"Knuckle-dragging Neanderthals"

Angry with her former
boyfriend, woman cooks
and eats their pet goldfish.

“Knuckle-dragging Neanderthals,” is one of the descriptions Alan Grayson, Representative from Florida, offered of Republicans. I think it may be a perfectly apt description. Grayson was referring primarily to the fact that the Republicans, being the party of No, have dragged their feet on everything and kept us from making progress on anything. That seems to me to be true. They seem to be Neanderthals in more ways than one. For example, they don’t seem to understand that with modern technology it is no longer possible to lie outrageously or carry hypocrisy to celestial heights. There exist now videotapes and audiotapes and photographs and other means of communication that did not exist in the days of George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. I cannot understand whether they are completely stupid, merely ignorant, or if they believe the American public is entirely stupid. Take the current crap they are dishing out about how it is that Obama should not be going to Copenhagen to try to get the Olympics for Chicago. They say he has too many other things to do and should stay here and attend to them. Obama is going to Copenhagen for eighteen hours, a quick round trip on Air Force One, during which time he can stay in touch with everything. It is important for Chicago, but also for the U.S. itself, as if the Olympics do come to Chicago it will create many jobs and much badly needed revenue. Contrast this with George W. Bush’s travel to China for four days merely to watch the Olympics. Is it the case there was no important business for Bush to attend to, or do Republicans just forget about his trip? But their hypocrisy knows no bounds.

Remember when Obama and his family spent a week on Martha’s Vineyard. You might have thought it was the end of the world, according to Republicans. Do they forget that Bush spent almost a third of his entire Presidency on vacation? How about their babbling on about Obama speaking to the nation’s school children? No one raised a fuss when Bush or any other President did the same thing. What about their impeachment of Clinton for lying about an extramarital, consensual sex act? They don’t seem to object to the Bush/Cheney outrageous lies about their unnecessary “war” in Iraq that has resulted in perhaps a million or more deaths of innocents. And what about Sanford, who has called for others to resign for such affairs while he, himself, refuses to resign and even wants to continue to run for office? And now we have Vitter, who has broken the law in Louisiana and carried on with prostitutes, but now leads the fight against ACORN over a fake prostitution ring? Then there is whats-his-name from Nevada who also has hypocritically called on others to resign over sex escapades, but he refuses to do the same? And what about Larry Craig of Idaho, caught in a homosexual situation even though he has consistently voted against gay rights of any kind? There almost certainly are others just like him in the Republican party, gay themselves, but voting against gays at every opportunity. Now we have the Republicans demanding an apology from Grayson for describing the Republican health care plan as having two parts: don’t get sick, and if you do, die quickly. Republicans are outraged, outraged, over this, conveniently forgetting that many of them have said equally awful things about “death panels,” “pulling the plug on grandma,” “many will die,” and on and on.

Obviously there are hypocrites and liars in the Democratic Party. But they are no match for Republicans, no match at all. For nine years (actually longer) the Republicans have carried lying and hypocrisy to astronomical heights never before even imagined. The most remarkable thing about this, I think, is they apparently believe that no one will notice, or if they do notice they will easily forget it. But you can’t forget it when they are right there on videotape doing it. And they continue on a daily basis saying things with a straight face that are so outrageous you sometimes can’t even believe your own eyes and ears. Thank god for Congressmen like Grayson who has the courage to speak up, tell the truth, and refuse to back down. His apology to the 44,000 individuals who die each year because for 60 years the knuckle-dragging Neanderthals have refused to pass health care reform, was right on. Actually, Neanderthals were not knuckle-draggers, but being large-brained, if they were around today I believe they would be highly offended by being compared with Republicans.

LKBIQ:
As witnesses not of our intentions but of our conduct, we can be true or false, and the hypocrite's crime is that he bears false witness against himself. What makes it so plausible to assume that hypocrisy is the vice of vices is that integrity can indeed exist under the cover of all other vices except this one. Only crime and the criminal, it is true, confront us with the perplexity of radical evil; but only the hypocrite is really rotten to the core.
Hannah Arendt

TILT:
The giant panda, although believed to be docile, has at times attacked humans.