A few short weeks ago, Republicans manufactured a shitstorm (TM) over Barack Obama's joke about not looking like the guys on dollar bills. In angry tones, they accused him of "playing the race card" and the Corporate Media discussed nothing else for days.

So will the Corporate Media have a shitstorm over Rush Limbaugh's outrageous use of the "race card"?

I think this is a classic illustration here where affirmative action has reared its ugly head against them. It’s the reverse of it. They’ve, they’ve ended up nominating and placing at the top of their ticket somebody who’s not qualified, who has not earned it. […]

It’s perfect affirmative action. And because of all this guilt and the historic nature of things, nobody had the guts to say, well, wait a minute, do we really want to do this?

Update 1: Limbaugh played the race card for a second straight day:

It’s — you know, it’s just — it’s just we can’t hit the girl. I don’t care how far feminism’s saying, you can’t hit the girl, and you can’t — you can’t criticize the little black man-child. You just can’t do it, ’cause it’s just not right. It’s not fair. He’s such a victim.

Our likely nominee Barack Obama now leads John McCain by 2.7% in the RCP Average - an astonishing achievement given the month-long Corporate Media sh*tstorm over Rev. Wright.

This is fantastic news for Democrats because the endless primary has been fairly negative, although not nearly as negative as many pundits and bloggers have claimed.

Exit polls in NC and IN showed a lot of Clinton supporters are angry at Obama, and this is depressing Obama's polls. When Clinton eventually drops out and endorses Obama, that will give Obama's polls a significant boost - possibly adding 5% to his lead.

And then Obama will be able to raise and spend huge amounts of money to go after McCain, while McCain scrounges for pennies.

Imagine if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama were breaking the law while campaigning - I guarantee there would be a shitstorm (TM) on cable news!

But John McCain is breaking campaign finance laws right now - the very law he wrote!

On Tuesday, Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission and I was proud to sign it.

By his own admission, John McCain is breaking the law. His latest spending report has him $4 million over the limit he imposed on himself when he accepted public financing.

We're not about to let this stand, so on Tuesday we filed an FEC complaint against the McCain campaign (check out the video of delivery to the right). Now we're set for a second larger delivery, on behalf of the thousands of Americans who won't stand by while John McCain breaks the law. 

Faux News is manufacturing a rightwing shitstorm (TM) over Barack Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., and Democratic "surrender monkeys" are running in terror. Here's TPM reader JB:

Paul Rosenberg provides a handy summary of recent rightwing Shitstorms (TM).

The latest example is Pete Stark attacking the GOP for opposing SCHIP.  Before that it was Moveon.org for criticizing His Holiness General Petraeus, using language his colleagues and troops had used for years.  Back in 2006, there was Kerry flubbing a joke about Bush's inept leadership in sending troops to Iraq.  (Bush, of course, never mis-speaks.) In 2005, Senator Durbin was attacked for comparing Guantanamo to Nazi or Soviet prison camps.  And in 2004, there was Edwards daring to mention that Cheney's daughter was gay--which was appreciated--followed by Kerry mentioning it, which was attacked.  And, of course, there was also Moveon.org letting someone's proposed ad comparing Bush to Hitler on their site. These are just a few of the examples that come readily to mind.

Republicans are in manufacturing yet another Shitstorm (TM) over Pete Stark's remarks:

"You don't have money to fund the war or children. But you're going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President's amusement."

Republicans aren't talking about the money - unlimited funds to cause destruction in Iraq but none for our children here at home - but rather about the accusation that Bush is amused by the Iraq disaster.

But guess what - he is! This is Bush on March 24, 2004 - one year and five days after the invasion, when 589 American soldiers had been killed looking for the WMD's he cited as the main reason we had to invade Iraq.

For entirely crazy reasons, the biggest news story of last week was Moveon.org's ad in the NY Times.

Was it the biggest news story because Moveon questioned a sacred General? Hardly. American generals have been questioned throughout American history, starting with Gen. George Washington's defeat at Brandywine Creek.

The only reason is because FOX News created a Shitstorm (TM) over the ad.

What is a Shitstorm (TM)? It's when FOX News takes a bullshit topic and turns it into a tornado by pumping it full of bullshit for a major chunk of each news cycle for day after day.

There have been innumerable Shitstorms since FOX went on the air. FOX actually has two going right now - the Moveon ad and the visit of Ahmedinejad to Columbia. If you tune in for any given hour you'll get at least 10 minutes of both.

It's now been a full week since Republicans declared an Official National Shitstorm over Moveon's ad asking if Petraeus would Betray Us.

I have to say I'm really pissed for several reasons:

1. Moveon stole the idea from us - we posted the first BetrayUs blog on September 4. Plagiarism sucks!

2. Republicans and the media haven't attacked us the way we deserve to be attacked for our authorship of BetrayUs.

But given how upset "BetrayUs" makes Republicans, I'd like to propose a deal.

We will not use "BetrayUs" ever again, if Republicans will join us in calling Petraeus "the ass-kissing little chickenshit," or AKLC for short.

Is it a deal?

The Busheviks thought they could create a "November Surprise" with an utterly bogus shitstorm over John Kerry. Boy were they wrong! The real "November Surprise" is a complete rightwing meltdown as Reality Bites: