Just to amplify an issue related to Mistermix’s post below about austerity peacock Tom Coburn’s announcement that he would seek to offset federal disaster relief funds to Oklahoma with budget cuts elsewhere (Pentagon exempted, naturally). Let’s pause to consider what it means that Coburn issued this statement while bodies were still being pulled from the rubble in his home state, an activity that is ongoing.
A spokesman for the senator claimed that Coburn was merely being consistent about his position on federal disaster aid. That’s a lie: Mrs. Polly at Rumproast provides links to accounts of Coburn questioning and delaying disaster relief to other states while accepting funds for Oklahoma. It’s no surprise that Coburn is a liar and a hypocrite: That’s what we expect from politicians. It’s what our grandparents expected, and their grandparents too.
But what does seem somewhat novel — to me, at least — is the brazen callousness in today’s breed of Republicans, a rigid orthodoxy combined with a rich man’s insulation from trouble that renders them utterly indifferent to the fate of others, even those who look like them and share their origins and cultural pretensions.
Coburn is retiring after his current term: Maybe he’d be less quick to rush before the cameras to display his austerity plumage if he had to stand for another election. But I don’t think that’s necessarily true anymore. His real political masters, Koch Industries, et al, will applaud his haste to emphasize what’s really important in the face of a natural disaster, which is to keep corporate tax rates low and gut regulations on industries that contribute to extreme climate events.
And even if voters remember some other austerity peacock’s callous disregard for an unfolding disaster in some future election (doubtful thanks to the flood of corporate money that swings most elections), the heartless pricks who are voted out of office can transition seamlessly into cushy private sector influence-peddling gigs.
There’s really nothing new to see here, I suppose, but I can’t help but feel that something has been lost nonetheless: basic human decency, fundamental accountability — or at least the need to pretend that these quaint notions are relevant.
Liquid
Once again Tom Coburn can fornicate himself with an iron stick.,
the Conster
I’m sure it’s all Obama’s fault. If only he’d Lead.
NickT
This sort of ignorance has been part and parcel of the deepfried Southern conservative mind ever since the maniacal raging against Federal improvements back in the first half of the 19th century.
Chris
I think Republicans have always resented the need to “pretend” that these quaint notions were anything other than a waste of time, and after a generation of living in their bubble, they’re tired of pretending. Ronald Reagan re-sacralized the White House as permanent Republican property in 1980, for Pete’s sake. Thirty three years into the process, they think, it’s ridiculous that we still have to continue paying lip service to those quaint liberal sensitivities.
Calming Influence
Shorter Coburn: “I insist that we offset the cost of my constituent’s suffering by inflicting suffering on other people.”
Chris
@NickT:
Pardon? What improvements are you talking about? (Don’t know as much as I should about pre-Civil War history, so I’m curious).
jfxgillis
I’m fine with Coburn’s position.
Just cut the National Weather Service’s Tornado Alert system.
Cacti
I propose the offsets start with Coburn’s congressional pension.
Patricia Kayden
But I’m sure Oklahomans would re-elect Coburn if they had the chance. They hate Obama and Coburn hates Obama and that’s more than enough.
Let’s see if any Dems vote against aid for Oklahoma like the 36 Repub Senators and the 67 House Repubs who voted against aid re Hurricane Sandy.
Hillary Rettig
I disagree that we expect the same level of lying and hypocrisy from all politicians. “Smaller government / less safety net / more individual responsibility” is probably THE fundamental principle of the modern GOP platform. But GOP politicos routinely and blatantly violate that principle when it serves their needs. I don’t know of an equivalent situation with Democrats routinely violating what they claim to be their fundamental principles.
Of course, wingers are hypocrites personally, too. For all their willingness to deny (in some cases, gleefully) compassion and aid to others in need, I’ve never known one who didn’t crave help and understanding and compassionate *for himself.”.
Villago Delenda Est
Coburn’s existence needs to be erased from the universe.
NickT
@Chris:
You might know them as internal improvements, if that helps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_improvements
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, and speaking of Oklahomans who do not need to be erased from the universe, do we have any word from Soonergrunt?
