The Tax Deal

One reason I have not written a post for awhile is that I was really disappointed with the tax compromise Obama made with Republicans. It is well established by now that the wealthiest Americans are getting a bigger and bigger piece of the pie under Republican policies, and continuing tax breaks for the richest of them just doesn't make any sense.

For me, the problem boils down to this: The deficits that we are running up now are similar to a credit card balance. At some point, someone will have to pay for them. And my question is, who will pay for the extra deficit we incur because the richest 2% are getting a tax break they do not need? I understand that the same could be said of any of the tax cuts, but couldn't we have started to get back to a reasonable financial state by taking a little back from the people who have benefited the most?

That said, events of the last couple of weeks have surprised me, in a good way. The tax cuts passed, and also DADT repeal (a huge deal)and the 9/11 first responders health care bill, and the START treaty was ratified. Republicans have come to the table, for the moment, and now the Senate is talking about changing the filibuster rules.

Life goes on. Obama and the Democrats disappoint me sometimes, but they are still the good guys in this fight.

Messaging

I often hear or read about Republican messaging, how it is so much better than Democratic messaging. This is how I see the messaging issue.

As an example, let's take the stimulus. Republicans never say the word "stimulus" without saying "failed" first, or some variation. John Boehner called it the "job-killing stimulus" recently, a nice change of pace, but the same idea. And that's Republican messaging. "Failed stimulus." People hear it, and they get it.

But what is the truth? The truth is, when Barack Obama became President, we had a few economic problems:

• The banking system was on the verge of collapse.
• People were concerned that we might be starting a depression.
• We were losing more than 500,000 jobs per month.
• Economic output was declining.
• The stock market was in the toilet.
• The American auto companies were close to closing their doors.

Since then, the banking system has stabilized, no one talks about a depression anymore, we have started to gain back some jobs (though not nearly enough), the recession (not depression!) is over and the economy is expanding, the stock market has increased by about 40%, and the auto companies have recovered very nicely. TARP ended up costing less than $100 billion rather than the $750 billion originally authorized by the Bush administration. American companies are now reporting record profits. Oh, and the Congressional Budget Office, the group of people who are paid to make these estimates, says the stimulus created between 1.4 and 3.2 million jobs.

Democratic messaging tends to sound a little like that paragraph I just wrote. Republican messaging is "failed stimulus." You have to pay a little more attention to get the Democratic messaging, and you have to think a little bit. Republicans just have to remember two words, and they don't even have to make any sense.

Glenn Beck Stupidity of the Day

Read this article and you will see that Beck is flat-out lying. Lying, lying, lying. The Center for American Progress never tried to cut history, the constitution, or economics out of education. Beck just made that up.

This guy figures he can just say anything he wants, no matter how dishonest, because of the network he is on and the nitwits who are his audience. And so far, he's right.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

I think serious people can debate whether it's a good idea to let tax cuts expire, even for the very rich, in the middle of a lousy economy. But Republicans are so desperate to reward rich people for their financial support that they are willing to hold the START treaty hostage until the wealthiest Americans get their tax cuts. Some are even talking about voting against the treaty regardless, presumably because it was negotiated by President Obama, so ratifying it would give him a victory. Never mind that the process was initiated by Ronald Reagan and continued with broad support from both parties ever since, until now.

I understand wanting to extend tax cuts at the rich, but at the risk of jeopardizing our nuclear security? These people have lost all sense of responsibility to their country.

Democrats Thinking for Themselves

Today President Obama announced a wage freeze for federal employees in order to limit federal spending. The move is largely symbolic, because federal salaries are not a big enough part of the budget to make a big dent in the deficit. One article I read said this would decrease spending by 0.05 percent.

Daily Kos immediately came out with several posts attacking the move as a consevative idea, giving in to Republicans, counterproductive, etc. What is interesting is that, in this evening's Open Thread, a post that features DKos reader diaries that are recommended by other readers, two of the eight top recommended diaries condemned the knee-jerk reaction by Daily Kos and called for pragmatism and moderation.

