Tag Archives: Republican Bamboozlement

Cathcart Wants It Both Ways

Dick Cathcart is really pissing me off.  Today, he published an opinion piece in The News Journal that tries to rewrite recent history.

He [Bryon Short] and just about 100 percent of his Democratic colleagues voted in favor of the package, whereas just about every member of the House Republicans voted against the tax and fee hikes.

Guess what?  The Republicans could have scuttled every one of the tax and fee hikes.  Every. Single. One.

Instead, they did a wink and a nod and withheld their votes, except the one vote necessary to actually keep the state running.  So they are trying to play this as if they were somehow railroaded into these taxes.  The truth is that they knew that these were the best solutions for the state, but they wanted to put Oberle on the hook (perhaps he is so ready to retire that even if he loses, he’ll be happy).

But instead of standing up and saying that the Republicans supported the tough decisions necessary to keep us solvent, Dick wants to say that they had nothing to do with it and that it was just the evil Democrats that raised your taxes.  Dick, you insult the intelligence of Delawareans with this kind of posturing and it is unbecoming.  I had thought you were better than that.

Proof No. XVIII On Why Conservatives Really Don’t Care About Small Government or Stopping Spending

Senate Finance Committee Approves Amendment Providing Millions for Abstinence Education

So here we go again. Senator Orin Hatch proposed this amendment which would provide $50 million per year through 2014 solely for abstinence education programs. These are the same experimental programs that have been shown to be a failure and that President Obama cut from the budget because they do not work. But you can count on Republicans in congress to tell people in town halls that the spending has to stop, that we have to stop spending money on ineffective programs or (the best of all) that you can only trust repubs with your money. But the minute one of their craziest constituencies creams, they are perfectly willing to waste whatever money it takes. And spending this money on abstinence-only is a waste.

All repubs and two “conservative” Democrats voted to waste your money this way. In the scheme of thing this is not alot of money, but when this committee should be working at figuring out how to pay for health insurance overhaul, insisting using this bill to waste money on more failure is criminal.

How ACORN Helped Defund the Entire Military Industrial Complex

Well, maybe not all — but there’s some nervousness out there. After yesterday’s post on why reducing spending and government is so tough — today I find that Congress has just enacted a way to really cut back on expenditures that I whole heartedly endorse:

The congressional legislation intended to defund ACORN, passed with broad bipartisan support, is written so broadly that it applies to “any organization” that has been charged with breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency. It also applies to any of the employees, contractors or other folks affiliated with a group charged with any of those things.

In other words, the bill could plausibly defund the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops.

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) picked up on the legislative overreach and asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.

Lockheed Martin and Northrop Gumman both popped up quickly, with 20 fraud cases between them, and the longer list is a Who’s Who of weapons manufacturers and defense contractors.

Anyone laughing yet? Rep. Greyson is planning on filing a list of organizations charged with “breaking federal or state election laws, lobbying disclosure laws, campaign finance laws or filing fraudulent paperwork with any federal or state agency” or with employees so charged so that judges can be really clear who got defunded. Want to help him build the list? Greyson set up a Google Spreadsheet where you can suggest contractors to add.

And apparently there are some other constitutional hurdles for this ACORN bill, but I love that this may have just functionally put out of business a huge swath of the military industrial complex. PleasePleasePlease, Democrats, do NOT fix this without getting multiple pounds of flesh out of it…..

The Teabagger Pledge

I saw this at dKos yesterday, but it also turned up in my email several times today, so I thought I would post it here. Perhaps our local teabaggers will print this up and make a point of getting their cohorts to signup. Or perhaps tell us they endorse this letter in the comments!

I crack myself up.

I, ________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.

I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also.

I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

  • Social Security
  • Medicare/Medicaid
  • State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)
  • Police, Fire, and Emergency Services
  • US Postal Service
  • Roads and Highways
  • Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)
  • he US Railway System
  • Public Subways and Metro Systems
  • Public Bus and Lightrail Systems
  • Rest Areas on Highways
  • Sidewalks
  • All Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009 federal senate appropriations)
  • Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)
  • Public and State Universities and Colleges
  • Public Primary and Secondary Schools
  • Sesame Street
  • Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children
  • Public Museums
  • Libraries
  • Public Parks and Beaches
  • State and National Parks
  • Public Zoos
  • Unemployment Insurance
  • Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services
  • Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them)
  • Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)
  • Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)
  • Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD’s ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking
  • Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies
  • Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies

If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care.

