Death march
By DougJ, Head of Infidelity January 20th, 2011
Michelle Obama is being blamed for a miniscule rise in pedestrian deaths.
The Governors Highway Safety Association says pedestrian deaths increased in the first half of 2010 and the First Lady’s program to get Americans to be more active could be partly responsible.
James Joyner ably cuts through the stupidity.
I wonder if Darrell Issa’s going to investigate this one.
Update. From commenter wobblybits:
Turns out the Governors Highway Safety Association never said that, rather it was the Daily Caller and the Examiner that made that claim.
No one could have predicted…
Posted in Hoot-Smalley, We Are All Mayans Now
Turns out the Governors Highway Safety Association never said that, rather it was the Daily Caller and the Examiner that made that claim.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:28 pm
They really, truly hate her, just for being Michelle, don’t they? The only thing I held against Laura Bush was her terrible taste in spouses.
NPR did an Issa piece this morning that included his decade of being a criminal investigation target. Nice to see a riches-to-suspect-to-riches story for once.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
And don’t forget, the First Lady encouraging gardening has increased the mud tracked onto floors!
Nationwide!
Even in places that don’t have mud!
January 20th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
And yet the right wing blogosphere will never be called out for their role in the potentially lethal complications from long-term cheeto dust inhalation.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
TEH STUPID!! IT BURNS
!
January 20th, 2011 at 3:35 pm
The GOP operatives just don’t care. They crank out something new every day, knowing that only a small percentage of any of it has to be believed.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
I don’t believe for an instant that more kids are walking because of Michelle’s prodding.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
Cars don’t kill people. Walking kills people.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
This sounds just like Bataan when my great-Uncle wasn’t supplied with a Hoverround by the Japanese.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
@WereBear:
and sunburn/cancer from gardening, read that somewhere this morning…
January 20th, 2011 at 3:37 pm
Do ya think that (if by some miracle) deaths from heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes decline, they’ll credit it to Michelle Obama’s efforts to get people to exercise more? Naaaah.
By all means, let all the wingnuts go on the Twinkies, Pepsi and “Days of Our Lives” diet. The more of them croak from heart attacks, the fewer of them will vote.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
@wobblybits:
They might not have blamed Michelle directly, but they did say this:
And it is a stupid organization anyway because:
January 20th, 2011 at 3:38 pm
@Ija: Even a ‘stupid’ organization should not be blamed for what it did not actually say.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:41 pm
@wobblybits:
Agreed. Just pointing out that they are not all that innocent in the misunderstanding.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:43 pm
Remember the Proton Packs from Ghostbusters? The right filled theirs with shit and lies, and it doesn’t matter if they cross the streams.
Just keep sprayin’, day in, day out.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
@Ija:
Does not compute. A focus on livable communities means decreasing “pedestrian-vehicle conflicts”. That’s what the word LIVABLE means. More people able to LIVE in healthy, sustainable ways. Who are these people?
January 20th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Well, that’s one way to put it.
A 0.4% increase? Why bother giving theories for something that’s completely random?
January 20th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Um, did anyone consider that 20% functional unemployment in states with mostly car-based transit (I’m looking at you CA) plus gas prices going up or staying at historically high levels MIGHT have more impact on whether folks can drive everywhere they want to?
Nope, it was the First Lady pushing pedestrians under Islamic Radials.
I am dumber for having typed this.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
In more detail (from TBD):
January 20th, 2011 at 3:45 pm
The Daily Caller. O, Tucker Carlson, if the word Douchebag hadn’t been invented, we’d call douchebags Tucker Carlsons
@trollhattan: The only thing I held against Laura Bush was her terrible taste in spouses.
I always felt some sympathy for her till Coretta Scott King’s funeral, when she was giving the Barbara Bush Evil Eye to Joseph Lowry.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Fixited.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Frankly, I love stories like this. They are a fantastic Shibboleth with which to discern if you’re talking to an unredeemable damned fool or just someone who’s a little misinformed who could benefit from your input.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:48 pm
Wait, it went from 1,884 deaths to 1,891? And somebody is trying to explain that?
January 20th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I like this! Only I’d shorten it to “Tuckers”. As in: Who are these Tuckers?
