A Hen in the Fox House

Today's column for the Daily Banter looks at the latest Sally Kohn column for Fox News's website -- and the completely predictable reaction to it.

Here's the opening shot:

"Today I’m doing you the favor of reading Fox News’s website so you don’t have to. Feel free to forgo any thanks in favor of donations to my PayPal account which will immediately go toward my medical care. Now keep in mind, I’m talking about the actual Fox News site, not Fox Nation — the one comically billed as the specialized 'opinion' face of Fox — so of course you can expect that since Fox News is the “fair and balanced” network there will be less Alex Jonesian lunatic ranting, fewer hysterical cries about the dangers of Sharia Law and creeping socialism, and a more even-handed and civil discussion of the events of the day, minus demands for anyone not to the right of G. Gordon Liddy to kindly pack up his or her things and move to Cuba, right? Sure thing."

Read the Rest Here

Quote of the Day

"Michele Bachmann is not the national spokesperson for the Republican Party. She is unlikely anytime soon to be chosen to be the spokesperson for her party. But tonight, inexplicably, a national news network decided that they would give Michele Bachmann a job that her own party never did. (It's) a remarkable act of journalistic intervention to elevate, in effect, a group with which they are co-sponsoring a presidential debate... to the level of the major parties in this country. (CNN) decided tonight not to just cover the news about the State of the Union, they decided to make their own."

-- Rachel Maddow on CNN's decision to air Michele Bachmann's rebuttal to last night's State of the Union address

As expected, there was Barack Obama, bringing you America's Sputnik Moment.

And Michele Bachmann -- bringing you America's Stupnik Moment.

Granting Asylum: Update

You know, Bill Maher's really kind of gone to the dark side during interviews lately, being more bitter and preachy than funny, but he made a great point a little while ago on CNN.

While no one's more excited than me to watch the clown car crash that will almost certainly be Michele Bachmann's rebuttal to the State of the Union address tonight, why the hell is anyone actually carrying the thing? Bachmann certainly has every right to voice the lunatic delusions swirling around inside that tiny hamster cock of a brain of hers, but no one's saying the cable networks or anyone else for that matter have a responsibility to indulge her by broadcasting them to the world. Essentially, the "Tea Party" is nothing but the ultra-nationalist al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade of the Republican party; yes, its leadership and many of its members claim to be above partisanship when it comes to directing their substantial and largely unfocused outrage, but that's really only because they want to see the country move so far to the right that its nose is pressed against the wall and they don't feel like the GOP is doing enough to make that happen. In other words, they're just Republicans who feel like the Republican party isn't being Republican enough. Show me a Democrat who professes to also be a tea bagger and I'll show you somebody in the final stages of syphilitic brain atrophy.

And yet the enabling of Bachmann and the rest of these assholes will mean that the right will be given the opportunity to air its grievances against the president's message not once but twice tonight. And why? Because the cable news channels like trainwrecks as much as we do -- precisely because we like them, because they know we'll be watching.

The Washington Post: CNN Defends Airing Bachmann Speech/1.25.11

Granting Asylum

You know, what with concentrating on Inara's last few days here and all, I wasn't kidding when I said I haven't been paying much attention to politics.

Which is why I apparently missed this late last week:

The Washington Post: Michele Bachmann To Deliver Her Own State of the Union Rebuttal/1.21.11

I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that this is going to be the greatest fucking thing in the history of everything that has ever existed ever.

There'll be Barack Obama, the President of the United States.

Then an establishment GOP flunky.

Then a circus clown with Down's Syndrome tripping on Felix the Cat acid.

Have your popcorn ready.

Union Specific

I'll try to make this quick.

President Obama's State of the Union address last night was impressive overall: stirring yet completely conversational; overwhelmingly optimistic in its reaffirmation of the American ideal, yet acknowledging of the difficulties facing this country and its people; conciliatory to both Democrats and Republicans while still taking each party firmly to task. On this last subject, I've honestly never seen a president in my lifetime try so hard to create partisan amity -- with the understanding that we'll never overcome our current hardships without at least some measure of it -- only to have it spit back in his face at every turn.

As it stands now, the Republicans, who've turned obstinate group-think into a kind of art form, are never going to concede even an inch to Barack Obama. It's just that simple. Meanwhile, some on the progressive side continue to, ironically, take the same tack -- slamming the president over and over again because they feel he's somehow betrayed their Utopian ideals by not being liberal enough. When it comes to the latter group, I'll refer you to the latest piece in the Huffington Post by Cesca, who nailed it so flawlessly that I wish I'd been able to say what he said in exactly the same way. He perfectly addresses -- and blows big, gaping holes in -- the notion, espoused by people like Paul Krugman, that Obama has somehow "sold out" the progressive movement entirely. The reality is that Barack Obama remains one of the most progressive presidents this country has seen in the last century, and that should never be discounted or even diminished.

And that leads me to back to the Republicans -- the people the president is taking extraordinary pains to compromise with and offer concessions to, even at his own peril, because he once again understands that it's necessary for this country to work together as one to overcome the daunting challenges facing us right now. The response of conservatives to the State of the Union address was so laughably predictable you could've written it in your head even before Bob McDonnell took to a podium flanked by a black woman and an Asian-American guy to deliver the official GOP rebuttal. As usual, Republicans usurped credit for what they say were the most potent ideas pitched by Obama, claiming that they were, in fact, conservative ideas -- the implication being that even Obama realizes the Republicans are right so, really, why bother having him as president at all when Americans could have the real deal. But that's the point, and it's something that, again, progressives need to heed (and conservatives need to really get through their thick heads): Obama isn't a Republican. He's not a conservative, even though he may accept that certain conservative ideals can be good for the country.

One of the things I respect most about Barack Obama is what perpetually infuriates the extreme elements within both parties: They call him a centrist who in trying to please everyone can't please anyone. While I fully understand the dangers of taking the middle road, especially when your political enemies in the opposition party will always attack you because that's what they're programmed to do, deep-down most Americans want a president willing to represent all Americans. Granted, those who hate Barack Obama, the true lunatic fringe given a resonant voice by Fox News and talk radio, will likely never change their minds about him; the guy could reanimate the dessicated corpse of Ronald Reagan and together they could save a busload of unborn Christian fetuses from going over a cliff while singing I Love This Bar in two-part harmony and the Palin Nation still wouldn't stop calling him a socialist, Marxist, foreign, terrorist-loving whatever-the-hell. But the fact is that -- and how many times can I say this -- pipe dream or not, this country cannot rebound from its current crisis without some form of bipartisanship. It just can't be done.

Obama realizes this, and hopefully he convinced at least a few of his critics, and even more of the average Americans who don't already have a preconceived partisan opinion, to do the same. And if he didn't get through the people in the former group, let's hope the ones in the latter finally speak the hell up and put them in their place. Because our country can't afford to be hamstrung by stubborn ideologues for even one more day.

The train has to leave, with our without you on it.