Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

My darlings, do you want to know just how fucking insane the Teabaggers have made the Cons?  This insane:

On Monday, the Charleston County Republican Party’s executive committee “took the unusual step” of officially censuring Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The local GOP committee admonished Graham for stepping across party lines to work with Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on a bipartisan clean energy bill and other pieces of legislation. The censure stated that Graham’s “bipartisanship continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom.”

Part of the fury from the right against Graham is being spurred by the oil and coal industry. The oil company front group “American Energy Alliance” has blanketed South Carolina with ads smearing Graham for seeking to address climate change.

Greg Sargent at The Plumline has more details on the dumbfuckery:

The party sends our reporter Beth Marlowe a copy of the full resolution, and it’s even more fun than you might have expected.

The resolution explicitly condemns Graham for backing cap and trade — not because it’s a job killer, but because “global warming caused by carbon emissions” is “still in doubt as evidenced by the past decade of cooling temperatures.”

It also singles out Graham’s work on the “Gang of 10” and the “Gang of 14,” both of which were bipartisan groups of Senators.

It concludes that Graham must be censured because he “continues to weaken the Republican brand.”

For these good people, at least, working towards bipartisan solutions and acknowledging the existence of global warming are at odds with, and a threat to, the GOP brand.

So, they howl for bipartisanship, then censure their own for showing the least sign of bipartisanship... I'm afraid this means we will never, ever be able to expect anything in the way of good-faith attempts to govern from these idiots ever again.  Not that we really could before, but every once in a while, one of them would demonstrate a twinge of sanity.  Alas, it would seem the Con party's sanity quotient is hovering near 0 these days.


And so the obstructionist clowns marche on and on:

Five months ago, President Obama nominated Tom Shannon to be the U.S. ambassador to Brazil. Shannon is strong, almost obvious, choice -- he's been Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs for the last five years; he's a career Foreign Service officer; and he enjoys a strong relationship with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Shannon sailed through the confirmation hearings, and would have been easily approved by the Senate, if only the nomination could be brought to the floor. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) put a months-long hold on Shannon, blocking a vote. Last week, DeMint finally agreed to let the nomination proceed to the floor.

So, the Senate can vote now? No, now there's another Republican hold.

There may be no better example of how the Senate's holds and filibusters work now than this one -- Sen. George LeMieux (R-Fla.), who holds his job because his political ally Gov. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) appointed him in September, has placed a hold on the Obama administration's nominee for ambassador to Brazil. Tom Shannon's nomination is on hold so LeMieux can "discuss my concerns" and "fully vet" him.

LeMieux didn't identify what those "concerns" are, or why he didn't seek answers to these questions before now.

It's just another day in a legislative chamber that Republicans have apparently broken on purpose.

Sen. Luger, who at times displays remarkable sanity on foreign policy matters, registered his displeasure with this latest bit of fuckery.  I'm assuming the Indiana Teabaggers will incite the Indiana Con party to censure him any moment now...

If you want to know just how bad things have gotten in the Senate, hold your nose and click here.

And then ask Crazy Pete Hoekstra why he wants us all to die in our beds:

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R) of Michigan has long been a world-class buffoon. We are, after all, talking about a conservative lawmaker who held a press conference in 2006 to announce, "We have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq." The ridiculous claim was quickly debunked.

But this week, Hoekstra is breaking new ground. The Michigan Republican, who happens to be the ranking GOP lawmaker on the House Intelligence Committee, is now trying to exploit the Nidal Hasan shootings from last week for some kind of perverse political gain. Hoekstra told reporters, for example, that Hasan is believed to have sent emails to a radical cleric in Yemen, and then received emails back. As Rachel Maddow explained on MSNBC last night, that wasn't information intended for the public.

"Why is it Pete Hoekstra who's taking it upon himself to tell the press that this radical cleric is having his email read by U.S. intelligence agencies?" Rachel asked. "The FBI had not said publicly that this cleric had been emailing Hasan. The CIA, the NSA, the White House... nobody else had reported this cleric was e-mailing Hasan. This is just Pete Hoekstra letting us know -- and letting the radical cleric that is under surveillance know -- that he's under surveillance."

When asked why Hoekstra had made this revelation, the lawmaker referred MSNBC to the Republican staff of the House Intelligence Committee. When they were asked for an explanation, GOP officials said they "do not know" if Hoekstra released secret information, but they're "guessing" this wasn't a problem.

They guessed that leaking sensitive national security information wasn't a problem.  This from the party that loves to claim that every peep a Dem makes causes America to become immediately less safe.  The party that howls for blood every time the New York Times runs a leak.  They guess that Crazy Pete letting a terrorist know we're watching him isn't a problem.

ZOMG WTF??!??  That's taking IOKIYAR way too fucking far.

Oh, and remember the Cons' favorite little mercenaries?  Check out their bribery scandal.

Need a good laugh?  Rupert Murdoch thinks he's gonna charge us for his crappy web content.

Need another good laugh?  Go watch the Mooney Times implode.  Steve Benen asks if anybody'll miss 'em.  Yes.  Left-wing bloggers - if we needed dumbfuckery masquerading as news and were sick of Faux, the Washington Times never disappoints.

And, finally, today's word is "hubris":

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) — a front group of big utilities and coal companies — is no stranger to fraud. During the summer’s House debate on cap-and-trade legislation, lobbyists working on behalf of the coal group sent forged letters to members of Congress, and lied under oath about it. Now, ACCCE is trying to exploit Veterans Day by misrepresenting veterans groups in an email to supporters:

With Veterans Day around the corner, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the military personnel who are involved in ensuring our country is protected.

Energy security is one issue that has become increasingly important to our veterans. In fact, national veterans groups Votevets and Operation Free are urging the government to become more energy independent and less reliant on foreign oil.

We can do this by using the abundant domestic fuels we already have. With more than 250 billion tons of recoverable coal reserves, the United States has more coal than the Middle East has oil.

The letter implies that VoteVets and Operation Free support ACCCE and its dirty energy agenda, but the the two groups are actually vocal backers of clean energy legislation. VoteVets excoriated ACCCE for citing them in the email, writing that VoteVets “will never advocate the continued use of carbon based fuels” and that ACCCE is trying “to hijack America’s Veterans” in “an act of despicable hubris.”

Operation Free's no happier.  Can't say as I blame 'em.  "Despicable" ain't the half of it.

My darlings, I want you to start thinking of something right now.  No matter how much the Dems have disappointed you, ask yourself this: after all you've read here in the last few weeks, do you really think the Cons would be a better alternative?

No?

Then go find a Dem candidate to get excited about and start working your heart out for 'em, lest the assclowns end up in power again.