Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Have I mentioned I hate holiday weekends? I hates them. Because the news is ssssllllooooowwwww....arrggghhhh....

But we have a few shiny pearls o' stupid to admire.

We'll begin with Sarah Palin, mainly because a) she's almost all anyone's talking about and b) she continues to prove herself so egregiously stupid it's very nearly beyond belief. Here's the latest move, as she attempts to silence the media:

This is a bad idea.

Ratcheting up her offensive against the news media, Gov. Sarah Palin's attorney threatened Saturday to sue mainstream news organizations if they publish "defamatory" stories relating to whether Palin is under federal investigation.

In an extraordinary four-page letter, Alaska-based attorney Thomas Van Flein warns of severe consequences should speculation that until now has largely been confined to blogs about whether Palin embezzled funds in the construction of a Wasilla, Alaska, sports arena find its way into print.

"This is to provide notice to Ms. Moore, and those who re-publish the defamation, such as Huffington Post, MSNBC, the New York Times and The Washington Post, that the Palins will not allow them to propagate defamatory material without answering to this in a court of law," Van Flein warned, citing Alaska liberal blogger Shannyn Moore.

Keep in mind, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post made any reference to the embezzlement rumors, but Palin's lawyers apparently threatened the papers anyway, just in case editors were thinking about looking into the allegations.

Hmm... what was that Shakespeare said about ladies protesting too much? And reporters are a prickly lot - tell 'em they can't do something, and you might just see 'em do it out of spite. I have a feeling her poor-ass ethics record and her possible corruption scandals are about to get a fuck of a lot more attention than they would've otherwise.

Good.

She's toast, anyway. William Kristol looked into his Kristol Ball, and the news is all bad:

This morning on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol reaffirmed his “contrarian” take on Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-AK) recent decision to quit. The “Kristol Ball” argued that Palin is now “all in” for a “high risk” presidential run. Depending on her “talents and abilities” Kristol used a strained comparison to President Obama to lay out Palin’s winding road to the White House:

KRISTOL: Everyone said [Obama couldn't] compete with people with these long records. … He seems to have gotten President. I don’t think it is foolish for Palin to think, “You know what, if that’s the world we live in now where people don’t value — maybe correctly — experience in years of experience in Washington, or two terms counts more than two and half years as Governor of Alaska. Maybe she thinks she gets out there and becomes a leader of the conservative movement, and then a leader of the Republican Party, and then conceivably a nominee of the Republican Party, and then conceivably a president just as Obama did.

Why do I say such a sunny prediction is bad news? Because the Kristol Ball usually predicts the opposite of what's about to happen. She's total toast.

And here's a little something to keep in mind:

Kudos to the Washington Post's Dan Balz for addressing one of the more nonsensical explanations for Sarah Palin's resignation.

[snip]

"I thought about, well, how much fun some governors have as lame ducks," she said. "They maybe travel around their state, travel to other states, maybe take their overseas international trade missions. So many politicians do that. And then I thought, that's what is wrong. . . . They hit the road, they draw a paycheck, they kind of milk it, and I'm not going to put Alaskans through that."

That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the responsibilities of governing. Every president becomes a lame duck in his second term. The same for governors, since many are term-limited. Do they "milk it," as Palin put it, or do most continue working hard to the end to finish off their terms with real accomplishments?

Well said. Palin decided not to seek re-election, which was almost certainly a bad idea, but would presumably give the governor more of an opportunity to run full-time for the presidency. She's decided, though, that half a term is not only sufficient, but also that meeting her obligations and fulfilling her duties would be a bad thing. Voters are supposed to thank her for quitting half-way through her only term, because lame-duck leaders are, she says, by their very definition, ineffective and wasteful.

In reality, Palin's argument once again points to her confusion about the basics of government. In this case, the governor had a choice. She could be a lame-duck governor who travels around, goofs off, and kills time until the next election. She could quit after two years. Or she could roll up her sleeves, work hard, pursue the policy agenda she claims to take seriously, and do the job.

Apparently, actually doing her job never actually crossed her mind. Something that should cross our minds if the insane fucktard actually does try to make a run for the presidency.

In non-Palin news, we have Colin Powell pointing out the GOP's little racism problem:

When host John King asked about the GOP’s “sensitivity” toward minorities, Powell took aim at Limbaugh directly, firing back at his claim that Powell only supported Obama’s candidacy for president because he is black:

POWELL: And when you have non-elected officials such as we have in our party who immediately shout racism or somebody who is quite prominent in the media says the only basis upon which I could possibly have supported Obama was because he was black and I was black even though I laid out my judgment on the candidates, then we still have a problem.

Oh, you betcha.

And last, but certainly not least, comes this absolute gem, showing that Teabaggers are still slavering batshit insane fools, and the Con party keeps trying to look all responsible and sane in public while simultaneously fucking themselves over with teh technology (h/t):

The Republican Party of Duval County is backing away from their promotion of an event that featured numerous controversial comparisons of President Barack Obama with German Dictator Adolf Hitler. The event, a Tea Party held at the Jacksonville Landing on July 2, was organized by the First Coast Tea Party. However, the Duval County Republican Party promoted the event with e-mails that stated “Paid by Republican Party of Duval County.” Duval Republican Party Chairman Lenny Curry also broadcasted live from the event on the party’s weekly radio broadcast hosted by AM 1320.

The event, which was attended by Florida State Representatives Lake Ray, Charles McBurney and Mike Weinstein and Florida State Senator Stephen Wise, drew about 1,000 people to the Jacksonville Landing. Local party officials were on stage, along with numerous members of the Jacksonville business community, including Jay Fant of First Guaranty Bank.

While partisan rhetoric at any rally is expected, controversy has arisen over numerous signs that were prominently displayed at the gathering, including two that featured Barack Obama in Nazi garb. One sign, in fact, had altered Obama’s appearance to resemble Hitler. Other signs compared ACORN, the community organizing group accused of voter registration irregularities, with the SS—the Nazi organization responsible for enacting the Holocaust and the group responsible for most of the crimes against humanity committed by the Third Reich.

Several local GOP activists privately expressed shock that elected officials would be seen at any event that featured comparisons of Obama with Hitler. What surprised some of them the most; however, was the fact that the Duval County Republican Party would feature pictures from the event—complete with Obama/Hitler comparisons—on their Facebook fan page.

Apparently, they didn't see the problem with proudly posting such pictures until wiser people pointed it out to them. How pathetic is that? What's even more pathetic is that they didn't get them pulled before bloggers got screen shots.

I just might have to get one of them printed and framed as a testament to Con stupidity.