Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Deary, deary me.  I take the weekend off, and the next thing you know, the stupid's blowing through the states at Mach 12.  Not that it doesn't do that when I'm around, mind.  Would that it were that easy - I'd never stop blogging, and this country would get a fuck of a lot smarter.

Sigh.

Time to take the Smack-o-Matic 3000 down off the wall and decide whose bottom needs attention first.  Decisions, decisions.

We still don't know enough about Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan to speculate as to motives, etc.  The man's barely just regained consciousness and started talking to police.  In a day or two, we'll have a clearer picture as to what was going through his mind, why he decided to solve his problems by gunning down so many people, and whether or not his religion had bugger-all to do with it.  Right now, it's irresponsible to speculate.

That hasn't stopped the vast majority of dumbfucks, and here comes Joe Lieberman to lead the shark-jumping charge:

Military officials are already conducting an investigation; there's every reason to be confident that they'll conduct a thorough probe; and it would be a mistake to jump to conclusions based on limited information.

And then there's Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- who's suddenly discovered his desire to use his committee gavel, and who has no qualms about speculating publicly.

A senior U.S. senator on Sunday said the shootings at Fort Hood could have been a terrorist attack, and that he would launch a congressional investigation into whether the U.S. military could have prevented it.

Sen. Joe Lieberman ... said initial evidence suggested that the alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan, was a "self-radicalized, home-grown terrorist" who had turned to Islamic extremism while under personal stress. [...]

Mr. Lieberman said that if news reports were true that Mr. Hasan had turned to Islamic extremism, "the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act and, in fact, it was the most-destructive terrorist act to be committed on American soil since 9/11."

"We don't know enough to say now, but there are very, very strong warning signs here that Dr. Hasan had become an Islamist extremist and, therefore, that this was a terrorist act," Mr. Lieberman added.

At one point in the interview, Lieberman said it's "premature to reach conclusions about what motivated" Hasan, and then spent several minutes speculating about the massacre, the gunman, and possible terrorist motivations.

Perhaps the senator is confused. If Lieberman prefaces his remarks by saying things like "we don't know enough to say" and "it's premature to reach conclusions," it doesn't give him license to then make a series of unproven allegations and speculate wildly on national television.

Can anyone tell me just what we get out of keeping this assclown in the Dem caucus?  Other than constant humiliation, that is?

Not to be outdone by a dumbshit Dem, the fucktard who set the howling mobs on Muslim interns is now baldly calling for a backlash:

Dave Gaubatz, author of Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that's Conspiring to Islamize America, made the comment in a semi-coherent interview with the group Family Security Matters.

In assigning collective blame for the Fort Hood killings, Gaubatz said:

Politicians, Muslims, and law enforcement are concerned about a 'backlash' against Muslims. Now is the time for a professional and legal backlash against the Muslim community and their leaders. Muslims know what materials are being taught in their mosques and they know many of the materials instruct young Muslims to kill innocent people who do not adhere to Sharia law. If Muslims do not want a backlash, then I would recommend a "house cleaning." Stack every Saudi, al Qaeda, Pakistani, Taliban, Hamas, and Muslim Brotherhood piece of material from their mosque and have a bonfire. Tell the American, Jewish, and Muslim community this hatred will no longer be allowed in their mosques.

All of this might be dismissed as the ranting of a fringe lunatic, but for the fact that Gaubatz's work has been circulated and endorsed by prominent Republican officials.

Tell me something.  When a right-wing white Christian decides to shoot up whole buildings full of people, do we hear mobs screaming for a backlash against all Christians, moderately odd and batshit insane alike?  No, we do not.  Do we call for an all-out ban on Christians in the military? No, we do not.  And how do we know these howls for blood haven't been heard?  Because all of the white right-wing Christian professional victim groups would've been screaming at the top of their lungs.

But the AFA feels perfectly comfy screaming for a ban on Muslims in the military:

Now, however, in light of the Fort Hood shootings, the AFA has published a piece taking a strong interest in who does and doesn't wear the uniform. From an AFA-published piece:

It it [sic] is time, I suggest, to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military. The reason is simple: the more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels. [...]

Of course, most U.S. Muslims don't shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine. As soon as Muslims give us a foolproof way to identify their jihadis from their moderates, we'll go back to allowing them to serve. You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you're right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it's used, and we'll welcome you back with open arms.

This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism.

Actually, it is idiotic. And ignorant. And bigoted.

Nearly every gunman involved in tragedies like the one last week is a man. Are we going to prohibit men from military service until there's a madman-detector that works every time it's used?

Good question.

On a slightly more amusing note, check out Crazy Pete Hoekstra stamping his little feet because the CIA doesn't think he necessarily needs to be trusted with sensitive national security information.

And on a really amusing note, there's now an official Tea Party in Florida:

Politico’s Ben Smith reports that some Florida Republicans recently registered an official “Tea Party” to challenge both Republicans and Democrats:

“The current system has become mired in the sludge of special interest money that seeks to control the leadership of both parties. It’s time for real change,” says Orlando lawyer Frederic O’Neal, the new party’s chairman, who couldn’t be reached immediately by phone, in a press release.

A spokeswoman for the Florida Secretary of State, Jennifer Davis, said the party had registered in August.

I hope their tea-bagging ways work as well for them in Florida as they have in Ohio:

Southwestern Ohio has become something of a Mecca for Tea Parties. On Labor Day weekend of this year a Tea Party was held at Voice of America Park in West Chester, Ohio in which an estimated 18,000 tea baggers showed up. In the lead up to last week’s NY-23 race, John Boehner even brought up this event while talking to John King, which was held within walking distance of his home.

So knowing this, you would expect that any tea party-style candidate would be a shoo-in for local office in this area, wouldn’t you? Well, don’t be so sure:

The reign of the anti-school tax activists on area school boards was a short one

[SNIP]

Fairfield School Board incumbent Arnie Engel, who tried four times to get elected to Fairfield Schools governing board before finally winning in fall 2005, this time finished a distant fourth in the race for three open seats.

In Warren County's Mason School Board race, self-proclaimed "Christian conservative" incumbent Jennifer Miller ended up fifth out of eight candidates vying for three seats.

In the Monroe school board race, fiscal conservative Mike Irwin lost his re-election bid, finishing dead last among five candidates.

All three of the school districts mentioned above surround the district where the big Labor Day Tea Party was held, and they are all represented by John Boehner and Jean Schmidt. They are also parts of the reddest corner of Ohio.

Idiots may look formidable when they're gathered in herds.  Problem for them is, the sane citizen herd's got 'em outnumbered at the ballot box.  But it's nice of them to get so noisy and politically involved.  It makes it easier to decide which candidates not to vote for.  If you hear the Teabaggers are supporting someone, you can be reasonably sure that candidate is a batshit frothing insane fucktard, and can be safely disregarded without further investigation.

It appears that now that the Cons can't win by hook in so many districts, they plan to win by crook:

In 2008, election integrity advocates in Tennessee won a hard and long-fought victory as the state legislature finally passed, on a bi-partisan basis, the Tennessee Voter Confidence Act (TVCA) requiring the state's wholly unverifiable touch-screen voting machines to be replaced with precinct-based optical-scan paper balloting in time for the crucial 2010 general election.

But in November of 2008, as the state was still using its completely faith-based electronic voting systems, it somehow managed to buck the national trend as the only state in the nation to see legislative gains for the Republican Party which managed to win a majority in the statehouse in the bargain. Ever since, the GOP majority, along with the Republican Secretary of State and Election Director, have been fighting against implementation of that paper ballot law.

What a shocker, eh?  Head to the link for the whole sordid story, including plenty o' Con lies.


 Time now for a quick sweep of the other stupidity currently flooding the place. 

Sarah Palin's being more of an idiot than usual.  She's whining over the motto "In God We Trust" getting moved to the edge of our coins, forgetting two small facts: a) it was a Con Congress that decided the edge would be fine and b) a Dem Congress that decided to put it back on the front because so many frothing fundies flipped out.

Not content with that dumbfuckery, she reprised the debunked death panel claims.

And this is the GOP's great hope for 2012.  Weep, Cons, weep.

Goldman Sachs' CEO is giving her a run for the money in the dumbshit department.  The man has some rather spectacular entitlement issues, and a sense of self-importance so inflated that I'm surprised he fits through doors.

And, finally, let's hop into the wayback machine and see what Jeff Sessions thought of judicial filibusters before the Dems took back the White House:

David Hamilton of Indiana, President Obama's first appeals court nominee, was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee 158 days ago. Care to guess how many George W. Bush nominees were held in limbo this long in the last Congress? Zero.

And yet, Hamilton's nomination hasn't been brought to the floor due to unprecedented Senate Republican obstructionism. This week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) intends to force the issue, bring Hamilton to the floor, and seek a cloture vote.

Leading the charge against Hamilton will be Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) of Alabama. Perhaps now would be a good time to point out what Jeff Sessions had to say about blocking judicial nominees as recently as four years ago:

"I have stated over and over again on this floor that I would refuse to put an anonymous hold on a judge; that I would object and fight against any filibuster on a judge, whether it is somebody I opposed or supported; that I felt the Senate should do its duty. If we don't like somebody the President nominates, vote him or her up or down. But don't hold them in this anonymous unconscionable limbo...."

"Unconscionable."

At the time, Sessions added that denying a judicial nominee an up-or-down vote was inconsistent with a process that has been in place "since the founding of the republic."

I guess he's changed his mind. How convenient.

Indeed.

Hypocrites, dumbshits, and con artists.  Quite the merry bunch of fuckwits the Cons have gathered, innit?