In honor of Santorum leaving the GOP race and finally letting Multiple Choice Mitt say YES to the GOP dress, here is this fun bit from the Bad Lip Reading Crew:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js3BYcHmBhE[/youtube]
It’s probably just me, but I think that the real Santorum actually sounds crazier than this lip read one.
Texas is one of those places that personify the whole Red State BS — lots of bluster, belligerence and general bellicosity on being self-reliant, not feeding at the government trough and all of that other hooey about pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and not relying on the government. Bloomburg has a great article called, Texas-Sized Safety Net Supports County Voting 83% Against Obama.
Here we get to take a good hard look at a very conservative county and how they are free to hang on to their delusions of self-reliance largely because they’ve been the recipient of $795M in government payments over the past 15 years:
Gaines County farmers took $797 million in payments from 1995 to 2010, including price supports, soil-conservation programs and crop- failure compensation, according to a database compiled by Washington-based lobby the Environmental Working Group. That puts it second in the nation behind Fresno County, California, as a recipient of federal funds.
I’m a strong proponent of getting rid of farming subsidies — certainly as they currently exist — and even getting out of the farming insurance business. Why wouldn’t the private sector want a crack at this? Here’s the most recent haul of taxpayer funds for this county:
In bad years — like 2011 — he can rely on the government for help. Record-low rainfall triggered record-high crop insurance payouts of $125 million last year to local farmers, with taxpayers subsidizing $30.8 million of the $46.9 million of the premiums paid in the county that year. Loepky received about $1 million, which paid half of his loans for the year.
These are people who are screaming about the safety net for other Americans — whether you are unemployed or poor — and yet here they are defying every bit of the free market by insisting that taxpayers pay for them to farm.
Which sounds fairly socialist, right? Or at least socializes the risk of farming to taxpayers when this is not a risk we should be subsidizing. And certainly not for crops like cotton, wheat, soybeans, corn. This is one of those places where conservatives should get what they ask for — the government getting out of their way and withdrawing their subsidies in the process.
You read that right. Arizona H.B. 2549 would make it a crime to be lewd or annoying on the Internets. This bill is on the Governor’s desk for signature. And isn’t interesting that these wingnuts have found one more bit of the Constitution that they want to undermine?
A group called the Media Coalition, which defends first amendment rights in the media, notes in a letter to the Governor various issues with this bill:
“H.B. 2549 would make it a crime to use any electronic or digital device to communicate using obscene, lewd or profane language or to suggest a lewd or lascivious act if done with intent to ‘annoy,’ ‘offend,’ ‘harass’ or ‘terrify,’” the letter notes. … ‘Lewd’ and ‘profane’ are not defined in the statute or by reference. ‘Lewd’ is generally understood to mean lusty or sexual in nature and ‘profane’ is generally defined as disrespectful or irreverent about religion or religious practices.”
So let’s start counting the problems here:
This is one more thing that Republicans are working on that is completely not useful except to themselves. It is more evidence that handing over government to Republicans is a seriously bad idea. They only give lip service to the Constitution and work overtime to make sure that there is a ton of government pointed at controlling the speech and behavior of the people who pay their salaries. And — with the help of some Democrats — are also working overtime to make sure that businesses feed at the trough of taxpayer money pretty freely and can run roughshod over the citizens who work for them,
On January 19, 2012, one C. Peter Wagner was awarded an official tribute from the Delaware House of Representatives, sponsored by Representative Daniel Short and officially signed off by Speaker Gilligan. The House awards tons of these, but this one is spectacularly different.
Why? Dr. Wagner is a leader in the Christian Dominion movement – they believe that Christians (or at least certain ones of them) should have Dominion over government, the media and business in order to be prepared for the end times. (Michelle Goldberg has a great article on this here.) Called the New Apostolic Reformation by Dr. Wagner, its front line associates are called Apostles and meant to focus on the work of taking over these institutions. You may have heard his name when Governor Perry was showily organizing his state-sponsored prayer rally, called The Response.
