Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Moving sucketh mightily. Packing sucketh worse. Don't expect much today.

Although the Cons have provided us an abundance o' the stupid. They're so stupid they can't even tell the difference between very smart and very stupid people:

Over the last couple of years, it seemed like Barack Obama's conservative detractors had thrown just about every criticism imaginable at the guy. If recent commentary on far-right blogs is any indication, they've come up with a new one: they're convinced the president isn't very bright.

Just to be clear, they're talking about the current president.

[snip]

Take this item, for example, published yesterday by Powerline's John Hinderaker:

Everyone knows that Barack Obama is lost without his teleprompter, but his latest blunder, courtesy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via the Corner, suggests that the teleprompter may not be enough unless it includes phonetic spellings. [Obama apparently mispronounced the name of the company "Orion"]

So evidently we have to add astronomy to history and economics as subjects of which Obama is remarkably ignorant. I'm beginning to fear that our President has below-average knowledge of the world. Not for a President, but for a middle-aged American.

Just in case there's any doubt, there was no indication that Hinderaker was kidding or being deliberately ironic. (With conservative blogs, it's often hard to tell.)

This is, of course, coming from the same blogger who was not only impressed by Sarah Palin's intellectual prowess, but also once lauded George W. Bush as "a man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius."

No wonder Steve Benen entitled that post "Stupid Is as Stupid Does."

Next up on our list of profound stupidity is Eric Cantor, who apparently feels an affinity with the profoundly paranoid:

C-SPAN’s Washington Journal hosted House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) this morning. During the segment, a caller phoned in to “thank” Cantor “and [Rep.] Michele Bachmann [R-MN] and all of the conservatives that are doing such a great job.”

The caller then said it’s “insanity” that there are “people” drinking “from the kool-aid” who “seem to think that there is a magical tree of money behind Washington,” adding that the country is descending into “fascism.” In response, Cantor said the public is “finally waking up” to this and that the GOP is trying to bring President Obama “back into the mainstream...”

Maybe we should cut him some slack, though. Maybe he was still all hung over after the Brittany Spears concert he went to:

In recent weeks, congressional Republicans have been critical of President Obama for doing anything that isn’t directly focusing on the economic crisis — such as going on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno or filling out his NCAA bracket. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) even called Obama’s decision to overturn the ban on embryonic stem cell research a “distraction.” However, Wonkette reports that instead of watching Obama’s prime-time press conference last night, Cantor decided to pursue his own distraction — the Britney Spears concert. A statement from Cantor’s office:

After attending the NRCC dinner, Eric, like President Obama has been known to do, enjoyed a night at the Verizon center.

I wish I was kidding. Alas, 'tis not April 1st.

Chuck Norris has no such excuse for being a spectacular dumbass. You know he writes columns for WorldNut Daily:

... and World Nut Daily prints them...

And the question that keeps coming back to my mind is: How is it that we can militarily overthrow a tyrant like Saddam Hussein in Iraq, yet we can't keep illegals from crossing our borders? As Mike Huckabee says, "If the government can't track illegals, then let's outsource the job to UPS or Fed Ex." It's true. If they can track a lost package anywhere in the world within minutes, they can certainly track down and keep track of illegals.

Will Fed Ex scan each illegal or what?

I think this man took far too many blows to the head. Or possibly did too much blow. I'm not sure which.

By the way, has anyone else noticed signs of desperation (as well as signs of psychological implosion) from the right? They seem pretty damned desperate to me:

Eugene Robinson had a column a couple of weeks ago in which he argued, in relation to media criticism of President Obama, "It didn't work to shout 'socialism,' so now they're yelling 'overload' and 'lack of focus.'"

Except, that didn't work either, so now they're yelling "over-exposed."

CNN's Anderson Cooper last night spoke at some length about the idea of the president of the United States being "over-exposed." Cooper compared Obama's media appearances, including his press conference, to ABC airing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" too much, to the point that Americans got "sick of it."

Cooper's hardly the only one. Indeed, Jason Linkins had a good piece yesterday on the media's "obsession" with this idea of Obama benig "over-exposed."

Ain't gonna work. In fact, their attacks have worked just about as well as Bobby Jindal's follow-ups to President Obama's speeches:

Yesterday, as President Obama was delivering his second press conference, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) spoke at the NRCC’s largest fundraiser of the year to an audience of more than 1,200 Republicans — including prominent luminaries like House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

In his speech, Jindal turned to one of the major issues facing the GOP: whether it agrees with Rush Limbaugh’s statement that he wants Obama to fail. Without mentioning Limbaugh, Jindal criticized the recent focus on the remarks, claiming that anyone who disagrees with President Obama is treated as committing “treason.” On whether he personally wants Obama to fail, Jindal simply said, “it depends“:

Make no mistake, anything other than an immediate and compliant – “why no sir, I don’t want the President to fail” is treated as some sort of act of treason, civil disobedience, or political obstructionism. This is political correctness run amok. […]

I will not be brow beaten on this, and I will not kow-tow to their political correctness. We will be the loyal opposition. So… my answer to the question is very simple — “Do you want the President to fail?” It depends on what he is trying to do.

I've only skimmed his speech, looking for the spot where he implicitly condemns Limbaugh (which I didn't find). It's a grab-bag of insanity wrapped in idiotic GOP talking points and then drowned in pathetic.

I'd ask when these people are going to learn, but I realize the answer to that is, "They're incapable of learning."