The Noah Diaries 2011 (22): "There is no more fraudulent public image in our politics" (Lawrence O'Donnell on Rudy Giuliani)

GOP vs. nuclear safety, FOX lies, stick it to Karl Rove!, Darrell Issa's incognito aide, the pestilence of vulgarity, and more


Taking down "the hero of 9/11" -- see 8/30

by Noah

8/17/11 -- More from the Republican Culture of Death: Republicans try to cut funding to the National Nuclear Security Administration

The NNSA, part of the Department of Energy, oversees U.S. nuclear weapons development and nuclear proliferation. It's proliferation that's of particular concern when talk about cutting its funds arises. The NNSA people are the ones who guard against terrorists obtaining the necessary materials to build nukes. They keep a close eye on nuclear weapons and weapons materials in the former Soviet Union and around the world. The NNSA is the agency that recently stopped an attempted theft of enriched uranium in South Africa. Is this a good time to cut the agency's funding?

Only if you belong to a Culture of Death.


8/19/11 -- FOX Lie of the Day: the president's vacation

Predictably, the biggest "news item" on the cuckoo network yesterday was the fact that President Obama is taking the wife and family on a little vacation to Martha's Vineyard. It's the same every year, but FOX has stepped up its efforts at portraying Obama as a lazy, shiftless black man. OK, that's stretching a little -- they would probably never call him a "man." Maybe three-fifths of one, like in the original Constitution the Repuggies all want to go back to.

There was Sarah "Quitter" Palin clucking away like the neighborhood gossip lady about how she thought the American people will be telling Obama to return to Washington, blah-blah. This is a woman who makes a living telling people that Washington is bad, bad, bad, all bad. So Sarah, baby, why should Obama go back? That's a real brain-twister for ya, ain't it? You betcha!

Then FOX trotted out Donald Tribblehair, who proceeded to claim falsely that Obama had already passed Chimpy Bush in the number of vacation days taken. A quick fact check revealed that Chimpy had taken three times as many "days off," something like 220 to 70-something. Of course the brain-injured folks who lap up FOX pablum and Kool-Aid think that presidents really do or can take the time to get away from it all. No, the work goes wherever they go, and the fact that the media makes such a big deal of it says as much about the media as it does about presidents. Besides, in the case of Chimpy, he should have gone on a real vacation. Then someone else might have read the bin Laden memo and actually acted on it.

Bonus Lie of the Day: Speaking of work, FOX has been touting the fantasy that Gov. Scott Walker's policies have resulted in more job creation in Wisconsin. Meanwhile in the real world, Wisconsin job numbers are down.


8/22/11 -- Quote of the Year nominee: former Obama White House spokesman Bill Burton vs. Karl Rove on FOX Sunday morning



When Rove, looking like he was separated at birth from Porky Pig, began laying out a thick layer of BS about how Obama is rigid, unwilling to work with Republicans (we wish!), and wasn't doing anything to create jobs, blah-blah, blather-blather, finishing up with a condescending "So please don't talk to me about -- ," Burton shot right back, like Democrats always should when confronted with such utter nonsense and lies:

I appreciate that you have an opinion on this, Karl. But as someone who was a leader in the White House that turned a record surplus into a deficit, that got us involved in a war that we never should have been in, and turned the floor of the New York Stock Exchange into a casino, I don't think the American people are quite ready to hear a lecture from you on good governance.

Rove got in a hissy fit, blubbering on about Republican motivations and integrity being questioned, etc. Now why would anyone question the motivations and integrity of Republicans? Why oh why?


8/22/11 -- Bear in mind that Michele Bachmann voted against the Energy and Job Creation Act of 2008

That bill included means to invest in solar and wind energy. Now she's telling Obama that he should be investing in solar and wind energy to help bring down the price of gas to less than $2/gal, pinpointing this as a lack in his leadership. What does this creature see in the mirror? Actually, her husband probably isn't very good at letting anyone else use the mirror.


8/25/11 -- If his aides are resorting to aliases, maybe Darrell Issa (with his past) should consider doing the same


Mike Papantonio talks to Ed Schultz about Darrell Issa's criminal record.

There have always been plenty of allegations of a criminal past for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), so it gets even more dicey when a guy has to change his name to work as a top staffer for him. Peter Haller, aka Peter Simonyi, is a former Goldman Sachs VP who now pushes the firm's lobbying interests right in Issa's office, all nice and legal-like. His main job is to make sure that no stinkin' regulations get in the way of the efforts of Goldman Sachs to run the world in ways that La Cosa Nostra only dreamed about

It's come to this: Washington is so corrupt that you need to consider changing your name if you go to work there, whether you are working for a politician or you are a politician. I have to wonder, what did Haller-Simonyi tell his kids? His wife? Does he also have a second family out in Kansas somewhere?

