Posts by Eli

The Latest Republican Bigotry Roundup
Posted by Eli , Firedoglake on April 22, 2009 at 7:45 AM.

Note to Republicans: Being the anti-minority party is the surest route to becoming the permanent minority party.  Your hatred, contempt, and fear of anyone who is not a straight white Christian man makes you very unappealing to anyone who isn't.  Or who likes and respects anyone who isn't.  Or who has a shred of human decency and compassion.  Locking up the bigot vote won't do you much good if you lose everyone else.

Here's a sampler of charming stories from just the past 24.5 hours:

For the ladies, we have:

• "Men's rights lawyer" Roy Den Hollander vows to continue his lawsuit against Columbia University for "aiding and advancing the modern-day religion of Feminism," even after a judge recommended that it be dismissed.

• Rush Limbaugh says that torture is just a great big hyped-up myth, just like domestic violence, which is really nothing more than shouting.  Hey, I guess that means all those women's crisis centers have to do is hand out earplugs, and the problem will be solved!

For the minorities:

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Shock Jock Michael Savage's Big Gay Apocalypse
Posted by Eli , Firedoglake on November 26, 2008 at 12:04 PM.

I have this theory that Michael Savage's primary purpose in life is to make Rush Limbaugh look tolerant and sane. Here, let me show you what I mean:

Well, socially, we're far worse -- more degenerate than Weimar Germany. At least in Weimar Germany, men couldn't marry men and women couldn't marry women. So we're probably 10 leagues below the degeneracy that brought about Hitler. We're probably 50 leagues below the degeneracy that brought about Hitler. We are the sickest, most disgusting country on the earth, and we are... psychotic as a nation.

It's a psychotic nation when the attorney general of the state of California, when the senator from the state of California named Dianne Feinstein, when the governor from the state of California who posed as a strongman gets up there and says that homosexuals have a right to marry that's equal to a man and a woman, they're insane. They are fundamentally insane.

Got that? The fact that there was opposition to Prop 8, that there are actually people who -- gasp -- believe that gay people should have the same right as everyone else, means that we are the most degenerate country in the world, and that the moral backlash from righteous people like Michael Savage will almost certainly lead to the second coming of Adolf Hitler. Awesome.

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Alaska Independence Party: Far-Right Nader of the North
Posted by Eli , Firedoglake on November 16, 2008 at 12:45 PM.

As Political Base points out, Mark Begich's current margin of victory in the Alaska Senate race (1,022 votes) is dwarfed by the 12,000 votes cast for the Alaska Independence Party candidate.

Given that the Alaska Independence Party are on the right-wing survivalist end of the political spectrum, that pretty much makes Bob Bird the gun-toting separatist version of Ralph Nader -- only more popular.

And lest anyone forget, this is the same party that Todd Palin belonged to for several years, and the same party that Sarah Palin gave her warm video pep talk to this year.  I wonder if that encouragement helped inspire them to that lofty vote total.  Who knows, maybe even Sarah Palin herself voted for the AIP candidate, rather than cast a vote for a convicted felon or a Democrat.

It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

James Dobson Reminds Us What's Really Important (Rhymes With May Garriage)
Posted by Eli , Firedoglake on October 27, 2008 at 9:43 AM.

Mullah Dobson explains why the presidential election isn't nearly as important as Proposition 8:

We've picked bad presidents before, and we've survived as a nation. But we will not survive if we lose the institution of marriage.

Got that? Gutting the Constitution, breaking the military, crashing the economy, and making the world hate us, no biggie. But letting gays get married, that's the end of the world. And not in a cool End Times, Rapture, Hello-again-Mr.-Jesus kind of way either.



Better yet, as emptywheel pointed out to me, Prop 8 won't just stop gays from getting married in California, it'll nullify all existing gay marriages. Because nothing will preserve the sacred institution of marriage like suddenly dissolving a whole bunch of 'em.



(h/t julia)

What I'm Loving Tonight at the DNC: Casey, Hillary, And Grayson
Posted by Eli , Firedoglake on August 26, 2008 at 9:00 PM.

Bob Casey Jr., while not the greatest speaker in the world, had the line of the night, and possibly the year:

John McCain votes with Bush 95% of the time.  That's not a maverick - that's a sidekick!

If there is any one meme I would love to see circulated and repeated over and over again in this presidential campaign, that would be it.  It simultaneously demolishes McCain's"maverick" reputation and ties the Dubyatross around his neck where it belongs.


Kickass, nail-cheaters-to-the-wall, progressive Blue America Democrat Alan Grayson demolished establishment DCCC tool Charlie Stuart in the FL-08 primary, 48%-27%.  This can only be good for centrist Democrats!



Hillary 4 Obama!

I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches, advocating for children, campaigning for universal healthcare, helping parents balance work and family, and fighting for women's rights, here at home and around the world... to see another Republican in the White House squander our promise of a country that really fulfills the hopes of our people.

And you haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last 8 years, to suffer through more failed leadership.  No way, no how, no McCain.

Barack Obama is my candidate, and he must be our president.

And then she referred to her "Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pantsuits."


Also: Brian Schweitzer was great, full of energy and charisma and mischief.  I had the same reaction as Christy - why the hell wasn't he the keynote???

Siegelman Slams Rove
Posted by Eli , Firedoglake on March 29, 2008 at 7:49 AM.

Don Siegelman is a free man! Pending appeal, anyway. And that YouTube is just the tip of the iceberg - NYT has more:

In a telephone interview shortly after he walked out of a federal prison in Oakdale, La., Mr. Siegelman said there had been "abuse of power" in his case, and repeatedly cited the influence of Karl Rove, the former White House political director.

"His fingerprints are smeared all over the case," Mr. Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case.

(...)

The former governor, a Democrat, said he would "press" to have Mr. Rove answer questions about his possible involvement in the case before Congress, which has already held a hearing on Mr. Siegelman. On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee signaled its intention to have Mr. Siegelman testify about the nature of his prosecution.

How many lives does Karl Rove have left? He wriggled free of prosecution for outing Valerie Plame, and the clock's running out on the US Attorney firings/coverup investigation - could this be the one that finally brings him down?

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