Cris (without an H)
Twice in six months, Republicans get to show that elementary schools full of corpses don’t really upset them much.
beltane
The fact that these people operate under the mantle of “Christianity” is truly the cherry that sits atop their shit sundae. It’s almost like they are actively hoarding every vice known to mankind, and their faux-piety is just a way to add hypocrisy to their collection of sins. Politicians like Coburn and, unfortunately, the people who vote for them fill me with more disgust than I can properly describe.
beltane
@Villago Delenda Est: The evil he has done will be around long after his existence is erased.
David Koch
Coburn is the wacko who freaked out in Congress when “Schindler’s List” came out because of the ….. wait for it… the sex depicted in the film.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
And if the “Deficit” is the Most Serious issue facing the country, why isn’t the recent announcement that the deficit has been cut in half getting more attention? I doubt the Gregorys and the Vande Heis and the Brokaws and other Bowles-Simpson pimps who see themselves as just-the-facts reporters ever have a glimmer of self-reflection these days. No, I don’t.
and since all politics lead me back to Iraq, I gather Donald Rumsfeld had a triumphant media tour last week?
beltane
@David Koch: He’s also the one who railed against the lesbian cults who were allegedly seeking recruits in high school girls’ bathrooms. And yet his constituents love him…
NonyNony
@Hillary Rettig:
This is not meant as snark, but this is at least partly because as a party the Democrats don’t have those kind of fundamental principles. You can’t boil the Democratic party down to a handful of bumper-sticker slogans like “Small government” or “End Socialism” and whatnot. What you get is a bunch of preferred policy outcomes (like, we want to have economic growth, or workplace protection for workers, or civil unions for gay couples) and a whole bunch of different rationales for why we want that and/or plans for how to go about getting that.
You don’t get that kind of ideological purity of your fundamental principles when you’re a “big tent” party that is trying to be as inclusive as possible. So you see fewer Democratic politicians violating “fundamental principles” because Democratic fundamental principles are squooshier than Republican ones, and so violations are less clear-cut. About the only “fundamental principle” that all Democratic politicians have and can agree on is that government is supposed to work to make life more tolerable for people (though they even disagree about what “more tolerable” means and “which people” should get priority, so even there – squooshy).
(This is the underlying complaint of all “firebaggers” and anyone else who is so upset by the Democratic party that they will go vote for a third party instead – they believe that the party has a set of “fundamental principles” that are routinely being violated by Obama and the Dems in Congress and that those “fundamental principles” are the things that the particular “firebagger” in question is upset about. In fact the problem is that there are no principles that are that “fundamental” beyond “government is supposed to work” and haven’t been for at least as long as I’ve been watching politics.)
Betty Cracker
@Hillary Rettig: The level of lying, hypocrisy and indifference isn’t the same, which is why I vote exclusively for Democrats. But plenty of Democrats violate their principles every goddamned day. Just look at the role people like Chris Dodd and Chuck Schumer played in preventing more meaningful reforms in the wake of the financial crash. Hell, Bill Clinton repealed Glass-Steagall.
BobS
I called Carl Levin’s office requesting that he honor Sen. Coburn’s wishes. No disaster relief without offsetting cuts. I also requested that no offsetting cuts be made.
A similar request to the mostly Democratic senators in the northeast may resonate.
Tsukune
@NonyNony:
“Love thy neighbor.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Tsukune: at this point, the Republican base reminds me of the old joke about Russian peasants, they just want their (dark skinned) neighbor’s cow to die.
Cris (without an H)
@NonyNony: Excellent analysis.
The “big tent” aspect is important — I’ve come to realize in the last decade or so that the national Democratic Party is much more a coalition than a single party. That’s true of the GOP as well — which is why we’ve witnessed so much infighting recently — but the Democrats are constitutionally more inclusive of real diversity, to the extent of trying to accommodate conflicting goals among its constituent factions.
Mark S.
Wait, you can’t build a society on the principles of Atlas Shrugged?
Pokeyblow
“The people of Oklahoma are lucky to have someone like Tom representing them in Washington — someone who speaks his mind, sticks to his principles and is committed to the people he was elected to serve.”
— President Barack Obama
Villago Delenda Est
@David Koch:
I don’t think it was sex, so much as the nudity. In the showers. Were people were gassed to death. Which was an authentic depiction of what actually happened, unless you’re a holocaust denier like Sturmbannführer Pat Buchanan.
Cris (without an H)
Were you trying to confuse him?