Do we have to wonder how widespread it is for Beltway players to be serving incognito? Maybe we should be asking to see these people's birth certificates? It occurs to me to wonder whether there are staffers who are in the Witness Protection Program. (You have to figure a bunch of them are headed there if prosecutors ever put the heat on them to flip on their masters.)


8/30/11 -- Aren't Republicans' "government-starving" policies breeding terrorism?

Lower taxes! More tax cuts for the wealthy! That's what Repugs like to say, but think of it this way: Taxes are lowered, revenue goes down, and benefits disappear. It's the Repug notion of "starving government," making it so small that you can drown it in a bathtub, as Grover Norquist has put it. "No revenue in" = "no programs" + "no benefits." But if one wants to continue living, one still needs things like a home and food and medicine. So if Repugs and Conservadems cut benefits, people have to raid their savings or spend their entire paycheck or sell all the furniture in their house or the house itself, merely to go on living. The safety net disappears. "No benefits" means you pay directly, with your money. You empty your wallet. More of your money goes out. You can't save. That's a hidden tax. That's how Repugs intend to raise your taxes, not lower them.

The next stage will be the revenge stage, after conservatives have taken everything from so many people. Already people can't heat their homes without burning the furniture, or whatever they can scrounge up to burn. The more people such a terrible thing happens to, the more people who become angry and desperate -- not a good combo. Sooner or later there's not enough to burn, just as there isn't enough to eat or to see a doctor. At that point there's no guarantee that some of the abused will not strike back. Republicans will push people into a corner until they snap. The historic recipe for terrorism in this world consists of putting people in a horrific position, so bad that they have nothing to lose. Ironically, Republicans have made it easy for people to get guns.

This is more than Eric Cancer saying he won't help out the victims of tornados in Missouri or Hurricane Irene in New Jersey or Vermont. This is conservative meanness as it affects the basics. How far will the Republicans push it? Perhaps Detroit can save itself by making and selling armored limos to save the rich. They're going to need them. It's human nature. Ruthlessness begets ruthlessness. It's also human nature for the rich to be arrogant and think that merely living in a gated community can protect them.


8/30/11 -- Quote of the Year nominee: Lawrence O'Donnell takes down "the hero of 9/11"

In response to a loutish interview Rudy Giuliani gave to the Republican-friendly Associated Press, Lawrence O'Donnell went on the air tonight and delivered one of his finest "Rewrite" segments. After pointing out Rudy "Did I Mention 9/11?" Giuliani's failure to provide the improved radios the NYC Fire Department had requested, radios that could have worked in the WTC towers and might have saved the lives of some or all of those 121 firefighters, and also pointing out the sheer egomania involved in placing his emergency command center within the walls of a target that had already been attacked once and was already called Ground Zero, O'Donnell concluded with this:

Despite the painful truth of these details, which show Giuliani to have been an ego-driven incompetent in dealing with the threat of terrorism in New York City . . . most of the media will continue to portray him as one of the heroes of 9/11. Know this: There is no more fraudulent public image in our politics.

8/30/11 -- On the pestilence of vulgarity: a quote that rings true more than ever

There is no pestilence to equal the opinion of the vulgar. The vulgar are blind and wicked, they are the obstacle and enemy of all progress.

That's Roger Bacon, in his Opus Minus, written way back in the 13th century. Did he have a vision of Sean Hannity? Roger Ailes? Bill-O? Lush Slimbaugh? Eric Cancer and his Tea Party goonies? All of the above?

It's worth noting that the failure of the vulgar can be measured against the tide of the centuries. They always slow progress, and at times they bury it. But progress, even when delayed or set back, eventually keeps on going. It frustrates the vulgar mightily. It makes them more vulgar as they spit their fury, but still, as one looks back in time, they always lose, eventually. It is the mark of a true loser that he can see this and still persist in his vulgarity. The vulgarians are truly a pestilence. The only cure is rationality, and rationality never touches them.

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History in the making:
Selections from THE NOAH DIARIES 2011

Yesterday: (21) If the Republican Party was a '70s horror movie . . ." Plus: FAA shutdown, "concerned" Repug mom, Rupert's mop-haired henchgal fired?, damn Methodists!, another "debate," and more (8/5-15/11)
Tomorrow: (23) Blowhard George Will outblows Hurricane Irene. Plus: "Quitter" Sarah throws a hissy fit, CEOs make out like bandits, FOX "deconstructs" a speech, Teabag gov loves Paris, and more (9/1-12/11)

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING OF THE SERIES, CLICK HERE

And don't forget 2010's Year in Review series and 2009's "12 Days of Christmas Scorn"!

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