Duncan cracks me up.

Jim Geraghty Comes Undone

As I noted at the time, the United States is a nation of 300 million people. They aren't all named Fred Jones. Assuming that a name is fake just because it is unusual, or "funny," or the same as the name of a celebrity, is nothing short of stupid.

Unfortunately, that's a lesson some people have to learn the hard way. Jed L at Daily Kos points out that the National Review's Jim Geraghty made a fool of himself by mocking American Prospect writer Adam Serwer based on just such an assumption:

Now, unless A. Serwer thinks that there is actually a registered voter named "Duran Duran" in New Mexico, he ought to refrain from sputtering that those who disagree with him are 'racist' and 'paranoid.'

You see where this is going, don't you? Yep.

Here's Geraghty's follow-up:

UPDATE: I am floored by the fact that the white pages for Albuquereque, New Mexico has a listing for "Duran Duran." Mea culpa.

For those of you who don't know, I did tour with Duran Duran a few years ago.

K-Lo---Please, make it stop. It hurts.

If Obama could go to Germany and give a speech in English and be not only understood but well-received, why does he say we all need to learn another language? 

(illustration by Tom Tomorrow)

Revisionist wingnut Jonah Golberg, aka Doughy Pantload, is asking for input on what you "think Bush’s legacy will be."

Not kidding. I suspect we may have at least a few readers who wouldn't mind helping him out.

Obama's family must be Commies. That's a new one.

John Cole:

Lisa Schiffren at the Corner, perfect representative of the modern GOP:

Obama and I are roughly the same age. I grew up in liberal circles in New York City — a place to which people who wished to rebel against their upbringings had gravitated for generations. And yet, all of my mixed race, black/white classmates throughout my youth, some of whom I am still in contact with, were the product of very culturally specific unions. They were always the offspring of a white mother, (in my circles, she was usually Jewish, but elsewhere not necessarily) and usually a highly educated black father. And how had these two come together at a time when it was neither natural nor easy for such relationships to flourish? Always through politics. No, not the young Republicans. Usually the Communist Youth League. Or maybe a different arm of the CPUSA. But, for a white woman to marry a black man in 1958, or 60, there was almost inevitably a connection to explicit Communist politics.

***

Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family’s background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.

Cole: You know what that means- someone needs some pictures of 60’s era countertops. CITIZEN JOURNALISTS, YOU HAVE YOUR MARCHING ORDERS!

Lisa Schiffrin at The Corner is a loathsome creature.

I love Digby's phrase: "Conservative Borg." It says it all, doesn't it?

All the blogosphere loves a celebration, especially when it's a book launch party! Congratulations to celebrated author Jonah Goldberg on his new book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.

In tonight's open thread below, please be the most civil and articulate liberal fascist you can be.

K-Lo from the NRO:

Readers are really into Cheney being president for awhile. Suggestions for Acting President Cheney include

Bomb Iran.
Commute the sentences of those border agents.
Fire Mike Chertoff.
Tell Harry Reid to ... well, you know...
Pardon Scooter.

Wingnut Welfare at its finest. This is the base of the current Republican party. Heaven help us.

"The National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, waxing poetically about what could have been in the UK..."

I live near LAX and what Atrios says is true. They still limit who comes in at times and now they are much tougher on people when they pull up to the curb to unload their bags. I can understand it though..He links to this BBC article.

They have also described seeing two Asian men, one of whom was on fire, who had been in the car. 

One of them has died. Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt. I guess if we profiled the way Malkin would like---they would have gotten through anyway...(BK in the comment section says that: In England the term Asian means someone is of Pakistani or Indian descent or appearance)

Larry Johnson sent me a post yesterday, but check this one out on Glasgow... How do you think the media is handling this one?

Tucker (whose rating are on life support) had on Jonah to talk about his new "Dick Cheney Fan Club" article and boy, did he have a grand old time sharing the love of Dick Cheney. As Jonah loquaciously describes his feelings about Cheney----Tucker asked him why lefties simply hate Darthman. What reason could any civilized person on the face of the earth have for disliking Mr. Cheney? Goldberg's answer left me speechless. Email Jonah here....

Download | play Download | play (rough transcript)

Tucker: ....you're apt to see hyperventilation. People hate Cheney on this visceral level. What is so hate-able about Dick Cheney?

Goldberg: I have no, I really...I truly have no idea. I like Dick Cheney. Love to have a beer with the guy---I think one of the things that bothers them is that he doesn't care! The opposite of love isn't hate---it's indifference....

Cheney simply doesn't care, that's what did it....I mean, WTF? Have a cold one with him by all means, but it seems Jonah downed a twelve pack before he went on the air....He's either not very bright, really doesn't know---or is lying...What say you, Mr. Goldberg? I'm sure he'll tell you he's brilliant since he works for the wingnut welfare queens over at the NRO....Well, here's a few reasons why Cheney's such an odious man:

1) Architect (along with his neocon cabal) of the worst foreign blunder in U.S. history and an immoral war.

2) Cheerleader and or "chief of torture." Just ask Condi and Colin.

3) Mr. Law and Order doesn't actually obey the law regarding his office.

