The Torture Report proves, yet again, that Teapublicans are a load of cowards.

Here it is, if you can stand to read it: the report showed how the Bushistas, PNAC types, and “Republicans” in general shat themselves in terror after 9/11, resulting in idiot wars of choice and manifold panic-driven decisions, including the ones that involved torture.

Cowards they are, as has frequently been written on this very blog. But the Torture Report gives a horrifying view into the consequences of that cowardice, that fear, that wimpiness-concealed-by-bravado that characterizes modern Repubs. In their panic-stricken, fear-blinded, gutless, craven states of “mind”, the Bush/Cheney regime lashed out in a manner that was far beyond normal evil:
* People were tortured.
* People were tortured to death.
* The torture was completely f***ing useless, and in fact caused a lot of damage.
* Innocent people were dragooned and tortured.
* “Republicans” proposed, created and implemented these programs.
* “Republicans” STILL think we should be torturing people.

Since then, the GOP has continued to show its yellow bellies on repeated occasion: by making the Prexy keep Gitmo open (said Gitmo being full of tortured people); by not allowing the tortured people to have fair trials; and by trying to cover the whole sickening mess up, even after the world already knows what we did. Cowards, poltroons, pusillanimous dastards, faint-hearted, lily-livered scaredy-cats: that, friends, is what the GOP is composed of.

And the fact that the majority of American voters recently opted to bring in even more GOP “representatives” means that those voters are, what, themselves, exactly? Ponder that one, peeps.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

John McCain, please shut the hell up.

Once again, we breathe a sigh of relief that this idiotic gnome never became President: yesterday, he said he could tell us which Syrian rebel groups would be our allies in the future. Yes. He said it. Listen here if you doubt the Cranky One.

To make such a statement, one would assume he has  an awesome track record when picking partners and predicting outcomes in the Middle East. But alas, he does not:

But to buy into the McCain-knows-best version of the Iraq war, you have to ignore a lot of history. McCain was among the most aggressive proponents of a preemptive strike against Saddam Hussein, cosponsoring the resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq. He also expressed full faith in the way it would be executed — a war plan conceived and executed by Rumsfeld.
He did call for more troops in Iraq sooner than some, but later than others who made the same argument before the first shots were even fired. And McCain’s support for Rumsfeld only evaporated over time, as it became painfully clear that the war in Iraq was going south.

Senator McCain has pretty much been wrong on the Middle East whenever he opened his mouth on the subject. Here is a short list of applicable quotes. But just as crashing multiple jets failed to damage his Navy career, being totally wrong about Iraq has not hurt his career in the Senate.

This writer wishes reporters would stop asking an obvious nincompoop for his opinion. But since journos aren’t smart enough for that, let’s ask John McCain to STFU. Or else give his staff a big-assed roll of duct tape for McCain’s mouth.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

“Sovereign Citizen” found mentally incompetent.

An Ohio man named Mark Kulis, who was busted for having his house wired up with half a dozen bombs, a terrorist to be precise, has just been committed to 6 months locked up in the nut hatch in the hopes that he can be brought a bit closer to sanity. The hope is that he can at least understand that he has been doing illegal and dangerous things to himself and those around him. And with that understanding, be tried for his crimes in accordance with the law.

This writer is struck by the similarities between this “sovereign citizen” and many others in our world today. It seems that frustration causes people to create alternate realities in their minds, and they live in those fantasylands instead of the world around them. A couple of examples:

Number A: Fox “News” viewers are, most of us have found, living in a dream world – one in which Commander Stuffed Flightsuit won the Global War on Terror, white people are superior, poor people are evil, and Obama is everything bad/nothing good. And you Can. Not. Reach. Them. Not with logic, not with facts, not even with what is happening to themselves and their children. No, the echo chamber has captured their minds, and they cannot absorb anything from outside of the Cones of Silence in which they dwell.

Letter 2: Vladimir Putin and his Petersburg Posse have convinced themselves that their lives suck because of the collapse of several Russian empires, and that the way to un-suck said lives is to create a new and improved Russian empire. So far, it’s not going very well for anyone, but that isn’t stopping them. In their minds, they are hammers pounding on nails, and the fact that the problems are, say, open-heart surgery instead of nails does not register. They see nails because they want to see nails, and they swing their hammers, breaking people and countries in the real world that they refuse to see.

These are only two examples of many, of course. And it’s a problem. We cannot lock up hundreds of thousands of people in psych wards, no matter how badly they may need treatment. And until the lot of them wake up from their dreams, the entire planet is at risk.

Just as the poor, deluded Mr. Kulis could have blown up the houses of his neighbors along with his own because of what he firmly believes to be true, people like John McCain and Vladimir Putin could blow up the planet. They may have a more socially acceptable version of insanity, but they aren’t any more sane than he, and their insanity can kill a lot more people.

