Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Rep. Sessions does it again. This time, he's claiming we shouldn't close Gitmo because the terrorists would miss those fine tropical breezes:

Yesterday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) defended the detention of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay military facility, calling it a “logical site.” “They wouldn’t be treated any better in the United States, and they wouldn’t have the tropical breezes blowing through,” said Sessions.

Nevermind the torture and stuff. Aside from all that, it's just like resort living. Uh-huh. I do believe that dumbass claim means they're striking out on the fearmongering:

For Democratic lawmakers who might be worried about the Republican demagoguery on closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, I'd encourage them to take a look at Steve Chapman's column on the subject today.

Here's the Obama administration's plan for emptying out Guantanamo, as I understand it: Take each prisoner out of his cell. Give him a personal apology, a big kiss and an AK-47. Then hand him a free airline ticket good for any destination in the continental United States.

Maybe I've got one or two details wrong, but I'm having trouble thinking clearly. That's because I've been listening to politicians who have responded to the news of Gitmo's pending closure with disconcerting shrieks of panic.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was beside himself upon hearing Defense Secretary Robert Gates tell a Senate committee that the Pentagon might need to transfer 100 inmates to American soil. "The administration," announced McConnell, "needs to tell the American people how it will keep the terrorists at Guantanamo out of our neighborhoods and off of the battlefield."

How on earth could that be done? Hmmm. Maybe by locking them up in grim buildings replete with iron bars and concertina wire. Same way, in other words, it kept accused terrorists Jose Padilla and Ali al-Marri out of our neighborhoods and off the battlefield.

Of course, lawmakers probably know this. Democrats no doubt realize that there are already terrorists in detention on U.S. soil, and that these attacks -- and the truly nonsensical "Keep Terrorists Out of America Act" -- are as shameless as they are ridiculous.

And, unfortunately for Cons, Americans aren't quite as stupid and fear-prone as they expected, so now they're forced to rely on inane arguments about warm tropical breezes.

So, remember that huge big stink when it turned out a few of Obama's nominees hadn't quite kept up on their taxes? Remember how outraged the perpetually outraged right was that those horrible people had tried to stiff Uncle Sam? One wonders how much outrage we'll hear now that it's one of their own doing the stiffing:

The timely blog Teablogging has revealed its sources:

According to documents obtained by Teablogging by running a goddamned simple Nexis search on the internets, national Tea Party organizer, Top Conservatives on Twitter cofounder and TCOTReport.com publisher Michael P. Leahy has, over the past 16 years, amassed nearly $150,000 in state and federal tax liens, small claims court judgments and civil suits.

Teablogging has .pdfs of all the documentation.

I'm expecting the howls of outrage to start in 3...2...never. Y'see, it's eeeevil when the Dems don't pay their taxes, but fine when Cons don't pay their taxes. And they'll also never notice the disconnect between whining about how many taxes you pay while not paying any taxes.

Idiots.

In further news on the utterly clueless front, Michael Savage is pissed that Britain's put him on a no-visit list, and wants his name off toot-sweet:

Earlier this month, the British government announced a list of people barred from entering the country because of their history of fostering extremism or hatred. Included on the list was American hate radio host Michael Savage, who has since expressed his outrage at the decision. “It is demented,” Savage said. “I want my name off of that list and I want a letter of apology from this [British Home Secretary] Jacqui Smith.” Now it appears that Savage is seeking help from an old nemesis: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The San Fransisco Chronicle’s Rich Lieberman reports that “[l]awyers for Savage are formally asking [that] she call on the British Government to withdraw its ban.” It’s interesting that Savage is now turning to Clinton for help, considering what he has had to say about her in the past. Some examples:

– “Hillary Clinton, the most Godless woman in the Senate.”

– Regarding one of Clinton’s speeches: “That’s rubbish. That’s Hitler dialogue. Goebbels would be proud of you, Hillary Clinton. I know Mao Zedong would have been proud of you.”

I'm not sure what Clinton will do, but I know what I'd be petty enough to do: chuckle, shrug, and claim there's not a damned thing I can do, sovereign nation, all that. Too bad, so sad.

Right now, my bathroom reading is a book called Friends In Deed, which chronicles the history of Israeli-American relations. One thing I'm learning from it is that the powerful Jewish lobby is one you really, really shouldn't piss off if you're a politician. I take it Alaska State Senator Kim Hendren hasn't read that book. Oops:

And Republicans wonder why they struggle with minority communities.

[Kim] Hendren explained, "I don't use a teleprompter and occasionally I put my foot in my month." At the meeting, Hendren addressed the comments that Sen. Schumer made shortly before last week's meeting. Sen. Schumer, appearing on MSNBC's Rachael Maddow Show, said "The hard right, which still believes that when the Federal Government moves, we chop off its hands, still believes in the traditional values kind of arguments, in strong foreign policy, all that is over."

Hendren told me, "At the meeting I was attempting to explain that unlike Sen. Schumer, I believe in traditional values, like we used to see on 'The Andy Griffith Show.' I made the mistake of referring to Sen. Schumer as 'that Jew' and I should not have put it that way as this took away from what I was trying to say."

Hendren is a member of the Arkansas State Senate, and is currently a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

I have a feeling those aspirations might be a little difficult now.

Today's Con party: fully in the minority and doing everything possible to stay that way.