I wonder if that sort of debate could take place on a conservative website. Perhaps if the President were a Republican and was attacked for being too moderate. In any case, I think it's a great sign that not everyone goes along with the most strident party-line message.

Brainwashing Our School Children

The issue that really helped me focus on what I could do with this blog was President Obama's first address to school children, back in September of 2009. Just an example, but check out some of the comments below this right-wing column. People were extraordinarily upset that the President was going to address their children and use the opportunity to indoctrinate them in some way.

Two people I know talked to me about what a bad thing they thought this was. I asked each of them if they would have had the same reaction if George W. Bush had addressed school children. They both claimed rather energetically that they would have. They are both full of shit.

I found it interesting that, less than 8 months into his term in office, people hated Obama so much that they invented this type of irrational opposition to such a benign event. I think it shows that, from the day he took office, millions of Americans hated Barack Obama, for no reason other than that some right-wing pundit, or politician, or acquaintance, told them they should.

I also noticed a year later that when Obama addressed kids again, nothing happened. That issue just got dropped, and I had not even thought about it until I saw an article pointing out that there were no protests this year. I realized that there is constant, overwhelming, barrage of this kind of stuff coming from right wing media every day. There is so much of it that we forget some of it, but it does the damage it is intended to do.

So I decided to chronicle as much of the worst stuff as I can. When the next election comes, I want to be able to go back and remind people of all the many, many lies the Republican Party counts on to keep its base coming back.

Liars and Idiots

Republicans are not like Democrats. Republicans are liars, first and foremost. Yes, all politicians, even my guy President Obama, stretch the truth, mislead, and tell outright lies sometimes, but that does not mean that the two sides are equivalent. Republicans have come to rely on a never-ending series of lies as their primary means of retaining power. They have virtually no honest policy accomplishments or platforms.

Here is a list, off the top of my head and from a review of my blog entries, of conservative beliefs, statements, accomplishments, etc.:


1. Al Gore said he invented the Internet, and started the Love Canal investigation, and was the inspiration for Love Story, and grew up on a farm.
2. George Bush was declared the victor in Florida, by Fox News, on election night, 2000.
3. The Florida votes couldn't be recounted.
4. The phony "protest" in Florida over recounts, featuring Republican congressional staffers.
5. The authorization of the use of force in Iraq was about keeping the peace, avoiding war (Bush actually said that.)
6. Bush viewed war with Iraq as "the last option." He said that too.
7. Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
8. Bush didn't cherry pick the evidence for war with Iraq.
9. Sadaam kicked the inspectors out.
10. Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda.
11. George Bush, Dick Cheney, and members of their adminstration knew that Iraq had WMDs. Meaning it was absolutely certain, because that's what we know means.
12. George Bush did not lie to the American people about the evidence for war in Iraq.
13. John Kerry did not earn his medals in Vietnam (and apparently the Navy doesn't know what they are doing.)
14. Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks.
15. Waterboarding isn't torture.
16. Because John Yoo says it isn't.
17. You can just call someone an "enemy combatant" if you want to incarcerate them indefinitely without charges and mistreat them.
18. Abu Ghraib was the result of a few low-level "bad apples."
19. The Vice Presidency is not part of the executive branch.
20. Sarah Palin is qualified to be President of the United States.
21. Sarah Palin is better qualified than Barack Obama.
22. Being mayor of a really small town (like my uncle was!) is really good experience if you want to be the Vice President.
23. Valerie Plame wasn't exposed by the Bush Administration as political payback for her husband exposing lies about the Iraq War.
24. Scooter Libby was railroaded.
25. People who opposed the war in Iraq don't support the troops.
26. People who question the reasons behind the Iraq War are trying to "rewrite history."
27. Denying gays the right to marry isn't bigotry. It's about defending marriage.
28. The founders wanted the United States to be a Christian country.
29. Barack Obama was pallin' (How do you even spell that? palin'? That would be funny.) around with terrorists.
30. Obama wasn't born in this country.
31. Obama was educated at a madrassa.
32. Obama is a muslim.
33. Obama is a socialist.
34. Obama hates America.
35. Unlike Obama, Bush kept the country safe from terrorism.
36. Republicans are "real Americans," unlike Democrats who are...French.
37. The Affordable Care Act is " a government takeover" of healthcare.
38. The ACA "leads America on a path to tyranny." (Mitch McConnell)
39. Death panels.
40. The Community Reinvestment Act caused the housing crisis.
41. Republicans want bipartisanship.
42. Republicans think it's important to listen to the American people and respect their choices at the ballot box.
43. Republicans believe in small government.
44. Republicans are fiscally responsible.
45. Republicans are concerned about the deficit.
46. Republicans don't think the reconciliation process should be used to pass major legislation.
47. Republicans want to work with Barack Obama.
48. Barack Obama wants to speak to schoolchildren in order to brainwash them.
49. Fox News is fair and balanced.
50. Fox News is not a mouthpiece for the Republican Party.
51. Fox News is actually a news network, like CNN.
52. Global warming is not man made. The scientists are confused or lying. Only Republican politicians understand this subject.
53. Obama's trip to India cost $200 million per day.
54. The stimulus did not create any jobs.
55. Obama was responsible for TARP.
56. MSNBC is like Fox News, only liberal.
57. The country is becoming more conservative.
58. ACORN stole the 2008 presidential election.
59. Democrats are using widespread voter fraud to alter election results.

