First Draft

'Do not sit beside me and whine'

One of my favorite mythological stories is that of Ares, god of war, returning from the battlefield at Troy. He was wounded in the fight and complained about it to his father, Zeus.

Dad’s response was logical and predictable:

'Do not sit beside me and whine, you double-faced liar.
To me you are the most hateful of all gods who hold Olympos.
Forever quarrelling is dear to your heart, wars and battles.

Republicans love war, but only when they’re winning and when they’re not getting hurt.

Or when the war doesn’t involve complicated things, like, you know, words.

Billionaire Warren Buffett recently upped the ante on his earlier claims that he wanted to be taxed more. In an interview with Time Magazine, Buffett said he’d be willing to match dollar-for-dollar all contributions Republican legislators made that would go toward paying down the national debt.

He called out Sen. Mitch McConnell, adding, “I’ll even go 3 for 1 for McConnell.”

McConnell is worth about $10 million. He’s the senior senator from Kentucky and the leader of the senate minority.  He’s probably also getting a ton of likeness rights cash from Cabbage Patch Kids people, so a challenge like this shouldn’t be a huge problem.

And yet, this was the response from some literacy-challenged email monkey in McConnell’s office:

Sen. McConnell says that Washington should be smaller, rather than taxes getting bigger. And since some, like President Obama and Mr. Buffett, want to pay higher taxes, Congress made it possible for them to call their own bluff and send in a check. So I look forward to Mr. Buffett matching a healthy batch of checks from those who actually want to pay higher taxes, including Congressional Democrats, the President and the DNC.

The response, of course, makes no sense as a) Buffett said he’d match Republican contributions, not those from Democrats, b) the three sentence statement switches from third to first person at least once and c) ignores the fact Buffett isn’t proposing a tax, but rather a donation to pay down the debt.

I wanted to tell McConnell to grow some balls, but I realized that would be insulting to the ball-less everywhere. My grandmother is tougher, stronger and more aware of the debt situation than McConnell and she’s been dead for 10 years.  

Republicans have made a living on the “get tough” ideology. In fact, they’ve adopted the word “tough” as a standard for keeping themselves in office. They want to get tough on crime, tough on drugs, tough on illegal immigrants, tough on foreign powers, tough on toughness…

And yet when someone actually gets tough on them, they scurry like roaches when the lights come on.

In Wisconsin this week, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald filed a complaint with the GAB, arguing that the people who are attempting to recall him got an extra day to collect signatures. Of course, this is horseshit, as the GAB explained the rules back in November, explaining how the clock worked and when signatures were due.

Did Fitzgerald bitch then? Nah.

It’s only now that it looked likely that he’d be told to squeal like a pig that he’s pitching a fit. Or, as one volunteer put it, acting like “the kid who's not winning at Monopoly throwing the board up at the end."

(And of course, the folks trying to recall him just made a “Thanks but no thanks on that extra day. We can recall this asshole now” press statement on Friday.)

For McConnell and Fitzgerald and the other members of the Usual Gang of Idiots, it’s great fun when you’re running the show, calling the shots and demanding things of other people. When someone turns the tables, especially when you think there’s NO WAY that could happen, it’s going to suck.

When you decide to fight that way, though, you need to be able to dish it out and take it.

We'll miss you, Barney

One of my favorite members of Congress, Barney Frank, will be retiring after 16 terms. Barney is known for his quick wit and barbed tongue. He was also the first openly gay member of Congress, which made him a frequent target of the biblethumpers and wingnut wackadoodles.

Here's my favorite Barney Frank moment wherein he smacks down a "deather" during a town hall meeting in his district:

 

UPDATE: Here's a link to TPM's coverage of Frank's presser.

Crashing By Design

The Congressional stupor committee has failed to reach a "bipartisan compromise." As far as I'm concerned, that means they've succeeded: instead of puny tax increases and punitive spending cuts, if nothing else happens, the Bush tax cuts will expire in 2013. That, in turn, means a return to the Clinton era tax rates and $14 trillion (yep, trillion with a T) in the guvmint's coffers. Sounds like a winner to me.

It turns out that President Obama outmaneuvered Congressional Republicans by placing spending cuts on the table that GOP couldn't agree to because they were tied to tax hikes. That smug prick Grover Norquist's ridiculous no tax pledge helped ensure the "failure." Nothing succeeds like failure, y'all.

The stupor committee was *designed* to fail since it had an equal number of Dems and Goopers as well as House members and Senators. Equality equals gridlock equals failure equals success all things being equal. Guess I need to adjust the equalizer right now...

Well-informed Americans should know by now that searching for a "bi-partisan compromise" is like sending some poor bastard on a snipe hunt. The nostalgia for the good old days among some people is a bit nauseating. We've gone through many periods of partisan polarization and the cross party compromises engineered by LBJ and FDR were possible because there *used* to be moderate Republicans and were done despite Conservative Southern Democrats. Now that the solid South is solidly Republican such compromises are as rare as the dodo bird.

I only hope the Obama-ites will stick to running against the "do nothing" Congress ala Harry Truman in 1948. The cool and cerebral President may be a bit miscast as a populist firebrand but Harry Truman was a poor speaker and Obama at his best is one of the best orators in our history. Now that I think of it, Mitt Romney is not a bad comp for Tom Dewey: he's dull and cautious. The difference is that Dewey was a genuine moderate with a distinguished record on Civil Rights issues. In short, Dewey was dull but he believed in something. Mitt, of course, only believes in himself and the LDS church's weirdo doctrines.

 

Please Let This Happen

I know, I know, there's no way, but just IMAGINE it. 

It would just be an hour of him blithering and her standing there with one eyebrow raised. 

A. 

Jindal blows a gaping hole in Perry's waterline even wider

 

All right - excuse me for getting out of my box, but I don't see this anywhere else on the interwebz. It made me choke on my ham, onion, and jalapeno omelette.

The MTP bobbleheads had the surrogates for Romney and Perry on this morning, and the subject turned to the M-word:

(Gregory) There’s this issue of”Governor Romney is a Mormon”, this has become an issue in the campaign, pastor Robery Jeffress introduced Rick Perry and said the following:

 (clip runs)

(Jefferson) “So we want a candidate who s a good, moral person? Or do we want a candidate who is a born-again follower of the lord Jesus Christ? Mitt Romney is a good, moral person – but he is not a Christian. Mormonism is not Christianity, yet it’s always been considered historically to be a cult by evangelical Christians,”

(clip ends)

 (Gregory) Has Governor Perry satisfactorily distanced himself from this pastor in Governor Romney’s mind?

 (Pawlenty) Well, in my view, David, it’s disappointing that Governor Perry and others who didn’t denounce pastor Jeffress and those comments more directly, We have a country where we don’t have prohibitions on a particular church attendance for public office. In fact, it’s prohibited in the U.S. Constitution.

 (Gregory) Governor Jindal, are you disappointed in Governor Perry? Have you told him he should more formally denounce…

 (Jindal) I don’t think it’s for any of us to judge somebody else’s religious views, their relationship with God. The Bible is very clear, that’s up to God, not us. (…) It’s not for any of us to judge somebody’s faith, relationship to God, I think that would be inappropriate. The Bible is very clear, that’s not our role.

OK.

Pawlenty says that religious tests are against the Constitution, and Jindal says the answers are RIGHT THERE IN THE BIBLE!!!

Even Perry has to be doing a facepalm over this one.

Social Security Made Us Pussies

For serious, Marco Rubio:

Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), maybe the risingest of the rising stars of the GOP, gave a speech in Washington in which he declared that key social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare have "weakened us as a people," i.e., undermined the moral fabric and strength fo the American people.

Apparently what we really needed was the strength and inner toughness to let our old folks just die in misery and poverty. The ones who hadn't been smart enough to get rich, of course. The smart ones, the ones who valued Hard Work and Bootstraps and Eating Beets and whatever, would have enough money to live in their mansions with their servants until the end of time, or (and this is my personal fantasy of my late 80s) die in a hammock someplace warm, preferably of rum consumption.

This is the new thing, of course, the new thing that isn't new: Interconnectedness is a weakness, a sickness, a virus destroying America. Our national identity derives primarily from some cowboy myth, and all our movies and stories are about Lone Heroes Saving the Day. The idea of everyone playing a part, of needing others, of being (yes) dependent upon the goodwill of one's neighbor, is anathema, and means that we are Welfare Queens. 

It's scary, I'll grant you, because we all know inside of us what kind of flaky fucksticks we can be, but I've got a secret for you: We're already dependent on one another. All the government does is codify it.

A.

I somehow missed this cartoon

The Guardian is not only the best newspaper in the English speaking (reading?) world BUT it has the best editorial cartoonists as well in Steve Bell and Martin Rowson. I missed this late July masterpiece by Steve Bell on Speaker Boehner and the teabaggers:

Today on Tommy T's Obsession with the Freeperati - Fiscal Follies (female) edition

Good morning, everyone!

Since Adrastos is busy with Rising Tide VI - Electric Boogaloo (shameless plug) and Kibitzer is still recovering from strolling into the iso chamber, noting the rotating red beacon lights, the warning sirens and the people rushing for the airlock in a frantic attempt to outrun the unleashed Freeper crazy - and then looking around saying "What's up?" while the toxic fumes engulfed him - I'd like to thank the erstwhile Elspeth Ravenwind (still sounds better than Wendy) for doing a yeowoman's job helping me get the insanity sponged off the walls.

Let's see what's cooking this week, shall we?

First of all - Freepers luvs them some Laura Ingraham.

I mean, luvs. 

Laura is on O'Reilly

Posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:49:33 PM by fatima

She is doing a great job and looks Beautiful.

1 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:49:33 PM by fatima

Would you still love her if she looked Ugly?

To: fatima

She is one smart woman.

2 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:51:40 PM by svcw (Legalism reinforces self-righteousness - it communicates to you the good news of your own goodness)

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To: fatima

She is doing a great job and looks Beautiful.

She always does...and always does...

 

3 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 7:51:50 PM by jessduntno ("Integrity is the lifeblood of democracy. Deceit is a poison in it." - Ted Kennedy (D-HELL)

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To: SoCalPol

Thanks.That’s means she is on the rest of the week.:)Love Laura.

