The GOP’s nightmare scenario is now: cascading stupidity effect under way

Just a little something to back up my earlier post arguing that attempts to spin away the GOP’s War on Women only serve to prove it’s real.

Right Wing Watch: On Friday, Allen West spoke with Steve Malzberg where he defended Mike Huckabee’s recent comment by declaring that “the Left tries to win the women’s vote by talking from the waist down” while Republicans seek to reach the hearts and minds of female voters.

Asserting that Democrats want the government to be “the sugar daddy” and replace men, West said Democrats have been “caught guilty as always” and are responding by attacking Huckabee. He then went on to claim that the Left remains utterly silent when women like Malala Yousafzai are abused and attacked by the Taliban before declaring that “I’m going to be very blunt: the Left tries to win the women’s vote by talking from the waist down.”

See, because women aren’t really concerned about all that contraception and reproductive health stuff — or if they do are then they’re wrong. Only Republican men like Allen West and Mike Huckabee know what’s important to women, so listen up and learn, ladies.

But this is also the beginning of the nightmare scenario, where one moron says one very stupid thing and other morons rush to defend him because that’s what they think you do when conservatives get criticized. This is what the GOP has been trying very, very hard to avoid and most likely won’t be able to. You can’t spend years encouraging this sort of thing and expect to be able to shut it off when it turns out to be bad politics. These people are going to engage in insane and clueless sexism because that’s modern conservatism. It’s what Limbaugh does every day, it’s what rightwing blogs do every day, so it’s absolutely normal and not at all crazy to these guys. They’re going to keep doing it because they just don’t know any better.

And West is probably more popular in the base than Huckabee — meaning that even more people will likely come forward to defend him. Then others will come out to defend them. And cetera and cetera and cetera, until the unofficial Republican position will be that women who care about reproductive health and freedom are just loose, slutty morons being preyed upon by Democrats.

That’s exactly the wrong way to convince people you’re not waging a sexist War on Women. But it’s exactly what the base believes.

[photo by Gage Skidmore]

Huckabee: ‘Evangelicals will take a walk’ if GOP supports marriage equality

Christian Post:

Evangelicals will leave the Republican Party if it supports redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, Mike Huckabee said.

When asked if he believes the Republican Party will change its position and support gay marriage in a Wednesday Newsmax interview, Huckabee remarked, “They might, and if they do, they’re going to lose a large part of their base because evangelicals will take a walk.”

Huckabee currently hosts a Fox News show called “Huckabee.” He was formerly the governor of Arkansas and ran for president in 2008. Before he entered politics, Huckabee was a Southern Baptist pastor and a religious radio broadcaster.

“And it’s not because there’s an anti-homosexual mood, and nobody’s homophobic that I know of,” he continued, “but many of us, and I consider myself included, base our standards not on the latest Washington Post poll, but on an objective standard, not a subjective standard.”

“I don’t hate people, my religion does” is a crappy argument that cowardly haters use to dodge accusations of bigotry. But Mike doesn’t have to worry, RNC chairman Reince Priebus says that, while he wants the party to be more accepting of people who do support marriage equality, the party’s platform will still have the “we hate gays!” plank. At least for now, anyway.

Besides, where would these evangelicals “walk” to? Certainly not the Democrats and not Libertarians, either (that is, real libertarians. Not Republicans who don’t want to call themselves Republicans like Rand and Ron Paul). Start up an Evangelical Party? I suppose they could, but by leaving the GOP coalition, they’d actually be losing power.

The GOP will drop the marriage-inequality plank eventually. Probably within Huckabee’s lifetime. So I guess we’ll have the opportunity to find out where he’ll walk to when that day comes.

Huckabee and the bizarre anti-logic of gun apologists

Talking Points Memo:

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee attributed the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in part to restrictions on school prayer and religious materials in the classroom. 

“We ask why there is violence in our schools, but we have systematically removed God from our schools,” Huckabee said on Fox News, discussing the murder spree that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults in Newtown, CT that morning. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?”