These statements all have something in common: They are LIES told by LYING LIARS and believed by IDIOTS. Another thing they have in common is that Fox News is in some way behind nearly every one of them. You can quibble about a few of these if you like, but on the other hand, I could have made it an even 100 if I had wanted. 59 already seemed like a lot.

These are not little lies. Al Gore would almost certainly have been elected President if it weren't for the lies about him inventing the Internet and more. (He never said that or anything very close -- a Republican hack "invented" the line.) The 2004 election was close enough too that it was probably decided by lies about John Kerry's war record and by George Bush very deliberately misleading people who weren't paying attention (a big group!) by constantly conflating Iraq and 9/11. It is very fair to say that the last two times a Republican was elected President, it was probably due to really big Republican lies. In addition, it is quite possible the Iraq War, and the 4,400 dead American soldiers and 100,000+ dead Iraqis would not have happened without the falsehoods used to justify it. These lies, all of them listed above, and all the countless others, have consequences.

Conservatives like to defend their lies by saying that a large number of Democrats have their falsehoods too; for example, many Democrats believe that Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. This is a pathetic false equivalence that shows how weak the conservative argument is. Many Democrats do believe that Bush had prior knowledge of the attacks, but I'm not sure where they got the idea. Unlike virtually every conservative lie listed above, this one was not promoted by any prominent politician or media outlet. The best-known person I remember pushing the idea was Rosie O'Donnell.

That long list of conservative falsehoods above did not happen by accident. You can't look at all that and not realize that spreading lies, lots of them, all the time, is a very deliberate strategy that the Republican Party uses to keep power.

When I first started this blog, I didn't have a specific purpose in mind, and I wrote about various things. Now I have a purpose: to keep chronicalling the lies, day after day and week after week, and reminding people of what one of our major political parties has become.

Republican Stupidity, Special Thanksgiving Edition

Conservatives view the Thanksgiving story as an example of the failure of Communism. Really. It would be hard to make up ideas this stupid.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

A nice review of George Bush's book that observes that decision points, for George Bush, never seemed to involve actually thinking about things and weighing the possibilities.

"There are hardly any decision points at all. The path to each decision is so short and irresistible, more like an electric pulse than like a weighing of options, that the reader is hard-pressed to explain what happened. Suddenly, it’s over, and there’s no looking back."

"Here is another feature of the non-decision: once his own belief became known to him, Bush immediately caricatured opposing views and impugned the motives of those who held them. If there was an honest and legitimate argument on the other side, then the President would have to defend his non-decision, taking it out of the redoubt of personal belief and into the messy empirical realm of contingency and uncertainty."

