I'd Like to Join the Party, But I Was Not Invited

Actually, I was invited, but I didn't like to join the party -- either party -- that much. Here's a story which may help to explain why, from Driftglass via the Sideshow:

Once upon a time, there was a President named Bill Clinton, who was, by most historical standards, a typical Centrist Republican, although by a fluke of geography and circumstances he ran for public office with a "(D)" after his name. Under his Administration, many Conservative ideas which had long gathered dust on the shelf -- ideas such as welfare reform, a balanced budget, debt reduction, a strict 'Pay as You Go' fiscal regime, a boom in technology jobs, budget surpluses, NAFTA, GATT, official bans on gay marriage, etc. -- were finally realized. And for all of his good work on behalf of their ideology, Conservatives spent eight, long years treating Bill Clinton -- a Southern, White, Christian man -- as if he were a case of flesh eating nuclear syphilis. Because he did not run for office with an "(R)" after his name.

The writer is absolutely correct: Clinton (and now Obama) was subjected to the kind of sliming that Democrats reserve for Ralph Nader, and even then, not with the same whole-hearted dementia. Reading the whole post, I'm inclined to think that I don't rant enough.

Oh, and then there's this, from Whatever It Is, I'm Against It:

Monday, the Obama admin filed a brief in District Court arguing that prisoners at Bagram Airfield have no habeas corpus rights because it is located an active war zone, glossing over the fact that some of the prisoners were only in an active war zone because they were kidnapped from other countries and brought there. Reminds me of the 2,264 ethnic Japanese the US seized from Peru and other Latin American countries during World War II and transported to the internment camps in the US. When the US began paying reparations to interned Japanese-Americans in 1990 it excluded these internees because they had been... wait for it... illegal immigrants.

But the truly faithful (via) can overlook such small peccadilloes.

Thought for the Day

Do I repeat myself? Very well, then, I repeat myself.

This one from James Wolcott, thanks to Dear Leader:

Part of the crazy cognitive dissonance of this summer is the rabid conviction the tea baggers and conservative bloggers possess that Obama is a suave-talking, solid-core radical socialist who practices Chicago-thug hardball, when in fact if Team Obama was the steamroller they claim, they never would have acquired the momentum they've mustered this summer--a true Lenin would have squashed them out of the gate and hardly would have allowed this much slippage this fast. They want Obama to be ruthless and authoritarian because they want to think of themselves as a heroic resistance. They evoke Hitler not because they fear another Hitler, their very obsession with Nazi imagery betrays their attraction; no, they're longing for a Leader, a Hitler of their own. Even a Hitler in high heels, if you can picture such a lady, and I think we all can.

More Teabaggers Who Can't Count: Elementary Arithmetic and Civics

Back for a moment to that CNN story on the teabagger protest in Washington.

"The government should be doing things that are authorized by the Constitution; they should be doing things that the people want, not things that they just decide are nifty," one demonstrator said. "We can't afford these things anymore."

First, taking care of the people's health is at least arguably authorized by the Constitution under promoting the general welfare. Second, health care reform isn't on the table now because the government just decided it was "nifty", it's because large numbers of Americans want reform. (Whether what Obama and the Democrats are pushing is really reform is another question.) That is, health care reform is a thing "that the people want," as polls continue to show.

Another teabagger:

Another man said, "We're here to let the government know that we do not want government involvement in our health care, nor do we want the higher taxation that comes along with such a proposal."

This guy may be another of the lackwits who think that Medicare and Medicaid are not government programs. But again, most Americans do want government involvement in their health care, and are willing to pay the higher taxation that comes with such a proposal. Most would prefer to save money by getting the US out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and most are not happy with the huge government bailout of the financial industry -- two very expensive programs that don't do any one any good. Here, at least, the teabaggers may be in agreement with most of their fellow citizens.

More elementary civics for teabaggers.

P.S. September 14. And some more advanced math on Saturday's capital rally from 538.com, thanks to my friend Leslie. It seems that Michelle Malkin didn't lie -- this time.