The great blog Right Wing Watch picked this up when they received a copy of an email that Wagner sent out to his people. In it, he replicates the text of the Tribute awarded to him from the House:
State of Delaware House of Representatives. Tribute. Be it known to all that the House of Representatives recognizes Dr. C. Peter Wagner As an Apostle For the Occasion of Commissioning Apostles in the State of Delaware. On this special day of the Commissioning Service, we honor Dr. C. Peter Wagner for his many years of faithful service to the Lord of Heaven and Earth, and the advancement of His Kingdom. ‘These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens: I know your works. See I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it.” Rev. 3:7.’ The House of Representatives extends its sincere congratulations and directs this tribute to be presented on this 19th day of January 2012. (Signed) Robert F. Gilligan, Speaker of the House; Richard L. Puffer, Chief Clerk of the House, Representative Daniel B. Short, Sponsor.
This is highly unusual and an abuse of what was intended for legislative tributes. The history of ‘tributes’ dates back only about 12 years or so. Before tributes, the General Assembly would wade through scores of non-controversial resolutions, Eagle Scouts congratulations, stuff like that, each resolution requiring a print run and somebody to write the empty ‘Whereas’ clauses, and a legislative body to vote on it. Plus, they didn’t exactly look like ‘keepsakes’ when received by the honorees. Richard B. Carter, Administrative Assistant for the Delaware State Senate Majority Caucus, came up with the tribute concept, a one-page document enclosed in a navy-blue binder, tribute prepared on a faux-parchment stock, and signed only by President Pro-Tem or Speaker, the Chief Clerk of the House or Secretary of the Senate, and the sponsor of the tribute. The program has served its intended purpose and has generally worked well. The advantages are considerable: No print runs, no votes, and a genuine keepsake for the recipient. It works and works well, as long as tributes comport with the non-controversial intent of the program, and someone doesn’t try to slip something like this through. Especially since this document implies the imprimatur of the Delaware State House of Representatives on a particular type of religion. Did they really have to quote biblical scripture in the tribute? One would hope that that would have served as a red flag to someone concerned about separation of church and state. If anybody was.
An official tribute from the House (a scanned copy of the document is here), for these “apostles” in the service of making our government and institutions look more like those in Iran. Substitute Ayatollahs for Apostles and you get the drift here. Take a look at how he describes how he got this thing:
As part of the ceremony, I was officially welcomed as an apostle and authorized to help commission apostles to the state. The mayor of Seaford (a committed believer) read the Commendation from his office and presented me with the key to the city. This was followed by a Tribute complete with the seal of the Sussex County Council, a Tribute with the seal of the Senate of the State of Delaware, and a Tribute from the House of Representatives of the State of Delaware read personally by the representative of the district.
So his haul included keys to the city of Seaford and a tribute from the Sussex County Council. And this is from people who are screaming that their country is being taken from them, screaming about socialism, screaming that no one follows the constitution and yet they turn around and kiss the butt of a guy who would transform the leadership of this country into ayatollahs.
It is important to pay attention to this stuff and shine a light on it and push back on it as much as possible. This is not harmless – you can see the influence of these people around Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann. And just because you are Christian doesn’t mean you are OK with these people. He has been waging a “prayer war” against Catholics in Argentina and urging that Catholic statues be burned (scroll down). He told a group that the Emperor of Japan and the “Sun Goddess” sleep together and apparently this is the cause of Japan’s stock market troubles. And we have official government institutions in our state using our tax money to provide Tribute to this very extreme theocratic business. Aren’t you curious as to how our House of Representatives could sign on to this craziness?
(Fresh Air had Wagner on back in October and it is chilling and fascinating.)
h/t and thanks for this story to Kyle Mantyla at People For the American Way’s Right Wing Watch, a blog vigorously documenting the right wing atrocities.
This weekend’s news has been fascinated with the suspension of Herman Cain’s fake bid for the White House. Fake, because he was just opening a campaign HQ this weekend and still hasn’t actually staffed up to properly compete in either Iowa or NH. He *has* been furiously fundraising, selling books and managing his profile. Much like the Alaska grifter and all of the other GOP grifters looking for their pipeline of wingnut welfare, Herman was alot of sound and fury, signifiying nothing. Which ultimately qualified him to be the GOP frontrunner for one New York minute. And that “suspending” business seems to mean that Herman can still raise money.
