Conservative Standards

I can't help but notice, lately, just how low conservatives like to set the bar for themselves -- and their peers. In Canada, the Conservative Party is just fine with having its move to strike hate speech laws, applauded by skinheads. The Republican Party -- with some exceptions -- has been perfectly fine with being taken over by incompetent wingnuts who are so livid with a black man being the President of the United States, that they have flat out stated that their first priority is not fix America's sagging economy, but to get rid of him at all costs.

For that matter, they have little apparent problem with hitching their economic hopes to a presidential team that was respectively near-to-dead-last in job creation, and whose only economic idea is to raise taxes on the middle class while cutting upper-class taxes even more. This goes against any kind of financial sense, never mind the overwhelming view of the people the Republicans are trying to convince to vote for them.

For that matter, Republicans -- by and large -- seem to have no problem with being associated with people who wear their utter hatred of blacks, gays, and women on their sleeves... and yet are so stupid and juvenile that they will still insist they aren't bigots. This is despite campaigning on voter suppression that targets blacks, revoking most gay rights, banning women from military service, and forcing impregnated rape victims to carry the offspring of their attackers (and probably give them visitation rights, as is already the case in many states).

This is the company that conservatives today keep -- either by their direct support, or by their compliance. It's true that not all conservatives are like this... but it begs the question of where they were, when the extremists were given the keys to the car. It also begs the question of why so many of them are still counting themselves among the number of these people who are not just offensive and inept, but borderline terrorists. Was there truly nothing you could do to stop it? Is there nothing you can do now?

If I were a member of any political group that engineered or condoned open bigotry, sabotage of the country for no good reason, election tampering, violence against people who simply want to help others, or even assassination of an elected leader... not only would I be putting as much distance as possible between myself and them, but I would be publicly speaking out about it. It's admirable that there are groups calling themselves "Republicans for Obama" -- but if it were me I wouldn't even want to call myself a Republican.
I would be far too ashamed.

Tea Party Reformers Self-Destruct

This has been an awesome week, for those who actually want some sanity and decency in the world. As I said yesterday, Tea Party rabble-rouser Rush Limbaugh is getting globally laughed at, for his ridiculous claim that The Dark Knight Rises is a Democrat propaganda piece, because the villain is named Bane (nevermind that the character was created almost 20 years ago, and put into the movie long before Romney's business history became an issue). Today, there were even more setbacks for the far-right of North America.

In my home and native land, the Harper Conservatives have lost a Federal Court case, to stop some of last year's election results from being overturned. The government tried to say that -- despite several close ridings, which the Cons won, being targeted by illegal and deceptive robocalls on Election Day -- the case had no merit, just because it was brought about by a left-wing lobby group called the Council of Canadians. As usual, the far-right loves to think that just because it's being severely criticized by somebody, it means that their critics have some sort of bias. No, nevermind all of the evidence tying the Conservatives to these calls, like the cell phones bought by their staffers, the cheques that went to robocall companies, and simply their obnoxious attitude towards the idea of a stolen election, NOOOOO the Council of Canadians is just a bunch of blithering sore losers with nothing better to do than stop Harper's Holy Crusade to "save" Canada.

Further south, former Tea Party presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann recently set off a firestorm, when she claimed that the Muslim Brotherhood has somehow infiltrated the State Department, up to the highest levels (and apparently endangered the life of Secretary Hilary Clinton, when she visited Egypt soon afterwards). Leaving aside that a statement like this, is almost like saying that a Klansman can blend into Nigeria, this gross act of slander and borderline treason has actually earned the ire of other Republicans. Even John McCain and Chris Christie -- two staunch conservatives, these days -- are saying that she's basically lost her mind.

You know it's funny, this time last year I almost took up drinking, because I thought that North America was really going to be destroyed by these lunatics and psychopaths, but every time I turn around it looks like they're just imploding.

THERE IS A GOD!

Harper's Robocalls