Right-Wing Noise Machine

"[O]ver the past year, a U.S. government subjected to constant bad-mouthing, constantly accused of being ineffectual or worse, has, in fact, managed to accomplish a lot. On multiple fronts, government wasn't the problem; it was the solution.

With Tom Toles update (see below)Living with the Great Right-Wing Noise Machine means we always get a show. Alas, the show they most enjoy giving us is an especially schlocky low-budget horror flick.by KenIf the Republicans pooled their lying carcasses to be carved up and sent to a lab for careful analysis -- and I mean the best lab, with the finest detecting equipment -- there is no chance that you would find anywhere in the rubble so much as a single honest cell.

Today's "Daily Cartoon," by David Sipress,from NewYorker.com"Remember -- talk about how the Presidenthas done a fantastic job with the economy, but whatever you do don't mention the President."“A man in Oklahoma was exposed to Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Fox for over three minutes.

by KenI love this.By way of background, I have an e-mail screen name that wound up being used mostly for political mailings, including campaign stuff. Do I have to tell you what an incredible amount of sludge it draws? I dread even looking at the list of new posts, and manage to do it periodically only so I can keep the sludge from piling up.

Former Clinton administration deputy chief of staff Maria Echaveste was named yesterday by President Obama to be our new ambassador to Mexico. The good news for her is that -- as a nonjudicial appointee, not subject to post-"nuclear option" majority vote -- she shouldn't feel any rush about packing.by KenGoodness knows, most Democratic pols aren't good for much, but set them alongside their Republican counterparts and, well, we're looking into an absolute void.

It was a good day for judicial sanity, not such a good day for the Great Right-Wing Noise Machine. Cartoon by Joel Pett (March 2013) -- click to enlarge."When the full DC Circuit announced they would rehear the case, by contrast, that was an indication that the two Republicans who blocked the subsidies may be outliers who reached an idiosyncratic result in an easy case.

Oops, wrong Bundy. This isn't famous criminal crackpot "Cliven" Bundy, it's famous shoe salesman Al Bundy -- no relation, as far as I can tell.

"We think just a look at a few of this week’s health-care related headlines provides the best summary: the ACA is working." This is the "bottom line" in this evening's ThinkProgress report, "The Thing Is Working." (For working linnks, you'll have to visit the site.)by KenIn a "Progress Report" post this evening, "This Thing Is Working," the

Thanks, Hank Fox! I too am struggling to be a bigger person about the (now) death of Fred Phelps, just as Alexandra Petri suggests -- see below. But it's hard.

Say it ain't so, Glenn B! Did you really "ma[k]e an awful lot of mistakes" that "help[ed] tear the country apart"?