New Hall of Shame Entry - Sean Hannity

I've added our second inductee into the Orphaned Republican Hall of Shame and it's none other than Sean Hannity.

A Perfect Example

This is a perfect example of the problem of the tea party - taken at Beck's Bullshit Bonanza©®™:

As you can see, the problem clearly started with Barack HUSSEIN Obama. Republicans had nothing to do with the mess we find ourselves in.

Kristol - We Won, But Let's Occupy Iraq Permanately

Sometimes it's an upside down world. Bill Kristol - who legend has it, was once correct about something - has declared victory in Iraq. And he believes George W. Bush should get credit for it. Most of all, Barack HUSSEIN Obama should get credited for opposing the surge and for our defeat (or something like that).

As asked, American troops are leaving Iraq as agreed. But our nutty professor, bouncin' Bill Kristol thinks this is a mistake.

WTF? You declare victory on one hand, credit the surge for working, and now want to occupy Iraq indefinitely. So, did the surge work or not? A surge is not permanent occupation - there is nothing,long term about a surge. It really doesn't matter because anybody that thinks the surge fixed anything is an idiot. Clearly, the surge reduced violence. That always happens when a civil war has played itself out, when you wall off portions of the city with cement barriers, and you have 10's of thousands of the most badd-ass troops on the planet kicking a little insurgency butt.

Other than that, nothing else happened, This was supposed to give the Iraqis breathing room to get their elections and government in order. But that never happened, Now we're leaving and unbelievably, a bunch of uncivilized douchebags are strapping bombs to themselves and blowing up police stations. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Kristol is another who is part of the problem and quite frankly, has no regard for the lives of our troops. To Kristol, the troops are nothing more than a few wrenches and screwdrivers in his political toolbox.

Pot, Meet Kettle

The Wall Street Journal - once full of prestige and intellectual analysis - hires "turd blossum", aka Karl Rove - to provide partisan hackery...errr...I mean, "insightful analysis".

First, he rails on Barack HUSSEIN Obama for his low approvals ratings. Fair enough, but Rove knows Saint Ronnie's numbers and several other presidents he likes had the same poll numbers this far into their presidencies. And Karl Rove knows Obama has less to work with the most of his predecessors did.


But you know it's partisan bullshit when he repeats this crap:

Obama's Council of Economic Advisers Chair Christina Romer—speaking before the 2009 stimulus was approved—said unemployment would top out at 8% by the third quarter of 2009 and decline to less than 7% by the end of 2010.

It's one thing to get it wrong. But it's another thing to know that the Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact.com disproved that bogus talking point. Nobody said that. It was a projection full of heavy disclaimers. If I know this, Rove sure as hell knows this.

How can anybody believe anything this asshole has to say? The entire republican party has a huge credibility problem, but instead of rehabilitating that, we get more lies. Well, at least it's not like he lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or anything. Wait...what....huh? Ooops - never mind.

Reclaim Our Civil Rights?

So, Glen Beck marches on Washington to "reclaim" our civil rights. For all this talk about losing our freedoms, what exactly have we lost? When people like me (or "us" if you are a fellow orphaned republican) called foul with the several different versions of the Patriot Act, I didn't see Glen Beck and the tea baggers jumping up and down. Instead, they berated us for objecting to warrantless wiretapping and most of all, calling every street in America a "battlefield" when it comes to the war on terror. Which means they can - and they have - pulled American citizens off the street and without due process, whisked them away to Gitmo.

This is why I can't take Beck and the teabaggers seriously - they have a selective memory. And it's ok to lose freedoms as long as it's their guy doing it. I simply don't see any comparison between Bush and Obama when it comes to freedoms. In fact, I can't see any clear examples with Obama, but can find many with Bush.

Ground Zero Mosque - Round II

The talking heads continue have their heads explode over this ground zero mosque controversy. Every analogy imaginable has been made to make a point of why this shouldn't happen. Hannity resorted to the Bill Ayers tactic - the Imam is a douchebag, so anybody for this mosque agrees with the Imam. Then he throws out the "This Imam thinks the Palestinians are not terrorists"  as if only the fringe agree with this. Personally, I think the Pals are terrorists and terrorist sympathizers and cannot fathom how anybody could see otherwise. But the fact is, many people see them as the underdog and for whatever reason, don't agree. Does that make these people Al Quaida supporters? Of course not. But the insanity which is Hannity seems to think so to make a point. It's all rhetoric and hyperbole.

