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"A few weeks ago, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid lured two young children..."
That's how Malkin starts her syndicated column on the backlash against the Wingnut Grenadiers' attack on the Frost family. And yet she characterizes said backlash as
"left-wing attacks on those of us who dare to question the Democrats' sacred political narratives"
This is where someone on her level would inflict gender and race specific epithets on the little... But I'm not going to do that. What I will say is that is that "questioning narratives" is legit but giving pedophile-like auras to this is not and that is why we think know you are vile, opportunistic hacks. More of her crap:
Reader Rob asks: "Why is it when the Baltimore Sun takes photos of the house they are reporters, but when you simply drive by you are a stalker? Why is it when the New York Times calls the home, it's "for an interview" but when a blog does it for the same reason, it's harassment?"
Answer: It's ferocious turf protection, plain and simple.
No, Maglalangadingdong, it's because if they had an agenda going in they at least tried not to show it by concealing the eye-rolling, head-bobbling... what's the Tagalog word for Perpetual Snit? that you feed your family with!
As for Surber, he wouldn't get off his lazy ass to put forth the effort required to stalk someone so he just made shit up, like how the Frosts are unfit parents for not having auto insurance at the time of the crash (not one bit of evidence for that) and that they "choose" not to have insurance through their jobs.
So, having been corrected on the existence of a means test in Maryland, Maglalangadingdong decides an Asset Test is what is lacking here. It appears Malkin thinks they should have formed an asset trust, filed bankruptcy, and wormed their way through the Homestead Exemption loophole of the new bankruptcy laws like 'other' wealthy people.
By all appearances, the Frost family produce something worthwhile for their labor and still cannot afford health care. Surber, Malkin, et.al.,get health care for their families by being soul-sucking societal Dementors
A key difference between the Scarecrow of Oz and Strawman Surber is the Scarecrow eventually got smart while Strawman Surber wages an eternal argument with strawmen.)
Big hat tip to West Virginia Blue's "Jay" for the illustration
...
Kos thinks the attack by the rightwingers like the Charleston Daily Mail's Don Surber and Michelle Malkin (whose column appears weakly in the Martinsburg Journal) on the 12-year-old boy who spoke in favor of the SCHIP program will be another Terri Schiavo moment for the rightwingers. People will see their tactics and goals and leave the movement and the Republican Party.
I wrote elsewhere yesterday that Surber, Malkin and their ilk are scared shitless because the Frost family is a white middleclass family. A small business owner no less who earns $45,000 a year. It's the same as their attacks on the Iraq war veterans like Brandon speaking out against the war. The military vets are supposed to be their people (in their minds).
They're scared shitless. If they start losing white, middleclass small business owners and the military vote (as numerous polls show a majority of the military supporting either Democratic candidates or anti-war Republican Ron Paul) - just like the GOP is starting to lose a not insignificant part of their corporate donor base, then they're going to be out of power for the foreseeable future. With the evangelicals threatening to peel off - and they certainly will if crossdressing serial adulterer Rudy Guiliani or Mormon Mitt Romney is the nominee - they've got nothing.
It's not just about silencing those to speak out for Democratic issues. It's to send a message to people they see as their base that if you stray from the herd, this is how you'll be treated by us.
They're scared shitless that other white business owners will identify with this family. Which they will.
Here's what now former Republican blogger John Cole wrote (via kos):
If you look through this family's dossier, it appears they are doing everything Republicans say they should be doing- hell, their story is almost what you would consider a checklist for good, red-blooded American Republican voters: they own their own business, they pay their taxes, they are still in a committed relationship and are raising their kids, they eschewed public education and are doing what they have to do to get them into Private schools, they are part of the American dream of home ownership that Republicans have been pointing to in the past two administrations as proof of the health of the economy, and so on.
