In another case of poor reading comprehension or blind rage and willful ignorance, Breitbart.com and Gateway Pundit, aka “Dim” Jim Hoft, have led their readership in yet another bout of outrageous outrage. It appears that Gabby Gifford’s husband, Captain Mark Kelly has purchased an AR-15 and a 45 to make a point of some kind. We’ll soon find out why — but first, intrepid reporters AWR Hawkins & Neil McCabe from Breitbart report:

Gabby Giffords’s Husband Buys AR-15
by AWR Hawkins & Neil McCabe
March 9, 2013

Mark E. Kelly, gun-control proponent and husband to former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, recently purchased an AR-15 (an “assault weapon,” he called it)—which he now says he intended as an illustration of the need for more stringent gun laws.

Kelly reportedly bought the AR-15 and a 1911-style semi-automatic pistol at a gun store in Tucson, Arizona.

Breitbart News received a tip on this when Neil McCabe, editor of Guns & Patriots newsletter, contacted us on March 7 and said:

Mark E. Kelly, made purchases which included an AR-15—sometimes described as an “assault rifle”—at 3:30 pm on the afternoon of March 5 at Diamondback Police Supply, 170 S. Kolb Street, Tucson, AZ.

According to McCabe, witnesses to the purchases claimed Kelly purchased “high capacity” magazines as well.

Now we take it to another intrepid reporter, the Accuracy in Media award winning “Dim” Jim Hoft:

Busted. Gabby Giffords’ Husband Spews Anti-Assault Weapon Rhetoric Then Caught Buying an AR-15
by Jim Hoft
March 9, 2013

Former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-AZ), a victim of a mass shooting in 2011, and her husband, Mark Kelly, testified before a Congressional panel on gun control in January. Kelly told the assembled members of Congress that modern weapons

“Have turned every single corner of our society into places of carnage and gross human loss.”

Needless to say their respective readership are breathless with rage over what they’re seeing as hypocrisy. Twitter is alight with clueless Tweets by enraged “patriots” and many people who seem to lack reading comprehension skills. A continuing phenomenon.

So let’s have a look at what Captain Mark Kelly is attempting to do here…

Continue reading…

Taking a look around the wingnut blogosphere today, we find the partisan parrots all telling each other not to give in to despair, that America will — somehow — survive another four years of Barack Obama.

Strange, isn’t it, that only a few days ago the very same people were absolutely convinced that the re-election of Obama would lead to the total destruction of the US?

Meanwhile, Romney campaign advisers are turning to the next order of business — assigning blame.

“They ran a 20th century campaign in the 21st century,” said one Romney bundler, frustrated that the campaign made assumptions about the youth vote and voter intensity that didn’t pan out. “The anger is that they were entrusted to do certain things. It’s not like they were paid a $5,000 retainer to get a few dozen articles in an inside-the-Beltway paper. This is the major leagues.”

Another Republican outside the Romney campaign but privy to its thinking described the defeat as a complete pummeling, with Senate losses adding salt to the wound.

Romney supporters point to a series of brash statements made by advisers that seem out of touch with reality in retrospect. Inside the Beltway, Republicans trained their fire on senior Romney advisers like Ed Gillespie and political director Rich Beeson for appearances on last weekend’s Sunday shows. Gillespie said the electoral map was expanding, and Beeson predicted a 300 electoral vote win for Romney.

“There were a lot of Republicans who were on calls that the campaign was having led to believe we had shots in Pennsylvania and Minnesota,” one Republican operative supporting Romney said. “I think Republicans are split right now between confused and shocked, and also I think they are wondering did the Romney campaign have numbers we didn’t have.”

In starker terms, the source questioned: “Was last week a head fake, or were they just not that smart?”

Wingnut vandals have been on a rampage here in recent days. This incident happened a few blocks from my house.

Political signs vandalized by racial slurs have turned a fierce competition of politics into a matter of racism, according to local Democrats.

Lubbock Democratic Party Chair Kenny Ketner received a phone call around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, stating political signs off 26th Street and University Avenue had been stolen and vandalized.

“There have been problems before but it’s gotten really out of hand,” Ketner said. “The quantity of signs vandalized and stolen is already out of control, and now the type of vandalism has crossed a hateful line.”

Two of the larger signs were vandalized with the n-word written multiple times on the signs along with mustard spread across them as well. …

Ketner has been involved with politics in Lubbock since 2004 and says he’s never seen anything get this bad.

Hundreds of signs have been stolen and vandalized across Lubbock but this most recent occurrence is a problem area Ketner said.

