- We need to get back to bedrock American values like torture and secession.
- Does it make for a wobbly message to have the entire GOP program based around support for the government doing something which they simultaneously insist the government has never done?
Drum: Chart of the Day - 4.23.2009
Just kill me now. Via The Monkey Cage.
Think Progress: Senate Republicans block vote on Sebelius nomination.
The Senate was expected to confirm President Obama's choice for Health and Human Services Secretary today, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), but Senate Republicans refused to allow the vote, calling her a "fairly contentious" candidate:At the start of the session today, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) proposed taking a vote after five hours of debate. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) objected, arguing that lawmakers needed more time to consider her "fairly contentious" selection.
A handful of Republicans have complained about Sebelius' support for abortion rights and her failure to report the full extent of campaign contributions she received from a physician who performs abortions.
The Wichita Eagle editorial department blog writes of the GOP obstruction: "Many of the Kansans of both parties who elected Sebelius to statewide office four times may have trouble recognizing thier cautious, middle-of-the-road governor in the portrait painted nationally of an abortion- and socialism-loving tax cheat."
UpdateOther key Obama nominees the GOP are currently blocking from assuming their positions include Ashton Carter, nominated for Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics; Dawn Johnsen to head the Office of Legal Counsel; and Harold Koh as the State Department's top legal adviser.
Kleefeld (TPM): Poll: Texas Republicans Approve Of Rick Perry's Secession Remarks
A new Research 2000 poll finds that Rick Perry's suggestion at the Tea Party last week, that Texas might have to secede from the Union, actually has significant support from his home state's Republican voters.
One question: "Do you think Texas would be better off as an independent nation or as part of the United States of America?" The top-line number is United States 61%, independent nation 35%. Among Republicans, it's a dead-even tie at 48%-48%.
And then there's this one: "Do you approve or disapprove of Governor Rick Perry's suggestion that Texas may need to leave the United States?" The top-line is only 37% approval to 58% disapproval -- but among Texas Republicans, it's 51% approval to 44% disapproval.
President Chuck Norris (of the Texas Republic), here we come!
digby: Blowing Off Steam
The Conservative Id puts it all in perspective:Benen: IF ONLY HE SAW THE POINT....LIMBAUGH: We have allowed — we have allowed these guys, Obama and his buddies over at the CIA and in Congress, to water down the definition of torture to mean anything that makes a person uncomfortable. You know what this reminds me of? Remember when the NOW gang and all these other social interest groups started asking women if they’d ever been a victim of domestic violence? They didn’t like the numbers they got initially. The numbers weren’t high enough for the NOW gang. So they expanded the definition to include a man shouting at them. A man shouting at them equaled domestic violence. It didn’t matter if the women shouted first. But let’s not get sidetracked. The important thing to understand is that these appeasers have painted themselves into a corner. Dick Cheney has now called their bluff. The stark truth is that despite what the political left and the Hollywood elite say, extreme measures, enhanced measures, so-called torture — whatever you want to call it — it works. And he’s seen the memos. And he wants them released.Yeah, it "works." Just like it "works" when a man threatens to punch a woman in the face if she doesn't tell him she loves him. She tells him she loves him.
This is the way the right thinks. Limbaugh even famously believes that US soldiers should be allowed to torture prisoners to relieve their stress. And he's still invited into the homes of seemingly decent people. They defend him on the pages of their magazines.
Here's the thing: these people are puerile, schoolyard thinkers who believe in any means to an end. If they could have done what they truly wanted to do after 9/11, they would have opened concentration camps or started a nuclear war. They believe that you have to use everything you have at your disposal or the wogs (everyone but us) will think you are weak. That's the full extent of their understanding of the way the world works.
That using torture and endless imprisonment of innocent people are immoral and disgusting taboos that put the perpetrator in the same company as history's most evil villains is entirely unpersuasive to these people --- they think that's a good thing. But even on a practical level that even a very average 9th grader should be able to understand, you would hope they could see that these people hurt the nation in ways that we'll be dealing with for decades --- we showed that America loses its head when attacked, overreacts, spends and then botches the whole thing so badly we don't know whether we are coming or going. We've shown that we are pants wetting, panic artists who will harm ourselves when frightened. And that is a weakness no powerful nation should ever allow the world to see.
Fox News' Brian Kilmeade probably didn't realize why his comments this morning about torture were so painful, so let's try to help him out.Benen: CHU WASN'T THE 'BAFFLED' ONE....Kilmeade, speaking over a chyron that read, "Out for revenge?" told viewers this morning, "Ralph Peters postulates, and maybe you do too, 'If you really cared about torture, maybe you should look into Iran, what's happening in the Gaza strip, what happens daily in Cuba and what's happening in Cuba's prisons, as well as Syria.' This, according to Ralph Peters and others, is about revenge."
It's hard not to appreciate watching a Fox News personality quote a New York Post personality. Murdoch must be pleased.