14 posted on Wednesday, September 02, 2009 8:13:25 PM by fatima (Free Hugs Today :))

Get the picture?

"I love Laura and she loves me - She's as brittle as she can beee"

.

Now?

Not so much.

Why?

Laura Ingraham pushes back on Sarah Palin primary threat Politico ^ | July 29, 2011 | ALEXANDER BURNS

Posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:00:56 PM by ejdrapes

Conservative radio host Laura Ingraham, one of the high-profile certified non-moderates urging the GOP to support John Boehner's debt ceiling bill, leveled criticism at Sarah Palin during today's show for raising the prospect of 2012 primary challenges to House Republicans.

***************

No, Larua thank god

You're going to Hell for failing to capitalize "God".  Just so ya know.

we have people who stand on principle. Most of the time that's the reason we get half a loaf.

Metamucil can help you with that.

If it wasn't for the grass roots we'd be totally screwed. I do agree with her though that throwing out primary challenge threats right now isn't helpful. I can't believe Palin really thinks someone like Paul Ryan or Alan West should be primaried because they're voting for Boehner 3.0. So I'm not sure who that challege was directed at.

1 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:00:59 PM by ejdrapes

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To: ejdrapes

Ingraham argued in her broadcast that Palin's note was unhelpful to the GOP — and to the tea party

I have had about enough of Ingraham too.

 

Lindsey Graham's old girlfriend.

4 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:04:40 PM by kcvl

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To: ejdrapes

Makin’ friends inside the beltway there Laura? Don’t let the cash trump the ol’ principles.

12 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:07:48 PM by Invincibly Ignorant

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To: ejdrapes

Certified non-moderate?????????????????? The woman is a RINO!

The ultimate insult!! Could there be anything lower in the eyes of the Freeperati?

An unmarried RINO!

26 posted on Friday, July 29, 2011 4:13:15 PM by Doc Savage ("I've shot people I like a lot more,...for a lot less!" Raylan Givins)

 

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More of The Battle Of The Babes after the folded faces, with gratutious Allen West (remember when they loved him, too?) bashing.

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Well, This Sounds Like Fun

Triggermen:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) isn't saying why both sides aren't any closer to a debt deal after a day filled with feverish negotiations Saturday, but Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) spelled it out during a floor speech Saturday night.

The sticking point for Dems, Kerry said, involves detailed negotiations over an enforcement mechanism that would require Congress to act on entitlement and tax reform by a date certain or faces the consequences. Democrats want to ensure that such a trigger does not simply mandate severe spending cuts, but also includes tax increases -- the so-called "shared pain" Democrats have cited lately.

TPM characterizes this as some kind of epic slip-up on Kerry's part, letting us all know the kind of bread they'll be serving the shit sandwich on, but hey, I'd rather know exatly what is coming down the assembly line at us. There again, please remember that by the time I wake up later today and jack the Matrix back into my head, this could all be over. They're basically just throwing stuff at the wall right now and seeing what sticks.

A.

I Hardly Know What to Hope For

I think somebody's confusing "getting something done" with "getting something worthwhile done." I have nothing against accomplishments, but crossing something off a list is not, in and of itself, an accomplishment.

And by the way, if we're adding "raising the debt ceiling, aka something we do all the fucking time until some knob decides to use it as a hostage crisis and the president falls for the prank call and brings in the SWAT team" to the list of Obama's accomplishments, please just shoot me now.

It's not hard for me to root for Republicans to fail, because basically the earth will cave in if they don't. But I would actually like to be able to root for the Democrats to win, and short of Obama tapping out and substituting his wife or Al Franken or somebody else with some bigger, firmer balls to finish this off by 14th-Amendmenting its ass, it's just not happening.

(I haven't handicapped the debt ceiling negotiations obsessively not because I don't care or haven't been watching, but because it seems about as useful as handicapping the Republican presidential field at this point. Days of speculation will be total crap very shortly, as the shit sandwich we're all about to eat will have different bread than anything we've seen on the shelves up to now.)

A.

Deadbeat Club

I must admit that I thought that Congressional Republicans were bluffing when they talked about default being no big whoop. They do, however, place an inordinately high premium on ideological purity, which means that they're ready to drive their clown car off the cliff and drag the rest of us down with them. I guess they haven't noticed that the Greek debt crisis has driven the Eurozone to the brink of calamity and Greece has any eeny weenie yellow polka dot bikini economy.

Gene Lyons wrote a great piece for Salon about these reckless GOP nutters:

As I write, it's impossible to guess how the latest made-for-TV partisan crisis in Washington will end. We've reached the point where the president of the United States felt he needed to deliver a prime-time speech essentially defending the post-Enlightenment values of reason, evidence and compromise against an obscurantist movement more like a religious cult than a political party.

<snip>

Mr. President, this ain't Harvard Law Review, where everybody's done their homework and honorable colleagues seek reasoned compromise. If you want the great mass of Americans to grasp what's going on, you've got to tell them plainly and repeatedly until they can repeat your message like an ad slogan: "Less filling, tastes great." "Where's the beef?" Like that.

How does "deadbeat Republicans" sound? Because the simple fact is that the GOP under George W. Bush put two wars, a Medicare drug benefit, and tax cuts heavily slanted toward the rich on the national credit card. Now that the bill's due, they're planning to skip town and stick Democrats with the charges.

There it is in a nutshell. I want whoever is President to be rational BUT right now the other party has gone stark raving mad. They cannot be reasoned with, all one can do is bop them in the head long and hard enough to try and beat some sense into them. It's not going to work all that well BUT you cannot reason with fanatics.

I really like Lyons' slogan suggestion: Deadbeat Republicans. It's simple and catchy but if you want to be able to dance to it, you need a theme song. Here's my suggestion:

 

A Bridge Too Far

So finally the civilized people at the party noticed the wild hyenas mauling the buffet table:

The scenario being floated informally now by a lot of observers is that if and when we come to that point Republicans in the Senate, Wall Street and just a lot sane people in general who haven’t come off the sidelines yet or haven’t really been paying attention just say: Dude, you don’t have a full deck, this is over.

And the end result of that will be fucking what, exactly? I mean, they're already at the crab salad. It's not like it's going to be easy to wrangle them back in their cages. You're going to need tranquilizer darts and possibly a rodeo clown to distract them.

I mean, okay, this is just too much. It was okay to take from the poor and give to the rich, to bet on the economy imploding and then make it so, to ignore for years and years and years the fact that none of these people had any idea how to run a country, but now that it might impact their pocketbooks oooh, everybody back to their respective corners, things are getting a little too heated in here?

It is some kind of fucked right up that we are actively rooting for this scenario because everything else would be so much worse.

A.

God Said to Abraham, Kill Me a Son

Eventually, we have to stop talking about these things like they don't mean anything:

But the president’s tone of being the only adult in Washington, everyone else is a child, that he’s going to summon people to the White House as if they are kindergartners, well, even if you agree with them on the substance, it’s kind of hard to go along with someone who is insulting you all the time.

Look. There are people who agree with me on important things, who I wouldn't swerve to miss if they walked in front of my car. Part of living in the world in which we have not yet found a way to implement Dickhead Control involves learning when it is critical to important functions to suck it up, realize you have to deal with this fucking garden weasel to get stuff done, and not let it bother you so much that he or she is a total jerk. 

To which end, are we REALLY SERIOUSLY ARE WE discussing whether Republicans are justified in blowing up the economy because the president was mean? Because last I checked out here in grown-up-ville, it's not really okay to not do your job and/or actually set your place of employment on fire because one of your colleagues is a total dillhole. Get the fuck over it. Land hard, roll left, and get on with your day. Therefore, if the president is in fact mean, and rude, and insulting you, possibly you should decided that eh, there will be a new president possibly next year and certainly in four years and in the meantime I'd like to get to that lunch date I have so here, let's raise the debt cieling and not fuck the dog any harder than it is currently being fucked. Maybe this is not the hill to die on.

This is not a theoretical debate. A default would actually hurt people in their real actual lives. And here we have Bobo, talking about how even though the president has the important things right, he's got them right in the wrong tone of voice. It's the eternal goddamn hippie argument, like we're having the war debate all over again: I agree with you that the case against WMD is probably bullshit, and Bush couldn't pour water outta boot if the instruction was on the heel, and we have no earthly way of paying for it, but those anti-war folks had a mean sign so I'm all for killinating the FUCK out of Iraq. I do not understand this, out here in the world where facts matter.

I do not understand where we get off, morally, talking about the tone of somebody's voice as if it's a real thing. I do not understand how we can do this and survive as a species. Even the "we should default because it'll teach those filthy poor people a lesson" Freepi are making a better argument than this, and when the Freepi have one over on the columnists at the New York Times it is time to consider whether to redirect one's talents toward digging a bomb shelter. I mean, somebody please tell me they have seeds stockpiled somewhere. I am starting to root for the asteroid scientists keep telling us is coming, just so that one day can pass without having to be reminded that in some quarters it is more important to suck David Brooks' rich white cock than it is to run the free world without doing so. 

A.

I happen to like peas

President Obama's recent culinary reference in the endless debt ceiling death dance really tickled my fancy:

"It's not going to get easier. It's going to get harder. So we might as well do it now: pull off the Band-Aid, eat our peas. Now is the time to do it. If not now, when?"

Congressional Republicans are clearly our national boo-boo so the Band-Aid bit works for me although I suspect the folks at Curad winced at this reference.

I, however,  beg to differ when it comes to peas. I like the little green suckers in whatever form they come; unless they're mushy from being cooked to death. In my case, the proper phrase would "eat our cauliflower."

What about y'all? What's your duty food?

 

Nancy SMASH

Seriously, Pelosi 2016, if not actually 2012:

At a private caucus meeting Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told her members that if Obama's serious about putting Social Security on the chopping block, he'd left her in the dark about it. And after an at-times-contentious meeting about how open Dems should be to significant entitlement cuts, leaders departed to the White House to read Obama the riot act.

