Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

As I write this, I'm waiting for UPS to deliver the latest installment of the Wheel of Time.  So if I seem a little distracted, forgive me.  It's hard to concentrate on pollyticks when you have an epic adventure waiting.  I shall do me best.

(Is that a truck I hear?  Argh.  No.)

So, how nuts has the right gotten?  Nuts enough that Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs fame has given up in disgust:

And late yesterday, Johnson, at one point one of the highest profile conservative bloggers in the country, announced that he's "parting ways" with the right.

He put together a list of developments that Johnson believes pushed him away, including support for bigotry, opposition to women's rights, hostility towards science, homophobia, embrace of "anti-government lunacy," and "support for conspiracy theories and hate speech."

And much, much more. The American right wing has gone off the rails, into the bushes, and off the cliff.

I won't be going over the cliff with them.

Bravo, Charles.  Bravo.  I know you're not set to become a flaming liberal yet, but I'm sure we can make room at the bar for you.  The cantina's a good place to bemoan rightwing stupidity, so it appears you'll fit in just fine.

Now, if the (relatively) sensible conservatives would just band together and start a political party of their own, that would be lovely.  Perhaps we could then get an opposition party in power that isn't completely batshit fucking insane.  Be a nice change o' pace, wouldn't it?

Instead, we've got a political party that's in thrall to people like the Family Research Council, which is busy throwing a screaming hysterical fit over the idea that teh gayz might end up being treated like human beings:

Earlier this month, the far-right Family Research Council (FRC) sent a fundraising action alert fearmongering about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), which has been introduced in both the House and Senate and President Obama says he is “pushing hard to pass.” “This law would punish anyone in the workplace who dares oppose homosexual behavior, cross-dressing and other unhealthy behaviors,” said the FRC alert.

[snip]

These claims are ridiculous. Despite what Price says, the legislation would not force anyone to be hired. It would only mean that it would be illegal “to fire, refuse to hire, or fail to promote employees simply based on sexual orientation,” as it is currently illegal to do in cases of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Additionally, as the Human Rights Campaign points out, current ENDA legislation “exempts small businesses, religious organizations and the military.”

As per usual, much ado (and a shitload of lies) about not being allowed to be unbridled bigots.  What a sad little world they live in.

Rick Warren, meanwhile, can't figure out why people might be upset that he's not speaking out against Uganda's death-to-gays law.  You'll just love his defense:

In recent days, Pastor Rick Warren has come under fire for refusing to condemn an Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda that would make some homosexual acts punishable by death. “[I]t is not my personal calling as a pastor in America to comment or interfere in the political process of other nations,” said Warren. On his Twitter feed, Warren is now trying to change the subject, claiming that “no one” cared when 146,000 Christians died last year (so why should he now care about gay men and women in Africa?)

Yup.  That is Rick Warren's moral fiber, my darlings.  Classy, isn't he?

Meanwhile, elected Cons are busy proving to Johnson he made the right choice.  Michele Bachmann, for instance, has voted against no fewer than five (5) foreclosure relief bills, while her district suffers the highest number of foreclosures in Minnesota. 

And Rep. Thaddeus McCotter really must be seen to be believed:

Environmental groups have declared that McCotter is a “Caveman Congressman.” The satirical Caveman Energy Caucus website notes that lawmakers like McCotter have “chosen OLD energy when they voted no” on Waxman-Markey clean energy legislation. Ironically, as he explained his backwards denial of settled climate change science, McCotter cited the experience of his cavemen namesake to note that the melting of glaciers had a positive effect:

MCCOTTER: Remember, the people who talk about the melting of the glaciers and others, imagine if you were in a peninsula around 1,000 BC or so or earlier and your name was Tor and you’re out huntin’ mastadon. And you didn’t notice that the glaciers were melting and leaving the devastating flooding in its wake that became the Great Lakes in the state of Michigan.

Something tells me this idiot's a Young Earth Creationist.  Probably his total lack of awareness of actual history and science:

McCotter is wrong on several fronts. First, the glacial melt which formed the Great Lakes occurred between a period of 15,000 and 10,000 BC, not 1,000 BC, as McCotter claims. But we do not have to look to the past to see shrinking glaciers. Global warming is currently melting 18,000 Himalayan glaciers — the largest concentration of glaciers outside the great polar ice sheets. The global trend of melting glaciers has only accelerated, with 2009 marked as the 18th consecutive year glaciers around the world have decreased in size.

What a dumbshit.  He's a perfect example of what Johnson's talking about.

(Office sez UPS is running late.  Grr, argh.)

Where were we?  Oh, right.  Political stupidity, abundance of.  Hey, it's the holidays.  Let's check in and see how that celebrated Con compassion's going, shall we?

Ooo, not too good:

This Corner poster (via Rumproast) thinks food stamps are making people lazy:

Today's NYT says that food-stamp usage grows by about 20,000 people per day:

MARTINSVILLE, Ohio — With food stamp use at record highs and climbing every month, a program once scorned as a failed welfare scheme now helps feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. ... While the numbers have soared during the recession, the path was cleared in better times when the Bush administration led a campaign to erase the program’s stigma, calling food stamps “nutritional aid” instead of welfare, and made it easier to apply

Seems like there ought to be a stigma attached to the use of welfare. A little bit of shame can go a long way toward encouraging people to find jobs. The federal government may think it's doing people a favor by providing them with access to food, but it's doing them a disservice if it also robs them of the motivation necessary to break free from dependency.

