Play of the Day

It’s not the first time we’ve featured him – he’s won DOTD as well.

I’m truly impressed: On a day when his brethren are making plenty of noise calling for repeal and court cases, Louie manages to cut through the pack by blaming direct election of Senators. My jaw not only dropped, it rolled under the couch.

@nojo: Maybe I’ve built up immunity from reading so many wingnut blogs, but this surprises me not a whit. These people will do anything, anything, to get back into power and wreak havoc once again. Anything.

@nojo: they’ll be calling for the repeal of amendments 13-15, 19, and the reinsatement of the 3/5 rule for the 2010 census by Thursday.

And geek note: the forward and backward arrows on Stinque Mobile are not working. It just refreshe the post the user currently is on. This could also be a case of iPhone or user error here.

@blogenfreude: I’m not sure anymore…

I’ve had Frum on my mind the past couple of days, and what he said about Rush & Crew can equally be said about current elected national Republicans: The power they seek may be satisfied by their existing offices.

They’re all raising money off their whining, after all. And the “worse” it gets, the more they can whine. As long as they can present themselves as Leading the Charge, they don’t care about the rest.

Really: How many honest wingnuts hold office? And who else is just pandering as fast as they can?

@SanFranLefty: I try never to blame user error, but the arrows are working on my iPhone.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans now blocking all hearings. Or something like that.

Two things:

1. I wouldn’t mind seeing some Bubba-style bluff-calling on this shit.

2. If the Demrats don’t revise the Senate rules at the start of the 2011 session, they deserve all the obstruction they get.

@nojo: Frum talks some sense, but too late … he helped Bush organize the sociopaths and the insane, and now he reaps what he has sown. Fuck him.

is it me or does this:

Ironically, as they make false claims about transparency regarding health reform, they’re shutting down a committee hearing today on transparency in government.

sound sort of like ‘I protest in the strongest possible terms the stealing of my lunch money and subsequent wedgie’

@blogenfreude: Yes, Frum has abetted war criminals, and I don’t share his concern about the fate of the modern Republican Party. But I think his was a genuine insight about the motivation of the professional wingnuts, easily extended to the office-holders as well.

None of them care about real power — not the way the neocons did. They’re not trying to win back the White House; they’re not even serious about winning back Congress.

If either were the case, we’d be seeing classic Big Tent moves. Instead, they’re all just making as much noise as they can, the better to shake down the sheep.

@Capt Howdy: It took some effort, but they’ve finally filled the balloon with enough helium to snap their tether with reality.

As absurd as the past year has been — it’s only the opening act. Start hoarding popcorn now, because I predict major shortages.

@SanFranLefty: Indian citizenship (1924) is out the window now too, since we usually go Democratic, unless some clown like Sen. “Saint Pete” Domenici (R-NM) or Mc Cain has us over a barrel. Seriously, I’m glad most of those assholes never figured out that Congress has plenary power over Indian affairs.

Gohmert ignores that the election of Senators was a favorite goal of the populist movement. I guess what he’s remembering is that so many state legislatures were owed by the railroads and other powerful local interests. Come to think of it, some still are.

@nojo:

I do wonder if the “small government” movement has instead been co-opted by an undercurrent of “no government”, radical Randian / Social Darwinist thought. Maybe they’re all secretly ROOTING for cannibal anarchy.

Did I hear him say he “doesn’t want another mandate coming down (his) throat?” Oh my goodness gracious.

@texrednface:

There goes his social life.

@Tommmcatt :

I’ve had Spirit in the Sky stuck in my head ever since our confab yesterday.

@Original Andrew:

Dang, now you did it to me.

The Glenn Beck Drinking Game

And a tough drinking game at that. A whole episode might be fatal. :)

@al2o3cr: No drink at “Obama is a Maoist”? That’s my favorite wingnut meme – a whiff of erudition among the stoopid. These people wouldn’t be able to pick out a Maoist at a pie fight.

@nojo: Nojo, I think you are wrong, I think some of them, want power, want absolute, dictatorial power, like a Roman Emporer, or Cheney. They’re just pussies. They want it, but they are afraid to do it, so they try to whip the ignorant and armed into frenzy, like a Roman Senator quietly trying to foment a revolution so he can begrudgingly accept the sceptor, protesting that its the people’s will. In their fantasy lives.

Meanwhile, Boner bastardizes Thomas Paine – who also said ““I do not believe in the creed professed by… any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.”.

I’ve said this before, stable, civilized society depends on this strange and rare ethic of sportsmanship, you lost, you lick your wounds, and try to win next time. Starting with Clinton, after the yahoo invasion of congress in 1994, they stopped playing by the rules of the game, and the GOP became dedicated to the banana republic ethic, if you lose, you cheat, lie, cry, lie, steal elections, they have completelky abandoned the idea of democracy, except when they win, when they don’t, they resort to illegitimate means, the impeachment of Clinton, that was so much worse, I think, than people recognize, it represented the beginning of a new paradigm, and one which is antithetical to the rules and ethics and mores that have allowed us to have a stable democracy, with an orderly ransfer of power after an election. It marked the time when republicans started acting like the losing party in a bannana republic, where losing the election means you just start trying to grab power by non-democratic means. They no longer feel bound to behave like the minority party in a stable democracy.