And okay, maybe not telling Nancy means this is all just theater and horseshit and trial balloons and whatnot, and nothing actually is going to happen to Medicare and Social Security, because if Obama really was serious surely he'd have talked to, you know, the most powerful Democrat in the House.

However, the semi-pro pessimist in me says this is just one more example of fucking amateur hour and in case nobody's noticed the world is burning down out here. We could use some adults around. Mercifully, we seem to have Nancy.

"You [asked], 'could the changes compromise the vote?'" Pelosi said at a Thursday afternoon briefing near the House chamber. "I said yes."

That's FUCK YES, Madam Minority Leader.

A.

In All Seriousness, Fuck This Day

Well, there goes the neighborhood:

As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal. The move marks a major shift for the White House and could present a direct challenge to Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to protect health and retirement benefits from the assault on government spending.

“Obviously, there will be some Democrats who don’t believe we need to do entitlement reform. But there seems to be some hunger to do something of some significance,” said a Democratic official familiar with the administration’s thinking. “These moments come along at most once a decade. And it would be a real mistake if we let it pass us by.”

Um, YES. These moments come along at most once a decade, moments when you can screw over poor and old and old poor people, in order to ... "do something of some significance." Toward what end? WE HAVE NO FUCKING CLUE. But it will be bold and different and "something."

"Something" like losing every election from now until the end of time, most likely.

A.

Unpatriotic or Selfish?

I don't like to use the U-word but the GOP's position on the economy is insane, unpatriotic or "I got mine so fuck you." First, they claimed that defaulting is no big deal: wrong, ask Prime Minister Papandreou. Now, they're refusing to do anything to stimulate the economy:

Democrats are increasingly concerned that Republicans are setting them up to endorse large spending cuts in a deal to raise the national debt limit without giving ground on anything -- even GOP-friendly policy measures like tax cuts for business owners -- to stimulate the economy in the near-term.

The concern arises as numerous top Republicans react coldly to the prospect of temporarily reducing the payroll tax burden on employers and employees -- to juice the economy before federal spending draws down in the years ahead.

Traditionally, and particularly in tough economic times, this and a handful of other stimulative policies have enjoyed bipartisan support. But with the outcome of the 2012 election likely to hinge on the nation's economic trajectory, the GOP is mysteriously rethinking those positions. And Democrats are starting to note of the suspicious timing.

"I don't like to question my colleagues' motives," noted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) during his weekly Capitol press conference Tuesday, "but whether work with us to pass these policies, or continue opposing ideas they once supported, will tell us a lot."

I own one of those small businesses Republicans profess to love so much. Cutting payrol taxes is good for both employers and employees but the GOP has such a bad group of candidates that they seem willing to deliberately wreck the economy to win the White House back.

What a bunch of selfish pricks.

Worse Than Dollar Bill?

I swore an oath to myself not to write again about the Weegee of Congress, Anthony Weiner. Or is he the Tweeting Twit? Anyway, I had to revoke my oath when I saw this yesterday from Josh Marshall:

Number of days Rep. Bill Jefferson (D-LA) remained a member of the House of Representatives without caucus leader Nancy Pelosi calling on him to resign after FBI agents raided his home and found $90,000 in cash in his freezer : 1249.

Number of days before calling on him to step down from the House Ways & Means Committee: 294.

Add one day to each total.

The political calculations were, of course, very different: the raid on Dollar Bill's DC digs took place *after* Katrina and the Federal Flood, which made Pelosi loathe to jump on him immediately. Right now the Democrats are trying to focus on the Ryan budget, which is a gift to them but all the MSM wants to talk about is Weiner's weiner. Would I call for his resignation? No, I'd call the Goopers on hypocrisy and let Weiner make up his own mind.  I'll discuss the Vitter factor in a moment.

The difference between the reaction to Jefferson and Weiner also reflects the internal dynamics of the House of Representatives. Jefferson was a work horse whereas Weiner is a show horse. Jefferson was a hard working Congressman with a very strong base in the Black Caucus. Weiner is a cable teevee schmoozing lone wolf. Besides, Dollar Bill wisely clammed up when he was in deep shit whereas Weiner spent 40 minutes answering lurid questions. Gasoline meet fire.

There is no question that Jefferson's offenses were far worse: he was convicted for being on the take in the Nigerian telecomm scam. His NOLA lackeys were merrily looting the public school system under the direction of his late brother Mose. Weiner is under fire for NOT having sex but for showing horrible judgment and, even worse, for tweeting and sexting dick pictures. When I saw that he had taken some of his pix at the House gym that's when I decided he was toast. It brought to mind an aphorism I like to use: don't shit where you eat. The Weiner variation is: don't sext where you work *and* work out. (Btw, I learned the aphorism from my late Mother. She never swore except for saying shit. Why? She thought that euphemisms such as poop were too cutesy and as someone who grew up on farm, she knew that shit is not cute.)

It's time to circle back to the Vitter Factor. There's been a lot of talk of GOP hypocrisy for not calling for him to resign. It's true amongst national Republicans BUT there was a brief flurry of condemnation back home in Louisiana. Vitter, however, is one of the luckiest pols alive: Democrat Kathleen Babineaux Blanco was Governor at the time of Bitter Vitter's infamous press conference. Gret Stet Goopers didn't believe her when she said she'd appoint a Republican to replace the Sinator. The irony is that I, for one, believed Governor Meemaw: she was a lame duck who hated Vitter and saw a chance to flush the little bastard.

The reason many Louisiana Goopers wanted Vitter gone is that he originally came from the Goo Goo stuffed shirt wing of the party here. Vitter made his reputation going after former Governor Edwin Edwards, the late Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee and other good ole boys. That wing of the Louisiana party was mortified by the hooker stories but Vitter was rescued by the evangelicals who are big on ideology and forgiving sinners as long as they're wingnuts. (Btw, Governor PBJ keeps his distance from the Sinator and didn't even endorse his re-election campaign. That was a mistake: Vitty Cent never forgets a slight.)

In the end, Vitter survived because he knew when to STFU and keep his head down, a lesson he, ironically, learned from an enemy, Dollar Bill Jefferson. Anthony Weiner takes his cues from his mentor, Senator Chuck Schumer, who is constitutionally incapable of shutting up, that is, until his protege's shit hit the fan.

End of this lecture on Scandal 101 and my last word on Dickpixgate. Class dismissed.

Latest at FDL on Weinergate

And how if you're a pretty girl, you're pretty much suspicious just in and of yourself.

A.

We Are Ruled By Cruel And Stupid People (Medicare Edition)

Sweet merciful constipated Christ. Really?

Courtesy of Crooks & Liars, I give you freshman Georgia Representative and Tea Party Zombie Rob Woodall (R-Bedlam).  Watch that goddamn video.  Just watch it.  

That's the GOP leadership's vision, people.  That's what they want.  They're afloat in a fairy fucking bubble--just them, their corporate money, and their stupid fucking Ayn Rand fantasies.  Reality cannot and will not intrude on them, since they have wealth and sinecures--they have no need for programs that benefit the unwashed proletariat.  Read this partial transcript:

A Woodall constituent raised a practical obstacle to obtaining coverage in the private market within the confines of an employer-based health insurance system: What happens when you retire?

"The private corporation that I retired from does not give medical benefits to retirees," the woman told the congressman in video captured a local Patch reporter in Dacula, GA.

"Hear yourself, ma'am. Hear yourself," Woodall told the woman. "You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, 'When do I decide I'm going to take care of me?'"

Holy.  Fuck.

This woman worked her whole life for a private company, and now he's going to ride her ass for not waiting for the best benefits package?  Oh Christ.  And it gets worse.  Many in the crowd applauded his fucking statement.  That means that some proportion of his (presumably not obscenely wealthy) constituents have no problem with him telling an old woman, in effect, "Yeah, I know you lived your entire life with this understanding of a social contract, but you know what?  Stop being such a pussy.  My rich friends need tax cuts!"  What in the hell makes them think that he'll be any more receptive to their fucking concerns?  He just told an old lady to go lay down in the gutter and die.

I wish a motherfucker would've said something like that to my grandmother.  She would've put a cigarette out on any little bitch that spoke that way to her. 

Oh, and one of the people applauding vigorously?  And older man who is receiving or will soon benefit from that same Medicare the Congressman hates so much.

Well, we're boned.  Come on, meteor.  Any day now.

Eric Cantor is a Fucksaw

Now this fucking guy, opening his mouth and letting all the asshole out:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), however, said that before Congress approved federal funds for disaster relief, it had to offset the spending with cuts to other programs. The Washington Times reports:

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Monday that if Congress passes an emergency spending bill to help Missouri’s tornado victims, the extra money will have to be cut from somewhere else.

“If there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental,” Mr. Cantor, Virginia Republican, told reporters at the Capitol. The term “pay-fors” is used by lawmakers to signal cuts or tax increases used to pay for new spending.

You know, because you're reading this blog and also, presumably. are functionally awake in the world that Republicans' basic plan right now is to pass the Fuck You Liberals Act over and over, in various forms and with various amendments. The Fuck You Liberals Act, otherwise known as defunding Planned Parenthood. The Fuck You Liberals Act, otherwise known as replacing Medicare with a thing Paul Ryan's cat barfed up which is also called Medicare. The Fuck You Liberals Act, outlawing collective bargaining for people who vote Democratic, and the Fuck You Liberals Act, demanding you show ID at the polls before you even attempt to vote Democratic.

And now it's the Fuck You Liberals Act, which is this bullshit, holding critical assistance hostage in order to solve some imaginary problems that don't have anything to do with anything right now, just to be mean. That's all this is, it's just to be mean. I wish I could impart some other motive here, even an evil one, because this is so petty and stupid and small. Also familiar; as the source points out, the teawadi which we have always had with us pulled this shit post-Katrina, too, so all together now: Our fate is your fate.

Trouble with continuing to pass the Fuck You Liberals Act though, is that eventually if all your policy aims involve pissing off Democrats, you eventually ... piss off Democrats. And as the ONTD commenters point out, Missouri's a swing state, and you'd better believe this will be a big fucking swing. In the meantime, though, people need help, so if it's not too much trouble to divorce his head from his ass and the concept of "spending" from "let's buy some shit we need," there's work to be done, so STFU and STFD, Cantor, the grown-ups are talking.

