In case you're wondering, yes, that's the glow of the TelePrompTer reflecting in Palin's glasses.

It’s bad enough that you’ve likely convinced a bunch of dumb, fat white guys out there who want to fuck you that you’d make a good president. But seriously, just stop being a horrible, ignorant, intolerant, pandering former half-term governor.

There are times on this site when we think we shouldn’t call Sarah Palin names because, you know, we have employers and eventually we’ll want to get new jobs somewhere else or get fired and then need to find a new job and someday a future employer will look at this website and say, “This person’s nuts. We can’t hire someone who’s NUTS.” (BTW, that’s what the Fat American people should say at the polls in 2012 when Sarah Palin runs for president on the Teabagger ticket.)

But then we see Palin’s stupid Luke Wilson jaw and her dumb, smug face and we lose our minds. She can’t DO ANYTHING BUT INCITE FEAR AND HATRED.

And you know what? She’s not entirely stupid because she’s smart enough to know that “blood libel” is a code phrase to anti-Semites across this country. She’s smart enough to know that it’s a wink to people who hate, people who eat up her garbage, people who just can’t stand that a black man is president.

WHY, WHY, WHY DOES ANYONE LISTEN TO THIS FUCKING CHEERLEADER?

We’ll tell you why people (and we use the word “people” loosely) listen to her: Because most Americans still live in high school well past the age of 18.

“Blood libel.” Sweet Jesus. What an ASSHOLE. We want to give you the benefit of the doubt that you didn’t know what that meant, but you’re beyond being afforded that luxury. You pander to the least common denominator and when you casually pepper your speech with anti-Semitic dog whistles, everyone knows it was intentional.

Fuck. This fucking country.

So someone walked into an event that Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was holding outside a grocery store. Shot her in the head. Killed at least four people. Giffords is in surgery as of 3:39 p.m. ET.

Here are some choice images from Sarah Palin’s Facebook page. You remember the crosshairs? Yeah. Here’s THAT image. Of course, it’s not murder — or attempted murder — if you’re totally being a maverick, which the shooter, certainly a patriot, no doubt is.

And here’s the note on Palin’s Facebook page, helpfully screengrabbed in case it disappears.

On a side note, you’d think the teabaggers would have been more vocal when George W. Bush was spending huge sums on two wars, giving tax cuts to the rich, expanding a prescription drug program without paying for it and growing the federal government’s role in public education with middling results. But then again, he’s not black.

To wit: Asshole Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) is still touting his — and other GOP members’ — bogus claim that the health care reform law is a “government takeover of health care.” It isn’t. But we’ll get to that in a moment. First, here’s Pence’s tired rhetoric, as re-spewed out CBS News’ “Early Show” to coincide with changes that went into effect Thursday because of health care reform, and reported by Business Week:

The House Republicans’ agenda “will focus on getting this economy moving again, getting spending under control, and, yes, it includes rolling back both the failed economic policies and broadly rejected government takeover of health care enacted last March,” Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, who chairs the House Republican Conference, said Thursday on the CBS Early Show.

That same Business Week story has results of a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey that shows Americans supporting health care reform 49 to 40 percent. And the Kaiser Family Foundation, whatever you think of them, is in the business of health care. So there’s that.

Here’s the other thing for the Pences of this country who think the health care law is a “government takeover of health care.” A government takeover would be Medicare for everyone. By instituting a purchase mandate but not offering, say, a single-payer system, the Obama administration is actually pretty pro-business. The only way  to make the overhaul less an anti-government takeover than it already is would be to eliminate Medicare for the olds and say, “Sorry, Grampa. Go buy from Cigna.”

Writer Sara Murray doesn’t come right out and say that Americans are stupid, lazy hypocrites but, hey, we read between the lines and are doing it for her. Americans are stupid, lazy hypocrites. (They’re also fat but that’s another story for another day).

We’ve all heard lately that the deficit is booming, there’s too much government spending, Social Security’s fucked, etc. All of those things are true, of course. Why? Well, the deficit is booming because someone has to kick start the economy and tax cuts for rich people aren’t going to do it. And yes, just in case you’re wondering, the stimulus worked. Certainly not the way the administration thought it would and not as well as it could have, either — because the administration made the mistake of thinking that Americans are rational, thoughtful people — but it did. Just not well enough.

So enough of the background. Here’s what we mean when we say Americans are the problem:

Efforts to tame America’s ballooning budget deficit could soon confront a daunting reality: Nearly half of all Americans live in a household in which someone receives government benefits, more than at any time in history.

At the same time, the fraction of American households not paying federal income taxes has also grown — to an estimated 45% in 2010, from 39% five years ago, according to the Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization.

Oops.

