Waterloo | FrumForum 

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. …

So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves. …

This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none. …

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother? …

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

David Frum

Waterloo | FrumForum

David Frum is a conservative who has become persona non grata following this analysis. He has been purged; he is, to the faithful, a RINO.

Conservatives are like gun-nuts. As long as they’re shooting at each other, it’s fun to watch.

No, that’s not the new advertising slogan for Colorado Springs – there’s no budget for advertising. CS is home to the Air Force Academy and Focus on Family. I won’t miss it when it dries up and blows away.

Colorado Springs cuts into services considered basic by many – The Denver Post 

COLORADO SPRINGS — This tax-averse city is about to learn what it looks and feels like when budget cuts slash services most Americans consider part of the urban fabric.

More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The police helicopters are for sale on the Internet. The city is dumping firefighting jobs, a vice team, burglary investigators, beat cops — dozens of police and fire positions will go unfilled.

The parks department removed trash cans last week, replacing them with signs urging users to pack out their own litter.

Neighbors are encouraged to bring their own lawn mowers to local green spaces, because parks workers will mow them only once every two weeks. If that.

Water cutbacks mean most parks will be dead, brown turf by July; the flower and fertilizer budget is zero.

City recreation centers, indoor and outdoor pools, and a handful of museums will close for good March 31 unless they find private funding to stay open. Buses no longer run on evenings and weekends. The city won’t pay for any street paving, relying instead on a regional authority that can meet only about 10 percent of the need.

"I guess we’re going to find out what the tolerance level is for people," said businessman Chuck Fowler, who is helping lead a private task force brainstorming for city budget fixes. "It’s a new day."

Some residents are less sanguine, arguing that cuts to bus services, drug enforcement and treatment and job development are attacks on basic needs for the working class.

Colorado Springs cuts into services considered basic by many – The Denver Post

It’ll be interesting to track the back-pedaling and flip-flopping on the Right. Like when they say Duhbya wasn’t *really* a conservative. Yeah, right.

I don’t care that Mad Hatter Jeff McQueen (see below) is guilty of sedition or treason. I’m more concerned at the implication of taking up arms against one’s fellow citizens. But mostly, I’m fucking tired of these lunatics who pay empty-headed lip-service to The Holy Founders and The Sacred Constitution but want to rip the country to shreds one year after a clear majority voted for change – after 14 years (or 24 of 26 years) of the mean-spirited lunatics running the show. Stupid, selfish bastards. Cry babies. Sore losers. Grow up and vote for change – change back to the nonsense of the past 30 years that clearly has served us all so very well.

Think Progress » Brown victory party featured flag calling for a ‘second’ revolution, tea party-inspired civil war. 

McQueen, a tea party organizer, has repeatedly used tea party websites to call for a revolution. In one of his posts, he explains that the country would be better served by splitting states between Democratic and Republican:

We are now as divided as America was in the 1860s. When two people find they can no longer communicate, while living under the same roof, they often split apart and go there seperate ways. So what if . . . we took the United States and just split it in half . . . 24 states become The United States of the Democrats and 24 states become The United States of the Republicans (including Ron Paul supporters and Libertarians etc . . .). California and New York can be split in half and go the the side they choose.

Think Progress » Brown victory party featured flag calling for a ‘second’ revolution, tea party-inspired civil war.

And here’s a new basketball league for the Confederate States of Republicans:

Think Progress » New basketball league open to whites only, to get away from the ‘street-ball’ played by ‘people of color.’ 

A new professional basketball league called the All-American Basketball Alliance (AABA) sent out a press release on Sunday saying that it intends to start its inaugural season in June, with teams in 12 U.S. cities. However, the AABA is different from other sports leagues because only players who are “natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.” AABA commissioner Don “Moose” Lewis insists that he’s not racist, but he just wants to get away from the “street-ball” played by “people of color” and back to “fundamental basketball.” Lewis cited the recent incidents of bad behavior by NBA players, implying that such actions would never happen with white players:

“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he said. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.” […]

Think Progress » New basketball league open to whites only, to get away from the ‘street-ball’ played by ‘people of color.’

And if the Mad Hatters haven’t taken to the streets to prevent fall elections from taking place, then, maybe, there still room for hope:

Think Progress » After Brown’s Win, Steele Still Pessimistic About GOP’s Chances To Win House And Senate Majorities In 2010 

Despite the backlash from his colleagues on the Hill, and in the wake of Scott Brown’s (R-MA) victory in the Massachusetts, Steele still proclaims pessimism about the GOP’s chances in 2010. “You just can’t stop and think, ‘well OK now we’ll win in Maryland, we’ll win Delaware and we’ll win everywhere in the country because we won in Massachusetts.’ Every place is different,” he told a local Maryland radio show today. And on ABC this morning, Steele again said the GOP probably won’t win back the House and Senate:

STEPHANOPOULOS: Scott Brown wins in Massachusetts. Does this mean that the Republicans are going to take the House and Senate in November?

STEELE: Oh, I think we are very well on our way at this pace to certainly narrow the margin in the United States Senate as we will in the House and we’ll see how the rest of it plans out.

Think Progress » After Brown’s Win, Steele Still Pessimistic About GOP’s Chances To Win House And Senate Majorities In 2010

Of course, Steele isn’t eligible to play in the AABA, so maybe he no longer speaks for the Grand Old White People’s Party.

Update: I saw a sign that said, “Now it’s our turn for a change.” Really? I endured 8 years of Duhbya and 14 years of a Republican Congress — and galling arrogance and meanness every moment of that time. Now, barely a year after Obama and the Dems inherited all the shit that went down, some people demand change? It sickens me.

