Government shutdown

In his posts this past week on the shutdown/debt-ceiling uproar, Daily Kos founder and publisher Markos Moulitsas likened conservative Republicans to figures that included zombies, Charlie Sheen, and (of course) a terrorist. Let's plunge in. On Monday, Moulitsas alleged that tea-partiers are lashing out in a crazed, mindless anti-Obama rage:

Libtalker Thom Hartmann has been on a tear of late, denouncing the GOP as "the party of suicide bombers" and comparing Sen. Ted Cruz to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was just a matter of time before Hartmann's hothouse rhetoric become a bit overheated even for him. That day came yesterday, after he derided House Speaker John Boehner as guilty of "manslaughter" for his role in the partial…

Jonathan Karl and Rick Klein of ABC News teamed up recently for an online interview with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal. Posted to the ABC News/Yahoo! News “Power Players” blog, the interview consisted mostly of Karl and Klein trying to get Jindal to criticize his fellow Republicans, particularly those in Congress. Karl got right down to the GOP-infighting business with his first question: […

After NBC spent weeks painting congressional Republicans as the villains who caused the government shutdown, on Thursday's NBC Nightly News, anchor Brian Williams opened the broadcast by smugly announcing: "Who do the American people blame for the shutdown of their government? Tonight our new NBC News poll is out and the answer is clear." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump…

For someone whose job title is global business editor, Daniel Gross seems far more concerned with bashing businessmen for not toeing the liberal line than reporting business news. Then again, perhaps we shouldn't expect that much from The Daily Beast. Gross, who has slammed Apple's penchant for legal tax avoidance as being "too greedy for its own good" turned his attention today to Starbucks CEO…

Although the folks at Jimmy Kimmel Live tried presenting it as a spontaneous skit, anyone with a lukewarm intelligence quotient knew they really were doing a five minute public service announcement for ObamaCare. If you think guest Owen Wilson was able to create all the charts he had AND get Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to join him AND have a choir that included the band Panic! at the Disco sing a song…

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews said one of the dumbest things he’s ever said in his life Thursday evening, and that’s saying something. When NBC Tonight Show host Jay Leno asked if he thought John Boehner (R-Oh.) would lose his Speakership as a result of the current government shutdown/debt ceiling debate, Matthews responded, “It might be the greatest thing he ever does in his life” (video follows with…

PBS's Tavis Smiley made a comment Thursday that every African-American as well as liberal media member should sit up and take notice. Appearing on Fox News's Hannity, Smiley said, "The data is going to indicate sadly that when the Obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

Just hours before the Senate voted to approve a measure that was passed by the House on Wednesday in a 425-0 vote to restore the death benefits paid to the families of fallen soldiers, liberal radio talk show host Bill Press showed his true colors when he said it would be a “big mistake” for the government to do that because “once the government starts making special exceptions, it allows the…

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer smells a rat concerning the current negotiations over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling. Appearing on Fox News’s Special Report, Krauthammer said, “I suspect a bait and switch here on the part of the Obama administration.”

In the current fight over the government shutdown, Republicans are simply representing the views of the American people. Americans didn't ask for Obamacare, they don't want it, but now their insurance premiums are going through the roof, their doctors aren't accepting it, and their employers are moving them into part-time work -- or firing them -- to avoid the law's mandates.

Two words tied together that make one of the best arguments around for conservatism -- "Ed Schultz." The lefty radio talker and MSNBC action hero often rails against the idiocy of others, their only common denominator being that they don't share his reverence for Obama-era redistribution. What makes Schultz so entertaining is that it's only a matter of time during one of his windy rants that he…

[***UPDATED*** October 11, 11:15 ET, More analysis and full transcript added] In an interview with Senator John McCain for The Daily Beast's annual Hero Summit on Thursday, the blog's editor-in-chief Tina Brown launched into an unhinged rant blaming conservatives for the government shutdown: "The story of this political crisis is really, you know, the culpability not just of the Republican…

On Wednesday's The Last Word on MSNBC, host Lawrence O'Donnell opened the show by calling Republicans "frighteningly ignorant" and "childish" because of the battle over the debt ceiling issue. Taking off on the terms 'Holocaust deniers" and the more recently dubbed "global warming deniers," the words "Default Deniers" appeared on screen behind the MSNBC host as he began the show: