Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Update: Um, apparently this little bastard didn't publish last night.  Sorry and all that.  Better late than never, right?

Slow fucking news Saturday, my darlings.  Which is just as well, because Saturdays are a nightmare at work, which puts me behind on me political reading, which puts me behind on me writing time... you get the drift.

We're going to mix up health care reform stupidity with the usual Happy Hour fare.  Let's get started by determining just how stupid a fucktard can be.  To do that, we must first hop into the wayback machine for a trip to last week, when a certain frothing fundie fucktard was foaming at the mouth:

Generally, when Right Wing activists and leader are attacking President Obama and Democratic policies as utterly evil, they say that such policies are similar to what the Nazis did.

But not Richard Land, who recently declared that Obama's healthcare reform effort is exactly the same as what the Nazis did and proclaimed that Ezekiel Emanuel was just like Josef Mengele:

President Barack Obama and Democratic leaders of Congress are advocating healthcare reform that will result in rationing of care, making them guilty of the same ideology that fueled the Nazi Holocaust, Richard Land told the Christian Coalition of Florida at a Sept. 26 banquet in Orlando.

“I want to put it to you bluntly. What they are attempting to do in healthcare, particularly in treating the elderly, is not something like what the Nazis did. It is precisely what the Nazis did,” said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Land was the keynote speaker for the 20th anniversary “God and Country Banquet” of the Christian Coalition of Florida.

“Let’s remember,” Land added, “the first 10,000 victims of the Holocaust were not Jews, they were mentally handicapped German children who were gassed and burned in ovens because they were considered to have … lives unworthy of life,” citing the Nazi ideology used to rationalize the Holocaust.

...

Land said he has bestowed on Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, the president’s chief healthcare advisor, the “Dr. Josef Mengele Award” for his advocacy of healthcare rationing. Mengele was the German SS officer and medical doctor dubbed the “Angel of Death” for his role in the Holocaust.

Clear enough, right?  Left you in no doubt as to his thoughts, opinions, meaning, etc.?  Indeed.  Now, let us return to present day, after Richard Land has been thoroughly spanked for his dumbfuckery, and has therefore reached for the best defense he can muster:

The Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman contacted Land to express his concerns: "While we understand there are deep convictions and passions regarding the healthcare reform, whatever one's views are, the Nazi comparison is inappropriate, insensitive and unjustified."

This week, Land finally expressed some regret.

"It was never my intention to equate the Obama administration's healthcare reform proposals with anything related to the Holocaust," Land wrote. "Now that I have had the opportunity to speak with you personally and reflect on my words, I deeply regret the reference to Dr. Josef Mengele," Land added. "I was using hyperbole for effect and never intended to actually equate anyone in the Obama administration with Dr. Mengele. I will certainly refrain from making such references in the future. I apologize to everyone who found such references hurtful. Given the pain and suffering of so many Jewish and other victims of the Nazi regime, I will certainly seek to exercise far more care in my use of language in future discussions of the issues at stake in the healthcare debate."

I suppose it may be ungracious to criticize someone trying to show regret, but this isn't much of an apology. Land didn't "intend" to equate reform with "anything related to the Holocaust"? He said Democratic efforts are doing "precisely what the Nazis did." What, exactly, did he "intend"? He "regrets" the Mengele reference? When given a chance to walk it back, Land said "the analogy is apt and I stand by it."

Have you noticed that insensitive, batshit insane right-wing fucktards always reach for the "but I didn't really mean it that way!" defense when they're called out as the vile pieces of shit they're being?   Remarkable.  It's like they think we'll believe they're sincere.

I guess it's enough for their fucktarded followers, anyway.

Remember how yesterday we were talking about how the far right doesn't inhabit the same reality as the left, center, and moderate right of the country?  Add George H.W. Bush to the list of folks who have their own special place:

In an interview with CBS News radio yesterday, former President George H.W. Bush called assailed the tone of our national discourse. “I don’t like it. The cables (TV) have a lot to do with it,” he said, adding that MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann were partly responsible:

The Republican elder statesman said, “It’s not just the right.” He complained, “there are plenty of people on the left.”

While he said he does not believe in personal name-calling, he singled out MSNBC personalities Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow calling them “sick puppies.”

“The way they treat my son and anyone who’s opposed to their point of view is just horrible,” Mr. Bush said.

Last night, Maddow invited Olbermann, who was out sick, to call in and discuss Bush’s statements on her show. “I think that I can speak on your behalf here and say that we’re very grateful for the former president’s concern about our health,” Olbermann joked. He then noted the irony behind Bush’s attack. “I mean he’s the father of the process that took us to the place we are now. He is the man who employed Roger Ailes. He and Roger Ailes are the men who ran the Willie Horton ad against Mike Dukakis.”

He also raised the moron who turned this country into a travesty.  He's ignored the entire news channel that made outrageous political smears a specialty (apparently, he thinks Faux News is somehow a spawn of the left).  He's apparently oblivious to the disgusting right-wing attacks on Clinton.  We could go on forever, but you get the drift.  I wonder what color the sky is in his world?

Speaking of people who've gone right round the bend, you really must read the following post in its entirety:

It seems like every week I come across some truly weird piece of militia organizing from the freshly revived Patriot movement.