January 20th, 2011 at 3:49 pm
Gatewaypundit of The Great Closed Captioning Conspiracy of 2011 also reported this startling rise in the statistics.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
I also like the note in TPM about how the Daily Caller handled a correction:
Cavuto mark! Fixed!
January 20th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
The only way the First Lady is causing traffic/pedestrian accidents is if she’s walking down the street in this dress.
Wow! She’s smokin’!
January 20th, 2011 at 3:51 pm
Good God, it looks like she’s wearing a bonfire.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:54 pm
I live in the DC area, moved here 15 years ago. When I first came here WMAL seemed to be right wing, but actually had some moderate and even the occasional liberal (Bill Press was part of the morning team at one point). Now its as extreme right as a DC area station can be (DC won’t tolerate outright racism, the station did fire Michael Graham over his anti-Muslim comments).
They now have what I call 9 hours of hell, Hannity, Limbaugh, and Levin for nine hours straight. They also have Fred Grandy on the morning drive show. He used to almost seem like a moderate Republican, apparently he lost his shit once a black man occupied the White House.
When Obama used his lipstick on a pig analogy during the campaign, it seemed to me that Grandy acted like Obama had insulted all white women.
These days WMAL is basically 24/7 we hate Obama, so it doesn’t surprise me that yellow journalism of this type would originate here.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
So, being as Republican psyops agents continually spew lies to nudge the Overton Window rightward, why aren’t we pre-emptively telling the truth continually to nudge the Overton Window leftward?
I don’t mean reacting to what the Republicans say, as in this blog entry or most others here. I mean getting the truth out pre-emptively, so that it has some chance of being discussed before the next wave of Republican lies.
Shouldn’t we have some organizations devoted simply to repeatedly raising the many truths that could push political discourse—and thus policy—in a more progressive direction?
January 20th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
They have arrived at depths of stupid and dishonest that should be documented and recorded.
Is anyone making a list of these whoppers.
In my mind, the day that the wingtards rolled out the dullard ‘the captions were announcements’CHANGED EVERYTHING.
Some one needs to make a list. The captions nonsense should be the first on the list, and Michelle Obama’s health promotion mass killing spree should be close behind.
Edit: Actually the list itself will be dangerous, it might tip vulnerable unstable people over the edge into madness. This project is like diving down into one of those oceanic abysses. Special equipment, safeguards and protocols will be needed.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
Another winner from the 2010 “50 Most Loathsome” article. Take a bow, Tucker.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
Hoft @ gateway pundit might have made this idiotic claim first.
http://gatewaypundit.rightnetw.....an-deaths/
January 20th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Not to mention that the 0.4% increase is less than the population growth, which is estimated at 0.977% for 2010.
January 20th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
Wait, aren’t the wingnuts always moaning about what wimps we’re being and how we’ve lost our edge because of regulations that seek to cut the risk of things like unsafe toys, playground equipment, power tools, etc? So now, the risk of getting out and WALKING is a bad thing?
January 20th, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Oh, cripes….
A 0.4% increase? Baseball statheads can tell ya that this is pretty much a statistically insignificant number….
January 20th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
So the number of pedestrian deaths increased by 0,4% Well, the US population grows by about 1% per year. So it’s even a relative decline in pedestrian deaths.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:00 pm
How did we get to the point in this country where being a lazy, deluded fat-ass is a political statement?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
@daveNYC:
... magnificently!
Seriously. It’s a bold choice, but Michelle Obama has the presence (and height. and body) to carry it off.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
I used this on my FB wall as a way of educating my friends (those who are not regressives) about how the RW creates a lie and spreads it.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:02 pm
Heard Rush Limbaugh make this claim on his show today. It’s all over the wingnut jungle telegraph today.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
@gwangung:
Baseball statheads? Try 4th grade arithmetic students.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:03 pm
michelle should come out and call this whole association a ‘blood libel’ against her and get the wingnuts’ heads to really blow.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
@gwangung:
Exactly. If some player went from .290 one year to .294 the next, he’d hardly be in line for Most Improved.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
Those, of course, are more reliable sources than Big Government numbers, even if you believe in states’ rights. Because shut up.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
@Loneoak:
Well, probably not for public schools in red states….Budgetary priorities, you know…
January 20th, 2011 at 4:06 pm
@Anne Laurie:
How long before someone goes apeshit over the fact that it’s Red?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:07 pm
@Mark S.:
Though, if he played for the Seattle Mariners….
