Monthly Archives: April 2010

Tornoe’s Toon: Markell vs. Goliath(s)

jack markell delaware david versus goliath

As a cartoonist, I’m very rarely afforded the opportunity to do a “positive” cartoon. But Gov. Markell has overcome a lot of obstacles thrown at Delaware amid this terrible recession, including the recent sale of the shut-down Valero refinery in Delaware City to PBF Energy. So I felt it was proper to give him some props.

Next week, back to pointing out the absuritidies of our public officials and the boneheaded ways they try to run our government. Karen Weldin Stewart, I’m looking your way…

If you’d like to contact me, feel free to drop me a line at robtornoe@delawareliberal.net. You can also follow me on twitter @RobTornoe.

Teabagger Round-Up

There seems to be a lot of news about the teabaggers lately, probably because today is their big protest day. A new survey of Tea Party supporters found they are older, whiter, more male and more likely to call themselves “angry” than other Americans. Their political beliefs aren’t even internally consistent:

Their responses are like the general public’s in many ways. Most describe the amount they paid in taxes this year as “fair.” Most send their children to public schools. A plurality do not think Sarah Palin is qualified to be president, and, despite their push for smaller government, they think that Social Security and Medicare are worth the cost to taxpayers. They actually are just as likely as Americans as a whole to have returned their census forms, despite some conservative leaders urging a boycott.

They also aren’t fans of poor or black people:

The overwhelming majority of supporters say Mr. Obama does not share the values most Americans live by and that he does not understand the problems of people like themselves. More than half say the policies of the administration favor the poor, and 25 percent think that the administration favors blacks over whites — compared with 11 percent of the general public.

They are more likely than the general public, and Republicans, to say that too much has been made of the problems facing black people.

Only 18% of Americans identified themselves as supporters of the tea party. I’ll bet you’re not surprised that they get their information from Fox News and think Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity are news programs. The people they like are: George W. Bush (57%), Glenn Beck (59%) and Sarah Palin (66%), even though a plurality don’t think she’s qualified to be president. Just to emphasize how different teabaggers are from the general public, Glenn Beck has a 7% approval of the general public (a huge majority don’t know/have no opinion) although 78% of teabaggers think they represent the views of the mainstream.

Is Sarah Palin losing her luster? The Boston Tea Party rally headlined by Sarah Palin got only 10% of the expected turnout.

This was taken as crowds gathered, but MSNBC had a live shot as she was speaking and it was essentially the same. The Boston.com headline this morning said “10,000 Expected…” In the body of the article that estimate was reduced down to 3000 by the time I read it. MSNBC later put a “1000 attend Tea Party Rally in Boston” crawl under video about the story.

By teabagger math, this is actually 100,000 people.

Andrew Breitbart (fake ACORN sting video peddler) is now peddling a second fake video. He has a video he says “proves” that the teabaggers didn’t call some Congressmen by racial slurs. However, the video is actually from one hour after the incident

Now comes news that Breitbart is the liar – or at least the misleader. Video he’s been peddling to “prove” the congressmen were not called the N-word was actually after the slurs occurred. As a friend notes, “It’s like running video of the Twin Towers on 9/10 to prove 9/11 didn’t happen.” Of course the videos Breitbart peddled to claim ACORN helped a supposed pimp and prostitute set up a child-prostitution ring have also been found misleading, at best. The California Attorney General’s review said they were “severely edited” and in fact “showed no violation of the law.” New York authorities concluded the same thing.

AP has the full scoop.

A reconstruction of the events shows that the conservative challenges largely sprang from a mislabeled video that was shot later in the day.

Breitbart posted two columns on his Web site saying the claims were fabricated. Both led with a 48-second YouTube video showing Lewis, Carson, other Congressional Black Caucus members and staffers leaving the Capitol. Some of the group were videotaping the booing crowd.

Breitbart asked why the epithet was not captured by the black lawmakers’ cameras, and why nobody reacted as if they had heard the slur. He also questioned whether the epithets could have been shouted by liberals planted in the crowd.

But the 48-second video was shot as the group was leaving the Capitol — at least one hour after Lewis, D-Ga., and Carson walked to the Capitol, which is when they said the slurs were used.

Questioned about using a video on his Web site from the wrong moment, Breitbart stood by his claim that the lawmakers were lying.

