Name-Calling

This is so stupid, I almost feel sorry for them:

A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

HA HA HA HA HA. Yes, that’s me, laughing at you. The party of no ideas has disintegrated into name-calling children throwing playground taunts. Note it’s “Democrat” not “Democratic,” to be extra insulting.

Wow, you sure showed us! That’ll teach us to win elections!

It just boggles the mind that a bunch of grown men and women who are supposedly Very Serious and who are tasked with doing the people’s business would spend time their time crafting a resolution like this and then actually voting on it.

Tortured Arguments

Liz Cheney tries to defend the indefensible, and it’s painful to watch. There’s so much wrong with this clip, it’s hard to know where to start. Really, the whole thing is just awful.

Watch it:

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I feel sorry for Eugene Robinson, who at one point seems to throw up his hands because Liz Cheney isn't making any sense. She's still living in some wingnut post 9/11 fantasyland, Eugene. Reality does not live there.

One of the worst aaaargh moments starts at 10:45 when Liz Cheney makes what I call the “24” argument. Here’s my written transcription, if you don’t have the time--or blood pressure--to watch the whole clip:

Liz Cheney: Eugene let me ask you a question then. So, if you knew that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had information about an imminent threat on the United States. Information that would result in the death of your family members and the death of the people you care about and love, and that if he were waterboarded you would be able to get that information and prevent the attack, you wouldn’t do it? You’d let him go ahead and launch the attack?

Eugene Robinson: How would I even know that?

LC: That’s exactly the situation these folks were in. That’s the choice you’ve got to make.

I put the word “if” in bold face because it seems quite obvious to me that when your entire argument is predicated on an “if” situation, you’ve lost the debate.

The reality is, we weren’t in that situation, not one terror plot was uncovered by torture, but we got plenty of false information:

Libi was captured fleeing Afghanistan in late 2001, and he vanished into the secret detention system run by the Bush administration. He became the unnamed source, according to Senate investigators, behind Bush administration claims in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq had provided training in chemical and biological weapons to al-Qaeda operatives. The claim was most famously delivered by then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in his address to the United Nations in February 2003.

Powell later called the speech a "blot" on his record, saying he was not given all available intelligence and analysis within the government. The Defense Intelligence Agency and some analysts at the CIA had questioned the veracity of Libi's testimony, which was obtained after the prisoner was transferred to Egyptian custody for questioning by the CIA, according to Senate investigators.

In their book "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War," Michael Isikoff and David Corn said Libi made up the story about Iraqi training after he was beaten and subjected to a "mock burial" by his Egyptian interrogators, who put him in a cramped box for 17 hours. Libi recanted the story after being returned to CIA custody in 2004.

(Hat tip to Attaturk for that link, BTW.) This is the whole problem with torture as an interrogation technique: besides being immoral, it’s simply ineffective because the information obtained is always unreliable.

But I’m not sure efficacy was the point. I am starting to fear that obtaining a certain kind of information, accuracy be damned, might have been the point all along. But Bush-Cheney got their pet war, KBR and Blackwater got their lucrative government contracts, and Liz and Dick Cheney can continue to flog 9/11-related fear mongering, because without fear, the Republicans have got nothing.

Tennessee Republicans Are A Drag

What is it about Republicans in drag? They don't seem to think very highly of gay people and you can tell they get all nervous when Gay Pride week rolls around and yet they seem to enjoy dressing up in women's clothes. I really don't get it.

This is the Hawkins County (TN) GOP fundraiser. Their largest ever, I might add. I believe the guy in the gray suit is Zach Wamp, the man who wants to be our governor. I have no idea who these other assclowns are but I am going to enjoy making fun of them because they are very silly. I'm sure folks in Nashville will recognize a few faces. Oh, and thanks to Aunt B for calling this to my attention.

There are more photos at the link. And apparently--hint hint--you can order copies of photos if you wish. I'm remembering the photos of Rudy Giuliani dressed as Marilyn Monroe and have to think someone could have some fun with these.





(h/t, Aunt B)

If Only They’d Thought Of This Sooner

Apparently various healthcare industry groups have had a major V-8 moment and suddenly realized they can cut costs, after all. They’ve even written a letter to President Obama telling him not to hurt them, they promise to be good:

The letter lacks much detail but suggests savings could come from simplified billing, restructuring the way hospitals are paid and using more information technology, among other steps.

Wow. They just thought all that up, all by their li’l ol’ selves?

Bless their hearts.

And all these years we’ve been told that this just wasn’t possible, that healthcare costs were so high because of trial lawyers and illegal immigrants and other nonsense. Imagine that.

But I digress:

Although the agreement does not outline any industry commitments to accept specific reductions in revenue, it does signal continued engagement by powerful healthcare interests in the Obama administration's effort to overhaul the nation's troubled healthcare system.

So in other words, they still want to keep making money hand over fist while some Americans must choose between food and healthcare.

Signatories include the American Medical Assn.; the American Hospital Assn.; the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America; the Advanced Medical Technology Assn., which represents device makers; America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents insurers; and the Service Employees International Union, which shepherded the agreement.

