Congratulations Senator Al Franken!

Sarah Palin, Still An Idiot

This makes me a little nostalgic for the 2008 election, when Palin exposed deeper levels of ignorance about the basics of high school-level American Government each time she opened her mouth. Yesterday, in trying to explain how she could be protected against ethics complaints and lawsuits, if only she were President, Sarah Palin said the following:

Palin said there is a difference between the White House and what she has experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations.

"I think on a national level your department of law there in the White House would look at some of the things that we've been charged with and automatically throw them out," she said.

Gotta love that "Department of Law", always looking out for the President.

I was actually trying to look up the current Secretary of Law, but wasn't having any luck. How weird.

(and if this were the back of a cereal box the answer to this riddle, in tiny upside down letters would be here: There is, of course, no such thing as the Department of Law)

Happy 4th of July

(yes, a little late on my part):

Holy Crap She Is Crazy

As you have no doubt heard by now, Sarah Palin has stunned the political world by announcing she is quitting as Governor of Alaska. If you haven't seen the video of her frantic, discombobulated, rambling press conference (if you can call it that, since as usual she didn't submit to any questions, which is sad, because if nothing her speech raised 50 questions for every one it didn't answer) yet, you really ought to. I'm not sure how it compares to Mark Sanford's rambling, overstretched, awkward press conference, but they both will certainly go down in some top (or bottom) ten list of ridiculous and shocking press conferences in recent political memory.

Her reasons for leaving? Who the hell knows. Either she got herself caught up in something really incriminating that was about to be dropped to the press (which would generally be the only explanation if this was anyone other than Sarah Palin, but with her rationality can't be presumed), OR well, I think the DNC nailed the alternatives down quite succinctly:

Either Sarah Palin is leaving the people of Alaska high and dry to pursue her long shot national political ambitions or she simply can't handle the job now that her popularity has dimmed and oil revenues are down. Either way - her decision to abandon her post and the people of Alaska who elected her continues a pattern of bizarre behavior that more than anything else may explain the decision she made today.

Well said.

And the bizarre self-immolation of the Republican Party continues.. Reality TV ain't got shit on this.

Take Her Food Away

I heart Stephen Colbert:



And since I can't leave you hanging where that clip left off...



(And no, I have no idea why he has hair, and two different ties in the video thumbnails, as if we wouldn't notice!)

A Pretty Bad Day For Republicans

I don't know what made me happier today, that Senator Al Franken was finally vindicated and allowed to take his rightful seat in the Senate, representing the people of Minnesota who have been without half of their deserved representation for eight months, thanks to Republican political games...

OR

...that Mark Sanford (R-Cheaterville) admitted that not only did he cheat on his wife with some Venezuelan woman, as he was finally forced to admit in the face of being (finally) exposed by the press, but he also cheated on her with multiple other women! Certainly I don't delight in the pain this asshole has caused his family, but I do delight in the stunning hypocrisy of the Republican Party, the supposed party of all that is moral and holy, the party that uses its holier than thou rhetoric to deprive fellow Americans of their basic civil rights and happiness.

This is a tough one.

But I'm going to have to go with the Franken victory, since it has been a long long time coming. Don't get me wrong, I can never get enough of the Republican Party pushing its image to lows that only Nobel Prize-winning physicists could comprehend, but Al Franken is just the kind of Senator that the Democrats need--a Senator with a backbone who will stand on principle. And he is funny. I can't wait to see him in action.

Oh, and read this, it is fun.

Reality Denial

Here's a good quick and dirty overview of the good, the bad, and the ugly of the just-passed (in the House) Waxman-Markey climate bill. One thing that is clear from this legislation is that we are still not taking global warming seriously. We are still putting the profits of dirty energy companies above...well...the future of our planet, our own futures, the futures of subsequent generations...the future of everything.

It is just shocking that our leaders think we can just compromise on these things...that half-measures will make any difference. Well, no, they don't think we can compromise, but they realize we have to, because without compromising with the anti-reform idiots in Congress, in both the Republican Party AND the Democratic Party (although almost the entire Republican Party, while only a small, but important, subset of Democrats), we wouldn't get anything.

So basically we are screwed. We are screwed because of these anti-reform conservatives and their inability, or unwillingness, to grasp the gravity of the situation in which we find ourselves. And so we are all going down with them.

Thanks guys.

History will judge you appropriately, but unfortunately that won't make anything better.

Update: Of course the President is characteristically upbeat about it:



He is a better politician than I am. I couldn't be that upbeat about a bill that basically proved we don't have what it takes to protect the planet, and thus ourselves, from ourselves.

They Can't Have It Both Ways

And even more Republican hypocrisy, this eloquently denounced by Senator Barney Frank, who pointed out to the press today that Republicans simultaneously claim that government spending doesn't create jobs or stimulate the economy AND that the government can't eliminate funding for worthless military fighter jets because it will result in catastrophic job loss and damage to the economy. About time someone says it (even though no one will report the hypocrisy):

These arguments will come from the very people who denied that the economic recovery plan created any jobs. We have a very odd economic philosophy in Washington: It’s called weaponized Keynesianism. It is the view that the government does not create jobs when it funds the building of bridges or important research or retrains workers, but when it builds airplanes that are never going to be used in combat, that is of course economic salvation.

