Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

It looks like Cons think they have a winner in this throw-a-fit-over-terrorists thing.  They started spewing the stupid from the instant KSM's trial in NYC was announced and they haven't paused for breath since.  They might be gaining traction with their terminally-terrified followers, but the rest of the country - not so much.

That hasn't stopped them from trying.  Rudy "9-11 Tourettes" Giuliani's demanding Obama return to the grand ol' days of using the "war on terror" rhetoric, as if that's the magic phrase that will make all our woes go away.  Steve Benen's not impressed:

The Attorney General told lawmakers this morning about the "war" the U.S. is fighting "against terrorism" and "a vicious enemy." According to the former mayor, Eric Holder's choice of words is inadequate, which leads the Justice Department to make bad decisions, which leads the Obama administration to undermine U.S. national security interests.

I know a wide variety of people, including most of the media establishment, take Giuliani seriously. I just don't understand why.

[snip]

It should be obvious, but the key here is the efficacy of the policy, not the semantics. And when it comes to counter-terrorism, Obama and his team have proven themselves quite effective at capturing, detaining, and occasionally killing terrorists. If Giuliani is unsatisfied with this, he'll have to do a far better job of explaining why.

He won't, because he can't.

But for sheer, over-the-top offensive stupidity, you can't top Rep. Gohmert:

Among members of Congress, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) has long stood out as a man a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Two weeks ago, he argued that health care reform proponents are trying to kill off senior citizens before they warn young people about the evils of the Democratic agenda. A few weeks before that, Gohmert argued that expanding hate crimes protections would lead to a legalization of necrophilia, pedophilia, and bestiality. He then compared those who disagree with him to Nazis.

And while Gohmert's name is not quite as familiar as Steve King's and Michele Bachmann's when it comes to the House Stark Raving Mad Caucus, he's clearly making a play for notoriety.

....Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas suggested yesterday that Democrats may actually want another terrorist attack because rebuilding the city would create jobs.

"You've got subways, tunnels, bridges all subject to terrorism. And unless they're trying to create a new jobs bill by allowing terrorism back in New York then this is insane. And even that would be insane."

Last night, Gohmert said that "it is extremely helpful to have a community organizer in the White House because you'll need lots of community organization in order to adequately evacuate massive areas of the most densely populated area in America."

[snip]

The guy has "future member of the House Republican leadership" written all over him.

I wish that was a joke.  Alas, it'll probably prove all-too-true.  Disgusting jackasses who have no connection to reality seem to be in vogue among the Con crowd.

And Rep. Hoekstra's treading right on his heels:

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) said today that the Obama administration is "bribing" economically suffering towns across the country as it attempts to relieve itself of the political problem of closing Guantanamo Bay.

"They're going into communities that are hard-pressed economically and holding out a pot of gold," he told reporters. Hoekstra was referring to the White House plan to bring terror suspects to prisons across the country. He said that the administration was taking advantage of hard-hit towns across the country by promoting the jobs that would be created by adding Guantanamo Bay detainees to their prison populations.

Looks like those two buffoons are trying to snatch the shining crowns of crazy from Reps. King and Bachmann.

It's getting on the nerves of the few Cons with a lick of sanity left:

The prospect of transferring detainees from Guantanamo Bay to a maximum-security prison in Thomson, Illinois, generated an interesting response from a Republican state lawmaker who represents a neighboring area.

Representative Jim Sacia of the state's 89th District accused Republicans in Washington -- including Senate candidate, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill) -- of risking thousands of local jobs in their demagoguery of the detainee issue.

"My thinking on this is extremely positive," Sacia told the Huffington Post. "If we lose this opportunity. All I can think of is we literally are idiots. I mean that sincerely."

"I understand I'm on different pages of music with others in my party. First of all this should not be a partisan issue in anyway. If President Obama brings the detainees on U.S. soil and we sit here with a brand new state-of-the-art, max security prison, sitting vacant for the last eight years, and pass on an opportunity to sell it to the federal government, which we would fill it with 1,500 regular prisoners and 800 detainees, what is the problem? The building was designed to do that.

"The only reason we have rhetoric now is because of the closing of Gitmo," Sacia concluded. "It makes no sense at all. This is a tremendous opportunity and we would be idiots to waste it."

As Sacia, a former law enforcement official, sees it, the proposal could bring thousands of jobs to an area that has "suffered unbelievable economic hardship."

I hope that poor bugger wasn't planning on running for national office any time soon.  He talked sense.  Teabaggers'll probably be camped out on his doorstep burning him in effigy any minute now.

But we'll see if they're brave enough to pile on the retired generals who gave John Boehner the spanking of his life:

A group of retired Generals led by former Maine Rep. Tom Andrews (D) accused the House GOP leader John Boehner of putting politics before national security today with his plan to force a vote on a bill that would prevent prisoners from being transferred from Guantanamo Bay to the United States.

The National Campaign To Close Guantanamo called Republican arguments that transferring Gitmo detainees to New York will endanger Americans "fear mongering." In a statement, Andrews pointed to past terror trials in the U.S. as evidence of his claim that the GOP is making political hay in the days since Attorney General Eric Holder announced that terror suspects will be tried in the U.S..

"Since 2001, 195 terrorists have been tried, convicted and locked up in federal supermax prisons on US soil under the Bush and Cheney administration," Andrews said. Boehner and other GOP leaders "never uttered a word of concern and opposition " back then, he continued, "but now that a Democratic President is doing it, the sky is going to fall and America will soon be under attack."

 Proper little Chicken Littles, aren't they?  It's good to see the generals subjecting them to the scorn they so richly deserve.

Let's also not forget just how hard the Cons have flip-flopped on terror.  They've practically turned hypocrisy into an Olympic sport.

You might get the impression that stupidity today's been largely confined to fearmongering on terrorism, but that's not quite the case.  No, the Cons have been busy pouring lighter fluid on the flames of their stupidity.  Why, here they are, whining about the debt they created.  Let's have an educational chart, shall we?

Well, my goodness me, it looks like it's Cons who typically max out the national credit card and then run out without paying the bill.  Shocker, I'm sure.

If you need ammunition against a Born-Again Deficit Virgin, click the link that chart came from.  You'll have all the ammo you could possibly want.

The Tenther movement started with health care reform, but now some Cons are trying to use it to thwart hate-crimes legislation.  All in the name of freedom o' speech, of course, ignoring the fact that what's outlawed isn't speech, but causing actual harm.

And, finally, Sen. Tom Coburn has the dubious distinction of becoming the first Senate Con to jump on the House Cons' little Muslim-bashing bandwagon:

Via Dave Weigel, it looks like Tom Coburn (R-OK) has become the first senator to cast his lot with the group of House Republicans pursuing a campaign against the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Though not explicitly invoked in a new letter to the IRS, the effort stems from purported revelations in the book Muslim Mafia, whose author recently made -- then retracted -- a call for a "backlash" against Muslims in the wake of the Fort Hood shootings.

You stay classy there, Coburn.  Alas, if you're trying to claim the crown for Most Batshit Insane Con, you've got a lot of competition.