Civility for me but not for thee

"It's a very simple plan," Grayson said in the speech Tuesday night. "Don't get sick. That's what the Republicans have in mind. And if you get sick America, the Republican health care plan is this: die quickly."

Three absurdities of American politics in one small CNN item:

1. Democrat Alan Grayson says some impolite things about the Republican refusal even to have a health plan, and the Republicans go apeshit with wounded offense - yes, the same party that has been trumpeting lies about death panels and socialism and losing your doctor and keep your filthy government hands off my Medicare!
   
2. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is too lily-livered to have a comment before they see how this plays out, when they should come out with guns blazing in defense of a brave voice in the wilderness.
3. The media utterly fails to provide the obvious context of Republican lies.

This is why bloggers like me couldn't give a flip for civility. The way it's defined in Washington, it's a rigged game in favor of the wingnut lunatics.

You want civil discourse? You Republicans have to hold yourselves to civility. Until you do, no mercy from me.

Ging-related

If anyone knows how to game the fundraising system, it's Newtie. He made his bones playing fast and loose with campaign finance. He will find a way to convert tax-deductible contributions to a "non-partisan" bullshit "charity" into political funds. It's second nature for him.

Why we're doomed

Our culture is drowning in bullshit.

We're actually spending precious time disserting on what beer our President is drinking. We're doing man-in-the-street interviews about Gov. Deval Patrick's black lab puppy's trips to the corner office on Beacon Hill. We're listening to job-hunting advice that puts personal branding above, you know, ability.

None of this is about the important questions we face. Health care? The economy? Boring.

This is why we're a culture in decline. Asia deserves to be ascendant.

Fighting the consequences of elections

Republicans oppose democracy:

NRSC Chairman John Cornyn has said Coleman's challenge could go through federal courts and take "years" to resolve. He also threatened "World War III" if Democrats try to seat Franken prematurely.

Yet there's no hue and cry from the big media, who continue to think bipartisanship is even possible with these anti-election extremists.

Go nuclear on Cornyn. He's asking for it. Do it in such a way as to preserve the traditional prerogatives of the minority - so long as they don't abuse it.

But let Cornyn not make the mistake of believing there's any comity left in the Senate.

Terrorism is truth

In the Orwellian world of Cheneyite wingnuts, revealing the undeniable photographic truth is "siding with terrorists."

Liz Cheney didn't fall far from the poison tree.

Expecting a different result

The Republican Party still hasn't become accustomed to resounding rejection. There is a huge amount of keening, wailing, and breast-beating over Arlen Specter's marriage of convenience to the Democrats. No self-examination other than Olympia Snowe's, however, just more kowtowing to Rush and his doughy [sic] band of ditto-heads.

What does this mean for Democrats? This is good ... for Arlen Specter. It trades now for later. Specter probably would have lost to a real Democrat in 2010, if he didn't lose in the primary to Club for Growth ideologue Pat Toomey. On the other hand, 2010 nationwide looks damn good so far (subject to change with events), so sacrificing a future win for a better chance to pass Obama's agenda now is probably a good trade-off. Atrios hates it, but he's from Pennsylvania and no doubt tired of being represented by Arlen's frequent poses of moderation, belied by later actual votes.

Snowe and Susan Collins are probably pissed that they didn't make a deal. They've been joined at the hip for a while, though, so Specter was probably easier to peel off than the pair of them.

Opinions that don't matter

When Darth Cheney's opinions mattered, he was silent. Now, he's sowing the propaganda for the base of Republican Party who still miss him. Yes, unbelievable as it is to sane people, there are still people who long for Cheney's brand of unconstitutional, robustly torturing, militaristic fascism that made piles of money for the right people.

My question is why CNN is pimping Fox propaganda. Are they hoping to deliver more of the same as Darth takes his non-victory lap? For an alleged conservative, Cheney sure is willing to dispense with any tradition that's not codified into law - and lots of them that are.

I really hope this guy is on his way to the Federal penitentiary for his crimes, though I know that's an unlikely hope.

Nailing down the constituencies

Newt Gingrich is a Fox contributor, natch! Any hoary old wingnut conservative can get a soapbox on that propaganda bullshit bin. CNN has been trying to get in on the compost action, too, for no obvious reason other than that they know him.

Newtie looks to be nailing (down) the core Republican constituencies. Why not? Like March's face of the Republican Party, he's an outdated, corpulent, pasty-faced gasbag - and those are his good points. Today he decried Obama's appointment of Harry Knox to "the White House advisory council on faith-based initiatives." For Newt, the appointment of this gay non-denominational preacher is proof that the Obama administration is "anti-religious."

