Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Well, my darlings.  It's official: Cons are delusional enough, and desperate to win enough, to undercut their fearmongering on terrorism in order to fearmonger against Dems:

Yesterday, John Brennan, President Obama's chief counterterrorism adviser, tried to remind Americans about an important truth: "I think we have to remember who the enemy here is. The enemy is al Qaeda."

In Minnesota, a Republican congressional candidate has offered a slightly different take on the nature of America's enemies.

Allen Quist, a Republican candidate seeking the nomination to go up against Rep. Tim Walz (D-MN), has made a serious pronouncement: That the political battle against the Democrats is the defining fight of this generation, even greater than the fight against terrorism.

[snip]

"It's because I, like you, have seen that our country is being destroyed. I mean, this is -- every generation has had to fight the fight for freedom. This is our fight. And this is our time. This is it. Terrorism, yes -- but that's not the big battle. The big battle is in D.C., with the radicals. They aren't liberals, they're radicals. Obama, Pelosi, Walz -- they're not liberals, they're radicals. They are destroying our country. And people all over are figuring that out."

For what it's worth, Rep. Walz, the one Quist is describing as a radical enemy of the U.S. and a more serious threat than al Qaeda, is a 24-year veteran of the National Guard, retiring as a command sergeant major and the highest ranking enlisted soldier in southern Minnesota.

Yup, those Dems sure are horrible, trying to rescue the economy, restore the rule of law, and give Americans affordable health care.  I mean, how awful is that?  Far worse than blowing people to smithereens, you betcha.

This is their argument.  This is the level of stupidity they've been reduced to. And they're hoping Americans are dumb enough to fall for it.  Hey, America we've been down this road with these fucktards - we just spent eight fucking years getting fucked over six ways from Tuesday by these dumbshits.  Don't get fooled again.

I mean, really, should people who can't figure out how to do a Google search be put in charge of this nation again?

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) complained both yesterday and today that Obama is not “willing to use the word” terror. As the Plum Line’s Greg Sargent pointed out, DeMint’s claim has no merit. Similarly, The New Republic’s Editor-in-Chief Marty Peretz rejoiced on his blog yesterday that Obama “finally” used “the word ‘terror’” in his weekly address on Saturday:

President Obama used the terms “terrorism” and “terrorist” six times in his weekly address to the nation. I don’t know how long it has actually been since he’s uttered those words. But my memory is that it’s been a very long time. By using them, however, he was able to make, as it were, structural corrections, talking about Al Qaeda as “a network of violence and hatred” strung out “from East Africa to Southeast Asia, from Europe to the Persian Gulf.”

Simple research would have let Peretz know that it had “actually been” only two days since Obama referred to the Christmas Day plot as an “attempted act of terrorism” that underlined the need for “continued vigilance on homeland security and counterterrorism efforts.” Indeed, in Obama’s address at West Point announcing his escalation in Afghanistan on Dec. 1, he used variations of the word “terror” six times...

You've really got to see DeMint's nonsense to believe it.  He can't even defend his bullshit.  This Crotchfire Bomber has really brought out the dumb in a lot of Cons, and they seem to be getting dumber every day.

I'm actually a bit tired of their foolishness on this issue.  There's only so much stupid one can observe others engaging in before it gets really fucking old.  Hopefully, a majority of my countrymen feel the same way.

So let's move on to some good ol' Con corruption to snigger at:

Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele made a curious donation from the national party coffers in the last two months, the Hotline reports: $20,000 to the Republican Party in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, which has no electoral votes, no vote in Congress, and too small a population to even imagine statehood -- but where the party committee members did help him win the chairmanship a year ago.

[snip]

"Insiders said the islands sought a financial commitment from the eventual chair; Dawson refused, and the island votes went to Steele. Steele advisors have denied a deal was cut," the Hotline reports. "RNC spokesperson Gail Gitcho told Hotline OnCall the money was sent to the Northern Mariana Islands 'to help them win elections.'"

Yes, because we all know how important those strictly local elections in territories with no national representation are for the Republican National Committee.

Moving on to health care news.  Rush Limbaugh has become a walking, bloviating advert for socialized medicine - not that he's likely to admit it:

As the New York Times detailed in October ("In Hawaii's Health System, Lessons for Lawmakers"), Hawaii consistently outperforms almost every other state for health care access, quality and costs. While only about 10% of non-elderly adults are without health insurance in there, Hawaii's premiums and Medicare costs per beneficiary are the lowest in the nation. The Times explained a major reason why:

Since 1974, Hawaii has required all employers to provide relatively generous health care benefits to any employee who works 20 hours a week or more. If health care legislation passes in Congress, the rest of the country may barely catch up.

That system also paid dividends for Rush Limbaugh:

One result of Hawaii's employer mandate and the relatively high number of people with health insurance is that hospital emergency rooms in the state are islands of relative calm. In 2007, the state had 264 outpatient visits to emergency rooms per 1,000 people -- 34 percent lower than the national average of 401.

(That's a far cry from the GOP's "emergency room solution" to the American health care crisis favored by George W. Bush, Tom Delay and Mitch McConnell.)

The result is that Hawaii can be found atop the Commonwealth Fund's scorecard of state health care performance. After finishing first in its 2007 assessment, the Commonwealth Fund ranked Barack Obama's birthplace #2 across 30-plus indicators of health care access, cost containment, quality, equity and prevention.

Along with other recent studies, the Commonwealth Fund also confirmed what by now is a truism of the politics of American health care: health care is worst precisely where Republicans poll best.

My goodness, what a shocker that last is, eh?  Who ever would've thought Cons can't take care of their citizens?

And, finally, it seems as though the Dems have finally realized that Cons won't negotiate in good faith, so fuck 'em:

The final stage of negotiations over health care reform quietly got underway last week, despite the fact that lawmakers won't return to the Hill for another couple of weeks. One of the first key decisions to be made has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with procedure -- will Democratic leaders skip the formal conference committee?

Jonathan Cohn reported late last night that the leadership seems to have made up its mind, thanks to obstinate signals from Republicans.

According to a pair of senior Capitol Hill staffers, one from each chamber, House and Senate Democrats are "almost certain" to negotiate informally rather than convene a formal conference committee. Doing so would allow Democrats to avoid a series of procedural steps--not least among them, a series of special motions in the Senate, each requiring a vote with full debate -- that Republicans could use to stall deliberations, just as they did in November and December.

"There will almost certainly be full negotiations but no formal conference," the House staffer says. "There are too many procedural hurdles to go the formal conference route in the Senate."

Remember, one of the downsides of going through the conference committee is that it would take much longer -- conferees would have to be approved by both chambers, and Republicans intended to use more obstructionist tactics to slow down the process as much as possible. Rather than waste weeks playing pointless games with the GOP, Democratic leaders can, and apparently will, expedite matters and shape the bill on their own. As the Senate staffer told Cohn, "I think the Republicans have made our decision for us."

Indeed they have. 

Better buy some earplugs now, my darlings, because the howling from the Con side of the aisle's gonna start any second now.  You know how they are: they don't play fair, others decide not to play, they start wailing "Not fair!"  They're worse than a classroom full of spoiled two year-olds.  And yet, they're our opposition party.

I know.  It makes me want to scream, too.