“I’m not saying the video was conclusive proof,” he said.

Aren’t you glad that Breitbart has such a large media platform?

Carney’s 1Q Fundraising

Well, now that John Carney finally has a credible opponent in Michele Rollins, he will have to step up his fundraising. His first quarter numbers were just released, and they are good for someone who had Fred Cullis as his main opposition. It will have to improve now that Rollins has cut short her Jamaican vacation.

From January until March, he raised approximately $250,000, and now has $675,000 cash on hand. Glen Urquhart, who inexplicably remains in the race for the GOP nomination now that Rollins has announced, raised $550,000 for his first quarter in the race, and that sounds impressive until you learn that he donated all of that money to his campaign from his personal funds. Michele Rollins has been in the race all of one week, and we will not learn of her fundraising prowess until June 30, the next reporting deadline. My guess is that she will have to raise a $1 million dollars to keep pace, as Carney will now amp up his money campaign now that he actually has an opponent. Indeed, Democrats will also open their wallets to Carney now that Air Jamaica has landed at the New Castle County Airport.

So Carney leads the money race, but now he is looking in his rearview mirror. Time to put the pedal down.

No Blue-Light Special for Sussex County Teabaggers

 

After seeing Cassandra’s post this morning about how the Delaware GOP is in bed with the Tea Party, promoting their demonstrations around the state tomorrow, we decided to contact Kmart to see what their feelings were about the ir parking lot being used as a staging area for the Rehoboth Beach area’s public teabagging ceremony.

Kim Brailey, head of Public Relations for Sears Holdings Co., the parent company of Kmart responded to our question about whether they knew the Rehoboth Beach Kmart on Route 1 was going to be used tomorrow.  Her response:  “We were not aware that the Tea Party was going to use the Kmart property in question as a staging area for their rally.  We have sent them a cease and desist order.  We are non-partisan and do not approve of Kmart property being used for any political purposes.”  When asked if this also meant that the parking lot was off-limits for teabaggers to park and walk to the rally, she said “Yes.”

Bendy Straws Are Presidential

Sarah Palin spoke to students at California State University last week and some students found a copy of her hospitality rider contract in the trash. Saint Sarah has gotten used to the life of a well-paid celebrity already.

Here are the four strangest–or most outrageous–provisions in Palin’s.

(1) The Lear Jet A.P.’s Robin Hindery reports, “Among other perks, Palin will fly first class – if she flies commercial. If not, ‘the private aircraft MUST BE a Lear 60 or larger …,’ the contract specifies.”
(2) The Bendy Straws Politico’s Glenn Thrush pithily summarizes, “Palin demands first class, bendable straws.” Wherever she speaks, bendable straws must await her at the lectern.
(3) All Questions & Guests Pre-Screened Hotline pulls out the big news-worthy detail: Palin “requires that any questions she gets from the audience be pre-screened. In fact, even questions from a moderator are to be pre-screened, according to the document.” Additionally, “Any guests at private receptions must be pre-screened.”
(4) The Three Hotel Rooms The rider stipulates, “Customer agrees to provide the Speaker and party with accommodations of a pre-registered one-bedroom suite and two single rooms in a deluxe hotel.” What constitutes a “deluxe hotel” is not clear.

Notice how careful she is to avoid anyone who might ask her real questions. Really, why does anyone still think she is going to run for president. It’s a whole lot of work and you have to meet with the un-screened little people.

Wednesday Open Thread

If it’s Wednesday then it’s time for an open thread. Let’s thread!

Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship has already demonstrated his contempt for safety and the life of his workers. He’s also a PR disaster and the shareholders of his company want him gone.

Shareholders are calling on Massey Energy to seek the immediate resignation of chairman and CEO Don Blankenship in the aftermath of the West Virginia disaster that killed 29 miners, the worst in forty years. The Change to Win Investment Group — a union pension fund group with over $200 billion in assets — believes the Upper Big Branch mine explosion is the “tragic consequence of the board’s failure to challenge Chairman and CEO Blankenship’s confrontational approach to regulatory compliance.” New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli, who controls about $14.1 million of Massey stock as the trustee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund, blasted Massey’s “callous disregard for the safety of its employees” as a “failure both of risk management and effective board oversight”:

Massey’s cavalier attitude toward risk and callous disregard for the safety of its employees has exacted a horrible cost on dozens of hard-working miners and their loved ones. This tragedy was a failure both of risk management and effective board oversight. Blankenship must step down and make room for more responsible leadership at Massey.