And that is the term of the day boys and girls: Weaponized Keynesianism.

I love it.

Three Cheers For The Adulterer?

This, building on my previous post on hypocrisy, the great sustainer of the Republican Party. Do we remember how the GOP reacted to Bill Clinton's infidelity? It was a veritable witch hunt. Every right-winger in the country ran to the nearest megaphone to call on Clinton to resign and/or be impeached. And then there was the wave of self-righteous grandstanding and proclamations of moral supremacy, claims that the Republican Party was the party of family values, nay, of all values.

So how do you think Republican Senator John Ensign, who recently admitted to cheating on his wife (aka breaking the sanctity of marriage, shitting all over "God's holy institution) for nine months, was received by his fellow Republicans?

Ensign got himself a round of applause from Republicans.

Really.

And what about Republican Senator David Vitter, after he admitted to (was discovered to be) cheating on his wife, with prostitutes?

Vitter got a loud standing ovation.

Really.

Notice a pattern here?

And Republican Senator Larry Craig, who was charged after sexually propositioning an undercover cop in a airport restroom?

Oh, wait, they told him to resign. Because cheating on your wife, and making a mockery out of the institution of marriage, is OK if it is with the wife of one of your employees, or a hooker (or multiple hookers), but even hint at being gay and your ass has to go. Or, of course, if you are a Democrat, even breathing is pretty much grounds for calls for impeachment.

You got all that?

Personally I think any members of Congress who applaud marital infidelity should have to recuse themselves from voting on or introducing any legislation that includes the words "defense" and "marriage".

Oh, and what about when Republican Governor Mark Sanford disappeared for nearly a week, with his wife having no idea where he was, then instead of being out hiking like he told his staff, he actually hopped on a plane and flew to an unknown location to spend some quality time with his mistre--oh, wait, that one hasn't broken yet. Well, wait for it. At least he can rest assured that his GOP buddies will hoist him on their shoulders and sing "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow". Huzzah!

Just wait for it..

Update (6/24): Told ya.

Let me start the Republicans in the house off, "y'alls" know the words:

Fooorrr he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow
For he's a jolly good fellooowwww.....which nobody can deny!
Which nobody can deny, which nobody can deny!
For he's a jolly good fellow, for he's a jolly good fellow
For he's a jolly good fellooowwww.....which nobody can deny!!

Good job Guv! Way to be champ!

But watch out for those gays, they hate marriage!

An Evolutionary Divergence

HA! Joe Scarborough apparently just got a lesson on what it means to be a liberal. Joe showed a little bit of common sense for a change, something (as he points out) that has not been shared by others in his party, and got attacked for it by the right-wingers, who accused him of being "liberal". Joe seemed a bit shocked by the fact that Republicans associate not having your head up your ass with being liberal. Welcome to our world Joe, now you see what we have to put up with.

But anyway, to the substance of what led Joe Scarborough to disagree with his party. Well, just watch:



And of course he is absolutely right, as any teenager sitting in a freshman level political science or history course would be able to tell you. The very best thing that the US could have done to help Ahmadinejad and the Iranian hardliners would be to interfere in their political process. Sadly senior Republicans like Lindsey Graham and Johnny "Hothead" McCain either aren't smart enough to realize this, or know better and are just publicly denouncing the President's handling of the situation just to for the sake of opposing Democrats, even when they know the Democrats are right. Which is it? Hell if I know. They are idiots and they are immature pricks, which one is leading the charge here? I can't say with any degree of certainty. All I do know is that while President Obama is acting like an intelligent leader, the Republicans are still acting like children. It is amateur hour at the GOP, yet again.

Another example of this childishness, on the same topic, can be seen in the way conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer (later joined by CNN's Bill Bennett) recently attacked Obama for referring to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei by his title, "Supreme Leader". You may ask yourself, what does this have to do with the crisis in Iran? Nothing. What does this have to do with anything that makes any difference to anyone in this country or the rest of the world? Nothing. Does this get us any closer to fixing our health care system, ending our reliance on fossil fuels, or stimulating the economy? Nothing, of course, which is why the Republicans are wasting our time with it--political games, no benefit to Americans, and they don't care.

And let's not let the fact that both a few days prior and a few days after leveling this attack against Obama, Krauthammer himself referred to Khamenei as "Supreme Leader", just as many Republicans, like John McCain, Richard Lugar, Brent Scowcroft and even Bill Kristol have in recent years. Gosh, they must hate America too!

All this leads me to a new developing theory. My theory posits that at some point in the last couple decades, Republicans actually broke off from our species and formed a new evolutionary branch--similar in appearance, quite possibly with diminished cognitive capacity, but mostly identical to modern homo Sapiens, save for the fact that they no longer appear dependent on oxygen, but rather seem to now require a steady intake of hypocrisy to survive. It will undoubtedly force evolutionary biologists to rewrite many textbooks, but it will be incredibly interesting to chart the development, or undevelopment as it were, of this new species. There have even been credible reports that Homo republicanus have developed the unique ability to actually communicate out their asses, although the resulting speech is said to typically be nonsensical.

Truly fascinating...but it does explain a lot.