Ari Rutenberg
STORIES BY THIS AUTHOR
Deabting Obama's Strategy, ctd.
by Ari Rutenberg Just to add my two cents to the comments by Bob, Ben, and Matt, I think it is a fool's errand. From my perspective, there are three main issues at hand here, only one of which actually has to do with Afghanistan. The first is the same mistake large ...read more
Cable News Ninjas
by Ari Rutenberg According to John Cole at Balloon Juice, last night "Ed Schultz just spent fifteen minutes talking about the party crashers, and actually said “What if one of them were a ninja? Obama could have been killed.”" My love of ninjas is well known, and I like Ed ...read more
Incoherent white American resentment
by Ari Rutenberg Update: Just finished the article, and Palinsanity is another keeper. It should be a clinical diagnosis... I was going to post this as a comment on Ben's earlier article about the always brilliant Matt Taibbi's latest article on Sarah Palin. But it became such a ...read more
What is going on in this country?: Man convicted of robbing mom over parking ticket
by Ari Rutenberg From HuffPost: "An Anchorage man has been convicted of robbing his mother at gunpoint because she didn't give him money to help pay a parking ticket. The Anchorage district attorney said Thursday that 27-year-old Cheng Saelee was also convicted of illegally ...read more
Lou Dobbs: The Onion's take
by Ari Rutenberg From The Onion via Andrew Sullivan: "Acting on anonymous tips from within the Hispanic-American community, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Wednesday deported Luis Miguel Salvador Aguila Dominguez, who for the last 48 years had been living ...read more
A quick note on Gordon Brown
by Ari Rutenberg I never thought I'd find myself defending him, but the crap the UK Prime Minister has been receiving for some errors in a hand written condolence note is pretty out of bounds. There are many things for which it is legitimate to criticize any politician, and many ...read more
Alan Grayson interrogates some unfortunate Republican hack
by Ari Rutenberg In the following clip, Rep. Alan Grayson prosecutorially dismantles Georgia's Paul Broun on an amendment banning ACORN employees from participating in certain government oversight function. The reason is that it is unconstitutional to single out a certain group ...read more
Why are we still talking about balloon boy?
by Ari Rutenberg Just a quick question...why the hell is CNN still covering the balloon boy non-stop? He alive, was never on the damn thing, and its over. There are at least 10,000 other, vastly more worthy news stories to be covering and CNN chooses this nonsense. Well, ...read more
Shaq vs. Oscar De La Hoya...amazing
by Ari Rutenberg For those who don't know, Shaq is starring in a new TV series called "Shaq vs." It will feature him competing against other athletes at their own sports. In this video, shot on a cell phone camera, the mismatch between Shaq and Mr. De La Hoya is obvious from the ...read more
Hack Watch and Stupid Hall of Fame: Fox and Friends' Brian Kilmeade
In the most embarrassing clip I've yet seen (out of at least 50,000 options) from the imbecilic and often incoherent FNC morning show Fox and Friends, co-genius Brian Kilmeade goes on a rant about racial purity...during a discussion about how staying socially active can help ...read more
Amazing Video: Iranians confront the riot police
by Ari Rutenberg This is some of the most amazing footage I've ever seen. It shows riot police firing tear gas and rubber bullets at a large crown of Mousavi supporters. But they're having none of it. This is true passion. Simply amazing...and make sure you watch until the end. ...read more
Ed Schultz slams Boss Limbaugh
by Ari Rutenberg In his daily-yet-somehow not frequent enough segment Psycho-talk, Ed Schultz, who has really grown on me, completely decimates Limbaugh and his hate speech. I can't say it better than he does, so watch and enjoy. From MSNBC via CrooksandLiars: Visit msnbc.com ...read more
Republican's self-contradictory position on public health care
by Ari Rutenberg According to Republicans, the private enterprise is inherently more efficient that the government. Therefore private enterprise will always be better at its task than the government. But if that's the case, then why are they afraid of public health care ...read more
Pages from History: Time's film critic James Agee talk about the dropping of the Atomic Bomb and the end of WWII
by Ari Rutenberg On August 20th, 1945 Time magazine film critic James Agee wrote a commentary on what the dropping of the atomic bomb meant for the human race. In his truly brilliant and eloquent piece, Agee discusses the potential effects of such power on the human race, and our ...read more
Iowa Republican Rep. Steve King is worried that new hate crime legislation will have a "chilling effect" on his ability assault people with strange sexual fetishes
by Ari Rutenberg On Monday's Daily Show, Jon Stewart exposes the clear bigotry of the 175 House members who voted against this anti-hate crime legislation, citing a chilling effect on free speech. But he singles out Iowa Republican Steve King for his most brutal ridicule. This is ...read more
Schuster: If your planning simultaneous teabagging all around the country, you're going to need a Dick Armey
by Ari Rutenberg In what is probably one of the greatest broadcast news moments in television history, MSNBC's David Shuster does what I can describe only as the best double entendre laden rant that SNL would love to have broadcast. The teabaggers deserve every bit of mockery ...read more
Paul Krugman, where the hell are you?
by Ari Rutenberg The fantastically funny and creative Jonathan Mann, who has been trying to write, perform, and post one song each day, created this song, which captures perfectly, if not in great detail, my own frustration with Geither and Summers. As he says, when Krugman talks ...read more
The Republican Parties long, slow descent into medievalism continues
by Ari Rutenberg In the following clip, found by Andrew Sullivan, more clear evidence of Republican's total lack of ability to deal with serious policy issues emerges. In an unsurprising, yet still shocking and appalling clip, Illinois Rep. John Shimkus (already famous just this ...read more
Rooting for Jim Cramer
by Ari Rutenberg I'm hoping Jim Cramer lives up to his word. During last nights Jon Stewart shellacking Cramer agreed to get serious in his commentary. He is a well-known voice and has a deep insiders knowledge of the financial system. And if he actually gave us all that insight ...read more
Dow Jones and Citibank "profit"
by Ari Rutenberg So the Dow is up 300 points an hour after opening. The reason for this is that Citibank claims to have made an $8 billion profit in the last two months. So all the spazzy white jackasses (with thanks to Bob Cesca) in Wall Street are freaking out. It seems like ...read more
John Stewart to CNBC's Jim Cramer: F&%K YOU!
by Ari Rutenberg I just saw John Stewart rip Cramer for claiming that he didn't say Bear Stearns stock was a good buy days before it went bust. After showing several clips in which Cramer does just that, the brilliant Mr. Stewart simply said "FUCK YOU!". Video soon... Update: ...read more
Ken Starr hates love
by Ari Rutenberg There is simply no other way to say it. After bringing our country to its knees for a blow job, heartless bastard and Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law Ken Starr has filed a brief with the California on behalf of the Yes on 8 campaign to nullify the ...read more
Hall of Shame: Congress to cut benefits for the poor, firefighters
by Ari Rutenberg The so-called compromise stimulus bill is being decimated by the "bipartisan working group" that is attempting to remove $100 billion from the cost of the bill. Greg Sargent has obtained an internal Senate memo describing the programs to be cut. Here is a list of ...read more
Stupid Hall of Fame: NRO's Kathryn Jean Lopez is nuts
By Ari Rutenberg In this week's National Catholic Register, which bills itself as "America's "most complete" Catholic newsweekly" (and its really weird because they put 'most complete' in quotes...), National Review Online Editor Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote a very interesting, ...read more