Law enforcement has released few details on the alleged gunman, but Huckabee suggested that the separation of church and state may have spurred his rampage.

First off, I’d like to ask everyone in America to join me in inviting Mike Huckabee to STFU. This is as crassly opportunistic and insensitive as the comments of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell after 9/11. America was outraged by those words and we should find these just as bad.

But does it even make any logical sense? By Huckabee’s argument, more religious societies should be more peaceful and more atheistic societies should be more violent. But if we compare Europe and the middle east, we find the exact opposite correlation of violence and religiosity. In fact, logic would dictate that atheistic societies would be more peaceful, simply because everyone has one less thing to argue about.

Just as illogical is blaming violent video games or movies. Everyone has the same video games and American movies have a worldwide audience, so that makes no sense either. These don’t explain why America is more violent than most places other than political and drug-related war zones.

What’s different about America is that we have — by an insane margin — more guns per capita than any other country in the world. America has 88.8 guns per 100 residents — far outpacing second place Serbia, at only 58.2 per 100. The wide proliferation of guns is the problem. Period.

Anything else is just making lame excuses and ignoring the problem. It’s absolutely, 100%, inarguably clear that more guns does not mean more safety. We have more guns than anyone and we’re less safe than most.

Stories to Watch: 5/11/12

The Great Bush Recession caused "nearly two decades of Americans’ wealth" to vanish. Yeah Mittens, let's take the regulations off Wall Street and see what sort of damage they can really do.


The DOJ sues the state of Florida to stop Gov. Rick Scott's bloodless coup... I mean, "voter purge."


If the public sector employment crash weren't happening, "overall unemployment would be 7.0 to 7.3 percent instead of 8.2 percent." Huzzah for the fiscal sanity of Republican governors and the demonization of public sector employees. In the Republican War on Consumer Demand, Republicans are winning -- and consumer demand is losing.


Mitt Romney is just such a shameless liar.


Mike Huckabee seems to have a very poor understanding of how the Supreme Court is supposed to work.


Worse, former Ambassador to the UN John Bolton doesn't understand how diplomacy works.


Grover Norquist attacks Jeb Bush for remembering Ronald Reagan correctly.


Finally, a Republican television version of Pravda comes to Hawaii.

Related articles

• TRENDING: Jeb Bush: Reagan wouldn't fit in today's GOP

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• Jeb Bush rejects Norquist pledge

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• Mike Huckabee Accidentally Tells The Truth About Fox News

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Stories to Watch: 5/16/12

Any pretense to democracy in the Republican primaries just died.


People think Mike Huckabee's a nice guy. People are wrong.


Kucinich is done for this cycle.


Shareholders sue JPMorgan.


House Republicans waste everyone's time by passing their doomed "Go Ahead and Slap Around Lesbians and Immigrants" act.


George W. Bush will publish a book on how to build an awesome economy. No, you read that right.


A phone interview with Howard Dean ends unexpectedly.


Mitt Romney's pretty sure people will buy the argument that Bain Capital created jobs. Now, if he could just decide how many he wants to pretend it created...


A new poll shows Obama and Romney in a dead heat in Wisconsin -- illustrating what a super-great idea it would be for the DNC to let the grassroots recall network wither on the vine.


Finally, Mittens gets expert advice on how to act like a human.

Related articles

• The Bain beast returns

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• US election 2012: Mitt Romney attacked over Bain Capital in new Obama campaign ad

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• 'Divide and Conquer' May be Good Politics, But it's a Lousy Way to Govern

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News Roundup for 10/4/11

"Not gonna happen"

-Headline of the Day-
"Gov. Chris Christie will not run for president."

After media-fueled speculation that Chris Christie may run for president started a rumor that Chris Christie would run for president, Christie himself shot that rumor down today.

"Now is not the time..." the Governor of New Jersey said in a press conference. "New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me." The news comes as Christie-mania hits a fever-pitch, with at least one poll showing that Republican voters didn't care whether he jumped in or not. I'm sure the disappointment will be just as impalpable as the excitement was.

Wait for pundits to say this is the latest sign that Christie is still weighing his options. At least, until they get around to speculating as to whether Mike Huckabee might run. (NJ.com)


-Wall Street protests, explained-


Click to embiggen

It's the modern equivalent of "let them eat cake." (Truthdig)


-Bonus HotD-
"Court turns away lawsuit over Obama eligibility."

Long story short, Alan Keyes is some kind of record-holding sore loser. (AP)

Stories to Watch: 8/7/11

A couple of thoughts on the Standard & Poors downgrade. First, there was a big market sell-off just before it happened. We should be finding out exactly why that happened, who started selling first, and whether any insider trading went on there.

Second, the "US is headed for a Greece-style meltdown!" fearmongering should officially die. Nations on the brink of financial collapse don't have AA+ ratings from one agency and AAA from all the rest.

Now here's the news...


Finally, broad bipartisan agreement out of Washington. The issue; S&P's downgrade is bullshit.


Steve Benen has a short history of US deficits and surpluses since Reagan. Not at all coincidentally, it's also a timeline of Republican stupidity.


According to the Tea Party, people involved with the recalls in Wisconsin are Nazis and terrorists and embrace a philosophy that has "killed a billion people in the last century." Seems to me that if one sixth of the world's population were killed, someone would've noticed it. Why anyone ever took these clowns seriously is beyond me.


Also in the Wisconsin recalls; Republicans like to complain that they're being attacked by out of shadowy, state groups. But a closer look shows that when they say "attacked," they mostly mean "backed."



Mike Huckabee is an idiot.


Rick Perry keeps threatening to run for president. I think he's already missed his window -- the media seems to be getting tired of it.


As they go home to face their constituents, dems make sure that Republicans face the music for voting to end Medicare as we know it.


Finally, Sen. John Kerry rightly names S&P's action the "Tea Party downgrade."

Related articles

• Mike Huckabee: Obama Should Replace Timothy Geithner With Donald Trump (mediaite.com)
• Greenspan sees stock market drop after downgrade (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Wisconsin recall: Scott Walker nowhere to be seen during final stretch (dailykos.com)
• Tea Party Nation Founder: Liberal Ideology Has 'Killed A Billion People' (mediaite.com)

News Roundup for 8/4/11

History's greatest educator

-Headline of the Day-
"How Bush Killed Bin Laden: What’s Really In Huckabee’s 9/11 Cartoon."

Mike Huckabee is a man who thinks of the children. And so it only makes sense that he puts out cartoons that help the little tykes understand history. In one video, kids learn how Ronald Reagan saved America from black thugs in t-shirts that said "DISCO" on them and Franklin D. Roosevelt wasn't around to fight WWII. You know, real accurate stuff.

And so it is with 9/11 and terrorism. In case you've forgotten, the story goes like this: a bunch of Muslims attacked America, because they hate our freedom and because they were Muslims. Then George W. Bush yelled at them with a bullhorn and gave birth to the PATRIOT Act atop the pile of rubble. Liberals, of course, hated the whole idea because they like terrorists and don't like to make people mad, so they just wanted to forget 9/11 ever happened.

But not George W. Bush! He did a bunch of intelligence stuff and some stuff happened for a while that no one really needs to know all that much about and then, lo and behold, Osama bin Laden was dead! Yay for Bush!

Thank God we have Mike Huckabee to set the record straight. (Talking Points Memo)


-Cartoon time with Mark Fiore-
Hey kids, with all the fightin' and feudin' and fussin', wouldn't a little "bipartisanship" be nice? Well, we're going to find out how bipartisanship in Washington works Yay!


Click for animation

Remember, bipartisanship means never having to say you're sorry for breaking someone's kneecaps with tire iron. (MarkFiore.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Obama Turns 50 Despite Republican Opposition."