In short, they are a white, lower-middle-class, committed family, who is doing EVERYTHING the GOP Kultur Kops would have you believe people should be doing. They aren't gay. They aren't divorced. They didn't abort their children. They aren't drug addicts or welfare queens. They are property owners, entrepeneurs, taxpayers, and hard-working Americans. I bet nine times out of ten in past elections, if you handed this resume to a pollster, they would think you were discussing the prototypical Republican voter. Hell, the only thing missing from this equation is membership to a church and an irrational fear of Muslims and you HAVE the prototypical Bush voter [...]
I simply can not believe this is what the Republican party has become. I just can't. It just makes me sick to think all those years of supporting this party, and this is what it has become. Even if you don't like the S-Chip expansion, it is hard to deny what Republicans are- a bunch of bitter, nasty, petty, snarling, sneering, vicious thugs, peering through people's windows so they can make fun of their misfortune.
I'm registering Independent tomorrow.
The Frost family could be any family. Many middleclass families, me included, fear the loss of insurance for our children. God forbid Don Surber should lose his job when the Daily Mail eventually closes and he has to try to find enough money in the budget to pay for private insurance which costs more than the mortgage each month in order to be covered should there be a catastrophic medical disaster in his family. He might have to rely on S-CHIP for his insurance.
But he attacked a middleclass family making $45,000 a year and sending their children, including one daughter with brain trauma whose costs are paid for by the state because of her injury, to private school. They obtained scholarships for them. Surber's big complaint seemed to be they had a nicer kitchen than him - ignoring the fact that the father makes his living as a cabinet maker and could do the work himself while the only thing Surber can do with his putty soft, lily white hands is wank.
Thanks to Bush, Big Coal uses 3 million pounds of explosives each day in West Virginia to fuel our addiction to dirty energy.
On a calm, clear morning in the forested mountains of southern West Virginia, 12-year-old Chrystal Gunnoe played outdoors in the green mountain valley where her family has lived for hundreds of years. It was Veteran's Day and a school holiday. Chrystal's mother, Maria Gunnoe, 38, was inside when she heard her daughter yell for help.
Gunnoe rushed outside to find Chrystal coming towards her. Chrystal was coughing and struggling to breath, running from a strange-looking cloud that was moving down the valley and headed towards their house. Gunnoe would later learn the strange cloud came from something known as a "slow burning blast" -- an explosion set at the coal mine above her home that failed to ignite and instead burned slowly, releasing a wet toxic cloud of nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide.
Gunnoe lives in Bob White, W.Va., where coal companies have become increasingly unfriendly neighbors. Her home is surrounded by thousands of acres where a radically destructive type of coal mining is practiced -- mountaintop removal/valley fill (MTR) coal mining -- and it's turning Maria Gunnoe's life upside down.
In the weeks following, Chrystal suffered from a bronchial infection, a consistent cough, nose bleeds and bouts of painful breathing. Her mother, who was also exposed, "had sores on the inside of [her] nose," she said. "First they take our land, then the water, now the air," fumed Gunnoe who lives in Boone County, W.Va.'s top coal-yielding county, and the epicenter of Appalachian coal extraction, where the dirty business of mining, processing and hauling coal is the main meal-ticket in town.
Coal mining dominates the lives of the people in the remote, coal-rich mountain communities of West Virginia, where coal operators like Massey Energy are waging a remorseless campaign to extract all the coal they can, as fast as they can, before coal is legislated into the past and President Bush is out of office.
Out-of-state coal operators reap billions in profits every year, while residents of southern West Virginia remain among the poorest in the nation.
In the coal fields, the imbalance is amplified: while Boone county produces the most coal in the state, 20 percent of its residents languish below the poverty line without sufficient income to achieve an adequate standard of living.
Massey Energy Co., the largest coal producer in Appalachia, grossed $1.78 billion in revenue on coal sales of 42.3 million tons in 2005, while residents have toy drives for the kids around the holidays and often rely on free medical care administered by a global traveling clinic unit that comes around once a year.
