Republicans stymied by own paranoia.

This is beautiful.

Saw it via Big Orange. Here's the short and skinny:

TEA PARTY CAUTION! DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING - FROM ANYONE - AT ANY TEA PARTY ANYWHERE IN THE USA —- NO EXCEPTIONS!Federally-funded ACORN operators will be at all Tea Parties to get signatures which they will give to Obama stating that the signatures are in support of his policies or to get the names of people who oppose his policies and report dissention.

NO MATTER WHAT, DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING! IF YOU HAVE FRIENDS WHO PLAN TO ATTEND, WHO DO NOT HAVE EMAIL, GET ON THE PHONE TO WARN THEM. TRY TO CALL OR EMAIL RADIO TALK SHOWS AND LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG.

PASS IT ON!

This is utterly fantastic news for liberals and Democrats, and it's pure comedy gold for everyone with an iota of common sense.

Conservative paranoia costing conservatives possibly hundreds of opportunities to close the gap on liberal activism and grassroots organization. How glorious.

Or as Waldman put it:

Let me just state here and now that I wish I had thought of this myself. What could be better than watching wingnuts deny themselves the most basic of organizing tools purely out of their own paranoia?

This is a prime example of what we've all been seeing happen lately, starting when the Democrats started making political gains in elections.

Republicans have literally become a party of no new ideas. If it didn't work last time, that's only because we didn't try it hard enough. Conservatism cannot fail, it can only be failed. Since they don't have the votes in the Senate to accomplish their own agenda (do they even have an agenda beyond obstruction?), they simply stand in the way of Democratic agendas. And naturally, they do this with the assistance of stupid Democrats who yearn to be seen as "bipartisan" and fancy seeing their pretty little names in as many papers as possible.

Speaking of which, fuck off, Evan Bayh. If you don't want people attacking your "group's agenda," then don't go on every freakin' TV show you can squirm your way onto babbling about your group's agenda. Fucktard.

But anyway, emails such as the one quoted above are wonderful things. Republicans are so busy crying foul and jabbing swords at imaginary goblins that they're ruining whatever chances they have at organizing.

By all means, dear Republicans and conservatives: continue tilting at those pesky windmills.

I suppose when you've become a hollow party totally bereft of ideas and without any victories, the only solution is to manufacture outrages and oppression so they can "defeat" those.

Geithner's "power grab."

Read about it here.

Here's the summary:

The crisis surrounding the American International Group was a near-tragedy that underlines the need for broad new government authority to regulate or even take control of financial institutions other than banks, the government’s top fiscal officials told lawmakers on Tuesday.

Geithner claims that if this power existed back in September, current measures such as endless bailouts and seven-figure bonuses for mentally-questionable financial fuck-ups would not have happened.

He clearly doesn't remember who was President back in September.

But in a way, he has a point. Right now, the two big options are "do nothing and hope it doesn't all fall to shit" or "throw tons of money at it and hope it doesn't all fall to shit."

Or, as Barney Frank put it:

Mr. Frank said the different fates of Lehman Brothers and A.I.G. illustrate the need for options beyond the “all or nothing” approach. “One was the Lehman Brothers example, where they were allowed totally to fail and there was no help to any of the creditors,” Mr. Frank said. “The other is the A.I.G. example, where there was help for all of the creditors. Neither one is what we should be doing going forward.”

I don't know about you, but I'm not exactly brimming with consumer confidence.

So, we have Geithner asking for power that could feasibly have helped last year but probably wouldn't have helped because Bush only succeeds at failure. This sort of enhanced power that he's asking for could seemingly put grown-ups in charge of failing institutions. Maybe this would prevent endless bailouts on our dime for the shitbags who screwed everything up and frankly, I am willing to extend a little faith Obama's way. I'm not thrilled with it, but anyone can see that these bailouts are doing nothing except letting the gamblers off the hook while we owe the money to the casino.

Geithner doesn't exactly inspire confidence, but this is all way the hell over my head. All I know is that middle America and the poor are getting beast-fucked while the people who made it happen are getting off the hook. So far.

It's tough to find comedy or a light side in situations like this. I mean, with so many people losing their homes, their savings, not knowing how they can make ends meet or survive, it's nearly impossible to find anything to laugh about in situations such as--

But Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the Republican minority leader, said the new authority would be “an unprecedented grab of power,” Reuters reported.

Thank the gods for Republicans and their supreme dedication to hypocrisy.

Late to the party.

I've been on a bit of a break from news and politics as I got settled into my new job and the various routines that must inevitably come with it (for example, no more "Bar Night!" every day of the week), so I missed a lot of news and happenings last week and over the weekend.

I know I'm a bit late to the party, but let's take a look at this anyway:

Leaders of the White House economic team and the Senate's top Republican bellowed about bonuses at a bailed-out insurance giant and pledged to prevent such payments in the future.

From one Sunday talk show to the next, they tore into the contracts that American International Group asserted had to be honored, to the tune of about $165 million and payable to executives by Sunday — part of a larger total payout reportedly valued at $450 million.

That's a lot of money that's going to the employees largely responsible for AIG's collapse. It really makes me think that I got into the wrong profession.

I think it's funny that Mitch McConnell is all upset about this shit. For all his posturing and arm-waving, this shithead misses the boat completely. Anyone with any honesty can see that this is a direct result of the deregulation his fellow Republicans clamored for and received. How's that working out for you, Mitchy? Probably much better than the people who lost everything.

Anyway, this compensation should surprise no one. Corporations who have in the past received bailout money turned around and spent it on extravagant getaways, resorts and obscene bonuses. Handing over billions of dollars with no oversight turns out to have been not so smart after all.

