Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Question o' the Day: Why do Cons hate America?  Because really, they do.  By their own measure, even.  Remember when we were told how Dems saying the least little critical thing about the President abroad was treason and unpatriotic and Beyond Horrible?  So what are we to say about this:

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) has announced that he will be visiting Honduras today to meet with the de facto regime of acting Honduran President Roberto Micheletti in sheer defiance of the position taken by the US government and international community. Not a single nation has recognized Micheletti’s government, but Washington Note’s Steve Clemons explains that DeMint is intent on taking Honduran matters into his own hands:

Jim DeMint is acting on behalf of, in cahoots with, and against the foreign policy of the United States of America in encouraging post-coup Honduran government officials defy the United States. He is encouraging a political leadership which has no legitimacy and which not recognized by other democracies in the region — while the ousted President makes cell phone UN General Assembly statements from a couch-bed in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa.

The Logan Act forbids “unauthorized citizens” from negotiating with foreign governments. In a 1936 Supreme Court ruling, Justice Sutherland wrote that “the President alone has the power” and “the Senate cannot intrude, and Congress itself is powerless to invade it.”

The United States does not recognize the usurpers in Honduras as a legitimate government.  We don't even want to give the slightest hint we do.  So what is DeMint doing making a beeline down there, in defiance of U.S. policy, to tell the people who perpetrated a coup how awesome they are?  Because I do not believe for a single instant his office's weak fact-finding excuse.

Especially not since Cons have made such a habit of these things:

• Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) will be going to the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, bringing a "Truth Squad" to tell foreign officials there that the American government will not take any action: "Now, I want to make sure that those attending the Copenhagen conference know what is really happening in the United States Senate."

• House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) traveled to Israel, where he spoke out against President Obama's opposition to expanded settlements. He also defended Israel on the eviction of two Arab families from a house in east Jerusalem, which had been criticized by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

• Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL) boasted in June that he told Chinese officials not to trust America's budget numbers. "One of the messages I had -- because we need to build trust and confidence in our number one creditor," said Kirk, "is that the budget numbers that the US government had put forward should not be believed." Since then, he has declared his candidacy for U.S. Senate.

And that's just the Cons in Congress.  Other GOP leading lights - most notably Huckabee and Palin - have flown overseas to trash America.   Strange how such things are no longer beyond the pale when it's a Dem in office.

Then there's the right's reaction when Obama made the pitch for the Olympics.  If you read Happy Hour yesterday, you know how they were frothing and doing their best to sabotage those efforts.  Well, today we got the middle finger from the International Olympic Committee, and right-wing fucktards celebrated America's defeat:

What I find fascinating is the extent to which the far-right was rooting against the country. Eric Erickson published an item declaring: "World Rejects Barack Obama."

Hahahahaha. I thought the world would love us more now that Bush was gone. I thought if we whored ourselves out to our enemies, great things would happen. Apparently not.
So Obama's pimped us to every two bit thug and dictator in the world, made promises to half the Olympic committee, and they did not even kiss him. So much for improving America's standing in the world, Barry O.

Malkin's mocking the U.S. defeat; so is the Weekly Standard. Fox News, which launched an aggressive effort against Chicago's bid, will no doubt follow. (Update: the offices of the Weekly Standard, in its own words, "erupted" in "cheers" after the announcement.)

A year ago, a conservative Republican president told Chicago, "This country supports your bid, strongly." That was then, before the right decided their hatred for the president's hometown was more important than anything else.

Remember, in 2005, when New York was eliminated as a host city for the 2012 Olympics, and liberals everywhere giggled like children and mocked the Bush administration?

Oh wait, that didn't happen.

No, it didn't.  We weren't that infantile.  We put our country's interests before our interest in seeing our assclown of a president humiliated.  But this happened today:

The Weekly Standard had just a smidgen of shame left, because they later amended the post so as not to seem so celebratory.  But they celebrated.  Make no mistake.  So did right-wing conference attendees:

Conservatives are currently gathered in Virginia for the American for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit, which features speakers such as radio host Hugh Hewitt and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Today when the IOC announced that the United States was eliminated from the running to host the 2016 Olympics, a room of conference attendees immediately laughed and applauded.

This country lost international prestige and a fuck of a lot of money, but it doesn't matter to them because Obama's home town didn't get the nod, and to them, that's all that matters.

And maybe they're happy that the assclown they supported for eight long years is largely responsible for the Committee's decision.  After all, it was Bush who destroyed our reputation, turned us into a nation of torturers, involved us in a despicable war of conquest, insulted everyone who'd ever been our ally, and also made it next to fucking impossible for folks to get to the Olympics.  That's right - the straw that broke the camel's back could possibly be the draconian tourist visa policy he implemented.

Cons celebrate all of this.  No wonder even Joe Scarborough thinks they're assinine.

And despite the fact we've been down this road before and discovered that, contrary to promises, the conquered would not greet us as liberators, the neocons are on about regime change again, assuring us that, yes, the Iranian people will greet us as liberators:

This afternoon, Elliott Abrams, Deputy National Security Adviser under President Bush, appeared on Fox News to discuss U.S. policy towards Iran. Abrams pled guilty to misleading Congress about the Iran-Contra scandal under Reagan and handled Iran policy under Bush.

When asked if any recent President has had “a successful strategy with Iran,” Abrams implicitly admitted his own decades-long failure. “No, I don’t think we’ve really had any successful strategies with Iran,” Abrams responded. “And you know, meanwhile they’ve been building up their nuclear program and missile program.” But Obama recently established the first high-level diplomatic engagement with Iran in 30 years, which produced results quicker than expected.

But Abrams, “the neocon’s neocon,” still clings to his long-running desire to bomb Iran. And to justify his view that military action against Iran is the prudent course, Abram told Fox News that the Iranian people would accept it:

FOX: 59 percent of respondents to our Fox News poll say that force should be used. How would Tehran react to that?

ABRAMS: It’s a very big question, Alisyn. My own view is that most Iranians now — after June, after the stealing of the election — would not rally around the flag. People used to say that — that if there’s an attack on Iran, you know the population is going to get patriotic. But that’s what Americans would do. I don’t know that it’s what Iranians are going to do, considering the way that regime is hated in Iran.

Let me put it to Abrams like this: the Iraqi people hated Saddam, but they hated our invasion of their country more and fought us tooth-and-nail.  A great many people in this country despised George W. Bush and saw him as an illegitimate assclown (which he was), but when we were attacked, even the Americans who hated him most rallied to the flag and turned to him for leadership.  Very few didn't.

And you want to tell us you don't think Iranians are going to get patriotic?  Oh, puh-leeze.  Shut the fuck up, you delusional, lying piece of shit.

Just answer me this: why do you Cons hate America?