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I am convinced that the reason that the Republican Party has not gone the way of the Whig Party is because they have excelled in what I call "bumpersticker politicking". That is to say, they create easily digestible soundbytes that sound right (as long as you don't examine them to closely) and keep the low-information focused on the smaller picture.

They can decry "deficit spending", "job killing", "tax cuts" and it sounds sensible. But as we've shown over and over, when you really look at it, it makes no sense. They are slogans over substance.

But thank the FSM we have Alan Grayson on our side. Because he can match these Republicans yahoos with easily digestible soundbytes and even more importantly, has the substance behind them. Note the nice little dig at presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich (proving once again that leaving the office in disgrace is no reason to fade away for the GOP):

I think that he‘s a disgrace. I wonder why anybody takes him seriously anymore. If he does to America what he did to his own personal life, we‘re all in deep, deep trouble.

Oh ouch. That one left a mark. Grayson makes no attempt to hide his disdain for the Republicans and their politicking around real people's lives. Grayson accurately likens their country club elite concerns to those ascribed to Marie Antoinette (not long before facing the guillotine): The poor can't afford bread? Let them eat cake.

The Republican Party is the party that doesn‘t want to help you. They either want to blame you, or they would try to want to convince that you somehow you‘ll be better off if nobody helps you.

Heather, our VideoCafe queen, made this mash up of the fantastic work Alan Grayson has done in the last couple of days advocating for the interests of the average American person instead of the uber-wealthy, who don't need the government's help to begin with.

On the floor of the House, Grayson soundly berated the Republicans for holding up the extension of unemployment benefits with a "May God have mercy on your souls".

Noting that his grandfather scoured the garbage dump for things he could sell to support his family in the 1930s, Grayson said, “That is the America the Republicans are trying to revive — the America of desperate straits and cheap labor.”

“I know what [Republicans] are th/inking: ‘Why don’t they just sell some stock? If they’re in really dire straits, maybe they could take some of their art collection and send it off to the auctioneer. And if they’re in deep, deep trouble, maybe the unemployed can sell one of their yachts.’ That’s what the Republicans are thinking,” Grayson said.

This is exactly the kind of rhetoric we need to hear from the Democratic Party--pushing back hard and clearly showing how out of touch the Republican Party is. Because I believe strongly that we need to reward this kind of behavior and send a message to weaker Democrats, if you can, send some scratch to Grayson here.

Oh and a little personal aside to Dan Gainor of Newsbusters: You putzes are always big on sounding like big bad bullies and violence is always your answer for anyone you don't like, but you can't even fight your own battles. $100 to knock out Grayson? You overcompensating little man. And you're stupid too; have you any idea how big Grayson is? Dude, you are so overmatched, in size, in brawn, in brains, in compassion and in every other way that marks a real man. Give it up, you wimp.

(h/t Mike at BAGnewsNotes) NY Times:

When Capsule Hotel Shinjuku 510 opened nearly two decades ago, Japan was just beginning to pull back from its bubble economy, and the hotel’s tiny plastic cubicles offered a night’s refuge to salarymen who had missed the last train home.

Now, Hotel Shinjuku 510’s capsules, no larger than 6 1/2 feet long by 5 feet wide, and not tall enough to stand up in, have become an affordable option for some people with nowhere else to go as Japan endures its worst recession since World War II.

Once-booming exporters laid off workers en masse in 2009 as the global economic crisis pushed down demand. Many of the newly unemployed, forced from their company-sponsored housing or unable to make rent, have become homeless.

Those little cubbies--hardly bigger than the crate in which my lab sleeps--don't come cheap. According to the article, the upper cubbie costs the equivalent of $640 a month. Ouch. And that's an relatively affordable option.

Still, it is a bleak world where deep sleep is rare. The capsules do not have doors, only screens that pull down. Every bump of the shoulder on the plastic walls, every muffled cough, echoes loudly through the rows.

Each capsule is furnished only with a light, a small TV with earphones, coat hooks, a thin blanket and a hard pillow of rice husks.

Most possessions, from shirts to shaving cream, must be kept in lockers. There is a common room with old couches, a dining area and rows of sinks. Cigarette smoke is everywhere, as are security cameras. But the hotel staff does its best to put guests at ease: “Welcome home,” employees say at the entrance.

“Our main clients used to be salarymen who were out drinking and missed the last train,” said Tetsuya Akasako, head manager at the hotel.

But about two years ago, the hotel started to notice that guests were staying weeks, then months, he said. This year, it introduced a reduced rent for dwellers of a month or longer; now, about 100 of the hotel’s 300 capsules are rented out by the month.

After requests from its long-term dwellers, the hotel received special government permission to let them register their capsules as their official abode; that made it easier to land job interviews.