A.

Let the backlash begin

Republicans can be slow learners. It was proven again by Democrat Kathy Hochul's unlikely victory in the very red NY-26. The Ryan medicare voucher plan was the issue and it was a loser. It was a massive teabagger driven overreach and the backlash has begun. This backlash rocks.

It's no secret that Republicans still hate the New Deal and Great Society. They particularly loathe Social Security and Medicare, which is why they just can't help jumping off the proverbial political cliff by messing with those very popular programs.  Bush's failed effort to privatize Social Security led to imploding approval ratings, which, in turn, led to the Democratic victory in the 2006 election. The Ryan plan could have a similar impact if they stick to it. I think they will. They can't help themselves. It's their nature.

I think we're moving into an era where control of the House will change hands more frequently. I think the days of long term power are gone until swing voters stop being reflexively anti-incumbent. I haven't a clue as to when that will happen but it's time to savor the moment since the pendulum swung in the right (non-right?) direction.

Me, I thought Hochul would win a moral victory but not  a seat in the House. I'm dubious that she'll be re-elected but, at the risk of being repetitive, it's time to savor the moment.

It will be interesting to see how many House Goopers start crawfishing on the Ryan plan. Perhaps they should grab Scott Brown's coat tails...

Let the backlash begin.

You Done Stepped In It Now, Boys

Look at this and tell me again how serious Paul Ryan is, and how good his plans are for America.

Please, whoever keeps shoving him out there in front of the American people, don't ever, EVER stop.

A.

A tool, not a fool

I was astonished by the chatter that Paul Ryan would run for the Senate? Why on earth would anyone give up a Chairmanship to be a junior Senator. Well, he's decided not to run but it looks as if former Governor Tommy Thompson will make the race.

Any thoughts on a Thompson candidacy from our Cheeshead contingent? On the surface, he appears to be a formidable contender but he may be too centrist in the current clmate for the Teabaggers taste.

Make Them Eat it and Choke

Good:

Ten years after the DREAM Act was first introduced in Congress and five months after advocates failed to get it past a cloture vote to end debate in the Senate, Democrats are trying again to get this key legislation passed. But the obstacles seem even greater than they were last December.

The House, which passed the DREAM Act last year, is now firmly in conservative Republican hands. And the Senate, where a filibuster derailed an up-or-down vote, is not only less Democratic than it was in 2010, but also all five Democrats who voted against cloture are still in office. The hope, according to Majority Leader Harry Reid, is that compromises on immigration enforcement may get the bill passed this time by bringing around the Senate Democrats who poleaxed the proposal last year, plus a few Republicans. Two Republicans who voted for cloture last year, Richard Lugar of Indiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, are still in the Senate.

Keep doing it. Keep bringing it up. Keep making them vote against it. Over and over and over and over again. Make them give speeches about anchor babies and border security. Make them throw raw, red meat to their xenophobic nitwit base. Make them provide soundbite after soundbite about how people who were basically kidnapped across the border have no right to be in America because they're brown.

Keep losing, because at least if you're losing on this, you're winning.

A.

A Thank You

To everybody who went out to a town hall and gave Paul Ryan's disciples what for.

Obviously you changed some minds.

Or scared the shit out of some people.

Good on you.

A.

Freezer Burn

You know, it's not that there shouldn't have been a compromise to keep the government running. I can sit here and say they should have made Republicans shut it down and eat it and choke on it, but a) I have no confidence in Democrats' ability to make Republicans pay politically for anything they've done ever and b) it's really easy for me to yell things like "shut it down" when my paycheck and/or benefits don't depend on government running in any way. I'm all in favor of keeping the government running.

But there's an awful lot of truth to this:

Ezra Klein gets this right, I think: it’s one thing for Obama to decide that it was better to give in to Republican hostage-taking than draw a line in the sand; it’s another for him to celebrate the result. Yet that’s just what he did. More than that, he has now completely accepted the Republican frame that spending cuts right now are what America needs.

Which, yeah, you don't go out there and yell, "WE GOT SCREWED AND IT WAS AWESOME! Be grateful for how hosed we are! Be incredibly happy that we came together and agreed on a bunch of stuff that, while it wasn't half as asstastic as it could have been, will under the very best scenarios help absolutely no one whatsoever! Wheee!" You don't win the argument by pretending you won when you lost. Not only does it mean you, you know, lost, but it means those people already pissed about the loss will not only think you are a loser but a delusional one.

Centrism is not what America needs. Shutting up and going away so that America can think we're all getting along and being nice so they won't have to think about politics in any way is not what America needs. I swear, half the carping that goes on about how we all need to compromise is just a cover for, "Oh, God, I am exhausted and I can't wrap my brain around this stuff. Can't we just watch TV? I just want to watch TV."

And I get it. I do. It is exhausting. It is annoying that stuff doesn't just work. I keep going back to this guy I used to work with, who when the IT tech was explaining in great detail why our computers were fucked would just yell at the top of his lungs, "FIX IT!" This is how I feel about the world in general most days.

We just want government handled, because if it's handled, then someone is handling it, and we can go bake some cupcakes. If it's not handled, and I want to send this out as some kind of telegram to the world, but if you still notice a problem it means nobody is handling it. So if your school has a hole in the roof and eight of your ten friends are out of work and your kid sister can't get birth control pills without running a fucking gauntlet of assholes holding bloody-bucket signs and screaming, that means nobody is handling any of that. Moreover, it means you're going to have to handle it, and that alone is enough to make everybody want to lie down and nap.

Cuts are going to fix none of the 47 things currently wrong in this economy. Cuts are not going to make CEOs less beholden to their beliefs that they are owed bonuses and severances. Cuts are not going to make clothes and food less expensive. Cuts are not going to bring the factory down the street back to life. (I know NO ONE who has started a business "because the tax picture right now so totally kicks ass," by the way. People start businesses because they want to make or sell something, and that's about the only real reason.) So that we all agree on cuts as being in principle nice things DOESN'T FIX ANYTHING, and it's beyond insulting to expect us to be happy to have agreement when agreement in and of itself doesn't give us the desired results.

From the Ezra piece Krugman links above:

The Obama White House is looking toward the Clinton model. After all, Clinton also suffered a major setback in his first midterm, Clinton also faced down a hardline Republican Congress, Clinton also suffered major policy defeats, and yet Clinton, as the story goes, managed to co-opt the conservative agenda and remake himself into a successful centrist. The Obama administration has even hired many of Clinton’s top aides to help them recapture that late-90s magic.

That story misses something important: Clinton’s success was a function of a roaring economy. The late ‘90s were a boom time like few others -- and not just in America. The unemployment rate was less than 6 percent in 1995, and fell to under 5 percent in 1996.

The outcome matters. Agreement, centrism, compromise, these things are done in service to particular ends. They're not ends in and of themselves. I had a teacher in high school used to talk about averages by saying if your feet are in the icebox and your head is in the oven, on average you feel pretty good. Burning and freezing are not okay, however, and possibly we should try to argue for something other than the most vicious middle we can find.

A.

 

 

So Be It

GOP budget cuts could cost 700K jobs if enacted.

Jeez, and I thought it was all about the jobs, Speaker Boner.

Government Healthcare is Socialism ... Except for Mine

God, these people.

Buerkle, who voted to repeal the health care reform act, was twice asked about the health insurance she receives as a government employee. At first she said she couldn't understand why people were so interested in her health insurance, and that taxpayers didn't pay anything for it. She later corrected herself after being handed a note from a staffer.

I would pay cash money to see what exactly was in that note. OH HOLY HELL SHUT UP MA'AM.

A.

Rejected Out of Hand

Why even bother discussing it anymore?

On Hardball this afternoon Matthews was talking about "cut-go" with Todd Harris and Steve McMahon, the Tweedledum and Tweedledummer of the Village and he ranted and raved about how both parties promise spending cuts to bring down the deficit but refuse to give any big specific items that would really make a difference. The Republican Harris went on about how "it's going to be tough, it's going to be painful and like I said, I hope entitlements are on the table." (Now keep in mind, they were talking about "cut-go" in the context of raising the debt ceiling, which means Harris is advocating for immediate cuts to "entitlements".)

After Harris babbled for a while about "entitlements" destroying the country, Matthews again said how frustrated he was that Republicans always refuse to say what they will cut --- "give me a couple hundred billion at least, give me somethin' big, they give me nothing. Democrats too, by the way."

 

We just have to cut. We just have to cut back. Cut and cut and cut and cut. Do less. Be less helpful. Be less kind. Be less decent. I mean, we just can't afford it anymore. Cut Social Security and Medicare and food stamps and for God's sake don't educate people anymore, it's just too costly. Cut back. It's the only way. It's the only answer. It's the only solution we're considering even for a second. Cut funding for everything from roads to schools to cops to firefighters. Cut what? Doesn't matter. Just cut. Cut everything.

 

We need to hunker down and stuff all our dry goods into the bunker and hole up and defend ourselves against "entitlements" and never, ever, ever even once discuss why there's no money anymore. Much less how we're trying to figure out how to live on half the rice and beans we've been living on, instead of trying to figure out HOW TO GET MORE MONEY. Especially not when a solution is staring us in the face:

 

I'll give it to you right now. Democrats are going to come with a bill to take away the tax cuts for people making 250 thousand dollars a year. That's 700 billion dollars that we borrowed ...

Matthews: I hate to break it to you, but that's not a spending cut it's a tax increase.

McMahon: no it's not a spending cut, but it results in revenue that will...

Harris: It's a tax increase!

YES IT IS. SO WHAT?

 

This is what happens when you reject something as completely out of hand without considering it, which is why I talk about laziness and stupidity in our political punditry so much. Why NOT talk about a tax increase? Why not talk about giving more in order to get more, in order to get  better schools and better streets and more cops and courts and snowplows and all the shit we complain about when it disappears? Why AREN'T we talking about raising taxes to pay for it?

