Tag Archives: GOP

November 9, 2011 · 5:05 pm

National Review: Cain Is More “Authentically Black” Than Obama

I knew it was only a matter of time before the GOP started this…

They are so proud to have a Black Republican they just don’t know what to do….

All I can think of is Bernice on “Designing Women” when here dementia acts up and she starts singing “Black Man, Black Man”…..

From a great Mother Jones article critiquing this idiotic article in the National Review:

The comparison between Cain and Obama isn’t so much “volatile” as it is flattering to conservatives who, having latched onto Cain as a racial alibi, an explanation for the fact that the party of Lincoln hasn’t broken 20 percent of the black vote since Richard Nixon, desperately need a symbolic figure of racial absolution. The only time conservatives aren’t using trite arguments about black authenticity as an explanation for ongoing racial disparities is when they’re relying on them to show everyone how well they understand the soul of the Negro. Hanson doesn’t bother to explain how it is that the overwhelming majority of black people haven’t discerned that Barack Obama is a fraud and that Herman Cain is the second coming of Marcus Garvey, but that’s because their “brainwashed” opinions don’t actually matter. The sole purpose of establishing Cain’s racial authenticity, premised as it is on Hanson’s rather limited view of what constitutes “the black experience,” is for Hanson to flatter himself and his ideological allies as racially enlightened.

Link to full Story:   National Review: Cain Is More “Authentically Black” Than Obama | Mother Jones.

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October 29, 2011 · 10:54 pm

Conservative Family Values? AntiGay Candidate Admits Lesbian Affair With Student 40 Years Ago, Still Wants Political Office

Those Family Values Republicans are at it again….

This district is very close to Jerry Falwell’s Christian Indoctrination Camp (AKA Liberty University)  and in about the most conservative part of Virginia….

I actually managed a campaign against the guy who is retiring twentysome years ago.  I know this district well.  I’m going to have to pay more attention to the local Virginia press on this one.  This could get really good….

Apparently we have a potentially felonious “ex” Lesbian running against a guy convicted of drunk driving and carrying a concealed weapon for the State Senate?  That’s just on the “conservative” GOP and GOP “Leaning” side.

Sounds like typical Virginia Republicans to me….

The Dems seem to be staying out of this and letting the GOP do their dirty work for them….

I encourage you to click through the link and read the whole story.  Truth is truly stranger than fiction…..You can’t make this stuff up!

From Jonathan Turley:

An interesting story out of Appomattox, Virginia, and  one that hits closer to home than I originally thought. Anti-Gay lobbyist and former deputy clerk of the Virginia House of Delegates, Linda Wall, wants to put her conservative  ideology to work for the citizens of Appomattox, Virginia in the election for the Commonwealth’s 59th District House seat.  Running as an independent, she describes herself as a “Republican-leaning conservative.” Her campaign slogan is: “A Campaign of Protection and Restoration.”  But the place where our Country was reunited in 1865, is wondering just what kind of “protection” she’s talking about and has a real dilemma on its hand since Wall admitted a lesbian affair with one of her junior high students in the early 1970s.

via Conservative Family Values? AntiGay Candidate Admits Lesbian Affair With Student 40 Years Ago, Still Wants Political Office « JONATHAN TURLEY.

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October 29, 2011 · 9:56 am

Why are Bikes and Walking Trails Being Targeted by Congress?

I can tell you!  It’s because they don’t use gas or oil!

Our current Congress Trolls think it’s Un-American to go more than 5 feet unless you are driving a gas guzzling American made hummer type monstrosity.

Remember their motto:  “What’s good for Exxon Mobil is what’s good for America.”

If you aren’t going to be riding around in the car, they prefer you lay on your sofa and watch Fox News while eating Frankenfoods….

And please note, Rand Paul, the Libertarian darling who fooled so many people in the last election cycle, is doing his bit here…..I thought he wanted the government to stay out of everything?  I’m all for more infrastructure spending.  All for it.  But it should be in addition to these expenditures for walking and bike trails.

From Jay Walljasper at Shareable.net:

 

How in the the world can biking and walking be controversial?

They’re good exercise, fun to do and—as an alternative to driving everywhere—help us save money and the environment.  Both biking and walking are increasingly popular for transportation and recreation today, thanks in large part to a recent flowering of federally-funded trails, bikeways and pathways that make getting around on two wheels and two feet safer and more convenient.

But in these antagonistic political times, bikers and walkers are now targets of controversy for some members of Congress.  In September, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn proposed stripping all designated federal funding for bike and pedestrian projects from the pending Transportation Bill. After an outpouring of opposition from citizens coast-to-coast, Coburn withdrew his amendment.

Now bicyclists and pedestrians are under attack again, this time in an amendment from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. He wants to redirect every last penny of money dedicated to bicycling and walking to bridge repair instead.

via Shareable: Why are Bikes Being Targeted by Congress?.

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October 28, 2011 · 8:38 pm

Ten Things I Hate About Republicans

As a start, let’s remember the classic premise under which the Republican Party has traditionally built its platform:  “A strong national defense and  less government intrusion into our daily lives.”  Doesn’t sound too bad on the surface, but the devil is in the details and how the GOP has evolved over the last 30 years.

