From the Rightwing “Newsbusters”:

McClellan’s Publisher a Liberal: Advances Soros & Slams Limbaugh

Peter Osnos, who wrote Wednesday that he “worked very closely” with Scott McClellan on McClellan’s new book published by PublicAffairs which Osnos founded, is a liberal whose publishing house is affiliated with the far-left The Nation magazine and the publisher of The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. PublicAffairs has a roster of authors who are nearly all liberals and/or liberal-leaning mainstream media figures, including six books by far-left bank-roller George Soros.

George Soros being the nuclear bogeyman of the Right, of course, a commie-jihadist-nazi-leftwing pinko with teeth the size of a T Rex’s.

The author, Brent Baker, also points out that Osnos “hailed the late left-wing columnist Molly Ivins.”

Yes, that’s right: he said nice things about a deceased columnist. Inconceivable!

From Nizkor’s “Logical Fallacies“:

Translated from Latin to English, “Ad Hominem” means “against the man” or “against the person.”

An Ad Hominem is a general category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of some irrelevant fact about the author of or the person presenting the claim or argument. Typically, this fallacy involves two steps. First, an attack against the character of person making the claim, her circumstances, or her actions is made (or the character, circumstances, or actions of the person reporting the claim). Second, this attack is taken to be evidence against the claim or argument the person in question is making (or presenting). This type of “argument” has the following form:

1. Person A makes claim X.
2. Person B makes an attack on person A.
3. Therefore A’s claim is false.

The reason why an Ad Hominem (of any kind) is a fallacy is that the character, circumstances, or actions of a person do not (in most cases) have a bearing on the truth or falsity of the claim being made (or the quality of the argument being made).

Example of Ad Hominem:

1. Scot McClellan’s book states that the White House mislead the American people about the threat posed by Iraq, and the involvement of high level staffers in the Plame leak case. The book is published by a liberal, whose publishing house is affiliated with other liberals, including Soros; therefore the book is false.

From Stephen’s guide to logical fallacies, Proof for Ad Hominem:

Identify the attack and show that the character or circumstances of the person has nothing to do with the truth or falsity of the proposition being defended.

What George Soros or Molly Ivins has to do with the facts laid out in McClellan’s self-serving expose is clear only to hyperbolically small-minded ideologues like Brent Baker.

I haven’t read his book, but one of his apparent epiphanies is that the Nazis were pro-Gay Rights.

Which is pretty much true, except for the little parts about imprisoning homosexuals in concentration camps, castrating, and executing them.

or, “They’ll bond with anything! Film at 11!”

Then again, there’s always the terrifying, “Robots can take us over and we’re just fine with it,” theory, too.

Source

Who needs softball questions tossed by professional fluffers like Steve Sammon when you can just have actual government-paid lackies ask the questions:

FEMA has truly learned the lessons of Katrina. Even its handling of the media has improved dramatically. For example, as the California wildfires raged Tuesday, Vice Adm. Harvey E. Johnson, the deputy administrator, had a 1 p.m. news briefing.