Let’s hear it for the good people of Massachusetts, who have near-universal health care and same-sex marriage: Thanks for denying that to the rest of us, MA! That tumbling sound may be Ted Kennedy or the Founding Fathers in response to the Mad Hatters. Let’s hope this little bit of extra rope is all it takes for the Radical Wrong to hang themselves before the Fall.

You think “it’s the economy, stupid”? Then how in the hell can anyone vote for a Republican? From Hoover to Raygun to Duhbya, the Republicans are for the rich getting richer and corporations getting freer. “A rising tide lifts all yachts.” — Warren Buffett. And all it takes to make galley slaves of the rest of us is the mistaken belief that anyone can become rich / win the lottery / win American Idol / become President (Duhbya, Palin).

[I’m reprinting the following from last fall.]
– – – – –

Enjoy yourselves, my dear conservative friends. Yes, you were victorious in one race on Tuesday. Savor. But, please, mind the crowing and gloating – it underscores how desperate you are for any positive sign.

Read the info at the following link, which includes more than one progressive victory [last fall], as well, while missing the progressive sweep in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Think Progress » ThinkFast: November 4, 2009

Remember, even in yesterday’s races, Republicans were tearing at each other for this bone. The movement to exterminate the RINOs is alive and well. This is a shrinking, hardening, increasingly ugly “party” not likely to court anyone the least bit open-minded. Harsh? Read the philosopher king of conservatives, calcified Cal Thomas.

Cal Thomas 

The Left has put aside the original Constitution in favor of a "living document" that they believe allows them to do whatever they want and demand more tax dollars with which to do it.

Can they be stopped? …

Lawyers are busy writing language only they can understand which seeks to circumvent the intentions of the Founders. But it will be difficult to circumvent the last four words of the Tenth Amendment, which state unambiguously where ultimate power lies: "…or to the people."

Americans who believe their government should not be a giant ATM, dispensing money and benefits to people who have not earned them, and who want their country returned to its founding principles, must now exercise that power before it is taken from them. The Tenth Amendment is one place to begin. The streets are another. [mjh: Don’t forget your guns and hateful signs!] It worked for the Left.

Cal Thomas

Give me your paranoid, your loony. The nation isn’t united by the Constitution – according to Cal – instead, the majority hates the Constitution and will destroy the stalwart True Believers, who must take to the streets and water the Tree of Liberty. (No, no, don’t pee on it!)

A Letter to Rush Limbaugh :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion 

To: Rush Limbaugh
From: Roger Ebert
You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of our nation.
Having followed President Obama’s suggestion and donated money to the Red Cross for relief in Haiti, I was offended to hear you suggest the President might be a thief capable of stealing money intended for the earthquake victims. …

Tens of thousands are believed still alive beneath the rubble. You twisted their suffering into an opportunity to demean the character of the President of the United States.

You have a sizable listening audience. You apparently know how to please them. Anybody given a $400 million contract must know what he is doing.
That’s what offends me. You know exactly what you’re doing.

A Letter to Rush Limbaugh :: rogerebert.com :: Opinion

Honestly, I think owning a gun is crazy, unless you exclusively use it to hunt for food your family needs. Otherwise, if you *need* a gun, you should reexamine your life – something is wrong. This is just my opinion and I’m entitled to it. A gun is a ridiculous thing to desire and own. The more guns you want, the sicker you may be. Finally, if carrying a gun in public makes you feel better/safer/stronger/freer, you are fucked up beyond my comprehension. Enjoy your rights and consider seeking better ways to spend your time and money. peace, mjh

Protesters: Guns welcome – Alamogordo Daily News

[P]rotesters are being encouraged to bring a gun to demonstrate their ability to open carry. It’s legal to openly carry a firearm in New Mexico by anyone over the age of 19. A person can openly carry in most places, except in a bar, jail or prison, a school and other places.

According to Cameron Stern, deputy records/archive clerk with the city of Alamogordo, the groups applied on Monday for a permit to conduct the protest, which is also being called an "open carry event."

The permit request, he said, was forwarded to the Alamogordo Department of Public Safety because protesters are being encouraged to bring firearms.

Protesters: Guns welcome – Alamogordo Daily News

The Republicans know how to game the system. Yet, when they’re beat, they’re sore losers. Noble. They’ve been scorching fields and salting the earth for 40 years in their win-at-all-costs effort to destroy public confidence in government.

Think Progress » Steele: Democrats Were Trying To ‘Flip The Bird To The American People’ By Voting On Health Reform Last Night

[T]he only reason why Congress held the cloture vote at 1am this morning, was because Republicans filibustered the bill. Last night, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) offered a unanimous consent agreement to move the 1 a.m. vote to 9 a.m. this morning if Republicans agreed to forgo the optional 30 hours of debate between each cloture vote and still pass the final legislation before Christmas. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), who had also sternly criticized the early morning vote, objected to the measure.

Think Progress » Steele: Democrats Were Trying To ‘Flip The Bird To The American People’ By Voting On Health Reform Last Night

Think Progress » Matalin slurs health reform advocates as ‘health care jihadists.’ 

Yesterday on CNN, Republican strategist and CNN contributor Mary Matalin railed against Democrats for pushing forward with health reform efforts. “They’ve been on this jihad for 70 years, and they’re going to throw over all their competitive seats to do it,” she said, adding:

And I don’t know what kind of party that is. That leaves left in the Democratic Party the urban centers, this is tyranny of the minority. Two-thirds of the country don’t want this. And one-third of these jihadists, these health care jihadists do. I guess that’s how democracy in the Obama era works.

Moments later, she smeared the prior efforts to establish Social Security and Medicare as “entitlement jihads” as well.

Think Progress » Matalin slurs health reform advocates as ‘health care jihadists.’