4) Secret Energy Commission meeting

5) Chickenhawk (five deferments) who sends others off to fight his wars.

6) The leaking of Valerie's Plame name.

7) Scooter Libby and Mary Matalin.

Please add to the list...

Goldberg apologizes for Bush too. I thought #43 was elected to actually know something about policy and not be a fraking "moral" cheerleader. And...attacking countries that haven't attacked us is "immoral."

Watch this short segment about Bush's veto of the stem cell bill on Hardball and then you'll understand why our country is so divided. The press allows people like Deroy, who won't tell the truth and knows that they won't tell the truth to deceive and cloud important issues to this nation....Deroy Murdock of the NRO actually uses the "Snowflakes Project" as an argument against research...I mean, he is insidious.

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Murdock: But I don‘t think the way to address that disease and others is through the destruction of human embryos. These embryos are not destined to be thrown away. In fact, there is an organization called Snowflakes Adoption Agency in Orange County, California, and they have placed these embryos, which they have actually implanted in utero. And about 120 or 130 or so kids have been born and are alive and well, and are out playing hopscotch ---Well, there are 400,000. What I think we should do is encourage more of them to be adopted. The idea that these are going to be thrown away is not so—

See how easy that was? Notice the way Deroy delivers his false talking points? He would have made an excellent conman back in the good old west--selling bottles of "youth tonic" to unsuspecting settlers. They say the same things over and over again....You don't need a calculator to know the ratio factors between 120-130 and 400,000. The Christian community is not interested in adopting "snowflakes."

Going to the C&L archives, Bush used these Snowflake kids in a photo op back in '05 .Tony Snow called the research "murder" and Josh Bolton was on MTP to explain...A lot of federal money is being invested in the Snowflake Project since it was started with hardly any takers...

And Jon Stewart takes a look back at Bush's first veto on stem cell research and Tony Snow...

 Timmeh forgot to mention his role in the Scooter Libby case today during the panel discussion that featured two--free Scooter loving NRO'ers...What's the deal, Meet the Press? And is the Republican base against the rule of law now?

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Christy has the whole deal posted here....

O’Beirne and York are clearly partisan writers, both working for the conservative National Review.  I’ve met Byron a few times and I think it is safe to say that he considers himself not only conservative, but also that he has vested a lot of interest in pushing the Libby end of the case whenever possible in media appearances and in his columns....read on

 I would guess that the NRO, Fred Thompson, Mary Matalin, Joe Degenova, Victoria Toensing and the Washinton Post are all shedding tears for Scooter...

Arthur Silber compares the NRO's (Hysteria Headquarters) Andrew McCarthy to a type of Joan Crawford hysteria syndrome over the JFK plot...

You're all trying to destroy me! You're all against me, you bastards! You broke my heart, and now you want to kill me! But I won't let you, do you hear me? I won't let you! I'm going to live, damn you, I'm going to LIVE!

At which point, the sobbing, screaming, disheveled, thoroughly pathetic Ms. Crawford falls to the floor in a dead faint, completely undone by her own self-willed and self-created histrionics. It won't play, McCarthy. And what can be entertaining in even a rotten film is not remotely entertaining in life, particularly when lots of people get killed, almost always entirely unnecessarily...read on

 You've probably read the NRO's very own John Derbyshire's insane rant against the victims of the VT shooting. In his twisted mind he thought his logic was sound and repeated that he wasn't criticizing the students, but merely raising a point of conversation. Even J-Pod criticized him...I was on the Alan Colmes radio show a few days ago and had the chance to let him know how I really feel. I laughed at him when he told me to shut up because it reminded me of O'Reilly...

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Download | play longer version

Amato: So Mr. Derbyshire, you are a coward. And if I saw you--- face to face---I would call you a coward because you are.

Colmes: You care to respond?

Debyshire: Ah, no actually--I don't respond to abuse. I get a lot of abuse...

Amato: That's abuse? That's just fact.

There's time for rational debate, but he's not a rational human being and he deserved to be treated accordingly. He thought I was abusing him for pointing out the obvious. He abused the students by his vicious words. Some things just need to be said...We talked for about 20 minutes...I'll try to get more audio up...Brad Rocket has more on the whole lot of them...

He's back...I debated him on the radio about the UK soldiers/Iran story because he's flat out off his rocker...Duncan already dubbed him as "Wanker of the Day"

Yes, yes, I know it's easy to say these things: but didn't the heroes of Flight 93 teach us anything? As the cliche goes—and like most cliches. It's true—none of us knows what he'd do in a dire situation like that. I hope, however, that if I thought I was going to die anyway, I'd at least take a run at the guy.

I do agree with Ana Marie Cox's take: "Better yet, just jump him." Or, best yet: you could always try the ol', "Shoe's untied!" bit. Works with my theoretical mass shooting murderers all the time."

Derby goes down at the NRO as a big time thinker...I love these fools that take a crazy situation and imagine how they would save the day...He suffers from some insane Hero/myth pathology. 

UPDATE: As John notes: There was acts of pure bravery throughout the whole-tragic-event...