Yeah, that's the guy I remember.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Rush Limbaugh objects to Motor Trend naming the Chevrolet Volt as Car of the Year for 2011, because, no doubt, Al Gore would approve of the car. Motor Trend shoots back.

Republican Stupidities of the Week

So much to write about this week.

Republicans are apparently opposed to getting rid of incandescent light bulbs, because it's, you know, to help the planet, so it's a lefty idea. That won't do.

Maybe that's because they think only God can destroy the planet, so it doesn't matter what we do.

The US Chamber of Commerce used a huge contribution from health insurers to fund opposition to the Affordable Health Care Act. Republicans did all they could to help.

Some random idiot from a conservative values group says the medal of honor is being sissified because... well because he's an idiot.

Roger Ailes, the Fox News czar, says that NPR is run by Nazis.

Republicans oppose the START treaty, because nuclear proliferation will make the world safer, or more likely because President Obama supports it.

Mitch McConnell says that affordable care for everyone equals tyranny. I guess the less tyrannical thing to do would be to let poor people go broke because they get sick.

Joe Miller lost the Alaska senate race to a write-in candidate, and neither he nor Fox News can stand it.

No, Obama didn't "ambush" the Republicans last January. He just made them look bad because he was better prepared, and because he exposed their BS.

You lost Joe. Because you're a nutcase.

John McCain has to keep making up excuses to oppose DADT. How about because you just don't like gays, Senator? If you tell the truth the first time, it's easier to keep your story straight.

Michele Bachmann opposes earmarks, until she figures out that sometimes they might help her.

Fox News says that a candidate for office should resign from their media job, because it wouldn't be right for them to have a media platform to promote themselves. Ah, but that was then, and that was a Democrat.

Fox News gets a little carried away with the Obama hating...

That's a lot of stupidity, and there's not even a link to ending unemployment benefits. Nor did I point out that they had a terrorism trial in New York, and nothing bad happened, so I guess conservatives are feeling pretty sheepish about all the overhype, right? I gotta get back to doing this every day, just to keep up.

Calling Out Fox News

This was written before the election, but I think Media Matters gets it right. Fox News is so powerful now that they are probably the single most influential political organization in America. They provide candidate endorsements, free air time, organizational assistance, a fund-raising platform, and when all else fails, cash. And their philosophy is all conservative all the time.

Glenn Beck Stupidity of the Day

Cenk Uygur, the Young Turk, says that Beck has gone too far this time.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

One of our congressmen -- John Shimkus, who will likely chair the House Energy Committee -- tells us that global warming can't destroy the earth because he believes the Bible is our best guide to science.

Republican Stupidities

George W. Bush says his worst moment in office is when Kanye West called him a racist.

Sarah Palin stupidly believes, and repeats, that Pennsylvania classrooms have outlawed cookies.

Palin gives advice to the Federal Reserve.

Waterboarding isn't torture because John Yoo said it was OK. Note that Bush refuses to answer whether it would be OK for a foreign power to waterboard an American, because the answer would have to be "yes," which would make clear (to people who don't have the brains to see for themselves) what an evil SOB this guy is.

And one rare moment of Republican clarity.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Today's winner is Michele Malkin, conservative pundit and liar.

Usually, I get these posts by visiting a series of left-wing sites (Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Media Matters for America, etc.) and picking out the most outrageous examples that they find. As I did not see anything realy juicy yet today (weekends can be slow), I Googled "conservative blogs" to look for something myself. It took about two minutes to find something really stupid.

Michele Malkin managed to catch Harry Reid on camera saying "but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression." Wow, pretty egomaniacal, right? But if you click to her article, watch the video. Then notice two things:

1) Reid is setting up a hypothetical case. The fuller quote is, "It doesn't give them comfort or solace to say, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression." And he laughs a little as he says it. It's just dishonest to say that Harry Reid is claiming he saved the world.

2) The article points out that it took from 1776 to 1990 to pile up $3 trillion of debt. It of course neglects to mention that about another $5 trillion piled up during the G. W. Bush administration, even though he inherited a budget surplus, or that conservatives like Malkin DIDN'T SAY A THING about those deficits while Republicans were running them up and not lifting a finger to control them, or that the deficits under Obama WERE MOSTLY DUE TO BUSH ADMINISTRATION POLICIES AND THE SITUATION HE INHERITED, not due to Obama's policies.

