As our ultimate goal is self-improvement, it has been decided that the best way for the political articles to prosper is for them to be housed on a blog focused entirely on the political stuff. Thus, Politisink was born! The domain was an older, failed attempt to do a politics blog back in 2006 that I abandoned when I went to grad school. I am sure maybe two people in the world know that, and one of them is married to me. Now, Politisink is repurposed as the new site that will keep an eye on crazy mofos and the crazy stuff they want to do to our country. The Wingnut Web and other political articles will now be posted there (though what has appeared here will remain as I am far too lazy to move everything over) while the TarsTarkas.NET Blog will go back to posting cult movie news, Karen Mok photos, Battle Beast things, and other weird stuff that I see fit (until some other random article balloons up into a cultural phenomenon and takes over the blog again!) Don’t worry, there will be plenty of cross-promotion so those who don’t start checking Politisink out right away can catch up, and for those of you who will skip right by this article because it doesn’t have a picture of a hot chick or posts from morons on message boards in it. Actually, let’s just throw in crazy picture for old times sake!

Frog King not care for your freedoms, only tasty flies!

That’s better! Now, the writers here will be joining us at Politisink, both dm and skiplogic are already contributing away. Soon I’ll try to add on a few more, because, why not? That’s how you become an internet powerhouse and

So in conclusion, check out Politisink.com, where politics circles the drain!

EDIT: Okay, I rewrote part of this because it sucked!

(as an aside, the text ads in this post were about Voodoo Revenge Hexes when I previewed. I don’t know what that means…)

So if everything you’re saying is true (we know what a complex relationship FOX News has with the truth) and FOX News genuinely doesn’t mean to associate themselves with the violent, racist, crazy crazies, then what the fuck was this shit you featured on The FOX Nation to celebrate The FOX Nation’s 1 year anniversary? (Click the link for the video, I can’t embed their content).

Yup, that’s right. Glenn Beck has only been on the network for a year too, but by far, FOX’s worst offender for giving a voice to the crazy is celebrating its first birthday. To me, the tone of FOX fundamentally changed a year ago when they brought on Glenn Beck and opened up The FOX Nation for their loving hateful fans. It also changed pretty drastically when President Obama was elected into office at roughly the same time, but of course a political institution like FOX wouldn’t simply change up its coverage just because a Democratic president is now in office, right? Just to make sure they covered all their crazy bases (FOX Nation would lose a lot of fans if they didn’t happen to feature every single aspect of the nebulous Right Wing crazies to make everyone happy) all of the following are a part of the short “Happy Birthday” video for the FOX Nation:

• An introduction from Michelle Bachmann
• Soundbite from Bill O
• Tea Party protesters and signs
• Stephen Baldwin blowing a kiss?
• Glenn Beck juxtaposed with Geraldo (see, FOX News is fair and balanced!)
• Geraldo saying “FOX believes in the American dream” then immediately cutting to footage of angry Tea Party protests
• More Tea Party footage
• Mitt Romney saying how much he loves the FOX Nation
• Andrew Breitbart admitting how he reads FOX Nation and get upset when they scoop him
• Juan Williams (didn’t they fire Juan Williams for being too much of a Communist?)
• More Tea Party protesting
• A colonial Tea Party guy
• American flags
• The “I can cure gay people with therapy” guy, Richard Cohen
• And a closing statement by Rick Perry mentioning that “FOX Nation is the place for information”

Notably absent from the video:

• Ron Paul and/or Rand Paul
• Sarah Palin (she’s their leading talent after all!)
• Joe The Plumber
• Pat Buchanan (probably not featured because he’s more of an MSNBC guy these days)
• Mike Huckabee (FOX News host and potential presidential candidate, very surprised he didn’t make an appearance since that’s like a two-fer)
• Trig Palin (Trig has had a hard year being in the spotlight, no sympathy from FOX?)
• Dr. Orly Taitz Esq. (if Palin is the princess of FOX News/the Tea Parties then Orly is the Queen. IS FOX LEGITIMIZING THE OBAMA PRESIDENCY BY NOT HAVING ORLY ON?)
• Hard-working Americans (FOX Nation is supposed to be for hard-working real Americans, but besides the chants from Tea Party protesters and the Right-Wing celebrity fest, this video features not one regular Joe just trying to get by in America)
• Black people (also a hard-working segment of America that is notably absent from the video. Juan Williams doesn’t count)

Pretty much just as crazy as the people the video was meant for. But why does FOX News continue to pander to and use footage from the Tea Party movement and protests yet at the same time vehemently deny any connection between the network and this fringe “grassroots” group? Does this mean that FOX News, Roger Ailes, and the rest continually lie again and again straight to people’s faces without any regard or backbone?