 

Why? Well, because everyone knows you can't do that. You just can't. Why not? Because you can't. Because people don't want to pay more taxes. At all. Ever. How do we know this? We just do. People's lizard brains don't come to this kind of conclusion accidentally; people hate taxes because a) they've always hated taxes, from like the Bible onward and b) they've had 40 years of Republicans screaming at them that they don't have to pay for anything they don't want to pay for, and fuck the poor by the way, they're really expensive. And because nobody in our supposedly independent, adversarial press fucking THINKS anymore, they get that mindless nonsense repeated at them over and over until it's like pointing to the blue sky and calling it orange to say that reasonable tax increases are good and possibly necessary and stop being so fucking selfish, you assholes.

 

Jesus Macchiato Christ, people mostly hate taxes because they're being told taxes are why everything sucks. They have lost the plot entirely and no longer connect amount of taxes paid with amount of services received, and it's just all "taxes bad" and "entitlements bad" and "it's the people's money," never mind that the people fucking need their snow cleared and their kids educated. They hate tax increases when they see those taxes going for stuff they don't like, like TWO GIANT WARS and David Vitter's health insurance. We have so disconnected what we pay for with what we pay that I don't honestly think there's a road back, which is just how these assholes want it.

 

I would gladly kick in a little extra this year if I could get back the cops that used to patrol the alley out back of my place and keep the neighborhood crackheads down to a dull roar. Now that alley's like some kind of ongoing festival for teenage delinquent assholes setting stuff on fire and stealing hubcaps, because there's not enough money to pay as many cops as there used to be, but at least my taxes haven't gone up a cent! That's totally increased my quality of life! Not to mention the value of my home, because in a couple of years of saving up the six bucks a month I save, I will be able to pay for steel-reinforced doors and security systems and fourteen locks and maybe we can turn the back porch into a panic room for the inevitable Escape from New York scenario that's shows up after enough years of not telling crackheads to cut the shit. It's so awesome. Let me turn up Lee Greenwood on my stereo.

 

It's not so much that this is the argument that's winning as that it's the only one being MADE AT ALL.

A.

Let's Cut Stuff! Why? Because Let's Cut Stuff!

Once again, the only reason anybody cares about the deficit is that Republicans are screaming that they should care about the deficit, so that they can break unions, decimate public education, ruin most major centers of the educated populace and drive power into the hands of the mouthbreathing teawads who elect them. That's what's behind all these oh-so-necessary spending cuts:

Cutting non-security discretionary funds by $100 billion means a 21% annual reduction in the part of the budget that includes funding for education, health and human services and housing and urban development, among other things, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal think tank.

In other words, the sacred cows of domestic Democratic policy.

Asked which programs will be cut to get to the $100 billion target, Boehner did not offer specifics.

"But I will tell you," he told reporters earlier this month. "We are going to cut spending."

It is the fucking cereal box copywriter version of public policy. And oh, by the way, those things aren't just "sacred cows of domestic Democratic policy," they're the goddamn underpinnings of modern American society, but hey, let's cast everything in the most trivial possible light. After all, CNN's staffers can probably spring for at least a middling private school for their kids when the apocalypse comes, so screw it, really.

A.

Happy Kerry Photo: Suck It, McConnell Edition

Actually they are this big. I had McConnell measure them after his mom and I were done.

Via Elspeth, baby, baby, baby:

This treaty has been delayed at the request of Republicans. It was delayed 13 times… to have more time to deal with the modernization issue, which the administration has completely, totally, thoroughly dealt with in good faith. I’d like to know where the good faith comes from on the other side. They [the administration] put extra money in, they sat and negotiated, they sent people to Arizona to brief Senator Kyl personally. For weeks we delayed the process of moving forward on this treaty in order accommodate our friends on the other side of the aisle. And now fully accommodated, with their requests entirely met, they come back and say ‘oh its being rushed.’ Well Mr. President today marks our sixth day of debate on the New START treaty. That’s a fact. … I mean is there no shame.

A.

Please Please Please Santa Jesus

Forget that thing I said about a pony.

A.

The First Punter

It's football season so the nation's politicians are using gridiron analogies to describe what's happening in the lame duck session of Congress. My favorite thus far is Al Franken's description of the Obama/GOP tax deal:

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) voted to end debate on the Bush tax cut compromise yesterday, but he's not happy about it. In a strongly-worded statement sent to his supporters today, Franken pokes at President Obama for negotiating the deal, which he called "bad policy."

"A lot of people are unhappy that the President punted on first down, and I'm one of them," Franken wrote in the message to supporters. "Extending the Bush tax breaks for the super-wealthy will explode our deficit over the next two years without doing anything to help our economy."

To extend the kicking analogy, not only has the President punted but it's a bad kick. It's off the side of his foot and gives the GOP excellent field position. If you're going to punt, at least try and pin the opposition inside the 10 yard line. The only cheers our punter got was from the Broderites in the punditocracy. We should have sent out monster Saints punter Thomas Morstead. He'd have kicked the ball up Chinless Mitch's ass...

What does all this mean? Obama not only made a bad deal, he looked weak doing so as did Congressional Dems. Why on earth didn't they vote on taxes before the election? They lacked the "noive" just like the Cowardly Lion before he got his medal and showed his mettle.

 

'People Don't Like Government'

Gloria Borger, seriously, will you please go now?

Gloria Borger: Why not give something first though? People don't like government and this is an easy gimme for the president.

[snip]

Borger: Can I just defend what the president did today? Sometimes I believe presidents have to make symbolic gestures. Ok? And this was symbolic, just look at your pie chart. And you're about to get a report from the deficit commission you're about to sit down tomorrow with congressional leaders. People care about deficit reduction, they don't like the federal government very much, they think that federal employees are treated differently on their health care and on their pay increases, so he made a symbolic gesture. What's wrong with that?

People don't care about deficit reduction, except insofar as Republicans have convinced them the deficit is the source of their economic problems. And people would like the federal government just fine if its meager  worker protections didn't remind them how unutterably screwed they are in their own jobs, mostly thanks to 40 solid years of policies by Republicans.

And playing to that, by a Democratic president, is unconscionable. It's a "symbolic" gesture in that it symbolically affirms everything Republicans say about how all your problems are caused by the Department of Education having one more order of office supplies than it needed last month or the NEH giving 60 cents to one too many performance artists. It doesn't do shit for the deficit, it's not gonna make Republicans like him, and it tells them and more importantly the American people that Republicans are right and government in general is evil and wrong. 

So that's what's wrong with that, okay, Gloria? 

People like government, actually. In lots and lots of cases people like government just fine. When it plows their streets, educates their children, guards their homes and businesses from lawlessness and throws them a Fourth of July parade now and again, they like government as much as anything. They've just been hammered with four decades of propaganda that says none of that is necessary (or none of that is government) and even if it is, they should be able to get it for less than it costs.

When that scenario doesn't materialize, when things don't happen by magic, they get told that the reason they're getting less is that some federal worker somewhere is sitting on his ass collecting a pension, which has somehow in the past decade become some sign of laziness or welfare or something. And so they respond by giving less in hopes of getting more, and then, angrier, start hacking away, like trying to get a Snickers from the vending machine by decrying the dollar slot as socialism and whaling at the thing with an axe.

That is not something that should be encouraged by anyone, least of all the head of the party in charge of the government now being identified as the source of problems rather than the solving of them.

A.

Where's Mine?

Well, of course.

I mean, did anybody really think these teabagging excuses for human beings meant they should get sick and be unable to see a doctor because of some horrifying combo of "you're between plans right now" and "that isn't covered" and "your princess is in another castle" and whatnot?

Granted, they usually don't just come right out and say it. It's implied, the whole "I got mine, so screw your poor self" thing. It's implied by how rich and white they are and generally how smug. 

According to an unnamed congressional staffer quoted by Thrush, Harris stood up at the meeting "and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care."

Well, to quote Alan Grayson who I already miss, what you're gonna do is not get sick. If you do get sick, die quickly.

That is the plan you want for everybody else, after all. You want the rest of us out here to just sit around and pray daily that everything stays okay, that nothing starts to twist or ache, that nothing already wrong gets worse or changes, that all the medications keep working, that they stay the same price, that the doctors don't move or quit or go on leave, that that one person in the insurance office who actually understands what we're talking about is the one the phone system shunts us over to, that the insurance doesn't get more expensive, that the job holds out until another one comes along, that we can patchwork together something if it doesn't, some hideously expensive combo of state buy-in programs or private individual if-I-get-hit-by-a-bus go-on-bone-me-I-like-it $5,000 plans.

That we can survive, scraping by, scared all the time. That we can manage for a while. That's what you're supposed to do without health care for a month, for the pathetic 28 days until my tax dollars keep you in meds and meals.

You're supposed to do exactly what you want the rest of us to do. Suck it up, and suffer.

A.

My Boyfriend Needs To Put the Elitist Chardonnay Down

I thought last night, reading Kerry's Twitter feed, that he sounded kind of hammered:

harry reid!!!

---

ever notice how repub tlkg heads spin company line while dems get all analytical? Me 2

---

more 2 come, but big message in MA tonight re real choices Glen

---

In CA with Barbara Boxer, she's a fighter, I love her.

But now I'm convinced he's on some kind of epic bender to deal with the fact that he's got to deal with these Republicans all over Capitol Hill, touching his things and flirting with his staffers and generally getting in his way:

“Politico was wrong, Huffington Post was wrong, hell, all the pundits were wrong. Harry Reid isn’t just Dracula, he isn’t just Lazarus, he’s our Leader and our whole caucus is thrilled that he’s unbreakable and unbeatable.”

Whoever is letting him write his own shit, please, don't ever make him stop.

A.

Peace Sucks a Hairy Asshole

So there's going to be a lot of ink expended over the next couple of weeks trying to figure out how this happened, as if it's a goddamn mystery. This economy blows goats, and instead of being out there every day yelling HEY WE TRIED TO FIX IT THOSE FUCKERS WOULDN'T LET US ALSO BUSH BAILED OUT THE BANKS NOT US, Democrats pretty much figured the midterms were gonna be a bloodbath and hunkered down and hoped it wouldn't hit them too hard. Because that works. That always works.

