Posts by Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis is the blogmaster at Like Kryptonite To Stupid

Tea-Parties so Diverse, They Had to Use the Same Black Guy in 5 Different Scenes of Tea-Bagger Movie
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on November 20, 2009 at 5:26 PM.

So there’s this ludicrous trailer for a ridiculous movie about the Tea Party people that came out today, and when I watched it I noticed that it kept showing the same black guy. Now, I knew the Teabaggers weren’t the most diverse crowd, but it’s kind of hilarious that they used the same dude in five shots in their trailer.

00:42

00:59

1:03

1:09

1:14

No, It's not Elitist to Think the Tea-Baggers Are Idiots
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on November 13, 2009 at 8:39 AM.

A post over at the Seminal is taking “liberal elitism” to task for not taking the Tea Party people seriously, and that that will lead to the election of Sarah Palin and other such ilk.

To quote our vice president, malarkey.

While I have long argued that there is too much elitism on the left for my tastes, there’s a wide gulf between holding your nose in the air for no good reason and dumbing yourself down in order to appeal to the lowest common idiotic denominator. Suck is the case with the Tea Party group and their leaders like Palin.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Murder by the Insurance Industry: "He Survived as Long as His Battery Did"
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on October 23, 2009 at 1:52 PM.

Lack Of Health Insurance Never Killed Anyone. Except This Guy.

And thousands more.

In 2003, William Koehler of Pittsburgh, Pa. lost his job as an electronics technician. He lost his health insurance, too, but he’d been lucky enough to have the defibrillator battery in his heart changed just the previous year. No insurer would cover him except for one company which refused to cover anything related to his arrhythmia, says his sister.

He survived as long as his battery did, dying on March 7, 2009 at 57. His sister, Georgeanne Koehler, has become an activist, telling the story about how her brother died to anyone who will listen.

Mass GOP Sues to Block Appt of Kennedy Replacement but Forgets to Actually Make an Argument
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on September 25, 2009 at 12:02 PM.

Their bid to stop Paul Kirk from being sworn in as Senator was thrown out. Why?

Judge Thomas Connolly ruled that the Republicans’ claim was legally inadequate, noting in his four-page decision that, ‘the Party does not cite any case law in support of its argument.’ The GOP had maintained that Democratic Governor Deval Patrick overstepped his authority by declaring an emergency so Kirk’s appointment could be made immediately. Connolly ruled, however, that the state Constitution clearly gave the governor the power to call for the immediate implementation of a law by sending the secretary of state a letter.

I’m not a lawyer, the closest I’ve ever gotten to law school is regular watching of Law & Order, but even after one episode of that show everyone knows that to make a legal argument you usually cite some case law. Otherwise you’re just wasting time.

Betsy "Death Panels" McCaughy, Tobacco Industry Shill
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on September 20, 2009 at 10:14 AM.

I’m totally shocked to see that Betsy McCaughey was used as a sock puppet for Philip Morris. Almost every voice on the right is bought and paid for by monied interests, its why they have such problems with grassroots activity.

Sargento "Won't Be Airing" Ads During Glenn Beck
Posted by Oliver Willis, Media Matters for America on August 12, 2009 at 6:00 AM.

Last week I sent an email to Sargento asking about their advertising on Fox News' Glenn Beck in light of Beck's comments about Speaker Pelosi. I received this response:

We deeply appreciate your reaching out to us and sharing your comments and concerns about Sargento ads appearing during "The Glenn Beck Show." We sat down with the marketing department to talk about it and I learned that we buy time periods not specific programs. But in any event, they've made the decision to exclude that program from our future ad rotation. Simply stated, Sargento ads won't be airing during that show. Again, thanks for contacting us.

Pat Lombardo

Sargento Consumer Affairs Department

Sarah Palin on Health: Totally Incoherent Jibberish
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on August 11, 2009 at 4:39 AM.

You might get stupid by osmosis.

‘I don’t even know where to begin,’ said one top-ranking official, when asked about Palin’s remarks that the president was creating a ‘death panel’ that would determine whether to euthanize the sick. ‘I mean. I re-read the House bill this weekend. I don’t even know what she is talking about.’

NY Times Carries GOP Water ... Again
Posted by Oliver Willis on July 25, 2009 at 5:09 AM.

The NY Times has a thumbsucker today about alleged overexposure by President Obama in the media. Now, the idea that the President of the United States is someone who tends to make news is never a problem with the media unless its a Democrat but what is even worse is the way the Times frames this story.

But longtime Washington hands warn that saturation coverage can diminish the power of his voice and lose public attention.

Ah-ha! Who are these Washington hands? Political veterans with no political axes to grind, I bet!

“I’m really perplexed. It’s unbelievable,” said Karen Hughes, Mr. Bush’s White House counselor. “They’ve taken his greatest political asset — his gifts as a communicator — and totally diluted them. It’s been especially notable in the last couple weeks.”

Um, what? That’s Karen Hughes, one of the top puppeteers that told Bush what to say and when to say it during his disastrous presidency. Karen Hughes has a mighty unhealthy relationship with the George W. Bush legacy, and it was her who allegedly help ghostwrite Bush’s “autobiography” A Charge To Keep. Surely there’s someone other than a Bushie hack that is concerned over this so-called overexposure.

“It’s a risk of overexposure,” said Joe Trippi, a political consultant.

Ah, well then… But wait!

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

The Dukes of Hazzard Go to Washington: the Sotomayor Hearings in Pictures!
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on July 17, 2009 at 1:27 PM.

Well howdeee there Missus Sota-mah-yaor!

Good morning, Senator.

Now, I’m a-looking here at your papers and such and I see where you sez, that you’re a wise latin-a.