January 20th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
In other news, “Police Seize ‘Large Amount’ Of Weapons From Blogger Who Praised Gifffords Shooting: ‘1 Down And 534 To Go’ “.
Nobody could have anticipated THAT either!
January 20th, 2011 at 4:10 pm
@Pangloss:
When Conservatives looked around and saw that being a deluded fatass actually represented a loud minority constituency that they could play up. “Libruls want you to get off your couch! Michelle wants you to turn off your TV and play with your kids! You don’t need a nanny state govenment to tell you to do that. That’s what your ex-wife is for, and fuck her anyways! Big Gubmint Lesbo Janet Napolitano is gonna confiscate your guns and your cheetos. You tell her, HANDS OFF! Sign the Petition and contribute to CheetoPAC here.”
January 20th, 2011 at 4:11 pm
@SenyorDave:
He just thinks that Black people should know their place—behind a bar on a ship.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
@harokin:
I for one want to know why it isn’t higher.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
@Southern Beale:
The guy’s views are not wildly distinct from some of Loughner’s rantings either….
January 20th, 2011 at 4:13 pm
The number of pedestrian deaths went up from 1,884 to 1,891.
Shouldn’t the headline have been: Pedestrian Deaths Rising More Slowly Than Population Growth?
.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:14 pm
I heard Sarah Palin already released a facebook video condemning Michelle Obama for irresponsibly encouraging real Americans to engage in reckless exercise.
“By intentionally and directly killing all these joggers,” Palin said, “Michelle Obama is turning each one of our nation’s beautiful running trails into a Trail of Tears.”
January 20th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Pedestrian deaths are a big deal. Increase or decrease, it’s good to look for causes. But when you get to the point that, not only are you blaming the victim for walking, you’re blaming the people encouraging (successfully or not) the walking, you’ve gone so far off the rails that it’s just not even worth discussing anything with you anymore.
Even that Joyner piece pisses me off exceedingly as its focus is on anecdotal pedestrian misbehavior. Fucking Overton window. Where do you even start with these assholes?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:
She looked totally fabulous in that dress. I love, love, love that dress. The Today Show tried very hard this morning to create a controversy over the dress this morning. Seems it’s by the design house of Alexander McQueen. And he’s not a REAL AMERICAN! He’s one of those dirty, scheming Brits and, get this!, he’s dead!
January 20th, 2011 at 4:16 pm
In somewhat related news, Wonkette tells me that the WaPo newsroom is askeered of large black boobs:
http://wonkette.com/435664/was.....po-webcast
They’re worried about their journalistic integrity, doncha know?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Daily Caller’s latest Tweet:
Holy dog whistle, Batman! Well, at least they care. The only news we’ve been hearing is about the RNC’s new director.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
Anyone read Tbogg’s take on this story?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:22 pm
@harokin: Just to make sure, I too looked up the GHSA news release.
Get it? The figures for the first year aren’t of course out yet ‘up’. They’re tiny, not yet significant, and the greatest impact they might have is that there may be no decline.
7 people. 7 fucking god-damned people.
Trying to make a news story about the rise in pedestrian deaths WHEN THE DIFFERENCE IS SEVEN PEOPLE and 28 STATES HAVE CONTINUED TO SEE THEIR NUMBERS DECLINE.
And we’re supposed to think Michelle Obama’s advice to walk more had an effect on Arizona, Florida, and Oklahoma? Are they fucking kidding?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
/salute
To the seven brave but foolish Americans who gave their lives for this country in the mad pursuit of the diabolical commands of our nation’s most feared and loathed High Priestess of Cardiovascular Exercise.
May you remain stiller in death than you did in life.
Amen.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:23 pm
fanshawe:
“In the space of a year,” Palin continued, “the administration has taken us from Death Panels to Death Marches. Will no one rid us of these Communist Death Marcher Nazis?”