Until we all live in the same, evidence-based, real world, we are at risk. All we can do is reach the reachable and teach the teachable, and hope that’s enough.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

An Independent, Two Democrats and a Republican Walk into a Bar…

OK, they actually walked into the Senate. And no, it’s not a joke. Senator Angus King (an Independent from Maine) and three others have introduced a bill that just might save our economic a**es when the next crisis rolls around. It’s a re-invention of the Glass-Steagall Act, which was stupidly repealed in the 90’s: said idiotic repeal being one of the causes of the Bush Economic Collapse. Here’s the story: http://bangordailynews.com/2013/07/11/politics/angus-king-john-mccain-introduce-bill-to-break-up-megabanks/

You’ll note that it is a Centrist Independent that is getting special praise here (well, DUH, it’s this blog). However, Senators McCain, Warren and Cantwell are also worthy of praise for working with King to get this bit of common-sense moving, at least in the occasionally- rational Senate (forget the House, they’re a load of loons these days). The idea is simple –  separate the risky bits of banking from the safer bits of banking.

You remember the banks, those putzes that crashed the world economy, never went to jail for their crimes, and even made money for themselves by causing the Great Recession? Right, those banks. They’re against this new bill. Therefore, we should all be for it.

Kudos to Angus King and his allies. If this becomes a trend, we may have to invent a new word for DC politics: “Tri-Partisanship”.

Mr. Blunt and Cranky

Political Partisans are Morons, Example Number 500 Gazillion and Thirteen:

Q: After the “Republicans” get their family jewels knocked in by a coalition of minority groups and women, what do they do?

A: Immediately start libeling, attacking, and slandering a black female (our Ambassador to the U.N.) in the press and elsewhere; make up outlandish charges, and even keep repeating the lies after they have been proven false. Oh, and they do this at a time when America needs our Foreign Service people to focus on, well, foreign affairs.

Not only are these un-American fools weakening the United States’ standing in the world at a time when it needs strengthening: they are simultaneously alienating large swaths of the electorate, which will earn them further groin injuries in the next election. Marroons. Imbesssiles. Tar-rar-rar-goon-dee-yays.

Mr. B & C

Benghazi, Schmenghazi (John McCain, You Scumbucket)

Mr. Blunt and Cranky would like to start off by saying that John McCain obviously does not care one bucket of warm spit about the recent deaths amongst our Foreign Service corps. If he did care, he’d have been making a similar fuss during Bush The Dumber’s administration, as 12 separate attacks on U.S. Diplomatic facilities resulted in quite a few deaths. This writer has been unable to find any record of McCain screeching his loony-bin conspiracy theories back then.

No, this is nothing more than an attempt to weaken the President for partisan political advantage. And even some conservative-leaning publications are saying McCain has taken leave of his so-called senses: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/11/susan-rice?fsrc=scn%2Fob 

It is bad enough when politicos wrap themselves in a flag: when they do the same with the bodies of fallen patriots, it is truly disgusting. Not to mention a kick in the nuts to those patriots who made the ultimate sacrifice, all so some wingnut a**hole can raise more money and score points for his stupid little reindeer games.

Please understand this: there is no one on earth who is braver than someone who’ll go, unarmed, to a f***ing war zone. Yeah, that’s what our diplomats do, 24/7/365. They need and deserve our respect and our support. They do not deserve to have their budgets cut by people like McCain, who after weakening their protection use the consequences to play pin-the-blame-on-the-donkey.

If this were an average political scumbucket, we could forgive: but John McCain knows better. He was an honest-to-God war hero and is fully aware of how dangerous it is to be out there on the sharp end in dangerous territory.  For such a man to behave in such an unpatriotic and inhuman manner shows that he is no longer the man he once was.

 For that matter, we may wish to consider whether he ever WAS the man he claimed to be. After watching that vile, spittle-spewing, raging little leaping gnome over the past week, this writer doubts that John McCain was ever a good, principled and decent man. He most assuredly does not appear to be one now.

Mr. B & C

Vote For the Man who Can be Cool in a Crisis

Whatever else one might say about President Obama, he does a great job at Crisis Management. Witness his performance during Hurricane Sandy: in stark contrast to Bush-The-Dumber eating cake and pretending to play guitar during the Katrina debacle, Obama hauled his ass back to D.C. to do his job as Commander-In-Chief. And even people who hate his guts (like Chris Christie) are praising Obama’s performance in dealing with this enormous disaster.

Contrast this with Mitt Romney’s Shrub-Like responses to surprises and crises during the campaign to date: shoot-from-the-lip quips, sound bites, lies, zingers, promises to defund FEMA, and insults to individuals and groups in America and overseas.  We all saw how well that worked during the Reign Of The Bushies, didn’t we?

Vote for the grownup with the proven record of performance under pressure. That’s Obama.

Mr. B & C (not liking this attempt at positive posting very much)