Seanly
@NickT:
Ahhh, is that why the Confederate Constitution spefically forbade federal infrastructure spending except for ports?
It’d be interesting to hear a well-informed view of what the Confederacy would’ve looked like. And I don’t mean any of those Harry Turtledove novels…
Felonius Monk
Where, oh where, is Bobby Lee Swagger when we really need him?
Bill
In 2005 Oklahoma received $1.36 in federal funds for every $1.00 it sent to the federal government. Maybe the clean-up funds for their tragic devastation from yesterday’s tornadoes could be deducted from their federal reimbursement dollars. I wonder if Coburn would ever speak publicly about that possibility.
http://taxfoundation.org/data-taxtopic/883
State
Federal Spending per
Dollar of Federal Taxes Rank
New Mexico $2.03 1
Mississippi $2.02 2
Alaska $1.84 3
Louisiana $1.78 4
West Virginia $1.76 5
North Dakota $1.68 6
Alabama $1.66 7
South Dakota $1.53 8
Kentucky $1.51 9
Virginia $1.51 10
Montana $1.47 11
Hawaii $1.44 12
Maine $1.41 13
Arkansas $1.41 14
Oklahoma $1.36 15
South Carolina $1.35 16
Missouri $1.32 17
Maryland $1.30 18
Tennessee $1.27 19
Idaho $1.21 20
Arizona $1.19 21
Kansas $1.12 22
Wyoming $1.11 23
Iowa $1.10 24
Nebraska $1.10 25
Vermont $1.08 26
North Carolina $1.08 27
Pennsylvania $1.07 28
Utah $1.07 29
Indiana $1.05 30
Ohio $1.05 31
Georgia $1.01 32
Rhode Island $1.00 33
Florida $0.97 34
Texas $0.94 35
Oregon $0.93 36
Michigan $0.92 37
Washington $0.88 38
Wisconsin $0.86 39
Massachusetts $0.82 40
Colorado $0.81 41
New York $0.79 42
California $0.78 43
Delaware $0.77 44
Illinois $0.75 45
Minnesota $0.72 46
New Hampshire $0.71 47
Connecticut $0.69 48
Nevada $0.65 49
New Jersey $0.61 50
District of Columbia $5.55 na
Federal Spending in Each State Per Dollar of Federal Taxes
FY 2005
Source: Tax Foundation, Census Bureau
Ash Can
As someone else in the previous thread said, Harry Reid should bring a clean aid bill with no offsets to the floor for a vote, as quickly as it can be drawn up, and force these two assholes to vote against it. And make sure the cameras are rolling all the while.
mike with a mic
It’s the old conservative gripe.
Since the New Deal came and it’s government money and safety net people didn’t have to trust on their churches, businesses, and family leaders for help. Which lead to the decline of Christian morality and traditional cultural morality. So now we all have to pay for it through suffering. It’s something we have to go through to make up for our sins. It may suck but it’s pretty much our penance.
When the social safety net is slashed enough it’s not worth a warm bucket of piss we’ll have to turn back to the churches and traditional leaders if we want medical help, care when out of a job, a roof in our old age. We’ll also be forced to live with our parents and grand parents again. It will be a forced return to the old ways and the old structures and if you don’t get inline with Jesus they won’t help you. You won’t have a choice. Which is why many of them are cheering the end of the government as the point when the family and the church will return to being the most powerful institutions in our lives again.
This of course works out fine with the neoliberal corporate crowd who will get the SS trust fund to pay off the debt and gamble with, along with a very timid work force, lower taxes, and less regulations.
Just don’t make the mistake of thinking their isn’t an end game here, now and then some of them say it. How student loans and unemployment insurance let kids not depending on their parents and then go wild. Or how social security removes the need for multi-generational nuclear families in the same home and removes the need to marry and procreate (single peoples, oh no!). Or even how government disaster funding has taken the job away from the church as have food stamps. They aren’t dumb and they aren’t stupid. They know exactly where this is all going to end up.
At this point I say let it. The Democrats have been to focused on social issues instead of economic ones. If they are going to ignore it than let the shit hit the fan and let them see when they ignore economic one’s we’ll turn so socially regressive they will be screaming to be allowed to live in Saudi Arabia. Until the Democratic realizes that social liberalism will die horribly without economic equality, let the blood run.
