The Crowbar

In a head-scratching forum post, Democratic Underground user CitizenPatriot shares a blog post by Sarah Jones criticizing Sarah Palin’s defense of women in the David Letterman/Slutty Flight Attendant fiasco.

In another unambiguous example of Palin Derangement Syndrome, Jones tries to reason that since Sarah Palin has not performed well enough in key (feminist?) crime/sexuality statistics, she just CAN’T be a REAL feminist.

Palin is calling all feminists to arms. OK. Well, Palin as feminist is hard to swallow, but she suggests we let her record speak for her. So, let’s take a peek.

Hmmm:

Alaska’s reported rate of rape per capita is 2.6 times the national average.

Anchorage has the ninth highest sexual assault rate of any city in the United States, and Fairbanks is ranked first, at 4.7 times the national average.

Alaska’s child abuse rate is six times higher than the national average.

The state continues to rank first or second nationally in the number of chlamydia cases, a ranking it has held since 2000. In 2006, the last year data was available from the Center for Disease control, Alaska ranked 25th in rates of gonorrhea and 28th in syphilis.

The Alaska birthrate among women ages 15-19 in 2006 was 44.3 per 1,000 teens, up 19 percent from 2005.

Palin is calling all feminists to arms. OK. Well, Palin as feminist is hard to swallow, but she suggests we let her record speak for her. So, let’s take a peek.

Hmmm:

Alaska’s reported rate of rape per capita is 2.6 times the national average.

Anchorage has the ninth highest sexual assault rate of any city in the United States, and Fairbanks is ranked first, at 4.7 times the national average.

Alaska’s child abuse rate is six times higher than the national average.

The state continues to rank first or second nationally in the number of chlamydia cases, a ranking it has held since 2000. In 2006, the last year data was available from the Center for Disease control, Alaska ranked 25th in rates of gonorrhea and 28th in syphilis.

The Alaska birthrate among women ages 15-19 in 2006 was 44.3 per 1,000 teens, up 19 percent from 2005

There are so many factors that affect crime rates it’s automatically disingenuous to fault any state’s governor for poor rates without a thorough explanation. By such hideously twisted logic, one could say Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick isn’t black because 45% of murder victims are black but only 5% of the state’s population is black. How absurd is that? It is the same with the Jones’ flimsy assertions about Palin.

It’s fascinating how the many on the left attribute god-like power to those they simultaneously hate and miscomprehend. Something about Sarah Palin really cuts them deep to their core.

Say what you will about Cheney, but the top left bloggers really REALLY hate him with a passion. They’ve recently devoted lots of webspace to their rage: HuffPo’s Borowitz spews out lame satire at Cheney, saying the Former VP is To Travel Around Country In Sound Truck. Groan. DailyKos’ David Swanson verbosely explains the Three Worst Reasons to Delay Putting Cheney in Prison. Like all morally confused liberals, Swanson is SO for “enforcing laws.” Of course, laws only apply to liberal causes, they can be skirted with “empathy” when laws cause “social injustice.” Aside from that, it’s doubtful that any laws were actually broken, and there will never be prosecutions b/c top Democrats would be dragged down, too.  The fringe leftists at Democratic Underground indulge in ancient Cheney-based fantasy claiming Cheney Confirms Iran-Contra Cover-Up; says Cheney:

“I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn’t going to happen this time.”

Because he used the word “cover,” he has now admitted a “cover-up”? Oy. The ever-excitable Andrew Sullivan has another go at Cheney, implying that Cheney betrayed his oath of office by supporting harsh interrogation of deranged psychopaths bent on killing Americans. Says Sully, “Is Cheney’s ultimate defense is that he didn’t understand the oath he took?” Go ahead and believe that Sullivan, you’re already a lost cause. ThinkProgress works it over hard, trying to make Cheney look bad because he’d choose Rush Limbaugh over Colin Powell. Who in their right mind would choose Powell the Backstabber? Greg Sargent at Plumb Line gets himself all excited when he finds out White House To Declassify “Holy Grail” Torture Report That Could Undercut Cheney. The report supposedly says it’s “difficult to determine conclusively whether interrogations have provided information critical to interdicting specific imminent attacks.” Just because it’s difficult, doesn’t mean it’s impossible, duh. Another secret the White House will give to the terrorists for free. How quaint. Josh Marshall at TPM is so hot and bothered he decided to share a Dick Cheney Deep Thought, “Megalomania is a hard drug to kick.” Save it for twitter, Marshall.  Heather at Crooks and Liars thinks she really has something in taking advantage of Cheney and Limbaugh’s negative poll numbers. Take a look-see at Mary Matalin: Newt Gingrich, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh Exemplify Conservatism. Heather seems to think that Republican policies have been rejected by a large portion of the electorate. Yep. That would be the self-identified “Democrats.” Brilliant like a stone light bulb. Hilzoy at Political Animal gets dramatically offended by Cheney and decries, “How Dare He?”

