Dumbfuckery du Jour

Well, I see PZ has already taken care of the Maine Cons who spent part of their convention adopting a Teabagolicious party platform and the other part of it vandalizing classrooms (which earned them a prompt smackdown by an 18 year-old who's orders of magnitude more mature than they are).  And he's spanked the Cons who used sex to sink science, along with the cowardly Dems who let them get away with it.  (By the way, the Cons seem to have a fetish - Think Progress has a rundown of times they've wielded sex as a political weapon, much like rapists wield sex as a weapon against women).  So there's that, then.  I shan't pile on myself, other than to say these little episodes only reinforce my impression that the GOP is filled to the brim with immature, evil hooligans whose anal myopia qualifies them as legally blind.

So let's focus on Lisa Murkowski instead, as she carries oil-tainted water for the industry that brought us one of the worst environmental disasters in history:

With the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf getting worse every day, it was tempting to think the "Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act" stood a chance at passage. The measure, pushed by Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), would increase the $75 million liability cap for oil spills to $10 billion.

Given what we've seen in recent weeks, what politician would want to side with the industry on a bill like this one? Reflecting the ongoing shamelessness of the Senate Republican caucus, one of its members was only too pleased to step up.

Alaska's senior senator blocked legislation Thursday that would have dramatically increased liability caps on oil companies, in the wake of one of the industry's biggest disasters.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to a voice vote request by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) on the bill... Murkowski said the legislation is "not where we need to be right now" and would unfairly advantage large oil companies by pricing the small companies out of the market.

Murkowski did signal that she would be open to "look at the liability cap and consider raising it." Just not at this moment.

Menendez wasn't buying it: "The risk is what has to be calculated here. If you drill, you need to be able to pay for the damages." As for the notion that large oil companies would have an advantage, Menendez explain that we're not talking about a "mom and pop in the grocery store around the corner" that wants to drill offshore.

So, Murkowski thinks now is not a good time to make oil companies pay to clean up their toxic, ecosystem-destroying messes, and down in Alabama we have Haley Balbour telling everybody millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf is no big deal - go for a swim. You first, Haley.  Take Lisa with you. You can hang on to some dead dolphins as flotation devices.

You know what, I'm done with these jackasses.  Let's move them all to the Gulf Coast, where they can enjoy their new tar-sand beaches.  We'll build that border wall they so desperately desire right around them.  They can create their own little Con utopia down there, and the rest of us can get to work repairing the damage they caused to the rest of the country.