Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Sorry about the lack of a Happy Hour yesterday, my darlings. There were, shall we say, a few issues with internet connectivity. It left me adrift in a world without intertoobz, which came as a bit of a shock. You don't realize how dependent you are on technology until it's no longer available.

Good thing I had the Garmin, or I would've been completely helpless. What's this "phonebook," and how would I look up a restaurant in that?

Alas, still not much time for posting or catching up on all the shit I missed, but I caught inkling of a few major stories that broke while I was away. I see some right-wing fucktard shot an abortion doctor. And they wonder why we call them terrorists.

There's nothing I can say to his family to ease the pain of their loss. All I can do now is beat up on the stupid shites who still don't get it. Such as Sarah Palin:

Right-wingers have a problem admitting that there's such a thing as right-wing terrorism. We saw it recently with that prescient Homeland Security bulletin that they all claimed smeared them. And now we're seeing it again with the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.

Sarah Palin issued a statement today about the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas that was a classic Double Fail:

I feel sorrow for the Tiller family. I respect the sanctity of life and the tragedy that took place today in Kansas clearly violates respect for life. This murder also damages the positive message of life, for the unborn, and for those living. Ask yourself, 'What will those who have not yet decided personally where they stand on this issue take away from today's event in Kansas?'

Regardless of my strong objection to Dr. Tiller's abortion practices, violence is never an answer in advancing the pro-life message.

Palin, like most movement conservatives, is worried most of all about the possible effects this murder will have on the anti-abortion movement and her own politics.

More to the point, she refuses to acknowledge -- just as she did in the campaign last year, in the above interview with John McCain -- that abortion-clinic violence is in fact domestic terrorism.

If Palin starts marketing her own perfume, I do believe she should call it "Forever Clueless."

Meanwhile, Michelle Malkin gets sarcastic before throwing a pity party for the poor, poor right wing:

Late-term abortion doctor George Tiller was gunned down at his church in Kansas Sunday morning in a thoroughly evil, cold-blooded act of domestic terrorism. Yes, terrorism. Not “extremism.” Interesting how the t-word has been rediscovered.

Guess what, Michelle? It hasn't been rediscovered - it was right there in that DHS report you frothing fuckwits threw such fits over all along. I suppose you're referring to Obama's dropping of the phrase "Global War on Terror," which you frothing fuckwits also threw such fits over. So many fits - your poor little fists must be sore from pounding the floor.

But kudos, Michelle, for condemning the violence without Palin's little qualifiers. Maybe someday you'll be a real adult.

But Bill O will never be a real newsman:

At the top of his Talking Points segment, O’Reilly did briefly say, “Americans should condemn the murder of Dr. George Tiller,” but he then quickly segued into more attacks on Tiller. He also used the opportunity to attack his critics, saying they were trying to “exploit” the incident to attack Fox News. In particular, he singled out the writings of Helen Kennedy of the New York Daily News, Mary Mapes on the Huffington Post, Mike Hendricks of the Kansas City Star, Markos Moulitsas of DailyKos. O’Reilly blasted liberals who were “very very sympathetic” to Tiller and said one of the first things that he thought of when he heard the news of the killing was…himself:

When I heard about Tiller’s murder, I knew pro-abortion zealots and Fox News haters would attempt to blame us for the crime, and that’s exactly what has happened. [...]

No backpedaling here, madam [Mary Mapes]. Unlike you, I report honestly. Every single thing we said about Tiller was true, and my analysis was based on those facts. [...]

You'll love his definition of "analysis":

Besides repeatedly referring to the doctor as “Tiller the Baby Killer,” what are some of the factual statements O’Reilly has made about Tiller over the years?

– “If you want to kill a baby, you hire Tiller. You’ve got to pay him $5,000 up front, and he’ll kill the baby.”

– “No question Dr. Tiller has blood on his hands.”

– “Dr. George Tiller destroys fetuses for just about any reason, right up until the birth date.”

– “This man executes babies that are about to be born.”

– “This is the kind of stuff happened in Mao’s China, Hitler’s Germany, Stalin’s Soviet Union.”

And the right wonders why we hold them accountable for whipping up the murderous fanatics in their midst. Gee, that's a hard one.

Turning to other stupid gits, let's check in with Bill "Bogus Ball" Kristol. Oh, look, what a shock! He's wanting to go blow up brown people again:

In light of North Korea's recent nuclear and missile tests, international leaders are pondering how best to proceed, weighing a series of unsatisfying options. On Fox News yesterday, Bill Kristol presented the same idea he always presents when faced with a national security challenge.

Kristol explained, "I don't rule out the possibility of us deciding -- and I think it might be wise for us to decide -- to knock out a few. They're apparently rolling a long-term missile to a base to test another one, long-range missile to test another one. You know, it might be worth doing some targeted air strikes to show the North Koreans, instead of always talking about, 'Gee, there could be consequences,' to show that they can't simply keep going down this path."

Brit Hume, on the same program, endorsed Kristol's proposal, but said he "can't imagine" the Obama administration actually launching a military strike on North Korea. (They follow Newt Gingrich, who began urging strikes in April, calling on the administration to use "lasers" to attack North Korea.)

Matt Yglesias noted, "Kristol doesn't even attempt to say what he thinks this will accomplish. He just kind of tosses it out there for no reason because arguing that the United States should start wars is what he does."

We really need to get him into therapy. With enough mental health treatment, he may realize you can do more than just automatically reach for the bombs when countries full of brown people do things you don't like.

And, finally, the Cons need to realize something: having the most senior members of your party saying, basically, they can't be bothered with condemning people of their party for calling a Latina federal judge a racist is a real turnoff:

On CNN’s State of the Union, however, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that he has “better things to do” than to ask members of his party to refrain from accusing Sotomayor of being a racist. Host John King noted that McConnell is the “highest elected Republican in the United State of America” and asked, “would it be best that language like racist not be used?” McConnell demurred:

KING: Are Rush and Newt making it a lot harder by using language like that? [...]

MCCONNELL: They’re certainly entitled to their opinions. … Look, I’ve got a big job to dealing with 40 senate Republicans and trying to advance a nation’s agenda. I’ve got better things to do than to be the speech police over people who are going to have their views about a very important appointment.

With views like those, no wonder they're looking at numbers like these:

In February, RNC Chairman Michael Steele explained that his party would find "messengers" who can capture a "region" made up of "young, Hispanic, black, a cross section." He intended to apply conservative principles to "urban-surburban hip-hop settings." Steele added that his efforts "will be avant garde, technically."

Well, technically, the party is moving in the wrong direction. A new Gallup poll found, "More than 6 in 10 Republicans today are white conservatives, while most of the rest are whites with other ideological leanings; only 11% of Republicans are Hispanics, or are blacks or members of other races. By contrast, only 12% of Democrats are white conservatives, while about half are white moderates or liberals and a third are nonwhite."

I do hope they enjoy being the minority party (although not the party of minorities). Unless a miracle happens and they get intimately acquainted with a clue-by-four, it looks like they'll be there for quite some time.