Dick Cheney forfeited the right to lecture anyone on their willingness to sacrifice American lives the day he decided to deceive us into an unnecessary war.

Please stop with your Superior Moral SuperForce, Hilzoy, you’re making the chickens nervous.

I was not able to post yesterday, so I made up for it with the following roundup of the top 10 blogs.

Huffington Post > It’s obvious liberals are starting to feel threatened by the Tea Party Movement, they are devoting more webspace trying to kill it. Huffpo blogger Karl Frisch (also a Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America), tries desperately to discredit all of Fox News for allegedly cheer-leading the movement. Fox News isn’t, but their opinion show hosts are. You know, kinda like MSNBC and CNN opinion show hosts drooled over Obama, which Media Matters strangely didn’t cover. It’s a truly lame attempt, but I’m sure lots of hard left HuffPo readers will take it as fact.

Democratic Underground > Trouble for Obama from the suicidal dove faction. DU Poster AmyCamus reposted a story on Alternet by hard left Iraq Marine veteran Benjamin Lewis, who is likely to be court marshaled “for his intention to refuse reactivation.” Lewis is Against Obama’s Afghanistan, and after the usual peacenik screed he expresses his disappointment quite tellingly:

If it was not evident before, it should be apparent by now that Obama is not our savior.

You heard it here at The Crowbar nearly first, folks!

Daily Kos > Kossack Susan Gardner gives us all a preview of what’s to coming this Sunday 4/13 on Kos…

• A lame attack by Michael Lazzaro on the Tea Party Movement pretending that the left/ACORN is DEFINITELY NOT attempting to infiltrate the Movement, really.
• Dana Houle will attempt to discredit Glenn Beck by tying him to “manifestos of the violent radical right”  and saying he “traffics in violent conspiratorial rhetoric of the kind that inspired Timothy McVeigh”
• Gardner will pass on hard left propaganda by David Neiwert bashing talk radio and insulting talk radio listeners.

The Daily Dish | Andrew Sullivan > Sullivan spent the entire day dismissively bashing the Tea Party movement, calling it the “Tea Tantrum movement.” Sullivan puts on his “fiscal conservative” hat (conical with a red puffy ball on top) to give himself false authority to declare the movement “adolescent, unserious hysteria” and proof of the Republican “party’s fast-accelerating nervous breakdown.” Sullivan takes us on an unfantastic journey devoting 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 posts to deriding the movement. You see, the mistake the Tea Party Movement made is not consulting Sullivan and his clearly superior British intellect first – the man has a PhD in Government from Harvard, donchya know.

Talking Points Memo (TPM)  > Trouble in paradise, specifically Guantanamo Bay. Harsh reality may be setting for Obama. Seems Obama’s DOJ is stonewalling Gitmo case just like Bush. I guess sending the terrorists to Pennsylvania is no loger viable? In any case, the anger of the Liberalati is rising. Hard left Gitmo lawyer David Cynamon says:

What I have been hoping for, and am getting increasingly frustrated about, is to see that closing Guantanamo be matched with a change in policy at the Justice Department to actually try to get these cases heard to test the evidence and then to determine, if there’s no evidence, to release these people. That part I haven’t seen at all.

Think Progress > Lee Fang nostalgically engages in Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) by wishing that Bush would hate himself as much as Fang and other BDS sufferers do. In a promo video for Bush’s Presidential library, Bush fails to say that he lied and people died, that he traded blood for oil, that 9/11 was his inside job and that he personally used a weather satellite to aim Katrina at New Orleans because lots of black people live there.