Onion headlines are often amazingly accurate. (The Onion)

Stories to Watch: 6/1/11

Making burgers. On the grill. Because that's the sort of thing I do. Now here's the news...


Republicans don't like it when President Obama tells them that tax rates are lower now than under Reagan. In fact, they pretty much refuse to believe it. Proof yet again that the GOP is at war with reality.


Sarah Palin met with Fox News execs; presumably to decide whether she's running for president or being a Fox personality. She can't do both and stay clear of the law.


Latest maybe-gonna-run-for-prez: Jim DeMint. Sooner or later, Republicans are going to have to come to grips with the idea that the candidates they have are the candidates they have. If they don't like them, tough. Finding new nuts that are exactly like the ones already running isn't going to save their asses.


Wisconsin recall target Dan Kapanke isn't feeling any voter love for Republicans. "We've got tons of government workers in my district -- tons," he says. "From La Crosse to Prairie du Chien and to Viroqua and to Ontario and to Hillsboro, you can go on and on and on. We have to overcome that. We gotta hope that they, kind of, are sleeping on July 12th -- or whenever the date is." That quote wasn't meant for public consumption, by the way -- according to the report, it was "secretly recorded." He also doesn't hold out a lot of hope for Randy Hopper or Alberta Darling.


Jesus may have ruled out a presidential bid for Mike Huckabee, but he didn't say anything about the veepee slot.


Rep. Anthony Weiner doesn't make the most convincing argument in the world that an underwear shot is not of him.


Finally, a class act all the way, Sarah Palin goes to Ellis Island to bash the DREAM Act.

Related articles

• Wisconsin Government Accountability Board approved recall elections for 6 Republicans (politicore.wordpress.com)
• Palin confirms she's part of company that bought $1.7 million property north ... - Washington Post (news.google.com)
• Romney Leads Among Iowa Republicans, Cain And Palin Tied For Second (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Palin admits role in Arizona home purchase (capitolhillblue.com)

Stories to Watch: 5/15/11

I'm still missing posts on my blogspot blogs. As I wrote yesterday, if they aren't up by tonight, I'm giving up and doing it myself. This means my javascript buttons project will probably be pushed back yet again. Mostly, I'm afraid that I'll restore the posts, then blogger engineers will come along and re-restore them, leaving me with duplicates. Not the biggest problem in the world -- they're easy enough to delete -- just one I'd rather avoid facing due to my own impatience. Besides, I'm hoping that blogger will restore them to their original URLS, which would mean any links anyone made to the pages would start working again. Keeping my fingers crossed. Now here's the news...


The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is accused in the the sexual assault (read "rape") of a New York hotel maid. While this throws a huge monkeywrench into French politics, it has global implications as well.


Mike Huckabee won't run in 2012. Frankly, I'm a lot less surprised about that then I'm supposed to be, it seems. The big tip-off for me was that he made the announcement on his Fox show, which might've made things troublesome election/media laws-wise if his announcement had been anything other than "no." Still, I'll bet his ratings killed. After all, that's what all the "Huckabee emails suggest a run!" stories were all about.


We hit the debt limit tomorrow. Expect a lot of stupid statements from Republicans, but remember that we've got enough to keep the lights on until about August -- then catastrophe as the US defaults on loans and bonds. Until the week or two before we run out of money, it'll all be bluster. It's a game of chicken and, frankly, Republicans suck at it.


Rep. Paul Ryan, well-known author of fantasy-economics porn, will decide whether he wants to run for retiring Sen. Herb Kohl's seat this week. I don't like to make predictions, but I'm guessing no. Ryan is a "rising star" in the House GOP and, if he switches to the Senate, he'll practically have to start over as a freshmen nobody. Still you never know -- in terms of temperament, the calm, non-bomb-tossing Ryan seems more Senate. I'm not pinned down either way, but I think it's more likely he'll rule it out.