Much fun is being had at Herman’s expense, not the least of which is SNL with their CainWreck skit on Saturday:
One more, this time from Elon James White (a very funny guy) — a tumblr called #HermanCainAsDrake.
And the Huffington Post has a sadly funny piece noting how Herman Cain quoted freely from the Pokemon movie:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dvq2tha6heU[/youtube]
Have mercy, there is one MORE, Republican debate tonite! I’m pretty sure that most of Delaware Liberal’s readers will be getting their houses ready for Thanksgiving dinner, baking pies, taste testing the wines, picking the activities to keep the kids busy on the drive to Grandma’s or in Zumba class and therefore too busy to watch the carnage. If you happen to be watching (I hope after successful taste tests of the wine!), use this thread to comment on the train wreck. But to get you in the mood, Paul Krugman tells you everything you need to know about the current form of the GOP —
“I have a structural hypothesis here,” Krugman told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour Sunday. “You have a Republican ideology, which Mitt Romney obviously doesn’t believe in. He just oozes insincerity, that’s just so obvious. But all of the others are fools and clowns. And there is a question here, my hypothesis is that maybe this is an ideology that only fools and clowns can believe in. And that’s the Republican problem.”
Peggy Noonan (are you kidding?) defends Newtie and gets her butt handed back to her:
“We need a little on the pro-Newt side balance,” she remarked. “The base of the Republican Party knows that the establishment of the Republican Party doesn’t like Newt. That’s a big plus.”
“It was his time,” Krugman explained. “The Republican base does not want Romney and they keep on looking for an alternative. And Newt, although — somebody said, ‘He’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.’ But he is more plausible than the other guys they’ve been pushing up.”
In other Gingrich news, there is some Christian group passing out flyers in Iowa questioning Newtie’s character via the number of marriages he has had.
But I guess that’s how you know he’s in the GOP, right?
In yesterday’s Delaware Voice (New Journal), Representative J.J. Johnson reminds GOP chair John Sigler that he should stick to refereeing the food fights in Sussex County and leave the business of governing to those who will care about its details.
Sigler apparently spent his time writing about “runaway tax and spending”, which isn’t borne out by looking at the numbers. But no member of the GOP ever went broke waving the Tax and Spend flag at the local bulls. And as impotent as they are right now, they still haven’t decided to commit themselves to some better numeracy. But here is the *data* as cited by Representative Johnson:
Since fiscal 2009, our budget has grown by $145.7 million, or 4.3 percent, over a three-year period. That is less than 1.5 percent per year, which is hardly runaway spending. Of that $145.7 million, $112.4 million is due to increases in Medicaid, Welfare and teacher unit counts.
More than 75 percent of our budget increase is due to things we are required to fund. A recent News Journal article noted that there are an additional 48,000 people receiving Medicaid and 63,000 more people receiving food stamps since fiscal 2009, and our teacher unit counts are tied to student enrollment. And those numbers will continue to increase.
Unless Mr. Sigler thinks we should cut seniors off the Medicaid rolls or increase classroom sizes, these cost increases are unavoidable. I would hope he agrees with me that we cannot afford to abandon those Delawareans who depend on this aid.
Sigler has called for clearly failed policies, like super-majorities to pass tax and budget bills, TABOR, and other stuff that localities that submitted to this kind of GOP experimentation are working hard to get rid of. Places like Arizona and Nevada have had their bond ratings downgraded by Moody’s in part because the supermajority gives the power of stopping any rationality on budgets and spending to a few people. Meaning that they are likely to become much like California, where they haven’t been able to do much to address their fatal budget issues because a few Republicans won’t be responsible. But here is Representative Johnson:
Mr. Sigler also calls for a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds “supermajority” on all tax and fee bills and our “money bills” — the budget, Bond Bill and Grant-in-Aid. First off, state law already requires a three-quarters majority for Grant-in-Aid and the Bond Bill and a three-fifths majority for all tax and fee bills. Mr. Sigler is blowing smoke and then yelling “fire.”
Hello.
