They Have No Shame

Well, my darlings, the frothing insane fucktards on the right (can't even call them the extreme right, now that they've gone mainstream) are really trying to top themselves for offensive, outrageous bullshit.

Check out their amazing new Christmas carol, "Illegals in My Yard."  Really shows the reason for the season, doesn't it?  Talk about putting the Christ back in Christmas - he was a total hater, never showed compassion to society's undesirables at all.

If you're wondering what kind of Christmas presents such folks will be giving each other, here's a sampling.  They're really in to the violent, assassination-laced "jokes," aren't they?

Those kill-Obama-and-Obama-supporter t-shirts should go great with a copy of Sarah Palin's book, eh?  Why doesn't it surprise me that there's such a strong correlation between those who hate Obama and those who love a dumbshit, lying quitter like Palin?

America's right wing, ladies and gentlemen.

The Teabaggers of Easter Island

George asks,

Do you suppose there were Easter Island “conservatives” who said; “All this talk of sustainability is ridiculous!  The Big Giant Head will provide for us!  Let us build more monuments to the Big Giant Head!!!”  Were there equivalents to James Inhofe, Sarah Palin, or Glenn Beck?

You betcha!  *wink*

Global Warming Dumbfuckery Abounds

My darlings, I have the solution to our energy woes.  We can stop global warming in its tracks by tapping into a source of infinitely renewable energy.  All we have to do is tap into the endless dumbfuckery of the global warming deniers.  We can heat our homes with their fevered imaginations.  We can run our industries on with the dynamos of their denial.  We could recharge our electric cars by holding memos and emails just out of their reach on treadmills.  We'll never need oil, gas or coal again.

They're so fucking desperate they've turned to a life of crime in a pathetic attempt to discredit the science:

Burglars and hackers have attacked the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, apparently in an attempt to further the “Climategate” intimidation of global warming researchers. The Climategate smear campaign rests on the release of thousands of emails illegally hacked last month from the British Climatic Research Unit (CRU). The National Post reports that the Centre for Climate Modelling, a government institution, is also the victim of repeated criminal attacks:

Andrew Weaver, a University of Victoria scientist and key contributor to the Nobel prize-winning work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says there have been a number of attempted breaches in recent months, including two successful break-ins at his campus office in which a dead computer was stolen and papers were rummaged through.

As the United States — led by President Barack Obama — prepares to join the world in the fight against global warming, the opponents of reform are resorting to criminal desperation, harkening back to the amoral extremes of Richard Nixon.

Oh, yes.  That certainly adds to their credibility.  That puts them right up there with ALF and murderers of abortion doctors as fighters for truth, justice, and the American way.

But just in case their thefts don't destroy the science, in case all they can find is evidence for global warming as they rummage through scientists' effects, they've got a backup plan:

"Biased thermometers" are to blame for scientific data documenting a precipitous rise in global temperatures, according to Marc Morano.


Morano was Rush Limbaugh's former producer and a columnist at the rightwing "news" site, Cybercast News Service, before becoming denialist-extraordinaire Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)'s top aide on the U.S. Senate Committee on Environmental and Public Works. In 2003, Inhofe described global warming as "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people," a statement which he stills stands by today.

Morano now runs the climate denialist website ClimateDepot.com and is, essentially, the very heart of the entire climate change denialist echosphere.

[snip]


Here's the too-short debate between Morano and Balog, as hosted by CNN's Rick Sanchez, where Morano argues that the earth is actually cooling, despite scientific evidence --- based on "biased thermometers," as Morano argues, "placed near air conditioner outlets, near asphalt" --- showing this decade to be the warmest on record. We'll leave it to you to decide whose got their facts straight, the science photographer or Rush Limbaugh's former producer:

Wow.  "Biased thermometers."  That's novel.  And I suppose the "biased thermometers" are causing the melting of the Arctic sea ice, the drastic loss of Antarctic ice sheets, retreating glaciers, forest fires, droughts, and rising sea levels, because the earth's just that gullible.  It's all a psychosomatic effect.  Brilliant!

But "biased thermometer" man and the happy gang of smash-and-grab goobers aren't the only ones fighting the science of global warming.  Billionaire right-wing fucktard David Koch is pouring tons of cash into the fight:

In an op-ed in the Boston Globe yesterday, I observed that Koch has manufactured a positive image for himself by giving to laudable causes, while at the same time, quietly “funneling tens of millions of dollars to more subterranean efforts that reflect his conservative politics.” Despite his funding of the Smithsonian, Koch has done more to politicize and and undermine the public’s understanding of science than any other single person. Koch has funded the leading groups dedicated to spreading skepticism of climate change:

– Koch’s Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing tea party group which Koch founded in 1984 and continues to finance, has just announced that it will send a team of political operatives to Copenhagen for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. AFP intends to hold a press conference to attack any climate change solution the President promises as a mistake that will “kill jobs here” and “infringe on our personal and national freedoms.”

– Koch has funded the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has been the most aggressive conservative front group heralding hacked e-mails as proof that climate change does not exist.

– Koch funds the “Hot Air Tour,” a campaign led by lobbyists stopping in cities across the country to call into question the science underpinning climate change. The tour also features an actual hot air balloon to illustrate their beleif that climate change science is just “hot air.”