Many members of those groups, whose leaders have been working for weeks behind closed doors on the letter, could lose some money if healthcare spending were substantially slowed.

Spending on healthcare reached $2.2 trillion in 2007 and is expected to increase by more than 6% a year, on average, over the next decade, faster than the economy's growth in general, according to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Excuse me if I’m underwhelmed. I know the president is going to go on TV and tell us how awesome this all is, but frankly I don’t get it. I guess we’re supposed to take whatever crumbs they throw at us and be grateful. These industry groups want to continue to profit off of sick people, and they're putting on a good show of playing along when the reality of the situation is, they're looking to lose money because people can't afford their insanely overpriced product.

To that I say, fuck you.

For their part, conservatives are peddling fear and talking points like this gem, Stop Obamacare, seen over at the Weekly Standard (and do note the Novartis logo strategically placed adjacent to the comments bar):

Conservatives can make it clear they support reform. But they must make it even clearer that the Democrats' plan would displace tens of millions of happily insured Americans and exacerbate the worst elements of the current system: gross inefficiency, high costs, and bureaucracy. President Obama and his congressional allies are pursuing a mammoth, complex, hugely expensive, ill-designed reform that is not likely to be popular when understood. Conservatives have a very real chance at stopping it if they highlight its key weaknesses and supply a superior alternative.

The patronizing message here seems to be: “don’t try to understand this complicated issue, just trust us when we tell you that whatever the Democrats do will suck.”

I really fail to understand how anything could get any worse than it is now, or how offering a public option could be a bad thing. Frankly, while we’re on the subject, I’ve never, ever understood the point of insurance companies, either. I get the idea of trying to pool risk and all, but they lost me when they started “repricing” stuff so that some folks pay one amount and other folks pay a different amount for the same thing.

I don’t get how we are supposed to save money on healthcare by going through a company that is in business to make a profit. Why do they even exist? They are parasites. I’m not an anti-capitalist, not by any stretch, but we’re dealing with people’s lives here. If you’re sick, or your child is sick, you just want treatment. You don’t want to shop for the best deal, shopping around might not even be an option. You want the best care available, period. There’s a moral component at work here, and it’s immoral to make money off of people’s suffering.

So, I’m sorry, I know I’m supposed to be applauding and CLAPPING LOUDER when the healthcare stakeholders promise to not skim quite so much off the top cut costs by getting more efficient--something, amazingly, they haven’t thought to do until now.

I’m just detecting the aroma of bullshit wafting my way.

Does This Bed Make My Butt Look Big?

Zelda is temporarily without a bed, but she had no qualms about stealing one from the cats. Unlike Goldilocks, however, this one is far from "just right."

Food Fights

I haven’t written anything about the totally hilarious “Dijon-gate” fauxtroversy which occupied the right wing landscape this past week. It’s almost too stupid to bear anyone’s attention, except I think it does show the conservative base flailing around desperately in search of a talking point.

As you no doubt know by now, Hannity, Ingraham and the rest got all over President Obama’s case for ordering a burger with spicy mustard, which as we all know is teh gaiii and what the terrorists would do and ZOMG we’re all gonna die!!!11!!!1!!111!! etc. etc. etc.

This is the same group of people who called John Kerry “ketchup boy” and mocked him for eating a Philly cheesesteak with Swiss, not Cheez-wiz, which is also teh gaiii and what the terrorists would do. Obama was also teh gaii for ordering orange juice at a diner, while Bill Clinton was ridiculed for his love of fast food.

In the conservative mind-set, ketchup is the only acceptable condiment to eat but God forbid your family should make money off of making and selling the thing: that’s elitist and out of touch. This from the crowd that supposedly thinks the free market economy is our salvation. It’s all very strange and bizarre and very contradictory. I guess someone at the Frank Luntz Conservative Thought Police School thinks the road to American hearts and minds leads through our stomachs.

Jesse hit the nail on the head with this post, titled Common Man Elitism:

The reason that conservatives are pushing this is that they think of “real America” as stuck in some decades-past version of society, where the bread at the store was either white, wheat or Wonder, you got yellow mustard or no mustard, you picked up lettuce and that was what you got, where you bought clothes with American names on them, preferably at a store with the word “Value” in the name.  It’s a patronizingly out of touch view of things that ignores not only the reality of people’s lives ("bread" is an entire aisle now!), but also the impact of the free-market global economy the right supposedly so values and adores.

[...]

But perhaps the strangest part of all this is that when Democrats get hit for elitism (Kerry’s cheesesteak, Obama’s mustard), they’re asking for things that the places in question had in stock to sell to customers.  I could understand some hearty mockery if Obama had walked up to a Burger King and asked for lasagna; that would just be clueless.  But the idea that you have established your elite bonafides by walking up to an otherwise perfectly acceptable place of business and asking for a thing that they sell makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

There’s no winning this argument because no matter what a Democrat orders, it’s always going to be the wrong thing. But that "wrong thing" is also what a whole bunch of "common folk" order, I mean who hasn't got orange juice at a diner?

