Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

I see commiserations congratulations are in order. Gays in Connecticut now have the right to throw their lives away get married:

As of this morning, the number of states allowing adults to get married, regardless of sexual orientation, went up by one.

The [Connecticut] Supreme Court's 4-3 decision Friday that same-sex couples have the right to marry swept through the state with the force of a cultural tidal wave.

While lead plaintiff Beth Kerrigan and her partner -- soon to be wife -- embraced and sobbed after learning of the ruling, opponents vowed to pursue a long and complicated route to change the constitution to ban gay marriage.

The Supreme Court released its historic ruling at 11:30 a.m. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory and that the state's "understanding of marriage must yield to a more contemporary appreciation of the rights entitled to constitutional protection."

Seriously, congratulations. As much as I despise weddings, I hope that someday soon, I get to watch all of my friends - gay and straight alike - tie the knot. Those as wants to, anyway. Some, like me, will prefer the gloriously single life for a few decades more, thanks so very much. There's no reason on earth (and I mean reasonable reason, not bullshit religious reasons) why all of us shouldn't be able to follow our hearts.

Let no howling right-wing mob get in our way.

Speaking of howling right-wing mobs, looks like McCain and Palin have unleashed a juggernaut they're incapable of controlling:

In the latest example of Republican rage, a woman screamed "traitor!" in reference to Barack Obama, during one of John McCain's tirades about his Democratic opponent. McCain looked in the woman's direction, said nothing, and continued on with his speech. It came a half-day after another Republican yelled "bomb Obama!" during a debate for Senate candidates in Georgia, and it's obviously part of a pattern.

This, unlike Reaganomics, is definitely trickling down. When the same rabid rioters start to infest down-ticket rallies, you know you've unleashed far more hate than is healthy for the body politic.

An avalanche of criticism from both right and left has rightfully ensued. The McCain campaign's response? Predictably fucking ridiculous:

Sam Stein reports that the McCain campaign has come up with a defense for the Republican ticket's efforts to create an angry mob.

"Barack Obama's attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do about John McCain. It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn't understand regular people and the issues they care about. He dismisses hardworking middle class Americans as clinging to guns and religion, while at the same time attacking average Americans at McCain rallies who are angry at Washington, Wall Street and the status quo," reads a statement from spokesman Brian Rogers.

Got that? McCain/Palin supporters have thrown around words like "treason" and "terrorist," while others have literally called for violence, and if Obama points this out, he's launching "attacks on Americans."

Right after that supreme idiocy, though, McCain seemed to wake up to the fact that if crazed wingnuts started rampaging through America murdering liberals, minorities, and presidential candidates, he would shoulder the blame. That, or he looked at his poll numbers and realized it's merely frothing insane rabid right fuckwits who cheer this stuff, while the independents and moderates stampede away from it in droves. Whatever changed his mind, he decided to start doing the responsible thing and dialing down the rhetoric. The base was not impressed:

John McCain was booed by his own supporters during a rally on Friday after he described Barack Obama as a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared of as president of the United States."

McCain was responding to a town hall attendee who claimed he was concerned about raising a child under a president who "cohorts with domestic terrorists such as [Bill] Ayers." Despite the fact that McCain and his campaign have repeatedly used Ayers to hammer Obama in recent days, the Arizona Senator tried to calm the man.

"[Senator Obama] is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared about as President of the United States," he said, before adding: "If I didn't think I would be one heck of a better president I wouldn't be running."

The crowd groaned with disapproval.

Later, McCain was again pressed about Obama's "other-ness" and again he refused to play ball. "I don't trust Obama," a woman said. "I have read about him. He's an Arab."

"No, ma'am," McCain said several times, shaking his head in disagreement. "He's a decent, family man, [a] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign is all about."

At another point, McCain declared, "If you want a fight, we will fight. But we will be respectful. I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments." Supporters booed then also.

Johnny, when you've let the monster out of the cage, it's damned hard to lock it up again. Good fucking luck with that. Just remember: you brought it on yourself. It's the good people in this country who now have to deal with the hate you've unleashed.

And lest the rest o' ye get any misty-eyed ideas that McCain's finally come to his senses, repented of his hatemongering ways, and will now run the respectful campaign he promised: wake the fuck up. Two words: political expediency. Don't get suckered.

McCain's despicable campaign tactics are the most obvious symptom of the disease in this country. The paranoia and police state has gotten so bad that even nuns are now painted as terrorists:

Sisters Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte have been “secretly branded by Maryland State Police as terrorists and placed on a national watch list” due to their participation in anti-war protest activities. They were added to the list after Maryland state police spied on them:

“This term terrorist is a really serious accusation,” Sister Ardeth, a nun for 54 years, told The Washington Times on Thursday in the first interview that the women have given since being informed they were among 53 people added to a terrorist watch list in conjunction with an extensive Maryland surveillance effort of antiwar activists.

You know that religion doesn't get any special dispensation from me, but for fuck's sake. A couple of white-haired elderly nuns peacefully protesting war are now considered terrorists? What the fuck is wrong with this country?

Oh, yeah. The rabid right got their insane little hands on power.

But a sea change could be coming. There's only so much crazy a nation can take, and there are signs that America might be getting a mite fed up with the insanity. The most recent sign: despite GOP efforts to shut the probe down, the Troopergate investigation marched on, and the Alaska legislative panel reviewing it voted 12-0 to release the resulting report late this afternoon. Sarah Palin is going down:

Lo and behold, Palin was found to have abused the powers of her office and, despite her claims otherwise, fired the state public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, in because he refused to fire the governor's ex-brother-in-law.

Gov. Sarah Palin abused the powers of her office by pressuring subordinates to get her former brother-in-law, a state trooper, fired, a investigation by the Alaska Legislature has concluded.

A report on the bipartisan inquiry that was released Friday by lawmakers in Anchorage, concluded, however, that she was within her right to dismiss her public safety commissioner, Walt Monegan, the trooper's boss.

The public portion of the report concluded that Ms. Palin violated the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act by allowing pressure to be exerted to get Trooper Michael Wooten, her former brother-in-law, dismissed.

In the 263 pages that were released, the independent investigator, Stephen E. Branchflower, a former Anchorage prosecutor, said that Ms. Palin wrongfully allowed her husband, Todd, to use state resources as part of the effort to have Trooper Wooten dismissed.

The report says she knowingly "permitted Todd Palin to use the governor's office and the resources of the governor's office, including access to state employees, to continue to contact subordinate state employees in an effort to find some way to get Trooper Wooten fired."

Further, it says, she "knowingly permitted a situation to continue where impermissible pressure was placed on several subordinates in order to advance a personal agenda."

It really doesn't matter that the report states that firing Monegan was within her constitutional right as governor. Not with this flood of ethics violations. This is the icing on a very rancid cake. Sarah Palin is manifestly unfit to serve in public office, and the McCain campaign will suffer for having chosen her as their #2. They'll really suffer for that stupid stunt of pre-emptively releasing their own foolish report exonerating her in the face of this.

Most of us are still sane. We're not going to accept another four years of lawless, selfish, religious nutcases in the White House.