I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to:

  • Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History
  • The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments
  • The government-operated Statue of Liberty
  • The Grand Canyon
  • The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials
  • The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery
  • All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC

I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.

I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.

I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.

Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR ___.

_____________ _________________________

Signed Printed Name/Town and State

The Public Is Smarter Than Republicans Think

Greg Sargent at Plumline finds some data in a Bloomberg poll that suggests that most Americans know that the Republican health-care reform opponents are just trying to scare people.

Wow, this is cause for cautious optimism: Buried in a new Bloomberg poll is evidence that solid majorities dismiss all the leading right wing health care talking points as “scare tactics.”

Not kidding! It’s true. The poll tested a range of attacks and asked whether they were “legitimate” or a “disortion” and a “scare tactic.” The results:

* Sixty-three percent said the claim that “death panels of government officials would decide how much medical care ailing individuals will receive” is a scare tactic, versus 30% who said it’s legit.

* Fifty-nine percent said the claim that “health care would be rationed” is a scare tactic, versus 35% who said it’s legit.

* Fifty-two percent said the claim that “health care would become socialized medicine” is a scare tactic, versus 43% who said it’s legit.

* Sixty-one percent said the claim that “government money would be used to pay for abortions” is a scare tactic, versus 33% who said it’s legit.

* Fifty-eight percent said the claim that “government money would pay for health care for illegal immigrants” is a scare tactic, versus 37% who said it’s legit.

I hope the Blue Dogs and Senate Conservadems are reading this poll. I guess the Summer of Spittle hasn’t had that much of an effect, except to turn Republicans into hecklers?

Also, if I were a Republican looking at this poll, I would say “socialized medicine” is their best attack.

The Next Rightwing Outrage?

So, is Sarah Palin running for president or what? Steve Benen tells us the next outrage that Palin is trying to start:

We learned last night that President Obama expects health care reform to cost “around $900 billion over 10 years.” Obviously, that’s a considerable investment, but the president reminded Americans that this is less than what the U.S. has spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, and unlike those wars, health care reform will not automatically be added to the debt.

This seems to have annoyed Sarah Palin, who apparently didn’t understand what the president said.

“….President Obama delivered an offhand applause line tonight about the cost of the War on Terror. As we approach the anniversary of the September 11th attacks and honor those who died that day and those who have died since in the War on Terror, in order to secure our freedoms, we need to remember their sacrifices and not demonize them as having had too high a price tag.”

So, will the media run with it? Will we hear it endlessly repeated by our trolls?

Of course, our president is a big meanie because he called out the liars:

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) appeared on Larry King Live after President Obama’s speech. McCain was almost expressionless as King showed a clip of the president calling the ‘death panel’ canard — advanced by McCain’s former GOP running mate Sarah Palin — “a lie, plain and simple.”

McCain twice called that portion of Obama’s speech “an unnecessary comment.” McCain said “it was partisan in nature” and “did nothing to contribute to bipartisan dialogue.”

In other words, Republicans can lie with impunity but it’s wrong to point this out. Lindsey Graham echoes John McCain as well:

Graham, however, also criticized Obama.

”I was incredibly disappointed in the tone of his speech,” Graham said. ”At times I found his tone to be overly combative and believe he behaved in a manner beneath the dignity of the office. I fear his speech tonight has made it more difficult — not less — to find common ground.”

For the record, both McCain and Graham called Rep. Wilson’s behavior unacceptable.

Afternoon Open Thread

David Neiwert is the author of The Eliminationists — How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right, a book I’m currently reading. If you’ve followed any of Neiwert’s work at Orcinus or at Crooks and Liars, you know that his longtime project is reporting on the fringe right and increasingly he has been reporting on how the ideas and speech of these fringe groups gets mainstreamed. It is maddening reading — less for the persistently hateful content of this speech, or even for the unthinking acceptance of this kind of talk from so-called Christians and family-values purveyors, but for the real complicity of not just the media, but the entire political class in normalizing this clueless stuff.

I’ll probably have more to say about this book when I’m done with it, but in the meantime, here is video of Neiwert talking about his book on a recent radio program. This is about 30 mins long, but definitely worth the time.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etoyumdyRS4[/youtube]

And you — what are you reading and thinking about this afternoon?