And to make it worse, its a revolution of the ignorant, superstitious, hateful, racist and bigoted.

I blame it all on the pardoning of Nixon.

If the Democrats hadn’t allowed them to push Watergate under the rug, politicians would be a bit more circumspect, I think.

@karen marie:

That’s like expecting whores to be selective.

I was once in a fight, I hate fighting, but when I was young, sometimes, I was forced to, and I was in a fight one time, and I got in a shot, stunned the dude, and got him down, and then got on him and totally controlled him, pinned, arms and legs controlled, I could have hurt him, bad, he was in a bad situation. The only thing he had on his side was my decency, I thought, OK, I got you down, I got you under control, lets now end this stupidity. I said so, I said, OK, lets stop this stupid shit, I’ll let you up, if its over, if you agree its over. He did. I let him up. He fucking nearly cold-cocked me, immediately that I let him up. He caught me square on the jaw and cheek and drove my lower bicuspids through my face, I had a new hole in my face.

I hope none of you ever had to know this or ever have to know it, but a blow that tears and breaks your flesh, is not necessarily a blow that will deliver the kinetic impact necessary to rattle your brain, and thats what wins fights, rattling someone’s brains, I was fine, just mad, and I put him down again, same fucking situation, I was bigger than him, and he was helpless at grappling, the second time I let him up he quit.

But for fuck’s sake, what I learned then, the democrats have to understand, when you have someone down, and this is a harsh thing, but when you have someone down, never take pity on them. Hurt them. Incapacitate them. Make them terrified that you will do it again. I am sorry, but the best time, the only time, and the only time when its necessary to kick someone, is when they are down. This is true, at least, if they are a slimy scumsucking bully who understands nothing but force. And thats what these fucks are, the democrats, while they still have the majority, need to stop seeking “bipartisanship” from these swine, and need to start a flurry of headpunches, a flurry, so fast and furious, now, while they are reeling. You have to. Its not unfair, its not bad sportsmanship, its the rules of boxing, of wrestling, of ultimate fighting, which this pacifist liberal absolutely loves because I think its the purest martial art contest I have ever seen, when you stun them, when you have the advantage, thats not when you offer the olive branch, thats what I learned from that fucker who put my teeth through my cheek, when you got them down, you hurt them, its hard to do, it takes some fortitude, if you are a kindhearted person, but you have to rub their face in their shit until they won’t even think of fucking with you.

The dems have been in this position since the election, and didn’t take advantage, like me, in that old fight, they thought they could talk sense with these thugs. The dems have now caught the GOP with a hook to the jaw that has stunned them. Obama now has to start to start beating their fucking faces until they cry uncle. Its all they understand.

@Promnight: Word, my brutha. I was looking for a Hunter Thompson quote he said about kicking Nixon when he was down, precisely because he was down, when I found this:

Badgers don’t fight fair, bubba. That’s why God made dachshunds.

@Promnight:
I love that story! Please edit out your words “I am Sorry.”
No need to apologize. Oooh that just gave me shivers.

@Promnight: I worked with a guy once who had grown up around the oil fields in Bakersfield. He told me that what he learned there was: when you get a man down, stomp him.

@Promnight: Amen! Rahm, Barry, are you listening?

@Original Andrew: OFSM I love that song, even if it represents everything I really don’t believe in. It’s fucking funky, and that’s enough. Thank you for that.

@Promnight: There is absolutely no honor in politics, I think we’ve seen that by now. Take ’em down, kick ’em in the nuts, and when they cry “I submit” just keep squeezing a bit harder for a moment or five.

Unfortunately, this death-match really does nothing at all to improve the state of the commons, no matter which side (and of course there are only 2 sides!) you root for.

But it sure is fun, and good TV!

@Pedonator: Unfortunately, this death-match really does nothing at all to improve the state of the commons

I actually wonder if national dialogue wouldn’t improve if the Dems learned to beat their chests a bit more in victory. How many generations of rolling over and playing dead have we seen since LBJ last know how to play hardball? The Rethugs are like playground bullies (or that Opie character on the square wheeled tryke Noj’ likes to run); stand up to them and show them Prom’s Playground Rules a few times, and maybe it will be safe for the more moderate voices to come out from behind the bushes.

Bubba knew how to punch back, but he was so twisted up by that spermy blue dress he never found purchase.

@Promnight:
Almost the exact lesson I learned on the playgrounds of Canada City. Tap into their fears and use’em. As with most bullies, the GOPers fears are pretty much a wide open book.

Demrats have to show the courage to fight and the wisdom/discipline to keep the inner animal under control until necessary.

@Promnight:
absolutely agree with you. another analogy, chess. war on a board.
when you have your opponent in check, you go in for the kill, not relax.

@Mistress Cynica:
barry doesn’t even have to get his hands dirty. that’s why he has rahm.
btw, i’m STILL laughing at your comment that americans are not more violent, they’re just better shots!

@Prommie, baked: In fly fishing with barbless hooks, you always keep constant pressure on the hooked fish because it will wiggle off the instant it senses the reduced pressure.

@baked: The line is the great Whit Stillman’s. If you want to understand my people, i.e. WASPs, his trilogy Metropolitan, Barcelona, and Last Days of Disco can’t be beat as a study of the tribe in its natural habitats: deb balls, diplomatic corps, and low-paying publishing jobs.