Here's the problem, you gutless fucks. You had majorities. And I KNOW, okay, but all America sees is that you had majorities and you wasted them. Because that's what the GOP told them, and you said, "buh buh buh" and couldn't point to anything you did right, not even with the unwashed hippies holding your arm up for you. You had majorities, and you had Harry Reid, refusing to be mean to Republicans by shoving stuff through. You had majorities, and you had Barack Obama acting like he was already an ex-president and could be gracious and social with these pricks. You had majorities, used them to do some stuff, and then sat back and acted like we should be grateful when we can fucking count.

We can fucking count, out here. We know what 51 means. We know what 257 means. We're not morons. And all the procedural whatsit you argue today, about ConservaDems and Blue Dogs, doesn't mean shit. You had it, and we worked hard to give it to you, and we see you calling things impossible which are just very hard, and we get fucking annoyed, because we don't get to get away with that shit. Not at our jobs and not in our lives.

Now, I'm not excusing the Party of I Hate You or these teabagging excuses for human beings who think education is vaguely homosexual in some sinister way, but I am saying that the lesson we're all going to take away from this is that America just isn't a Democratic nation and we should all tack to the right and us hippies should just die in a fire already, which is bullshit. The lesson we should take away from this is that America doesn't like pussies, doesn't like whiners and it sure as fuck doesn't like parties that pretend to be able to do less than they can do just because they don't want to work that hard or have Chris Matthews call them mean.

You had majorities. You had power and you told us you were powerless. Why would anyone reward that with more power? Why would anyone think that's a good idea?

Schmucks.

A.

If You Want a Taste of Freedom, Keep Going

And tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow:

They like a big ugly immoral war against another state. The weaker the state, the better. Then our lizardroid corporate overlords can loot all the resources. Actual terrorism is good for them. It may prove to be an even better issue than abortion to keep the sheep in line. Why should they fight terrorism?

 

And their million and millions of loyal followers are fucking stupid.

 

They choose to be. You don't like me calling them stupid? You're afraid it might not "win them over?" First of all, I'm not trying to win them over. I'm trying to disassociate myself from evil. Secondly, you're wrong--it probably will win them over. Because they like it. They respect the boot in the face, rudeness, a show of force, a raised voice.

 

They're the ones who voted for an overprivileged fratboy deserter who makes speeches dressed in military garb; who demands loyalty oaths from all who would be in his presence; who descends from the sky in a military helicopter amid raving crowds and fireworks displays; and who ignores the real threat of stateless terrorism in favor of invading and occupying a country that was no threat to anyone.

 

They're the ones who voted for Abu Ghraib.

 

Or you don't like me calling them stupid because it's unkind and illiberal, and oh, how can I be so elitist? Cry me a river: they are stupid. They believe that Saddam Hussein was directly responsible for September 11, 2001. They think corn syrup is food. They believe that there's no such thing as stateless terrorism. They believe that "the left" is responsible for the revolting cesspool of popular culture. They don't believe in evolution.

 

They think Bush is a godly man. They never wonder why the Republicans never meet their promises to them. They don't believe in global warming. They do believe in the "Flypaper Strategy." They believe in one paragraph out of Leviticus, but they ignore the rest of the Bible . They let themselves get scammed over and over by robber barons and religious hucksters. And apparently, although I find this hard to conceive of, they believe that the media is liberal. They're fucking stupid. They've been calling me an elitist snob for many years now. Fine. I'm an elitist snob, fuck you very much, you mouth-breathing bloodthirsty fucktard bigot. I work to educate myself. I spend an inordinate amount of time, energy and money to get a more or less accurate idea of what's going on around me.

 

But I've been wrong. I was wrong--I believed that, given equal access to information and resources, people will work toward their own best interests. I was wrong. Right-wingers will happily cause themselves suffering, as long as it means they can cause someone else a little bit more suffering.

That's from a post driftglass put up yesterday, from 2004, shortly after Kerry lost the election.

 

This was the kind of thing we said back then, and it needs saying again, because fuck these people. Yeah, it feels like shit to lose. It feels like shit to be on the short end of any contest. I don't do almost anything unless I'm sure I can win at it from the moment I take it up. It's why I'm a shit musician. I don't want to practice. It's why I'm a crappy athlete. I want to win my first race and every race thereafter. So losing is not, shall we say, something I particularly enjoy. Ask Doc, I beat him in stupid Facebook games 100 times in a row and get mad when I lose game 101 by two points. I'm a hypercompetitive perfectionist control freak and I HATE LOSING. I hate getting smoked. I hated getting scooped when I was a reporter so bad I used to make Mr. A read the papers and tell me in advance if anything was gonna piss me off. I HATE TODAY.

 

This is bad, and it's gonna be bad for more than just me. Lots and lots of people are going to be just stunningly fucked, and it's them I can't stop thinking about. It's friends out of work, kids getting out of school, people I know already hurting who are going to wind up hurting even more  because somebody wanted to make a point that Nancy Pelosi sucks. It is bad. But I would not be them if you paid me a million dollars. This feels terrible today, and I think in no small part because we really did feel like we were gonna get somewhere after 2006 and 2008, in no small part because at least when we lost in 2004 it was to the most advanced criminal enterprise America had ever seen, because it seemed like maybe we were going to learn something. This feels terrible today. It should feel terrible today.

 

Tomorrow, though? We get back up. And we do what we did after 2004, which is to take care of each other. We'll have to figure out how. A food pantry. A women's shelter. Letter-writing campaign. A book exchange project, shit, something, we'll find something to do to make this world a beter place, because you know what fixes burnout and misery? Everybody thinks it's rest; let me tell you a secret, it's not rest. It's more work. Better work. Successful work. So work we will. Suggest stuff in the comments. Suggest ways for us to pick up the buckets and start bailing the water out. The only thing we can do to scare people who've just beaten us is to stand back up again, and show we're not beaten. When it's all you've got, it's all you've got.

Even if you can't stomach the thought of politics, even if you want to kick every single Democrat in the balls (oh, can I come with on that errand?) and never speak to anyone associated with anything ever again, we are going to have a lot of work to do taking care of each other. I don't for a minute wish  that I was on the winning side today. That side is full of anger, and full of hate, and all they want to do is tear down everything that has been built up over the past two years, pathetically small amount that there is. That side is full of ignorant ass necks who will contribute nothing to society we haven't heard before, and they will lose. Because we push forward. We get pushed back, but we push forward. They lost in 1921 and they lost in 1964 and they lost in 1992 and they lost in 2008 and they will lose again.

They just didn't lose today.

Preaching to the choir

Hmm, can an atheist like me do such a thing? Sure, when it's a godless commie pinko librul choir. My friend RCB at used to be disgusted has posted an excellent list of reasons you might should vote Dem:

If you see the long-term problem with a philosophy that says “Economy going well? Cut taxes!” and “Economy going poorly? Cut taxes!” Vote Dem.

If you disagree that separation of Church and state is mainly associated with Hitler, Vote Dem.

If you don’t think you should have to subscribe to the fire department in the first place, Vote Dem.

If you think President Reagan’s budget director knows what he’s talking about, Vote Dem.

If you don’t like the idea of your Congressman spending weekends dressing up like a Nazi, Vote Dem.

If you don’t think the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell judge is as dangerous to America as Al-Qaeda, Vote Dem.

If you don’t think that our country would be better off eliminating federal student loans and Pell grants, Vote Dem.

If the fact you “haven’t seen a half-monkey, half-person yet” doesn’t quite disprove evolution, Vote Dem.

If you don’t think it’s a good idea to totally eliminate the minimum wage, Vote Dem.

If you don’t think a guy pitching “post-apocalypse” food is the best guy to trust about the present, Vote Dem.   

Please Vote

The outlook isn't great for our side but, hey, the Dems can hold the Senate and obstruct the hell out of the Goopers for two years. I'm hoping that there will be some pleasant surprises but it's hard not to be gloomy when candidates as good as Russ Feingold and Joe Sestak are on the ropes.

I'll be off to vote against Bitter Vitter in an hour or so. I don't expect long lines because folks in Orleans Parish have got the blue in a red state blues. Oh well, the Dems are likely to pickup the Louisiana Second District seat, which is better than nothing.

I'll let Bette Davis have the last word:

 

Our Stupid Election Cycle

Seriously, when the kids come to you with the history books open, how on earth are you gonna explain this one:

During the interview Tuesday on WDEL-AM, O'Donnell snapped her fingers and beckoned a spokesman to her side after the host of "The Rick Jensen Show" pressed her on how she would have handled the New Castle County budget differently from her Democratic opponent Chris Coons, who is the executive of the state's largest county.

Jensen told The Associated Press that O'Donnell said after the interview that she would sue if the video was released. O'Donnell campaign manager Matt Moran then called WDEL general manager Michael Reath, demanded that the station turn over the video and threatened to "crush" the station with a lawsuit if it did not comply, Reath said.

[snip]

"This is another example of the liberal media shamelessly attacking Christine O'Donnell to boost their ratings," Moran said in the statement, even though Jensen, the host of the show in question, is a well-known conservative.

First of all, as usual, the defensive freakout is worse than the actual thing. So you need to beckon an underling over for assistance on an answer. Who hasn't done that? I mean, what are underlings for? I've been an underling and half my job during that time was to pass a note over to the overling saying something like, "You just called him Bob, his name's really Bill, and by the way your hair looks good." It happens. But flipping the fuck out about it just makes you look paranoid and weak.

Second of all, I don't think the race is still in question.

Third of all, God, please let this person go away after it's over. Is anybody else just exhausted by this nonsense? I think it's actually a really smart strategy, on the part of Republicans: Create this Tea Party thing, prop up a bunch of lunatic candidates to say such a sheer volume of stupid shit that the electorate can't even hear it anymore. It's like Charlie Brown's teacher warbling. Blah blah blah America flag conservativecakes blah. Flap. Blargle.

A.

Blue Dogs, Booting, and Running Away

Why should the Blue Dogs cooperate with the rest of the Dems anyway?

