bigmagic’s posterous

I've found, IMHO, the best all-in-one coverage and analysis of the Faux News Rethugliclown Tea Bagging Parties. The vid clip is great, the perfect irony of giant corporate thug Faux News promoting a "grass roots" protest while denying same.

The Field: “Tea Bagging” as Seen Through a Community Organizer's Lens

Here’s an interesting clip from Fox News this week in which a fly enters the ointment in the form of Faiz Shakir of the center-left Think Progress, a critic of the “tea party” faux-movement, laying it strictly at the feet of Fox and three well-funded top-down lobbying outfits on the far right:

The best coverage so far of the tea-bagging protests has from the beltway political humor site Wonkette, which has demonstrated journalistically how the Republican National Committee is also in on promoting the protest-of-the-vague and how the many organizations on the right are already fighting with each other over who began and/or is leading the tea-bagging protests.

More via narcosphere.narconews.com

The Great Recession and the Big Bailout need its genuine critics (as opposed to the phony Tea Baggers) and here's an excellent guide to the players on the distaff side of the economic programs coming out of the White House. We've been following them all since the beginning at Big Magic blog and here they are in one easy-to-follow format. BTW, ignore the idiot politicians at the end of the article.

(H)ere's a guide to the prophets of doom. We've identified them, attempted to ascertain the moment when they first turned against the White House, and summarized the basic points of their critique. We've included economists, members of the business community, bloggers and, just for fun, two of the most anti-Obama Republicans we could dig up.

More via salon.com

Way cool poster flowchart tracking federal tax $$$. A keeper.

Ha! Funny email going around.

Ben & Jerry created "Yes Pecan!" ice cream flavor for Obama. They then asked people to fill in the blank for the following:

For George W. they created "_________".

Here are some of their favorite responses:

Grape Depression
Abu Grape
Cluster Fudge
Nut'n Accomplished
Iraqi Road
Chock 'n Awe
WireTapioca
Impeach Cobbler
Guantanmallow
imPeachmint
Good Riddance You Lousy Motherfucker... Swirl
Heck of a Job, Brownie!
Neocon Politan
RockyRoad to Fascism
The Reese's-cession
Cookie D'oh!
The Housing Crunch
Nougalar Proliferation
Death by Chocolate... and Torture
Chocolate Chip On My Shoulder
You're Shitting In My Mouth And Calling It A Sundae
Credit Crunch
Mission Pecanplished
Country Pumpkin
Chunky Monkey in Chief
George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate
WMDelicious
Chocolate Chimp
Bloody Sundae
Caramel Preemptive? Stripe

More via americablog.com

Krugman gets the message out too.

Tea Parties Forever - Paul Kruman - NYTimes.com

Last but not least: it turns out that the tea parties don’t represent a spontaneous outpouring of public sentiment. They’re AstroTurf (fake grass roots) events, manufactured by the usual suspects. In particular, a key role is being played by FreedomWorks, an organization run by Richard Armey, the former House majority leader, and supported by the usual group of right-wing billionaires. And the parties are, of course, being promoted heavily by Fox News.

But that’s nothing new, and AstroTurf has worked well for Republicans in the past. The most notable example was the “spontaneous” riot back in 2000 — actually orchestrated by G.O.P. strategists — that shut down the presidential vote recount in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.

More via nytimes.com

Think Progress knows the score

Think Progress » Spontaneous Uprising? Corporate Lobbyists Helping To Orchestrate Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests

Fox News — which has actively been promoting the protests — Glenn Beck pushed the tea party talking points, similarly claiming that the protests aren’t “coordinated” and are fully organized by “regular” people. Watch it:

Despite these attempts to make the “movement” appear organic, the principle organizers of the local events are actually the lobbyist-run think tanks Americans for Prosperity and Freedom Works. The two groups are heavily staffed and well funded, and are providing all the logistical and public relations work necessary for planning coast-to-coast protests:

Seems there are pirates and then there are pirates.

In this pirate tale, the Italian mafia is dumping waste; medical waste, industrial waste, nuclear waste, into the waters in the Sea of Anarchy off of Somalia's coast. And illegal foreign fishing is wiping out the fishing stocks and starving the people.

Interesting stuff. Not sure if I buy it 100% but it's interesting.

Johann Hari: You are being lied to about pirates - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent

In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.

Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.

Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention."

At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters."

This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence".

More via independent.co.uk

Wall Street Salary Caps Drive Away Assholes

Experts Warn of ‘Douchebag Drain'

As the federal government moves to institute salary caps for Wall Street executives, an increasing number of assholes are seeking employment elsewhere, a study confirmed today.

According to the report commissioned by the University of Minnesota's School of Business, at a time when the economy needs experienced hands at the tiller, some of the financial world's best-trained dickwads are fleeing the ship.

And if the trend continues, the study warns, Wall Street could soon be facing a "douchebag drain" as top buttholes migrate to other countries and industries.

More via borowitzreport.com

Andy Borowitz is a humorist with a wicked pen, wielded here to great effect. The next time some Bankster whines about using your money to "retain the best and the brightest", remember this piece.