Mr. Sigler needs to stick to his knitting and get the in-fighting stopped in his own party — so maybe they may be competitive again, you know? — and then get themselves wrapped up in the actual facts of how this state is governed, so maybe they’ll not just sound smarter but they may come up with some interesting solutions to real problems here in Delaware.
Pastor Rick Warren, who has made a nice living running a mega-church and writing inspirational books like The Purpose-Driven Life, tweeted this last night (now deleted):
Render unto Caesar and all! I certainly remember all of Jesus’s sermons about the unfairness of high taxes on the wealthy job creators, and about how welfare makes poor people lazy. I’ll let Karoli explain about taxes:
Let’s get this out of the way first: What you said is untrue. Had you said 50% don’t pay income tax, you’d have at least been partly right, because tax preferences currently benefit lower and middle class taxpayers to some extent via the EIC, the child care credit, and other tax subsidies.
But to say they don’t pay taxes? That’s flatly untrue. Everyone who drives a car pays taxes when they fill up their tank. Everyone who buys toilet paper pays sales taxes here in California. Everyone who works has FICA/FUTA taxes withheld and paid. Everyone. Rich, poor, or middle. And as a percentage of income, those taxes are a whole lot more than the ones you defend as “already paying taxes”, especially when the taxes they do pay means they have to ration meals, or medications, or go without in order to feed their children.
Here’s a partial list of entities who paid no taxes. This is who you defend: General Electric, Bank of America, Boeing, Wells Fargo Bank, Goldman Sachs, Exxon-Mobil, Koch Industries, BP, and more. And for that privilege, some outsourced jobs to other countries, others just downsized, and still others decided they’d overwork their younger employees and let the older ones go while they still could.
All working people pay Social Security tax (so it’s an entitlement that they’ve paid into all their life) and Medicare tax. They also pay property tax, sales tax, local tax, state tax, gas tax, cigarette tax, alcohol tax. Not to mention the various fees that poor pay that others don’t, like payroll advance (many can’t afford bank accounts for the fees) and rent-to-own.
The Heritage Foundation has a new report on poverty in America. It’s an example of compassionate conservatism at work.
The home of the typical poor family was not overcrowded and was in good repair. In fact, the typical poor American had more living space than the average European. The typical poor American family was also able to obtain medical care when needed. By its own report, the typical family was not hungry and had sufficient funds during the past year to meet all essential needs.
Poor families certainly struggle to make ends meet, but in most cases, they are struggling to pay for air conditioning and the cable TV bill as well as to put food on the table. Their living standards are far different from the images of dire deprivation promoted by activists and the mainstream media.
…
Consumer items that were luxuries or significant purchases for the middle class a few decades ago have become commonplace in poor households. In part, this is caused by a normal downward trend in price following the introduction of a new product. Initially, new products tend to be expensive and available only to the affluent. Over time, prices fall sharply, and the product saturates the entire population, including poor households.
I’m surprised Heritage didn’t bring out their “lucky duckies” argument that the poor pay no federal income tax. You know, it’s generally considered a good thing if poor people have food and shelter. It means the social safety net is working. This is a good thing.
Here’s some truths:
“15 Shocking Facts About Poverty In America”
#3 The U.S. poverty rate is now the third worst among the developed nations tracked by the OECD
#4 Household participation in the food stamp program has increased 20.28% since last year
#7 One out of every six Americans is now being served by at least one government anti-poverty program
Heritage wants you to think that these statistics are lies. I wonder how Heritage reconciles the rhetoric that the wealthy “job creators” need coddling and special tax breaks with the rhetoric that the poor are coddled too much? It’s Heritage, so I guess it doesn’t have to make sense.
It is always amusing to listen to the teajadis and their bleats about socialism or redistributing wealth — especially since you know that most of them are some of the biggest beneficiaries of government handouts on the planet. Now we can see exactly how much redistribution Americans take advantage of and we don’t even *know* that these are government programs:
This is from a paper “Reconstituting the Submerged State: The Challenges of Social Policy Reform in the Obama Era,” by Cornell’s Clinton Rossiter Professor of American Institutions Suzanne Mettler, who used this chart to document the fact that Americans who tell you they are not taking advantage of any social programs really, really are. Americans keep being told that the Government Is Bad For You, yet no one wants to remind people that there are plenty of Americans who would not have the lives they lead without the kind of government supports shown in that chart. It also makes you wonder what the so-called political divide might look like if someone used these programs that so many people take advantage of and made a full-throated *defense* of government supports for middle and working class families.