Like I said -- liar.

Second Republican Stupidity of the Day

This one is so similar to some of the other recent manufactured outrage stories, I wanted to make note of it even though it's a few days old. Obama made a comment about Republicans having to sit in the back of the car that they drove into the ditch, and Fox News created a controversy out of thin air, trying to reword his comments as "back of the bus" and ludicrously claiming they were insensitive.

And Jon Stewart nailed them for it.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

In typical manufactured-outrage fashion, the right wing is whining about the cost of the President's upcoming trip to India. Yes, these things cost a lot of money, no matter who is President, but it's part of what Presidents do. Right wing liars like Michelle Bachmann know that there is absolutely nothing honest to complain about, but this is the type of for-idiots-only "issue" they keep throwing out there to keep the hatred and outrage of their most ignorant followers burning.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Well, yesterday was election day, and lots of Republicans were elected to the House. That's dumb enough right there.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Why not just go with a continuation of yesterday's? Fox News is now hyping Sarah Palin's stupid story from yesterday about underhanded journalists plotting against poor Joe Miller.

At least in this case, we know whether this is ignorance or dishonesty. The folks at Fox aren't dumb; they're just liars.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

October 31, 2010

Today it's -- surprise! -- Sarah Palin again. This time calling CBS the "Corrupt Bastards Club." Ha ha - that doesn't work, dummy!

What's lost in the mangled acronym is that her accusation against the TV station in question is obviously manufactured outrage. You'd have to be really, really stupid to think that the reporters in question were actually planning something underhanded.

OK, maybe real outrage then. Stupid, liar, both? Hard to say.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

There was a lot of competition today -- Sharon Angle, Tom Tancredo -- but the winner was the queen of the stupids herself: Sarah Palin!

Sarah read something innocuous coming from the State Department and responded with a tweet that the author of this article called "blisteringly stupid."

Issues - the economy

According to a USA/Gallup poll, these are the nine top issues that concern Americans right now:

1. The economy


2. Jobs


3. Federal spending


4. Corruption in government


5. Health care


6. Terrorism


7. Immigration


8. Afghanistan


9. The environment

As the November elections approach, I want to take a look at these issues and the difference between the two parties. First, the economy.

When President Obama took office, the economy was in tatters. We were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs each month, the banking system was on the brink of failure, American automobile companies were on the verge of bankruptcy, and people were asking very real questions about whether we were at the start of the next Great Depression. The Dow Jones average was near 8,000 and dipped down near 7,000 in Obama's first couple of months.

Democratic leadership responded in many ways -- bailing out some financial institiutions (especially AIG), rescuing GM and Chrysler, cutting middle-class taxes, passing the stimulus package and financial regulation reforms. Although the economy is recovering very slowly, it is better in almost every way than when Obama took office. Unemployment is up, and the jobs have not come back, but now unemployment has levelled out, and the stimulus saved millions of jobs (between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs according to the non-partisan CBO.) We are no longer talking about the financial system collapsing or the next depression. The automobile companies have recovered, and the government is planning to sell its stake. The Dow Jones is over 10,000.

And Republicans? For starters, they were in charge when this disaster started. Then they voted virtually as one block against any measures to make things better. They voted in lock-step against the stimulus and claimed it didn't create any jobs, even while many of them were taking credit for jobs it created in their districts. They complained about the bailouts and about rescuing the auto industry. They nearly all voted against financial reforms, even though it was clear that lack of financial regulations was part of the cause of the financial crisis.

The Republican solution going forward? Kill the stimulus and extend the Bush tax cuts. That would be the same tax cuts that were in effect when the financial crisis hit. Economists generally agree that tax cuts do not create jobs dollar-for-dollar at anywhere near the rate that direct spending does, but Republicans have a one-size-fits-all answer for every economic situation. Cut taxes and everything will be alright. How will they pay for this? By running enormous deficits as far as the eye can see. That's what they did for eight years when they were in power, and that's their only plan.

