Hangover Discurso

It's time to catch all you all up on what political fuckery was coming down the pike while I was busy stuffing my face with pizza in the grand company of my old team.

Am I ashamed of my derelection of duty? Oh, fuck, no. It was really good pizza. And now, for dessert: pollyticks.

Oh, goody, just what this country needed: another fucking religious fanatic in the White House:

"I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded," she said in June to ministry students at her former church. "But really, all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God," Palin told graduating students at the same gathering. [emphasis added]

People who think this way make me feel uncomfortable. There's this propensity in them to get so busy trying to schmooze god and enforce their religious views that they kind of forget they were elected to govern. And so we end up with stupid fucks like George "Why Don't the Iraqis Love Me?" Bush, whose religious zealotry mixed with a serious addiction to Big Oil got us mired in the current mess.

Palin sounds exactly like him, only she's got a lot of Cheney's attributes, too. That's a terrifying combo.

And here she is, running for office with John "Jack Bauer" McCain:

During a recent interview with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Marie Claire magazine noted that McCain has run ads comparing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton and asked, “Which celebrity would like to be compared to?” McCain’s answer — Jack Bauer. When the magazine noted that Bauer “is a torturer,” McCain backed off: “That’s where Jack and I disagree.”

[snip]

In fact, McCain does believe in torture. He voted against a bill that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding — which is torture — and when the bill passed, McCain urged Bush to veto it, which he did. (HT: Huffington Post)

McCain doesn't disagree with Jack. He's totally embraced that "ticking time bomb" fiction. He's enabled a definition of torture be passed into law in this country that means his treatment at the hands of the North Vietnamese was totally kosher. And now he's too chickenshit to admit that, by the definition he helped create, Jack's no torturer at all.

But, you know, it's not surprising he's lying about this. He lies about everything else. He lies, Palin lies, the GOP lies - I know it's practically a job requirement that politicians stretch the truth, but I've never, ever, seen the bald-faced lying get this bad before. The Republicons' disregard for the truth is so outrageously blatant, it's breathtaking. Even major national news media are outright calling them liars, and they keep telling lies.

Not just lies, but easily debunked lies. Such as:

Last month, House conservatives engaged in a political stunt in the Capitol, demanding a vote on oil drilling while Congress was adjourned for recess. Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), however, was absent for part of the protest, squeezing in a couple of rounds of golf in Ohio while his colleagues were in Washington. Speaking today on the floor, Boehner claimed he was there “each and every day”:

Well, Mr. Speaker, let me say welcome to my Democratic colleagues. Welcome to the House. … While you all were out, I and my Republican colleagues were here each and every day with the lights dimmed, the microphones off, no one in the chair, the cameras off, talking to visitors who were coming through the Capitol about our plan to produce all of the above.

Every day, huh?

Riiiight.

And then there's the current "Obama wants to teach kindergarteners how to have sex OMG!!11!1!" ad the McCain campaign's running. How accurate is that?

According to the McCain campaign's own email, the sex ed claim is based on Obama's support for a bill, in the Illinois state legislature, that said:

"Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV."

As you can see, the McCain ad says that Obama was the one who pushed the "comprehensive sex education" measure. The Obama campaign has pointed out that the bill would simply add instruction on disease prevention to already existing Illinois sex-ed standards. But the McCain campaign cheerfully turned this into Obama's support for "learning about sex before learning to read."

And "civil" and "honorable" McCain approved that message.

Wow, what a fucking shock - McCain approves another big fat fucking lie. The Obama campaign's response is spot-on here:

"It is shameful and downright perverse for the McCain campaign to use a bill that was written to protect young children from sexual predators as a recycled and discredited political attack against a father of two young girls - a position that his friend Mitt Romney also holds. Last week, John McCain told Time magazine he couldn't define what honor was. Now we know why."

Yes, we certainly do. McCain wouldn't know what honor is if you drowned him in it. He needs remedial educational courses in honor and truth. So does the entire fucking right wing, for that matter.

America's Republicons: Lies They Hope You'll Believe In.

But just in case you don't swallow the lies, they'll try to hide at the bottom of the ballot:

Building off Markos' story earlier today, it's pretty clear to me that the Mississippi GOP would rather that Interim Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) never have to face an election at all. You may recall that they moved his special election from spring to November, where he'd be aided by turnout for the presidential campaign and by an enhanced perception that he was an incumbent.

So today, with tight polls in the race to fill out the remaining four years of Trent Lott's term, the Mississippi GOP has succeeded (for now) with its innovative plan to help Interim Senator Wicker remain in office: hiding the race at the bottom of the November ballot.

I said "for now" because I've received word that Pike County Elections Commissioner Trudy Berger today has already obtained a temporary restraining order from the Hinds County Circuit Court, barring Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and Governor Haley Barbour from sending the disputed ballots to County Election Boards.

That's rich, innit? They actually went ahead and moved the damned race to avoid getting their arses kicked by a Dem. Sadly for them, the law's so clear even a layman can grasp it:

SEC. 23-15-367. Arrangement of names of candidates, order of titles of offices, and printing of official ballot generally; order in which titles of various offices are to be listed on the ballot; furnishing of sample of official ballot; alphabetical arrangement in primary elections.

... (2) The titles for the various offices shall be listed in the following order:

(a) Candidates for national office;
(b) Candidates for statewide office;
(c) Candidates for state district office;
(d) Candidates for legislative office;
(e) Candidates for countywide office;
(f) Candidates for county district office.

I know high-school dropouts who can barely ring up a burger who could understand that law. I don't see any wiggle room in there at all.

And that should leave the Republicons squirming. Heh.