A thousand (plus) words worth of progressive schadenfreude

GOP presser fail

Mike Pence holds a press conference for GOP response to HCR passage and all of three people show up. And those three don’t look very happy about the assignment.

No, I wasn’t crazy about the bill, but supported at the end it in lieu of nothing, yet feel quite relieved, even a little proud, now that its passed and the Left can get busy making it really work for people and getting insurance companies out of the picture. In their greed and hubris, the leaders of the GOP have painted themselves into a wacko corner of FAIL and I couldn’t be happier about their ultimate fate. It may not be this year, but the GOP as we now know it is history.

OK, I lied, the pic is worth a thousand words at least, but here are actually a thousand words or so (almost 3000 to be technical, and probably 100 links to documentation) about Republican fail, and all their many stupid, hypocritical and/or outright deceitful mistakes in getting to this point in their sorry descent into insanity and oblivion. It’s really a fantastic document that should be enshrined in the Smithsonian or something.

An open letter to conservatives (from Russell King

Dear Conservative Americans,

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You’ve lost me and you’ve lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I’d like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Now the advice. You’re going to have to come up with a platform that isn’t built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party — the GOP — and the conservative end of the American political spectrum has become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it’s tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some examples — by no means an exhaustive list — of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you’re going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you’ll have to start by draining this swamp:

[And here begins the list all of us have been meaning to compile, for our children, for our children’s children, who will have a hard time believing this all really happened. Do yourself a favor and read it, bookmark it, print it out for the Luddites in your life.]