Kiss My Big Blue Butt

Email me at:

susan at brazosriver dot com

Links I Like

And a big
thanks to

If you'd like to make a comment, email it to me at
susan-at-brazosriver-dot-com

Juanita -

You just touched the tip of the Barnes stupidity iceberg. Here are 12 more examples of Fred Barnes being Barnes. Whether talking about the war, the economy, or even Tom DeLay, Fred Barnes has amazing capacity to say truly idiotic things.

1. VOTING = VIOLENCE

Barnes: Recent violence in the Middle East is the result of the voters' "repudiat[ion]" of President Bush in the midterm elections.

Later, in a discussion about whether "good taste is making a comeback" in the media, Barnes stated he was "encouraged... by the spontaneous national outrage" over the promotion and subsequent cancellations of O.J. Simpson's book "If I Did It" (set to be published by Fox). Barnes added: "I'll know good taste is returning when we don't see these dead bodies all over the front page of newspapers whether it's an accident or explosion or Iraq or something. ... [F]ive, 10 years ago, you didn't see that."

The U.S. led the invasion of Iraq just over 3 1/2 years ago.

FNC, The Beltway Boys, Nov. 23

2. FISCAL SANITY OR VINDICTIVENESS?

Barnes: It's "a theological issue" for Democrats "to raise taxes even though there's no reason except vindictiveness against the well-to-do for doing it." Barnes also claimed that the issue of taxes helps Republicans politically. However, the most recent Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll, which was cited during the program's "Political Grapevine" segment and during its newscast, indicates that a plurality of voters believes that Democrats "would do a better job" than Republicans on the issue of taxes.

November 18, Beltway Boys
Video: http://mediamatters.org/static/video/beltway-20061118-taxes.mov

3. BARNES HEARTS LOTT

After having defended Trent Lott and referring to his removal as majority leader as "a lot of noise from the Left", Barnes gushed over Lott's comeback, noting "[i]t's not good news for the White House, because they know Trent Lott basically hates Bush and -- and Karl Rove, because he blames them for his ouster as majority leader in 2002."

November 19, Beltway Boys

4. BARNES HEARTS BOLTON

On the November 11 edition of Fox News' The Beltway Boys, co-host and Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes said that Democrats' efforts "to dump John Bolton [are] purely vindictive," and that "[a]ny reasonable person, Republican or Democrat, who looks at the job he has done there [at the United Nations], would have to say he's done a fantastic job in promoting
America's interests there."

5. BARNES WITH HIS FINGER ON AMERICA'S POLITICAL PULSE

In his Oct 23 column, Fred Barnes wrote that Nancy Pelosi "is the most unpopular national politician in America," ignoring recent opinion polls showing that President Bush, his vice president, his defense secretary, and the Republican leaders of both houses of Congress are far less popular than Pelosi.

6. BARNES - FRIEND OF THE WORKING MAN

On the August 12 edition of The Beltway Boys, Fred Barnes baselessly asserted that congressional Democrats opposed a bill that would have increased the minimum wage because "Democrats have decided, 'We're not going to help Republicans on anything. ... We're going to object to it ... even when they're offering us things like hiking the minimum wage that we like.' " Barnes did not mention that House Republicans tied the wage increase to a bill that would cut the estate tax, a proposal Democrats vehemently opposed for providing a disproportionate benefit to the wealthiest Americans.

Video: http://mediamatters.org/static/video/barnes-20060814-tax.mov

7. BARNES: WRONG NOW, WRONG THEN

In 2003:

The hard part was putting together a coalition, getting 300,000 troops over there and all their equipment and winning. And it gets easier. I mean, setting up a democracy is hard, but it is not as hard as winning a war. The U.S. now has leverage that it didn't have before winning this triumph in Iraq. Look, it is clear what victory in the war is. When you see those statues topple and you know that's victory." [Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, 4/10/03]

It is a last-ditch -- I think it is a desperate effort by these terrorists. It's not representative of a significant guerrilla force that's fighting the United States there." [Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume 10/27/03]

"I think he [Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA)] is just plain wrong in some of the things he said. And I certainly disagree with some of the others. But here is what he is wrong about, Brit. You raised one of them. And that is, he says the war is intensifying. It's not intensifying." [Fox News' Special
Report with Brit Hume, 11/17/05]

Barnes: War in Iraq is "not intensifying"; U.S. troops "aren't the targets."November 17 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume

8. BARNES, LION OF JOURNALISM

On the July 24 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Barnes declared that international press, human rights organizations are "abetting the terrorists" by reporting civilian casualties.

9. BARNES ON OIL POLICY

Barnes to Americans who don't like high gas prices: "Demand that oil be drilled offshore, in ANWR," or "shut up." -

On the April 21 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes said he was "tired of hearing" the complaints of people who are "so upset about gas costing too much." Barnes said: "[I]f it costs a lot to fill up the tanks and they don't like that, well, demand that the supply increase. Demand that oil be drilled offshore, in ANWR [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], and so on." He added: "Otherwise, look, shut up."

Video: http://mediamatters.org/static/video/specreport-20060421-oil.mov

10. BARNES ON DELAY

On the April 8 edition of Fox News' The Beltway Boys, Fred Barnes claimed that "only the press" refers to former Rep. Tom DeLay as "the Hammer." But The New York Times reported that a tribute dinner held by DeLay supporters in Washington, D.C., in May 2005 included numerous references to DeLay's nickname: "Mr. DeLay was served a red-white-and-blue cake festooned with sparklers and plastic hammers -- a reference to his nickname, the Hammer -- while the band played 'If I Had a Hammer.' "

BARNES: Can I say one more thing about Tom DeLay? You know, it was only the press that called him "the Hammer." You won't believe this, but the fact is, he was a very gentle persuader of members of the -- of the House Republicans to get them to vote with him, probably the best ever.

11. BARNES ON THE DELAY-LAMPSON RACE

Just go read it:

"Ignoring facts, Barnes smeared DeLay challenger as "a carpetbagger" in a "working-class" Republican district" -
http://mediamatters.org/items/200603100001

12. BARNES THE ISLAMOPHOBIC RACIST

HUME: What about this controversy? Where is it going? What does it tell us? Fred?

BARNES: It tells us a lot. It tells us that our enemy or -- is not just Al Qaeda...We see Muslims' contempt for democracy.

On the February 6 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume

Welcome to the website formerly known as The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.

My name is Susan Bankston. I live in Richmond, Texas, in heart of Tom DeLay's old congressional district. It's crazy here. No, seriously, it's triple z crazzzy.

I used to be an independent voter, but that all changed when I got to know a few local Republicans. They are meaner than 10 acres of snakes and have the ethical compass of a bank robber.

So, I decided that they could just Kiss My Big Blue Butt.

A lot of what I post here has to do with local politics, but you probably have the same folks in your local government.

This ain't a blog. Blogs are way too trendy for me. I've been doing this since 1992, so I'm used to it even if you ain't.

Email me and I'll find a place to put it if I like it.