Reporters were given only 15 minutes’ notice of the briefing, making it unlikely many could show up at FEMA’s Southwest D.C. offices. They were given an 800 number to call in, though it was a “listen only” line, the notice said — no questions. Parts of the briefing were carried live on Fox News, MSNBC and other outlets.

~~~

He was apparently quite familiar with the reporters — in one case, he appears to say “Mike” and points to a reporter — and was asked an oddly in-house question about “what it means to have an emergency declaration as opposed to a major disaster declaration” signed by the president. He once again explained smoothly.

FEMA press secretary Aaron Walker interrupted at one point to caution he’d allow just “two more questions.” Later, he called for a “last question.”

“Are you happy with FEMA’s response so far?” a reporter asked. Another asked about “lessons learned from Katrina.”

“I’m very happy with FEMA’s response so far,” Johnson said, hailing “a very smoothly, very efficiently performing team.”

“And so I think what you’re really seeing here is the benefit of experience, the benefit of good leadership and the benefit of good partnership,” Johnson said, “none of which were present in Katrina.” (Wasn’t Michael Chertoff DHS chief then?) Very smooth, very professional. But something didn’t seem right. The reporters were lobbing too many softballs. No one asked about trailers with formaldehyde for those made homeless by the fires. And the media seemed to be giving Johnson all day to wax on and on about FEMA’s greatness.

Of course, that could be because the questions were asked by FEMA staffers playing reporters. We’re told the questions were asked by Cindy Taylor, FEMA’s deputy director of external affairs, and by “Mike” Widomski, the deputy director of public affairs. Director of External Affairs John “Pat” Philbin asked a question, and another came, we understand, from someone who sounds like press aide Ali Kirin.

Fake news perfected, even to the point of cutting out the middle man. Jeff Gannon, you’re obsolete.

(via atrios)

From today’s LA Times:

The Justice Department is putting the final touches on regulations that could give Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales important new sway over death penalty cases in California and other states, including the power to shorten the time that death row inmates have to appeal convictions to federal courts.

The rules implement a little-noticed provision in last year’s reauthorization of the Patriot Act that gives the attorney general the power to decide whether individual states are providing adequate counsel for defendants in death penalty cases. The authority has been held by federal judges.

Under the rules now being prepared, if a state requested it and Gonzales agreed, prosecutors could use “fast track” procedures that could shave years off the time that a death row inmate has to appeal to the federal courts after conviction in a state court.

From yesterday’s Brewster Rocket, Space Guy:

I can see it now — Gonzo expedites the execution of several people, first claiming there was no evidence they were innocent, then after DNA clears them, stating that he made the decision to whack him but he wasn’t involved in the decision and had no knowledge of the reasoning upon which the decision was based.

After it turns out that Rove sent a bunch of emails urging Gonzo to put a bullet in each head personally, which emails the White House won’t turn over.

Better to give a gun to a fucking monkey.

It’s been a while, and we recognize that we cannot possibly cover everyone in need of a good cock-punching, but here is our list of Who Needs a Good Cock-Punching for this Friday:

1. Chickenhawking, not-my-sons egotisticial moron Mitt Romney

2. Faulty recollecting, worst ever President Dumbshit

3. Benito Mussolini neo-fascist fear pimp Rudy Giuliani

4. Long-time asshole and intellectual lightweight Michelle Malkin

5. Classless, dipshitted hypocrite Bud Selig. Baseball winked and nodded at a generation of steroid users like Sosa, McGuire and Palmiero, and now this assclown sits on his hands and pretends to be shocked at Bonds.

6. Man-crushing dullard Chris “Tweety” Mathews

7. Amnesiac “historian” Victor Davis Hanson.

8. Dog-fighting quarterback Michael Vick.

9. All 30-something “Young” Republican leaders from the Midwest, everywhere

10. Flaming douchebag Bill Kristol. And let’s not forget this brilliant comment about Sunni-Shiite rifts amounting to little more than “pop sociology.”

What do YOU think? Who do YOU think needs a good cock-punching?

“Other passengers asked the man if he knew he had a monkey on him,”

NEW YORK - A man smuggled a monkey onto an airplane Tuesday, stashing the furry fist-size primate under his hat until passengers spotted it perched on his ponytail, an airline official said.

The monkey escapade began in Lima, Peru, late Monday, when the man boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Spirit Airlines spokeswoman Alison Russell. After landing Tuesday morning, the man waited several hours before catching a connecting flight to LaGuardia Airport.

During the flight, people around the man noticed that the marmoset, which normally lives in forests and eats fruit and insects, had emerged from underneath his hat, Russell said.

Source

and our monkey friend yesterday wasn’t the only one on the loose in Mississippi:

“Officials say animal-control officers have never tackled a kangaroo.”

BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. - A kangaroo may be on the loose in Mississippi. Animal-control officers in Bay Saint Louis say there have been several reports in the past few days of a kangaroo hopping along U.S. 90.

The mayor says he’s heard reports of people seeing a kangaroo four or five different times, and at first he wondered if someone was just joking around.

Is Preston Sturges writing the news today?

Oliver the monkey finally got caught. Too bad! I was rooting for him.

Oliver was apprehended at Tupelo Stone & Masonry, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported, six days after leading park staff on a chase through the park’s trail system before eventually eluding them.

Meanwhile, the guy who caught him gets an Elvis birthplace tour, and strangely, a case of bananas.

It wasn’t the first time Oliver, 9, had escaped from the zoo. About six years ago the monkey escaped and ran amok on the grounds of Tupelo Country Club before being captured and returned to the zoo.

Within minutes of returning home after his latest adventure, Oliver feasted on grapes, marshmallows, monkey biscuits and bananas, and then took a long nap.