Give them enough rope.

You seem to be forgetting that Republican programming prevents the "flock" from remembering what happened yesterday. So, to a Republican, every attack is brand new and original.

Actually, I think the overall point is excellent. The term in psychology is "habituate." When a stimulus is repeated, over time it elicits a weaker and weaker reaction. The greater the frequency of stimulus, the less the reaction.

I knew I'd find my psych degree useful some day!

What are they gonna say in 2010? That's easy...haven't you heard? Michelle Obama killed Vince Foster ;)

also, isn't it kinda rich that the far right are accusing Michelle Obama of having a fake accent (yeah right), when their last VP candidate ramped up the Fargo as the election neared...not to mention the last Republican President was pretty much a fake everything?

This isn't good. They're amping up the rhetoric to stir the deranged elements into a frenzy. Imagine how GWB would have reacted had this been said about Laura.

They'll keep pounding away until a Timothy McVeigh arises. I'd bet my last dollar it's a concerted effort.

called out her use of a "weird, fake accent."

Okay, maybe I'm saying this because I have pretty much the same flat Midwestern accent Michelle Obama has, but I hear this and wonder if what's bothering Little Miss Bruce is that the first lady doesn't speak "blackly" enough for her. It's a must-lose proposition for M.O. Heads, you don't talk like white people do; tails, you're presumptuous and a poser.

"Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others..."

Okay, that just screams "She's uppity!"

And by fake accent, is she implying Michelle Obama should be speaking "eubonics"?

After the way the Democrats have caved to the their corrupt banker overlords, I could care less if right winger slaughter them all. They are worthless, useless, and they have it coming.

The Republican party = dysfunctional

And don't forget "Jimmy Carter" -- Hannity was all about "He's Carter II, and he managed to do it in only two months!"

I dunno, I think it may be because they're desperately trying to find something that works. No matter how often Rasumussen publishes a poll claiming Obama's numbers are dropping, it just isn't happening. They have a short time to hamstring the Democratic president so he'll have to be "bipartisan" (i.e., do what Republicans want), and they don't seem to realize that the difference between now and 1992 is that the public is on to their game and their numbers in Congress are much weaker, not that they're not shouting loud enough.

You really have to hear this. It literally makes no sense. The "fake accent" part comes from Michelle O saying she was criticized in her neighborhood for cooperating with white society and supposedly sounding white, that is, not using ebonics -- for a few seconds she imitated one of her neighbors.

Apparently Bruce wanted to call Obama trash; the only reason she could find is that Obama has always been a striver, an achiever in difficult circumstances, a straight-A student and Harvard Law School graduate -- so that makes her trash.

My grandma always said, trash is as trash does. Actually she didn't, but she should have. So should Tammy's. BTW, Tammy is my absolute favorite white trash name, far better than Tiffany.

MissMudd's right. It's not funny. The rhetoric is specific, violent, and bloody; and the worst of it is, when guns go blazing and molotov cocktails fly into office windows, people like Glenn Beck and Michelle Bachman will disavow all responsibility, while at the same time cheering the terrorism from a safe location.

what are they going to be left with in, say, 2010?

Whatever they're doing now that manages to stick even a little bit. This part's just test-marketing & keeping the base riled up.

Why do they hate America?

"I could care less if right winger slaughter them all."

Wow. I think the case made in my last post was just validated. :(

If these unhinged folks are using their favorite attacks in early 2009, what are they going to be left with in, say, 2010?

The same thing. Constant repetition persuades a lot of people.

Let's not misunderestimate Obama's intellect and that of his advisers. He beat all the odds and got nominated and elected remember. The more that the Repigs act like pigs, the more I think they ultimately give the administration to use. Strategy is finally a forte of the Democrats in power. Thank goddess.

If Ms. Bruce wants to see trash, she should look in a mirror.

What the hell?

Is Tammy Bruce serious?

A self-made woman, who, even as First Lady, active in her community, and who still makes time for her family, trash?

One of the classiest women to enter the White House, trash.

Tammy, in the words of the great Jon Stewart:

"Fuck you".

I think you give it too much credit in imagining that there's a coherent strategy behind Bruce's style of screaming. Right wing punditry is a meal ticket for these folks, and in order to keep the money coming they need to cut through the clutter of of all the other wingnut screamers. Ever more unhinged rantings are the way they claw their way to the top of the heap.