Like Newt's religious! He's only pandering to fundamentalist Christians to try to immunize himself against his own repeated adultery and divorce. Oh, sure, Newt has converted to Catholicism, which is weird. Isn't he automatically denied communion because of his multiple marriages?

Newt still thinks he can be President, though, and he has also been appealing lately to the paranoid bullies and the anti-tax know-nothings who'll do the bidding of the wealthies.

Another losing issue

Long run, gay rights are yet another losing issue for the Republicans. That's what it is to be conservative: You drag your feet against progress, but it inevitably overwhelms you.

I know this because I was sitting in a car late last night talking with my Republican doubles partner, and she told me that she had been maid of honor at the marriage of two of her softball teammates. It's the one thing she'll admit we Democrats have right.

Granted the younger people I know live in Massachusetts and they're a self-selected set with some selection bias, but they all favor gay rights. As the old normal ages out into cemeteries, the new normal will be gay civil marriage. Though not for some time in Utah, Idaho, and the Deep South...

Cause and defect

President Michael Steele? I realize that you have to be a world-class narcissist to think you should be President, but doesn't a little reality ever creep in. I guess if Sarah Palin is a popular candidate in the Republican rump, anything is possible.

Still, I have no idea how to reconcile this statement:

"I am a cause and effect kind of guy," he said.

with this one:

"[If I run] it'll be because that's where God wants me to be at that time."

The only way god would choose Steele to run for President is if she wanted to obliterate the Republican Party. Hey! Maybe there is a god.

Loaves and fishes

It's a miracle! No matter how many loaves and fishes of stupidity are distributed on the Internet, there are always more to find and hand out to the people for the nourishment of their laughter:

President Bush is one of the best presidents this nation will ever see. Thank God he had the courage and wisdom to know what to do after 9/11. I commend him for not commenting on Obama; more proof that he's a man of integrity unlike the Marxist. --Linda (March 18th, 2009 2:28 pm ET)

(I had no idea Cheney was a Marxist. [/ snark].)

Bushist wonderland

When Duhbya says:

"It's the risk-takers, not the government, that is going to pull us out of this recession," the former president said, according to the Calgary Herald. "My message to policy-makers is don't substitute government for the marketplace."

Magical thinking continues - or magical reflex, anyway, since thinking is an unwarranted exaggeration. The current crisis has thoroughly falsified the perfection of the risk-takers.

Even so, it's still an article of faith for Duhbya that setting the money loose is a prescription for better days. The truth is that setting the money loose winds up with it in the pockets of the already rich - like him. That's all he asks of better days.

David Vitter watch, day 608

Vitter suggested Wednesday the report was overblown.

It's not the only thing. That girl sent by the DC Madam accidentally fell on him mouth first.

How he set off the jetway alarm doesn't matter that much to me. After two prostitution scandals, both of which involved the use of his wife's name by the paid talent, he still represents himself in the Senate as a social conservative in the anti-sex party. And the Republicans still press him to their breasts. That matters.

Hypocrisy is inextricably woven into Republican DNA. It's a legacy of their one true conviction and interest - that rich people should have an easier life, and that the very, very rich should have it very, very easy. To win with that, they have to hide from day one their real platform, and it makes them as comfortable with the stinkiest bullshit as a coprophagous hound dog.

If you need an example to illustrate, there's a particularly appropriate one from David Vitter. He used parliamentary maneuvers to try to scotch the spending bill in the Senate with a poison pill vote to maintain automatic Congressional pay raises. When Harry Reid responded with a separate measure that agreed with Vitter and stopped the pay raises, Vitter said this:

"Pure partisanship for partisanship sake and political games and a cynical approach," he railed yesterday morning on the Senate floor. "Maneuvering and cynical political games," he repeated, looking into the C-SPAN camera in the gallery. "It's a cynical maneuver. . . . What's swirling around my amendment is a cynical political game."

This is a guy who could fuck you and then pillory you for adultery.

Aphrodisiac of power

Bernie Goldberg is a tool. He has found a profitable niche that keeps him in face-puffing booze, paid for by wingnut welfare, and he's going to hammer it without regard for fairness. He and Ann Coulter have the same job, just different shticks.

Was Chris Matthews a lunatic for saying that Obama's speech made a thrill go up his leg? Damn straight. That blithering chatterer has issues, man. Alcohol seems to be one of his, but his propensity for man-crushes didn't start with Obama.