The Conscience of a Liberal >Krugman  ties income inequality with “intense partisanship” in The financial factor  ”But what caused the fall and rise of inequality?… regulation and deregulation.” So Krugman is arguing for more regulation – you’re shocked, I know. The kicker is that he damages his own argument, “OK, correlation does not imply causation yada yada.” Meh.

Crooks and Liars > Nicole Belle writes an open letter to National Organization for Marriage, hoping to affect change by the sheer force of her condescending insults:

I find your stance akin to those bigots who protested for miscegenation…

…unless of course, your marriage is simply not as strong as mine and having others commit would suddenly inspire you or your spouse to up and leave.

…it might actually have more credibility if you could find an actual doctor to claim her job is somehow threatened, rather than using a really, really bad actor.

…you boneheads.

Yours in complete and utter scorn…

Aren’t top liberal bloggers fun people?

Wonkette > It’s correction time as Wonkete jumps to conclusions about a fake YouTube video of “the libidinous fartsack Silvio Berlusconi, who still lives with his mom, assaulting some poor woman who just wanted to write a goddamn parking ticket in peace.”  Isn’t that special. Then comes the correction:

Oh well shit our own former editor Alex Pareene debunked this dumb thing three years ago. Ha ha, fact-checking!

Do you think Wonkette will see how their hyperactive, venomous hatred made them assume the worst even after their own blogger debunked it three years ago? Fat chance. 

Glenn Greenwald > Greenwald spends another day taking on the “Obama DOJ’s inexcusable embrace of some of the most radical Bush/Cheney secrecy doctrines.” Uh-oh, sounds like MORE trouble in paradise. Wait, wait… isn’t criticizing the DOJ racist since Attorney General Eric Holder is the first black man to be appointed to the office? OH, that’s right – Greenwald is a liberal. Different standards, my bad – he’s not racist.

Political Animal | Steve Benen > Benen spends time patronizing Glenn Beck for his speaking style. Benen, unable to hold back his poisonous sneer, accuses Beck of actually being “insane,” “deranged,” and “crazy” and says, “might try to eat his shoes while arguing with mailboxes. Getting dressed and making it to a television studio every day would be difficult.” I’ve no doubt it’s Benen who needs therapy.

Good news for Obama, zippy890 at Democratic Underground says this:

Instead of speaking in generalities about good-and-evil or the democratic transformation of an entire region, Obama laid out a clear and focused goal – “to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and to prevent their return to either country in the future.” It may not be easy to reach that goal, but by delineating specific, limited objectives Obama gave the public definite criteria by which his strategy may be evaluated.

So, Obama won’t be judged by the number of American soldiers killed like Bush was? If there is another terrorist attack in the US, methinks Obama will be judged by that.

Democratic Underground Blogger Andrew (Political Heretic) frets that we’re “losing America right before our blind eyes.” Andrew is VERY concerned that we don’t  measure up to the “powerhouse countries” of Japan, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. Powerhouse = Socialist. How don’t we measure up? Here are the Andrew’s selected criteria (apparently from the OECD).

Per Capita Income: U.S. Second (Edit: Rock on USA!) Income Inequality: U.S. First (meaning worst) Overall Poverty Rate: U.S. Highest Child Poverty Rate: U.S. Highest Elderly Poverty Rate: U.S. Highest Infant Mortality Rate: U.S. First (meaning worst) Leisure Time: U.S. Last (meaning worst) Maternity Leave: U.S. Last (meaning worst)

After the Per Capita Income, all the other listed criteria are often cited by the left in an effort to convince us to let them take control of our lives. Because, you see, we Americans can’t handle it, we’re last in all the categories that Really Matter. Oh, and for the record, there is a lot more to the story; don’t take those statistics at face value. Andrew goes on to say:

Shouldn’t this news shock us?  Shouldn’t be reported on every media outlet as the biggest news story around?  BREAKING NEWS: Our country is in serious trouble, and falling behind the rest of the industrialized world! Something must be done.

That “something” would be to hand our lives over to Those Who Know Better, the liberal progressives. Andrew finishes by saying:

To those who find great comfort in shouting “I’m proud to be an American” what exactly are you proud of? Shouldn’t we be embarrassed to death about losing out to the rest of the industrialized world in every single one of these categories?

We should be proud that we are at liberty to make our own decisions without power hungry tyrants (cough: leftists) having their way with us. I’m proud to be an American.