Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

We haven't had a good McCain-bashing session in a long time.  Let's make up for that lack, shall we? 

It appears that McCain's in deep shit, and so has flopped neck-deep in right wing bullshit in order to save his ass.  A man who used to be sensible on climate change is now sounding like every two-bit global warming denier:

Sens. John Kerry, Lindsey Graham, and Joe Lieberman -- a tri-partisan group -- have been crafting a climate change bill that can generate broad support in the Senate. All three are personal friends with Sen. John McCain, and all three would love to get the Arizona Republican's support on this issue that he's historically cared about.

So, how's that going?

"Their start has been horrendous," McCain said Thursday. "Obviously, they're going nowhere."

McCain has emerged as a vocal opponent of the climate bill -- a major reversal for the self-proclaimed maverick who once made defying his party on global warming a signature issue of his career.

Now the Arizona Republican is more likely to repeat GOP talking points on cap and trade than to help usher the bill through the thorny politics of the Senate.

McCain refers to the bill as "cap and tax," calls the climate legislation that passed the House in June "a 1,400-page monstrosity" and dismisses a cap-and-trade proposal included in the White House budget as "a government slush fund."

Former aides are mystified by what they see as a retreat on the issue, given McCain's long history of leadership on climate legislation.

No one should be mystified. John McCain's core beliefs don't appear to exist.

McCain co-sponsored climate-change legislation three in three separate Congresses during the Bush era, and endorsed cap and trade as a sound policy. In 2008, however, McCain decided to oppose the same ideas he'd already endorsed, and he's sticking with this far-right persona.

Asked for an explanation, McCain spokesperson Brooke Buchanan said, "This really hasn't been done in a bipartisan fashion."

Go back to the top, there, as Steve Benen did, and note that the bill is being worked on by a Con, a Dem, and an Independent.  I suppose, then, McCain's lame excuse is, by a strict definition, correct.  It's not bipartisan, but tripartisan.  How horrible, right?

McCain's dumbfuckery could be explained by the fact he is, for the first time in recent memory, in serious danger of losing his Senate seat:

You may have seen the new Rasmussen poll finding that John McCain is locked in an uncomfortably close GOP primary with conservative challenger J. D. Hayworth.

So who will save McCain’s hide and career? Bill Kristol has a suggestion:

Still, who could help McCain beat back a populist conservative challenger? Sarah Palin. I predict that Palin will come to Arizona next summer to campaign for McCain, will make an impassioned case for him, and will help him win. She will thereby repay McCain for his confidence in picking her last year, help keep McCain as a crucial voice in the Senate for a strong foreign policy, and get credit for being a different kind of populist conservative — a Reaganite, not a Buchananite, populist — than the immigration-obsessed, voter-alienating (he was ousted in 2006 in a Republican district) Hayworth.

Yeah, okay, because Palin is known to harbor a bottomless reserve of gratitude towards the McCain camp for plucking her from relative obscurity and turning her into a national celebrity, right?

Yup.

Greg Sargent seems to be popping the popcorn already, but he might want to hold off - Sarah Palin may not be the mover-and-shaker (either for or against McCain) that he believes.  It seems she's been busy pissing off her biggest fans:

Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was in Indiana yesterday for a book-signing at a Borders store. One thousand lucky fans with wristbands to meet Palin stood in the rain all day waiting for her to arrive. However, Palin quit the event before she had the chance to sign all the books, leaving 100 supporters out in the cold:

“I’m very disappointed. I think it was very rude. She could have at least apologized, and she didn’t even do that,” said Teresa Hedrick. [...]

“We bought two books from Borders to have our receipt and our wristband to get it signed tonight,” said one woman. “My books are going back to Borders tomorrow.”

“We gave up our entire workday, stayed in the cold. My kids were crying,” said one man. “They went home with my wife. She was out here in the freezing cold all day. I feel like I don’t want to support Sarah.“

People who didn’t get to meet Palin “went home only with a piece of paper with Palin’s signature.”

Deary, deary me.   Looks like somebody should've picked up a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People before she left the scene.  I'm sure there's a word or two in there about keeping promises.

At least Palin still has one loyal zombie following her around - what an impressive parroting of the "gotcha journalism" talking point.  Say hello to the next generation of con-American fucktards, my darlings.

And there's still plenty of anti-government Teabagging fucktards around.  Check out this Missouri billboard:

Fired Up! Missouri points out that the Lafayette County Republican Central Committee is highlighting a new billboard in the state with steps for a “citizens guide to revolution of a corrupt government“:

This billboard replaces one that warned that the socialist “Obama-Nation” is “coming for you.”

Any doubts that right-wingers everywhere have gone completely batshit fucking insane?  I didn't think so.

Moving on to news of people no less noxious than the creators of said billboard, it seems that the Muslim Mafia author has let the terrorists win.  Oh, sweet justice. 

Utah state fucktard Chris Buttars wants us all to know he doesn't mind gays.  They were even in his house a couple of weeks ago.  He just doesn't want 'em stuffing it down my throat all the time.  Certainly not in my kid's face."  Interesting choice of words, there, Buttars.  Sounds positively Freudian.

Mark Sanford's facing possible impeachment.  I think he should go hike the Appalachian Trail again - it would certainly be more fun than waiting for angry legislators to dump him out on his ear.

If you think Dana Perino's new job is richly undeserved, you can make your opinion clear here.

"Read the Stimulus!" crusader Dick Armey, strangely enough, didn't read the stimulus bill he's been crusading against.

Cons are busy blaming employers' nefariousness on undocumented immigrants who had nothing to do with the fuckery.  Is anyone surprised?

And, finally, for a measure of how stupid this anti-KSM trial bullshit has become, here are the latest folks to speak out in favor:

Saying that critics are “understating the criminal justice system’s capacities,” two top Bush Justice officials came out in support of Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other Guantanamo detainees in federal court. Writing in the Washington Post, Jim Comey, former deputy attorney general and U.S. attorney in Manhattan, and Jack Goldsmith, a former assistant attorney general who now teaches at Harvard Law School, wrote that the move is “unlikely to make New York a bigger target” and that civilian courts are a proven venue for terror trials:

[T]here is no question about the legitimacy of U.S. federal courts to incapacitate terrorists. Many of Holder’s critics appear to have forgotten that the Bush administration used civilian courts to put away dozens of terrorists, including “shoe bomber” Richard Reid; al-Qaeda agent Jose Padilla; “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh; the Lackawanna Six; and Zacarias Moussaoui, who was prosecuted for the same conspiracy for which Mohammed is likely to be charged. Many of these terrorists are locked in a supermax prison in Colorado, never to be seen again.

In terrorist trials over the past 15 years, federal prosecutors and judges have gained extensive experience protecting intelligence sources and methods, limiting a defendant’s ability to raise irrelevant issues and tightly controlling the courtroom.

Comey and Goldsmith are hardly the first conservatives to support Holder’s faith in the U.S. justice system.

The fact that so many dyed-in-the-wool Cons, ones deeply associated with the biggest assclowns in our nation's history, are showing some sense in these matters should be an indication of just how unbelievably, breathtakingly, batshit fucking insane our current Cons in Congress have become.

I guess all that's left is to continue pointing, laughing, and working to get these fucktards voted out.