With President Obama in office, some notable beneficiaries of the Democrats’ 50-state strategy have been antagonizing the party from within — causing legislative stalemate in Congress, especially in the Senate, and casting doubt on the long-term viability of a Democratic majority. As a result, the activists who were so inspired by Mr. Dean in 2006 and Mr. Obama in 2008 are now feeling buyer’s remorse.

Margaret Johnson, a former party chairwoman in Polk County, N.C., helped elect Representative Shuler but now believes the party would be better off without him. “I’d rather have a real Republican than a fake Democrat,” she said. “A real Republican motivates us to work. A fake Democrat de-motivates us.”

Ms. Johnson is right: Democrats would be in better shape, and would accomplish more, with a smaller and more ideologically cohesive caucus. It’s a sentiment that even Mr. Dean now echoes. “Having a big, open-tent Democratic Party is great, but not at the cost of getting nothing done,” he said. Since the passage of health care reform, few major bills have passed the Senate. Although the Democrats have a 59-vote majority, party leaders can barely find the votes for something as benign as extending unemployment benefits.

First off, what incentive do conservative Democratic senators have to work with the rest of the party? They know Harry Reid is never going to have the stones to push things through on reconciliation, because then Republicans will say that he is mean. They know he's never going to make Republicans actually filibuster anything, as in stand there for 10 hours reading the phone book, because then Republicans would say that he is mean. They're certainly not afraid of Obama calling them into the Oval Office and bitchslapping them, or endorsing challengers primary or otherwise, or taking their perks away, because they know Republicans would say Obama is mean.

So what incenctive do they have to come on board? I can't blame them for acting the way they do. They have an advantage and they're pressing it. Would that some of their ideological foes within their own party had those kind of nuts. The kind that would have Reid and Obama saying to whiny I'm-a-Democrat-but-not-really bitches that you'll vote with us or we'll help make you unemployed because we don't need you fuckers stabbing us in the back when lots of people are lining up to stab us in the front. The kind that would have booted Joe Lieberman from the caucus two years ago. The kind that would have told Ben Nelson where to stick his pro-life credentials. The kind that would have told Blanche Lincoln where to be and when and what would happen if she failed to show up.

Instead of bashing Blue Dogs and their allies for having courage, why don't we ask where the courage of actual Democrats is? Because they're not displaying a whole shitload of a lot of it lately:

The run against the Democratic party thing didn't work so well in 1994 and to the extent that it's being used now (not nearly as much from what I see) it probably won't work either. It's something that can work for individual politicians, but if too much of the party is doing it then it's completely self-destructive. We had a decade or more when a significant portion of the party could have been called Democrats against Democrats.

I was writing up this piece for Sirens yesterday afternoon and thinking about how well I remember the 90s. People, not to date myself but I was in high school for the early 90s, so we can't exactly call my political instincts at the time especially advanced. Nevertheless, I did understand that deserting your suddenly-uncool friends in an effort to make the cool kids like you NEVER WORKS. Not only do the cool kids still hate you because you used to hang out with those losers, the losers now won't talk to you, and people who don't have a dog in the fight think you're a totally gutless fucking asshole for turning on your pals like that.

It is actually the only way to make yourself universally unpopular, and yet they do it every goddamn time thinking it'll work this once.

A.

Malaka Of The Week: Rich Iott

You've all seen the pictures and heard the astonishing rationalizations from Rich Iott who is a teabagger candidate for Congress in Ohio. He's also the slam dunk choice for malaka of the week as well as the third malaka from the left in the snap above. <clicking my heels>

Herr Iott has spent a lot of time trying to convince people that he dressed up in a German uniform to bond with his kid or that the Waffen SS were just soldiers and not really Nazis. If Herr Iott knew any *actual* history as opposed to the Wiking.org version, he'd know that the SS were declared to be a criminal outfit during the Nuremberg trials. That's right: Rich Iott is not just playing soldier boy, he's playing war criminal. He doesn't even have the sense to say "somebody's gotta play the bad guys in a re-enactment." Instead he says stupid shit like this:

Ohio Congressional candidate Rich Iott got grilled by Anderson Cooper last night on his rather unusual hobby of dressing up as a member of the 5th SS Wiking Panzer Division, a unit in the German army during World War II.

Iott defended the members of the unit, who he said "wanted to fight what they saw as a bigger threat to them than Germany," so they joined up with the Nazis to fight the eastern front of the war against Soviet forces. "I don't think we can sit here and judge that today. We weren't there the time they made those decisions," he said.

Iott called "what happened in Germany during the second World War one of "the low points in human history," but defended the Wiking Division when Cooper referred to them as collaborators: "I don't know that I would put that label on them. They were doing what they thought was right for their country. And they were going out and fighting what they thought was a bigger, you know, a bigger evil."

Iott also contended that "this particular unit was one that was never charged with war crimes," though Cooper pointed out that one member was recently charged with the murder of 58 Jews. Iott replied: "The war on the eastern front was extremely brutal on both sides. Nobody was lily-white, that's for sure. Horrible things that happened on both sides."

So, it's okay because they were anti-communist collaborators? Who the hell does he think he's fooling? Many brave Norwegians joined the resistance and fought the Nazis because they invaded and occupied their country. I think there's a special place in hell for those who collaborated with the Nazis and went on to committ war crimes. There's also a lesser place in hell for idiots who apologize for, and dress up like, members of the Wiking Unit of the Waffen SS.

It's a good thing that malaka Rich lives up in Buckeye land otherwise I'd be tempted to shave his head a la the French Resistance. I have better impulse control than that so all I'm going to do is name Rich, who puts the Iott in idiot, malaka of the week.

Dirty Landry

There's a pretty lively race to succeed Charlie Melancon in the Louisiana Third Congressional District. Teabagger Jeff Landry is the front runner in a race for a seat that won't exist much longer: the Gret Stet is poised to lose a seat when the census results are in. But Democrat Ravi Sangisetty (that's right an Indian candidate in the land of  LeBlancs and LaBordes) is running a pretty feisty underdog campaign. And Mr. Landry seems to have the odd skeleton in the closer or is that under his house? I'm not sure if Sangisetty is gaining any traction but he's making it very entertaining; an important thing for me as y'all have surely noticed.

Here's how one of my favorite progressive Louisiana bloggers, Lamar White, sees it:

Late last week, Ravi Sangisetty, a candidate for Congress in Louisiana’s Third District, went on the offense against his Republican challenger Jeff Landry, a Tea Party favorite who emerged as the Republican nominee after a bruising primary against Hunt Downer, a retired National Guard Major General and former Speaker of the Louisiana House. Sangisetty’s campaign launched DirtyLandry.com, which features, among other things, a stunning allegation that when Landry was a Sheriff Deputy in 1993, police recovered $10,000 worth of cocaine underneath his home and then arrested his roommate, also a Deputy, for possession with intent to distribute. Only a few months later, Sangisetty’s campaign claims, Jeff Landry turned in his badge.

"This is a little bit more than a “guilt by association” attack. Early this week, Sangisetty’s campaign put out a press release focusing on this allegation (bold mine):

Sangisetty for Congress Campaign Manager Julienne Uhlich said corruption follows Jeff Landry. She said Landry ran a disgraceful campaign against a good man like Hunt Downer, and Landry now has questions to answer about his involvement in a cocaine bust.

“Here’s what we know: While Jeff Landry was employed as a sheriff’s deputy,  $10,000 worth of cocaine was stolen from the sheriff’s evidence room and found under his house. His roommate, also a sheriff’s deputy, was arrested for it and went to jail. Landry turned in his badge within months,” Uhlich (Sangisetty’s campaign manager) said. “There are only two explanations. Either Jeff Landry was a dirty cop and knew about the drugs, or he was the worst cop ever and couldn’t figure out that $10,000 worth of cocaine was being sold out of his house.”

Those are fighting words, and they probably merit a response from Mr. Landry. Was cocaine being sold out of his home? Who alerted the authorities? Was Mr. Landry surprised to learn that $10,000 worth of cocaine was stashed underneath his home? The answers to these questions are particularly important because Mr. Landry was, at the time, a law enforcement officer. It speaks to both his integrity and his competence. And if Mr. Landry has a legitimate response, then voters need to hear it.

Family Fight

I seem to be in the minority in thinking that the debate raging between the White House and the Democratic base is a good thing as long as it doesn't last too long. There are justifiable frustrations on both sides but I think the Obama administration has done a *horrible* job of selling its policies. For example, its health care reform bill is a decent first step towards a goal that most Democrats share: health care as a right, not a privilege. Neither Social Security nor Medicare emerged as the full blown programs we know today. Incremental progress is a good thing but the White House should have admitted that the program needs to be improved and made it clear that they plan to do so in the future.

The main problem we face is that Democratic Presidents have developed a nasty habit over the years of bashing their own supporters. It started during the Johnson years as the Roosevelt coalition collapsed and both Carter and Clinton effectively ran against the liberal wing of the party. Barack Obama did not do so in 2008 but his minions; especially Rahm Emanuel and David Axelrod have done their share of base bashing since entering the West Wing. Knock it off, guys, you've said your piece; so get over it and move on or as the Veep might say, "Buck up." Or as Rahm himself might say: "Buck the fuck up." He should, however, look in the mirror while saying this. One more thing about Rahm. I'm glad he'll be out as Chief of Staff BUT the idea of leaving this close to an election is tantamount to deserting the President he serves. As we say in the South, "tacky, tacky, tacky." Fuck you, Rahm. If you leave before the election, I hope you get your ass kicked in Chicago.  Fucking yuppie scum.

I think that the Dems have made a mistake in declining to make this a national campaign. That's what the other guys are doing and it has led to some seriously crazy and extreme people running under the GOP banner. The inside the beltway conventional wisdom is that nationalizing the campaign will doom the Democrats. That's horseshit. And the CW has led to the insane (inane too) spectacle of the House and the Senate leaderships not making the Republicans vote *against* a middle class tax cut that's tied to the elimination of the Bush fat cat tax cuts. It's a winning populist issue and Speaker Pelosi is at least *trying* to get that message through to her troops. The Senate majority has chosen, as always, to duck and cower. Make the fuckers vote and if they threaten to fillibuster, let them. It won't last long: it's an election year. This is not only sound policy, it's good hardball politics.

