Apropos of the last.

In a Facebook comment concerning the last post, my friend Thomas points out that certain stolen emails from places like BP or Exxon ought to be extremely enlightening.....

I mean, seriously, do Republicans even think anymore?

ED: xii. The Republican Party: For entertainment purposes only.

Twelfth in a series on "Elephantine Douchebaggery," an ongoing investigation into the most obnoxious of right-wing obnoxiousness. And, boy, it's getting weird.

OH NOZ WE FOUND AN EMAIL AND NOW WE SUEZ U.

Climategate is such bullshit I don't even know where to begin. But, seriously, I welcome it. As long as the right is stuck on this kind of shit, they have no chance to increase their influence.

No chance.

The skies will soon be unsafe.

Background: Boeing just announced that they are building their second 787 production line in North Charleston, South Carolina instead of Everett, Washington.

Now, watch this video.



And you thought the people in Everett were backwards. Think about this when you board a plane to Europe or Asia 10 years from now....

Victory! R-71 wins, I-1033 loses.

Also known as: Ken Hutcherson: Go fuck yourself
or: Tim Eyman: Go fuck yourself
or: Eastern Washington: Go fuck yourself

This is pretty self-explanatory, but one thing bears further examination. Look at this map. Right-wingers will whine about the tyranny of the coastal population, but I will say yet again: Go fuck yourselves.

While we're on this subject, let's take a look the typical Eastern Washington county budget, say Douglas County. Here is an admittedly highly simplified view of the situation:


When you can pay the cost of running your own county, you can begin complaining about the tyranny of the coast. As long as we're helping you pay your bills, though, shut the fuck up.

Republican spin on election results: Hilarious

Jake Sherman @ Politico: Steele declares 'Republican renaissance'

OMG, this is too funny. Oh, sure, they picked up a couple of seats, but the fact that they torpedoed moderate Dede Scozzafava for ideological purity and lost a sure Republican seat shows that nothing but disaster is looming for the GOP in the future.

Steele is a zombie captain--the inmates are surely running the GOP asylum.

It would be like Charlie Manuel saying that the World Series was an amazing success for the Phillies because they won 2 games!

Jon Stewart sends up Glen Beck

No, really, Glenn Beck really is this absurd.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Hat tip: Paul

OK, one more on R-71.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Don't Ask Don't Tell
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

Hat tip: Wendy

Final thoughts on Initiative 1033

Seriously, do I even have to talk about this anymore? I have two things to say:

1.Tim Eyman is so 1999. Your 15 minutes of fame are way, way overdue, Timmy baby. It's time for you to fuck off now. That should be a good enough reason to reject 1033.

2.Eyman is a disciple of Grover Norquist. This is Norquist's mantra: “I want to make government small enough to drown it in a bathtub.” Well, Eyman has been busy with the first part of this mission, and he has been mostly successful. His initiatives have created a structural deficit in this state so obnoxious that the only escape is massive budget cuts in a time of growing need for government services.

So, what's left? Well, it's time to drown it, of course. If you pass 1033, you will help Eyman fill the bathtub.

That's pretty much all you need to know. The merits of 1033 are irrelevant. If you think the government has any role at all for anything, regardless of what, you should reject it. It's pretty much that simple.

Approve Referendum 71, or you suck.

Tomorrow the election is over. I just want to make one final statement on this issue for this cycle.

The people who put R-71 on the ballot to begin with are wrong. The people who want you to reject it are wrong. Their arguments are specious, their fears are misplaced and irrelevant, and yes, they are bad people.

That is a simple fact. I'm tired of being nice about this. People have the right to band together for survival. They do not have to do this in a way conforming to the desire of religious fundamentalists. Yes, fundamentalists. Being polite and conciliatory to our opponents gets us nowhere. It's time for us to stop fucking around and call them out for what they are.

R-71 hurts no one. The fiscal nightmare cited by the “reject” camp is utterly specious. In ten years this so-called impact might add up to 20 million. This is a drop in the bucket in the state budget. In fact, balloting on this goddamned initiative will likely cost the state more money than the first year's implementation of SB 8053. I mean, seriously, people.

R-71 does not undermine marriage. People who want traditional marriages will still be able to have them. They will not lose any benefits. They won't even have to share the term for their relationship pattern with anyone else.

I mean, seriously, the arguments for rejecting R-71 are so thin they deserve nothing but contempt and little serious consideration for rebuttal. Frankly, it comes down to one issue: If you hate gay people or anyone else who wants to take responsibility for their chosen families, go ahead and reject it. But we're going to call you out for what you are. I'm tired of “reasonable people will disagree.” All that type of thinking does is get us punched in the nose.

