Rand Paul, Spurious Superpatriot of May's Sort of Super Tuesday

Pretty good piece on the teabagger victory in Kain-tuck yestiddy.

P.M. Carpenter

On Kentucky's Republican side, however, yesterday brought little but pure joy for Democrats everywhere, as the unctuous Mitch McConnell, in the befuddled personage of Trey Grayson, went down to a humiliating 24-point defeat to the populist hooey of the populist humbugger Rand Paul.

A good lose for McConnell and the Repug establishment.

Yep, that's just about all that's required of Republican success in this, the 21st century: unadulterated anger, served with a side of exotic, mid-20th-century Austrian economics, which, if followed, would hurl us back into the malign economics of the 19th century.

Which further, for reasons not entirely clear to rational minds, seems to be the political desideratum of Mr. Paul's Tea Party and all its Kentucky tea partyers. "We have come," said Paul at the oddly chosen Bowling Green Country Club last night, "to take our government back" -- a most appropriate slogan.

Much more.

The 'baggers should get some cheerleaders to chant their mantra, "Push us back! Push us back! Waaaaaay back!". Maybe Rentboy has 'em.

Update:

Last Night's Big Loser: National Republicans

Ahhhhhhhh...

Related:

PA's 12th Loss Shows Tea Party What's Really in Store for November

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

Quote of the Day

Our pal Montag (in toto):

As the less stable element of the right wing heaps scorn and approbation on the latest Miss USA, we need to give thanks. We should be thankful that none of her critics has yet called her a Lesbianese.

The stench of hypocrisy ... Part Eleventy Billion and One

Heh ... "Abstinence" and "Family Values" ... At least this one did resign (if you're a Republican, you could rape your own children and keep your job), for, as Fez says: "Meanwhile, Jon Ensign continues on."

Don't let it hit ya ...

In the ass, Arlen:

...

Arlen Specter was something of a pet for President Obama, having provided the president with a coveted 60th vote in the Senate when the veteran Republican switched parties last year in order to avoid being vanquished in a GOP primary. Tonight Specter met that fate at the hands of a Democrat, Rep. Joe Sestak, a former admiral. Backed by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and other netroots progressive groups, Sestak, according to what the Philadelphia Inquirer called “unofficial returns,” received about 54 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Specter.

...

Outstanding!

Some Dreams Are Bad Dreams

Digby

Yesterday I wrote about Glenn Beck's surreal commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty U in which he cried, giggled inappropriately and said things like "cabs smell bad in the summer." It was awe-inspiring in its own freakish way. Certainly memorable.

Contrast that with a sane political TV broadcaster:

Beck did offer the sage advice "shoot to kill" so he's no slouch in the "words of wisdom" department. But ironically, the Smith graduates seemed to have received the more Christian message. (And from a lesbian!)

Update: LOL

Liquid alert on the 'LOL' link!

I liked the "sane political TV broadcaster"'s speech so much, I recommend you go watch it. This is a commencement address, not a sound bite, so it's a little long at about 20 minutes, but I think it's well worth watching.

Teacher questioned after using Obama assassination as example in geometry class

Raw Story

An Alabama geometry teacher, in an apparent effort to teach his students about parallel lines and angles, used a theoretical assassination attempt on President Barack Obama to demonstrate the angle at which a gunman would have to shoot the president.

"He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,' " said Joseph Brown, a high school senior in the geometry class told The Birmingham News.

The Secret Service questioned the idiot teacher and is bringing no charges, which seems correct, but the school is not going to fire him, which is most definitely not correct in my NSHO.

The assassination of a President is never something to joke about, particularly in this edgy political climate full of right wing nut jobs we find ourselves in, and certainly should not used as an example for children.

Fixer and I used to call for Bush, Cheney et al to be hanged for their crimes, but only after due process.

If that dumb sonofabitch teacher had said something like that in front of my kids, he'd be eating through a straw. In Alabama he'll probably get a citizenship award.

Headline of the Day

Guns outlawed at NRA convention

Irony isn't dead, it just goes over some people's heads.

Miss USA Top Grad of Stripper 101!

Following up on Fixer's post, there seems to be a little controversy arising about the new Miss USA, as this photo of her chewing her shorts has emerged, along with others.

Note to Miss Fakih: Controversy ain't all that's a-risin', and this old man thanks you!


Go see what it's all about at Mojo in the Morning. Be sure to click on "Miss USA Photo Gallery". The gal's a knockout! Also see NY Daily News.

So besides the wingnuts maybe bitching that she's not a 'real' American, some of the anti-fun religionists and phony moralists are likely to add that she's a tramp for participating in a radio show contest and should relinquish her title. We will see.

I stand with Miss Fakih. What's more American than pole dancing?

I think they should add pole dancing to the Miss USA contest. Let's liven that old crap up a little.

Besides, she's a good capitalist:


Now that's American!

How long ...