I understand why Americans are pissed off, but the government? Mitchy? The President's Economic Team? Are they all that fucking stupid? They gave billions of dollars to criminals and shitheads and promised no oversight or regulation as to how they used those funds.

What did they think was going to happen?

Did we misplace reality?

We must have, because there's no other way to explain shit like this.

I think my personal favorite quote that explains the mentality (and I use that word in the loosest and most generous sense possible) of these idiots is this:

They're the same people who believed that Bill Clinton's use of the FISA court to obtain warrants to eavesdrop on Americans was a grave threat to liberty, but believed that George Bush's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in violation of the law was a profound defense of freedom.

Get that? Read it once again, please.

One more time. It's ok to skim it now.

Using a court system to obtain legal warrants to eavesdrop: grave threat to civil liberties and grounds for verbal proclamations of pretend insurrections against our evil government.

Warrantless spying on all Americans, violating federal law: a necessary and laudable defense of freedom.

I'm happy to discuss diverging viewpoints of what's good and necessary for America, what is good politics and bad, what is laudable and what is crappy, but shit like this makes rational discussions impossible and a waste of time.

I'm often accused of hyper-partisanship (sometimes legitimately, sometimes not), but whatever partisan opinions I may share pale in comparison to this selective "patriotism" by almost exclusively middle-class white men.

For even more "what-the-fuckery," I give you this:



The above video is about 8 minutes. For those not willing to stomach Beck for that long, here's the synopsis:

Glenn Beck, TV pundit on Fox (of course), along with ex-military and CIA folks, are discussing the planning and enactment of "war games" in the event of a civil war breaking out over Obama's presidency and his actions as president.

I'm not making that up.

Of course, this was all couched in the "we of course pray this won't happen" nonsense that Malkin pulled when she put up the phone numbers of some of her detractors, who were then stalked, harrassed and hounded at their homes and jobs, but as long as they HOPE that it doesn't happen, it's ok to discuss in positive tones.

This is a pretty good summation of my views on this situation:

But I am amazed at the sheer cognitive dissonance involved in simultaneously believing that it’s treasonous to peacefully oppose an unjustified war but that it’s patriotic to lead an armed insurrection against the government because they want to pay you unemployment benefits.

And these asses had the balls to call liberals who questioned the war in Iraq "traitors" and accused them of treason.

Jesus, someone give these idiots a course in Basic Logic.

Republicans finally desire bipartisanship?

Top Republican lawmakers Sunday called on President Obama to change his political strategy, arguing that the passage of a massive stimulus bill on a party-line vote showed he has failed to deliver the "change" he promised.

"If this is going to be bipartisanship, the country's screwed," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, told ABC's "This Week." "I know bipartisanship when I see it."

I agree completely. We need more of the bipartisanship shown by the Republicans under Bush, where they routinely pissed on the faces of their Democratic counterparts, by hiding conferences from the Democrats to outright saying that the real decisions will be made without their input.

So, can we please have some more of that bipartisanship?

I want to see Lindsey Graham and Tom Coburn running through Capitol Hill, looking for the meeting while Democrats craft bills that help fix our country. I want to see Democrats stand up to cloture, make the Republicans stand up and filibuster if they want to kill legislation. Let them be shown to be obstructionists; everytime they obstruct, their poll numbers go down and Democrats go up.

In short, I agree with Senator Graham. I had been on Obama's side as far as his version of bipartisanship goes, but now I'm convinced.

Let's show the Republicans some good old-fashioned bipartisanship.

Let's cut these motherfuckers down.

DFQ

The "news" floating around our little corner is that davefromqueens has died.

Check the news.

Personally, I never liked him much. Thought his attitude and actions reeked of obsession and stupidity, and the diary I linked to is almost insultingly idiotic with its commentary on "stress about how the community moderation system at Daily Kos works".

Which is a shame, because I liked Timaeus. But we all react differently to news, and Timmy apparently decided to react like a fucking moron and imply that users on DK contributed to DFQ's death.

Shame on you, Timaeus. Tonight, sir, you're a God damned douchebag.

In any event, if it is true that DFQ has passed on, then I'd like to offer my sympathies to his friends and family, though likely they will never see this blog.

Despite my personal opinions of him, a loss is a loss, and his passion could not be denied.

May he be at peace and let's all try and remember that despite our personal differences, we're all on the same side.

RIP Dave.

The fall of Pacific John

I'm not big on feuding. Takes away from my drinking time.

But sometimes, something pops up that is so absurd and outright insane, that I have to jump in with both feet and just say what's on my mind.

Pacific John has turned into a fucking idiot.

It's a shame. On DK he was an awesome writer. He then chose to support Clinton during the primaries, which didn't affect his writing. Then he turned into a "Clintonista," a term I use to describe a Clinton supporter who loses their rationality and intelligence in their fervent desire to get Clinton elected.

Now, he's got his head so far up Alegre's ass that when he spits, she can taste his breakfast. "It's self-evident that Alegre is being vindicated daily"? Is he fucking stoned?

The only thing that's self-evident is that he turned from a solid writer to a dishonest hack blindly supporting Clinton and blindly hating Obama (and Obama's supporters).

The funniest and most dishonest line of his orgasm of bullshit is this:

Advocacy groups will experience a lot of trauma as they either become obsolete, or disentangle from their one-person movement to find their way back to where we are, honest critics.

If I was able to select any adjective to describe the idiots and whiners on Alegre's site, "honest critics" would be mighty far down the list.

But the site is awesome when you need to go see what delusion looks like.