Entire article well worth a read. Don't forget Don Blankenship is doing it for the sake of the kids. Meanwhile, based on his past writing, the Charleston Daily Mail's embarrassment Don Surber will write a column on how kids don't deserve to breath clean air if their parents cannot afford to move.
As usual rightwinger Don Surber spouted off in a way that showed his meanspiritedness and inability to grasp reality. The latest was his malicious deception regarding a middleclass woodworker and his wife in Baltimore. The only way to describe Surber is he's an asshole who is proud to associate with the most loathsome people in the country who stalk and post lies about a middleclass family earning $45,000 a year and the struggles they faced after a catastrophic car crash severely injured their two children. They're going after a 12-year-old kid.
All to defend George W. Bush's veto of the SCHIP program.
Whenever you think about rightwingers remember they stalked and harassed a family for having the audacity to speaking out about issues that affect us.
The rightwingers hate children, they hate the middleclass and they're willing to smear a decent family because they spoke out for the popular SCHIP program that makes sure people in dire need receive healthcare.
Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito should publicly denounce her supporter Don Surber and distance herself from him for his attack of the Baltimore family.
The Don Surbers of the world are despicable pariahs. If the Charleston Daily Mail had a shred of decency or dignity, Don Surber would be out of a job. Then he'd know what it was like to try to support a family while unable to afford health insurance. Perhaps then he'd know the importance of programs like SCHIP.
The Charleston Daily Mail's rightwing columnist, truth distorter and occasional plagarist Don Surber might be the dumbest person in West Virginia. I'd say he was mean spirited towards those suffering from tragedy and in need of help, but I already mentioned he's a rightwinger so that would be redundant.
"Last week I fell for an Internet rumor concerning the fate of a white couple who were murdered in Tennessee. The four suspects are black men. The untrue rumor exaggerated what was done to the couple."
This, from his weekly (weakly) newspaper column, was the second such mea culpa in a month (how could we ever forget his assertion that Canada and Norway have higher violent crime rates than the U.S.) that sprang from believing too much of what he's read on the internets. His very next blog post is this:
"The downside of the Internet is that rumors now travel faster than the speed of light and spread throughout the world. The latest victim is Miley Cyrus, 14, the star of "Hannah Montana" on the Disney channel. Someone posted a story that said she was pregnant, and made it look like it came from the July issue of J-14 magazine."
Donny, Donny, Donny. I know you like to use adolescent terms like "Buh-Bye" and "Prolly" but juxtapositioning your lack of professionalism and journalistic skills with a 14 year old female victim of internet bullies is a new low for you and the Daily Mail.
Next we have, under the post-heading "Byrd's bluster shows the Surge works":
"Facts are kryptonite to the liberal "superman.""
From Byrd's speech on the floor of the senate Jun 24, '03;
"Such a strategy of striking first against possible dangers is heavily reliant upon interpretation of accurate and timely intelligence. If we are going to hit first, based on perceived dangers, the perceptions had better be accurate. If our intelligence is faulty, we may launch pre-emptive wars against countries that do not pose a real threat against us. Or we may overlook countries that do pose real threats to our security, allowing us no chance to pursue diplomatic solutions to stop a crisis before it escalates to war. In either case lives could be needlessly lost. In other words, we had better be certain that we can discern the imminent threats from the false alarms."
The Distinguished Senator nailed it 4+ YEARS AGO and he's still getting it right and Lil' Donny Surber can't stand it.
After duct taping homemade prosthetics on a weeks old story so he can trot out progressively lamer shoe puns and wearing out the "throwing feces" cliche we get this, among the comments from his post titled "PFC Menchaca, PFC Tucker and Spec. Babineau avenged" (bold-type is his):
3. Looking Glass Says: September 29th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
You have to speak to them in a language they understand.
Correct spelling, please. "In an asymmetrical war, asymmetrical morality helps the enemy."
"Assymetrical" isn't just wrong, it's silly looking.
Reply: Thanks! Fixed.