Is this behavior by FOX anything new to you? Go FOX Nation, congratulations on one whole year of circular-babbling crazy.

This is billed as the First-Ever Virtual Protest of Current U.S. Tax System – I bet Second Life already did it, and it was filled with Furries.

This looks to be the brainchild of Ken Hoagland, a flat tax champion who loves the flat tax so much he married it. Marriage void in 47 states. There will also be an in-person march in Washington DC on April 15th using real, live people! How exciting! I am sure that these people, marching on public property paid for by tax dollars screaming about how they don’t want to pay tax dollars, will see the irony of the situation and go home instead. Ha ha ha!

More from OnlineTaxRevolt.com:
There is a massive rejection of the established powers taking place in our country. Americans are mad as hell and we are not going to take anymore. The Online Tax Revolt is about sending a clear message to Washington that we are a growing and vocal movement that is calling for real change.

“The Online Tax Revolt is open to every American who believes taxes and spending are out of control, harmful to our country and a threat to our nation’s future,” said Campaign Chairman Ken Hoagland. “Our economic future and that of future generations is at stake. We need taxes that are lower and a tax structure that’s fair.
“We’re in serious trouble and it falls to us to get the nation back on track. This march is a wake-up call to everyone in Washington that the American people won’t be ignored any longer,” said Mr. Hoagland.

The web page:

Let’s have a look!

Here is the high-tech Google map of the marchers heading to DC!

Let’s join the march, because I have a compulsion to join Right Wing groups. My fake identities are probably on several FBI watch lists just because they’re members of groups on FBI watch lists that I am watching myself.

Marcher WheresThe BirthCertificate from Beverly Hills, 90210 is ready to march!

I am this athletic Black female who goes jogging in a skirt for some reason…

Wait, this avatar means I am a working family!

I guess it is better than being Zombie Reagan With Finger Glued To Forehead!

Next I get to pick which team I want to join. Look at all these teams…

Where is Team Jacob? So I joined Dick Armey’s Army, because I love being a member of the Dick Army.

I have never been so proud to be revolting!

As you can see, I have a long march ahead of me. Luckily, as a member of the working class, I an afford to take a month off of work to wander around the country to head to DC for a protest so I’ll pay higher taxes. Rank has its privileges.

Now some fun! OnlineTaxRevolt has some leader boards!

Check out these disturbingly accurate avatars of the leaders of the Flat Tax March Revolt Thing!

Ken Hoagland, the scum in chief!

John McCain has never been more accurately portrayed in any medium

Joe the Plumber is now Joe the Methhead or something. What happened???

Neal Boortz, idiot.

Saul Anuzis, I don’t know who he is, but he looks like someone who ties women to railroad tracks…

Mike Huckabee! Wait, I thought everyone hates Mike Huckabee because he’s a socialist…

When Dick Armey isn’t being an astroturfing kingpin with FreedomWorks, he’s being rendered in pixel form for online astroturfing action!

Grover Norquist, giant crybaby who hates America

Herman Cain is listed here probably because they needed a Black guy to break up the White Parade, but how come this black guy has Pink Lips???

Lew Uhler must have had an accident where he was photocopied again and again and is now a 54th generation copy of himself…

How come my avatar ain’t giant and blue?

EDIT: I should let you all know that Ken Hoagland has responded to this article, I’ll post more when I have more time to go over his very long email.

You’d think that, with so many [90] Japanese bases, the United States wouldn’t make a big fuss about closing one of them. Think again.  The current battle over the Marine Corps air base at Futenma on Okinawa — an island prefecture almost 1,000 miles south of Tokyo that hosts about three dozen U.S. bases and 75% of American forces in Japan — is just revving up.  In fact, Washington seems ready to stake its reputation and its relationship with a new Japanese government on the fate of that base alone, which reveals much about U.S. anxieties in the age of Obama.

