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!

“What I find interesting, and grotesque, is the assumption that millions of Americans can be easily duped into murdering their fellow Americans.”

That’s Jonah Goldberg, complete right-wing tool of the National Review who often writes things and then backtracks on them, trying to explain what he meant. He has to do that because he often makes no sense. The statement above is a reference to a Bette Midler comment–yeah, he’s really digging deep here–about Glenn Beck. Holy shit! Bette Midler said something about Glenn Beck?!? Yeah, she thinks Beck is scary and compares him to Rwandan genocide instigators, or something. Silly. Stupid. But he doesn’t see the irony? Or the signs at the tea parties? So I wrote to him, quoting back his words above. Then:

Me: You may want to tell that to the teabaggin’ folks who fear that Obama is the second coming of Hitler. That’s Beck’s crowd, yes?

Jonah’s response was a link to his Liberal Fascism blog. Ugh. Talk about ponderous. And disingenuous. “While the stench of eugenics and euthanasia do not quite sting the nostrils yet…” goes one deep thought. Guy wrote a whole book about how liberals are the real fascists, not conservatives. Or something. You can read what he sent to me right here: Liberal Fascism

After wading through the muck, I responded: “so that’s a concession, right?”

Goldberg: “Well, it’s an admission that anyone who thinks Obama is the next hitler is wrong, as I’ve said before.”

Me: So when does your book “Conservative Fascism” come out?

And that’s where the conversation ended.

“In Obama’s America, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, ‘Yay, right on, right on, right on, right on.”

- Rush Limbaugh

The right, in its radio and tv shows, has carefully planted the seed of post-racial irony, branding any critics of Obama immune to charges of racism. Of course all critics of Obama aren’t racist, that’s silly. But this was a meme set forward even before he was elected, that anyone who disagrees with Obama will be called a racist by his supporters. So what to do? There are some racist people who say racist things, as Limbaugh did. See what happens when you elect a black man? White kids are now getting beat up, in Obama’s America, as opposed to before! What do you think he’s saying?

But yes, this is race-baiting at the highest professional level–he’s good at it–and responding to it is to give Limbaugh exactly what he wants: the chance to say “see, they’re calling me a racist, just because I criticized Obama!” Logic won’t work with these people; it is, in fact, the enemy. We can point to signs and words and actions of the Obama opponents and easily see racism, but how to combat it? I have no idea. But for what it’s worth, I agree with what Jimmy Carter had to say, even if the White House doesn’t (or can’t admit it):

“I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African-American.”

- Former President Jimmy Carter

Not all, but yes, a large portion. The birth certificate nuts, the Muslim association nuts, the desire to keep Obama away from your children at school…the blatant lack of respect during the speech last week, some of the things written on signs at the protests…yeah, there’s some racism there. It seems kind of obvious. But there I go, pointing it out. So I must be a racist too, yep. Against stupid white people.

Words can’t do it justice! Simply…unbelievable.

UPDATE:

Meanwhile, Drudge race-baits: “White Student Beaten On School Bus; Crowd Cheers.” This is a movement that is just showing off now! Why wouldn’t we want to put them back in power?

So many ways to say the same basic thing about these protests:

If Fox News, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh were truly opposed to expanded government power, where were they when George Bush and Dick Cheney were expanding federal power in virtually every realm, driving up the national debt to unprecedented proportions, destroying middle-class economic security in order to benefit the wealthiest, and generally ensuring government intrusion into every aspect of people’s lives?  They were supporting it and cheering it on.  That’s what gives the lie to their pretense of “small-government” rhetoric.

- Glenn Greenwald

The protestors keep saying that they want their country back. Sorry, my fellow small-governmenters, but this country is a democracy, and you didn’t lose your country, you just lost an election. You had your chance for eight years. You blew it, and you lost. What Obama is doing is what he was elected to do. The principled response is not a massive, extremist-riddled hissy fit a few months in, but a constructive set of proposals to build on universal care for a more market-friendly and cost-conscious system in the future. You have to win some political credibility for that; and then you have to beat the man you lost so badly to last year. That’s the civil and civilized way forward for the right. It also seems, alas, to be the one they are currently refusing to take.

- Andrew Sullivan

During the town hall, one conservative activist turns to his fellow attendees and asks them to raise their hands if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Almost all the hands shot up. Rep Green quickly turned the question on the audience and asked, “How many of you have Medicare?” Nearly half the attendees raised their hands, failing to note the irony.

Alright then. Enjoy your summer!

UPDATE:

Come on! Are these guys for real? This is an actual economist named Art Laffer who, as his name suggests, is quite the joke:

I mean, if you like the Post Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles and you think they’re run well, just wait until you see Medicare, Medicaid, and health care done by the government

Man, there’s some real dummies shoutin’ about how dumb they are.

UPDATE II:

Mr. Laffer is Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person in the World tonight. Good times.

I like how Jon Stewart put it: just another politician with a conservative mind and a liberal penis. Can we just stop now and forget about family values as an issue, Republican nutbags? It’s a joke. You can’t get all worked up about Bill Clinton’s penis and then pretend like yours is any different. A liberal penis is a liberal penis, and there isn’t any other kind!