So on the economy, Democrats win hands down. If you're concerned about the economy, you have to vote for Democrats.

Republicans Advocate Committing War Crimes

George Bush bragged recently that he had Khalid Sheikh Mohammed waterboarded. He's proud of that because it saved American lives, so he says.

So the defense of waterboarding is that it works. Is that why torture has been considered a crime all these years? Because it didn't work? Has the rule always been that torture is a crime unless it gets results? Is anyone dumb enough to believe that?

If you don't believe that George Bush and Dick Cheney are war criminals, then you have to make one of three arguments: 1) We did not waterboard anyone 2) Waterboarding is not torture, or 3) Torture is not a war crime. Bush happily confesses to number 1, and no one is seriously arguing number 3, which leaves us with number 2.

The Bush apologists like to argue that Bush had legal advice that indicated that waterboarding was not torture. By that line of reasoning, Hitler can be forgiven for murdering millions of people, as long as he was able to find an attorney who said it was OK. I think he probably did that, actually. Let's face it, Bush didn't just ask the Justice Department for an opinion; he shopped for an opinion that would give him cover for performing a procedure that had been considered torture by this country for decades. And he was shopping amongst attorneys hired by his administration partly based on their political ideology. Excusing this behavior opens the door to allowing any dictator anywhere to do anything they want.

And let's not forget that Bush and company called torture "enhanced interrogation techniques," because "torture" has such a negative connotation. if that doesn't frighten and sicken you, it should.

Waterbording someone makes them feel like they are drowning. If you don't believe it's torture, watch this. If you don't believe it's torture, you are saying that it is OK for other countries to do it to our soldiers, men and women both. You are rationalizing something that you never would have accepted if another country had initiated it. And that makes you utterly irrational , and one sick puppy.

The Republican Party never wanted George Bush held accountable for his war crimes, and they continue to defend the Bush administration.

The Republican Party advocates committing war crimes. One of the two major parties in the United States of America believes that this country should commit crimes against humanity whenever we want to. That is not some wild conspiracy theory; it's just an undeniable fact. And it should shock any American, and it does shock every decent American.

If you support the Republican Party, you either are in favor of war crimes, or you are at least willing to support the party even though they advocate commiting war crimes. Either way, shame on you.

The Differences in the Parties

It seems that partisanship has reached new heights in the last couple of years in Washington. Republicans are complaining that they are not included in the legislative process, that Democrats are just proceeding without them. On the other hand, Republicans are engaging in unprecedented obstruction: refusing to consider judicial appointments, using filibuster at an unprecedented rate, voting in lockstep against everything proposed by Democrats.

What has brought us to this level of contention?

Let's go back a few years to the Bush administration. During that time it seemed to me that Republicans were running government in the most partisan fashion I had ever seen. I expressed the opinion, many times, that I thought George W. Bush should be impeached and incarcerated, and if he were to be hanged for his crimes as well, fine with me. (Note to Secret Service: I am not threatening the man.) I thought Bush was leading the country away from the Constitution, toward Fascism, and away from what this country should stand for. I felt he was un-American, that he really hated this country as it is and was determined to change it to be something the founders never intended. I was concerned that democracy itself was failing.

It is interesting now to hear so many of the same opinions expressed by Republicans about Barack Obama, who is so very different from George W. Bush. How can it be that people see things in such opposite lights? The same people who oppose President Obama so vehemently mostly supported George W., never mind the wars, the torture, the illegal spying, the signing statements, etc. How can it be that we look at the same set of facts and come to polar oppostie conclusions?

I think the answer is relatively simple: one side has to be dead wrong in almost everything they think and do. There is no reconciling the two points of view, no working together, no way to accept the other side. We are too far apart. Someone is wrong -- dishonest, ignorant, delusional, or some combination of the above. There is no other way.

And that is really the story of politics in America for the last ten years. The Republican Party has gone too far; they have long since gone off the deep end, and the only solution now is to disband the party and start something more reasonable.