The National Academy of Sciences, the US Global Change Research Program, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have all come to the same conclusion: “that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use and the loss of carbon-sink capacity in heavily timbered forests are increasing temperatures and making oceans more acidic.” David Koch’s Koch Industries derives much of its profit from its oil refineries, one of the major emitters of carbon dioxide, and from its George-Pacific timber subsidiary, one of the largest contributors to the loss of carbon-sink capacity.

And if you thought Bush's gang of nitwits were done fucking the country over when Obama took over the White House, think again.

Why are they all so frantic, you may ask?  Well, it could have something to do with the fact that world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen to hash out a game plan for dealing with the climate crisis.  And it could have something to do with the EPA's stark findings:

As expected, the Environmental Protection Agency is poised to formally declare that greenhouse gases are a dangerous public-health hazard and must be regulated by the government. The "endangerment finding" is the result of a study ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 on the effects of greenhouse gas pollution on human health and welfare.

Whether Congress approves a cap-and-trade measure or not, the conclusion raises the specter of combating global warming through the regulatory process of the Clean Air Act. As you may have heard, business groups, to put it mildly, aren't fond of that idea.

[snip]

Today's EPA declaration should help crystallize the near-future for polluters: back cap and trade or the EPA won't have much of a choice. It's your call.

That's why they know their only hope is to destroy the science.  Alas for them, there's too much science.  And even if it weren't for the science, we're going to have a lot of Pacific Island nations underwater soon enough who will be happy to put a human face on the cost of global warming.

So, you may ask, what can you, as a person intelligent enough to realize we must do something about global warming, do?  Use your energies wisely.  And some genius inventor needs to get to work on that stupidity-to-energy conversion device.

Invalid Arguments

Deary, deary me.  It seems that Cons, various deniers, and other such idiots have seized upon leaked emails to declare science dead:

The right's misuse of the old, stolen emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit continues in increasingly foolish ways.

The Wall Street Journal's Daniel Henninger, for example, argues today that the CRU materials are evidence proving that "science is dying." He went on to describe the release of the stolen emails as "an epochal event."

And people wonder why the WSJ editorial page isn't taken seriously.

Well, it isn't taken seriously by people with two functioning neurons, anyway.

Listen up, people.  A few snarky emails among scientists do not invalidate science, just like Newton's snarky personal letters do not invalidate calculus and laws of motion.  Scientists in East Anglia may have been snarky, but the earth still warms.  A few ill-tempered internet exchanges can't refute the mountains of evidence from multiple sources.

But I see how it is.  We're dealing with people who can't be swayed by science, reason, or evidence.  There's only one thing to do: speak to them in terms they might, possibly, be able to comprehend.

Alas, I am afraid that even this level of discourse is too sophisticated for these dipshits.  One can but try.



Update: go here for a list of changes since Kyoto.  It ain't pretty.

Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

I didn't blog this over the weekend because it should've been a foregone conclusion, and I really couldn't get excited over it, but Dems managed to stick together just enough to ensure that the Senate health care reform bill could be debated.  Of course, now, Conservadems are posturing against the public option, and making sure we all know they're still perfectly willing to fuck us over in favor of the insurance companies.  Joyous.

Joe Lieberman has a new excuse as to why he hates the public option.  This month, he's against it because he says we've never done anything like this before.  I somehow doubt that, what with all the public/private competition we've got in this country.

The most important thing to remember about these dumbshit Dems (and the idiot Independent who pretends to caucus with Dems) is not Lieberman's lengthy history of piss-poor excuses.  No, it's the fact that Blanche Lincoln was for the public option before she was against it.  In fact, she was for the public option while she was against it:

But as Igor Volsky noted, as recently as yesterday, Lincoln's own website argued, "Individuals should be able to choose from a range of quality health insurance plans. Options should include private plans as well as a quality, affordable public plan or non-profit plan that can accomplish the same goals of a public plan."

That was the senator's official position a day after Lincoln stood on the floor of the Senate, "promising" to join a Republican filibuster of health care reform "as long as a government-run public option is included" in the bill.

After Volsky's post, Lincoln's office changed the senator's official position, scrubbing the page of any references to allowing consumers to choose among competing plans.

Can't cover your tracks that easily, Blanche.  You are so very, very fucked.  Paging Mike Stark...

Greg Sargent thinks Conservadems will realize the urgency of passing health care reform, and will, possibly, ultimately do the right thing.  Color me skeptical.  But perhaps polls showing that not passing reform murders Dem electoral chances will help clarify things for them. Perhaps not.  They're cunning, but they're not exactly smart.

They're certainly not willing to do the right thing.  Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet is.  And he doesn't care jack diddly shit about the political cost.  I hope he sits the Conservadems down for a long talk.

Let's hope Sebelius's state-by-state impact assessment of health care reform will help a few Dems see the light as well.

But enough about Dems.  Let's talk about Con fuckery.  There's plenty of it.  In fact, the sheer volume of lies pouring from Cons' lips is overwhelming:

Looking over the rapid-response list, the efficiency of the DNC operation is impressive, but the key takeaway is more important: Good lord, Republicans sure do lie a lot about health care.

I mean, GOP lawmakers weren't even close to the truth. Watching the debate as it unfolded, one got the sense that reform's opponents either know literally nothing about the issue at hand, prefer almost pathological levels of dishonesty, or perhaps both.

Over the weekend, Josh Marshall noted in passing that the congressional GOP lied quite a bit during the 1994 reform debate, but Republicans are now "upping their game ... lying even more shamelessly than in round 1."

That's because they've discovered there are no consequences for endless lying.  Teabaggers love it, and most Americans are too fucking clueless to realize they're being lied and lied and lied to.

