Beautiful Horizons

Some Suggestions On Delaying With Clowns in the Military

You've probably heard about this. Here's what I hope happens:

• That his wingnut "lawyer" gets slammed with stiff sanctions by the court so that this nonsense ends.
• That the major gets busted down to PFC (primarily so that he can't command anyone) and sent to the worst place in Afghanistan.

Enough already,

Palin's incoherence

Dahlia Lithwick nails it:

"When America is finally ready to reckon with the phenomenon that was Sarah Palin, I suspect we will discover that whatever she represents actually had less to do with her gender, class, or ideology than we now believe. It's easy to look at the soon-to-be-former governor of Alaska as an iconic feminist, a path-breaking working mother, or noble rabble-rousing populist. But when the dust settles, the lesson may be that she was simply a woman who made no sense...

"(T)he strangest part of the Sarah Palin saga will always be her loathing of the media. She never failed to remind us that she didn't like being 'filtered.' She only wanted to talk directly to us, her listeners. Yet the reason Sarah Palin continues to have any kind of political force at all in this country is because of the media 'filter.'  The media helped refine and define her Dada statements and arguments into something that briefly sounded like a coherent worldview."

Ezra Klein adds this note:

"(Palin) only matters as long as the media continues to give her a lot more coverage than it gives other Republican governors with similar ambitions and less checkered records. Palin hurt McCain in the election and collapsed after she returned to Alaska. Her story is not profound. It is a farce. The politician who loathes, but is completely dependent upon, the media. If Sarah Palin didn't exist, Christopher Buckley would have to invent her."

Dog Bites Man IV

Elizabeth Hasselbeck is arguably one of the stupidest people on the planet. Fortunately, Jesse Ventura schools her:



Dick Cheney is a pathological liar, but he gets fact checked here by someone who has actually interrogated terrorists without using torture.

Dear God

Apparently the stupidity and incoherence of Sarah Palin infests her staff:

For the sake of our discourse can we please stop using asinine sports metaphors such as the one that shows up around minute four in the video above.

Just for the record, Ms. Stapleton, yes, a point guard will pass the ball to someone else, but they don't often pass the bill then vacate the court, leaving their team to play four against five.

What utter idiocy.

Just when you thought Michael Jackson commentary must have bottomed out...

...in the annals of rank stupidity, Limbaugh weighs in:

Astounding Wingnuttery

First, this bit of hate mail at Daily Kos.

Then, buried deep within this article is the following bit of information:

Merrill Metzger, who worked for the group for six months just as it was getting started in 2007, said Ms. Forde had often traveled from Washington to Arizona with weapons. In March, while stopping over at his home in Redding, Calif., she presented a plan for the group to undertake, Mr. Metzger, her half-brother, said in a telephone interview.

“She was sitting here talking about how she was going to start an underground militia and rob drug dealers,” he said.

Mr. Metzger quit the group, alarmed, he said, by a number of things, including Ms. Forde’s demand for extreme loyalty, right down to the choice of cuisine.

“I had to take an oath, and part of the oath was that I couldn’t eat Mexican food,” he said. “That’s when red flags went up all over for me. That seemed like prejudice.”

Yes it did, because clearly refusing to eat a foreign cuisine is a far greater sign of prejudice than hunting down that same nation's citizens.

I can't make this up

The Right's Historical Amnesia

History according to the right, with apologies to Pastor Martin Niemöller:

"First they installed Reza Shah Pahlavi. I did not speak because I really couldn't care less.

"Then they installed his son Reza Mohammed Pahlavi. I did not speak because he did our bidding.

"Then they overthrew a democratically elected leader. Mohammed Moosadegh. I did not speak because my source of cheap oil was protected.

"Then Reza Pahlavi created SAVAK. I did not speak because he was our s.o.b.

"Then he spent lavishly on himself and his Pharaonic projects while so many were unemployed. I did not speak because oil was still cheap.

"Then he was overthrown. I spoke up because they took our citizens hostage.

"The Iran was invaded by Iraq and Ronald Reagan became a supporter of Saddam Hussein who was committing war crimes by using poison gas against Iran. I did not speak because everything Reagan did was correct.

"Then Reagan sold weapons to Iran - considered by his own administration to be a terrorist state -  to finance an illegal war in Central America. I did not speak because was incapable of ever doing anything wrong.

"Then George Bush invaded Iraq, strengthening Iran in the region. I did not speak because Saddam had suddenly become a bad man after invading Kuwait and of course Reagan still could do no wrong.

"Then Mahmoud Ahmadinejad participated in a farcical election and the people who I had joked about bombing, whose nation I was foaming at the mouth to invade needed only our president to verbally challenge Ahmadinejad and he would fold like a lawn chair because a show of testicular fortitude would make him cringe.

"But then there was no on left to listen because everyone saw it for the cheap and rank bit of political opportunism that it was."

Don't Cry for Mark Sanford, Argentina

In my heart of hearts, I really care less about Mark Sanford's private life, other than the fact that he should resign, because as Marc Cooper notes, he was AWOL. I also note that Marc beat me to mentioning this, but Sanford apparently believes in stimulus for his own package, but not for his constituents.

What bothers me above all is the hypocrisy of the self-proclaimed "family values" crowd that places so little value on their own families: Salamander Gingrich, John Ensign, David Livingston, David Vitter, Jimmy Swaggart and any number of others. Also the tone of the whining wankfest at Red State is a hoot (hat tip to commenter Listener).

My advice: man up boys; grow a pair.

Nixon's Racist Views on Abortion

As Hilzoy points out Nixon's views towards abortion post Roe v Wade are horridly racist:

Nixon worried that greater access to abortions would foster "permissiveness," and said that "it breaks the family." But he also saw a need for abortion in some cases, such as interracial pregnancies.

"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white," he told an aide, before adding: "Or a rape.""

One can only wonder at how horrified he would be to know that a biracial man was now President. It's almost enough to make me wish he were still around.

Back tomorrow with more.

Crazy old man...

More evidence Pat Buchanan needs to sit down and shut up at least until Judge Sotomayor is confirmed.