Unhappy with Democracy

A few events that have something in common:

• Bill Clinton was impeached for a relatively minor transgression.
• A lot of people said George Bush should have been impeached.
• Some people think Obama should be impeached.
• Many people say George Bush "stole" the election in 2000.
• Many people say George Bush "stole" the election in 2004 as well.
• Many Americans believe ACORN and Obama stole the election in 2008.
• Many people believe, despite the evidence, that Barack Obama was not born in the US.
• George Bush wrote an unprecedented number of signing statements indicating that he did not intend to enforce laws as written.
• Democratic senators during the Bush Administration filibustered so many judicial appointments that the Republicans talked about the "nuclear option" to stop them.
• Every single Republican in the Senate decided to filibuster against health care reform.
• Republicans have insisted that using reconciliation to pass health care reform is outrageous, even though they used it often when they were in power.
• Republicans have insisted that using a "deem and pass" procedure in the House of Representatives to pass health care reform is outrageous, even though they used it often when they were in power.
• Republicans across the country went to town hall meetings regarding health care last year with the intention of disrupting discussion.

And there are many more. What these events all have in common is that they are the results of people being unwilling to accept the results of majority rule. If the majority disagrees with me, they are so far off base that I cannot accept that their choice is legitimate, so I am left to question the legitimacy of their power, or to try to prevent them from exercising majority rule.

I understand. After the 2004 election, I was left dumbfounded as to how George Bush could possibly have been elected for a second time. It still shakes my faith in my country, in Democracy itself, and particularly in the intelligence and rationality of my fellow Americans.

What has brought us to the point that this type of hysterical reaction to democracy has become so commonplace for Americans across the political spectrum? I believe that the differences between the major political groups, conservative and liberal, have become so profound that we can no longer accept each other as legitimate. More on that later.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Fox News is the most trusted source for news in the country.

As the article points out, this is more due to uniformity of Republican thought than anything else.

"...conservatives and Republicans are more intense and united in their opinions of TV news than moderates and liberals. They trust Fox, and mistrust everyone else, more uniformly than the other groups mistrust Fox and trust everyone else. Likewise, in reverse, for news organizations other than Fox, which conservatives mistrust intensely and across the board." [emphaisis added]

A look at the data shows that both liberals and moderates distrust Fox on balance and trust other mainstream sources. However, conservatives only trust Fox, by a really large margin, and distrust every other network, by really large margins.

What we see is what anyone with at least the brain of a third-grader has seen for a long time: conservatives are becoming more and more partisan, more extreme, and more uniform in their views. Like the Republican members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, they are more and more willing to march in lockstep, always adopting the approved party line.

It's scary.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

Usually I wait until the end of the day to post these, because you never know if something more stupid may come along, but today there is a superb example early in the day, so why wait? From Brit Hume on Fox News, recommending a change of faith for Tiger Woods:

"The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith," said Hume. "He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of redemption and forgiveness offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger is, 'Tiger turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

What. An. Idiot. Huffington Post and Media Matters have the story.

Republican Stupidity of the Day

This actually happened yesterday. Coming out of the movie Avatar yesterday, I was confronted by an older man who looked at me and asked, "If they were going to choose a country, why did it have to be Americans that lost in the end?" Apparently I look like enough of a redneck that he felt I was a good person to ask. When I said I had not thought about that, he said that he wasn't sure what was wrong with this country, that we are not even a country anymore. As he walked away, I heard him tell his wife that he liked it up until the ending.

If I were to answer, I guess I would say first that Avatar is a strictly fictional fantasy based 150 years in the future. The military action in the movie is mandated by some future company, not the US government, so the bad guys are sort of a combination of a future Exxon plus a future Blackwater. If James Cameron had made the offending company, say, Chinese, the actors would have had to be Asian actors speaking Chinese, which would likely have decreased the popularity of the film, not to mention that Asian-Americans would question why Asians were cast as the bad guys. In other words, Cameron made choices with his audience in mind.

It's fiction, dude. Get over it. Oh, and I'm just assuming you're a Republican.