to increase from his blank slate, MSM lovefest, POTUS run in 2008?
Uh, yes the republicans will have all the money they need. And the lobbyists, too. True, Obama didn't win the state, but then again, John McCain barely did and it took a while to figure that out.
And the polling? Well, that would be a foal of a different color:
The closest state during the 2008 presidential election, Missouri shows early signs of opportunity for Democrats to pick up the senate seat currently held by Republican Kit Bond. A new Democracy Corps survey by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research shows Secretary of State Robin Carnahan leading Republican Congressman Roy Blunt 53 to 44 percent and leading former Treasurer Sarah Steelman 54 to 42 percent.
At this early and uncertain stage, Carnahan starts off the contest with a strong personal and professional standing that puts her in a position to defeat either potential opponent. At the same time, it appears as if Steelman may be the tougher foe with a stronger profile than Blunt and the potential to run a fresh outsider candidacy that Blunt cannot offer.
President Obama provides a slight boost to Carnahan, even in a state he failed to carry, with a 56 percent job approval rating (compared to 58 percent nationally) and voters preferring, by a 49 to 40 percent margin, a senator who will mostly support Obama's agenda to get things done rather than one who will mostly oppose his agenda to provide balance.
This report is based a Democracy Corps survey of 800 likely voters in Missouri conducted April 28 - 30, 2009. The survey is subject to a margin of error of +/- 3.5 percentage points.
Do you approve or disapprove of the job Barack Obama is doing as President?
All 57% - approve
40% - disapprove
3% - not sure
"...Dissatisfaction with Obama's policies are growing in Missouri with every passing week...."
Okay. What color is the sky in their world? Ah yes, if republican wishes were reality there would be a bronze statue of George W. Bush on every street corner in Iraq.
...Using the political system to stomp on radicalized fringes does not seem to be very effective in getting them to eschew violence. In fact, it seems to be a very good way of getting more violence. Possibly because those fringes have often turned to violence precisely because they feel that the political process has been closed off to them...
...Lady, are you smoking crack? Are you smoking crack while sitting in a cloud of crack-smoke wearing a T-shirt that says I HEART CRACK while waiting for your crackhead boyfriend to come home with more crack that you sent him out to get so that you'd have some crack when you were done with the crack you're smoking now? Seriously? Because last I checked, "not being able to convince somebody else that you're not a fucking lunatic and that your ideas about everything should be adopted by everybody" doesn't qualify as "the political process has been closed off" to you. That's not how this works, that's not how this has ever worked, and to coddle domestic terrorists by saying they were just pushed to it because they weren't handed everything they ever wanted is ... special. Some kind of special. Some kind of something, that's for sure. What the fuck, today? It's like all the stupid were set free from their stupid-farm for some kind of idiot rumspringa of 24 hours.
For eight fucking years anybody to the left of Pinochet had to kick back and watch while sensible centrists and the Coalition of the Involuntarily Committable got together and raped the country and fucked up the whole world. For eight fucking years we were told that marching in the streets with giant puppets was the most horrific form of treason imaginable, was demoralizing our troops and hurting the debate and making the baby Pope Benedict cry. Not once did I ever in that time hear Megan McArdle or any of her other sensible friends discuss how maybe, just maybe, President Bush and his administration had PUSHED us to the edge, where we HAD to make those puppets because we felt the political process was closed to us.
No, back then it was "elections have consequences" and "you lost" and "look upon my works, ye mighty, and fuck off," and anytime anybody had the temerity to say, "erm, dude, if you don't mind I'll be over here with this sign on a stick" they might as well have been plotting to shoe-bomb Air Force One the way the whiners in the nuttersphere howled and shrieked. There was none of this, "you just don't know how hard it is to be on the losing end of everything including your soul" back then. Just them, partying with Free Republic on the White House lawn, waving their big foam fingers in our faces going "nyah nyah nyah."
Now that they're out of power, natch, what choice do they have but to go shoot up church lobbies in the hopes of bagging abortion doctors for their trophy wall of American apostates? Really, what else could they do? It's not like they could vote, or convince other people to listen to them, or organize, or do any of the damn things I feel like we've been doing since before there was dirt in order to get a not-entirely-crazy in-another-life-he'd-be-a-moderate-Republican dude finally elected so a third of the country could act like Satan just put his feet up on their mother's white-clothed dinner table. It's not like they could do anything else, right? They had to start shooting...
...That is, in fact, the way I felt for much of those eight years. And I had a lot more excuse for feeling that the political process had been closed to me: after all, my candidate for President actually won the election in 2000, for all the good it did him. And yet, somehow, I managed not to kill anyone. Funny thing, that.
