Question of the Day

By Michael J.W. Stickings

With respect to the advancement of liberty, which is more important, Hosni Mubarak's resignation or Jon Kyl's retirement?

Oh, sure, it's the former, of course. As bad as he is, Kyl is no Mubarak.

I just thought I'd mention that Kyl was our 2010 Douchebag of the Year.

So good riddance to him as well.

A league of his own

By Distributorcap

There are a TON of candidates for Douchebag of the Year -- but someone has to be the winner. After careful analysis of all the misstatements, lies, bullshit, and downright evil that comes out of the mouths of so many American politicians, pundits, and commentators, there are five that are so bad, so awful, and so mind-blowingly insane they just stand head-and-shoulders above the rest.

4th runner up - Louis Gohmert

3rd runner up - Steve King

2nd runner up - Michele Bachmann

1st runner up - Jim DeMint (who will take over for the winner if he/she is unable to fulfill his/her douchebaggery duties)

Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona

That is the face of someone only a mother could love, a mother who does not deserve to have maternity benefits covered by medical insurance because Jon Kyl does not need them. America, there are plenty of people in the U.S. Senate who need thorazine and/or intense psychoanalysis. But this is one senator who I can guarantee hasn't gotten laid in years. Maybe he can borrow a few Viagra pills from his buddy Rush.

The absolute idiocy and insanity that comes out of the mouth from the this piece of dreck from Arizona places him in a league of his own.

Here are some gems from the Jon Kyl Box of Douche. I know they read like typical Republican talking points, but somehow when this douchebag opens his pie hole, they just sound so much worse:

• Kyl believes that tax cuts for the rich do not need to be offset or paid for -- after all, those uber-rich folks will let it all trickle down to the lowlifes around the country.
• Kyl believes that unemployment insurance is a disincentive to work, that anyone who is on the government dole is nothing more than a leech on society.
• Kyl believes that the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell could cost lives, since the soliders will be so busy singing show tunes and wearing matching Prada gun totes, they won't be able to fight.
• Kyl believes that Harry Reid is a heretic and sacreligious because he is making the poor senators work up until (and maybe through) Christmas. Senators who are paid by the people of the United States and supposed to be working for the people, no matter the time of year.
• Kyl is an opponent of arms control and is using every tactic in his arsenal to delay the START treaty ratification to next year, when there is less likely of a chance for approval. He wants to read the treaty NOW, considering he has had eight months to look it over.
• Kyl believes in repealing the 14th amendment, since all those anchor babies are dropping all over Arizona.
• Kyl thinks that we are rushing the debate on funding health care for the 9/11 responders. You know, the guys suffering from breathing problems and cancer. But those rich people who need the tax cuts...
• Kyl believes in blocking every Democratic piece of legislation.
• Kyl thought Sonya Sotomayor should not have been confirmed since some of her cases were overturned by the Supreme Court.
• Kyl wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

But Kyl goes down the drain with this joke (a revamp of an old one) he told at the National Republican Senatorial Committee retreat:

According to a source who attended the meetings, Kyl told the assembled crowd a political version of the classic three-people-in-a-boat joke: "So Obama, Pelosi, and Reid are in a row boat, and it springs a leak and starts to sink. Who gets saved?

Answer: "The American people."

I guess comparing Obama to Hitler isn't enough.

Palin, Demint, McConnell, Bachmann, Gingrich, Angle, McCain -- all douchebags in their own right. Their antics, evil, and obstruction is pushing America to the brink. But this year, we just have to thank Jon Kyl for his unrequited devotion to the destruction of American society.

DeMint is DeCrazy

By Michael J.W. Stickings

He's one of the wingnuttiest Republican senators, which is saying something -- yes, he's Jim DeMint of South Carolina!

And he wants to paralyze the Senate, and prevent it from doing anything until next year, by forcing readings of the START arms-control bill and an omnibus spending bill. As The Hill explains, such a move "could eat up hours of the remaining lame-duck Congress, 12 for the former and 40 to 60 for the latter.