In fact, the GOP has become so shameless that they feel perfectly comfortable claiming a number they just made up as gospel truth.  They're now saying health care reform will cost $2.5 trillion.  Where did this number come from?  Apparently, Sen. Gregg's ass:

It appears as if the number comes from a press release from Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-NH), written the morning after the CBO released its analysis, which reads "American taxpayers are about to see an unprecedented expansion of the federal government that will cost a staggering $2.5 trillion when fully implemented."

 The underlying critique has a tiny bit of merit to it. Democrats did indeed diminish the 10 year cost by delaying the tax-and-benefit provisions for a few years after the bill becomes law--they felt they needed to push some key reforms down the road a year to keep the bill's 10 year cost from exceeding Obama's $900 billion top line. Hence the caveat "when fully implemented." But even if you were to start the clock in 2014, and stop it in 2024, the number $2.5 trillion seems to have been made entirely out whole cloth. Perhaps a projection line drawn arbitrarily on a graph cooked up by a Republican Budget Committee staffer.

And, of course, the critique elides the fact that, whatever the federal responsibility for health care becomes as a result of this bill, it's projected to dramatically reduce the deficit in both the near and long term.

Of course it does, because that's the truth, which is something Cons seem deathly allergic to.

Here's something even more outrageous: Gov. Barbour touting Mississippi as a model of health care reform when it "rates 51 (out of 50 states plus DC) in health care ranking."  Yup.  Sure is a perfect example - of what not to do.

So what are the Cons' allies up to?  Well, the Chamber of Commerce wants to kill health care reform so they have a better chance at killing climate change legislation later on.  The gun lobby's trying to kill health care reform because they have some paranoid fantasy that health care reform means all their guns will be taken away.  And Teabaggers are busy laughing at families who have suffered a tragedy:

From Chicago journalist Kristen McQueary, this deplorable story:

As a journalist covering Chicago politics, verifying information is like climbing a mountain of sand. With each step you take, the deeper you sink.

Last week while researching claims from a local Tea Party activist, I found myself asking a family for proof that they had lost an unborn grandchild.

The family, Dan and Midge Hough, of Chicago, spoke in favor of health care reform and in support of U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-3rd) at a Nov. 14 town hall meeting in Oak Lawn.

Their daughter-in-law, Jenny, and an unborn grandchild died recently due in part, they believe, to a lack of health insurance. They said Jenny was not receiving regular prenatal care and ended up in an emergency room with double pneumonia that developed into septic shock. Her baby died in the womb, and Jenny died a few weeks later, leaving behind a husband and a 2-year-old daughter.

Catherina Wojtowicz, of Chicago's Mount Greenwood community, an organizer for a Tea Party splinter group, Chicago Tea Party Patriots, falsely claimed that the Houghs fabricated their story. In an e-mail, she called them operatives of President Barack Obama who "go from event to event and (cry) the same story."

When the Houghs spoke at the Lipinski event, some Tea Partiers ridiculed them. They moaned and rolled their eyes and interrupted. Midge Hough began to cry.

Such a credit to their cause, aren't they?  Despicable dipshits.

In case anyone else needed any more proof we need reform, check out the results of the free clinic Keith Olbermann helped sponsor. You know, the one where people with diabetes, heart failure, and breast cancer haven't been able to get any sort of health care until now.

With all of the Con fuckery eagerly aided and abetted by Conservadem fuckery, I haven't been too hopeful about reform.  But here's news that makes me hope that something good will come out of this bill: it appears the Senate version strips Congress of its health insurance and throws them into the exchanges.  Kevin Drum reports it was a dirty trick by Grassley that went horribly awry, since Max Baucus decided it was a great idea and happily threw it into the mix.

I haven't had any inclination to congratulate Grassley or Baucus, but I have to offer them a heartfelt muchos gracias, even though in Grassley's case the good was unintentional.  Because if this resolution stays in, that means Congress is going to have to ensure that health care reform works, as they'll be suffering right along with the rest of it.

It's about fucking time.

Let's Talk About Boobs

Specifically, the boobs who are throwing a hysterical fit over the new breast cancer screening recommendations:

On Wednesday, a group of women GOP lawmakers held a press conference to denounce a new recommendation by the federal Preventive Services Task Force that women receive mammograms less frequently. “This is how rationing begins,” said Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). “This is the little toe in the edge of the water.”

[snip]

As the Washington Independent’s Mike Lillis notes, the concern of the congresswomen about rationed mammograms is especially ironic considering that they oppose legislation that “would require insurance companies that cover diagnostic mammograms also to cover routine, annual breast cancer screenings for all women 40 and older.”

Lessee.  Hypocrisy, check.  Ridiculous fearmongering, check.  Failure to comprehend simple words like "recommendation," check.  Pure Con dumbfuckery.

But if you're tempted to fall for a Con, or if you're just confused over what's best for your health, or if you want to see a breast cancer researcher take down the bullshit in stunning detail, you can head on over to Orac's Repectful Insolence blog and read the following:

"Obama's fixin' death panels for your mama," the misogyny gambit, and other idiotic responses to the updated USPSTF mammography recommendations

"Obama's fixin' death panels for your mama": The USPSTF recommendations for mammography used as a political weapon

A two-part takedown that is truly Oracian in scope and insolence.  And if you still want more, there's always really rethinking breast cancer screening.