And the reason for this insistence:

The U.S. military presence in Okinawa is a residue of the Cold War and a U.S. commitment to containing the only military power on the horizon that could threaten American military supremacy. Back in the 1990s, the Clinton administration’s solution to a rising China was to “integrate, but hedge.” The hedge — against the possibility of China developing a serious mean streak — centered around a strengthened U.S.-Japan alliance and a credible Japanese military deterrent.

What the Clinton administration and its successors didn’t anticipate was how effectively and peacefully China would disarm this hedging strategy with careful statesmanship and a vigorous trade policy. A number of Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines and Indonesia, succumbed early to China’s version of checkbook diplomacy. Then, in the last decade, South Korea, like the Japanese today, started to talk about establishing “more equal” relations with the United States in an effort to avoid being drawn into any future military scrape between Washington and Beijing.

Now, with its arch-conservatives gone from government, Japan is visibly warming to China’s charms. In 2007, China had already surpassed the United States as the country’s leading trade partner. On becoming prime minister, Hatoyama sensibly proposed the future establishment of an East Asian community patterned on the European Union.  As he saw it, that would leverage Japan’s position between a rising China and a United States in decline. In December, while Washington and Tokyo were haggling bitterly over the Okinawa base issue, DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa sent a signal to Washington as well as Beijing by shepherding a 143-member delegation of his party’s legislators on a four-day trip to China.

Against the background of an attempted revival of US manufacturing, this has unfolded at the same time as the scandal over Toyota cars that was dubious at the outset and has become outright embarrassing.  As if that wasn’t overdoing it enough, we now have accusations over China manipulating its currency becoming louder, including an op-ed from useful idiot Paul Krugman:

To give you a sense of the problem: Widespread complaints that China was manipulating its currency — selling renminbi and buying foreign currencies, so as to keep the renminbi weak and China’s exports artificially competitive — began around 2003. At that point China was adding about $10 billion a month to its reserves, and in 2003 it ran an overall surplus on its current account — a broad measure of the trade balance — of $46 billion.

Today, China is adding more than $30 billion a month to its $2.4 trillion hoard of reserves. The International Monetary Fund expects China to have a 2010 current surplus of more than $450 billion — 10 times the 2003 figure. This is the most distortionary exchange rate policy any major nation has ever followed.

That last sentence is the absolute money quote.  While the concerns are legitimate and there is a real problem, blaming China for it is silly when an entire world order was constructed around the dollar.  What makes this so ridiculous is that I think these arguments aren’t being put forward in bad faith so much as they are in bad memory.

I’m picking Krugman as an example because he is so stunningly inconsistent on this subject that it adds some humor to a subject that is otherwise pretty dry.  Following WWII, the Bretton Woods system was set up to prevent exactly this kind of problem, as Paul Krugman is certainly aware of considering he wrote a chapter on the subject in a textbook on international trade policy.  Following the massive war spending in Indochina during the late 60′s and early 70′s, the United States could no longer afford to guarantee this system and unilaterally dismantled it, resulting in the dollar itself becoming the global reserve currency.  As Krugman notes in his textbook:

On a single day, May 4, 1971 the Bundesbank [German central bank] had to buy $1 billion to hold its dollar exchange rate fixed in the face of great demand for its currency.  On the morning of May 5, the Bundesbank purchased $1 billion during the first hour of foreign exchange trading alone!

How is that for “the most distortionary exchange rate policy” a “major nation” has ever followed?  For a detailed explanation of the Japanese and Chinese perspective on this policy, see this interview and/or this paper.

Rather than focusing on China, perhaps it’s time to  address the elephant in the room that’s to (nearly) everyone’s detriment:

According to the 2008 official Pentagon inventory of our military bases around the world, our empire consists of 865 facilities in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories. We deploy over 190,000 troops in 46 countries and territories. In just one such country, Japan, at the end of March 2008, we still had 99,295 people connected to U.S. military forces living and working there — 49,364 members of our armed services, 45,753 dependent family members, and 4,178 civilian employees. Some 13,975 of these were crowded into the small island of Okinawa, the largest concentration of foreign troops anywhere in Japan.