It's a classic tragedy of the commons - the more out there each individual wingnut pundit becomes, the more discredited the entire movement is, but from the individual pundit's perspective, they have no choice but to to try to be louder and more outrageous than all the rest. The Right Wing Noise Machine is eating itself trying to stay alive.

Hmmm...I heard Michelle Obama speak in person twice during the last months of the campaign and I didn't notice any weird accent. But maybe that's because I grew up 70 miles northwest of where she grew up...maybe I have a weird accent, too...

The Obamas would be the Republican fantasy African American family. But when they get all uppity and actually start winning office and legislating and staying in the public eye, the Republicans freak out.

Space aliens is where they have to go.

I, for one, can't wait for them to just cut to the chase, and get to space aliens. Socialist? Communist? That's amateur-hour stuff.

So, come on, conservatives. Anything short of calling the Obamas space aliens really is pansy, half-assed cowardice. What are you waiting for? Evidence? Facts? Logic? Please. Quit screwing around, already!

Meanwhile much of the rest of the world thinks you have the most impressive President in living memory.
And likeable. And when have you had such an impressive First Lady:beauty, brains, energy, personality?
Hard to choose, impressing the world or the domestic right-wing fringe.

maybe I have a weird accent, too...

Trash! Traaaaaaashhhh!

1. Right winger hate radio jocks spew this garbage because that's what they get paid for.

2. Right wingers have trouble processing change. Many of them are stuck back in the Clinton era when any wild-ass accusation would play beyond the base because the public wasn't yet used to right wing hate radio and still believed there was some truth to it. Now they know better.

3. As hard as they've tried, they can't find Obama's Achilles' heel (like Clinton's sex addiction) that they can use to bring him down and it's freaking them out. Thus the rhetoric gets more and more unhinged.

If these unhinged folks are using their favorite attacks in early 2009, what are they going to be left with in, say, 2010?

If this continues, they'll just recycle it to use against President Biden.

All they need to do is crack one unstable nut. These days, the country's filled with them.

Right-wing kooks like Bruce are dangerous. They scare the hell out of me.

"When a stimulus is repeated, over time it elicits a weaker and weaker reaction. The greater the frequency of stimulus, the less the reaction."

Well, psychology may well know this as 'habituation'. There is a similar phenomenon in biology/medicine which is called 'desensitization' and I am afraid it is more apt in the current context.

Desensitization occurs when a stimulus (usually a medicament) includes in its effects a feedback component that reduced the effectiveness of the next stimulus. To maintain the desired effect, the strength of the next stimulus (i.e. the dose of the drug) therefore has to be increased. Obviously, increasing the strength of the stimulus can only be taken so far, before toxic side effects threaten to harm or outright kill the organism.

The deranged people with the large megaphones increasing their idiotic yelling all the time are liable to get some batshit crazy people to do some rather harmful things, like take a gun to some public places (a church!) and 'shoot themselves some liberals'.

It's not like that hasn't happened before.

"weird fake accent" - Did Tammy even know of whom she was speaking or had she just watched a "Closer" re-run with NYC born Kyra Sedgwick?

I listened to Ms. Bruce's comments and this person, with the strident, nasal voice is on the radio let alone criticizing someone else's voice? Even if she were rational I could not listen to that
voice for long.

Ah, Ms. Bruce. So this is where being a Fox News "Democrat" takes you.

Here they go again, the "classy" American Christian family values women, spewing ugly remarks and name-calling, spouting personal attacks on the First Lady of the United States. Conservative media's female attacks on Michelle Obama are simply the latest evidence of the conservative Republicans' disarray and desperation. It's what they do when Republicans are out of power. They've got nothing to offer but tearing down others. How dare a black woman prove herself an admired and worthy FLOTUS! Tammy Bruce, Laura Ingram, Ann Coulter et.al. are cut from the same cloth, the conservative ideal female- blond, dim-witted, narrow-minded babes with sharp, evil tongues. Perhaps Tammy Bruce should be more careful than to point to Michelle as "trash" while her other four fingers are pointing back. First Lady Michelle Obama's popularity is soaring. She's showing the country and the world that she is a loving wife and mother and a youthful, active, genuine, intelligent, compassionate woman--something Tammy Bruce wouldn't recognize if she saw it. Stay classy, Tammy, stay classy.