Funny how Con talking points and fearmongering just don't have the same impact when you're armed with the facts, innit?

Texas Anti-Gay Fervor Screws Homophobes

Happily married in Texas?  Are you sure you're married, happily or un?

Not according to the Texas constitution:

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state.

The amendment, approved by the Legislature and overwhelmingly ratified by voters, declares that "marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman." But the troublemaking phrase, as Radnofsky sees it, is Subsection B, which declares:

"This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

Architects of the amendment included the clause to ban same-sex civil unions and domestic partnerships. But Radnofsky, who was a member of the powerhouse Vinson & Elkins law firm in Houston for 27 years until retiring in 2006, says the wording of Subsection B effectively "eliminates marriage in Texas," including common-law marriages.

And if you don't think that amendment pertains to you just because one spouse has twig-and-berries and the other doesn't, and you're officially married with a license and everything, you've got another think coming.  Just ask any lawyer who knows what "legal status identical or similar to marriage" means.

Looks like the homophobes have fucked over their sacred institution rather badly, dunnit?  Excuse me while I go laugh my ass off.  Damn, I love poetic justice.

Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

The Cons are desperate.  You know how I know they're desperate?  Because they play the terrorist card whenever they're on the verge of losing.  And if you thought death panels were over-the-top, well, you ain't seen nothing yet.

I'm going to have to start calling her "Washington State's Shame:"

Rep. Virginia Foxx's (R-N.C.) looked pretty ridiculous yesterday when she said Americans have "more to fear" from health care reform than "from any terrorist right now in any country." But it seems the health=terror concept is catching on in GOP circles.

House Republican Conference Vice Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), who is leading this week's campaign by GOP women to attack the House Democratic health care bill, on Tuesday compared the proposal to an "internal" terrorist attack.

McMorris Rodgers initially avoided endorsing comments made Monday by her colleague, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).... But when pressed on whether the bill represented something as grave as a terrorist attack, McMorris Rodgers drew a line between the nature of terrorism and the effect of the Democratic proposal.

"I would say it's the difference between an internal versus an external attack. Yes," McMorris Rodgers said. The Democratic bill "is internal. This is rocking our foundation."

Given the prevalence of this talking point, it almost seems coordinated. Foxx compared reform to terrorism yesterday. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) made the same comparison last week.

Think it stops there?  Oh, ye who hath little understanding of how the Cons tend to get on a stupidity roll:

Glenn Beck must have been feeling the pressure from Virginia Foxx yesterday in the Absurd Wingnuttery Championships. So, after Foxx compared the liberal health-care reform package working its way through Congress to terrorism, Beck went on his Fox News show and compared the package to the 9/11 attacks:

Beck: On 9/11, we experienced a feeling we had never had before -- when the buildings and our markets and the economy came falling down around our ears, we realized -- 'Oh my gosh. Our country isn't unsinkable.'

We came, on that day, to the understanding that this Republic is fragile. Here we are now, a decade later. I'm on the air again, warning you that our government cannot sustain our massive spending. The system will collapse if we continue down this progressive path.

Where Glenn Beck goes, Cons in Congress follow.  I'm sure we'll hear plenty more about how health care reform is sooo much worse than those horrible terrorists.  And I have to tell you something.  If I run across someone stupid enough to fall for this ridiculous bullshit, I'm having them locked up as a danger to self and others.  That much burning stupid can't be allowed out of the streets.  People might get burned.

This talk of terrorists has nearly overwhelmed the greatest good news of all.  The Cons have a health care "reform" bill of their very own now!  Of course, if you have a pre-existing condition, you're fucked, despite all that lovely talk from Cons earlier about how folks shouldn't be turned down for having pre-existing conditions.  Oh, and if your state has awesome protections for consumers, you can bet your plans won't, since the Cons' bill lets insurers choose the states with the worst regulations.  Oh, and if you really, really wanted bipartisanship, you ain't getting it with this bill, because the Cons didn't include a single, solitary Dem idea, not even one of the 80% of them the Cons claimed they agreed with. 

Otherwise, I'm sure it'll be awesome, although we won't know until the rest of it's made public.  I can't hardly wait.

Elsewhere in health care reform stupidity, Blue Dogs are rooting for failure (what a shocker, I know) and Mary Landrieu's still a fucking moron.

But at least the cavalry's finally arrived for the public option: Obama's political operation's pushing hard for it.

We're in the home stretch, my darlings.  We might even see reform before we're old, gray and on Medicare.  Just don't hold your breath, because that might be considered a pre-existing condition...

Evvil Halloween Candy! Eeeevvviiiilllll!

I know, Halloween's over.  But I'm sure some bags are still full of candy, and stupidity like this is everlasting:

First up from the God Machine this week is Halloween-related news from TV preacher Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. In a truly bizarre piece, CBN published fears from Kimberly Daniels about Halloween, which, I assure you, was not a parody.

During Halloween, time-released curses are always loosed. A time-released curse is a period that has been set aside to release demonic activity and to ensnare souls in great measure ...

During this period demons are assigned against those who participate in the rituals and festivities. These demons are automatically drawn to the fetishes that open doors for them to come into the lives of human beings. For example, most of the candy sold during this season has been dedicated and prayed over by witches.

I do not buy candy during the Halloween season. Curses are sent through the tricks and treats of the innocent whether they get it by going door to door or by purchasing it from the local grocery store. The demons cannot tell the difference.

