Because I screwed up the attribution last time. Also too, I can’t be the only person bored with discussion of any penis not attached to a loved one’s torso…
Republican Stupidity
Wednesday Evening Open Thread
When Grifters attack
Now. Tonight. In Washington. Grifters from all over America are in town sharing tips and better ways to scam the guilble. It is one big wet kiss to the beauty of the con. It is a celebration of the folks who put the “Con” in Conservative.
It is the second annual Faith and Freedom Conference. It was organized by Hall of Fame grifter Ralph Reed. Reed is a fellow who has super-charged the “I am a Christian scam” to levels that would make Satan himself blush. A few years ago it looked like Reed would go down in the Abramoff scandal. He was exposed as a money grubbing, hypocrite who had no problem scamming Christians into support gambling, human trafficking, sex slavery and forced abortions just to make a fast buck. The list of Reed’s exposed crimes and ethical lapses should have ended his grifter career and his influence over anything. But Ralph is a Republican, and we all know that any crime Is OK If You’re A Republican. And so, Republican candidates for President and other elected officials come to the Faith and Freedom Conference to lick Ralph Reed’s ass.
But that’s not all.
They also come to bow before Grifter legend Grover Norquist. He was also exposed in the Abramoff scadal and should have gone to jail, but he made a deal with McCain. Grover supported McCain’s run for the White House and McCain let the investigation end and made sure that evidence of Grover’s crimes were buried for twenty-five years. And now every Republican seeking office must make the stop to lick Grover’s ass as well.
And then the rest of the schedule is just filled with other grifters–big and small–and the politicians compelled to pander to them. Watch some of the C-Span feed if you feel like checking out the freak show. You could drop in anywhere and it would be almost always the same: Obama is bad. He is that scary black thug seeking to destroy America. White values are under attack. And only by giving your time, money, energy and money to the grifters behind this conference can you and those you love be saved from Obama and his nonwhite army of destruction.
And while most speeches are predictable, sometimes they are accidetially revealing. The speech earlier tonight from Dick Morris was an example (see the beginning of this segment). It was a direct appeal to white voters that their very survival depends on opposing Obama–who in Morris’ telling was only elected because ignorant young white voters made common cause with Latinos and shiftless Negroes. It was shameless race-baiting, but It was also OK because, well, they are Republicans.
That grifters like Reed, Norquist, Beck, Armey, Palin, Trump, Ailes, Gingrich, Ryan and so many others control the CONservative movement should tell you all you need to know. It should also inspire you to keep a tight grip on your wallet whenever any of them are near–but no. Instead they are celebrated. And the worst of them must be paid off and give their blessings before any candidate is supported or any action by the Republican Confederate Party is taken. Having Reed and Norquist as GOP gatekeepers is like Democrats deciding that Dollar “Bill” Jefferson, John Edwards and Rod Blagojevich have to approve any candidate or policy before others in the Party would endorse it.
The idea that you out-source control of policy and candidate approval to known grifters is insane, but, also too, IOKIYAR.
Cheers
If You Want to Destroy My Sweater
Mitt Romney’s come undone:
Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy on Friday by saying he believes that humans are responsible, at least to some extent, for climate change.
“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.
“It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.”
The former Massachusetts governor fielded questions on topics ranging from the debt ceiling to abortion on his first full day of campaigning for 2012 Republican primary nomination.
Mittens has now sided with science and hedonism and embraced reality, so with that mistake, RomneyCare, and belonging to the wrong religious cult, that should pretty much be the end of him. He’s basically just waiting now for Haley Joel Osment to point out the obvious, and we haven’t even had a chance for the Talibangelicals in South Carolina to start emailing folks about funny underwear or whatever smear they will use against him in their pursuit of a true conservative nominee.
Mitt’s Speech
It’s all so bad I don’t know where to even start, but it reads like something that could have been written by Bachmann, Palin, or Joe the Plumber. This is the so-called “moderate” in the GOP race.
At some point, the media is going to have to recognize they are all crazy.
Factio Grandaeva Delenda Est — Climate Science edition
Among the ritualized horrors of the Great People’s Cultural Revolution in China were the criticism-self-criticism sessions mandated for those insufficiently committed to the program. These public auto da fé sessions reached the highest level of Chinese governments, up to and including Deng Xiaoping.
I trust I won’t be accused of Godwinization (not that I care, to be sure) if I marvel a little at what amounts to a detectable echo of such formalized self effacement in today’s Republican party. The overt and paralyzing violence of the Red Guards is not there of course, which makes this not a comparison, but a reference. But still, it’s hard not to recall those days watching leading members of what used to be a party capable of actual governance abase themselves before the inquisitors who now dominate the Republican Party’s election process.
Case in point: several of the current candidates for the Republican nomination for President used to be able to hear and process scientific information that led them to the conclusion that human activities are affecting the climate, and that such anthropogenic climate change is a very dangerous thing.
Now, this isn’t new. The know-nothing (and or bought-and-paid-for-by-Big-Oil) wing of the party has spent years trading in bad science to prevent this realization from becoming a true bi-partisan consensus. The success of this effort was manifest last year when every GOP Senate candidate in the midterms declared his or her disbelief in the threat posed by climate change. That’s 37 candidates and 37 who think we should just burn up all that dinosaur wine as fast as we can get our hands on it.*
All of which is to repeat the obvious: climate denialism is dogma for the Republican party.
Which is a problem when one wants to be President, is a Republican, and has a history of some sanity on this issue.
Factio Grandaeva Delenda Est — Climate Science editionPost + Comments (51)
Hunstmania!
I wonder how long the GOP’s only sort-of adult presidential contender can keep going when a serious polling outfit can find one (1) guy in Iowa who names him as his first choice. Palin pulled fifteen percent, Gingrich twelve and Michele sparkly-eyes fourteen. Mitt Romney might be leading with 21% or he might not; with Mitt you never know.
The pander strategy would serve Huntsman better if the field wasn’t already crowded with usetabe adults who had to redeem their sinning selves by embracing the pure light of supply-side jesus.