? Martin
The state of Oklahoma is welcome to pay the US government back just like the banks did. Nobody is stopping them.
Cassidy
@ Betty up top
We haven’t lost any basic standards of deceny. We’ve only lost the requirement that people pretend to have any. We’re animals and pack animals to boot, which means 99% of us are going to go with the flow and rip our enemies apart limb from limb if that’s what the Alpha’s decide we’re doing today. We will never stop coming up with new and inventive ways to inflict sufferring on our fellow man. It’s what we are.
Conservatives have always been soulless piles of shit who enjy the sufferring of others. The only difference is that now they don’t feel the need to dress it up in big words.
SatanicPanic
Republicans don’t care about hypocrisy. Which is fine, I don’t either. Does anyone? Do we really want a nation of people upholding their principles ALL THE TIME? I don’t. Let’s stick to insulting them in ways that actually work- they’re crazy. They’re ignorant. They’re dangerous. They’re uptight and preachy.
NonyNony
@Tsukune:
* Unless they live in a country where terrorists hide. Then feel free to consider them potential collateral damage.
** Or people who commit minor drug infractions. They don’t really need love they need hard time.
*** Also too – replacing public infrastructure with private infrastructure counts as tough love. So tough love your neighbor if they don’t have enough money to say no.
Seriously – you can’t boil Democratic politicians down to simple bumper sticker messages because they themselves will nuance the hell out of those bumpersticker messages just to make sure that you don’t get the idea that they’re too liberal. Meanwhile Republicans have no worries about being perceived as too conservative so they give the middle finger to nuance and then behave hypocritically if their ideology burns them in the ass.
maya
@beltane: Republicans, since the Reagan days of yore have been very successful at turning the Seven Deadly Sins into virtues. Especially Greed, Envy, and Wrath. And Lust, when out for a stroll on the Appalachian Trail.
Sloth, Pride and Gluttony can also be found in individual cases.
Also, too, don’t forget that Get Out of Hell Free card they all carry.
eric
you liberals just cant see it because you are so invested in your Black Savior. This tornado was freakishly large, suggesting that it was not all natural. If you watch the videos carefully, you can see the debris floating around it in a manner inconsistent with vortex symmetries. Also, note that there were no military aircraft anywhere in the area, further suggesting that someone knew this storm was coming. Now, comes the liberal chorus for federal money and good government without a minute’s hesitation. It is as if Obama and his chicago henchmen knew this storm was coming. What more evidence do you need? no, this was not global warming or just a random act of nature. I suggest you check out the video evidence for yourself. Don’t Tread On Me!
Certified Mutant Enemy
@Mark S.:
Republicans seem to be divided between those who want to build a society based on Atlas Shrugged and those who want to build a society based on The Handmaid’s Tale…
Yatsuno
@Bill: A large chunk of that pay in is through defence spending. I think we’ve found our offsets.
Villago Delenda Est
@Seanly:
The Confederacy looked less and less like the ideal Confederacy as the Civil War unfolded, as the concepts of the Founding Fathers of the Confederacy ran into a wall created by the hard, cruel necessities of being in a war for their survival.
Villago Delenda Est
@eric:
Ah, Infowars checks in with the False Flag operation of the day!
NonyNony
@eric:
Dude I know you’re going for a Poe but I bet if you go search the bowels of the conspiracy theory sites you will find someone who is convinced that Obama created the tornadoes via some kind of secret weather control satellite (which NASA is cleverly hiding as a weather tracking satellite – crafty buggers) and this is all a plot to strip Oklahomans of their guns and herd them into FEMA camps. (Soon to be followed-up with photos of FEMA camps in Oklahoma for that extra bit of crazy).
Hell I bet you don’t even have to go that deep. You could probably find something if you went over to Glenn Beck’s Blaze website right now.
NOTE: I do not recommend that anyone visit any of these sites. Particularly The Blaze.
Just Some Fuckhead
All the accountability has been gerrymandered out of the system.
Roger Moore
@NonyNony:
It’s also harder to reduce your political philosophy to bumper sticker principles when you’re committed to engaging with the real world. Even a very short list of principles will start to conflict with each other, which means some kind of compromise. The Republicans manage this through studied cognitive dissonance, but that’s not how the Democrats roll. We get into nasty internal fights about who has to lose out this time.