The CBN piece, which was eventually removed from the site out of embarrassment, went on to say, "While the lukewarm and ignorant think of these customs as 'just harmless fun,' the vortexes of hell are releasing new assignments against souls. Witches take pride in laughing at the ignorance of natural men (those who ignore the spirit realm).... The danger of Halloween is not in the scary things we see but in the secret, wicked, cruel activities that go on behind the scenes." These "scary things" include, according to the article, "orgies between animals and humans," "animal and human sacrifices," and "sacrificing babies to shed innocent blood."

My friend the Rev. Barry W. Lynn noted, "I've heard of the devil being in the details, but to think he's lurking inside a Snickers bar is a little too much. Pat Robertson has always peddled some scary stuff, but this is over the top."

Consider something.  If this kind of over-the-top idiocy was spouted by, oh, say, UFO buffs or some little cult in a compound in Buttfuck, Nowhere, then they'd be candidates for commitment to an insane asylum or a federal raid, or possibly both.  But they're Christians, so they're considered by the majority to be not only sane, but privy to the secrets of God hisownself. 

I'm not sure which is more insane - the "witches have cursed our candy!" crowd or the apologists who expect us to take this bullshit seriously.

Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

Actually, some of it's not terribly stupid today.  The House, of course, unveiled its health care reform bill.  It ain't got a robust public option, but it's got a strong one, and sometimes in politics, it's necessary to settle for good enough.  Not that Rep. Grijalva's given up the good fight just yet.

So, how's the plan?  Well, Sen. Conrad's happy - so happy, in fact, he's even agreed to side with his caucus on a procedural vote on the Senate bill.  Amazing.  The CBO's happy.  President Obama's happy.  AHIP's totally not happy.  And it outlaws using domestic violence as a pre-existing condition, along with some other goodies.  I haven't seen a lot of analysis on it yet, but the fact that AHIP's screaming makes me feel rather good about the results.

Yes, I'm that not nice.

There's still some hangups regarding abortion.  Here's something those anti-choice fucktards who are ready to derail health care reform because they don't understand how this stuff works should consider carefully:

Time's Amy Sullivan had an item yesterday, unrelated to Stupak's specific argument, which addressed the larger issue nicely.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the fungibility argument that many pro-life groups and politicians have employed to oppose health reform. The problem, they say, is that if any insurance plan that covers abortion is allowed to participate in a public exchange, then premiums paid to that plan in the form of taxpayer-funded subsidies help support that abortion coverage even if individual abortion procedures are paid for out of a separate pool of privately-paid premium dollars. You can debate about whether it makes sense to use this strict standard, but that's the argument.

But are those pro-life organizations holding themselves to the same strict standard? As it happens, Focus on the Family provides its employees health insurance through Principal, an insurance company that covers "abortion services." A Focus spokeswoman confirmed the fact that the organization pays premiums to Principal, but declined to comment on whether that amounts to an indirect funding of abortion.

Even if the specific plan Focus uses for its employees doesn't include abortion coverage -- and I'm assuming it doesn't -- the organization and its employees still pay premiums to a company that funds abortions. If health reform proposals have a fungibility problem, then Focus does as well. And if they don't think they do have a fungibility problem, then it would be interesting to hear why they think the set-up proposed in health reform legislation is so untenable.

Might I just suggest to the anti-choicers that they shut the fuck up before they make themselves look even dumber?  I know they won't take that advice, but then at least I can say "I told you so, you ginormous fucktards."

The Party of No is busy whining about how horrible, awful, no good and terrible the Dems' bill is, but when pressed, still can't tell us what their own ideas are, and what's more, probably won't have them up on the intertoobz for public consideration when they finally do come up with some, as they've so often demanded of the Dems.  Typical, innit?

Finally, the GOP Stunt o' the Day: Mitch McConnell jumps a veritable school of sharks:

In an interview on Dennis Miller’s radio show yesterday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the public option “may cost you your life”:

MCCONNELL: Well, it doesn’t make any difference frankly whether you opt-in or you opt-out, it’s still a government plan. You know, Medicaid, the program for the poor now, states can opt-out of that, but none of them have. I think if you have any kind of government insurance program, you’re going to be stuck with it and it will lead us in the direction of the European style, you know, sort of British-style, single payer, government run system. And those systems are known for delays, denial of care and, you know, if your particular malady doesn’t fit the government regulation, you don’t get the medication.

MILLER: Right.

MCCONNELL: And it may cost you your life. I mean, we don’t want to go down that path.

[snip]

Unsurprisingly, McConnell has gotten his facts wrong when he’s described other health care systems.

Color me shocked.

We'll see how many sharks the Cons jump as reform draws closer to passage.  I hear they've been practicing for a record-breaker...

The Necessity Defense

Look what the anti-choice zealots are up to now:

Judy Thomas in the Kansas City Star has an amazing piece (picked up by MSNBC) about the online fund-raiser being planned for Scott Roeder, the right-wing extremist who shot Dr. George Tiller in the head in his church:

An Army of God manual. A prison cookbook compiled by a woman doing time for abortion clinic bombings and arsons. An autographed bullhorn.

These are among the items that abortion foes plan to auction on eBay and other Web sites in a fundraiser for Scott Roeder, the Kansas City man charged with killing Wichita abortion doctor George Tiller.

“This is unique,” said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City anti-abortion activist who will sign the bullhorn. “Nobody’s ever done this before. The goal is that everybody makes money for Scott Roeder’s defense.”