.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
And said Evil Eye had
a tremendous effectno effect at all on Dr. Lowry. The true definition of big brass cohones is to slag the POTUS…. while he’s sitting behind you.I heard Dr. Lowry speak in Selma once. That was a good day.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
Well, I for one demand a Congressional investigation into the claims that the reason more people died was because numerous drivers swerved in shock and disgust when they heard of the attempted re-emergence of Rick Santorum into public life. We need to expose those who are truly responsible for this epic slaughter on our sidewalks.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:27 pm
@Zifnab: Exactly. You know that Oklahomans suddenly chose to wander out blindly through the streets and highways because Michelle Obama suggested it. Also, Arizona, because which other state does as much of what Michell O. tells them to do like Arizona?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
I’m having too much fun today wasting time. Here y’all will love this:
Lobbyist Tells Congress To Listen To Lobbyists
Is feature, not bug! Drown the beast so we can turn it all over to Corporate America!
January 20th, 2011 at 4:28 pm
When the increase is that small there’s no good reason to look at a reason for the change. It might be useful to look at the overall causes of pedestrian deaths, but that small a change is basically noise.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
@Suffern ACE:
Laura Bush doesn’t drive much anymore.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:29 pm
@MikeJ: Hey-Laura killed only one person. Our First Lady’s body count is apparently higher. Do we win a prize?
January 20th, 2011 at 4:37 pm
@MikeJ:
Neither does Robert Novak.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
The right-wing noise machine does not care about making sense, not even about being logically consistent from one sentence to the following one. Only about making statements that have strong emotional resonance (OMG Michelle Obama wants to kill Americans).
The right wants to shift political discourse to strongly emotional sense lacking statements so that people think that that is normal and and to be expected. This fits in with the notion that all (political) discourse is just propaganda – that anything somebody (on the left) says that they don’t like is comes from a conspiracy of propaganda – be it health care, global warming, minimal wage, hate speech, or whatever.
The discourse of the right is not meant to change the minds of people on the left. Its purpose it to increase the solidarity of the base and attract low-information “independents”.
It doesn’t matter if a bunch of people on the right don’t agree with some noise bursts. As long as one has fired up some on the right it has done its job. Some on the right who consider themselves smarter than most will repeat a noise burst, not because they believe it, but because it is good for the party as a whole.
For similar along these lines see Wolcott’s: That’s Political Entertainment!.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
According to Joyner’s article, it was the GHSA spokesman himself who made this claim, on right-wing radio, with said radio station only too happy to propagate it. Maybe he was trying to be funny or maybe he’s just an asshole (or both), but according to the reaction of the GHSA executive director herself, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Mr. Spokesman found himself suddenly out of a job.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:44 pm
@morzer:
Or as Sarah Palin would say, “left-leaning.”
:-)
January 20th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
@daveNYC: Also, as quoted above, 28 states experienced decreases while in 18 states there were either no decreases or increases. Surely if there were a trend to be suggested, it would only apply to those 18 states.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
@harokin: seriously. The death rate remains steady at 1.2 per 100,000. So, THE SKY IS FALLING. ON PEDESTRIANS.
ETA: The “if there are no significant changes for the rest of the year” is also ridiculous. Look, they show the full year ‘09 result is just a hair over 4,000, and the first six months was 1,890. So there was obviously a significant change there from the front half of the year to the back half of the year.
The association that did and released the review should be ostracized. The nastys flogging it as saying something about the First Lady should be ostracized. Pathetic.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:53 pm
@J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: Oh, hell yeah. She is rocking that dress.
As for Tucker Carlson, what a piece of shit he is.
ETA: My brother has been following politics for about a year. He said to me last night, “The Republicans lie about everything. And I don’t use the word everything lightly.” This is a man who voted for W. twice. I told him he’s right.
January 20th, 2011 at 4:54 pm
@mikefromArlington:
In a competitive field crowded with idiot wingnuts, Jim Hoft is making a serious play for the top of the heap.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
I blame the “Let’s go walking, Mississippi” program, which is endorsed by Haley Barbour and sponsored by Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
Plus us Mississippi lardasses have a harder time dodgin’ those cars.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:07 pm
@daveNYC
Yes it is. It’s statistical and all otherwise noise that now has people here seeming to minimize pedestrian deaths. Which I find unacceptable. That’s not where the conversation should go, but it is where the conversation has gone because that’s where the conversation was framed to go. And who did the framing?
January 20th, 2011 at 5:11 pm
“Michelle wants you to turn off your TV and play with your kids!”
Never mind that, so does Mississippi, and so does the NFL
(their PLay60 program).