The right is taking quite a gamble. Should Obama succeed in most people's estimation, these extreme and frantic criticisms are going to leave conservatives' credibility even lower than its already very low level. They are perhaps driving the stake right through their own hearts. But they don't seem worried about it at all, do they?

Soullite said -

After the way the Democrats have caved to the their corrupt banker overlords, I could care less if right winger slaughter them all. They are worthless, useless, and they have it coming.

Posted by: soullite on March 24, 2009 at 10:16

Hall of Shame - This is precisely my point about some of the posts of this site. This is just unacceptable rhetoric. Thank you MissMud for pointing this out. It adds nothing, absolutely nothing to the discussion.

This problem goes far beyond trolling.

Soulite, you should be embarrassed for publishing this rubbish, no matter how angry you are, or how insincere. How about trying the ten second rule on your posts from now on.

You can work on Wall Street, or you can work at the Wal-Mart. Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy..

Note how by recycling the "bitter, cling to [the politics of] guns" outrage this talking head has turned that issue on its head.

I doubt I would describe the personality that clings to guns under the mantra "from my cold death hands" as a "clingy" personality. I mean does this make sense: "she is so clingy, just look at how she doesn`t go anywhere without her gun"?

I would invite Tammy to give an example of something Michell Obama got someone else to get her, maybe she can begin by telling us who "arranged" her Harvard degree?

But anyway, could we stick to the significant things that are said instead of not the latest potty language from not McConnel, not Steel, not Cheney, not Rush, not Laura Ingram... but her guest host??? Seriously?

The noise of the echo chamber is drowning out what may be the sound hundreds of bankers sneaking away with billions in subsidies.

batshit crazy people to do some rather harmful things, like take a gun to some public places (a church!) and 'shoot themselves some liberals'.

Children, children. Your hysteria always prevents you from thinking anything through.

Just what church would that "batshit crazy" patriot be likely to find any liberals in?

Myke K - How about that Unitarian Church in Tennessee?

Just what church would that "batshit crazy" patriot be likely to find any liberals in?

Since it actually happened less than a year ago, you fucking shit-for-brains, look it up for yourself on Google News. I'll give you one hint, dumb asshole- it happened in Tennessee. Now go fuck yourself.

Myke K - How about that Unitarian Church in Tennessee?

I said "church," son.

Not touchy-feely pagan community center.

A Unitarian church, Myke K. You should pay more attention to the news.

Damn you to hell, Myke K. That's evidently your preference...son.

On a purely political level, it seems unwise to attack the First Lady. I guess the right got away with it in the Clinton years since Hillary was active in the healthcare situation, so she put herself in a better position to be attacked.

But so far Michelle Obama is doing the basic First Lady kind of stuff. And she's really popular, if I'm not mistaken. Attacking her is just going to hurt the attacker.

Just what church would that "batshit crazy" patriot be likely to find any liberals in?

Depends. Do you mean "liberals", or "liberals according to batshit-crazy wingers"?

because the answer to the former is "all over the place, you stupid jackass". The answer to the latter is "literally everywhere, you stupid jackass".

"Trash is a thing that is colorblind, it can cross all eco-socionomic...categories. You can work on Wall Street, or you can work at the Wal-Mart. Trash, are people who use other people to get things, who patronize others, who consider you bitter and clingy..."
Ok, lets see.
1) Tammy Bruce, guest host for Laura Ingram's radio show. So Ms Bruce is using other people to get things. Check.
2) Ms Bruce patronized Michelle Obama. Check.
3) Ms Bruce sounds bitter. Check.
4) Ms Bruce seems to be clinging to her right-wing beliefs. Check.
Tammy Bruce: Trash.

(parody alert: Myke K. is not Mike K. who calls us all leftists, and in not a nice way - yr welcome ;))

I-N-G-R-A-H-A-M!