Well actually Senator, that pull quote misrepresents the full context of what I was saying…

Well I gotta say ma’am, I’m mighty unnerved. Powerful unnerved by the sen-ti-ments you got here on this paper.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Obama Wins Dems Abroad Vote, Now Virtually Tied with Hillary in Texas, Ohio
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on February 21, 2008 at 2:55 PM.

This may be the end for Sen. Clinton as the ABC/Washington Post poll confirms what these other polls are saying.

In Ohio, Clinton leads Obama in the new poll by 50 percent to 43 percent, a significant but tenuous advantage given the shifts that have taken place elsewhere as candidates intensified their campaigns in advance of previous primaries. In Texas, the race is even, with Clinton at 48 percent and Obama at 47 percent.

UPDATE: Obama Wins Democrats Voting Abroad Contest

(CNN) - Barack Obama has won the Democrats Abroad Global Primary, according to the International Chair for the Democrats Abroad, Christine Marques.

Marques tells CNN the results of the week-long vote were:

Barack Obama - 65 percent, Hillary Clinton - 32 percent, with the rest of the candidates pulling in less than 1 percent of the vote each.

Democrats Abroad will send 22 delegates to the Democratic Convention, with half a vote each, carrying a total of 11 votes.

Clinton Campaign Co-Chairman Resigns Over "Drug-Baiting" of Obama
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on December 14, 2007 at 7:25 AM.

Shaheen resigns. Good.

Bill Shaheen resigned today as Hillary Clinton's campaign co-chairman in New Hampshire after Clinton apologized to Barack Obama for Shaheen saying that Obama's drug experimentation as a youth would be an issue in the general election.

"I would like to reiterate that I deeply regret my comments yesterday and say again that they were in no way authorized by Senator Clinton or the Clinton campaign....I made a mistake and in light of what happened, I have made the personal decision that I will step down as the co-chair of the Hillary for President campaign," Shaheen said in a statement released by the campaign. "This election is too important and we must all get back to electing the best qualified candidate who has the record of making change happen in this country. That candidate is Hillary Clinton.

The whole episode has just been sooo stupid and insulting.

UPDATE: Clinton personally apologizes for Obama drug flap

Well, a personal apology is certainly better than the lame release they dropped off last night that talked more about Sen. Clinton's campaign than the attack. I'd like to think that this was freelancing by a frustrated operative and not something ordered from the top, but the Clinton campaign has so far been marked by a cohesive messaging unit that you don't exactly believe someone came up with this alone. Up until now their message discipline has been an asset, not a liability.

The Cartoon Mitt Romney Doesn’t Want You To See [VIDEO]
Posted by Oliver Willis, Oliver Willis.com on December 12, 2007 at 4:32 AM.

I don't know enough about Mormon theology to know if this bit of propaganda is accurate or not (I know more about the people and the movement than what they worship) but it's clear distinction from mainstream Christianity and the fact that it's got over 500,000 views on YouTube can't help someone like Mitt Romney.

Perhaps if the mainstream press and the right would have been even remotely in opposition to the attacks on John Kerry's faith in 2004 I would be a bit more sympathetic about people asking Romney about his church's practices.

UPDATE: For an alternative point of view on this, please click here.

The National Review: Trashing Nobel Prize Winners Since 1965
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 16, 2007 at 1:00 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

Thanks to reader "Dr. Victor Davis Handjob", comes this story written in the conservative National Review a few months after Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964:

"For years now, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and his associates have been deliberately undermining the foundations of internal order in this country. With their rabble-rousing demagoguery, they have been cracking the "cake of custom" that holds us together. With their doctrine of "civil disobedience," they have been teaching hundreds of thousands of Negroes -- particularly the adolescents and the children -- that it is perfectly alright to break the law and defy constituted authority if you are a Negro-with-a-grievance; in protest against injustice. And they have done more than talk.

They have on occasion after occasion, in almost every part of the country, called out their mobs on the streets, promoted "school strikes," sit-ins, lie-ins, in explicit violation of the law and in explicit defiance of the public authority. They have taught anarchy and chaos by word and deed -- and, no doubt, with the best of intentions -- and they have found apt pupils everywhere, with intentions not of the best. Sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind."

Will Herberg, "'Civil Rights' and Violence: Who Are the Guilty Ones?", The National Review Sept. 7th, 1965

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

DiCaprio, Clooney to Star in Film Based On Howard Dean's '04 Campaign
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 12, 2007 at 2:00 PM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

No. Really. Really. I kid you not.

Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney are to star in a film loosely based on the rise and fall of presidential hopeful Howard Dean. The Warner Bros production will be based on a stage-play written by Beau Willimon, a former assistant on the Dean campaign.

Entitled Farragut North, after a Washington Metro station in the heart of the lobbyist district, the film sounds like darker version of Joe Roth's Primary Colours. It tells the tale of a youthful communications guru working for a principled but unorthodox politician who finds himself undone by a slick and corrupt Washington establishment. Currently in rehearsal, Willimon's stage-play is set to open on Broadway in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election. Mike Nichols is directing.

DiCaprio and Clooney will produce the film as well as starring. It is believed that DiCaprio will play the young communications chief while Clooney stars as the Dean surrogate.

Gonzales Secretly Authorized CIA Torture
Posted by Oliver Willis on October 4, 2007 at 5:00 AM.

This post, written by Oliver Willis, originally appeared on Like Kryptonite to Stupid

(click for larger version)

Your government, on Conservative Republicans.

When the Justice Department publicly declared torture "abhorrent" in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales's arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on "combined effects" over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion's overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be "ashamed" when the world eventually learned of it.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »