Tag Archives: Republican Bamboozlement

The Wingnutz Are Coming! The Wingnutz Are Coming!

Via Wonkette, the wingnutz over at Freeperland are fantasizing about overthrowing the government:

This would be terrifying if it wasn’t about some lamer old wingnuts and their message board: The person who runs FreeRepublic.com is cold gonna overthrow the U.S. government — that means you, blackenstein — and ho ho, no more taxes on the millionaires! Hooray! Anyway, folks, things are getting Seriously Weird with the wingnuts, birthers, paultards and other middle-aged white suckers who bought into that whole Reagan thing 30 years ago and, whoops, are still poor and doomed.

And then, in 2008, Americans mysteriously voted in droves for a common African Soviet from, er, Hawaii, who has been president now for what, six months? And this NON-PRESIDENT is, uhm, trying to get some health coverage for these poor dumb AM-radio listeners, so …. OVERTHROW THE GUBMINT.

You’ll have to get to the Freepers via Wonkette — it is against my Kenyan religion to link over there. But it is a hoot. You can smell the Cheetos from here….

Sarah Palin In New Ethics Scandal – I Know You’re Shocked

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post reports on the newest Sarah Palin ethics scandal. Sarah Palin failed to report donations to a legal defense fund.

The report, which is a product of an independent investigator affiliated with the state’s Personnel Board, claims that Palin “used or attempted to use her official position for personal gain because she authorized the creation of the trust as the ‘official’ legal defense fund,” says the AP story.

…

At the center of this particular controversy is the Alaska Fund Trust, a legal defense fund set up by backers of Palin in late April and designed to help defray her mounting legal costs.

At issue is whether Palin as the governor of the Last Frontier can legally solicit donations for an “official” legal defense fund. Members of Congress are allowed to raise money for legal defense funds as long as the charges against them are tied to something in their official work; it’s not clear whether Alaska law offers a different standard.

We also know from earlier reports that Palin’s excuse that ethics complaints were costing the state money are bogus. The complaints have cost very little, since the state employs salaried lawyers for those purposes. Why did Palin need a separate defense fund anyway, then?

Popcorn Stocks Soaring!

Pass the popcorn, this is going to be good.

The Palin-McCain campaign feud is starting to spill out into the mainstream media now. Recently there was the Vanity Fair article about Palin, which featured criticism from her critics in Alaska as well as critics from the McCain campaign. Now, the feud is escalating. Someone has leaked emails to CBS detailing some internal campaign squabbles about Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party.

The sequence of events is that Salon published an article about Todd Palin’s membership in the Alaska Independence Party from 1995-2002. Palin was asked questions by Salon as well as a few protestors. She wanted to respond but McCain’s campaign thought it was a minor issue that would go away, but Palin was unhappy so she crafted her own talking points.

“That’s not part of their platform and he was only a ‘member’ bc independent alaskans too often check that ‘Alaska Independent’ box on voter registrations thinking it just means non partisan,” Palin wrote. “He caught his error when changing our address and checked the right box. I still want it fixed.”

Palin was attempting to bend the facts ever so slightly to fit neatly into her version of events. In truth, the box that Alaskans have the option of checking when registering to vote states the full name of the party, “Alaskan Independence Party,” not “Alaska Independent,” which would make an error by uncommitted voters more plausible.

Oh, snap! I do believe she’s being called a liar. So, Schmidt responded to her email:

Clearly irritated by what he saw as Palin’s attempt to mislead her own campaign and apparently determined to demonstrate that the ultimate authority rested with him, Schmidt put the matter to rest once and for all with a longer response to everyone in the e-mail chain.

“Secession,” he wrote. “It is their entire reason for existence. A cursory examination of the website shows that the party exists for the purpose of seceding from the union. That is the stated goal on the front page of the web site. Our records indicate that todd was a member for seven years. If this is incorrect then we need to understand the discrepancy. The statement you are suggesting be released would be innaccurate [sic]. The innaccuracy [sic] would bring greater media attention to this matter and be a distraction. According to your staff there have been no media inquiries into this and you received no questions about it during your interviews. If you are asked about it you should smile and say many alaskans who love their country join the party because it speeks to a tradition of political independence. Todd loves his country

We will not put out a statement and inflame this and create a situation where john has to adress this.”

Ooooo, burn! I do believe he just called her a liar.

I think we know now about how Sarah Palin is thin-skinned and doesn’t ignore or laugh off criticism. How many feuds has she engaged in since the election? Levi Johnson, David Letterman…

Dispatch From An Alternate Reality #2

As we highlighted earlier in the week, Shepard Smith called out Fox News viewers after the murder of security guard Stephen Johns. Instead of taking time to think about what Smith said and admitting that the DHS report was perhaps correct, the reaction by the right wing has been predictably furious (from Media Matters):

During his June 11 radio program, Rush Limbaugh said of Smith’s remarks: “For liberals to now claim that the atmosphere is somehow more violently anti-Obama is simply preposterous.” Limbaugh also said Smith was “whining and moaning and complaining about emails.” After stating that he, too, got “vile, sick emails,” Limbaugh said, “Shep, you got nothing on anybody out there.”