One abortion-rights leader called the auction deplorable and said it could lead to more violence.

“The network of extremists promoting and defending the murder of doctors is contributing to escalating threats against clinics and doctors across the country,” said Kathy Spillar, executive vice president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Roeder, charged with first-degree murder in the May 31 shooting of Tiller, is scheduled to go to trial in January.

Perhaps even more appalling is the line of defense they hope to pursue in the courts with this money:

Leach and others would like to help Roeder hire a lawyer to present what is known as a necessity defense. That strategy would argue that Tiller was killed to prevent a greater harm — killing babies. Other anti-abortion activists charged with violent crimes have tried to use such a defense but with little success.

Yeah, let's legalize killing abortion doctors. Sounds like a job for Antonin Scalia. One can only hope this defense has zero success, as it has in the past.

I'm sure they're heroes in their own minds.

They'd better hope they lose.  The "necessity defense" is an awfully slippery slope.  And let me just say this: if you're zealot enough to believe murder's necessary for your cause, you should be zealot enough to take the punishment afterward.  Otherwise, all you are is a violent little coward without the courage of your convictions.

Oh, Goody - Teabag 2.0

Yup.  They're still loud, proud, and going for the gold in Epic Stupid:

Whenever I get too frustrated with my liberal brethren I spend some time over at the astroturf ersatz grassroots online organization Resistnet reminding myself of what the teabaggers are up to. It never fails to put things in perspective.

I wrote the other day about the teabaggers Next Big Thing, which is Countdown to Judgment Day. (Never say they are too subtle...) They have launched the new Teabag Express II, which is going all across the country spreading the good word, culminating in the national launch of the 2010 campaign to throw the Democrats out of office. Their stated philosophy is this:

Let’s stand up and stop the bailouts, cap and trade, out-of-control spending, government-run healthcare, and higher taxes! We’re back and determined to take our country back!

No word on what they're for, but I think it's evident, don't you?

They have a message board, which is a lot of fun to read. I particularly like this one:

HOW TO CONTACT YOUR CONGRESSMAN TO SHUT DOWN CONGRESS OVER HEALTH CARE - The Way Gingrich Did In The 1990’S (over taxes) - simple, fast and effective

They are all furiously writing to Republican congressmen telling them to emulate Gingrich and shut down the government. It's kind of adorable.

But it's also kind of scary how dumb they are. Gingrich shut down the government in 1995 and it was widely considered the main impetus for Clinton winning re-election the next year.

I'm thrilled they're keeping busy.  Less work for us come next election cycle.  Heh.

Just for good measure (and because your cantinera is, once again, buggering out early for some quality time with her characters), have some LOLTeabaggers:

 

They're so precious, aren't they?

You Bring the Marshmallows, I'll Bring the Books

This is about the best frothing fundamentalism I've seen all month (h/t):

Memo to Amazing Grace Baptist Church: YOU ARE SO DUMB, YOU'RE ALMOST CUTE.

There are all kinds of stupid. There's some stupid that really sticks in my fucking craw, like that asshole in Louisiana that I'll probably be taking issue with on Monday. If you follow the blogs, you know who I mean. And then there's the kind of dumb that's just funny. The kind of dumb that's trying too hard. The kind of dumb that thinks it's breaking a huge cultural taboo, but in reality just makes no sense.

And so it is with the Amazing Grace Baptist Church, nestled away in Canton, North Carolina, and their hilarious decision to hold a Halloween book burning.

A Halloween book burning is a lot like a five-year-old motion-activated ghost. You know, one that was bought for full price at Target, dragged out for a couple of weeks every year, and never had the batteries replaced. It's marketed as being all scaaaaaaary, but we've seen it over and over again, and it's just sounding weak and pathetic at this point.

So, what works of Satan are on the list for the Amazing Grace bonfire? Well, to start, they'll be burning all versions of the Bible that aren't the King James. So if you're a scholar with some old manuscripts or the Dead Sea Scrolls in your satchel, stay the fuck out of Canton, NC on Halloween. I presume they'll also be throwing a netbook loaded up to the Conservative Bible Project on there as well.

They'll also be burning the works of "heretics", which, to Amazing Grace Baptist, means The Pope, Mother Theresa, Billy Graham, and Rick Warren. Purpose-driven S'mores, anyone? That is some serious commitment to fundamentalism, I'll give them that much. But they have to be committed - there's only fourteen of them. Awesome. They're three people away from being Westboro.

They'll also be burning "Satan's music", which again, you would THINK would be the Brutal Legend soundtrack, but Amazing Grace's laser-like focus on right-wing Christianity for not being authentic enough, they're actually going to be burning country CDs, Southern gospel, and contemporary Christian. I tell you, these guys are my new favorite zealots.

Awesome.  I need to see about clearing out some of my old religious research books and head on down.  We should all go.  It's Halloween, for fuck's sake.  What could be more fun than a bunch of atheists, agnostics, pagans, assorted other heathen folk, and liberal Christians showing up for the big book burning dressed as frothing fundies, only to reveal our true selves at the end?

Who's bringing the chocolate for the s'mores?

This Is How Unhinged The Right's Getting

The Secret Service is so snowed under with threats (and not just against Obama, mind you) that they're considering giving up some of their other raisons d’être:

The threats against President Obama and other U.S. leaders are putting a strain on the Secret Service that's overwhelming the agency.