Higgs Boson's Mate
Old age must be affecting my memory. I can’t remember Coburn, or any other Senator, calling for offsetting cuts when they voted for all of those supplementals to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Hillary Rettig
@NonyNony: point well taken!
dexwood.
@eric:
Your tin foil hat is a little too tight there, buddy. Try the Saran Wrap, but you need to pull it down completely, tightly, over your mouth and nose to get the full effect.
Just Some Fuckhead
@eric:
It’s unbelievable the shit people will believe. If you look closely at the Oklahoma tornado videos, it is clear they are fakes. This is a false flag operation. This tornado never happened. Your government is lying to you.
Bokonon
This sort of stuff is standard operating procedure in corporate America – where employers have been aggressively ratcheting back the compact between them and their workers for the last two decades (or more).
So – broken promises and bad faith are already part of this nation’s operating culture – and the only innovation here is that the GOP is now introducing it to the NATIONAL social compact, between citizens and their government.
Seanly
@Villago Delenda Est:
btw, I didn’t mean that to be a “gee, wouldn’t it have been swell if” but more of a “what kind of a 3rd world shithole would the CSA have been come 1920”. My thoughts are that it would’ve made the fictional Columbia of Bioshock Infinite look like a paragon of tolerance & acceptance.
And back on topic, the ghoulish glee of Inhofe & Colbourn doesn’t surprise me in the least. I wouldn’t even be surprised if they were to ride around in a pickup shooting wounded survivors and stray dogs. The math demands it!
the Conster
@eric:
Way too much proper spelling and correct punctuation. WINGNUTSPEAK FAIL. You’ve got the conspiracy details down though. Pretty soon you’ll pass enough to get paid.
Roger Moore
@Seanly:
I think it would have disintegrated in fairly short order as soon as the Union was no longer a threat. It was already showing tendencies in that direction during the war, and I doubt it could have resisted for long without external pressure to keep the forces of disunion in check.
nemesis
@eric:
Everyone knows the gummit has been affecting weather patterns for decades. The WH had a monsterously bad week just completed, so, what did they need more than anything? A diversion, a distraction, which was supplied by the OK tornado. Well, at least big bad gummit can one one thing well.
It pains me to feel the need to add -snark.
Roger Moore
@NonyNony:
Chemtrails! Weaponizing weather patterns! It’s all part of Obama’s plan to implement Agenda 21!/wingnut
Elizabelle
@Seanly:
a little hyperbole there? (2d para)
David Koch
@the Conster:
if he had only took the tornado out to Camp David for some beers and brats, they could have built a personal relationship and avoided all this twistering. That’s what St. Ronnie would have done.
Cacti
@Seanly:
I think there would have been about a thimble’s worth of difference in the living conditions of the pre-New Deal south as opposed to a victorious CSA south.
Prior to FDR spending big bucks on infrastructure improvements, public works, and rural electrification, most of the south was a dirt road, semi-literate, disease-ridden, holler.
nastybrutishntall
@Hillary Rettig:
How about honoring the 4th Amendment?
Just Some Fuckhead
Grandpappy McCain would have sat the tornado down and said “Alright, cut the shit out.” Is Obama afraid of tornados?
Comrade Scrutinizer
@NonyNony:
“Socialism: Because people matter more than profits.”
TAPX486
@Roger Moore: Didn’t Georgia succeed from the Confederacy in 1865? Or was it South Carolina. I also seem to remember reading that Jeff Davis was having as much trouble rising money during the war as the US Congress under the Articles of Confederation in 1783-1787.
the Conster
@David Koch:
St. Ronnie would have said, “Tornado, tear down those walls!” Oh, whoops…… that’s Alzheimer’s Reagan.
Bokonon
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
BGK
Any word from the vandal caucus in the House yet? They’re usually big on this kind of hostage-taking, Cantor especially. Tom Cole, of OK-4, was on with Lawrence O’Donnell last night, and said he voted for Sandy aid because he knew his own district was one tornado away from oblivion.
Just Some Fuckhead
Winston Churchill would have rallied the world against those tornadoes but Obama Chamberlain wants to give them the Sudetenland.
David Koch
Personally, I blame the lack of prayer in school and gay marriage for the twisters.
As Michelle Bachmann recently said, disasters are God’s judgment.
