Wingnut News for Friday.

Pay teenagers not to get pregnant, Gingrich says

Matthews Smacks Down Fleischer Over Bush Keeping Us Safe From Attacks Nonsense
Matthews smacks down Ari Fleischer who's been out on a Bush redemption media blitz of late for his Bush kept us safe from a terrorist attack nonsense. He obviously got under Fleischer's skin since Fleischer got pretty snitty with him for daring to challenge his talking points.

Matthews did a pretty good job here but as friend of the site and fellow contributor Jon Perr pointed out to us Matthews has disappointed in the past and is sure to continue to in the future.

For all his ferocity towards Fleischer yesterday and his claim about the Bush White House in 2007 that “they won’t silence me,” Chris Matthews spent an awful long time calling George W. Bush and his friends, “good guys.”

"Neo" Conservative Talking Point: The Obama Administration Is ... The Matrix
The latest appearance of this folktale - call it "Obama's Health Big Brother" - comes in a Bloomberg News editorial by Amity Shlaes that boldly goes where no metaphor has gone before. "Barack Obama has dropped us all into The Matrix," writes Ms. Shlaes, adding:

In the Obama Era, it seems, we all pick our way through anxious lives that have something to do with software. Like Keanu Reeves' Neo, we realize hour-to-hour that we are being manipulated by a system that has its own larger plan.

If only we keep a cool head, we tell ourselves, our powers of logic will help us escape the web. But each move we make, even the one that feels independent, takes us deeper into the Matrix ...

President Obama's $634 billion, 10-year health-care plan undoubtedly appeals to would-be Neos out there ... As in "The Matrix," freedom is a mirage ... and there's no escape.

Freedom's a "mirage"? I thought it was "just another word for nothing left to lose." But if she seems to be pushing her Matrix metaphor a little too hard in these paragraphs, wait until she compares Peter Orszag to Agent Smith. America reads this and wonders: Do I take the blue pill or the red pill?

Beck: People ‘Pushed To The Wall’ By ‘Political Correctness’ May Turn Into Psycho Killers
On Tuesday, an Alabama man named Michael McLendon killed 10 people in a shooting spree before committing suicide in what has been called “the worst rampage in Alabama’s history.” Police are continuing to interview people who knew McLendon and his victims, but said today that “there’s probably never going to be a motive” found.

During a conversation with Bill O’Reilly on Fox News today, Glenn Beck offered up his own theory about McLendon. “First of all, this guy’s a psycho,” said Beck. Beck added that listening to the description of him, he was reminded of “the American people that feel disenfranchised right now” and “that feel like nobody’s hearing their voice.”

He then questioned whether these people who feel silenced by “political correctness” are likely to “turn into that guy” when “pushed to the wall”:

BECK: Yada yada yada. And every time they do speak out, they’re shut down by political correctness. How do you not have those people turn into that guy?
O’REILLY: Well, look, nobody, even if they’re frustrated, is going to hurt another human being unless they’re mentally ill. I think.
BECK: I think pushed to the wall, you don’t think people get pushed to the wall?
O’REILLY: Nah, I don’t believe in this snap thing. I think that that kind of violence is inside you and it’s a personality disorder.

Laura Ingraham mocks Meghan McCain as being ‘plus-sized.’
Wednesday night, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) daughter, Meghan McCain, appeared on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show, where she continued to criticize Ann Coulter. On her radio show today, Laura Ingraham responded to McCain’s critique of far right conservatives, saying that she is “just another Valley Girl gone awry.” In a mocking faux-Valley Girl voice, Ingraham made fun of McCain’s body, joking that she didn’t get a “role in the Real World” because “they don’t like plus-sized models”:

MCCAIN (on MSNBC): And I think there’s an extreme on both parties and I hate extreme. I don’t understand. I have friends that are the most radically conservative and radically liberal people possibly ever and we all get along. We can find a middle ground.
INGRAHAM (mocking): Ok, I was really hoping that I was going to get that role in the Real World, but then I realized that, well, they don’t like plus-sized models. They only like the women who look a certain way. And on this 50th anniversary of Barbie, I really have something to say.

O'Reilly's guests agree: It's liberals' fault Gingrich and Limbaugh are feuding
On Tuesday's O'Reilly Factor, Mike Gallagher -- sold that home yet, Mike? -- and Lars Larson were on to talk about why right-wingers like Newt Gingrich just can't help talking about Rush Limbaugh and drawing his ire and thus feeding into the evil liberals' devious plan to draw attention away from the serious issue of the economy. It was a hoot.

The wankafoolery started really rolling when Gallagher came up with this gem:

Gallagher: Well, I think Newt doesn't like being part of a phony debate that's been set up by the left as to whether or not Rush Limbaugh is the face of the Republican Party. Newt has always been great at defining what Republicans are about, what Republicans are for, and putting Democrats on the defensive. And I think Newt is probably mildly annoyed that a radio host, even one as prominent as Rush, has created so many headlines over all this. And I think both of these men acknowledge that it's a disingenuous debate. It's just something that's been ginned up by the Left to try to fracture the Republican Party even further, and that's just not what Newt is about.

Rep. Bachmann Claims To Have Taken No-Pork Pledge, But Actually Requested $3 Million In Earmarks In 2008
On Fox Business Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) joined the long parade of members of Congress who rail against earmarks while requesting their own. But Bachmann took her hypocrisy a step further, claiming that she has signed an anti-pork pledge:
CLAMAN: How about a no-pork bill? Will that ever be a reality?
BACHMANN: I think it is possible. I took a pledge in my own district. I have not taken earmarks in the last three years that I have been in Congress because the system is so corrupt. It’s possible to make that pledge.