Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Heh.  Looks like Blue Dogs may want to reconsider their stance:

The Blue Dog Democrat PAC has seen its once mighty river of donations dry up nearly completely, according to a new report from the Center for Public Integrity. Last month, the PAC had just three donations from other PACs, for a total of $12,500. Between January and July, the group averaged more than $170,000 in PAC donations per month.

The three PAC donations in September came from consulting firm Ernst & Young, the Food Marketing Institute PAC and the NRA's political action fund.

The tiny September haul for the Blue Dog PAC continues a decline in revenue for the group that began over the summer.

They're not Con enough to make Con companies happy, and definitely not liberal enough to attract the progressive bucks.  Looks like trying to straddle their mythical middle is giving them saddle sores.

I have to say I'm delighted.

In more news that delights, Bill Kristol's handing out awful advice, and believe me when I say I hope Cons take it:

The Washington Post's Bill Kristol has some advice for his Republican allies. As he sees it, the key to electoral success in the near future is ... you'll never guess ... being more conservative.

The GOP is going to be pretty unapologetically conservative. There aren't going to be a lot of moderate Republican victories in intra-party skirmishes. And -- with the caveat that the political world can, of course, change quickly -- there will be a conservative Republican presidential nominee in 2012. [...]

The center of gravity, I suspect, will instead lie with individuals such as Palin and Huckabee and Gingrich, media personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and activists at town halls and tea parties. Some will lament this -- but over the past year, as those voices have dominated, conservatism has done pretty well in the body politic, and Republicans have narrowed the gap with Democrats in test ballots.

And to think, Time magazine and the New York Times let a brilliant political visionary like Kristol go. It's hard to imagine.

[snip]

It seems more interesting to note that, as Republicans have moved further and further to the right this year, their national support has deteriorated. Last week's Washington Post/ABC News poll found that only 19% of the public has confidence that congressional Republicans can make the right decisions for the country's future, and only 20% self-identify as Republican voters -- the lowest single number in Post-ABC polls since 1983.

Also last week, a CNN poll found the Republican Party's favorable rating at lowest level in 11 years.

Kristol seems to think the key to turning this around is for the GOP to go from the far-right to the even-further-right. Given his track record for prognostications -- Kristol was confident McCain (173 electoral votes) would defeat Obama (365 electoral votes) last year -- I suspect Democrats hope Republicans take his advice.

I feel better about 2010 already.

Speaking of elections, Cons seem to think the Virginia governor's race shall be a referendum on Obama.  Recent polls would tend to suggest otherwise.  Poor fuckers still have trouble comprehending reality.  I suspect they always will.  But perhaps some kind soul can provide them a class in remedial poll reading.

In the department of piss-poor excuses, Gov. Crist says he didn't hang out with President Obama in Florida because he didn't know he was there:

Yesterday, President Obama toured Florida, greeting thousands at stops across the state. One man who wasn't there, however, was Gov. Charlie Crist (R). He's been facing increasing criticism from Florida's GOP base over Obama's February visit to Florida, when Crist joined the president on stage at a rally in support of the stimulus package.

The Palm Beach Post reports on how much things have changed between Crist and Obama since then:

"First I've known of it," Gov. Charlie Crist said this morning in response to a reporter's question about why he didn't join President Obama in Jacksonville. ... "I didn't know his itinerary. That's all," Crist said.

Does anyone else think it's a bad thing for a governor to be this fucking clueless as to what's going on in his state?  Does anyone else think it's not so much cluelessness as much as outright fucking piss-poor lying?

Yup.

Speaking of oblivious, Teabag hero Doug Hoffman can't be bothered with local issues in the district he ostensibly wants to represent:

The Conservative Party candidate stopped by the Watertown Daily Times the other day for a meeting with the paper's editorial board. Not surprisingly, the editors wanted to talk about local transportation projects and the district's economy. Hoffman, who was chaperoned for some reason by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R) of Texas, was woefully unprepared for easy questions.

A flustered and ill-at-ease Mr. Hoffman objected to the heated questioning, saying he should have been provided a list of questions he might be asked. He was, if he had taken the time to read the Thursday morning Times editorial raising the very same questions.

Coming to Mr. Hoffman's defense, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who accompanied the candidate on a campaign swing, dismissed regional concerns as "parochial" issues that would not determine the outcome of the election. On the contrary, it is just such parochial issues that we expect our representative to understand and be knowledgeable about, if he wants to be our voice in Washington.

Hoffman could have simply picked up that day's newspaper, and read about the interests of the editorial board before chatting with them. But he couldn't be bothered -- his campaign isn't about New York's 23rd; it's about the soul of the national Republican Party and the future of conservative politics.

He can't be bothered with "parochial" concerns such as what's actually important to district residents' daily lives; Hoffman has a movement to worry about.