OK, I suppose there may be a few conservative penises out there, but does anyone want anything to do with them? No. Of course not. Don’t be silly. This is why there is so much repression on the right: the conservative mind can’t reconcile the liberal leanings that linger in their pants. Eventually it’s a-gonna burst! And oh, that’s when things get ugly.

Anyway, more good times, nothing like another sex scandal involving a “family values” Republican, it never ends.

In a few years, when gays are able to legally marry each other everywhere with the full benefits that straight couples are allowed, we will see that the positions held by Mr. Warren and his cult are primitive and bigoted. Just like any other civil rights issue that we as a nation have overcome, this too with appear in the rearview mirror as a wrong that has been corrected.

Obama asks us to come together with those who we disagree with on social issues, and I wonder how it is that we are supposed to do that. Is it not an insult to have those who believe homosexuality can be “fixed” invited as an integral part of a gathering in the name of unity? I’m pretty sure that Rick Warren and his cult members can be fixed–positive in fact–but that’s their business, isn’t it? I’m not going to get on their ass about it; evolution moves quicker in some than others.

Let’s be honest about this: the reason that these people are so afraid of  gay marriage is because some gibberish in a book told them it was wrong. Or because a man in a pulpit read from a book that told them it was wrong, someone like Rick Warren or Jerry Falwell, or maybe even Jeremiah Wright.

Reality proves otherwise. There is no absolute sanctity in marriage–certainly not in hetero marriage; there is only sanctity in a union if they choose to honor it, gay or straight. Get off the high horse unless you want to own Elizabeth Taylor’s eight marriages, you sanctimonious fuckers.

I stand by my original reaction:

I’m all for the unifying nature of Obama’s presidency and the possibilities that that may bring, but I believe that it is incumbent upon certain elements to prove worthy of such outreach. Rick Warren? Not so much.

There are 30 days to go before this election. What we’re seeing explode in front of us are both the devastating fruits of eight years of unchallenged right-wing rule under the Bush/Cheney administration and the tactics of a desperate, dying, rotted movement descending further and further into the sewer in order to cling to power. The more they unmask themselves this way, the more smashing will be their defeat, the longer their banishment will be.

- Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

I wish I believed that their defeat would be a long-term banishment, but in politics these dips only last an election cycle before they rise again. McCain will lose–and Bush/Cheney have already lost their battle with history–but in four years, if not two, they will rise up again and challenge. This is because the Republican party has one great talent, and that is electioneering. What needs to be reminded is that they suck at everything else. You’d think that wouldn’t be hard, given what’s transpired the past eight years, but some folks are thicker than others. I’ll do my best to kick ‘em when they’re down.

Are you tired of hearing the collective right-wing defend Sarah Palin’s blanking on the Bush Doctrine question? Me too. Everyone knows she had no idea what he was talking about–her look was priceless–and everyone knows exactly what he (Gibson) was talking about in referring to the BD: preemptive war.

Really? That’s what he meant? I had no idea. See, I’ve been sucking helium out of balloons for eight years while peeing on myself.

George Will today went on ABC News’ Sunday Show and defended Sarah Palin by claiming that even he, Will, didn’t know what this bizarre, confusing thing called “the Bush doctrine” is — that’s the same George Will who, in 2003, wrote an Op-Ed entitled “The Bush Doctrine at Risk” in which he understood the term perfectly well and defined it exactly how Gibson did.

- Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

There’s stupid and then there’s faux stupid. This is just fuckin’ stupid.

So yes, Bush held up the American flag at the Olympics and it was backwards. Big deal. It’s better than not wearing a flag pin! I mean, that’s unpatriotic! Bush had an entire American flag on him! Backwards, yes, but still.

Really, I don’t care. We laugh at Bush because he’s so easy to laugh at. He makes stupid faces too. He’s a buffoon. But how can people seriously get worked up about stuff like flag pins? Why is the Right filled with such whiny pricks? Why is up always down?

Sullivan:

Imagine that Bush is a Democrat (not that hard when you consider his fiscal record). Now imagine that a Democratic president had presided over the worst attack on American soil in history, a far stronger Iran on the brink of nukes, and a resurgent, aggressive Russia, willing and able to invade and terrorize a neighboring country in part because the president long believed that its president was a good man, and had looked into his soul.

I think they would have impeached him a few years ago, no? He would be viewed as the Carter to end all Carters. But they are actually arguing that the man who has held no executive power these last seven years is responsible for the triumph of America’s rivals around the world. And they describe everyone who is dismayed at Bush’s Carter impersonation as leftist.

You have to laugh. Everything was Clinton’s fault before and now it will Obama’s fault after. All that stuff in between? Wasn’t me.

I had a burst of politics this week, and I think this should put an end to it. I just can’t handle the inanity.

However unsophisticated, it’s as basic as this: any ten year-old kid in my neighborhood in inner-city Cleveland would prefer that Hillary Clinton escort them to the corner Seven Eleven than Barack Obama.

This is, somehow, a conservative argument for John McCain. Obama apparently projects a weakness that not only would be disastrous in foreign policy but also in convenience store escorting. If they can just get that on a bumper sticker!

OK, back to summer. Get me a drink! Nurse! Quick!