RSA
Coburn today:
Coburn in 2005:
My emphasis. This is a minor point, but the most extreme Republicans have become even more extreme over the past several years. Dealing with disasters used to involve everyone pulling together; now it involves picking and choosing.
Violet
Somewhat related, I just saw a” Rand Paul for President 2016″ sticker on a car. Yes, really.
Just Some Fuckhead
I knew this was going to happen as soon as Grassley tweeted we were susceptible to a tornado invasion because we had no weather policy. Thanks Obama!
the Conster
@David Koch: Since the bible thumpers believe this to be true, and would rather give their money to OH NOES TEH GHEYS Pat Robertson than pay a dime more in taxes because TYRANNY!, they can ask Pat for help. I’m sure he’d totally part with his millions to help a Christian out.
WereBear
It is all part of the plan to Normalize Sociopathic Behavior.
schrodinger's cat
@RSA: But they still keep getting elected. Unless that changes, nothing will.
eric
@nemesis: the really great conspiracies link all the other conspiracies. Like, Area 51 houses an alien ship that contained unknown isotopes that attract water molecules, which is something you need for long term space travel. So, the government has adapted this isotope into an aerosol that collects otherwise minimal amounts of water into raging storms that create greater lightning and wind effects. Where is this headquartered? Tower 7, bitches.
Villago Delenda Est
@Seanly:
Oh, I know that. It’s just that even the Confederates, when confronted by reality, started discarding their immovable principles to hold on to their property (that is, the slaves).
belieber
Unless you actually live in Oklahoma I don’t get all this left wing reacting to Coburn. Those stupid fucks down there voted for him so he’s their problem. Why is it all I read on these damn blogs are left wingers reacting to right wingers. About the ONLY time I read left wingers setting their own agenda and controlling the conversation is when it involved teh gays. Again…wtf? Yes gay issues are important to gays…doesn’t include me and 90% of other left wingers.
Talk about a mismatch. No wonder the right wing is kicking our ass in the media conversation.
NonyNony
@Roger Moore:
Yup. Part of being a big tent party really does mean fighting with each other. A lot. And Democrats have this (not really) strange characteristic where they feel it’s more productive to fight with each other than to fight with Republicans (this isn’t really all that strange because you actually are more likely to change the mind of someone who is close to you in 90% of your beliefs to come over to your way of thinking than you are to change the mind of someone who is close to 50% of your beliefs. But it doesn’t make for good politics to fight with each other over minor differences instead of fighting with Republicans over major ones.)
The Republicans have a smaller, more ideologically pure party. So they don’t fight much because they don’t disagree often. But when they do fight it tends to involve one group ultimately leaving the party behind because they lose. (And then they get sucked into the Democratic party, where they shift the intra-party debate to the right. This is a problem, and I don’t see any way out of this vicious cycle for the foreseeable future…)
Villago Delenda Est
@RSA:
Yes, yes, we all must suffer because a vile sack of deserting shit needs to use the entire US defense establishment to work out his daddy issues.
Villago Delenda Est
@BGK:
OK, this guy really needs to be expelled from the GOP for thinking in the long term. They don’t roll that way, you know.
NonyNony
@belieber:
Disaster relief isn’t an agenda item for the left? Helping people isn’t an agenda item for the left?
You’re a right-wing troll pretending to be a left-leaning person, right? That’s about the only explanation I can think of because helping other people regardless of race, creed, religion or sexual orientation is pretty much one of the few foundational issues that what the “left” of American politics actually pretty much agrees on these days for the most part.
Petorado
Charlie’s place has a great quote up from Sheldon Whitehouse that sums this all up nicely:
Shakezula
@Violet: I do hope rebRand Paul is what the GOP seizes on in 2016. That would be delightful.
Yatsuno
@belieber: Herp.
David Koch
I’m sick and tired of people blaming Obama for theses disasters, when clearly the blame lies with the Elders of Zion.
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
Cassidy
@belieber:
Yeah. I think you’re using some words without knowing their meaning. Do me a favor, please, in the future don’t refer to yourself as “left” anything, because you’re clearly not.
Cassidy
@Yatsuno: Prettymuch.