The unprecedented number of death threats against President Obama, a rise in racist hate groups, and a new wave of antigovernment fervor threaten to overwhelm the US Secret Service, according to government officials and reports, raising new questions about the 144-year-old agency's overall mission.

The Secret Service is tracking a far broader range of possible threats to the nation's leaders, the officials said, even as it also investigates financial crimes such as counterfeiting as part of its original mandate.

The new demands are leading some officials, both inside and outside the agency, to raise the possibility of the service curtailing or dropping its role in fighting financial crime to focus more on protecting leaders and their families from assassination attempts and thwarting terrorist plots aimed at high-profile events.

Even as the size of the Secret Service's staff and budget grow, the agency is struggling to keep up with demands on its time. On the one hand, the Secret Service is still in the business of investigating financial crimes, searching for missing and exploited children, and possibly even expanding its role in probing mortgage fraud. On the other, domestic threats against U.S. leaders, most notably the president, have escalated considerably.

Threatening language has also found its way into talk radio broadcasts and social networking websites, raising fears that individuals not normally considered threats to the president could be incited to violence.

Gee.  Whodathunk that Beck, Limbaugh, Coulter et al could've created such a perfect storm of stupidity, paranoia and fear that your common idiot might take up a gun and start shooting any and every evil librul they can lay lead on, eh? 

It's pretty fucking sad we as a country have come to this.  It really is.

Not Just Your Daily Dose of Health Care Reform Stupidity

The Cons & Friends apparently focused their stupid elsewhere today, so we're going to concentrate on that. However, we can't help mentioning the fact that Eric Cantor can't read polls.  And even Bob Dole, who helped kill health care reform back in the 90s, thinks Cons are being a right bunch of nitwits.  Meanwhile, petitioners want Harry Reid to show some leadership and whip Dems who might support a Con filibuster into shape, but poor Harry Reid's supposedly helpless to do so.  Maybe the 30 Dem senators who signed a letter in support of the public option can do the job for him.  Or perhaps the lure of the opt-out compromise, which Dems as disparate as Dean and Baucus like, will keep idiots like Ben Nelson from running with the Cons.  Finally, here's a good question: whither the incentive for insurance companies to treat their customers like humans if we can't sue their arses?

There ye go.  Nice, concentrated dose.  Now we can move on to the vast amounts of other stupid that flooded my computer today.

We'll have the outrageous bits first.  Oklahoma's got a new abortion law that's truly repulsive:

On Nov. 1, a law in Oklahoma will go into effect that will collect personal details about every single abortion performed in the state and post them on a public website. Implementing the measure will “cost $281,285 the first year and $256,285 each subsequent year.” Here are the first eight questions that women will have to reveal:

1. Date of abortion
2. County in which abortion performed
3. Age of mother
4. Marital status of mother
(married, divorced, separated, widowed, or never married)
5. Race of mother
6. Years of education of mother
(specify highest year completed)
7. State or foreign country of residence of mother
8. Total number of previous pregnancies of the mother
Live Births
Miscarriages
Induced Abortions

Although the questionnaire does not ask for name, address, or “any information specifically identifying the patient,” as Feminists for Choice points out, these eight questions could easily be used to identify a woman in a small community.

I guess anti-choicers aren't satisfied with mere abortion doctors getting murdered.  If they can't publicly shame women into letting someone else control their bodies, they'll make sure their fanatic followers can deal out the punishment.  Charming.

Think I'm overstating the case?  Then you haven't been paying attention to the right-wing forced-pregnancy machine.

Other right-wing radicals are happily proclaiming they will overthrow the United States government.  They're prepared to do so violently, because waiting for an election like the left did isn't good enough.  Perhaps that's because they suspect the Con party's too batshit crazy to win.  Oh, ye of little faith in America's stupidity.

But enough of the disgusting bullshit from extremeists (i.e., the majority of the Republican party and its current followers).  Let's have a little fun at their expense, shall we?

I don't know what these Teabaggers were doing whining about their tax burden, because they didn't pay their taxes. 

Shorter Jeb Bush: "Leave Georgie allloooonnnneeee!"

And the next time some right-wing dumbshit wants to talk Communism with you, tell them you'll be more than happy to do so.  Let us, in fact, have a nice conversation about corporate communism.  I'm afraid it won't be a very nice conversation for them, but that's what happens when raw reality hits nekkid stupidity upside the head with a clue-by-four.

Neocons Desperate for Yet Another War

So, Obama has a chat with Iran and comes away with all sorts of goodies.  It looks like diplomacy will do quite well dealing with any nuclear threat on that front.

This is the neocons' worst nightmare, and they are now busily trying to drum up another war.  Here's Lindsey Graham and his good buddy Saxby, working themselves to orgasm over the idea of total war:

Sen. Lindsey Graham believes the US should shoulder the responsibility of attacking Iran if an attack is necessary. An attack by the US is preferable to an an attack by Israel, according to Graham.

"I think an Israeli attack on Iran is a nightmare for the world, because it will rally the Arab world around Iran and they're not aligned now. It's too much pressure to put on Israel," Graham told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

He continued, "Military action should be the last resort anyone looks at, and I would rather our allies and us take military action if it's necessary."

But Graham doesn't think an attack should be limited to airstrikes on Iran's nuclear facilities. "If we use military action against Iran, we should not only go after their nuclear facilities. We should destroy their ability to make conventional war. They should have no planes that can fly and no ships that can float," said Graham.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss agrees. "The problem with military action also is that you're probably not going to be able to stop the production of uranium by just a simple airstrike. Lindsey's right. It's an all or nothing deal. And is it worth that at this point in time when we know they have the capability. We can slow them down, but a full-out military strike is what it would take," said Chambliss.