Blankenship will become the fall guy but he’ll get his golden parachute and will still be a rich a-hole. Massey Energy will pay a minimal fine and the profits will keep rolling in for the shareholders. (Yes, I’m cynical)

Yesterday we talked about Carl Paladino, Republican Tea Party candidate for governor of New York (Teapublican). Paladino talked to the Buffalo News but didn’t really help himself:

“I shouldn’t have sent them, no question about it,” he told The Buffalo News late Monday. “But they were sent to friends to illustrate the humor of the day as Obama was running for president.”

Did you ever notice how Republicans always call their mean-spirited stuff humor?

Paladino said he “absolutely” would not resend such e-mails if he were elected governor or now as a candidate.

“I apologize to women who may have been offended,” he said. “I’m not politically correct and never have been. I’m not perfect.”

“But if the worst I ever did was send out some nonpolitically correct e-mails — my God,” he added.

He’s only apologizing to women who might have been offended? What about everyone else?

This part’s just for David:

Still, Paladino found himself in damage-control mode, even though his Republican and Conservative allies were not abandoning him. Erie County Republican Chairman James P. Domagalski, who has not officially endorsed Paladino but has been saying increasingly favorable things about his candidacy, declined to comment.

But his Conservative counterpart, Ralph C. Lorigo, said he was sticking with Paladino. He noted Paladino did not create the e-mails but simply forwarded humorous items that e-mail subscribers receive all the time.

It’s just good, clean fun to forward racist emails and videos of a woman engaged in bestiality.

Mythbusters

There is a lot of persistent myths around about debt, deficit and taxes that are fueled by the GOP. One myth is that Obama is fiscally irresponsible and that his programs are creating unprecedented deficits. It’s true that the deficits are high, but it was caused by Bush’s tax cuts, Bush’s war, Bush’s recession and Bush’s bailouts. The Obama recovery has started turning the deficit around already:

The federal deficit is running significantly lower than it did last year, with the budget gap for the first half of fiscal 2010 down 8 percent over the same period a year ago, senior Obama administration officials said Monday.

The officials attributed the results to higher tax revenue and to lower spending than projected on bailing out the financial system. If the trend continues for the rest of the year, it would mean the annual deficit would be $1.3 trillion — about $300 billion less than the administration’s projection two months ago for 2010.

The recovery is still in its very early stages and still fragile. I hope the deficit peacocks don’t mess it up by insisting on spending cuts when the recovery is still uncertain.

A second persistent myth is that Republicans cut taxes while Democrats raise them.

In time for tax day, Citizen for Tax Justice releases a new fact sheet [pdf] on your federal tax bill for 2009. It’s good news, for 98% of working families.

According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, the vast majority of Americans do not perceive that they have received a tax cut from President Obama. Asked if the President “has already raised taxes this past year,” 53 percent of those polled said that the President has “kept taxes the same,” and 24 percent think that the President has “raised taxes.” A mere 12 percent believe that the President has cut their taxes.

This is an astonishing level of misunderstanding. The truth is that the major tax cuts enacted in the 2009 economic stimulus bill actually reduced federal income taxes for tax year 2009 for 98 percent of all working families and individuals. These tax cuts saved working families and individuals an average of $1,158 on the tax returns they will file by April 15. (The median tax cut was approximately $600.)

I know my family saw quite a substantial tax break this year and I think a lot of people are starting to realize they got a break as well.

Teapartiers = Delaware GOP

So apparently the Delaware GOP is on the same path as the rest of their party and publicly get in bed with these teabaggers. The teabaggers are having their annual collective tax pout at the state-funded (the state that collects taxes for just such efforts) Wilmington Riverfront (and other publically funded places throughout the state) this April 15. Tax Day. So droll. Anyway, guess who is smack in the middle of pimping this thing? You guessed it, the Delaware GOP:

Note to Tea Partiers — you do not get to claim independence from the GOP when they are — clearly — involved with pushing your events. So remember folks, when you see these guys taking advantage of tax-funded public areas to whinge about their taxes you are looking a a fully astroturfed and fulled pimped out group here sent out to advocate for policy that never impacts them, but does advantage their funders. Wonder what old “moderate” Mike thinks about his party leaving him behind for a teabagging.

h/t and thanks to our anonymous tipster.