Have we been saying it around here? Me and Gord are even willing to put our pennies together to pay to move the fence a few hundred miles north:

just let texas leave the union. they seem to hate america anyway and are hellbent on dismantling it.

...

Don't have much time this morning. The Mrs. is in the city office and I had to kick her out at the train station. Go surf the blogroll until Gord has his coffee.

Arizona bans Arabic numerals

Professor Smartass

Tom Horne, Arizona's superintendent of public instruction, explains why he felt the ban was necessary: "I was shocked to learn that students at all levels were being taught with the numbers of our non-European enemies, who we are engaged in a multi-millennial existential struggle to the death with us in the War on Terror. Worse, these numbers are being used all over the country."

"If you look at this photo behind me of Osama bin Laden, you'll notice them squiggly lines in the background. Now I've been told those are actually Arabic letters, and we have absolutely no way of knowing what those letters say--hell, they might not even be spelling words in English. If our children are learning Arabic numerals, they could be passing terrorists messages without us knowing it right under our noses."

Arizona governor, Jan Brewer, fully supported Horne's move. "Superintendent Horne tells me that the Latin language, which has nothing to do with the hordes of Latin Americans swarming our borders but instead was the language of the great Caucasian Roman Empire, has a perfectly good set of numbers our teachers can begin using immediately, Roman numerals."

Bob Herman, a mudflap salesman in Tempe explains their concern. "The Roman Empire was great and all that, but didn't they roll around in the sheets with the Egyptians and Africans they conquered? Can we really be sure that those numerals were invented by a guy who was just, you know, European?"

Horne is looking to address this concern with DNA testing of ancient Romans. To prepare for the possibility of a multi-ethnic outcome, he is also scouting for backup numerals of Celtic, Viking, or at least Albino origin.

Boy, there's an "idea" from our XLVIIIth state that needs to be LXXXVIed toot de sweet, you should pardon my French.

We're Not Greece

First and last ¶ of a Paul Krugman op-ed:

It’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the crisis in Greece is making some people — people who opposed health care reform and are itching for an excuse to dismantle Social Security — very, very happy. Everywhere you look there are editorials and commentaries, some posing as objective reporting, asserting that Greece today will be America tomorrow unless we abandon all that nonsense about taking care of those in need.

So here’s the reality: America’s fiscal outlook over the next few years isn’t bad. We do have a serious long-run budget problem, which will have to be resolved with a combination of health care reform and other measures, probably including a moderate rise in taxes. But we should ignore those who pretend to be concerned with fiscal responsibility, but whose real goal is to dismantle the welfare state — and are trying to use crises elsewhere to frighten us into giving them what they want.

The last thing in the world the Repugs want to hear is that jobs are no longer being lost, orders for goods are on the rise, TARP and the stimulus are working, etc., etc.

For them to succeed, the nation must fail. Or be seen to.

Assholes. Why do they hate America?

Answer: Because America threw 'em out.

So long, Bernice

Ex-NY police commissioner to begin prison sentence

Note to Bernie: I hope you get a nice cellie for a prison wife. A 300lb baldheaded, tattooed, transvestite biker named Bubba oughta do it. You can while away your time giving your wife blow jobs and catchin' when she pitches.

Repug Women On Parade

Mudflats

“Look out, Washington. There’s a whole stampede of pink elephants coming.”
~Sarah Palin

Yup. She really did. She said it once before and I guess nobody told her what it meant. Presumably she was trying to come up with a cute analogy for Republican women, not realizing the expression was already taken.

Allow me:

“Seeing pink elephants” is a euphemism for drunken hallucination, caused by alcoholic hallucinosis or delirium tremens.

A word of warning to the nation’s capital, from back when Disney was just … well…. kinda disturbing.

Thanks to Gariss.

I came of age during the '60s, so hallucinations don't bother me. They're not real. I wish Moosebreath and her teabaggers weren't real.

You'd think Repug women would be insulted by being compared to a buncha overweight pastel pachydermal cows as seen by quaking drunks, but I guess where there's no sense, there's no feeling. Or else they're used to being seen like that by their husbands.

P.T. Barnum is reported to have said, "There's a sucker born every minute". That's the teabaggers.

The seldom-quoted corollary to that is, "and one more born to pick him". That's Sarah and her ilk.

Update:

Moosebreath's star may be on the wane. Perhaps there is a God. And she's pissed.

Telegraph UK

We are seeing the first signs of wobble on the Sarah Palin bandwagon.

Wagon, meet ditch. 'Bout effin' time, but it ain't over yet, dammit. Go read.

Pat Buchanan Denounces Too Many Jews on Supreme Court

BuzzFlash

Buchanan, who never served in the military and whose only, if any, relative killed in WW II probably fell out of a Nazi concentration camp guard tower, writes in his syndicated column: "If Kagan is confirmed, Jews, who represent less than 2 percent of the U.S. population, will have 33 percent of the Supreme Court seats," Buchanan wrote. "Is this the Democrats' idea of diversity?"