I'm surprised they didn't just suggest dropping enough nuclear weapons on the place to wipe everybody out.  Maybe they're afraid that wouldn't be enough fun.

Well, the neocons can't allow us to have peace through that icky touchy-feely diplomacy stuff, so nothing for it but to try to replay the run-up to the Iraq war:

Helene Cooper typed up the fears of anonymous officials wondering if the agreements in the first round of talks, including a deal where Iran would ship its enriched uranium to Russia to ensure that it would be used for peaceful purposes, were just a tactic by the Iranians to "buy time." Practically the same article popped up in the LA Times, as "experts and government officials" questioned whether the timeline for IAEA inspectors to visit the recently revealed facility at Qom represented another stall tactic. Amid this suspicion, neocon emeritus Elliott Abrams surmised that Iranians would not oppose a military attack on their own country, because there's nothing dissidents enjoy more than bombs raining on their heads (the reformers don't want sanctions either, it will hurt ordinary Iranians rather than the ruling regime). And today, this bombshell is splashed across the New York Times:

Senior staff members of the United Nations nuclear agency have concluded in a confidential analysis that Iran has acquired “sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable” atom bomb.

[snip]

They even had to go to Canada to drop one rumor:

Iran has tried to acquire materials for a nuclear weapon in Canada, according to a top official in Canada's Border Services Agency.

George Webb, head of the agency's Counter Proliferation Section, says customs officers have seized centrifuge parts (centrifuges are used to enrich uranium) and electronic components for bombs and guidance systems.

Webb made the claims in a story published Thursday in Canada's National Post [...]

The article, however, offers nothing to corroborate Webb's claims and reports them without even a hint of skepticism, except to say that "The devices can be used in peaceful nuclear plants but are also required to produce nuclear weapons" and to note that there have been few arrests and no convictions in connection with Webb's far-reaching claims.

But skepticism is merited. The government claims and breathless media reporting – without adequate evidence – that Iran is a grave and looming threat is reminiscent of the same claims and media coverage in the lead-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, as several commentators have pointed out. Remember Saddam Hussein's horde of yellowcake uranium?

Indeed.

Don't forget, America: we've heard this bullshit before. Fool us once...

Let's not let it happen again.

Rick Moran Takes Fellow Conservatives to the Woodshed

Not that they'll listen to him, but he gave them a right and proper spanking.  Good on him.

Census Worker Hanged

This is horrific:

When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drawing on years of experience warned: "Be careful."

The 51-year-old Sparkman was found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery and had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.

With Faux News ranting about FEMA concentration camps and Michele Bachmann fearmongering over the Census, I guarantee that this tragedy will not be the last.

Words have consequences.

But Really, They're Not Racists: Cheap Accusation Edition

An excellent pwn by Phoenix Woman:

The people who pushed to censor President Obama's speech, and who habitually call him a Communist or Socialist (and who call the public option "communism") are not only the same ones who approve of Bush and Reagan speaking to our kids, they (or their parents) were running around in the 1960s calling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a Commie, and holding up signs at anti-civil-rights protests that read "RACE MIXING IS COMMUNISM".

Oh, you say, that was forty-plus years ago! Surely nobody exists today who believes that?!

Why, yes they do, and as Lean Left points out, they write for "respectable" conservative magazines like the National Review, and emit (as Lisa Schiffren did back in 2008) things like this concerning President Obama's white mother and black father:

… Political correctness was invented precisely to prevent the mainstream liberal media from persuing the questions which might arise about how Senator Obama’s mother, from Kansas, came to marry an African graduate student. Love? Sure, why not? But what else was going on around them that made it feasible? Before readers level cheap accusations of racism — let’s recall that the very question of interracial marriage only became a big issue later in the 1960s. The notion of a large group of mixed race Americans became an issue during and after the Vietnam War. Even the civil-rights movement kept this culturally explosive matter at arm’s distance.

It was, of course, an explicit tactic of the Communist party to stir up discontent among American blacks, with an eye toward using them as the leading edge of the revolution.

Lisa Schiffren, you're a racist and an asshat. That accusation wasn't cheap, but believe me, you earned every penny.

The Answer

It can be hard responding to the "I know you are but what am I?" crowd. You know the ones. They get this smug little smile when we call them a fatheaded bunch of raving lunatics and say, "Well, you hated Bush." Like that's somehow equivalent. It's like comparing our mauling by mountain lions to their nip from an elderly housecat. Anyone with one functioning neuron should be able to see the difference.

I've never come up with a snappy comeback. The best I've managed is "Are you completely retarded or just really special?" Alas, that is an insult to mentally challenged people, and it doesn't really get the point across anyway.

That's why I'm glad Heather at Crooks and Liars finally put it all into reasonably brief words for me:

In Matthew Dowd's world, the left being upset about being lied into war, the spying, the torture, stolen elections, using 9-11 to scare the crap out of the American public, tax breaks for the rich who don't need it, using the Department of Justice as a political arm of the White House and getting a Governor thrown into jail, outing a CIA agent because her husband dared to speak out against Dick Cheney, putting industry hacks in charge of every government oversight agency, and I could go on but I'll stop... being upset about those things is exactly the same as the right wing freaking out over a speech given to school children by President Obama. I don't think so.

Yo.