4. MarkG Says: September 29th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Great money quote: In an asymmetrical war, asymmetrical morality helps the enemy. - even without the assy metrics. :-D
You've been on an excellent tear lately. Congrats.
Reply: Thanks for the compliment. I'm also good at making myself look assy.
6. Looking Glass Says: September 29th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Don,
Closer, but still no cigar. There are two m's in asymmetrical.
Reply: Thanks! Fixed.
8. Chuck Says: September 29th, 2007 at 6:52 pm
Well just damn. Finally…………..
I've been checking and checking again and f i n a l l y we got the asymmetrical word fixed.
Whew!
Reply: It was a group effort. I thank everyone for persevering and guiding me through this difficult period.
-- -- --
Holy $%!#! Sophistry is one thing, but this? He gets paid for this?!! Editorial Page Editor?!!
West Virginia has enough image problems without this idiocy emanating throughout the internet from under the masthead of a Charleston, WV Newspaper Of Record. Don Surber should go.
Last month, when Dem. Ellen Tauscher (CA-10) returned from a trip to Baghdad, she combined her keen insight with an apt turn of phrase to let us all know what really happens on Congressional visits. The Green Zone fog bamboozles...
"I will tell you that when you get in the Green Zone, there is a physiological phenomenon I think called Green Zone fog. … It's death by powerpoint. … It's always that their argument is winning."
She added later, "It's very, very easy to be influenced, from their point of view, that things are better." She said they will "shape" facts to show gains being made.
Here's just one example of a dubious administrative claim -- that troop casualties are down since the surge began. [A claim even Don Surber needed a hit of kool-aid for.]
The Administiration refuses to detail how they calculated the numbers behind this claim, so we have no way of knowing how they (using Rep. Tauscher's phrase) "shaped the facts". [Note: troops casualty data is public information--there is no national security issue here.]
EVERYTHING IN ITS SEASON....I've gotten a couple of emails asking me for more detail about the seasonality of violence in Iraq. There are several ways to show this graphically, but all of them present difficulties because the various data series aren't available in a consistent form for the entire course of the war.
That said, here's a chart that shows the seasonality pretty well. It comes via reader Thomas J., who has graphed U.S. troop deaths per thousand soldiers, a data series that's (a) available for every month since the beginning of the occupation, (b) highly consistent, and (c) a fairly decent proxy for the overall level of violence. The "per thousand soldiers" correction helps to control for the fact that troop fatalities will naturally be higher whenever there are more soldiers deployed in Iraq. This doesn't necessarily mean the level of violence is higher, just that the population at risk is larger.
Looking carefully at the chart you'll see: every month this year (2007) has been either the very deadliest month (5 of 8 months: Feb/Mar/May/Jun/Jul) or 2nd most deadliest month (3 of 8: Jan/Apr/Aug) since the U.S. occupation of Iraq began. Since the beginning of the surge last December, our soldiers have been dying at the very highest rates of our entire Iraq occupation.
After years of distorted administrative talking points, endless promises of just "six more months" until definitive progress, and consistently incorrect predictions of future outcomes why does Congress continue to give Administration arguments any benefit of the doubt?
Let's cut through the Green Zone fog before it devours Capitol Hill and destroys our nation.
The other interesting thing is, although Don Surber finds it "offensive" he points this out in large part in order to promote it. (Go figure.)
I also note that Surber says nothing to dispute the accuracy of the cartoon. We will.
As far as we know, there is no indication whatsoever that our GOP Representative has ever been accused by anyone of cruising in public (or private) restrooms for sex (gay or otherwise). Furthermore, that is the kind of baseless rumor-mongering up with which we will not put.
But now rightwing Daily Mail columnist Don Surber is so desperate to post anything - literally anything - positive out of Iraq that someone putting in new glass is noteworthy.
We've gone from being greeted as liberators to "Someone installed a new window! There's hope for Iraq!"