Many on the right, including Glenn Beck, won’t accept that Von Brunn was a right winger (from digby’s Hullaballoo):

Two very important things are happening here: First, the go-go-go mentality of our enemies. Our country is vulnerable; our enemies know it as much as we do and groups like Al Qaeda are even planning to work with white supremacists (which police say this guy might be), coming through our southern border.

…

Second, there’s going to be a witch-hunt for two groups: the Jews and conservatives. Two years ago, I spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu and I told him to look out, because Israel is being set up. Iran’s goal of nuclear weapons is putting Israel in the crosshairs.

…

Meanwhile, there have been Department of Homeland Security reports about right-wing extremists. And left-wing bloggers and others have blamed conservative talk radio hosts like me for stirring the pot, even though we’re just pointing out that it’s boiling.

I still have a hard time believing this guy is on TV. That’s a whole lotta paranoid and crazy there. Or, as digby said:

It doesn’t have to make sense, folks. It just has to hit a certain emotional truth. And his audience’s “truth” is that al Qaeda is in cahoots with lone nuts to kill Jews and blame it on conservatives — and they are sneaking in from Mexico with “illegals” to do it. This makes perfect sense to them.

One more example (below the fold, warning – adult content): Continue reading →

Another Episode of Wingnut Fail

There they go again.

Republicans’ Maximum Leader Rush Limbaugh is trying to manufacture a new bit of outrage, this time to boycott GM.

That’s right — boycott General Motors.

Clearly these repubs have not spent any time mapping out where the GM plants will survive. And clearly these repubs don’t give a damn about whether Americans actually work or not. Even better though, they haven’t given a single thought as to all of the Republican GM car dealers that would be even more squeezed than they are now. But they probably have their goto “statistics” guy cherrypicking some more data to try to prove that Obama forced everyone to boycott GOP owned dealerships or something.

Bet they aren’t boycotting the TARP banks or AIG or even the conventional mortgages (backed by Fannie and Freddie!) that most of them have. But every single one of them would pony up for a Chinese-made Hummer though.

Judicial Filibuster Hypocrisy Watch

Remember the BushCo era judicial wars? The ones where Republicans lectured us all at length about how filibustering judicial nominees is unconstitutional? Well, if you don’t remember, Media Matters has gone through the CSPAN archives to remind you of many of those lectures. At Democracy or Hypocrisy you can see multiple videos of the usual suspects reminding you of their conviction that a filibuster of a judicial nominee is not constitutional. A thing that the rank and file dutifully repeated at the behest of their radio handlers, because Democrats were standing in the way of their wingnut fantasies. Here’s Part I of Mitch McConnell making the case in May 2005:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVtBLWJpfE0[/youtube]

Be sure to see them all.  Because not only are elements of the GOP base are pushing hard for a filibuster of  Judge Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court and a Lifetime Member of the Supreme High Wingnut Council — James Inhofe — has promised to filibuster the very middle of the road Judge Hamilton, who was voted out of the Judiciary Committee today.  As Steve Benen points out, Inhofe argued for a filibuster of judges to be unconstitutional.   Wonder why it isn’t unconstitutional now?  So how long will it take for the entire GOP contingent to completely reverse — flip flop! — themselves on the unconstitutionality of filibustering a judge’s nomination?

Wingnut Victims — Chrysler Dealerships Edition

And they just don’t stop. The victimization du jour consists of the usual suspects claiming that the Obama Administration decided to preference the closing of dealers who are Republican. Any guesses on how this turns out?

Nate Silver takes a look at the universe of political contributions from folks claiming to be car dealers and finds that 88% (of the data reported) contribute to Republicans. So that would mean that the odds are good that when Chrysler sends out its notices, they will be taking out more Republicans than not. And be sure to read the whole thing. Nate does the work that our innumerate repub friends can’t.

An even cooler look at the universe of car dealers was done by the Off the Map people — who tried to correlate the Chrysler dealership closings with Unemployment Rate, Foreclosure Rates, Number of Registered Automobiles in the State, Registered Automobiles per Person in the State, and Population Density. And while they can’t find any solid correlations for any of these economic categories, I do note that it looks like more dealerships are closing in Blue States.

Just remember that this argument is being made by people who — just a few months back — were arguing for letting every bit of Chrysler and GM fail. Including these Republican dealerships. And now that the car companies are cutting back more than union workers they’ve got their victim hats back on again. Because if repubs get hurt in the deal it must be because Dems are getting their paybacks. Heaven forbid that they should happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time like the workers who have been laid off. Another Fail for the so-called party of business.