H/t for this from BoingBoing, who note:
It’s the “Keep your government hands off my Medicare” phenomena writ large: a society of people who subsist on mutual aid and redistributive policies who’ve been conned (and conned themselves) into thinking that they are rugged individualists and that everyone else is a parasite.
Indeed.
Really, if you have been paying any attention at all to the deficit discussions over the past 6 months or so, you will know that the only people who are against increasing tax revenues — whether that is from increased taxes on the wealthy or closing of unneeded loopholes) — are Congressional Republicans. There has been a decent amount of polling about this over the past 6 months, polling that Bruce Bartlett has rounded up at his blog.
A June 9 Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 61 percent of people believe higher taxes will be necessary to reduce the deficit.
A June 7 Pew poll found strong support for tax increases to reduce the deficit; 67 percent of people favor raising the wage cap for Social Security taxes, 66 percent raising income tax rates on those making more than $250,000, and 62 percent favor limiting tax deductions for large corporations. A plurality of people would also limit the mortgage interest deduction.
A May 26 Lake Research poll of Colorado voters found that they support higher taxes on the rich to shore-up Social Security’s finances by a 44 percent to 25 percent margin.
A May 13 Bloomberg poll found that only one third of people believe it is possible to substantially reduce the budget deficit without higher taxes; two thirds do not.
The thing that most (in debt) Americans know if that just reducing your expenditures AND reducing your revenues isn’t exactly a formula for debt payoff. They seem to know that over the past decade there have been large wars that no one has asked us to help pay for. And you won’t pay for them by just cutting taxes and reducing expenditures in other places.
This hard line position of no new tax revenues demonstrates the profound unseriousness of the Congressional GOP about deficit reduction or even about the business of governing. Time after time (and poll after poll) we see Americans support for the programs that Republicans are hell bent on cutting. Yet to ask for sacrifice on behalf of working class and middle class people who benefit from these programs without asking the wealthiest among us to do their share is pretty profoundly un-American. When we all face a major crisis, we all participate in getting past that crisis. What the GOP is now working at institutionalizing is an American caste system — where there are people expected to pay for government and wealthy people who get to extract resources from government.
For all of their bluster about the American people not supporting tax increases, we can see that is quite wrong. I don’t think that Americans want to pay more in taxes (wealthy or no) but definitely understand that if the debt and deficit is a problem, then taxes have to be a part of the solution. Time for the deficit hawks in both parties to come to terms with the stupidity they’ve started here. They’ve latched on to Pete Peterson’s plan to destroy Social Security and Medicare via a narrative on debt reduction. When time after time we can see real data that shows that the current debt problem is tax cuts (the reduction of revenues) and spending on wars. Yet these are the two things that are “off the table”. Which — if you look at those polls — tells you that these hard-line conservatives are not representing *the American people* at all.
Yesterday there was a lot attention being paid to Time journalist Mark Halperin saying that during Wednesday’s press conference on the debt ceiling Obama was “kind of a dick.” After the furor died down, I and many others realized that yet again we’re talking about the GOP’s hurt feelings rather than the GOP’s actions. It’s very frustrating to see how easy it is for the GOP to feed their storyline to the press corps hook, line and sinker. (I might argue that the GOP tactic of pretending to be easily offended delicate flowers is not a great tactic.) Steve Benen noticed something else interesting:
“[W]e need to start asking ourselves an uncomfortable question — are Republicans slowing down the recovery on purpose for political gain in 2012?” Schumer said. “Sen. McConnell made it clear last October that his number one priority, above everything else, is to defeat President Obama. And now it is becoming clear that insisting on a slash-and-burn approach may be part of this plan — it has a double-benefit for Republicans: it is ideologically tidy and it undermines the economic recovery, which they think only helps them in 2012.”