These massive concentrations of American military power outside the United States are not needed for our defense. They are, if anything, a prime contributor to our numerous conflicts with other countries. They are also unimaginably expensive. According to Anita Dancs, an analyst for the website Foreign Policy in Focus, the United States spends approximately $250 billion each year maintaining its global military presence. The sole purpose of this is to give us hegemony — that is, control or dominance — over as many nations on the planet as possible.

Virginia Thomas also created Liberty Central Inc. in January. It is described as a nonprofit lobbying group whose website will organize activism around a set of conservative “core principles,”
But, none of this could possibly be a conflict of interest with her husband court rulings! Just like puppies could not possibly grow up to be dogs.

The Tea Party of Nevada is fighting 20 different Tea Party groups over who is the real Tea Party. Will 2010 Tea Party Senate Candidate Scott Ashjian defeat them all and Harry Reid and claim the Senate Seat Prize? Probably not. Here are the 20 groups against the Tea Party of Nevada:

-Anger is Brewing / Debbie Landis
-National Precinct Alliance / Tony Warren
-Citizens Awareness Network / Jesse Law
-Nevada Action Coalition / Duane Smith
-Citizens in Action / Juanita Cox
-Nevada Families Eagle Forum / Janine Hanson
-Fallon Tea Party II / Bob Clifford
-Nevada Patriots / Diana Orrock
-Gardnerville Tea party / Ron Stevens
-NvRA / Travis Christensen
-Glenn Beck Meetup Group/ Sally Minster
-P.A.C.T. / Janice Baldwin
-Grassroots Nevada / Jamie Costello
-Reject Reid / Sheila Danish
-Las Vegas 9-12’ers / Jeff Waffle
-Nevada 9-12 Americans / Charlene Bybee
-Las Vegas Tea Party / Frank Ricotta
-Western Representation PAC / Dustin Stockton
-Patriot Caucus / Eric Odom
-Winnemucca Tea Party / Mike Myrhow

I guess before Civil War 2, the Teabaggers have to have their own civil war first.

via

Things started off innocent enough when DailyKos did a simple poll asking self-described Republicans (note: This is Republicans, not those who got so fed up with the Republican Party they now self-identify as teabaggers) some questions that showed that they are buying the complete garbage the Right Wing pundits are spewing 24/7.

I’ll steal this summary from HuffPost because of laziness:

# 39 percent of Republicans believe Obama should be impeached, 29 percent are not sure, 32 percent said he should not be voted out of office.

# 53 percent of Republicans said they believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be president than Obama.

When the poll was release, a few right wing pundits went insane. Well, more insane than usual!

BillO said

On the left, we already told you about the crazy Kos people, but somehow folks like Arianna Huffington are now considered legitimate news sources. That’s what the president should be worried about.

And he has Karl Rove on to agree with him, because, why the heck not?

But the real fun began as the Teabaggers had their $549 a seat “for the people” National Convention which started off with a bang as Tom Tancredo called for the return of voter literacy tests! Holy Jim Crow, Batman!

The highlight of the Teabagger Convention (BagCon ’10) was Sarah Palin, fresh off her quitting of being offended over the term retard:

Palin gave an impassioned speech for two-year-olds, where she slammed Obama for using a teleprompter, then promptly read things that she had written on her hand.

This is not a double standard, this is a sextuple standard! Someone call Jon and Kate Plus 8, because we got too many standards!

Another funny story out of this convention comes from this blog about some of the seminars at BagCon ’10:

At a session called “How to Unite State Tea Party Groups”, the speaker slowly and deliberately guided the audience through a basic web search.

“In the space at the top of the computer, type in w-w-w-g-o-o-g-l-e dot c-o-m. That website will help you find what tea party groups near you. Then type, Florida Tea Party, then hit the Enter button on your keyboard.”

It was a slow, painstaking process. He had to repeat himself many times, as some could not keep up; others simply couldn’t hear him because their hearing aids were too low

—–

At the end of his “how-to” seminar, the speaker said, “Listen, if y’all can’t find your local tea party groups, just go to your local gun store. They’ll tell you where they are.”

