We’ve only got Soros (where is my monthly check btw, George?). They’ve got the Koch Brothers, Satan’s little helper Rupert Murdoch, and another 184 billionaire-donors. Not to mention all those corporations…
Wasn’t it just a couple of years ago when the Reactionaries were screaming about how Obama was being controlled by his anti-American pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright? How then can their tiny brains accept a contradictory theory, that Obama is a Muslim? This can’t be explained by stupidity alone, I theorize that the Reactionary Brain also suffers an extreme deficit in mid- and long-term memory.
No automatic citizenship for the uneducated
I actually think the Tea Baggers may be on to something with their calls to repeal the 14th Amendment. Just because somebody is born here doesn’t mean they’d make a valuable addition to the US, right? Here is what I’d do – when the person turns 18, I’d have them hand-letter a sign. If the sign is misspelled or ungrammatical, the candidate is denied citizenship and deported to some random 3rd-world country.
By the same token, we should fast-track the citizenship process for immigrants with Masters and Doctorates to replace the vast swath of stupid conservatives we’d be deporting. It’s a win-win proposition!
Judicial activism in liberal courts result in equal rights for Americans. Reactionary judicial activism consists of increasing the rights of corporations over Americans, such as keeping individual campaign contributions in check while allowing unlimited corporate donations. Or continuously letting Big Coal destroy mountains and fresh water streams and to hell with the locals.
*Update 8/6/10* Great analysis of 2 recent rulings in favor of gay marriage along with encouraging prognostication of how SCOTUS might rule.
Repug pols can be honest – when the microphones are off! Republican Senate Candidate Ken Buck calls Tea Bagger Birthers dumb-asses:
“Will you tell those dumbasses at the Tea Party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera,” Buck said to the staffer. “God, what am I supposed to do?”
Now if he’d only speak the truth when he knows he is on camera, America can make some progress going forward!
Tip of the ‘Nose to Film Critic Buddy
Here is civil disobedience, Texas-style. Reactionary politics by other means.
*Update 7/21/10* Reactionary ‘humor’ always seems to involve violence. And this nut was stopped by sheer luck from doing a Texas-style gun massacre at the ACLU and the Tides Foundation.
Michael Steele on Afghanistan war:
“This was a war of Obama’s choosing,” Michael Steele said at the event. “This is not something the United States has actively prosecuted or wanted to engage in.”
WTF? Here is some vintage Needlenose, predicting the path of Shrubya’s Afghanistan folly.
Louisiana Republican
The gushing goo destroying the livelihoods of the folks who live on Louisiana’s coast hasn’t damped the ardor of Louisiana Repug leaders to drill, baby drill. You know, I feel bad for the poor Louisianans, but riddle me this – why do they continue to vote for abusive politicians? Let Jindal go clean up the fucking mess his philosophy has created.
*Update 9:50P PT* Forrest Gump in 2010: bad news, BP oil spill destroyed his livelihood, his entire shrimping fleet had to be shut down. Good news – he bought Apple stock, and held on to it! Only question is, will he vote for David “double down on offshore drilling & liability cap” Vitter again this year, or will he realize that his shrimping business would be better off with a vote for Melancon? Remember, stupid is as stupid does…
From his recent attack on the Civil Rights Act it was pretty clear that Ayn Rand Paul is pretty extreme even for wacky Libertarians. But from Paul’s criticism of Obama over his handling of the recent mining tragedy and BP oil catastrophe, I’m beginning to suspect that he’s actually quite stupid as well:
“And I think it’s [Obama's call to have BP stop the leak] part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it’s always got to be somebody’s fault instead of the fact that maybe sometimes accidents happen,” Paul said.
“We had a mining accident that was very tragic. … Then we come in and it’s always someone’s fault. “
Yeah, dumb-ass, accidents do happen. That’s why we have these things called ‘regulations’ to put technology and processes in place to minimize the chance of accidents occurring, and to mitigate the effects of accidents after they occur. ”Blame” is quite fitting when an actor such as BP actively worked to undermine additional safety regulations targeted to avoid just such an event, not to mention BP making numerous mistakes, shortcutting their own internal safety regulations and procedures. Paul – you are a fucking nitwit!
And speaking of stupid, hypocritical conservatives, Loserman is also attacking Obama over the BP oil leak response, complaining about the government’s lack of preparedness. WTF? Loserman minced across the aisles during the recent 8-year Repug Reign of Error, gleefully voting against industry regulations left and right, including voting for legislation that would ‘cap’ BP’s liabilities for such a spill at $75M – petty cash, compared the billions this will end up costing in the end.
These two tragedies are perfect examples of industry lobbying, combined with pliant political tools, privatizes profits and socializes the risks of extractive industries. And yet another compelling argument (as if we needed one) of why we need not merely to stop industry donations to political campaigns, but should also impeach frickin “Justice” Samuel Alito.
"Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC..."
I probably don’t have to tell anyone who reads this site that the past several months have been kind of difficult in terms of snark. Between the too-frequent policy disappointments by the Democrats in power and the steady descent of the right wing into craziness so extreme that it’s not quite so funny anymore, there just hasn’t been enough entertainment value amid the bad news — you know, at least something to make you shake your head and smile at the ridiculousness of it all as the world continues its handbasket-borne downward slide.
And that’s why, if you’ll pardon the irony, I say thank goodness for the Catholic church. The serious issues of its protection of child-abusing priests notwithstanding, at least their unbelievably inept attempts to steer the media away from Pope Ratz’s role in the scandal have provided some grim amusement.
After cycling through nonsensical excuses such as claiming persecution similar to the Holocaust and blaming homosexuality in general for the crisis within its own ranks, the great mind of the Vatican PR department apparently decided it was time for a shift in tactics — why not, say, align themselves with something positive and generally well-liked, such as motherhood, apple pie, or the Beatles:
At a time when they surely have bigger things to think about, the Vatican’s official newspaper has published a glowing appraisal of the Beatles, calling their music “beautiful” and dismissing their years of drug use and excessive living. On the front page of the L’Osservatore Romano, the paper admits that the band once “said they were bigger than Jesus and put out mysterious messages, that were possibly even Satanic”, but also asks: “what would pop music have been like without the Beatles?”
I know — how generous of them, huh? Good thing they weren’t the last ones on the bandwagon or anything. But as straight lines go, you have to admit this attempt at positive spin is hard to beat. Not only did it create an opportunity for Ringo Starr to appear on CNN to comment on current events, it gave a perfect setup to comedians like Stephen Colbert (“The Vatican has forgiven the Beatles. That explains why the altar boys are singing ‘Help!’”)… and, not least of all, prompted some observers to note the original words of John Lennon that got his band in such trouble with the Church:
Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I’ll be proved right. We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first, rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity.
I’m sure that wherever he is now, John Lennon is smiling wryly at the Vatican’s inadvertent efforts to make his prediction come true.
But, lest I get too serious, allow me to suggest that there may be a lasting contribution from this passing moment. Just as “hiking the Appalachian trail” became a popular euphemism among news junkies for referring to marital infidelity, perhaps we will find ourselves saying that someone who’s in deep trouble is due to “express their appreciation for the Beatles.”
I mean, they may be kind of awful at this religion thing, but at least you have to admit the Catholic church has some (accidental) comedic ability to fall back on.
(Cross-posted at Firedoglake.)
