Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

FUCKTAAARRRRDDDS!!!!

Sorry. Just needed to get that off my chest. Today has been a day of nearly overwhelming stupidity.

And as far as evil fucktards go, Cheney's about the biggest:

Mid-way through the "Fox News Sunday" interview, host Chris Wallace asked Dick Cheney if he's comfortable with intelligence officials exceeding "legal authorization" to try to obtain information from a detainee. The former vice president said, "I am."

And that, in a nutshell, is all one really needs to know about Dick Cheney. The law should be followed, except when it shouldn't. And when the law isn't followed, the only real outrage would be an effort to hold alleged criminals responsible for their conduct. Think conservatism is about moral absolutes, and stark lines separating right from wrong? Think again.

Michael Scherer noted, "There is not much nuance there.... One CIA contractor, according to the CIA Inspector General, is alleged to have beaten an Afghan detainee to death with a large metal flashlight and his foot. Released criminal records show that another CIA employee was interrogating a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in a stress position with a bag over his head, when the detainee died of asphyxiation. Assuming that Cheney did not misspeak, his statement to Wallace suggests that he believes these deaths are "OK' given the circumstances."

Why is this disgusting son of a bitch all over the teevee defending torture? Shouldn't a civilized country have thrown this fucktard in jail by now?

We sure as shit don't need to be taking his advice:

Dick Cheney offered quite a bit of nonsense on Fox News yesterday, but perhaps the most entertaining thing was hearing him talk about how the Obama White House has hurt his feelings. Apparently, the current president was supposed to seek out the former vice president for advice on national security matters.

[snip]

What Obama really ought to do, according to Dick Cheney, is seek out the former vice president's advice and follow it. After all, Cheney believes he's proven himself on the issue.

I seem to recall the Bush/Cheney era a little differently. Cheney thinks it was a sterling success when it came to national security and counter-terrorism. Perhaps there's something to this. After all, except for the catastrophic events of 9/11, and the anthrax attacks against Americans, and terrorist attacks against U.S. allies, and the terrorist attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Bush's inability to capture those responsible for 9/11, and waging an unnecessary war that inspired more terrorists, and the success terrorists had in exploiting Bush's international unpopularity, the Bush/Cheney record on counter-terrorism was awesome.

Precisely. And yet, this narcissistic sociopath has the gall to whine about how unappreciated he is. It's mind-blowing.

I shall leave it to Robert Gibbs to deliver the coup d'etat:

I’m not entirely sure that Dick Cheney’s predictions on foreign policy have borne a whole lot of fruit over the last eight years in a way that have been either positive or, to the best of my recollection, very correct.

Suck it, Dick.

Speaking of people upset over insane shit, check out Chris Wallace whining because the New York Times published a more flattering obituary for a civil rights defender than for a racist scumbag. Seriously.

It's almost as ridiculous on its face as Bonner & Ass. claiming they'd notified all the victims of their forgeries (they hadn't), and then having the balls to declare this:

No one disputes the following: even though Bonner learned of the forgeries before the vote on climate change legislation that they were intended to affect, the firm waited until after the vote to notify the lawmakers who got them.

The Bonner spokesman tried out a hilarious explanation for that. He told the Daily Progress that "the notifications came after the House voted on the American Clean Energy and Security Act because Bonner & Associates was too busy notifying the groups that had been used in the forgeries."

"Jack felt that it was important first to notify each of the organizations and individuals whose names the temporary employee had misused in the letters before notifying the members of Congress," the spokesman said in an e-mail. "That process took some time to complete. Once he had notified each of those people and the groups, he then reached out to the lawmakers."

In other words, it was worth delaying informing the lawmakers who received the forged letters -- and who were about to vote on the bill at issue -- until after all the local groups had been told. Even though the delay meant the lawmakers would vote before being informed about the forgeries. Makes sense.

You know who else comes up with patently ridiculous excuses like this? Small children. In fact, I think your average four year-old could've come up with a better story.

Just like your average four year-old generally understands that 500,000 is a larger number than zero. Unfortunately, John Boehner and Newt Gingrich can't do the math:

Last Friday, Boehner continued to press his case that the stimulus has been an utter failure. On Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Boehner claimed the stimulus “didn’t create any jobs”:

BOEHNER: Well, I think it’s the American people who are winning this debate. They’ve looked up at this program, this giant government bureaucracy that the Democrats want to create in Washington, and said enough is enough. And while most of this is about health care, it’s really about a much bigger issue, and that is just the growth and size of government. You know, after the $1 trillion dollars stimulus bill that didn’t create any jobs, and the trillion dollars deficits for as far as the eye can see [...]

[snip]

Echoing Boehner’s sentiment, Newt Gingrich blasted out a fundraising appeal for the right-wing group Citizens for the Republic today, attacking the stimulus as a “failure” that “hasn’t created a single job.”

[snip]

The Council of Economic Advisers, in a report released earlier this month, called the Recovery Act the “boldest countercyclical fiscal stimulus in American history” and concluded that the stimulus added nearly 500,000 jobs to the economy in the second quarter of 2009 that would not have been there without it.

There's hacks, and then there's hackalicious hacks, and then there's Boehner & Gingrich.

Yesterday, we reported that Virginia gubernatorial hopeful Robert McDonnell has some 'splainin to do regarding his Regent University master's thesis. Today, TPM discovers just how much 'splainin he's got ahead of him. I can't wait for the frothing fundie backlash as he tries to distance himself from his own frothing fundie spew.

And, finally, if any of you were wondering why one of the Lockerbie bombers got shipped back to Libya, here's the answer:

So apparently punishing terrorists (assuming we had the right people in the first place) isn't quite as important as U.S. and British officials make it seem. It's all about the oil, baby!

The British government decided it was “in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom” to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.

Gordon Brown’s government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.

What a coinky-dink. Certainly looks like a bombers-for-barrels deal, dunnit?

We live in a very fucked-up world, my darlings. A very fucked-up world indeed.