News Roundup for 6/15/09

Not a documentary

-Headline of the day-
"SC GOPer: Gorilla 'one of Michelle's ancestors.'"

"Michelle" being First Lady Michelle Obama, "SC GOper" being former chairman of the Richland County (South Carolina) Republican Party Rusty DePass, and "gorilla" being an ape that escaped from a zoo. While many see the statement, posted by Rusty on Facebook, as racist, he insists it's not. It's just a case of your typical Republican spouting off with no goddam idea what the hell he's talking about.

"Minutes after the gorilla’s escape was reported Friday, Rusty DePass posted: 'I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors -- probably harmless,'" AP reports. "The comment has since been deleted, but DePass confirmed to [local station] WIS-TV that he made it, apologizing and saying it was a joke about statements Obama has made about evolution."

Of course, no one who has any idea what they're talking about believes that humans evolved from gorillas or any other ape -- we share a common ancestor, but that's as close as we come. Religious nuts have to stop getting their science from Planet of the Apes movies. For the record, if you expose ants to radiation from nuclear arms testing, they won't mutate into giant maneaters, either.

Still, even the "I'm not racist, I'm just stupid" argument seems pretty weak. If you google "'Michelle Obama' evolution" you get page after page about the "evolution" of Michelle Obama's fashion sense and jack about her opinions on Darwin.

I think that maybe Rusty DePass might just be racist, stupid, and a liar. Given those qualities, it's surprising he never worked in Dick Cheney's office. (Raw Story)


-Cartoon tiime with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, wanna see Alan Greenspan with his shirt off? Mitch McConnell working at an unemployment office?


Click for animation

Stimulate this, bro! (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Leader Emerges With Stronger Hand."

The New York Times has a hard-hitting and brilliant analysis of the outcome of the Iranian elections and it turns out that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's a super-popular hero of the Iranian people and comes out of those elections in an even better position than before.

"Since the vote was announced Saturday, [Ahmadinejad's opponent Mir Hussein] Moussavi has been the hero of seething antigovernment protests in Tehran, but so far they have been contained by legions of riot police officers and hampered by a shutdown of that critical organizing tool, text-messaging," they report. "Mr. Moussavi said he was being 'closely monitored' in his home, but hoped to speak at a rally on Monday."

Yup, the Iranian government sure shut down all those protests. Still, it looks like a couple two-three people somehow got the message and managed to figure out where the rallies were:



Wow, what a lame turnout, huh? Looks like Ahmadinejad's grip on power is rock solid... (New York Times)