But here is the most important point to be made in my opinion - rejecting this mosque is accepting defeat. We are allowing a fringe element of Islam to control our actions. Instead of minimizing their relevance - as we should be doing - we make them more relevant by modifying our behavior that without this fringe, would be different. Osama Bin Laden - the brilliant mastermind that brought America down with $100 worth of boxcutters - has to be pissing his pants laughing at us. He's divided us over a church. This is too stupid for words.

To be clear, I would prefer they not build the mosque out of respect for the 9/11 families. But our freedoms are not based on what I prefer - or you prefer. Our freedoms are for everybody no matter how stupid we think some people are.

Changing our behavior only gives terrorism more relevance. This needs to stop.

The Ground Zero Mosque - Revisited & Revised

You know what the great thing about writing a blog in mostly real time is? You get do-overs. And I think I'd like to take one now. The Orphaned Republican is owning up to a mistake and taking his first ever blog mulligan.

I was mistaken in forming the opinion that no mosque should be built at the site of ground zero. Having said this, I'm not sure there are any plans to build one at ground zero anyhow as we are talking about somethings several blocks away from this "hollowed" ground. In any case, I've reversed my opinion based on two factors:

Bailin Palin - the cashed out half term governor, fulltime backseat president - is against it. That should have given me pause. But the thoughts of all those people who lost their lives on 9/11 overcame the smell of Palin's opportunism.

But my main reason? Get over it.

Seriously. How long are we going to remain a victim of someone's success in using boxcutters to inflict terror? Do you know why we have been terrorized and why they still want to terrorize us? Because we allow ourselves to shit our pants everytime some dumbass fails to kill more of us. Now we will be further terrorized because Muslims want to build a house of worship in the area some nutbags inflicted terror in the name of that religion.

What are they going to do? Build that mosque and start planning on new terror attacks? Because tactically, that makes a lot of sense. Why would they plan terror against us in the basement of a rundown POS apartment building in bumf*ck, Iowa when they could do it in plain sight of the world?

It's true that if the tables were reversed, no Arab country would allow us to build a protestant church there. But we're not some lame-ass Arab country. We're the United F*cking States of America. We're above all that crap. How better to show the lack of fear by allowing the religion of peace to worship where ever they want - just like the 1st amendment protects all of us?

Show the Muslim extremist bastards we aren't afraid of them. Let them build their mosque. It's not like they're building it in a hole in the ground where the twin towers used to stand anyhow.

Get over it already.

Weekend posting

Hey folks, sorry for the slow posting over the weekend. It's not really a matter of time as opposed to something interesting to write about. I'm still looking at the social security debate, but honestly, both sides of the argument are probably lying. The problem with today's republican party, they cannot be believed - the have no credibility on any issue whatsoever. Sometimes I think they lie when telling the truth would be easier.

So, if the republicans tell us that privatizing social security is a good thing, why should we not believe they are propping up more Fannie Mae, Freddie Macs, and Enrons? I'm as big a capitalist as anybody and love when big companies make big money because that means lots of jobs. But the last two market crashes were caused by monetary incompetence and negligence. Are these the people we want to invest our social security in? Conversely, it could be we focus on the exceptions rather than the rule. Maybe the pareto principle is in the works here - 80% of all problems are caused by the same 20% of companies. Meaning, most companies should be safe investments. Objectively, that could be true. But it would also have to mean 20% of these companies could put us all in the poor house. After all, they've done it twice in the last 20 years.

Stay tuned -

Mark Sanford (R-eally another Fraud)

So, Mark Sanford, the republican from South Carolina flip flops. No, he didn't break up with the babe he was banging to go back to his wife or anything. Instead, he is accepting the stimulus money he was against.

Now, when I say "against", I don't mean he renounced the stimulus in a speech or anything. This guy actually filed a lawsuit because he figured the legislature has overstepped authority under federal law. And for those of you who supported the stimulus, he has labeled you part of "the fringe".