Hypatia's Momma
Off-topic – If you’d like to donate to help animals injured or displaced by the tornado:
Oklahoma Humane Society
Safe Haven for Oklahoma City
And the City of Oklahoma City animal rescue.
eric
@David Koch: there is a GREAT you tube video of Dave Chappelle on Inside the Actor’s Studio. First, Dave is brutally and fantastically honest. Second, this particular version comes with annotations connecting Dave’s distaste for the “they” that runs hollywood as, wait for it, wait for it…the Illuminati. So, when Dave says “they” want to control you in hollywood, the “they” is obviously the Illuminati. Awesome stuff.
Villago Delenda Est
@Petorado:
Aye, that’s a great quote.
alien234
This is the ideal situation for sebelius and obama to use the stick approach on governor fallin on obamacare. She has been against the expansion of medicaid.
Villago Delenda Est
@belieber:
Herp. Derp. Derp. More derp.
Comrade Dread
You’re seeing the results of an ideology where individualism and self-centeredness are promoted as cardinal virtues.
There is a rejection of community and even the idea of community, as each man is an island and every man must do what is best for himself in the religion of capitalism.
Frankly, I’m still surprised they’re not saying, “They should have had tornado and life insurance, so no help from us. Private charities can throw them a few bucks if they want.”
Yatsuno
@Cassidy: Durfs gotta Durf. But he’s been really getting on his ghey hate lately. I think he’s angling to get banned. Again.
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Dread:
Well, there’s only one problem with the “tornado insurance” angle. How many insurance underwriters will grant a policy in an area that’s prone to tornadoes at anything approaching an affordable premium for a typical middle class family?
I mean, Coburn and Inhofe, like that slimeball Lott, have rich friends who will come to their aid (and of course seek future considerations) if their homes are erased from the map by some Kenyan-Usurper controlled and directed extreme weather event. So they personally will not suffer that much, financially. Oh, they’ll have the inconvenience of those peasant workers rebuilding the place for a bit, of course.
Fuck the poors! Make them suffer! We revel in their pain!
Villago Delenda Est
@Comrade Dread:
“There is no such thing as society” — Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Thatcher.
Betty Cracker
@belieber: See that fire over there? Kindly go die in it. Thanks!
WereBear
@Hypatia’s Momma: Thanks! I have Facebooked & Tweeted those to my fans.
Randy P
@belieber: Hear, hear! IGMFY, just like Jeebus said!
Kevin Schmidt
You can’t just demonize the Republicans. Nothing happens in DC without bipartisan duopoly support from both corporate parties. The Democrats and the Republicans have merged into the Democratic-Republican Party, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Imperialist Elite, Ltd.
Mnemosyne
@Kevin Schmidt:
Funny, that’s the same line you guys were feeding us in 2000. Still believe that Al Gore would totally have invaded Iraq or squandered the surplus?
Chris
@NonyNony:
It’s more than that. I (of course, I’m not a public figure) know that I’m far more likely to get an intelligent policy conversation out of a Democrat than a Republican, for reasons we’ve gone over so many times in this blog that I won’t even bother to repeat them. Thus, that’s who I argue with. Republicans, I just avoid or chat about the weather with.
Betty Cracker
@Kevin Schmidt: Wrong. Lord knows the Dems are corporate whores in too many ways, but they aren’t the ones delaying disaster relief because Austerity Now, and they aren’t the party of climate change denial. Yes, both parties suck to some extent, but if you think both parties are equally in the tank for the Kochs, you’re a fool.
Trollhattan
FWIW I heard the district’s rep on NPR this morning diecussing his phone call with Obama (“concerned, cordial, etc.”) and he noted having voted FOR Sandy aid. So I’ll give him a pass (am too lazy to look up the name). The honorable senators are acting exactly as we thought they would. Oklahoma may have the senators they deserve, but the kids in that school don’t.
nemesis
@WereBear:
Correct. Been saying for more than a year that CT has been mainstreamed. Its just most folk dont realize it.
When I try to discuss it with reational people like my spouse or my Mom, they dont believe me. They dont see just how far the crazy has infiltrated our world. What more evidence is needed: Benghazi, the IRS and the AP stories. Far right alternate reality constructs.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@nemesis:
Okay, I understand that the GOP doesn’t want to get well. It is disturbing that they want the rest of us to get sick.
PurpleGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, I was just thinking that. Thatcher must have been poisoned by testosterone at some point in her life — she became a manly man. No soft edges to her, for sure.
belieber
@Cassidy: My left does not include Kostards,firebaggers, or Clintonistas. I can call myself whatever I want and I am most definitely a lefty.