Does anyone at the Daily Mail even care that they publish rubbish? As Jesco points out in the comments below, Surber's post should have carried a disclaimer that Surber's employer is being sued by the Department of Justice. Still, we shouldn't expect the Daily Mail to care about facts or ethics when they publish Surber even when he plagarizes.
* Our condolences go out to the family of Stanley Reynolds of Lashmeet, the Iraqi war fatality who was buried this weekend.
* Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito was in Iraq recently, perhaps even on the very same day that Mr. Reynolds died in a helicopter crash. Yesterday she was on the Decision Makers TV show. WTRF-TV provides this teaser:
Capito sits down with host Bray Cary to talk about the message she'll be taking back to Capitol Hill -- American and Iraqi forces are getting the job done. The Iraqi politicians are not.
"There is a whole political part of this that is not working and is falling well short of benchmarks and that's where the reconciliation and the Shias and the Sunnis and the Kurds are not getting along and they're killing each other and that power struggle there, and so I think even with the military situation -- the security situation -- we don't have a political that goes with it. And at this point it's pretty dim," she said.
Did anyone catch the show? The real question is, now that Capito admits the surge has failed to meet any of its political benchmarks, is she finally prepared to support troop withdrawals? Don't hold your breath. She's been a W-I-N-O (waverer-in-name-only) through-and-through. She's yet to make a single vote against Bush administration Iraq policies.
* Here's one more step towards new high energy power lines criss-crossing the state. We'll be on the lookout for more opportunities to express opposition to the lines in West Virginia.
* The special session of the legislature came and went so fast we barely had a chance to mention it. If you missed the highlights, Lincoln Walks at Midnight has a helpful recap.
Charleston Daily Mail blogger Don Surber ripped off a Rush Limbaugh routine, got called on it in the comments, and tried to lie his way out of it.
Joel Mackey Says:
July 12th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
heh, that was Limbaugh’s meme in todays opening monolog as well.
Reply: Oops! For the record, I work when Rush is on and seldom get to hear him. Today was not one of those days.
Riiiiight. Limbaugh's show begins at noon. Here's when Surber posted something on his blog that sounded identical by sheer coincidence to what Limbaugh did at the beginning of his show.
This entry was posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
Surber can't tell the truth even when his own people bust him.
Charleston Daily Mail columnist Don Surber is wetting his pants in terror of the Islamofascistzombies.
It is disgraceful to see Americans like Surber acting like such cowards, cowering in fear. That kind of behavior is what truly emboldens terrorists, to see they can strike such fear in the hearts of men -- or in Surber's case "men."
Not only does Surber show an incredible lack of knowledge about history (for his information the U.S. invasion of Cambodia destabilized the government and led to the Pol Pot regime and the killing fields of Cambodia -- which, by the way, is still not in Vietnam), he also shows an inability to grasp current events.
For those too stupid like Surber to recognize reality, Mr. George W. Bush and President Dick Cheney failed to capture or kill Osama bin Laden and the leaders of Al Qaeda. Their Iraq war and occupation diverted the military and nation from the hunt for Al Qaeda. Iraq had nothing to do with the Sept. 11th attacks as even Bush has admitted. When Bush/Cheney had the chance to take out Al Qaeda's top deputy in Pakistan, they called it off at the 11th hour when the SEAL Team 6 and Special Forces troops were airborne.
Surber, armchair military "strategist" that he is, should know that among the people like Senator Robert C. Byrd and Senator Hillary Clinton calling for the U.S. to get out of Iraq are: Major General John Batiste, Gen. Wes Clarke, Major General Paul Eaton, and Lt. Gen. William Odom.
It is easy for Surber to call for others to go and die in a needless, senseless occupation. He won't be going. Nor will his fellow chickenhawks. Iraqi civilians are being killed every day by the scores in Iraq with the U.S. military there and many defense experts believe the occupation only fuels the sectarian violence. Surber's idea of putting out the fire is to keep pouring gasoline on it.
The Daily Mail discredits itself publishing crap like Surber. Surber embarrasses America by displaying such bedwetting cowardice.
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