“Over half a dozen of the larger signs have been stolen, vandalized or shot,” he said. “And as of about 1 a.m. this morning we can add hate to the list.”

Ketner says it took Lubbock police three hours to respond to the call of the vandalized signs early Sunday morning.

“I want to encourage the Lubbock Police Department not to dismiss these reports or delay in the response to the reports,” said Ketner. “Waiting hours on a police officer who may or may not show up and may or may not take the problem seriously in unacceptable.”

Even though signs have been vandalized, Democrats will continue to put out signs, he said.

Out of the 1, 500 signs they have, 1,100 have been distributed. The most recent acts of vadalism have been on 26th Street and University Avenue and 59th Street and Quaker Ketner said.

“We have been and will continue to replace these signs and we will not be silenced,” said Ketner.

Today’s wingnut outrageous outrage began at Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller, in an article by Alex Pappas titled:

“Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book.”

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.

In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.

Author Robert Keith Gray writes in ‘Presidential Perks Gone Royal’ that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.

Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the ‘total cost of the presidency,’ factoring the cost of the ‘biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,’ a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One ‘running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.’

This flagrant display of Obama Derangement Syndrome, of course, led to a flurry of activity on Twitter which was brought to my attention by LGF member Alouette. It begins with Donald Trump:

Brits spent $57.8M on the royal family. Obamas cost us $1.4B in expenses—including entertainment thedc.com/P9pDX2 Living large on us.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2012

Others tweeted, such as the bumbling Steve Forbes:

How’s this for the 1%? Taxpayers spent $1.4B on Prez last year -even on his re-election efforts.See @alexpappasdc thedc.com/OWfQt3

— Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) September 27, 2012

But there’s one slight problem with this outrageous outrage. The total cost for the White House under Republican president George W. Bush in the year 2008 came to a grand total of $1,592,875,254, or $1.6 billion dollars. Using this number we find that the Obama White House spent $0.2 billion less, or a net savings of $200 million dollars. (These figures don’t include classified expenses.)

The Bush figures are from “To Serve the President” by Bradley H. Patterson.

Summary:

Total Cost of the Whole White House for Fiscal Year 2008 (Bradley H. Patterson)

• Bush White House 2008: $1,592,875,254
• Obama White House 2011: $1,400,000,000
• Net Savings Under Obama: $192,875,254

Nothing to see here.

Update:

I came across the website for the book that’s led to this recent outburst of wingnut fauxtrage: White House Expenses/ It contained a small image that I decided to Photoshop to reflect my findings.

Obama - The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man

Bush - The 1.6 Billion Dollar Man

Never a dull moment on bullshit mountain.

Update 2:

Adjusted for inflation Bush’s $1,592,875,254 price tag comes to $1,704,411,959 in 2012 dollars.

Update 3:

John F. Groom

The author of “The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House” is a John F. Groom who seems to have authored numerous self-help books. I was able to find several cartoons in his “private” yet publicly available web page of his professional website. Some examples:

“Reparations”

“Obama in Armor”

“Obama Token”

I believe the racial factor here with John F. Groom is rather self-evident.

You can find John F. Groom on Twitter at @attitude_media or @CostsOfObama. His other website includes Groom Ventures.

The latest nontroversy being circulated in the wingnut-o-sphere today is the release of a new logo by the Obama campaign designed around the America flag. I decided to collect some campaign flags used in the past by various political campaigns and by political groups.

Finally, I bring you a comparison of two logos designed around the map of the United States as pointed out to me by Big Joe.

Obama Logo

Fox News Logo

Nothing to see here so move along please.

David Barton desecrating the American flag.

Today’s wingnut outrageous outrage of the day comes to you by way of the ever-confused Todd Starnes of Fox News. It involves the exclusion of the word “God” in “Presidential Proclamation — Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance, 2012.” This was followed up by an even more hysterical pseudo-religious rant from the ever-seething Pat Dollard.

Behold the announcement from Todd Starnes:

“Does not mention God!” Fear the atheism! This of course led me to wonder: what would a Republican do? What did George W. Bush do during his 8 long years as president?

Todd Starnes - Obama Derangement Sufferer

The answer was rather quick to find at Wikipedia in the Patriot Day entry.

It turns out that George W. Bush did not mention God for his “Presidential Proclamation—Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance” for 5 of 8 such proclamations — meaning that the majority of these proclamations did not include the word “God.”

He mentioned it in the initial proclamation in 2001, and in the years 2004 and 2005.

George W. Bush does not mention God in 2002.

George W. Bush does not mention God in 2003.