Newt Gingrich really is a jackass. Now he's suggesting an illegal "poll test" -- i.e., requiring someone to pass some sort of knowledge test before being allowed to vote. These were typically used in the racist south to keep poor blacks from voting. I'm sure the 'baggers love the idea, but the irony is that this would disenfranchise a lot of teabagging morans -- literacy was often a requirement.


Finally, conservative pundit George Will shocks America by actually being right for once.

Related articles

• Mike Huckabee Bows Out Of 2012 Race: "The Factors Say Go, But My Heart Says No." (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Time Travel With Mike Huckabee (joemygod.blogspot.com)
• Huckabee Is Not Runnizzzzzzzzzz (tammybruce.com)
• HuffPost TV: WATCH: HuffPost's Alex Wagner Talks About Mike Huckabee's Upcoming Announcement (huffingtonpost.com)

News Roundup for 4/11/11

Donald Trump, shown making an ass of himself by opening his mouth

-Headline of the day-
"Trump says he is Obama campaign's 'worst nightmare'."

White House adviser David Plouffe answered a question about Donald Trump on some talking head program this weekend and Trump sees that as proof that he has the Obama administration all scaredy-pantsed.

"I am leading a lot of polls and doing very well," Trump told some foxbot on the network's weekly Ask Donald Trump Fawning Questions segment. "I can tell you I am their worst nightmare."

A slight problem here: Donald Trump isn't leading in any poll. A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll (pdf) puts The Donald tying with Mike Huckabee for second place behind Mittens Romney -- and that's just for the GOP nomination. To give you any idea of the size of the Trump groundswell that poll measured, 17% gives you second place. So yeah, "leading" is just a tad wide of the truth there.

But hey, anything to keep a publicity stunt for a flailing reality show host going, right? (CNN)


-Not the best idea...-
Wiley Miller looks at the qualifications many politicians cite for holding office...


Click to enbiggen

...and finds them wanting. (GoComics.com)


-Bonus HotD-
"Bachmann: A one-term president."

Shelly Bachmann says that after she wins the presidency in November, she probably won't run for reelection.

That's a load off my mind... (CNN)

Stories to Watch: 4/4/11

I made some English muffins today. From scratch. Turns out you can do that. Now here's the news...


Matt Yglesias asks, "Will Paul Ryan propose a giant tax hike to make tax cuts for the rich affordable?" The answer: sure looks that way. The question is whether the rest of the party will be willing to jump off that particular cliff with him.


Khalid Sheikh Mohammed will be tried by a military tribunal at Gitmo. While the media is portraying this as a "reversal," Steve Benen points out that congress made any other outcome impossible.


John Boehner seems stuck on stupid.


Obama officially announces he's running for reelection, surprising absolutely no one.


Mike Huckabee's days as governor come back to haunt him.


Finally, Koch Industries' DC offices get some visitors.

Stories to Watch: 3/4/11

Right-leaning pollster Rasmussen has more bad news for Wisconsin Republicans -- Gov. Walker's approvals are dropping like a stone. This has the rightwing blogosphere in a despair worthy of Goethe. It's quite a feat to strike them spinless.


Mike Huckabee criticizes Natalie Portman for being pregnant and single, realizes this sounds a lot like Bristol Palin, and tries to jam the words back in his mouth. Mike's been trying to play to the GOP base, while at the same time trying not to sound completely insane. Turns out, it can't be done.


The US added 192,000 jobs last month, making it the best jobs report in three years. Of course Republicans, who haven't actually gotten much of anything passed, take all the credit.


Meanwhile, Krugman points out that Republicans are doing everything in their power to choke off job growth and kill economic recovery.


Scott Walker isn't Hitler... But Hitler is very disappointed in Scott Walker.


Speaking of Hitler, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown says something that's undeniably true -- that Hitler oppressed unions. So, of course, it's the worst thing ever! Breitbart's Big Government claims that Hitler was a big fan of unions -- which might be believable, if it weren't so famously untrue.


Finally, the Obama administration rolls up its sleeves and joins in on the growing labor fight in the states -- behind the scenes, of course. I can understand them wanting to test the waters first, but you really wish someone would just shove them in.