One more time: If you reject this measure, you are a small, jealous, evil person.

Everyone else? Well, vote to approve it already, and get that ballot in the mail!

Whew.

Been kinda busy, but I have a new laptop, so hopefully I'll find more time to update. I have a huge backlog, and so there will be a flurry of activity soon.

Torture is ubiquitous.

Atul Gawande in the New Yorker: Hellhole.

While some still argue over whether waterboarding is torture, I serendipitously found this article concerning long-term solitary confinement. It's bad enough that we treated POWs that way, but we are torturing thousands of American citizens every hour of every day, as we speak.

Now throw prison rape into the mix along with the morans who say "tee hee wait until J. Random Sex Offender shares a cell with 'Bubba'", and I think you have to conclude that our culture is celebrating torture instead of rejecting it.

So, then, why are we especially shocked and outraged when our enemies torture and kill American citizens in especially obnoxious ways? Because we assign nearly infinite value to some lives and nearly zero to others. That's why.

ED. xi. Great article on The Family.

Dave Burns and Jeff Sharlet: Behind the closed doors on C Street

The Family is a dominionist political organization combining what is most obnoxious and destructive about Christian fundamentalism and conservative politics into one big special ball of fail. Jeff Sharlet is a disaffected member of this group and wrote a tell-all called The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.

Here's an example of the grotesque nature of this group:

I was invited into The Family by a man who had dropped everything and moved to Washington to work with them. While he was there, his fiancee was raped. He wanted to jump on the next airplane to be with her, and his brothers in Christ decided to exercise their veto power. They said, “What was your fiancee doing in a bar without you? Perhaps this was God’s way of telling you that you are not supposed to be with this woman.”

They called her a Jezebel. They told him, “You are not to go and see your fiancee.”

Thank God this man did not listen, broke with The Family and went to his fiancee.

But wait, there's way more.

Absolutely. Everyone is entitled to the freedom of religion. I am a fanatic about freedom of religion. Ensign is free to believe these things, but if he’s going to this place for spiritual authority, he is turning to a group that regularly invokes as leadership models Hitler, Stalin and Mao, whom Doug Coe said are three men who understood the New Testament best in the 20th century.

He means that they are evil men, but what they understood is that the New Testament is not about love, mercy, justice, forgiveness. It’s about power.

I’m saying this not just to the voters of Nevada, but to all the Christian conservatives in Nevada who voted for Ensign because he presented himself as a Christian. Perhaps they would like to know what he means by Christian.

Does he read the New Testament and think it is only about power, and then does he apply that in the world?

I recommend reading all of it.

Hat tip: Paul, my "godfather"

HCR x.: Public option whipping.

First of all, let me give props to my own Congressman, Adam Smith, for getting on board with the public option when it matters. I know he's got a difficult district to represent, so this courage is difficult and it's important to me that he goes along.

Open Left shows that we have 210 of the 218 needed on board for the public option. If we can get this through the house, this would be a huge help.

ED: x. "Send a message" about R-71? WTF?

Tenth in a series called "Elephantine Douchebaggery," an exploration of the most harmful obnoxiousness of the right wing. This post concerns Washington Referendum 71, an attempt to repeal a bill passed by the legislature granting expansive domestic partnership rights to same-sex couples.

So, I have heard an ad on the radio repeatedly by some organization opposed to same-sex partnership rights. The ad is something like, "Let's send a message to the Legislature that there are more important problems than this by rejecting R-71."

I'm flabbergasted. It doesn't make any goddamned sense whatsoever. The legislature has already acted. It's done. What is distracting us from the necessary business of taking care of our state is YOU DOUCHEBAGS PUTTING THIS GODDAMNED REFERENDUM ON THE BALLOT.

WSJ op-ed page: Smug is all we have left.

Bret Stephens in The Wall Street Journal: A Perfect Nobel Pick

This is why I haven't taken the WSJ editorial page seriously since...well...ever. Of course, going all-in on obnoxious militarism is out of vogue now, so the pro-eternal-war folks are now reduced to this smug, passive-aggressive sniping. (While we're talking about stereotypes of Scandinavians, being passive-aggressive is another one, Mr. Stephens.)

Hilarious. Nope, pretty much still can't take the WSJ editorial board seriously. The deserve it less now more than ever, in fact.

Hat tip: My friend Gregg. Sorry, man. I hope our diverging political views don't jeopardize our friendship. I tried to be gentle on your Facebook page, at least.