Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

Don’t be surprised when fringe groups act like it. Right-wing terrorism has always been a threat, since the day Obama was elected, and the natural response of people who call themselves “pro-life” is to threaten people with death. Most of them are cowards who jump at every noise in the night and sleep with their guns under their pillow, but there’s always someone who is nutty enough to follow through. A couple have, in fact. So it’s not an exaggeration.

If I called myself a Republican and had these folks on my side I’d be sure as shit embarrassed as hell. But I think that these guys on the right actually think this fringe group can help them win something back in the November elections. Integrity, no, but whatever. We know what matters!

Amazing that they made the healthcare debate into an abortion war. You have to give them credit. Even as 8 years of Bush and 8 years of Reagan failed to do anything for the pro-lifers, they really seem to get invigorated by a Democratic president doing the exact same thing–status quo, all the time. Not a peep from pro-lifers regarding war. Or death penalty issues. You’d almost think that “pro-life” is just another way to keep Republicans in the mix. Without this abortion issue they might be as fringe-y as their followers act. Wait, they are!

Headline on Politico.com: “RNC Insurance Plan Covers Abortion.” Of course it does! If I weren’t busy watching the Bears game I would send off an email to my old pal Ramesh Ponnuru and ask him what it feels like to be in the Party of Death! Ah, good times…

Man, the Bears suck.

I guess I’m just confused.

It is difficult to over-estimate the degree to which last night’s vote in the House, passing a comprehensive health care reform bill, was a huge victory for the Catholic Church … The belief that heath care is a right, not a privilege, took a giant step towards legislative enactment last night.

Pro-lifers think health care is a right, not a privilege? But the Catholic Church is for universal healthcare? Or what? You know what, I don’t even wanna know.

I’m trying to figure out a couple of things: what’s with the anti-abortion amendment in this bill that passed in the House, and what the hell is the problem with the public option?

I heard the news about the House passing the bill and it sounded all good, but then this little snag came up, which seems to have gotten little attention. Or maybe it has, I don’t know, but…what the hell? I am amazed (I know, I shouldn’t be) at the lack of conviction with which this reform is being conducted. There’s little to zero support from Republicans anyway, why pander to them with this?

As for conservative Democrats, oh man, is there anything worse than these Blue Dogs? What. Is. Your. Point?

Which brings us to Lieberman. What a dick. I wish I could take back half of my vote for him as VP in 2000. Man, I can’t stand this guy. “What’s the mechanism by which the public option increases the national deficit?” asks Ezra Klein:

Every analysis of the public option I’ve seen has concluded that it will reduce federal, and consumer, spending. Indeed, the stronger the public option is, the more it reduces the deficit. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that a public option paying Medicare’s rates would save the government more than $100 billion in the first 10 years, and more after that.

What is the problem? You’re never going to get the answer from him for that, I’m sure. God, these Democrats are just useless in power and out.

UPDATE:

I hope he means this.

Obama said he did not support any change in current abortion laws through the health care bill — an implicit rebuke to the House for passing an amendment that could considerably restrict women’s access to abortions.

Evil-doers, unite!

The priest at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in downtown Greenville has told parishioners that those who voted for Barack Obama placed themselves under divine judgment because of his stance on abortion and shouldn’t receive Holy Communion until they’ve done penance.

In a letter posted on St. Mary’s Web site, Newman wrote that “voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil.”

Who was the “plausible pro-life alternative” in this election? McCain? Ha ha! In the past this may have gotten me worked up, sure, but now I just have to laugh. Ha ha ha! It’s funny. Ho ho ho! We are coming to the end of eight years of almost exclusive Republican rule, with pro-lifers wielding the power and the glory, and what do they have to show for it? What did they do for the pro-lifers?

The dirty secret of the right-wing is this: “pro-life” is total bullshit. It is nothing but a wedge issue. These men (and they are almost exclusively men–white men) don’t care one bit about overturning Roe v. Wade, nor do they care about protecting the lives of the unborn. They just want your vote, righteous ones. And, well, it didn’t work this year. As these bishops and priests are finding out, they have no influence on politicians, anymore than they do on their own parishioners. There’s a positive sign. In fact, it is change we can believe in.

“Any one of us here would consider it a privilege to die tomorrow–die tomorrow!–to bring about the end of abortion,” said Auxiliary Bishop Robert Hermann of St. Louis.

- Chicago Tribune: Catholic bishops plan to forcefully confront Obama

That’s a moderate way of approaching the issue, your Excellency. It sounds as if he’s ready to strap on some ammo and walk into a clinic, for Christ’s sake! Reminds me of one of my favorite scenes from Caddyshack:

Tony D’Annunzio: Another Rob Roy, Bishop?
Bishop: You never ask a navy man if he’ll have another drink, because it’s nobody’s goddamned business how much he’s had already.
Judge Smails: Wrong, you’re drinking too much your Excellency.
Bishop: Excellency, fiddlesticks, my name’s Fred and I’m a man, same as you.
Judge Smails: You’re not a man, you’re a bishop, for God’s sakes.
Bishop: There is no God…

I didn’t realize how extreme the Republican party platform is on abortion, which makes no exceptions for rape, incest, and danger to the life of the mother. Just like the Catholic church! And John McCain, as recently as last year, wanted to change that platform to allow for those exceptions, but…now that he’s no longer a “straight talker” he has to pander to the extremists that are in control of the GOP.

Just to clarify, the Republican platform is to ban all abortions, giving women no control, no say, no choice over what happens to their own body even in the event of rape, incest, or a life-threatening pregnancy.

Why now would a woman ever want to vote Republican?

I hear that Obama was hanging out with the nutjobs this weekend at some megachurch thing. Question: Is a “megachurch” twice as boring as a regular church? Or just twice as full of a shit?

I digress. I understand why Obama wants to talk to these people; if he gets one of them to vote for him that will be one more than anyone could expect, and I’m sure some of them actually will. So good for him. But really, why give these megapastors and their ancient social conservative outlook any credence?

You want to know my problem? They think they know things for certain. Things that no one can possibly ever know. Like when human life begins. Talk about messianic behavior… (It’s not as simple as conception, I can tell you, from experience.)

What they don’t know, or fail to consider, is that if abortion becomes a criminal act like the religious wackjobs want it to be, then who goes to jail? The pastor’s daughter whose school didn’t teach sex ed because that was just encouraging kids to have sex? The minister’s daughter who was taught that birth control is against the lord’s will? We know about the doctor who performed a safe surgical procedure…he’s going away for murder!

This is the world that the evangelical nuts want, and they will once again fall for the delusion that voting for a Republican will somehow bring about this reverse of our culture to 1950′s values. Has it happened yet? Nope. But it doesn’t matter. I hate that they are pandering to this crowd, even McCain, who I thought was above this too. I say fuck ‘em, they’ll be Left Behind anyway.

Glenn Greenwald nails the Corner nut, Kathryn Jean Lopez, to the proverbial cross with this great column on “the right’s selective political manipulation of Catholicism.” In short (because GG keeps it long), K-Lo wonders how any Catholic could consider voting for a Democrat considering their views on “innocent life.” What does “innocent life” mean? Well, that depends. Take a wild guess, though, and see if you can figure it out.

Abortion = bad! War = good!

I’m sure the death penalty is OK for Catholics like Lopez, because they’re not innocent after all (at least some of them aren’t), but when it comes to cheerleading an immoral and unjust war that will take thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of innocent lives, you can count on the Catholic Lopez to sidestep that whole principled approach and wave the flag in the name of Republicanism. Hurray!

Seriously, what is wrong with these people?