Tuesday Open Thread

Hello gloomy Tuesday! What would lift your gloom? How about an open thread?

David Gregory thinks fact-checking is for the little people:

Critics say that kind of truth telling rarely happens on television. But David Gregory, the moderator of “Meet the Press” on NBC, said that accountability is “in the DNA” of his program. He said he had considered Mr. Rosen’s idea but concluded that people can fact check the program on their own online.

David Gregory is Exhibit A of everything that is wrong with the traditional media. This Week‘s first fact-check is up now.

Compassionate conservatism strikes again!

Democratic policymakers corrected this, and even many Republicans have said they have no intention of reversing course on this. Missouri’s Roy Blunt (R), however, has a unique approach to the issue. Here’s what he told an ABC affiliate in Missouri last week:

“Access for kids who have pre-existing conditions, who would be against that?” the House Republican said. “But access for adults, who have done nothing to take care of themselves, who actually will have, as I’ve just described, every incentive not to get insurance until the day that you know that you’re going to have medical expenses, that’s, that’s a very different kind of story.”

In case you think Blunt is some random Republican (he’s running for the MO-Sen seat), Steve Benen reminds us:

Keep in mind, Blunt isn’t some random back-bencher — he’s the chair of the House Republicans’ Health Care Task Force.

Remember Alan Grayson – the GOP plan is don’t get sick and if you get sick, die quickly – doesn’t seem that far off does it? Newer GOP slogan: if you’re sick it’s your own damn fault.

Now the Tea Partiers Want Their Own Army

I’m sorry, but no good can come of this. From the great conservative state of Oklahoma, site of the largest domestic terrorist attack in US history, we get this story about a Tea Party umbrella group that is looking to form an official, state-approved militia. The scariest part is that this is not just some crazy idea floated out by wingnuts on the fringe. Nope, they have real supporters in the Oklahoma legislature:

Frustrated by recent political setbacks, tea party leaders and some conservative members of the Oklahoma Legislature say they would like to create a new volunteer militia to help defend against what they believe are improper federal infringements on state sovereignty.

Tea party movement leaders say they’ve discussed the idea with several supportive lawmakers and hope to get legislation next year to recognize a new volunteer force. They say the unit would not resemble militia groups that have been raided for allegedly plotting attacks on law enforcement officers.

“Is it scary? It sure is,” said tea party leader Al Gerhart of Oklahoma City, who heads an umbrella group of tea party factions called the Oklahoma Constitutional Alliance. “But when do the states stop rolling over for the federal government?”

The biggest supporter for this truly frightening idea seems to be a state senator named Randy Brogdon, who also happens to be a birther. Oh, and did I mention that he’s running for governor, too? According to Brogdon, the founding fathers, ” were not referring to a turkey shoot or a quail hunt. They really weren’t even talking about us having the ability to protect ourselves against each other. The Second Amendment deals directly with the right of an individual to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from an overreaching federal government.”  Supporters of the Tea Party militia hope to introduce legislation authorizing their creation next year.

Now, I don’t want to put too much stock in all this, or fear-monger about what’s going on here, but it is all a bit disturbing. Tea Party apologists are always saying that it’s not a dangerous movement, and it’s just angry, everyday citizens blowing off steam and expressing themselves. But can someone please tell me what the hell they’re so scared about from the government that they feel they need their own army to protect themselves? I’ve honestly never understood this aspect of the whole thing.

And I just have to add that my favorite quote came from a Tulsa-based Tea Party leader: “It’s not a far-right crazy plan or anything like that. This would be done with the full cooperation of the state Legislature.” I don’t think he understands it can be both. But then again, this is the FOX method of fringe idea propagation: Once a wingnut idea gets repeated by, or supported by, someone in an “official” capacity, it automatically becomes a mainstream idea. Pretty soon, just their own army won’t be enough, and they’ll be fighting to create their own country to get out from under the oppressive federal government. Who knows, maybe they join with other groups and try to create their own Confederation of Teapotian States.