 

This week's is pretty special: An online game at which you can actually earn money by defending America in the year 2011 against the evil forces of the fallen Obama administration. The game is called "2011: Obama Coup Fails". [Only go to the site if you don't mind giving them the hits. Otherwise, you can get the idea here.]

Yes.  It really is as fucking insane as you're imagining.  Worse, actually.  Sane people cannot comprehend the minds of the batshit fucking bizarre paranoid delusional fuckwits currently running around thinking they'll be great heroes in some 21st century American revolution.  We who are not beyond pathetic cannot imagine the sad little fantasies of those who are.

But we can laugh our asses off at them.  Hell, yes, we can.

While we're preparing to hand out anti-psychotic medication by the handfuls to Patriots, Teabaggers, and other assorted lunatics I think we need to reserve a bucket or two for the fine folks at Gazette.com:

The photo at the right shows Rafiki, a 25-year-old silverback lowland gorilla, during a CT scan at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Sept. 2, 2009. An all-volunteer medical team operated on the gorilla on Sept. 5, to remove an infection from a bone behind his right ear. Thanks to their efforts he has since recovered to normal health. I'm glad to hear it.

Editorialists at Gazette.com in Colorado Springs opined:

The team of specialists decided that in order to relieve pressure on Rafiki’s brain, the big gorilla would need surgery to clean out the infection. They called upon Dr. Joseph Hegarty, an ear, nose and throat specialist from Colorado Springs Ear Associates — another capitalist, free-market business. Hegarty not only made a house call for Rafiki, he performed surgery in the zoo’s Primate World Exhibit.

[...]

Fortunately for Rafiki, he’s an uninsured ape living in the United States. Had Rafiki been an insured human being living in a country with government-run health care, he might still be waiting for that CT scan. After the scan, he would wait an eternity to be seen by a neurologist, a radiologist or an ear, nose and throat specialist. He would have two choices: 1. Wait in pain and hope to survive the long wait; or 2. Travel to the United States, pay a specialist, and receive immediate care.

[snip]

Gorillacare. That's the ticket. One gorilla saved by a hospital and doctors generously donating their time and equipment. Forty-five thousand Americans dead each year from lack of health coverage. A pretty balanced scale, wouldn't you say?

In the fevered imaginings of the right-wing free market fucktards, yes.

Come to think of it, I don't think buckets of anti-psychotics shall be enough.

Neither would buckets of anti-hypocrisy pills, should such ever be invented:

The Worldnutdaily throws a hissy fit over someone on E-Bay selling American flags with Obama's picture on it.

A seller on eBay has been offering American flags with the stars removed from the blue field and President Barack Obama's face inserted, and outraged bloggers have promised to track the banners down...

(Atlas Shrugs blogger Pam) Gellar had this to say: "There is something terribly terribly wrong with this. It's an Obamanation. Skin crawling."...

On Gellar's site, another commenter had this to say: "This is just like Mao Tse Tung's cult of personality. I wonder if we'll soon see people carrying massive posters of 'the messiah' as he brings the country to utter economic ruin and geopolitical impotence?"

No, it's not. It's stupid, of course. But it's a single person on E-Bay trying to make a buck. It's not as if the White House made them up, for crying out loud. And some of the wingnuts have their authoritarian impulses all wrapped up in that flag:

"To whoever is currently manufacturing and selling those flags..... I will personally and legally hunt each of you down for the sole purpose of making citizens arrests and prosecuting each and every one of you to the fullest extend of the law under U.S. Code pertaining to the flag of the United States of America," wrote one participant in a forum at Atlas Shrugs, where blogger Pamela Gellar posted the images.

[snip]

Ironically, the Worldnutdaily are the same people selling tea-stained American flags.

What would our right-wing be without their rabid stupidity and raging hypocrisy, eh?  Not nearly so damned amusing, that's for sure.

Moving on to elections for a bit, who loves the sweet smell of Con desperation in the morning?

Hey, good luck with that! I'm sure the shy and uncertain Rep. Grayson will fold quickly under all the Republican wonderfulness:

Republicans eager to unseat a brash Orlando Democrat who said their party's health care plan amounts to hoping people "die quickly" have so far been unsuccessful in finding a candidate.

But now comes a willing Republican -- all the way from South Florida.

Armando Gutierrez Jr., son of one of Miami's best-known political consultants and a member of local civic boards, voted in the city of Coral Gables as recently as April.

[snip]

"The fact that Republicans have to import their candidate from 300 miles away shows how strong Congressman Grayson is," said Eric Jotkoff, a spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party.

This should be incredibly entertaining.  I hope Alan feels free to enjoy himself.

Let's finish up with a few quick links.  If you're a connoisseur of right-wing whinefests, you've really got to check out Rush Limbaugh's self-pitying WSJ op-ed.  The poor little fucktard just can't quite understand why reasonable people decided they didn't want him even potentially owning a football team.

Faith healers don't want to be left out of health care reform.  As in, they want to be included as health care providers.  File that under "you've got to be fucking kidding me."

Obama seems rather done playing nice with the insurance industry.

Target's corporate buyers need to rethink the wisdom of illegal alien costumes.

And, finally, I'm sure you'll be all torn up to know that the rich are upset that people are angry at them.  My sympathy can be measured - if you have an instrument that weighs in nanograms.

This shall be it for the posts of substance until Sunday Sensational Science later today, my darlings.  I hope it's fare enough for a Sunday morning.