Tidbits

I've been busy with other projects this week, so just a few short comments, before I return this weekend to flesh them out fully:

1) Obama's State of the Union speech was terrific. "Winning the Future"--I like the sound of that. Now, will the Repugs give up the money for us to do it?

2) Paul Ryan sounded stiff, and his proposals are insane.

3) By staring off to the side at the wrong camera, Michele Bachmann managed to burnish her image as the craziest Congresscritter of them all.

4) Sarah Palin is still is the stupidest excuse for a politician that I've ever seen. I'm beginning to think that she's functionally illiterate.

Tim Pawlenty's New Ad

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!

I Hate Antonin Scalia

There's a high hurdle to be overcome, before I truly hate someone. They have to be a really vile, unrepentant, powerful force for evil. They have to negatively affect the world around them and be incapable of redemption, before they earn my hatred.

Which brings us to United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. You know, it's bad enough that this guy is a world-class racist, sexist asshole, and wingnut; bad enough that he has a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court; it's bad enough that he's Clarence Thomas' "Massa"--but now he has to openly show his support for the Tea Party??

HuffPost:

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says members of Congress need to get themselves a copy of the Federalist Papers – and make sure they read it.

Scalia made the short walk from the Supreme Court to the Capitol on Monday to speak at a seminar organized by GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann and the Tea Party Caucus. In remarks closed to the media, Scalia told about 50 members of Congress and their staff to "pay attention" and read up on their roles. Attendees described the associate justice as professorial and occasionally playful.

"Playful," my left testicle. Scalia probably plays with his food, too. This stinks to high heaven, and the New York Times doesn't like it any more than I do:

Critics — The New York Times included — have said the arrangement could raise the specter of collusion between conservatives members of the Court and Congress, and lead to further political polarization of the Court.

“Justices who flaunt their politics publicly do more than just lecture — they also can raise cash for ideological allies,” Jonathan Turley, a scholar on the Constitution and a law professor at George Washington University, in wrote in an op-ed piece on Sunday in The Washington Post. Justice Scalia’s appearance, he said, magnifies a larger problem of justices entering the public debate over the law at the expense of judicial neutrality.

“If justices come to personify political movements, the law appears to be merely an extension of the personalities — and the politics — on the bench,” Mr. Turley said.

Hmmm, what's the process for removing a Supreme Court justice, again?

And as for Scalia's pet, Uncle Clarence, are we really supposed to believe that he couldn't figure out how to fill out a disclosure form? Honestly, what's it going to take to get this minstrel show thrown off the Supreme Court?

Keith Olbermann Resigns From MSNBC

I can hardly believe it. Keith Olbermann announced at the end of Countdown tonight that he was leaving MSNBC:

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No pre-announcement, no news leak, nothing!--just those last few minutes of the broadcast, and a terse pr release. Around the net, people are stunned. And I just wonder, does impending the Comcast-NBC merger have anything to do with this?

Keith, you'll be missed.

Mika Brzezinski Wises Up

So, I've had it in for Mika Brzezinski for a long time now. As the co-host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," it's seemed at times as if Mika was working her way towards being an MSNBC version of one of Faux News' "Dumb Blondes," but recently it looks as if she's smartened up. Mika certainly seems to have no regard for Sarah Palin, which is a plus in my book.

However, Stephen Colbert doesn't like it one bit:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Mika Brzezinski Experiences Palin Fatigue
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

And Another Thing...

A heartfelt "thank you!" to Jon Stewart for tackling critics of the Tucson memorial service last week; and a hearty "F*ck you!" to Brit Hume of Faux News, Michelle Malkin, and the Powerline blog for criticizing my old friend, Dr. Carlos Gonzales.

And, Speaking of Nuts....

In the aftermath of Sarah Palin's use of an anti-Semitic slur, the wingnuts at the Washington Times are apparently doubling down on the use of racist language:

Talking Points Memo:

A Washington Times editorial defends Sarah Palin's use of the phrase "blood libel" in the wake of the Tucson shootings, by calling media criticism of Palin "the latest round of an ongoing pogrom against conservative thinkers."

Palin had been criticized for using the term "blood libel" to characterize media attacks against her, because of associations between "blood libel" and persecution of Jews in Europe. The term has its roots in the false charge that Jews would murder children and use their blood in religious rituals.

The choice by the Times to describe media attacks as "pogroms" is even more unfortunate since the term usually refers to destructive riots that targeted Jews during the time of the Russian Empire, and often resulted in massacres.

[...]In an editorial on Wednesday, the Washington Times wrote that "Mrs. Palin is well within her rights to feel persecuted."

"Typical of blood libel," it says, "the attack against Mrs. Palin is a false charge intended to generate anger made by people with a political agenda. They have made these claims boldly without evidence and without censure or consequence."

Do these people purposefully plan their offensive remarks in advance, are they really that stupid, or is it some combination of both?

By Their Name You Shall Know Them...

Chris Mathews calls birthers "crackers"....hilarious!

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What We Need Isn't Gun Control, It's Nut Control

"Atrocity never balances or rectifies the past. Atrocity merely arms the future for more atrocity." --Frank Herbert

There are no words adequate to describe the horror of Tucson last weekend. I am thankful that Cong. Gabrielle Giffords seems to be on the road to recovery; I pray for the others wounded, and for the dead. All sane people decry the actions of a seemingly-deranged individual, a killer seemingly without political motivation--in short, just another nut.

However, the possibility that our hyper-emotional, overcharged political climate, with its language of hatred and violence, helped to spur Jared Lee Loughner's rage is undeniable. For the same reasons that shouting fire in a crowded theater is a bad idea, our nation, chock-full of angry nuts with guns and internet access, the use of violent images and words in political discourse is making our nation a dangerous place. Such remarks by conservative pundits may be interpreted by ordinary individuals as mere rhetoric, but I believe that they also serve as a dog whistle to the ultra-right fringe, and a call to action to the insane.

"As we sort out what happened in Tucson, we must resist the temptation to merely cast blame, and we all must be more aware of the weakness of the idea that we do not somehow contribute to the vitriolic atmosphere. Everyone must be alert," wrote the Rev. Al Sharpton in the Washington Post. And as I find myself sometimes overcome by anger at the greed and stubbornness of the right, I too have had to watch my words; hence my overlong absence from this site. Sometime my capacity to endure avarice, stupidity, and malice exceeds my ability to temper my words, and at those times I take a break from both the blog and the news. That way, I avoid writing something intemperate that I might regret later.

Would that some of our public figures had the same concerns, and similar self-control. Unfortunately, the Rude Pundit, once again, was right:

We are not, though, a nation of the goodhearted people...We have become a nation where there's so much noise that only the screams get heard. We fall into a couple of camps: in one, the vast majority of the country, the apathetic who have decided that it's all white noise and just want to be left alone while they try to get or keep a job, pay the bills, and live a life that doesn't suck; in the other, that small tincture bottle's worth of Americans who engage, who understand that democracy is a responsibility and not just a term that you might learn for a high school social studies test. And in that bottle, there's the drops of poison, the people who do not seek to better the nation at large, who see only individuals rather than a society, who, in essence, hate the concept of a more perfect union.

I thank the President for an inspiring, compassionate speech last night, and I wish all the people of Tucson peace.