Republicans Are Stupid, and Democrats Are Stupid Too

For weeks, the Republicans have been united in one thing – fear-mongering about closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The Obama administration had requested $80M in funding in the supplemental war funding to close the prison and relocate the prisoners to federal prisons. The Republicans have never had a shortage of talking points about terrorism, but this takes the cake:

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., circulated a stinging letter this week that he wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder in which he questioned what “legal authority” the administration has to admit dangerous detainees into the U.S.

And Senate GOP Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., stirred up Republican opposition with a new Web video dedicated to discrediting Obama’s proposal to close the prison. The video, set to the foreboding music of “Carmina Burana,” mixes clips of accused terrorists’ photographs with news broadcasts about the release of Guantanamo prisoners and road signs from the various states where lawmakers warn the terrorists will be sent.

It ends with the message: “Terrorists. Coming soon to a neighborhood near you. January 2010.”

OOGA BOOGA! Terrorists are coming to your neighborhood! This is transparent fear-mongering by the Republicans on an issue that isn’t that controversial. Not only is it stupid, it’s insulting. If there’s one thing the U.S. knows how to do, it is imprison people. The U.S. imprisons a greater percentage of its population than any other country in the world. We keep dangerous people in prison here – like Ramzi Yousef (the first WTC bomber mastermind), Tim McVeigh (OKC bomber) and Ted Kazinsky (Unabomber), not to mention the serial killers and mass murderers we have incarcerated.

The Republicans threatened to block the war funding supplemental if the money wasn’t removed. So, Democrats laughed at them, right? If you said no, you’re correct. The Democrats bravely stood up and said “Uncle.” Not only did they cower in fear, they gave in using Republican rhetoric. Get a load of Harry Reid in a press conference:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) declared in a press conference today, “We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States.” In several tense back and forths with reporters, Reid said he opposes imprisoning detainees on U.S. soil, saying flatly, “We don’t want them around the United States”:

REID: I’m saying that the United States Senate, Democrats and Republicans, do not want terrorists to be released in the United States. That’s very clear.

QUESTION: No one’s talking about releasing them. We’re talking about putting them in prison somewhere in the United States.

REID: Can’t put them in prison unless you release them.

QUESTION: Sir, are you going to clarify that a little bit? …

REID: I can’t make it any more clear than the statement I have given to you. We will never allow terrorists to be released in the United States.

Clearly, even the press thinks he’s nuts.

OMG! Teabagging 2.0 is Happening Today!

Socialist Tea Bag Fail

Socialist Tea Bag Fail

OMG! And we’re missing it!

According to Politico, TeaBag Parties 2.0 is on for today via a tele-town hall. They are expecting 30K people at this one, which doesn’t say much about their “grassroots” organizing — this number ought to be bigger than the 200K or so you got on 15 April, guys. Plus what happened to all of your sponsors and corporate supporters and FoxNoise boosting?

What happened is that the so-called “non-partisan” 15 April version (consisting of repubs and libertarians), finally came out of the closet. The Republican Governors Association is the official sponsor and organizer for the 30K true believers to talk to Gov Rick Perry and Gov Mark Sandford. All to jumpstart fundraising for the Governor races in New Jersey and Virginia. Which, of course, means that this whole Tea Party thing wasn’t much of a “citizen’s movement” or even particularly spontaneous. It was a way for repubs to try to get some grass roots cred which, of course, they’ve quite failed at.

No Gay or Lesbian Jurists — The Bigotry Setup

John Thune:

[C]onservative leaders have warned the nomination of a gay or lesbian justice could complicate Obama’s effort to confirm a replacement for Souter, and another Republican senator on Wednesday warned a gay nominee would be too polarizing.

“I know the administration is being pushed, but I think it would be a bridge too far right now,” said GOP Chief Deputy Whip John Thune. “It seems to me this first pick is going to be a kind of important one, and my hope is that he’ll play it a little more down the middle. A lot of people would react very negatively.”

Thune is in the GOP leadership, so this is the message going to their crew. Of course, Sessions tells the Hill that sexual orientation is not “an automatic disqualification”. How about telling us its not on the list of qualifications at all, Senator?

Jim DeMint “wouldn’t rule out the possibility of a gay nominee, though he said Obama should avoid nominating someone based on ethnic or social profiling”. That means what? That you’ll use the excuse of “profiling” for voting No if the nominee doesn’t look like John Roberts?

Saxby Chambliss says, “It’s something I’d have to think through with respect to whatever issues might be forthcoming that the court may have to consider.” So he needs to think about it. It is 2009, Senator — just saying it doesn’t matter what a person’s sexual orientation is the right response.

But not one he’ll likely get away with, of course. Lisa Murkoski seems to have a decent grasp of how not to look too bigoted and John McCain waves it away, but really, they aren’t planning on voting Yes for any nominee in the first place. You’d think that their leadership would have the good sense to know that showing your strategy in standing with the bigots really wasn’t necessary when you had no intention of doing anything but voting NO in the first place.