I'm guessing Hoffman hasn't heard the expressions, "All politics is local"?

Apparently not.  His opponents must be screaming with joy about now.  It can only get more entertaining from here.

Time now for another installment of Inhofe's infinite idiocy:

At the outset of Senate hearings on clean energy and climate legislation today, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Commitee, mockingly praised chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) for mentioning “global warming” in a YouTube video about the bill. Inhofe claimed that people “have been running from that term” once “that natural warming cycle” ended “nine years ago”:

I do want to congratulate you on your Youtube, the fact you’re using the term global warming again, I appreciate that. People have been running from that term ever since we went out of that natural warming cycle about nine years ago.

That's interesting news, considering the most recent decade was the hottest on record.  Methinks the atmosphere isn't the only thing full of waste gasses.

John Boehner had stiff competition, but he's won the Hypocrite of the Day award:

Congress routinely takes up symbolic resolutions that aren't especially significant. It's generally not worth raising a fuss over.

But this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) decided to not only complain about today's resolutions, but to argue that they're evidence of Democratic negligence.

"These are your hard-earned tax dollars at work: with millions of Americans looking for jobs and the nation's unemployment rate nearing 10 percent, the U.S. House of Representatives today will take up a grand total of four non-controversial 'suspension' bills. Four," Boehner's statement read. He added, "It's unacceptable for Congress to take it easy at a time when out-of-work families struggling to make ends meet are asking 'where are the jobs?'"

You tell 'em, John. And while you're telling 'em, you may want to let your caucus know about your concerns.

Republican Study Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) today introduced -- along with 75 other Republicans -- a resolution to officially commemorate the 9/12 taxpayer march on Washington. Other sponsors of H.R. 870 include Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa.), and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the party's whip.

The odds of passage -- which would demand that Democrats endorse bill language about "skyrocketing deficits, taxpayer-funded bailouts, pork-barrel projects, burdensome taxes, unaccountable policy czars, command-and-control energy policy, and a government takeover of health care" -- seem slim.

[snip]

So, these are your hard-earned tax dollars at work. With the economy struggling, more than six dozen House Republicans want to spend time on a resolution honoring 70,000 right-wing activists who showed up for some lobbyist-sponsored, Fox News-organized protest.

John: next time you want to spout bullshit, make sure your colleagues aren't set to make you look like a total fucktard.  Well, more of a total fucktard than normal, anyway.

The award for Outrageous Homophobic Dumbfucks of the day goes to - who else? - the FRC:

Yesterday, the Family Research Council (FRC) put out a statement objecting to the Obama administration’s pledge to “establish the nation’s first national resource center” to assist communities providing services to elderly LGBT communities. The statement from Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius noted that there are now “as many as 1.5 to 4 million LGBT individuals are age 60 and older.” Nevertheless, FRC is arguing that there aren’t many LGBT senior citizens because “homosexual conduct” makes them die early:

In reality, HHS has no idea how many LGBT seniors exist. No one does! The movement is only a few decades old, and people who are 80- or 90-years-old didn’t grow up in a culture where it was acceptable to identify with this lifestyle.

Of course, the real tragedy here–apart from the unnecessary spending–is that, given the risks of homosexual conduct, few of these people are likely to live long enough to become senior citizens! Yet once again, the Obama administration is rushing to reward a lifestyle that poses one of the greatest public health risks in America. If this is how HHS prioritizes, imagine what it could do with a trillion dollar health care overhaul!

Oh, how I want to gather up a few busloads of happy, healthy LGBT seniors and take a field trip.  Seriously, how fucking willfully blind, stupid and malicious to you have to be to miss the fact that just because folks had to keep their orientation quiet means they don't exist?  And how pathetic is it that they feel it necessary to believe that the LGBT lifestyle is so deadly?  It's along the same lines as warning kids about blindness, insanity and hairy palms if they engage in a little bit of masturbation, just more offensive and patently ridiculous.

And, finally, do try to contain your shock, because I know this is just going to shatter your world view and everything, but it turns out Nancy Pelosi was right.  The CIA, hard as it is to believe, really did lie:

The CIA misled Congress about its torture program and other issues, Democrats on the House Intelligence committee are asserting as the committee continues to probe the matter.

In a hearing of the House Intelligence committee this afternoon, Reps. Anna Eshoo and Jan Schakowsky, both Democrats, pointed to at least five instances going back to at least 2001 in which the C.I.A. withheld information from or lied to Congress.

Imagine my surprise.  I think I might have to go for a lie-down.

Just don't expect any Cons to apologize for their apoplexy when Pelosi spoke the plain truth.  Fucktards never apologize for their egregious bullshit.  If they did, they wouldn't be fucktards, now, would they?