Of course it doesn’t make sense, it’s not supposed to, it’s just supposed to strike some emotional cord in people. We get our coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts not Starbucks, God dammit, until the DD spokesbot gets caught wearing a scarf that looks supsiciously Muslim-y. You can’t win for losing with these people and you shouldn’t even try.

The only appropriate response is to point fingers and laugh.

A Mother's Day Bouquet

It's just not Mother's Day without flowers, is it?

I took these from my garden during a break in the rain last week. Personally, I'm thrilled that it's peony season again. Back when my mother was still alive, but very sick, I cut some peonies and FedEx'd them to her. I was probably breaking all sorts of Dept. of Agriculture regulations in doing so, but she had said the one thing she missed about living on the East Coast was peonies. They apparently need a cold winter to do well, and Southern California is too warm.

Your GOP, Keeping It Classy

Perpetual Republican presidential candidate and wackadoodle Alan Keyes was arrested at Notre Dame along with anti-choice wacko Randall Terry for protesting President Obama's pending commencement speech. And yes, props were involved:

Anti-abortion activist and frequent presidential candidate Alan Keyes was arrested for trespassing at Notre Dame Friday as part of a protest against President Obama speaking at the May 17 Commencement ceremony.

Shortly before noon, on the last day of final exams for Notre Dame students, Keyes and a few dozen others gathered at the entrance of Notre Dame to pray. The protesters were holding signs and most were pushing strollers containing baby dolls covered in fake blood. After approximately half an hour of prayer, Keyes delivered a speech, encouraging those present to "walk onto campus as missionaries for God's truth."

Just for some perspective, President George W. Bush gave the commencement address at Notre Dame in May 2001 -- before the illegal war, and the torture, but not before he came out as an advocate of the death penalty, which is also against Catholic teaching.

Funny, no one objected then.

But I digress. So, look at what the poor students of Notre Dame have been subjected to:

Another group, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, has been sending a plane to fly over Notre Dame for hours at a time with banners featuring pictures of fetuses and sometimes unfortunate grammatical errors ("This is what your honoring," said one banner two days ago.)

Geez, I’d sure hate to be studying for finals under that kind of commotion.

Leading the charge against Obama’s commencement address is anti-gay, anti-choice activist Randall Terry of Operation Rescue fame. And here’s the funny part. If you go to Randall Terry’s website, stopobamanotredame.com, it’s clear these assclowns were planning to be arrested. They advertised it all over their website. For example:

Dr. Alan Keyes going to Notre Dame to be arrested:

Calls on pro-lifers nationwide to join him.

“…until the South Bend jail is filled to overflowing..."

And:

11:30 am - Friday May 8
Protest with Arrests
Join Alan Keyes

Protest with Arrests? Is that like Burgers with Fries? Beer with Chips? What a bunch of media whores.

I wonder what Keyes & co. would have done had they not been arrested. Would they have forced the issue? Demanded to be arrested? Start destroying property or acted in some way to ensure their arrest?

It boggles the mind.

So, this is what’s left of the Republican Party. How absolutely pathetic.

The Tennessean: Wankers Of The Day

What Jesse Taylor said:

Cutting $5 billion in earmarks is vital to our nation.

Cutting three times that amount is a total joke, worthy of absolute derision and scorn.

And they wonder why we’re nervous about homeschooling.

With that in mind, I’m trying to remember the last time The Tennessean ran a banner headline like this splashed across its front page under the subhead “analysis.” The story itself was pulled from deep inside today’s Washington Post.


Really, Tennessean? The front page?

I guess The Tennessean is catering to the teabag crowd, underplaying parts of the story like this:

But Emanuel said the $17 billion package represents but one piece of a much larger deficit-reduction puzzle. He pointed to the Senate's passage yesterday, by 93 to 0, of a defense procurement reform package (the House may follow soon). That, he said, could shave $100 billion or more from federal spending. There are other pieces that he said add up to an effective strategy to rein in spending.

This is one reason why I stopped subscribing to our daily fishwrap. If I wanted to read the Washington Post, I’d read, you know, the Washington Post. Which I do.

But pulling a story like this from deep inside the Post and splashing it across the front page as if it were some kind of news item is just bullshit.

Joe The Plumber Kisses GOP Goodbye

Technically, I’m not sure Joe was ever in the Republican Party; I thought he referred to himself as an independent. But regardless: (not)Joe The (not)Plumber, who was trotted out by the media as the face of the “average working American,” is leaving the Republican Party:

Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party — and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience. But he also said he wouldn't support any cuts in defense, Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid — which, along with debt payments, would put more than two-thirds of the budget off limits.

Okay, it’s well established that Joe The Plumber is no intellectual heavyweight (read his Q&A with Christianity Today if you think I’m wrong). But when even a dim bulb like JTP thinks you’re on the wrong track, I’d say you’re screwed.

Today’s Republican Party: even your blue collar mascot hates you.

(h/t, Wonkette)