Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Frequently, I am ashamed of my home state.  Arizona has horrific taste in politicians, for the most part.  Case in point:

Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) has never been the sharpest tool in the shed, but his tirade on the House floor this week on health care policy was cringe-worthy. Members of Congress rarely flaunt stupidity like this; I almost felt sorry for the guy.

"[W]hat we're really getting here is we're not just getting single-payer care. We're getting full on Russian gulag, Soviet-style gulag health care," Shadegg said. He added, "It appeared in last Friday's Wall Street Journal. You can Google it. You can pick up the phone and call Kim Strassel. You can ask her about Soviet-style gulag health care in America, where powerful politicians protect their constituents."

Lee Fang, for those who've forgotten, explained, "The Soviet gulags were a network of prisons and forced labor camps that held as many as 20 million people during Stalin's reign of terror. It is estimated 1.5 million died in the camps."

What does this have to do with the health care system in the United States? Why would systemic improvements relate to Soviet-style gulags in any way? Shadegg didn't say. I'm fairly certain he doesn't know what a "gulag" even is. The poor man just isn't bright.

No kidding.

Shadegg's also part of the gang o' idiots who are on the hunt for those awful Mooslem lobbyists destroying Amurika.  He's just lucky one of his fellow idiots is making a bigger ass of herself in public than he is on that front:

Rep. Sue Myrick (R-NC) is today pressing on in the campaign against supposed infiltration of terrorist-linked Muslim interns in key national security committees on Capitol Hill.

As we told you yesterday, the charges are based on a book published by WorldNetDaily, which draws on the work of an actual intern spy, the son of the co-author who went undercover at the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

An animated Myrick complained on Fox News this morning that "quite frankly, [CAIR makes] everybody else look like they're being paranoid by saying anything about them."

Um.  That's because you fuckwits are a bunch of paranoid idiots, and you've fallen for the crazed conspiracy theories of a first-class fucktard:

Let's take a closer look at the co-author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld That's Conspiring to Islamize America, just out from WND Books, and now at #16 among all books on Amazon.

That would be David Gaubatz, a former Air Force investigator and Arabic speaker, who dispatched his son Chris to grow a beard and go undercover as a Muslim to obtain an internship at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Gaubatz, who has long warned about the threat of Islamism in the United States, has claimed that he found Saddam's long-lost WMDs while in Iraq and has labeled Obama "Muslim" and a "self-admitted 'crack head.'"

Oh, it gets better.  If you visit no other link today, visit that one.  Trust me, you need the laugh.  Of course, you'll be crying when you realize that no fewer than four Cons in Congress believe this dumbshit.  But at least you had a brief moment of levity, right?

All right.  I relent.  Here ye go - a little bit of stupid you can laugh at without the tears.  That's right: they're all Rush Limbaugh now.

How touching.

Following up on a couple of items from yesterday, Steve Benen helps us understand why Faux thinks we're in a "Bush" recovery:

Just so we're clear, here's a helpful guide to the rules of Wall Street watching, as they relate to partisan politics:

When the markets went down on Bush's watch before the 2008 elections, this was Bill Clinton's fault.

When the markets went down on Bush's watch between November 2008 and January 2009, this was Barack Obama's fault.

When the markets went down during Obama's first seven weeks in office, this was definitely Barack Obama's fault.

And when the markets rally throughout Obama's first year in office, George W. Bush deserves at least some of the credit.

It's good to know -- positive developments are evidence of Republican wisdom, and negative developments are evidence of Democratic failure.

All clear now?  Good.  You don't have to understand why their minds work that way - there are some things modern science has not yet managed to explain, although research continues apace.

Steve also has the best quote evah regarding the Ronaldus Magnus mess:

This really isn't healthy. I realize that Reagan is the only modern Republican president that the party is still proud of, but when the Republican National Committee seriously starts using phrases like "Ronaldus Magnus," it suggests the cult has started drinking the Kool Aid by the gallon.

This keeps up, they'll need tanker trucks and pressure hoses.

And, finally, our latest installment in the "But really - they're not racists!" series:

The AP reports that Louisiana justice of the peace Keith Bardwell has refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple because he believes that such marriages don’t usually last very long:

[snip] 

“I don’t do interracial marriages because I don’t want to put children in a situation they didn’t bring on themselves,” Bardwell said. “In my heart, I feel the children will later suffer.”

If he does an interracial marriage for one couple, he must do the same for all, he said.

“I try to treat everyone equally,” he said.

Wow.  Way to justify your racism, there, bud.

Is it my imagination, or does the right seem to be getting more insanely stupid by the minute?