Nevertheless, given that President Obama has expressed absolutely no interest in pursuing investigations against Bush administration officials, it's kind of silly to characterize this as "revenge." More important, though, is the fact that torture is scandalously common in countries with dictators and/or totalitarian regimes. "Maybe we should look into" this? We have looked into this, and are disgusted by what these lawless regimes do to their prisoners.
Note to Kilmeade: that's the point. So many Americans are incensed by the Bush administration's torture policies precisely because it throws the United States in with countries like Iran, Cuba, and Syria. We're supposed to be the leader of the free world, a beacon of hope for free people everywhere, and now people are equating our treatment of prisoners with the politicies of dictatorships.
Indeed, Fox News and the New York Post are encouraging the comparisons, as part of a defense of torture.
Does any of this occur to people like Kilmeade and Peters? Even a little?
Arrogance is almost always unseemly, but I think there's an important distinction to be made between conceit and misplaced arrogance. The prior is merely unseemly; the latter is humiliating.Yesterday, at a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Exxon), the committee's ranking member and former chairman, asked Energy Secretary Steven Chu how Alaska got oil and gas. Presumably, he meant geologically. Chu paused briefly, laughed, and tried to explain the science to the confused lawmaker.
Shortly thereafter, Barton tweeted, "I seem to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question - Where does oil come from?" Indeed, when Barton's office posted the clip to YouTube, they included a message at the start of the video: "Where does oil come from? Question leaves Energy Secretary puzzled."
This is what I meant by "misplaced arrogance." Barton seems awfully pleased with himself for having asked a foolish question and not understanding the answer. Chu paused before answering the question, not because the Nobel Prize winning scientist was "baffled" and "puzzled" by the Republican's inquiry, but because Chu quickly realized he was responding to a lawmaker with the sophistication of a junior high-school student.
This isn't something Barton should be proud of; it's something he should be embarrassed by. Barton's confusion is predictable. It's his smug pride, driven entirely by ignorance, that's annoying.
wvng: Frankly, to me the fascinating thing about this, and the other numerous examples of astonishing repuglican stoopidity is that, within their echo chamber, Barton will be congratulated for his wisdom and for slamming that pointy headed liberal. And since they won't venture outside of their bubble, they will have no exposure to anyone who mentions how stupid he appeared.
They are, quite literally, creating their own reality. And they are doing it about as effectively as the Bush admin did. Their reality isn't real to anyone but themselves.
Benen: ALTERNATE REALITY....
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) appeared pretty ridiculous a few days ago, arguing on national television that it's "comical" to think carbon emissions contribute to global warming.
As humiliating as it was to see that the leading House Republican still doesn't understand the basics of the policy debate, it was a reminder of the more systemic ignorance.
The Republican Party still isn't sure global warming is man-made, one of the top Republican lawmakers on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming said this Earth Day.
"I don't know that there is a party position on this issue," Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday during an appearance on the Fox Business Network. "I think that there is some debate on whether global warming is in fact being caused by man-made greenhouse gases."
Shadegg is the second-ranking Republican lawmaker on the special House committee, which was established to help curb carbon emissions and global warming.
Shadegg added that "sun spots" might be a possible explanation for rising global temperatures.
His comments came the same day Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) described a cap-and-trade policy as "the largest assault on democracy and freedom in this country that I've ever experienced." This is the same Shimkus who recently said we can't limit carbon emissions, because we'd be "taking away plant food from the atmosphere." He added, "The Earth will end only when God declares it's time to be over."
And those comments came around the same time Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) argued that we need not worry about global warming, because in a pinch, humanity can simply pursue an "utterly natural reflex response to nature," by finding "shade."
In addition to the obvious head-shaking stupidity here, it's a reminder of why bipartisan solutions to pressing crises probably aren't a legitimate option right now. Republican policymakers seem to have created their own reality, one in which global warming isn't a problem, recessions end through spending freezes, our health care system is the best in the world, increasing military spending is "cutting" defense, and handshakes are a sign of weakness.
Between sanity and craziness, there is no common ground.
John Cole: The Wanking Will Continue Until Morale Improves
This is an excellent idea:
A conservative faction of the Republican National Committee is urging the GOP to take a harder line against both Democrats and wayward Republicans, drafting a resolution to rename the opposition the “Democrat Socialist Party” and moving to rebuke the three Republican senators who supported the stimulus package.In an e-mail sent Wednesday to the 168 voting members of the committee, RNC member James Bopp, Jr. accused President Obama of wanting “to restructure American society along socialist ideals.”
“The proposed resolution acknowledges that and calls upon the Democrats to be truthful and honest with the American people by renaming themselves the Democrat Socialist Party,” wrote Bopp, the Republican committeeman from Indiana. “Just as President Reagan’s identification of the Soviet Union as the ‘evil empire’ galvanized opposition to communism, we hope that the accurate depiction of the Democrats as a Socialist Party will galvanize opposition to their march to socialism.”
Can’t these guys grow up enough to at least have the decency to call it the “DemocratIC Socialist Party.” Sheesh. At any rate, their efforts to date have been a smashing success (via):
Keep it up, guys. Keep it up.
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