Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

News from home!  Looks like Sheriff Joe's in a bit of trouble:

Xenophobic Arizona Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, has raised a lot of eyebrows. Besides his very public hatred of Hispanics, he's also established ties with a Neo-Nazi group in his home state. Arpaio's obliteration of civil rights has finally caught up with him and the Obama Administration is finally pushing back:

A controversial Arizona sheriff known for taking a hard line against illegal immigrants has been stripped of some of his powers in what he described as a political move by the Obama administration.

Under a two-year-old agreement with the federal department of homeland security, Arpaio and his deputies had been authorised to enforce federal immigration law by arresting suspected illegal immigrants in the field and by checking the immigration status of people arrested on other offences.

But after drawing thousands of complaints and a civil rights investigation from the justice department, Arpaio was this week stripped of his federal authority to make immigration arrests.

Betcha Sheriff Joe never thought consequences would be part of the equation.  The man's gotten away with murder for far too many years - it's nice to see him getting what's coming.  Now, if only he were hounded from office in utter disgrace, my happiness would be complete.

It very nearly matches my happiness upon discovering that Newt Gingrinch, who chose not one but two adult-entertainment enterprises for his Entrepreneur of the Year award, has now won a richly-deserved award:

Allison Vivas, the president of Pink Visual, turned the tables on Newt. She told Dave McKenna of the Washington City Paper that she created a fake award for Gingrich:

“I sat down with the executive team here and created a special honor to bestow upon Newt: ‘Family Values Porn Fan of the Year, 2009,’ Vivas responded via email. “We worked on the plaque design [image on the right], an event schedule, a notification to fax to his office – and of course, a letter we’ll send rescinding the offer after he receives it.”

That's just made of awesome.

Newt should also be awarded a Misplaced Blame award:

Earlier this month, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) attempted to block government funding for Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-SC) trip to Honduras as retribution for DeMint’s obstruction of two of Obama’s diplomatic nominations, including Thomas A. Shannon Jr., the nominee to be ambassador to Brazil. But DeMint’s hold is being criticized by a major Republican. At Harvard on Thursday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich decried the lack of an ambassador to Brazil:

[snip]

“Bureaucracies just don’t work,” he said. “When you build a bureaucracy, the bureaucracy ages, and the bureaucracy develops self-interest. We still don’t have an ambassador to Brazil, for example, eight months into the new administration.”

Gingrich should direct his ire at DeMint. The South Carolina senator has said that he “will not lift the hold on these nominations until the United States works out an arrangement with the Honduran government to recognize the outcome of the elections in Honduras and restores the U.S. foreign aid that has been cut by the Obama administration.”

Government works well enough, except when anti-government Con fucktards get their hands on it.  Newtie should understand this, considering he was one of those anti-government Con fucktards mucking up the works a decade and a half ago.

Speaking of fucktards, Sean Hannity really needs to learn why it's not a good idea to try creative editing with a filmmaker:

Someone really should have thought twice before letting Sean Hannity embarrass himself with the failed stunt he tried in his interview with Michael Moore, the second half of which aired last night on Fox.

Hannity wanted to make a point about how health care in Cuba is so much worse than it is in the YooEssAy -- in contradistinction to Moore's own reportage -- so he offered what he called special video footage he had been provided of a "hospital" in Cuba.

What we then see is a rattletrap mess with old beds and rotting toilets, etc. But Moore notices what should be obvious: There are no patients, either.

Ah, but wait! We shortly see footage of patients in a hospital. But they're in an obviously different building (or at least wing), because this room is clean and the beds and equipment sanitary and well-tended. But we only get to see them for a few seconds before -- swoop! -- off we go back to the rat's nest.

Which is obviously an abandoned hospital or wing, which is certainly not unheard of, even in the YooEssAy.

Moore, of course, laughs at all of this with glee. Hannity quickly changes the subject, since his oh-so-convincing video evidence just makes him look as bad as he has recently in his Jennings Jihad.

Isn't it pathetic when amateurs try to pull a fast one on the pros?  But amusing, one must admit.

Normally, I'm not in to beating dead horses, but I'm always up for beating idiot Cons, and Steve Benen had a nice coda to Rep. Broun's "Nancy Pelosi's a domestic enemy of the state!!!" bullshit:

Now, I haven't seen a full transcript, but it seems as if the congressman was calling the House Speaker an enemy of the Constitution in the same answer about access to firearms preventing "treason."

So, here's what I'm wondering: if Paul Broun really believes the Speaker of the House, third in line of secession succession to the presidency, is an enemy of the Constitution, why has he been so lackadaisical about it? Why hasn't he filed charges or called for explusion? If the House leader is literally guilty of treason against the United States, why hasn't he taken some legal, procedural steps to address this?

How 'bout it, Broun?  Or were you just spouting a bunch of bullshit even you know is bullshit?

We began with news from home, and we shall end with news from home.  If you're unemployed and missing out on unemployment benefits, you have Jon Kyl to thank:

Yes, the Republican whip objected to a quick vote that would have helped all those people. You can contact him here and thank him for his compassion:

Washington -- Key Senate Democrats tried unsuccessfully today to quickly pass legislation to give jobless workers in Michigan and other hard-hit states an additional 20 weeks of unemployment benefits.

That delays action on the high-stakes issue until at least next week.

Tom Clementson, a 58-year-old unemployed construction worker in Indian River, expressed frustration by the Senate's slow pace.

"So many people are out of work and need this extra money to put food on the table," said Clementson, who cashed his last check six weeks ago. "It seems like the Senate should spend more time on getting this passed."

Today's failed effort to quickly pass a bill followed the unveiling of a compromise bill by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and key allies. The bill would give all states an extra 14 weeks of jobless benefits, plus an extra six weeks for states with unemployment rates of 8.5 percent or greater.

[...] Reid introduced the bill after reaching a deal with Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, who had balked at the House-passed bill, which only gives extra benefits to the hardest-hit states.

[...] But when Reid asked senators to quickly pass the bill under a speedy procedure, Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., objected. That's enough to prevent a quick vote.

Kyl said he wanted to have time to look at the proposal and consider possible Republican amendments, and also ask the independent Congressional Budget Office to estimate its cost.

[...] While objecting to quick passage, Kyl said he expects "at the appropriate time," Republicans will "be able to work out some kind of agreement."

Tell you what, Jon.  Why don't we stop your salary, take away your savings, investments, and all other forms of income, and leave you to "work out some kind of agreement" with your Con friends that will allow you to get food on the table (before you haven't got a table anymore due to the fact your house has been foreclosed on).  How's that, eh?

I somewhat suspect objections to speed would rather evaporate, were Kyl the beneficiary.  Call it a hunch.