George W. Bush does not mention God in 2006.

George W. Bush does not mention God in 2007.

George W. Bush does not mention God in 2008.

Starnes also says, “President Obama’s proclamation marking the September 11th terrorist attacks did not include any mention of God. The president also failed to note how Americans sought solace in their religion in the aftermath of the Al-Qaeda attacks.”

On his last year in office you will find that Bush did exactly the same — in addition to not mentioning God 5 times while in office.

I offer the following alternative headline.

Sept 10, 2008 BREAKING: Bush’s 9-11 Proclamation Does Not Mention God

President Bush’s proclamation marking the September 11th terrorist attacks did not include any mention of God. The president also failed to note how Americans sought solace in their religion in the aftermath of the Al-Qaeda attacks.

Let’s put it up on the screen:

H/T:

Obama’s 9/11 proclamation does not mention God, and that is relevant because all pollsters are Soros flunkies. patdollard.com/2012/09/obamas…

— Jesse Taylor (@jesseltaylor) September 10, 2012

Rachel Maddow had a segment on at the end of her show last night that made me facepalm into a headdesk worthy of Olympic gold. Apparently the people of Egypt protested Hillary Clinton (and the U.S.), believing that the U.S. was responsible for the Muslim Brotherhood winning the election for president in that country.

Who led them to believe this? Michele Bachmann, Frank Gaffney, and Glenn Beck. Take it away Rachel:

REPORT BREAKING: Drudge Linked To Conspiracy Websites 184 Times In The Last Year
By Aviva Shen on Jul 18, 2012 at 9:26 am

A ThinkProgress study of the the Drudge Report reveals the popular internet aggregator has linked 184 times to InfoWars and World Net Daily, two sites that promote the internet’s worst conspiracy theories, since June 2011. By directing millions of visitors to these websites, Drudge is providing critical financial and reputational support to publications that argue 9/11 was an inside job, FEMA is building concentration camps and President Obama was not born in the United States.

Matt Drudge, Mitt Romney, and Alex Jones

Despite his support for paranoid conspiracy theorists, Drudge has received frequent praise from the media and political right. Mark Halperin, senior political analyst for Time Magazine and MSNBC, has called Drudge ‘the Walter Cronkite of his era,’ advising ‘you can’t refresh Drudge too often.’ Politico co-founder John Harris recently called Drudge Report’s influence on the political debate ‘a real achievement.’ During this year’s campaign, Mitt Romney singled out Drudge as one of his favorite websites, and posted an online video of himself reading the Drudge Report on his iPad.

Drudge can provide 10% or more of total traffic to large media sites like NYPost.com, Boston.com and FoxNews.com, creating a powerful incentive for the mainstream media to overlook the unsavory side of his operation.

Continue reading at ThinkProgress for break down and chart.

Related: Breaking: Matt Drudge Links to Alex Jones Video!

EXCLUSIVE: @DRUDGE funneled at least 30 million visitors to the internet’s worst conspiracy sites over the last year thkpr.gs/DrudgesConspir…

— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) July 18, 2012

In case you missed it, I’ve already explained its purpose here, here, here, and here. If you thought I was going to launch into a full-fledged effort to defend myself from further unhinged accusations being made by wingnut conspiracy theorists and shit-stirrers, sorry to disappoint—it’s not going to happen.

I will say this though: The people on the far-right who participate in these pile-ons seem to have been well trained in offensive tactics. They stay in attack mode 24/7—even when they’re defending they’re attacking. They do it because it’s effective.

Why is it effective? It’s effective because once an opponent has gone into a defensive crouch and begun trying to reason and/or give extensive, repeated explanations in an attempt to defend him/herself, the position being fought from automatically becomes one of weakness. Everything will simply be refuted with specious ‘facts’ and attacked ad nauseam. Today it’s the #TwitterGulag, next week—tomorrow even—it’ll be some other manufactured outrage.

With that in mind, to those who continue to wave around my long publicly available Twitter block list as if they’ve discovered some secret smoking gun that provides incontrovertible proof of a vast, left-wing conspiracy orchestrated by evil genius Charles Johnson: Feel free to continue twisting in the wind, spewing for all you’re worth. I’ll begin worrying about what you say on the same day your opinions begin to have a significant impact on my day-to-day enjoyment of life. Today is not that day.

Now if you’ll excuse me, the sun has risen on yet another beautiful spring day here, so I’m going to put this asinine subject out of my mind, grab my camera, and go revel in the Garden State’s blossoming glory. It’ll be the perfect brain bleach. ;)