That didn’t take very long did it? Birtherism is dead, long live deatherism…

The Two Faces of the Tea Party | The Weekly Standard.

What has been really striking has been the eliminationist rhetoric of the G.O.P., coming not from some radical fringe but from the party’s leaders. John Boehner, the House minority leader, declared that the passage of health reform was “Armageddon.” The Republican National Committee put out a fund-raising appeal that included a picture of Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, surrounded by flames, while the committee’s chairman declared that it was time to put Ms. Pelosi on “the firing line.” And Sarah Palin put out a map literally putting Democratic lawmakers in the cross hairs of a rifle sight.

All of this goes far beyond politics as usual. Democrats had a lot of harsh things to say about former President George W. Bush — but you’ll search in vain for anything comparably menacing, anything that even hinted at an appeal to violence, from members of Congress, let alone senior party officials.

No, to find anything like what we’re seeing now you have to go back to the last time a Democrat was president. Like President Obama, Bill Clinton faced a G.O.P. that denied his legitimacy — Dick Armey, the second-ranking House Republican (and now a Tea Party leader) referred to him as “your president.” Threats were common: President Clinton, declared Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina, “better watch out if he comes down here. He’d better have a bodyguard.” (Helms later expressed regrets over the remark — but only after a media firestorm.) And once they controlled Congress, Republicans tried to govern as if they held the White House, too, eventually shutting down the federal government in an attempt to bully Mr. Clinton into submission.

Mr. Obama seems to have sincerely believed that he would face a different reception. And he made a real try at bipartisanship, nearly losing his chance at health reform by frittering away months in a vain attempt to get a few Republicans on board. At this point, however, it’s clear that any Democratic president will face total opposition from a Republican Party that is completely dominated by right-wing extremists.

via Op-Ed Columnist – Going to Extreme – NYTimes.com.

Bush can pass tax cuts guaranteed to lead us down the road to fiscal suicide, while enriching the wealthiest and he’s a hero to the GOP. Obama passes HCR which actually reduces the deficit while helping millions and the death threats fly. The true (evil) genius of the right is in convincing workaday Americas to vote against their economic interests over and over. My favorite recent example is this Militia Leader who was calling for breaking the windows of Democratic offices:

Vanderboegh, who lives in the Birmingham suburb of Pinson, described himself as a “Christian libertarian” and said he has long been a gun rights advocate. He said he joined a clandestine militia group called the “Sons of Liberty” and later became a public leader of the First Alabama Cavalry, Constitutional Militia..

…Vanderboegh said he once worked as a warehouse manager but now lives on government disability checks. He said he receives $1,300 a month because of his congestive heart failure, diabetes and hypertension. He has private health insurance through his wife, who works for a company that sells forklift products.

I guess he doesn’t see the irony. What the hell is a “Christian Libertarian” anyway? Is that they don’t believe in government intervention unless it’s an attempt to ram their oddly slanted form Christianity down your throat?

The eager young men at Conservapedia are p.o.’d that the Bible might be seen as too liberal. So they’ve come up with the Wiki-style Conservative Bible Project, to make sure the Lord doesn’t go all wobbly on us…

…”The liberal style of high word-to-substance ratio”? Hoo-wee! Elitists like to use words, and lots of ‘em! “Unnecessary ambiguities”? But how are you going to abide by the conservative mandate to avoid “dumbing down” Holy Writ while at the same time avoiding big words liberals use?

More seriously, the insane hubris of this really staggers the mind. These right-wing ideologues know better than the early church councils that canonized Scripture? They really think it’s wise to force the word of God to conform to a 21st-century American idea of what constitutes conservatism? These jokers don’t worship God. They worship ideology.

via Conservatizing the Bible – Crunchy Con.

h/t The Daily Dish

A long time Newsmax.com columnist, possibly suffering from and acute case of Obama Derangement Syndrome, wrote a piece describing the reasons why a domestic “military intervention” would be a good idea. He tosses about “gems” like this:

Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible. (The column was removed from newsmax.com, but the full text can still be found here)

He waxes eloquent about how great it would be to have the military running things, you know like a true banana republican would. That may need a quick definition:

banana republican: A republican who’d like to see the US become more authoritarian like a Central American banana republic. They are generally fans of wars, wire tapping, torture and chest thumping military adventurism.

After a perfectly predictable tsunami of criticism erupted over what amounts to a call for a military coup, Newmax then attempts to distance themselves from John L. Perry by claiming he really doesn’t have anything to do with them. This is despite the fact that he’s been writing a weekly column for them since at least 1999. Nice try. I thought that I had become jaded and no extreme of virulent wingnuttery could surprise me. I was wrong. It’s getting weirder out there…

Frank: When you ask me that question I’m going to revert to my ethnic heritage and answer your question with a question. On what planet do you spend most of your time?

[....]

You want me to answer the question? Yes. As you stand there with a picture of the President defaced to look like Hitler and compare the effort to increase health care to the Nazis, my answer to you is as I said before, it is a tribute to the First Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. Ma’am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it.

via Frank Confronts Woman With Obama as Hitler Picture at Town Hall: On What Planet Do You Spend Most of Your Time? | Video Cafe.