At many times before, Matthews has swooned over the manliness of Republicans - Duhbya (nice package, eh Chris!), Rudy Giuliani (so manly he looks good in a dress!), and of course John McCain (cut of his jib? Chris would sail him). If you look too closely at this, it's enough to make you say, "Eeeew!" This is a guy who'd want a date, not with George Clooney or Brad Pitt, but with Henry Kissinger. Barf.

Goldberg will never tell you this, though. He'll pretend that Matthews is a straight (heh) party-line liberal Democrat who only has man-crushes on Democrats. This is bullshit, the wingnut pundit's stock in trade.

With Nancy on this

Barack is trying to be a transformative figure in American politics, and I wish him success.  Toward that end, he wants to let bygones be bygones.  He also seems to lack any appetite for battling the Republicans.  Maybe he's choosing his battles.

Nancy Pelosi wants to repeal the Bush tax giveaways to the wealthy right away instead of merely letting them lapse, and we seriously need to claw back a tiny portion of the money the rich have looted from the government and from the financial system.

Pelosi also wants to investigate the U.S. Attorney firing scandal and the Justice Department hiring scandal.  I'm not sure that's where I'd start, but Americans and history really need full disclosure of the way the Bushists ran the government as if they owned it in fee simple.

There have to be consequences for the Republicans greater than harsh language.

No principles

Another in the annals (anals?) of stupid reader commentary, this from Rob (January 2nd, 2009 5:42 pm ET):

Let the idiot lib kooks begin their venom-filled hate-speech.

Just remember freaks, we will be able to act the same way when one of the Obama kids gets knocked up (before their dad convinces them to end the 'mistake' as it were).

We had to destroy the culture to save it! All's fair in culture wars!

No shit, this conservative really wrote, "Let the idiot lib kooks begin their venom-filled hate-speech." If he were really polite, he might have given us the chance to go first! Or not. But no, venom and hate are only bad from the left. From the right, they're a defense of ... what, exactly?

New year, same stupidity

Here's a hysterical quote from Gene (at January 1st, 2009 4:28 pm ET) that criticizes Caroline Kennedy for her writing ability:

She sucks one more example of aristcrats in office to maintain their hold on the country cant we learn from history 2000 years ago a governor had a tin ear and mush for braines killed a man known as jesus eight years ago an ariscrat started a war an killed over a a half million people again a tin ear and mush for braines she wrote six or seven books my explitive delited without a staff of ghost writers I have engineering liccenes my education is through hard knocks and hard work even I would know her sentance was repetive. fracmented and conseder revising and that without the help of spell check.
Maybe she should get a real job better yet join the job corp or be a missionary and for once in her miseroble life be productive.
Thats what happens when your loaded with money nothing to do your mind turns to mush.

I'm pretty sure Gene didn't have a ghost writer.

Even so, I'm sympathetic to Gene's complaints about aristocracy even if he can't spell it. My significantly more intelligent - and moderate - comment on the same story lost out in moderation. I have to wonder what the hell the moderators are looking for - is stupidity a desired feature?

An offering of bullshit

Rick Davis extends an olive branch to the Sarah Palin in 2012 faction of Republicans. Of course, the peace offering is pure bullshit: They failed to manage properly the $150,000 expenditure on her clothing.

Look, no one else ever in the history of American politics needed heavy management to make this work. Palin didn't prepare, and the Republicans threw money at it because they knew the fundamental appeal of their VP pick was her appearance, and they needed to package her as well as they could.

And all she brought to Arizona was a fleece top and a pair of skanky sweatpants.

Still bullshitting after all these years

Duhbya still lies like this:

"They had a sign that said 'Mission Accomplished.' It was a sign aimed at the sailors on the ship, but it conveyed a broader knowledge. To some it said, well, Bush thinks the war in Iraq is over, when I didn't think that. But nonetheless, it conveyed the wrong message."

"They" were the members of his own advance team. They set up the camera angles so that the banner was unmistakable. They wrote the speech that didn't make any such distinction.

A Congressional candidate who never shows up

What do you get when you cross a plumber with a politician?

Would somebody pay this guy $25 for his fifteen minutes of fame? Sure, plus travel time, just get his limelight-milking face off my TV.

But, you know, even as a member of Congress, Obama's tax plan would be better for Joe than McCain's.

Update (10/31): Who knew that a joke was something that could come true? And so soon. I guess that's why humor has a short shelf life.