I think Redshift said it best way upthread, before we were derailed by fuckin' myke K who is going to hell in *every* religion for being an asshole. Bruce and Savage and Prelutsky (who just called Michelle Obama a "bitch" over at TownHall) are just raging out of control and trying everything from A to Z to see what sticks. Their incoherence on Michelle, which contains accusations of true elitism (she went to good schools and earned good money) along with accusations of inferiority (she got where she got through affirmative action), to accusations that she's not proud enough of the country, to accusations that she's too proud of the wrong kind of country (one that's led by her husband when all right thinking righties gave up on America at the same moment that liberals started to feel better about it). Like the accusation that Obama is both a "smoothe talker" who can "write and deliver a good speech" that is "just words" that runs alongside the other accusation that he's a weak kneed pansy who stumbles for words and requires a telemprompter. These fundamentally contradictory accusations serve one purpose--they spread the net very wide and enable every kind of hater to find something to hate. You want populist rage on the right? accuse the obama's of being part of an eastern liberal elite that is proud of being separate from "the people." You want racist rage--emphasize the notion that they are jumpedup ghetto blacks. You want elitist CEO style rage? argue that they are *both* educated elites and populist strivers by accusing them of being commies and socialists. We are going to see this whole set of accusations, in turn, from each frothing right winger. Our only hope is that their listening audience gets as tired of this shit as we are.

aimai

My God.

Can you imagine the trash that would be in the White House if (God forbid) Sarah Palin would ever be elected President?

You're misunderstanding the rules of this kind of rhetoric. Coming up with new ideas is counterproductive. The essential thing is to keep repeating, repeating, repeating.

Myke K - My leg just goes all atingle when you talk Southern like that. Stop it now, ya hear.

Thus the pre-emptive work the Republicans did on the Fairness Doctrine. I said this a few months ago...Republicans were drumming up the false controversy around the Fairness Doctrine in order to lay the foundation for them to vomit even more horrendous invectives and ad homenim attacks. And true to form, we see this materializing with Bruce's ridiculous comments.

It's as if the Republicans are daring Americans to do something about these vial comments. Which would then, oddly enough, feed into their victim mentality.

aimai pegged it - they are throwing anything they can, contradictory as it may be, senseless and disconnected as it may be, in the hopes that something will stick.

They will choose anything the Obamas do and erect some fantasty outrage about it.

I got a kick out of the feigned outrage over Obama chuckling on 60 minutes. So - one week they complain that he's "gloom and doom" and the next week they complain that he dares to laugh about the economy.

Hi, Steve. Been missing out on things with chemo giving me the kind of nausea that makes it so I can't read. Still hurts a bit, but what the hell. You're still my favorite news deliverer. (Though when I can handle tv you may have some competition in Maddow.)

Hope you're right that there's been a lack of reaction to all of their attack attempts. These are dangerous times approaching, I'm afraid. (Cue the scary music.)

jimBOB nailed it upthread and anything I added to his fine post would be superfluous.

So read it. Again.

Yeah, jimBOB and aimai have got this covered.

Who the frig is Tammy Bruce? And why should I care what she says? Is she some kind of Aunt Jemima?

The name Tammy just screams white trash. All the knocked-up girls hanging out in the smoke hole at my school were named Tammy. Add a beat up letter jacket and a Farah hairdo and voila!

"If these unhinged folks are using their favorite attacks in early 2009, what are they going to be left with in, say, 2010?

The same thing. Constant repetition persuades a lot of people."

Yes it does, especially if they're the MSM.

Would Ms. Bruce have preferred a stick-thin blonde First Lady with a history of stealing narcotics and a crippled woman's husband?

"That's what he's married to.."

I couldn't imagine being married to a hateful shrew like Tammy Bruce even if she wasn't...you know, a lesbian.

The wingers always go after the wife for some reason. Hillary, Kitty Dukakis, Theresa Kerry and now Michelle Obama, they all get the deranged attacks.

The wingers always go after the wife for some reason.

Liberals are always too busy attacking to recognize their own hypocrisy.

Where was all this concern for wives when you were all savaging Todd Palin's bride?

Todd Palin's bride was a candidate, not a spouse. She wielded a pretty sharp tongue in her own right, too.

Nice to see you got in the usual hypocrite garbage, though.

...what are they going to be left with in, say, 2010?

In America, racism never goes out of season.

God, they hang out together. The hate fills the room. Bitter scorn just looks for places to be released but it always composes the heart of the holder. Bruce just looks for places to let it out but she's full of hate. A truly disgusting human being. Vicious cancer attractor...mark my words.