So, being the principled kinda guy he is, he's pocketing almost $100 million that he doesn't have to pay back to pay for extended unemployment benefits.

This is why you can't beleive any of these douchebags that have acted like liberals, but talk like conservatives. At the end of the day, they are lying pricks. And Sanford is no exception.

Gateway Pundit - A Pefect Example

As shown yesterday, Bailin' Palin was confronted by an angry citizen. When the person said she was a teacher (in response to Palin's question), Palin appeared to roll her eyes. I make every effort to be objective and gave Palin the benefit of the doubt - there is nothing which makes me believe Palin rolled her eyes because she was a teacher. It could have been one or more of many things (union member, liberal, etc).

Apparently, there is a chucklehead named Jim Hoft who writes for a blog called Gateway Pundit. In his article, he claims that the person is a liar - she is no teacher. Further, she really is the lead singer of a transvestite rock band.

As usual, he got it all wrong. She is indeed a teacher and the "band" was a production she was responsible for in terms of staging, lighting, etc. The person in drag is actually Jewel's sister  brother who if anything like her his sister, has mad singing skills (seriously - check this out - it's awesome. Jewel wears a disguise to perform some of her songs karaoke). Anyhow, the person checks out.

But of course, it never stops there. This guy (Hoft) doubled down. Now "unhinged leftists" - which I am assuming is you and me - have our panties in a bunch over this. This confirms my point that the republicans think there are only 9 commandments. The one where you should not bear false witness against your neighbor got lost when God faxed Moses a copy of the ten commandments on couple of stone tablets.

If you are like me - really tired of the nutjobs driving this country into the ground - read the comments. I can't even summarize them because they are some of the most hateful rhetoric you can imagine. The defense of Palin shoots right through "laughable" to sadness. These people are voters. Legally speaking, they are allowed to go into a voting booth and when not having their votes stolen by Diebold*, affect the course of this country through the selections they make. They use their credit cards and checkbooks to give people like Sarah Palin their money. It's so absurd on so many different levels, it makes me want to drive a nail into my forehead.

The worst part is, they don't think this crap up on their own. They are fed this garbage from people like...well, the author of this article, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neal Boortz, and Glen Beck. These people are tools. Those talking heads and pundits don't care what the message is as long as their ratings go up. They don't care about those people - they care about their revemue. And they certainly don't care about our country.

* See here

Birthers - The New Black Box Cynics

When Bush was running for re-election, many conspiracy minded liberal dems were on the war path. No matter how we voted, the election was going to be stolen because these new-fangled black boxes (they are just touchscreen computers, but "black box" sounds so sexy) were going to be rigged.

Their proof? Some numbnuts from Diebold told Bush on a stump speech that "Diebold would bring the votes for Bush". A lot of people took that literally. When you pour a little gas on a fire, it doesn't take much for the fire to spread. Soon, people were convinced that Diebold's boxes could be hacked and elections thrown.

This was nutty - first, Diebold wasn't and isn't the only supplier of voting machines. Second, each machine was generic. It had to be configured for a certain election. And lastly, each voting precinct had both democrat and republican workers overseeing the voting process.

Today's birthers are the right's version of the black box cynics. No matter what the evidence, they cannot be convinced.

I work with a couple BushBots - the 28 percenters who think Bush did a good job. I talked to one about Obama's birth and his reply was, "Obama received financial aid in the US as a foreign student! I don't think there is much you can say to dispute that!".

Obviously, that entire point was found to be a hoax - fabricated by other birthers. No matter, they still don't beleive the certificate of live birth - something most of them probably have - is real. The attorney general of Hawaii and other fact check organizations are lying. Further, Obama's mom put notices in the newspapaer to make sure Obama would be a citizen. Their heads explode when you point out the health department did this on their own - his parents had nothing to do with it.

It doesn't matter what you show, they won't believe. Obama could hand carry his original birth certificate to them and they would still demand more evidence. They are nuttier than the back box people by a long shot.

When you hear people say there is not a dime's worth of difference between liberals and conservatives, here's your proof - both sides have a fair amount of whackjobs on their side.