This is the Buchanan who on Rachel Maddow's show basically said only white males should be on the Supreme Court since the founding fathers were all white males.

Oy. He forgot to mention the rest of 'em'll be Catholics. As Molly Ivins said about one of Buchanan's xenophobic speeches, "It probably sounded better in the original German."

Time for him to go rock on the porch with McCain and Specter. And Lieberman. Heh.

Oh, the irony...

Itonic Times

Vietnam Celebrates 35th Anniversary of Communist Victory
Lavish gala too expensive for Western leaders to attend.

Shortage of Plus-Sized Bras Reported
Often first sign of economic recovery.

Conserve, ladies. It's Spring. Leave 'em home! :)

Toyota Recalls Violin-Playing Robot
After sudden acceleration drives concertgoers from theater.

REMINDER
When detained, you probably have the right to remain silent.

Of course they knew ...

James Galbraith via Susie:

...

Ask yourselves: is it possible for mortgage originators, ratings agencies, underwriters, insurers and supervising agencies NOT to have known that the system of housing finance had become infested with fraud? Every statistical indicator of fraudulent practice – growth and profitability – suggests otherwise. Every examination of the record so far suggests otherwise. The very language in use: "liars' loans," "ninja loans," "neutron loans," and "toxic waste," tells you that people knew. I have also heard the expression, "IBG,YBG;" the meaning of that bit of code was: "I'll be gone, you'll be gone."

...

But nobody wanted to derail the gravy train. They should all be in jail, not because they're rich but because they're criminals.

So tell me ...

Ya think the wingnuts will bitch that she's "not a real American"? Do you think, were she walking down the street somewhere in Arizona, she would be asked for her "papers"?

The newly-crowned Miss USA: Rima Fakih

...

Fakih, an Arab-American from Dearborn, Mich., told pageant organizers her family celebrates both Muslim and Christian faiths. She moved to the United States as a baby and was raised in New York, where she attended a Catholic school. Her family moved to Michigan in 2003.

Pageant officials said historical pageant records were not detailed enough to show whether Fakih was the first Arab American, Muslim or immigrant to win the Miss USA title. The pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, Calif.

...

Yeah, me neither.

Update:

Well, I was wrong ...

They're not ours ...

So, the Vatican came up with a novel excuse to insulate themselves from lawsuits relating to the priest sex scandal:

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican on Monday will make its most detailed defense yet against claims that it is liable for U.S. bishops who allowed priests to molest children, saying bishops are not its employees and that a 1962 Vatican document did not require them to keep quiet, The Associated Press has learned.

The Vatican will make the arguments in a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit on jurisdictional grounds filed in Louisville, Ky., but it could affect other efforts to sue the Holy See.

...

Hey, the Vatican says "jump" and all the little penguins ask "how high". In my book, that tells me Rome is in charge. I'm sure if a priest advocated a woman's right to choose or for female priests or to accept same-sex couples in matrimony, the Pope would toss them out so quick heads would spin.

Great thanks to Oliver Willis for the link.

Real Americans Love Racial Profiling

Digby

Chuck Todd subbing for Chris Matthews:

"There's growing evidence that Americans are willing to put up with racial profiling if it means their safety."

What do you mean "Americans" white man? I suspect Hispanic Americans, African Americans and Arab Americans tend to see their "safety" in slightly different terms.

But then they aren't Real Americans, are they?

Yes, it is all about race.

It's gonna hurt...

I don't care what you think of Tom Friedman, sometimes he's right (which means I agree with him). This is one of those times.

DEATH NOTICE: The Tooth Fairy died last night of complications related to obesity. Born Jan. 1, 1946, the Tooth Fairy is survived by 400 million children living largely in North America and Western Europe, known collectively as “The Baby Boomers.” [...]

The meta-story behind the British election, the Greek meltdown and our own Tea Party is this: Our parents were “The Greatest Generation,” and they earned that title by making enormous sacrifices and investments to build us a world of abundance. My generation, “The Baby Boomers,” turned out to be what the writer Kurt Andersen called “The Grasshopper Generation.” We’ve eaten through all that abundance like hungry locusts.

We baby boomers in America and Western Europe were raised to believe there really was a Tooth Fairy, whose magic would allow conservatives to cut taxes without cutting services and liberals to expand services without raising taxes. The Tooth Fairy did it by printing money, by bogus accounting and by deluding us into thinking that by borrowing from China or Germany, or against our rising home values, or by creating exotic financial instruments to trade with each other, we were actually creating wealth.

After 65 years in which politics in the West was, mostly, about giving things away to voters, it’s now going to be, mostly, about taking things away. Goodbye Tooth Fairy politics, hello Root Canal politics (my em).

[...] Because we’ve eaten through our reserves, because the lords of discipline, the Electronic Herd of bond traders, are back with a vengeance — and because that Tooth Fairy, she be dead.

Sucked dry by suckling at her teat. That thing that's making us all gag is her toenails.

Use it up, wear it out.
Make it do, do without.

That should have been our motto all along. It will be.