More Michael Steele FAIL

So what if you began a “Freedom Tour” and nobody came? (NOTE: Scott P over at the Palmer Lyceum has an excellent post up on this too. h/t nemski)

This is another tale of FAIL from Michael Steele and the GOP efforts to reach out to minorities. He begins this tour at Howard University — the tour lands at Historically Black Colleges and here you go:

The visit didn’t exactly seem to stir the campus; in the student union building, the line to get into the cafeteria two floors below Steele’s speech was much longer than the line to get into the talk, and the first two rows were filled in, just before the program began, by about two dozen mostly white College Republicans from other D.C. universities. Questions for what was billed as a town hall meeting had to be submitted days in advance to the Howard chapter of the college GOP.

Got that? You go to a Historically Black College in the nation’s capital and you need to fill in seats with white kids from other colleges and submit your questions days earlier for screening. Then we get to the obligatory you-can-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps portion of our program:

For the first 40 minutes or so of his hour-long talk, Steele’s message boiled down to vague platitudes about black professional role models, the need for young people to pay attention to politics and the sheer unlikelihood of his journey from D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood — just a few miles up Georgia Avenue from Howard’s campus — to the top of the RNC.

That’s a message, I’m sure Howard parents are furiously calling the President and Dean to demand that never again shall a political figure provide an non-pre-approved encouraging message to their kids.

And Steele thinks that he is somehow on the same operating level as the President of the United States:

For most of the night, no matter how he tried, Steele couldn’t quite get the audience on his side. And he certainly did try. He constantly brought up Obama, asking the students if they would have ever thought “you would have two African Americans sitting atop the political class of this country.” In Steele’s mind, it seemed, being chairman of the RNC was more or less the same thing as being president. “It’s not just a political game,” he said of Washington’s policy battles. “It’s not just Barack Obama and Michael Steele going back and forth.”

Never let it be said that Steele isn’t a role model for delusional behavior. There’s more at the link — including an account of Steele badly handling a young woman who wanted to talk about health care or insurance. But it is pretty clear that few cared about what he had to say, and that run on African-American party registration switches to the GOP is still just a pipe dream.

Just As You Thought the Palin Trainwreck Might Be Over…

…Levi Johnston shows up to talk to Vanity Fair. This, of course, is just a teaser and Levi has been out and about not doing the Quitta from Wasilla any favors.

The article includes Andrew Sullivan red meat in the form of a tale on Palin trying to convince Levi to let her adopt Bristol’s baby as well as further confirmation that Palin isn’t cut out for hard work or living up to her political commitments. After the campaign was over, Levi notes:

Sarah was sad for a while. She walked around the house pouting. I had assumed she was going to go back to her job as governor, but a week or two after she got back she started talking about how nice it would be to quit and write a book or do a show and make “triple the money.” It was, to her, “not as hard.” She would blatantly say, “I want to just take this money and quit being governor.” She started to say it frequently, but she didn’t know how to do it. When she came home from work, it seemed like she was more and more stressed out.

Not interested in the work, but interested in the money. No wonder the neocon crowd love her.

Mike Castle Goes Out of Town to Get His Inner Wingnut On

On Monday, Castle went to Philly to be part of a panel of legislators to discuss Health Insurance reform for some radio show.

What is interesting about this is that Castle abandoned his so-called “moderation” for some pandering to the wingnut base:

Castle challenged the idea that the government must take significant action to reduce the ranks of everyone who lacks health insurance after hearing the oft-bandied-about figure that 46 million people in the United States are uninsured.

“Maybe 14 million [of those uninsured] qualified for Medicaid or S-CHIP and another 8 million are not citizens of the USA and we don’t have a responsibility to provide health insurance to them,” he said.

Another argument from made up numbers — you never see any sourced breakdown of this talking point, but all it is supposed to do is to make the gullible think that the problem is smaller than it is and to make it look like undocumented people are meant to be eligible. In other words — the usual lying from the usual suspects. And the audience in attendance dutifully went through their the manufactured rage provided to them via Dick Armey and the teabaggers.

The Philly Inquirer has an article with more detail of what all of the panelists discussed. Interesting that the Dems appealing to reality were shouted down.

So other than the despicable talking points that Castle apparently needs to go out of town to deliver — what do you think about this performance? Out of town tryouts to see how much wingnuttery he can really deliver?