One wouldn't think you'd have to make an argument in favor of America being generous enough to make sure that 25% of the children in this country aren't going hungry. You would think the immorality of allowing kids to starve or be publicly shamed due to conditions over which they have absolutely no control would be obvious. But apparently it isn't.

Not for them.  Oh, and those poor kiddies shouldn't expect any toys if their parents can't pony up their papers:

Several charities in the Houston area are checking the immigration status of needy families before giving out toys this holiday season. The charities claim that given the jump in demand this year — over 30,000 children have registered with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program, an increase of over 20 percent from last year — they want to be “good stewards” and get the donations to people who are in the country legally.

[snip]

Matt Yglesias writes, "Meanwhile grant that it’s 'the parents’ responsibility' that the family may be in the United States without legal permission. Suppose the parents had committed a crime that’s even more serious than moving across an international boundary without permission in order to do work in exchange for money (hard to imagine a more serious offense, I know). What if they’d, I dunno, broken into people’s homes and stolen jewelry and now they’re in jail. Is the Salvation Army going to say that their kids shouldn’t have toys to play with? What sense does that make?"

None.  But anti-immigrant fucktards don't really care if their xenophobia and malice makes sense, now, do they?

While we're on the subject of charity, let's talk about the recipients of quite a considerable amount of government charity, and their reaction:

Bethany McLean is the business writers [sic] who had the temerity to question why Enron was speaking gibberish on analyst calls back before their ignominious fall from grace. She was dismissed by all the MOUs of course. How silly of her to wonder why nothing these people made any sense. They were making muneeeee! Today McLean has a fascinating article in the new Vanity Fair about the Bloodsucking Vampire Squid itself, Goldman Sachs.

My favorite thing is that despite everything, they seem to have convinced themselves that they didn't need to be bailed out by the government last fall --- that they were doing just fine. In fact, they seem to believe that they were innocent bystanders, good samaritans actually, who are getting a bad rap.

[snip]

One wonders if Goldman employees are packing heat these days because they are afraid of the peasants with pitchforks or their fellow bankers:

“I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.

These guys really are something aren't they? First they seem to actually believe that "populists" are coming to take over their bank and second that they could "defend" it with pistols. Good God, these people really do think they are John Galt, don't they?

These fucktards are all certifiably insane.  Absolutely, beyond a doubt, totally fucking insane.  I think all that money's fucked up their brains.  Perhaps we could fix that by helping them go cold turkey. 

Speaking of people who've let enormous amounts of cash turn their gray matter to so much useless goop, check out this piece on CNBC's total lack of judgment.  Moral: if CNBC's profiling somebody as a hero of Wall Street, you can place a pretty safe bet on the fact that person will be indicted for fraud not long after.

Let's switch gears for a few moments and bash dumbshit Dems for a bit.  Specifically, let's take the Smack-o-Matic to Conservadem Evah Bayh:

Glenn Greenwald had a pretty devastating piece yesterday on the junior senator from Indiana. He argued, "When the sad and destructive history of the U.S. over the last decade is written, the coddled, nepotistic, self-serving face of Evan Bayh should be prominently included. It embodies virtually every cause."

To help bolster the point, consider Bayh's recent efforts on cutting spending, "reforming" entitlements, and debt reduction. Brian Beutler touches on a point I've been trying to emphasize.

This spring, when Congress was hashing out its budget, [Bayh] voted for an amendment, sponsored by Sens. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), that would have slashed the estate tax for multimillionaires.

According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, the measure would've blown a $250 billion hole in the budget. Keep that number in mind for one moment. Because the letter warned, "Deficits and debt matter for everyone. In 2008, the American taxpayer paid more than $250 billion to our creditors in interest payments alone." [Emphasis in the original.] Oh cruel irony.

To be fair, the Lincoln-Kyl amendment's price tag would've been spread out over 10 years. But still: How does one square a vote to diminish the estate tax with fiscal discipline?

One can't. It's why I cringe just a bit every time I see Bayh claim the high ground on fiscal responsibility and deficit reduction, as he did over the weekend on Fox News.

How much would you like to bet there'll be an R after this fucktard's name next time he runs for office?  He might as well cast aside the donkey costume - we can see the Con under there.

Perhaps he can be joined by the fucktarded Dems who believe extending the Bush tax cuts is a good idea.

In fun news, Sheriff Joe got pwnd by protesters.  And Sarah Palin's misquote is truly hysterical:

Oopsie:

As the epigram to Chapter Three, "Drill, Baby, Drill," Palin assigns the following remarks to the Hall of Fame hoops coach:

Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember our grandfathers paid for it--with their lives.

Only the quote wasn't by John Wooden. It was written by a Native American activist named John Wooden Legs in an essay entitled "Back on the War Ponies," which appeared in a left-wing anthology, We Are the People: Voices from the Other Side of American History, edited by Nathaniel May, Clint Willis, and James W. Loewen.

Go to the link for the full quote.  I don't think that's quite what she was aiming for.  Heh.

The fact that so many wingnuts think she'd make a great prez tells you all you need to know about the intellectual seriousness of the American right.

No wonder poor Charles jumped the ship.

(And no, me book's still not here.  Grr, argh.)