Dumbfuckery Du Jour

I haven't had time to do Happy Hour in what seems like forever.  I probably won't have time for it any time soon.  But you, my dear and loyal patrons, deserve at least a little political snark (nearly) daily.  So let's try something, and hope the Muse doesn't put her jack-booted foot down.  Just one item, each day, that we can unleash our Smack-o-Matics upon.  It shouldn't be too much to ask.

You'll have a double Du Jour today, because I meant to highlight this yesterday and got waylaid by life, the Universe, and my damned Muse.  Look, I said nearly daily, didn't I?

So, yesterday's Dumbfuckery Du Jour: ye olde right wing proclivities for violent and dumbshit rhetoric reared their wretched heads once again.  Please do raise your hands if you're surprised.

Last summer, when organized right-wing activists were shouting down lawmakers and shutting down town-hall meetings, there was a little too much conservative talk that incorporated threats of violence. Regrettably, it hasn't gone away.

In July and August, it became unnervingly common for far-right activists to use nooses and swastikas to protest ... whatever it is that makes far-right activists so enraged. Lawmakers received death threats. Another was hanged from a noose in effigy in front of his district office.

We haven't heard as much about this of late, but the problem has obviously not gone away.

A tea party gathering in Asotin County, Washington turned more than a bit ugly on Saturday when a featured speaker actually called for the hanging of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash), the fourth ranking Democrat in the Senate and a vulnerable re-election candidate.

"How many of you have watched the movie Lonesome Dove?," asked an unidentified female speaker from the podium. "What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd? What happened to Jake when he ran with the wrong crowd. He got hung. And that's what I want to do with Patty Murray."

Remember, this wasn't just some clown standing up in the crowd to shout nonsense, or a random nutjob talking to reporters in the parking lot. This was an invited, authorized Tea Party speaker.

What's more, the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) -- generally the biggest far-right gathering of the year -- begins today in Washington. Attendees will be invited to swing a stick at a Nancy Pelosi pinata and take their best shot at a Harry Reid punching bag.

How subtle.

I want to have just a small word with the right-wing fucktards threatening my Senator.  You may think you're very clever, referencing a movie instead of flat-out saying, "I want to hang Patty Murray by the neck until she's dead."  You're not clever.  You're not funny.  You're fucked-up, violent, small-minded little shitheels who should be locked away for the greater good of society.  You may think that democracy includes the freedom to murder those you disagree with.  It does not.  You may think such rhetoric is harmless.  It is not.  Even if you're not the one whipping out the rope, you are still responsible for planting the idea of assassination in unstable minds.  Considering just how fucking unstable the Teabaggers are, this action of yours is tantamount to crying "Fire!" in a crowded theater.


Free speech allows you to make fuckheaded statements.  Common sense and common decency would suggest you refrain.  You can denigrate a politician's policies, threaten them with defeat at the ballot box, demand law enforcement take action if you believe something illegal's happening, and describe them as the lowest of lowlifes.  You can even call them bad names.  Whatever you like.  But when you fantasize about murdering them, you've crossed a line that no responsible, sober, civic-minded citizen should cross.

That is all.

Now, let's get on with today's Dumbfuckery Du Jour, before the Muse does something very not nice.  Here's an indication of just how far the right wing has fallen:

This afternoon, the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) held a debate titled “Does Security Trump Freedom?” that featured former GOP congressman and Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr, Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA), and former Bush Assistant Attorney General Viet Dinh. During one point in the debate, Barr condemned the right’s call to try terror suspects exclusively in military tribunals and defended plans to try suspects in civilian courts. He then insisted that waterboarding is torture, which prompted the crowd to start booing. As they continued to boo, he pointed to the audience and asked, “How would you like to be waterboarded? Try that!”

They booed a man for calling torture torture.  How sick is that?  Just how fucked in the head do you have to be to not only believe that torture is right and good when aimed at icky brown people plucked from the fields of the Middle East on the suspicion they might possibly maybe a little be terrorists, but to boo a man for calling a torture procedure what it is?

Tell you what.  If you're booing because you think waterboarding isn't torture, let's take Bob Barr up on his suggestion.  Let's set up a nice waterboarding tank up at CPAC.  Step right up!  Volunteers only, of course, but you big macho right-wing soldiers wouldn't be too afraid to put yourself under the waterboard, would you?  After all, according to you, it's not even torture!  It's merely a splash of water in the face!  Nice and refreshing.

My goodness.  All of the little right-wingers seem to have run away.  There's no line forming.  Volunteers seem scarce on the ground.  Could that be because waterboarding is maybe, possibly just a little bit sort of fucking torture?

For bonus CPAC fuckery, see how they react to the idea that gay people might actually have a right or two.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hang out with my Muse.  Being beaten mercilessly by a workaholic Muse is far superior to spending another five minutes contemplating the spectacular dumbfuckery that emerges from America's right wing.