These People Walk Among Us.

The Alaskan Asshat Is Punk'd Again.

Oh, Canada!

At a recent stop on her "Going Rogue" book tour, Sarah Palin told Canadian comedian Mary Walsh that Canada should get rid of its public health care system.

Walsh is the co-creator and star of This Hour Has 22 Minutes -- a nightly news parody show in the same vein as The Daily Show -- and she arrived in character, as the conservative Marg Delahunty, to the Borders where Palin (the "Alaskan Aphrodite") was signing books.

"I just wanted to ask you if you have any words of encouragement for Canadian conservatives who have worked so hard to try to diminish the kind of socialized medicine we have up there." Walsh shouted to Palin as she approached the table.

Palin's handlers tried to help her by ushering Walsh out of the Borders, but Palin could not be deterred. When Palin left the signing, Walsh caught up with her in the parking lot, where Palin suggested that Canada should get rid of its public health care system. "Keep the faith" Palin said, "because common sense conservatism can be plugged in there in Canada too. In fact, Canada needs to reform its health care system and let the private sector take over some of what the government has absorbed."

Raw Story points out that it is unlikely this plan will go over well among Canadians -- even among conservatives.

A recent study found that 90 percent of Canadians support universal, single-payer health care. A poll taken last summer shows 82 percent of Canadians believe their health care system to be better than the US's, despite constant grumbling about waiting times for treatment of non-life-threatening conditions.

Elsewhere in AsshatLand:

Hey, America! Are You Really Admitting That You're Dumb Enough For Glenn Beck?

If this is your taste, maybe you should wear a bib.

One of the great things about having a blog is also one of the great things about sitting on a barstool; popping off is expected, and you pay your own tab.

So I'll tell a visitor here the same thing I've told the guy one stool over: if you watch and/or listen to Glenn Beck and buy into his insanity, then you are a fucking idiot.

Check please...

More idiocy here.

Trent Franks: Birther Zombie.

Another day, another U.S. representative with too much time on his hands.

From Politico.com:

Taking the birther thing to a new level, archconservative Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) is considering filing a lawsuit to put President Obama on the spot over his birth documents, according to Mohave Daily News readout of a Franks town hall over the weekend.

Oh, yeah, and Franks apparently didn't object when an audience member suggested Obama "denounced" the U.S. as a Christian nation during an overseas trip, which never happened.

MDN's Jim Seckler:

The other main issue dealt with numerous speakers questioning Obama's birth certificate and why there wasn't an investigation into whether he is a naturalized citizen. One woman said a newspaper announcement of his birth in Hawaii was not sufficient. Another asked how he could have a passport without a birth certificate.
Franks said there was not enough evidence that Obama is not an American citizen. He did say there was a lot of conflicting evidence of Obama's citizenship and that he was considering filing a lawsuit, the only congressman to do so. Franks asked why the president did not simply produce a birth certificate.
One speaker, a pre-school teacher, tearfully said Obama denounced the country as a Christian nation and warned he should learn a civics lesson. Franks agreed with her saying he was offended that Obama denigrated the country on an overseas trip and the president should speak in favor of the country when abroad.

Context: Franks, is a global warming skeptic, pal of Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and served as a high ranking aide to former Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham, who was removed from office and canceled the state's Martin Luther King Jr. holiday while Franks was on the payroll.

UPDATE:

Eagle-eyed JackRabbit Café contributor-at-large The Best-Looking Man in Show Business Today--TBLMISBT-- passes along this tidbit from the hyperbolic, Big Business birther tool.

Renaming GOP Policy.

The Republican National Committee is as aimlessly desperate as the party's leadership itself.

From Greg Sargent on The Plumline:

It isn’t easy being Michael Steele these days.

A number of conservative members of the Republican National Committee are pressing the committee — and by extension, Steele — to officially adopt the position that the Democratic Party is socialist.

Over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the RNC have submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire RNC, that would call on the Democratic party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party.” If the RNC adopts this resolution, the RNC’s official view would become that Democrats are socialists. From the resolution:

RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.

I just reached RNC vice chairman James Bopp, a leading supporter of the resolution, and he confirmed that adopting it would mean the RNC officially designates Dems socialists. “We would be describing the Democrat Party this way if we adopt this resolution,” Bopp said.

This is politically dicey for Steele. In the past he’s refrained from calling Dems and Obama socialists, instead preferring the term “collectivists.”

But in a bit of a potential bombshell, Bobb claimed to me that Steele has privately told him “on several occasions that he agrees with the substance” of the resolution designating Dems socialists.

Jesus Christ, these Republicans are like whiny, snot-nosed kids. Their refusal in recent years to refer to the Democratic Party by its official name and as the Democrat Party instead is childish, "Freedom" Fries, schoolyard stuff.  Now these vacant dolts want to make their name-calling official policy?

The Plumline has updated what's quoted above, claiming that while Steele, too, believes that Democrats are a bunch of subversive socialists, he isn't ready to make that official policy.  

After all, that might confuse their actual official policy, which is to listen to Rush Limbaugh and nod in obedient agreement.

House GOP Races To Complete "100 Really Bad Ideas In 100 Days" Initiative.

     Further indications that House Republicans are out of their minds.

     From The Hill:

     Conservative House Republicans are calling on their leaders to ask President Obama for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s resignation. 
     The Republicans think Napolitano should resign because of the release of a report that singled out conservatives as “right-wing terrorists,” according to several GOP lawmakers.

     House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) are set to meet with Obama at the White House on Thursday. It is unclear whether they will request Napolitano’s resignation, but several lawmakers said it was under discussion. 
     “I think leaders are going to bring it up with the president, maybe call for (her) resignation,” one conservative member told The Hill Wednesday.

     Republicans are upset over a Homeland Security report sent to local law enforcement officers earlier this month on how the recession could fuel a resurgence in “radicalization and recruitment” in right-wing terrorism groups. 
     A footnote in the report defined “hate groups” as including groups and individuals dedicated to a single issue, including opposition to abortion or immigration. 
     Napolitano subsequently said the footnote should be struck from the report. 
     Rep. Mary Fallin (R-Okla.) said she could be considered a terrorist under the report’s definition. 
     “I serve my nation, I’m in my third year of Congress, I serve my state, I own shotguns, I believe in the Second Amendment; I don’t consider myself to be a threat on the scale of terrorism; I’m just a working mom who believes in the right to bear arms,” Fallin said. 

     Molly K. Hooper filed the rather sloppily-written report for The Hill. Her second paragraph implies that the report had "singled out conservatives...", but the word "conservative" never appears in the Homeland Security report; the emphasis is on radical elements of the hard-right. Whether Hooper was attempting to describe actual House conservatives' concerns or herself alleging their singling out is unclear.    

     What is clear is that there is no shortage of idiocy in today's Grand Old Party.

Law & Disorder.