January 20th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
OK, so because you put a linky, I headed over there. Many of you are doubtless, at this point, saying something along the lines of “Idiot!” or “Are you f’ing stoopid?”
To which I respond:
1) mikefromArlington: I curse you thrice for my lack of willpower!
2) The comments over there are, as might be expected, a combination of “I/we hate Osamabama and Lieberals” and wingnut attempts at what they think of as “humor”. Also.
But the most interesting thing was:
3) One of the commenters, DigitalTroglodyte (who apparently is unemployed, since he seems to have plenty of time to type most of the comments there, much like our late, unlamented Clowna), is apparently trying to play the [CLOSED CAPTIONING] fiasco as if it were intentional satire by Hoft. I didn’t have the stomach to see if the rest of the morans there were agreeing with him. But it’s always nice to see a wingnut break with reality writ, uh, large.
But the whole episode is enough to re-affirm that Hoft is, in fact, a strong contender to wrest Doug Feith’s title from Feith’s “brain”.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:17 pm
@PhoenixRising: ‘Islamic Radials’ very well-coined indeed!
January 20th, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Let’s see now. The goobers blame Democrats (and the Obamas specifically) for anything and absolve the Republicans (and Sarah the Divine Palin in particular) for everything.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
poor Tucker – he’s such a loser.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
That tired phrase?
January 20th, 2011 at 5:42 pm
@slag: As for myself, I’m not minimizing pedestrian deaths at all. I am minimizing the significance of 7 as indicating a trend.
The seriousness of avoiding pedestrian deaths has been addressed at many different levels, from local governments and businesses and even up to automakers.
Automakers (at this point mainly from coordinated efforts of the NHTSA or other countries’ regulations) have begun to address the thoroughly established truth that a major cause of vehicle collision pedestrian deaths passenger cars’ hoods & underlying structure design (like engine mounts).
It turns out that such deadly effects can be mitigated by designing more shock absorbing hoods and other energy absorbing structures.
Also, unless things have changed in the last decade, the most dangerous times of the year for vehicle-pedestrian deaths are Halloween and New Year’s Day. [NHTSA, PDF.]
These holidays involve pedestrian factors and vehicle factors greatly different from day-to-day risks, and would require very different solutions.
So it’s not inconsistent to dismiss as a claimed trend an increase of 7 people in 6 months as a significant statistical increase while understanding that those 7 people were important as human beings, or that we can do a lot more to reduce pedestrian fatalities in both the states continuing to reduce their numbers as well as the states whose numbers are increasing.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
@SFAW: You prefer Anti-Whitewalls?
January 20th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
@SFAW: Witty people can belt those jokes out on a regular basis. But they shouldn’t let their egos get over-inflated because of that.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:57 pm
@JD Rhoades: Someone did in a comments section on Yahoo News, but that place is thick with idiots.
January 20th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
more than likely the uptick in pedestrian deaths is caused by people having to sell their FREAKING cars because they’re out of work and are now having to hoof it in order to get where they need to go.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:01 pm
@Southern Beale: Guns aren’t cheap, and even if he’s innocent of anything – which seems to be the case as they haven’t charged him with anything – well, it’s Massachusetts, good luck getting your guns back, asshole.
January 20th, 2011 at 6:21 pm
@asiangrrlMN: He’s been following politics for about a year. That explains how he could vote for W twice.
January 20th, 2011 at 7:12 pm
@MikeJ:
That’s it! I was thinking last night that every weird claim the goopers make has some sort of revenge/bizarro world analog to the Bush Years. It’s like they have a check list of everything that was said about the Bush’ and they look for something the Obamas do that fits the topic.
January 20th, 2011 at 8:23 pm
@freelancer: @freelancer: That’s hilarious! Tell that one to your uncle – he’ll love it!
January 20th, 2011 at 8:59 pm
PhoenixRising and El Cid –
You guys are slick.
Best wishes for a good year!
January 20th, 2011 at 9:59 pm
@The Moar You Know:
Here in the Commonwealth, we’re a little jumpy about aggrieved nerds with guns.
Mucko McDermott didn’t kill as many people as some, but his accuracy level was unusually high.
January 20th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Michelle Obama linked to huge increase in bullshit.
January 21st, 2011 at 9:03 am