That’s one pissed off old Queen. He does what most Congressmen would not, he speaks truth to crazy. Here’s the video:

Best Wonkette comment:

The “oh shit, I just became a youtube celebrity for the wrong reasons” look on her face was priceless

Are people in the south really that stupid? Apparently they are…

This is Steven Benen on the meaning of the popularity of Glenn Beck’s batshit crazy antics on Fox News and much more importantly what in bodes for the GOP. This was about what happened off camera right after Glenn pretended to dose a man with gasoline and set him on fire on his show:

But that’s not really the interesting part. Alex Koppelman added, “Unfortunately, not captured in the video is what happened next, when Texas Gov. Rick Perry came on and Beck asked, ‘Governor, you’re regretting being on this program at this point, are you not, sir?’ Perry responded, ‘Not at all, Glenn Beck. I’m proud to be with you.’”

And that, in a nutshell, helps explain what’s gone terribly wrong with conservative Republicans of late. Beck appears to be in desperate need of medication, and the chief executive of one of the nation’s largest states is “proud” to appear on the show, just moments after Beck pretended to set a colleague on fire.

Credible, serious public officials would ordinarily want to avoid making eye contact with a deranged figure, but Gov. Perry was delighted to chat with the Fox News lunatic. Maybe it’s because Perry actually finds Beck’s madness compelling; maybe it’s because Perry has a big Republican primary coming up and wants to curry favor with Beck’s followers.

Lunacy is soooo in for the GOP this year…

Redstate believes that a permanent troop presence in Iraq is just like troops in Japan, Germany and the American South? People that stupid should really should be kept away from sharp objects like Ruprecht here:

Crooks and Liars » Putting abstinence-only funding on the chopping block
House Republicans and Bush administration officials are prepared to fight to keep the funding for ineffective programs in place .

One wonders just how many more studies it will take.

It was never about the using funds wisely, studies, science or any of your fancy book learnin’. It was purely about throwing wads of cash at political allies.

Where to begin? How about Hitchens adding up the comparative costs of the containment policy that was demonstrably working? They’ve yet to find the mythical WMDs that were supposed to have made Saddam a worldwide threat. The policy pursued  by Bush Sr. and Clinton worked, plain and simple, at a much lower cost in blood and treasure, even if you totally ignore the plight of the Iraqi people and the uncounted death and suffering they endured. It would have still been cheaper in America blood and treasure, even if you take the morally indefensible position of ignoring the suffering inflicted on innocent families.

Their lame joint effort to affix a cost to the Iraq war is entirely based on an unspoken assumption that has nothing to do with economics or even with political economy. And that assumption (widely shared but seldom if ever articulated) is that our engagement with Iraq was somehow “a war of choice” — to use a favorite catchphrase from a few years ago — and thus that all of its costs, ranging from the physical damage to Iraqi infrastructure to the moral damage to our warriors, could have been avoided by abstention.

I don’t know anybody who knows anything about the subject who believes anything so frivolous.

Yes Chris it WAS a war of choice. It’s your lame attempt to rewrite history to favor your viewpoint that’s “frivolous”.

Update : An additional takedown by attaturk here.

CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time Blog Archive – GOP congressman says terrorists would celebrate Obama win « – Blogs from CNN.com
An Iowa Republican congressman said Friday that terrorists would be “dancing in the streets” if Democratic candidate Barack Obama were to win the presidency.

Rep. Steve King based his prediction on Obama’s pledge to pull troops out of Iraq, his Kenyan heritage and his middle name, Hussein.

“The radical Islamists, the al-Qaida … would be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on Sept. 11 because they would declare victory in this war on terror,” King said in an interview with the Daily Reporter in Spencer.

So the US leaving Iraq is a victory for terrorists? The alternative is a never ending bottomless pit for our blood and treasure, while fanning fathomless hate in and unstable region that we’ve never really understood. Good plan you friggin’ idiot.

More guns on campus will fix everything. It will prevent senseless murders by mentally ill students who don’t receive needed treatment. Perfect.

Some years ago I was hiking through the Smokey Mountains National Park. I came across an elderly couple coming down the trail from the opposite direction. The man was carrying a double barrel 12 gauge shotgun with the breech open in the crrok of his arm. I said hello (very politely) and asked if they were carrying the gun for hunting, thinking perhaps they were lost since there’s no guns allowed in the park. The woman replied, with a gap toothed grin in her deep southern Appalachian drawl, “We always bring the shotgun, cuz you never know what might need killin’”. I think that pretty much sums up the thought process of those who support lifting the ban on firearms in national parks. I’d rather not be the subject of whatever calculation they make to decide what does or doesn’t need killin’ in the backwoods of an a publicly owned park that I go to relax and escape my fellow man. Now I have to worry about who might be packing heat?

McCain Warns: “There Will Be Other Wars” – Politics on The Huffington Post
Sen. John McCain told a crowd of supporters on Sunday, “It’s a tough war we’re in. It’s not going to be over right away. There’s going to be other wars.” Offering more of his increasingly bleak “straight talk,” he repeated the claim: “I’m sorry to tell you, there’s going to be other wars. We will never surrender but there will be other wars.”

Run those two gems back to back a couple of times with a little voice over noting that this is what the GOP stands for and you have a gem of a campaign ad for whoever wins the democratic nomination. Thanks John!