…
I’d also note that Schumer made these highly provocative remarks, and as best as I can tell, has faced no pushback whatsoever. One of Congress’ most prominent Democrats has effectively accused Republicans of trying to sabotage the nation’s economy, and Republican officials aren’t expressing any outrage, and aren’t even calling for an apology. No shrieks, no cries, no apoplexy.
And why not? Because to do so would be to engage in the very debate the GOP is desperate to avoid.
Exactly. Where is the screeching and calls of how dare you? Republicans may be terrible on policy but they are geniuses on messaging and they have realized you don’t make a stink out of something you want people to ignore. Benen is right about this. More Democrats need to push this and harder. It would be really nice to see journalists ask this question but I won’t hold my breath.
So the rest of the story of how the FEC charges against O’Donnell got dropped finally comes out. And she is saved from having to account for her mismanagement of campaign funds by the Republican commissioners on the FEC. Even though they specifically voted against the recommendation of the FEC general counsel:
The Republican members’ decision went against the recommendations of the general counsel for the FEC, who found there was reason to believe that O’Donnell accepted excessive in-kind contributions in the form of coordinated expenditures from TeaPartyExpress.org.
The FEC’s General Counsel said there was enough evidence for a probe to move forward, citing a Facebook posting by Evan Quietsch, the press secretary for O’Donnell’s committee, which indicated he spoke with Tea Party Express daily.
The three Democratic commissioners provided detail on why they thought the Friends of Christine O’Donnell committee’s behavior ought to be investigated further (pdf), and that still surrounds the behavior of one Evan Quietsch acting on behalf of the campaign:
In this case, the complaint included information that supported finding reason to believe that O’Donnell or members of her campaign staff may have coordinated expenditures with TPAC. The Respondents have failed to provide information sufficient to rebut the complaint. The Commission should therefore take the next step and complete a limited investigation into whether O’Donnell, the Committee, and TPAC coordinated expenditures. If the investigation did not establish probable cause, the Commission would close the matter.
The complaint alleged and included a video showing that O’Donnell appeared at apparent TPAC events on September 1,2010 and September 7,2010. The complaint also alleges that O’Donnell participated in TPAC’s “Radiothon for Christine O’Donnell” on September 9,2010. According to foe Facebook page for the event, which was included in the complaint, the event was “a special broadcast by the Tea Party Express to raise money and awareness for the conservative candidate for US senate Christine O’Donnell.” The radiothon was aired on WDEL 1150 AM, as well as on the Internet at WDEL.com. The complaint also includes two statements made by Evan Quietsch, the Committee’s press secretary, on his Facebook page on September 2, 2010 regarding the radiothon. The first post, made at 11:51am, stated: “Tea Party Express Radiothon on #wdel@ 7PM Thurs Sept. 9th #delaware #netde ur calls and guests discuss #desen race #tpp #tpx listen online www.wdel.com.” Quietech’s second post, made about three hours
later, was apparentiy directed to a staff member of the radio station and stated: “@Jensenl 150WDEL let me know if you want to know about the Tea Party Express as I speak
w/them daily” (emphasis added).
[…]
Respondents’ counsel acknowledged O’Donnell’s appearance at the press conference on September 7,2010, but generally denied any other appearances at TPAC events or communication between TPAC and O’Donnell or Committee staff. This statement, however, is contradicted by both Quietsch’s statement and the video of O’Donnell’s appearance at an apparent second TPAC event on September 1. Furthermore, the letter from Respondents’ counsel did not specifically address O’Donnell’s possible participation in the radiothon or the coordination allegations regarding for the specific event.
[…]
Here, the campaign press secretary represented to a radio station employee that he spoke daily with the third party paying for a supposedly independent communication on that radio station,” they wrote. “If that is not enough information to begin an investigation into coordination, it is unclear what would be enough.
Indeed. When your campaign staff takes to Facebook and Twitter to announce his coordination with other parties, this is something to look at. But accountability or even honor isn’t exactly a Republican trait these days. The rule of law doesn’t apply to those who are bleating the most about *other people’s* relationship to the rule of law. O”Donnell dodged a bullet here and she dodged one because the members of her tribe decided to close ranks rather than try to flush out the misbehavior. Which means that there will be more of this from her and the teajadi crew. Because they just got told that they’re going to be allowed to get away with murder.