Stories to Watch: 3/1/11

Whoo-hoo! It's March first! That means that, up here in Wisconsin, it's only like two or three months before spring. Big snow storm predicted this weekend, so I'm trying to avoid spring fever. They say that March goes out the opposite of the way it came in. Today was really nice, so... Crap. Now here's the news...


Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker gave his much-anticipated budget address today. Not really sure why it was so anticipated, since it was just a rehash of all the horseshit he's been saying all along. Seriously, he didn't even have to be there. I could've given it by now.


Mike Huckabee goes birther. Not to be outdone in the headlines department, Newt Gingrich announces his candidacy for president.


A government shutdown is averted, but that doesn't mean there won't be a fight.


Being a Vuvuzela in the Conservative Noise Machine 101: if you don't like poll results, attack the sampling method. Nobody understands that stuff anyway, so you don't have to be right.


Christian fundamentalist leader is a perv. *yawn* So what else is new?


Finally, Republican congresscritter and teabagging lunatic Allen West hates on Abe Lincoln.

News Roundup for 2/8/11

GOP motto

-Headline of the day-
"CNN Poll: Republicans want winner over ideology in 2012."

Turns out that ideological purity isn't super-important to the teabagging right. Who knew? What they want is someone who can win, because Barack HUSSEIN Obama is the worst president ever and anything would be better than that commie!

At least, that's what Republican respondents told survey takers for a CNN poll. According to the report, "nearly seven out of ten Republicans say they would prefer a GOP presidential nominee who can top Obama in the next election, with 29 percent saying a nominee who agrees with them on every issue that matters the most is more important."

Republicans being open minded! It's a miracle!

Except, they aren't. When asked who they'd support for president, the three top vote-getters were Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Mittens Romney.

You know, real middle-of-the-road types. (CNN)


-Yeah, is this the number for tech support?-
Came across this on reddit today:


Click for full image

Sums everything up nicely, I think. (Reddit)


-Bonus HotD-
"Rep. Posey Can't Say If He Takes Govt. Health Care Because He Doesn't 'Know' If He's 'A Federal Employee'

So, not only doesn't Bill Posey know that, yes, he's a fed employee, but he doesn't know whether or not he has health insurance.

Good job, voters of Florida's 15th district. You really picked a winner here. (ThinkProgress, with video)

Griper Blade: The Faithless Faithful

Evangelicals have a secret weapon; a big ol' lightning bolt tossing deity who's the most powerful thing in the entire universe. There's a catch though -- for some reason, this big all-powerful being is a little short in the all-powerful department. He can't seem to do any of the stuff that he really wants to happen.

So this all-powerful deity has minions. And these minions do his will on Earth. Except they aren't very good at it either, so they sometimes call on the deity to help them. That generally goes pretty much like this:

Telegraph:

Stuart Shepard of Focus on the Family, one of America's leading evangelical groups, was shown in a video filmed at Denver's Invesco Field, where 75,000 are expected to cheer Mr Obama on Aug 28, asking Christians to pray for "torrential" rain.

"I'm talking 'umbrella-ain't-going-to-help-you rain," the former pastor and television meteorologist said. He explained on the video: "I'm still pro life, and I'm still in favour of marriage as being between one man and one woman. And I would like the next president who will select justices for the next Supreme Court to agree."

The video was later pulled and and FotF claimed it was all a joke. "If people took it seriously, we regret it," they said.

And why wouldn't people take it seriously? The problem here is that reality and this "joke" are just too similar. If you pray for rain and it doesn't happen, what then? Well, God just didn't answer the prayer. It happens sometimes -- in fact, it happens about as often as random chance would allow. When people pray for personal strength, they get it -- because it comes from them. When they pray for things to happen in the wide world, it doesn't. If the shamans at Focus on the Family could make Barack Obama bring an umbrella, then they could accomplish everything they want to accomplish. And that would kind of make this whole voting thing kind of pointless...

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