Yet even as Americans express concern over the deficit in opinion polls, many oppose benefit cuts, particularly with the economy on an uneven footing. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted late last month found 61% of voters were “enthusiastic” or “comfortable” with congressional candidates who support cutting federal spending in general. But 56% expressed the same enthusiasm for candidates who voted to extend unemployment benefits.

Of course they do! Because they don’t understand how money and business and spending and government works. And guess what? It’s actually not that difficult. Here’s how the government entitlement part goes: If you want Medicare (and judging by how many people want the government to keep their filthy hands off Medicare, you do), you have to pay for it. The way you pay for it is by taxes!

Also: If you want Social Security, you have to pay for it — as a payroll tax! See, that’s how entitlement programs work. They have to be paid for somehow. Social security isn’t a handout; you pay into it with every paycheck (assuming your employer isn’t a total scumbag). The problem with Social Security isn’t that it’s welfare (it isn’t). The problem is that when it was enacted the population was about 130,000,000, lived until they were about 65 or died in World War II. Now the population is about 300,000,000 and everyone is really fucking old.

We’re not suggesting that there’s not waste in government. Any system that would employ Charlie Rangel for 40 years has serious problems. We’re just saying that if you want spending limited, you may have to take a cut in something you enjoy. We’re perfectly prepared to eat baloney for a couple months. Is the rest of America? Well, they’re already eating baloney and it’s making them fat. But we’re talking about eating baloney from a symbolic and from a monetary point of view, you know, baloney being cheap…

Oh, fuck it. Long story short: Americans are stupid.

We got so much of him at his fat person-only BBQ last weekend that we can hardly quench our thirst. Luckily, some wingnut has come up with a wonderful parody site that randomly generates horrific things Glenn Beck warned us about by using some of his favorite buzzwords. Hopefully this chalkboard app can get you through the day until your Mormon Jesus appears on the teevee to tell you what to be scared about.

[glennbeckwarned.us via Wonkette]

Here’s the deal, everyone? This shit? This shit is retarded. You don’t have to go that far back in our history to see what a demagogue looks like, and, surprise of surprises, they look a lot like Louis Gohmert. From the fight against the “Ground Zero Mosque” — which incidentally is run by a guy who worked for the Bush State Department — to pushing the silly and unsubstantiated idea that there are Terror Babies, this has all gone too far.

If the idea of 9/11 was to make us afraid, it worked. If the idea was to make us unsafe in our own world, it worked. If it was to make us turn on each other for no good reason, it’s happening right now. We’re better than that. At least we should be better than that.

But as long as people like Louis Gohmert are allowed to run wild, spread totally-unfounded xenophobic stories of Islamists-coming-to-kill-us, we’ve lost. George W. Bush said over and over that this whole battle is about freedom. It was a stupid slogan, but as you watch an effort to strip protections from the Constitution and divide this country along religious and social lines, does this still look like a place where freedom rings?

This shit is confusing, but here’s the low down: John McCain had the balls to call someone not himself a huckster.

I KNOW, RIGHT?!!

Granted, the one on the receiving end of the huckster taunt is JD Hayworth, who in addition to being a hate-filled, race-baiting motherfucker is also probably a huckster. He did a bunch (or maybe one, who the fuck cares?) of ads a couple years back promising “free information about ‘hundreds of billions of dollars in government funding’ to individuals who attend a conference on the topic,” which, by the way, sounds totally hucksterish.

BUT – and this is a big but – getting free money from the government is right up the political alley of a guy who claims to hate the government but wants to hold government office (meaning Hayworth).

As for McCain, his huckster status is unconfirmed. After all, he did give us Sarah Palin. And he claimed he never considered himself a maverick. And he stopped being sort of moderate and went way, way, way to the right. At least he’s not JD Hayworth.

I mean, look at Hayworth’s eerie, Satanic stare, his receding hairline and giant, flaring nostrils. How can you not trust him?

[via Political Ticker]

Instead of attacking the president for all the things he could be legitimately accused of — failing to act in a timely manner; letting BP go unchecked in their relief efforts; letting BP screw around on claims; failing to meet with BP leadership — she’s attacking him for the one decent idea they have, an escrow fund of $20 billion BP dollars that will be administered to victims with legit claims.

Ugh, here:

The Minnesota Independent reports that Bachmann spoke Tuesday to the Heritage Foundation, and badmouthed the idea. “The president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders, which would be more of a redistribution-of-wealth fund,” said Bachmann. “And now it appears like we’ll be looking at one more gateway for more government control, more money to government.”

We’d believe Bachmann if she were a) correct, and b) sane. But this is what she always rails about. Government power. The same government that gives her a farm subsidy that she publicly rails against. She has no interests but her own.

[via TPM]