Happy Hour Discurso

Today's opining on the public discourse.

Note to Cons who were, not long ago, celebrating the fact that Virginia elected a Con as a governor: the Dems have taken over the state senate.  How d'ya like them apples, eh?

This is the best part:

The Dem's principal campaign flyer showed a picture of Sarah Palin with a text bubble that showed her saying, "I can see Russia from my house." The message to district voters underneath read, in all caps, "If you don't vote Jan. 12th, you'll see a Republican-dominated Virginia from yours."

Sounds like that wasn't quite the view they wanted.  Heh.

Speaking of elections, Florida's got an interesting choice in the Senate primary: Charlie Crist, who occasionally shows some sparks of sanity, or Mark Rubio, who is just stark raving mad:

Last night on CNBC, Marco Rubio, a right-wing Republican running for US Senate in Florida, told host Larry Kudlow about his “solutions to the high unemployment” and economic recession. Rubio chafed at responding with any actual ideas, policies, or solutions. In fact, Rubio proposed that if he were elected, he would call for “a two year recess or something” so no laws or reforms could be enacted:

KUDLOW: If you were elected Senator, what would you do about the 10% unemployment rate, which may or may not be 10% if and when you get in? But, what are your general solutions to the high unemployment and worries about the economic recession?

RUBIO: Well the problem is the people in Washington don’t understand what’s causing it. They think that Presidents and Senators are job creators and they’re not. The job creators are people who have access to money, whether it’s their own or borrowed, who use that money to open up a new business or expand an existing one. And they’re not doing that right now because of the tax chaos and all the regulatory chaos and all of this uncertainty created in Washington DC. Perhaps the most stimulative thing they can do right now is take a two year recess or something.

Is this guy really this much of a joke?  "Elect me - I promise not to work for two years!"  This guy's understanding of how government works, much less how it should work, is even less comprehensive than that of a brainless newt.  And this, my darlings, is the beloved candidate of the Teabaggers.

Oy and vey.

Meanwhile, State Senator Scott Brown, who can't quite figure out why he's against the same sort of health care for America that he was happy to vote for in Massachusetts, and who's busy promising a state that adores Ted Kennedy's memory that he'll be sure to shit all over Teddy's legacy if he's elected, wants us all to believe he's been living locked away in a sound-proof box under a rock for the past year:

State Sen. Scott Brown told reporters in Massachusetts today he was "unfamiliar" with the "Tea Party movement," despite earning the endorsement from one of the groups who is raising money for his campaign to win the U.S. Senate seat Tuesday.

Are you fucking kidding me?  You're "unfamiliar" with Teabaggers?  Anyone with even the most casual interest in politics is familiar with fucking Teabaggers!  And Mass is supposed to elect someone this patently stupid (not to mention this horrible at lying) to fill Teddy's shoes?   Really?  I grant you that a few folks in Mass might be that bloody stupid, but this is asking for an abundance of stupidity that I just don't think Mass has.

Oh, and as for Harold Ford trying to snatch Kirsten Gillibrand's Senate seat - fugeddaboutit:

He sat down for an interview with the New York Times yesterday, and his motivations aren't any clearer.

In his first extensive interview since he began weighing a run for United States Senate from New York, Harold E. Ford Jr. distanced himself from his previous opposition to same-sex marriage, his description of himself as "pro-life" and his push to permit local police officers to enforce federal immigration law, and said he would be a fiercer advocate for New York than Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand. [...]

In a clear swipe at Ms. Gillibrand, he said he would not be a lap dog for Democratic leaders in Washington, who have rushed to her defense since Mr. Ford expressed interest in the seat.
"If I am elected senator from New York, Harry Reid will not instruct me how to vote," he said, referring to Mr. Reid's efforts to keep him out of the campaign.

Except, that's clearly the wrong message. When Reid leans on senators, it's practically always to get them to support a progressive bill important to the Democratic Party. Ford, who was a conservative Dem from a conservative state, is basically saying he wants New York Democrats -- generally, a pretty liberal bunch -- to send him to the Senate where he'll be deliberately unreliable when it comes to the party's agenda.

The transcript of Ford's NYT interview is online, and it's a bit of a mess. He tried to take both sides of the abortion issue and the debate over health care reform. Ford is pro-gun, but only sort of, and not really. His big economic idea is a massive corporate tax cut. Seriously.

Ford moved to the Empire State in 2009 and still has a Tennessee driver's license. Asked if he's visited all five boroughs, Ford counted Staten Island because he "landed there in the helicopter."

You've got to be kidding me.

Well, either he's one big joke, or he's just oblivious enough to believe New Yorkers won't spot his lies.  Either way, it's fucking pathetic.

Far too many of our elected officials aren't any better.  I mean, check out the tower of fail that is Rep. Paul Broun:

Last night on the House floor, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) delivered a rambling speech against health care reform.

"It's absolutely critical," Broun said, "that the American people stand up and speak to the leadership and demand something different, and that the American people demand that nothing is passed, particularly on health care."

Broun also made a series of wildly false allegations to argue that, "This is the largest takeover of liberty and freedom this country has ever seen."

BROUN: This health care plan can tell us what kind of car to drive, whether we can own guns or not to protect ourselves in our home, whether we can teach our children the way that we as parents believe our children ought to be taught.  This is the largest takeover of liberty and freedom this country has ever seen. 

How the fuck do these paranoid freaks end up governing the country?  Oh, right.  Because other paranoid freaks elect them, and non-paranoid sensible people are so busy doing non-paranoid sensible things they forget that one of the most sensible things they could ever do is ensure that paranoid, batshit insane freaks don't get fucking elected. 

And here are two items you really mustn't miss: one that will give you a classic *headdesk* moment, and one that will give you a blissfully warm feeling of schadenfreude.

After all that stupidity, I think we need an antidote.  Paging Alan Grayson:

From Rep. Grayson's You Tube page:

Former Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani claimed that no attacks happened on US soil 'except' for 9/11. Rep. Alan Grayson responded by pointing out all of the other exceptions the Republicans would like to exclude from history.

Dave N.: You gotta love Alan Grayson. Republicans' are desperate to make Americans forget what an abject failure conservative governance has been. Grayson is one of the few congresscritters actively fighting back:

Grayson: And I realized that I was witnessing the birth of a new form of political discourse from the right wing in this country: The Exception. The Exceptional Exception -- the exception that proves the rule or disproves the rule, as the case may be.

So in the future I'm expecting that we'll hear from the right wing the claim that no cities drowned under the Bush administration -- except for New Orleans. And that there were no wars that were started by mistake under the Bush administration -- except for the war in Iraq. And that the Bush administration added nothing to the federal debt -- except for a half-trillion dollars, which works out to $15,000 for every man, woman and child in this country. And that they respected all of our constitutional rights as Americans -- except when they didn't.

I think we'll hear Republicans claim that the Bush administration managed the economy quite well -- except when they brought it to the brink of national bankruptcy. In fact, they'll claim that the Bush-Cheney administration was a complete success, except for the fact that it was an abject failure -- an abject failure.

In fact, what we learned in Washington for eight years is that the reason why Republicans hate government so much is because they're so bad at it.

Fuck it.  I'm giving up atheism and starting the Church of Grayson.  Yes, there will be alcohol for the service - gotta have something to toast the man with, don't we?