Okay, now that I've chastised the White House and Congressional leadership, I'd like to remind my fellow progressives that the lunatic fringe has taken over the opposing party. Crazy is the in thing among Republicans and these people must be kept out of power on the Hill. It's not too late either: most people do not mainline politics and do not focus on elections until a month out. Let's keep those fucking wingnuts in the minority where they belong: I don't want to wake up some morning and hear about a birther investigation. If you live in a marginal district, please get out and vote, even if you have to hold your nose whilst at the polls. It's my plan.

I dislike the Democratic nominee in the Louisiana-2 race, Cedric Richmond. He's a dumbed down but handsomer version of Dollar Bill Jefferson. And like Dollar Bill, his ethics are questionable. His GOP opponent, the Accidental Congressman, Joseph Cao is a well-meaning man who sometimes votes with the Democrats because he represents a majority African American district. This choice is an argument for nationalizing the race: there are many goo-goo NOLA Democrats who may vote locally and if they do so it will be for Mr. Cao. The only issue that matters to me in this race is this; who do the candidates plan to vote for as Speaker, John Boehner or Nancy Pelosi? I speak as an admirer of the Speaker but also as someone who shudders at the thought of Speaker Boner. We all know who will get boned, and where, if that happens: the American people will take it up the ass. So, I plan to affix a clothespin to my nose and vote for Richmond because he will vote for Pelosi and Cao for Boehner. It could come down to a single seat and this is a pickup. A single seat. It's that simple for me. 

Back to the family fight. I think it's healthy for everyone to vent their frustrations. A lot of this stuff has been bottled up for months and it's best to let it out. It's also time to move on and remember who we're dealing with. Letting the teabaggers gain control of the House is like giving an arsonist a guided tour of one's own home. Do we really want the likes of the primordially stupid Michelle Bachmann to have any influence on policy? I'm just as disgusted with the spinelessness of many Democrats as many of you but the alternative is so much worse. If you need to hold your nose whilst voting for a Democrat just remember this: clothespins are cheap.

Cross-posted at Adrastos.

Spineless

I'm not surprised by the fact that Congressional Democrats won't be voting to rescind the Bush tax cuts for people with polo ponies BUT I'm still horrified. They've raised spinelessness to dizzying new heights: they refuse to do something popular out of fear of the Tea Party.

There are some times that you should bring something to a vote on the floor knowing that you'll lose that vote but gain politically. Instead, the House has allowed its fear and loathing of the Senate to trump political common sense. Yes, the House does the heavy-lifting on many bills that the Senate either kills or allows to languish BUT this should have been a no-brainer.

Living in formerly purple, now red, Louisiana, I've been less critical of the Blue Dogs than many. Not this time: they're driving the bus in the House and their strategy is duck and cower. They're convinced that the mean old teabaggers will leave them be if they assume the fetal position. Fat fucking chance.

Pledge for America to Pledge America's American Pledges

And stuff. It's the Big Font, Small Ideas plan to take America back to the glorious days of the first Bush administration, with the fearmongering of the second thrown in just, you know, for fun.

Not surprisingly, written by total aholes.

The Democrats, natch, have absorbed the dominant narrative (Time magazine, which arrives at my house despite my best efforts to convince Mr. A it is trash, features a big cover headline: IT'S TEA PARTY TIME) that Republicans are going to sweep and there's nothing to be done so fuck it, let's barricade the doors and drink because that meteorite is heading right for earth.

Democrats are worried that the enthusiasm gap among voters in the two states could be exacerbated if it appears by Election Day that Republicans are headed for blowout victories in the marquee races.

“There’s no question it’s a problem. When the top of the ticket is hurting, it absolutely makes it more difficult for a Democrat in a swing district to win,” said a Democratic strategist who has worked in both states. “Voters will be looking at the gubernatorial race and going, ‘If [Ohio Gov. Ted] Strickland is down 10 points, why the heck am I going to go out and vote?’”

You know what else dampens the fuck out of my enthusiasm? Talking all the goddamn time about how insufficiently enthusiastic I am. I mean, quit bitching about how I'm not excited and go fucking do some stuff to get me excited. God. I know political blogs are wonk-city and strategy is all we talk about, but so far, as a voter I haven't seen anything but strategy talk either. And that strategy talk sucks. Meanwhile, you have a Republican-dominated media determined to push the agenda that Republicans are resurgent and on a comeback and such, supported by these awesome Tea Party folks and their fantastic new party that is sweeping the nation. There's no pushback. There's no answer.

There's no saying look, have we done everything we could do? Fuck no, it's only been two years since we had a president who wasn't a mad boy king, plus his friends all wrecked the economy, not that it was ever that awesome anyway. In response, Republicans want to take away the few ways we all still take care of each other. If you get sick, there will be no health care for you. If you lose your job, you won't be able to collect unemployment for more than ten minutes. When you get old, your pension and your social security will be unaffordable because we have wars to fight instead. And if you should get injured fighting one of those wars, just move somewhere warm where being homeless is fun. We're all pissed off everything's not fixed yet, but when a plumber's only half-done repairing the plumbing he told you would be done by now, you don't fire him and hire an alchemist.

Is it the midterms, is that what this is? In 2002 it was Timid City, please don't hurt us Mr. Republican, I'll be very very good. It was hunker down in the face of the horror, and give people a choice between gutless and senseless, which is how we ended up with Norm Coleman and Saxby Fucking Chambliss and other stuff that got elected just because it had an R after its name.

But then in 2006, after, natch, Bush was so fucked there was no turning back anyway, Democrats grew a pair and started presenting a solid Not This message, and people responded to being able to vote for real live grown-ups who had something to say by doing so. One would think the party would take a goddamn lesson, but they seem to have stopped listening to their instincts and have gone back to listening to Chris Matthews' racist uncles and stuff people say on the Sunday shows.

I know this is all I seem to say these days, but: Schmucks.

A.

Al Franken Is A Mensch

TPM posted a clip yesterday from a very powerful speech by Senator Franken about DADT that was rooted in his experience as a USO dude entertaining the troops.

This is one of the few times that Al Franken has referred to his show biz days since he "serioused himself up" to run for the Senate. It illustrates a truly weird difference between the GOP and Democrats. Goopers with show biz or sports background revel in their past. Ronald Reagan was notorious for telling long, dull stories about his days at Warner Brothers and Sonny Bono would "sing" at the drop of a hat. They knew that it was an asset, which is one reason wingnuts spend so much time ragging on Hollywood. It's called turning your opponent's strengths into weaknesses. 

In contrast, Al Franken has always been reticent about his past life as comic writer and performer. Fuck that: people like funny pols and Al Franken is a very funny man. Let it rip, Senator. We Democrats need all the laughs we can get this year and eventually we'll run out of Christine O'Donnell, Rand Paul and Sharron Angle jokes.

Don't Tell Me

Assholes:

Don’t believe the hype. The failure of cloture in order to repeal don’t ask, don’t tell cannot be fully laid at the feet of the Republican party. The Democrats – and not just the ones who voted bigot like Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor – have a lot of blame in this failure too.

If someone in the Senate threatens a filibuster, they need to be forced to filibuster. When southern racists opposed civil rights, they were forced to actually filibuster on the floor of the senate. If you are so bigoted that you oppose allowing a vote (that has a majority) on whether gay Americans can serve their country, by God, stand up and defend your position in the well of the U.S. Senate.

Nice job, fucksticks. Really. Good one there. You just helped the GOP make history, you gutless wonders. How does it feel? Listening to Rachel Maddow tonight, this is the first time a defense appropriations bill has failed to pass since 1961.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What will you get out of this, pray tell? Reward for your brave moral stand, Blanche Lincoln, by way of the GOP not running a candidate against you? Maybe their candidate will refrain from making really nasty attack ads. Maybe your own constituents will love you a lot more now. Maybe you'll be re-elected. Maybe you'll go live the rest of your life in peace and harmony knowing you did the right thing, and be able to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning each day, because God DAMN it, people, this was one of those votes.

This was one of those votes. Like FISA, like the war, like the PATRIOT Act, where you either do the right thing or you spend the rest of your life flapping around trying to explain and justify and wiggle out of why you didn't do the right thing. And I don't know about you, and I don't know about members of the U.S. Senate, but it seems in terms of simple expediency that acting like a grown-up would have been best here, and fuck what your bigoted phone callers might have said.

Not to mention which, boy, remember all those times the Democrats refused to vote against defense appropriations as a method of getting their political point across? Remember all those times Democrats refused to vote against defense spending because they were afraid of looking like they didn't care about the troops? Because Republicans would be mean? Because Republicans would accuse them of wanting our troops to die? Boy, that was a scary thing for Republicans to threaten Democrats with. That was a line of attack we were all really frightened of.

I wonder how many Republicans are frightened of it tonight. I wonder how many Republicans are sitting in their offices waiting for the flyers and the ads and the radio callers-in and the angry mobs of military mothers barraging them with complaints about not giving John and Jane G.I. the money they need. I wonder if Republicans are as worried as Democrats once were, about the political price to be paid for putting the screws to the party in power in the name of what they said they believed, even at the expense of not voting for something important.

No, actually, I don't wonder at all. Fucking gutless bastards. All those times Democrats cowered in their beds, hoping if they stayed very still and quiet and didn't go to the anti-war rallies then nobody would call them commie pussies. All those times Democrats sat back and played the odds, figuring they'd be slammed more for doing something than for doing nothing, as if it is ever the case that you lose people by doing too much. As if that is ever a thing that happens. All those times Democrats shut up and voted for the appropriations bill and didn't filibuster anything because that would be mean, and everybody knows you're not mean.

Not unless you're a Republican, that is.

Fuck this noise. Congress had its chance to do the right thing and make this as permanent as it could be. Sign an executive order, Mr. President. At least then you'll know, if it's overturned by the next president, that you, you personally, you did all you could. Dry powder doesn't seem to be doing us a lot of good these days anyway. Let it burn.

A.