DeMint has backed off on START, meaning that the treaty could actually be ratified:

A procedural vote on the treaty Wednesday garnered 66 votes, a strong indicator that the treaty could pick up the 67 votes it needs for ratification.

Thirty-two Republicans voted against opening debate on the treaty and two senators, including Democrat Evan Bayh, were not present – putting Democrats in striking distance of securing the necessary votes. Still, a number of Republicans have called for more time to debate the measure, and may ultimately vote to block its ratification if they feel like they’re being steamrolled.

Well, no, Politico, they'll block ratification because the Republican Party is the Party of No, the party of extreme partisanism and absolute obstructionism, because they don't want Obama and the Democrats to have a victory on anything, no matter the cost to the country. (Oh, and of course, because many of them are against arms control generally, so much do they want to return to the glory days of the '50s, when white men ruled the world and children cowered under their desks.) Harry Reid could introduce legislation prescribing that all rich people be given daily rub-and-tugs and the Republicans would still think twice before signing on (and would, even then, claim it was their idea all along, which it probably was).

But DeMint isn't just an obstructionist. He's also crazy, in a Christianist sort of way:

We shouldn't be jamming a major arms control treaty up against Christmas; it's sacrilegious and disrespectful. What's going on here is just wrong. This is the most sacred holiday for Christians. They did the same thing last year -- they kept everybody here until [Christmas Eve] to force something down everybody's throat. I think Americans are sick of this.

No, Americans are sick of extreme partisanism and absolute obstructionism. Isn't that what we keep hearing from all those independent voters?

Regardless, there's nothing "sacrilegious and disrespectful" about legislating around Christmas. The business of government doesn't stop just because there's a major holiday coming up, and of course no one's talking about working on Christmas Day itself.

Arizona's Jon Kyl made comments similar to DeMint's, saying that Reid was "disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for Christians" -- the other presumably being Black Friday (when Christians shop like mad to prove just how predestined they are) or, for Catholics, St. Patrick's Day (when Christians drink like mad to prove just how devout they are) -- but Reid, to his credit, fired back:

As a Christian, no one has to remind me of the importance of Christmas for all of the Christian faith, for all their families, all across America. I don't need to hear the sanctimonious lectures of Sen. Kyl and [Sen. Jim] DeMint to remind me of what Christmas means. Where were their concerns about Christmas [when they were posing] filibuster after filibuster of every piece of legislation during this entire Congress? 

Where were they? Being the good Republicans they are, obstructing everything for partisan gain.

But DeMint is a man of hypocrisy, not principle:

I have no problem working every day until Christmas and beyond to stop this rampage of spending and bad policy, what I object to is Democrats trying to rush through an agenda voters rejected and hoping that Americans are too busy with the holidays to notice.

See, it has nothing to do with Christmas, which is just an excuse. It's okay, apparently, to be a Republican around Christmas, just not a Democrat. (Really? Voters rejected the START treaty last month? Huh.)

If the situation were reversed, do you really think DeMint would call Republican efforts "sacrilegious and disrespectful? Of course not. He'd be trying to ram all manner of Republican shit down Americans' throats. He's just that sort of guy.

Some progress on New START?

By Peter Henne

It looks like I might have been wrong on New START, the arms reduction treaty currently being deliberated over in the Senate. Back in November I argued that the continued objections of Senator Jon Kyl -- among other Senate Republicans -- to the treaty made its passage unlikely, even though most of the critiques of the deal make little sense. In addition to Kyl's objections, Jim DeMint -- GOP Senator from South Carolina -- also threatened to force the Senate to read through the entire treaty, a process that could last 10 hours and prevent passage this year.

Now Jim DeMint seems to have "backed down," partially under pressure from GOP Senate leaders. If the treaty moves forward in the Senate before the Democrats lose several members of their caucus in the next session, its chances for ratification are rather good.

Notice, however, that I said I might have been wrong. Republicans are hardly supporting the bill, and it is very likely they could still delay a vote. So I'm not getting my hopes up yet.