If you think Teabaggers having trouble using Google is an exaggeration, here is some proof that it is exactly what they do, featuring TarsTarkas.NET!

Our BO is approved…by Axe Bodyspray! This time, TarsTarkas.NET is the one doing the teabagging of some teabaggers! That’s what happens when you remember the Knights Templar!

I will start this out with something I have never been able to truthfully say: The crazy posts you will see here are in the minority, and actually had a few people calling them out for being so damn awful. Not many, and not all, but some.

Haiti is literally hell on Earth!

CBS faked Katrina for the epic ratings!

cripplecreek shows up enough on the Wingnut Web we should offer him a salary…

Hispaniola, home of the Sith!

George Obama doesn’t care about non-black people!

HA! Five people died, it’s hilarious!

Why doesn’t God Earthquake the hell out of the Middle East? Does God worship Islam?

See, this is why I told you to donate to the Red Cross first. Because now you know all that money went to Obama’s pockets! MuHAHAHAHAHAHA!! We got your money!

God is really sort of a jerk…

Haitians are the Original Welfare Queens!

Haiti should just write a check to itself…

This conspiracy of…something…totally proves Obama was born in Kenya!

Haiti needs to bootstraps itself out of this earthquake.

What the fuck?

You can’t handle the secret horrors of Haitian Voodoo! I saw it on an episode of Heroes…

I spit out my coffee in shock at your assertions that Haiti is a tragedy!

Did hundreds of thousands of people die in that?

As much fun as a few FR idiots are, you have to remember their inspiration has been screaming pretty much the same thing. First he bashes the island of Haiti:

After earthquake, Rush says Haiti produces “zilch, zero, nada,” asks when Obama will call for Aristide to be returned

Then he goes all racist on us!

Limbaugh: Obama will use Haiti to boost credibility with “light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country”

Granted, Pat Robertson probably has said the dumbest public comment when he said that the earthquake was because Haitians swore a pact to the devil.

But don’t worry, FreeRepublic, the worst comment I found about Haiti comes from our old favorite, ResistNet.com, where a guy actually wrote Haitian Earthquake fan-fiction to try to tickle your funny bone. leon lunsford is our Douchebag of the Day!

No he didn’t!

Darla D reveals Resistnet got blindsided by the Beckster!

She may be crazy, but at least she sees Beck is just as crazy. They recognize their own

Why let a blizzard stop you from building your Unabomber shack?

Let’s pretend that conservatives will win everywhere and pretend we are smug months before we should be!

ReddDogg trusts no one who isn’t crazy enough!

Patty Parrett is ready to empty out her 401K to give to Beck. He’s going to be rolling in teabagger dough!

How dare you question the Beckster!

If you can’t hang with the ReddDoggs, stay off the teabags!

He’s going to win elections, not with politicians, but with…..something. Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck! Glenn Beck!

ReddDogg smelled Beck’s behind and doesn’t like it

Another skeptical Beck isn’t crazy enough

More members of the Beck Fan Club!

Henry Wallace wants compromise, the true sign of a liberal appeaser!

How sweet, she thinks Beck actually cares about anything but money

Twittering RedState must be like standing in front of a guy with the stomach flu. Vomit is guaranteed to fall on you.

Secret Mormon Societies! Beck is AntiChrist 2.0!

Riot 24/7 to prove how big of babies we are!

I don’t know how to Google! Help me!

We are at war..with tea..or something…

Rocky calling for unlawful violence? Why I never!

I can’t ever see Pinkstaff’s name and not laugh. Pinkstaff.

Glenn Beck declaring himself the teabagger leader is not about leaders. Right.

We aren’t flocks of sheep, now let’s all follow Glenn Beck…

Stop complaining and mindlessly follow Glenn Beck!

Wendy A asking for a handout? What about bootstraps, you welfare queen?

Glenn Beck won’t return my phone calls and emails and pictures of his name carved into my thigh…

Glenn Beck can eat it! We totally out-crazy Glenn Beck!

Glenn Beck totally screwed them over in order to sell his crappy new book!

blah blah government injecting microchips blah blah. Get a new conspiracy, Captain Boring!

That’s enough screwing over of Resistnet for now! Join us next time as Resistnet gets screwed over by Rush Limbaugh!