You are also free to continue to let the right control the conversation by sitting around reacting to their propaganda. You people are typically firebaggers and kostards although you seem to like to call yourselves progressives. You are nothing but an embarassment to the left as far as I’m concerned.
There is one and only one thing the right does which I admire. They are willing to make shit up and get all in your face about about even though they know its all bullshit….just because they know the left will get all worked up by falling for it EVER….SINGLE…FUCKING…TIME.
Villago Delenda Est
@belieber:
Derp. Herp. Derp. Derp. Derpherpderp.
Villago Delenda Est
@Betty Cracker:
Or just your typical member of the Cult of Nader.
But I’m just restating your quote there.
Redshirt
Here’s Smith’s film review from 1984:
Dehumanizing is part of the agenda.
Betty Cracker
@belieber: You can call yourself the Queen Mum if you want to, but don’t expect the rest of us to bow down. You sound like a wingnut to me with your “I’m not gay, so who gives a shit about gay rights?” and “fuck those elementary school kids whose parents voted for Coburn!” bullshit.
And whatever idiotic point you think you’re making about messaging is a steaming load of horseshit too: In case you hadn’t noticed, the wingnuts you admire are about as popular as chlamydia and couldn’t even get an animatronic figure straight from a Hall of Presidents mold elected with 8% unemployment.
It’s always going to be a struggle in a country whose population includes an alarming number of psychopaths and desperately stupid people, but calling out liars, hypocrites and greedy fucks like Coburn is at least as productive as your self-aggrandizing wankery. Fuck. Off.
belieber
@Betty Cracker: I pitty you. I really do. Without having right wing nutjobs to constantly react to you would have NOTHING. Your whole blogging existence is defined by reacting to the right rather than coming up with original thoughts and ideas.
I get it. Reacting to the right is easy and gives you a false sense of feeling like you are accomplishing something. Also makes you feel like you are part of a community of other bloggers who are all doing the same thing. Even if that something you are all doing is actually just letting the right control the conversation.
Actually accomplishing something by finding something else to write about is much harder and all too rare in the blogosphere. You are better than most around here but you all do it to some extent. Pretty sad to watch really.
Mnemosyne
@belieber:
I love it when a citizen of another country that already has universal healthcare and gay marriage decides to lecture us about how those things aren’t really important. I guess you must be working to repeal gay marriage in your home country because no one really needs it, amirite?
Betty Cracker
@belieber: Well, I pity anyone who is unable to spell a simple word like “pity.” And while I’ve never analyzed my blog output, I suspect I spend just as much time writing about chickens, cooking, movies and pets as I do about politics. I don’t delude myself for a moment that any of it amounts to a fart in a whirlwind, and if you’re dumb enough to think it does, reserve your “pitty” for yourself.
Redshirt
[cues up Arsenio Hall crowd noise track]
I hope belieber focuses on the positive in his inevitable response. Something about monkeys, I hope.
Cassidy
@belieber: Hehehehehe…did any of that make sense to you? Put the bath salts away, son. It ain’t worth it.
Seanly
@belieber:
Umm, empathy? It’s kind of a trademark of the left to care about others in a “there go I except by the grace of god” kinda way. So even if the Oklohomans do something stupid & put uncaring monsters into Congress, we can still have a desire that they recieve aid in their hour of need. Yes, we still care despite the trogolodytes representing them.
NickT
@Seanly:
We already know what the Confederacy looked like – incapable of coordinating its various states effectively, prone to inflation, with a weak economy that was insufficiently industrialized, and riddled with exemptions from conscription generously dished out by the various governors of the individual states. In sum: John Galt disappearing up his own gulch.
NickT
@eric:
Dude, why would I want you all over my shoe?
NickT
@belieber:
And your catalog of deep thoughts and original insights can be found.. where, exactly?
Ruckus
@Cacti:
Prior to FDR spending big bucks on infrastructure improvements, public works, and rural electrification, most of the south was a dirt road, semi-literate, disease-ridden, holler.
Are you saying it was worse than the shitholes I saw people living in in back roads South Carolina in the early 70s?
OK there were some paved roads but I saw mile after mile of shacks that looked like they had been there during the civil war, with people living in them.