The GOP used to be the bastion of White Shoe Lawyers, Old Money and the Corporate Elite.  At least they were straight forward about their goals in those days.  It was all about preserving capital within the family, making money and leaving every one else alone as long as those goals were achieved.

Then came the unholy alliance with the Religious Right.  Then they had to pretend they gave a damn about abortion and gays.  There went the part of the platform about “less government intrusion into our daily lives.”  Out the window.  The proverbial baby with the bath water,

That eventually led to most sensible people leaving the GOP.  This was all just too tacky for the Country Club Republicans to accept.  So, they moved to the Democrats and we saw the rise of the Corporatist Wing of the Democratic Party.

Arguably, a lot of today’s Democrats are very similar to the Republicans of 30 or 40 years ago.  That means a lot of people don’t quite fit anywhere.   However, the Democratic Party is more open to dissension and discussion, so most of these folks stay with the Dems and try to work it out.  The Dems negotiate, the GOP purges like the Stalinists of yore….

But I digress…let’s get back on topic.

What do I hate about the “modern” GOP?  Let me tell you…

1.  They are mean- these folks go for the jugular vein.  They don’t discuss, they don’t book dissent, they kill.  Truth is usually the first victim.  They have obviously read their Machiavelli and believe you can’t wound a prince, you must kill him.  (See Rick Perry)

2.  They lie with impunity- The modern GOP does not believe in facts, they believe in propaganda. They will look you in the eye – or more likely television camera- and lie. Their goal is to create an alternate reality that benefits the Rich without anyone getting wise to the situation.  (See Fox News)

3.  They are hypocrites-  They claim moral superiority and belief in “traditional” family values while serially abandoning wives and families for new trophy wives.  (See John McCain and Newt Gingrich)

4.  They are plastic- If Ken and Barbie ran for  office they would be Republicans.  I’m convinced the GOP and fundamentalist ministers keep the hairspray companies in business.  I would just love to put all the GOP debaters in a wind tunnel and see how they came out.  I wonder if their hair is real or if it’s like some play-dough helmet they put on everyday….(See Mitt Romney and Rick Perry)

5.  They are proud of their ignorance- They hate science and won’t believe simple facts.  They can’t be bothered to learn or study the issues.  (See Herman Cain and Sarah Palin-among others)

6.  They are intolerant of other religions or the religious views of others- Each of them seem to be convinced they have a direct line to God and he speaks only to them.  Anyone who disagrees with them is bound for hell.  (See Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum)

7.  They are heartless-  Ideological purity is of the utmost importance-particularly to the Libertarian Republicans.  These guys believe in almost no government.  If you get sick and don’t have any money, it’s okay to let you die.  They think you should have planned better and worked harder. (See Ron Paul)

8.  They are anti-intellectual-  Used to be we wanted the smartest guy or gal in the room for our President.  Not the GOP.  Not only are they proud of their ignorance, they dismiss intelligence and intellectual curiosity as signs of ideological weakness.  They think people who actually study the issues and the facts are wasting valuable time.  To them, facts are to be adjusted to drive the agenda and one shouldn’t think too much about things like starting a war with Iraq because someone insulted Daddy.  (See George W. Bush)

9.  The are vengeful- They truly believe there are only two important concepts in politics:  Loyalty and Revenge.  You must be loyal, without asking questions, or you will face their revenge.  (See George W. Bush and Dick Cheney)

10.  They are always out for themselves- Their motto really should be “I’ve got mine, screw you.”  They don’t believe in anything that stands in the way of profiteering.  It’s all about “me” to them.  They don’t even recognize the existence of anyone else as that would require them to stop gazing at themselves in the mirror and reading their bank statements.  (See Sarah Palin)

I could go on, but I’ll stop here for now….

I’m sure before the Republican Presidential Primaries are over, I’ll be able to add to this list…..

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October 25, 2011 · 10:41 pm

CBO: Income Of The Top 1 Percent Exploded Over The Last Three Decades

It will be interesting to see how the GOP handles this report from the non-partisan and highly respected Congressional Budget Office.

Well, not really.  They will just loudly spread lies and propaganda while impugning the reputation of the CBO.

At this point, their reaction to news and facts not supportive of their goals is really rather predictable.

From ThinkProgress.org:

The Congressional Budget Office today released a new report on the growth in income that’s occurred in the U.S. over the last three decades. CBO found that, “for the 1 percent of the population with the highest income, average real after-tax household income grew by 275 percent between 1979 and 2007,” while it grew by just 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent of the income scale. “As a result of that uneven income growth, the distribution of after-tax household income in the United States was substantially more unequal in 2007 than in 1979,” CBO said.

via CBO: Income Of The Top 1 Percent Exploded Over The Last Three Decades | ThinkProgress.

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October 25, 2011 · 8:20 pm

Rick Perry On Increasing Income Inequality: ‘I Don’t Care About That’

Well, this shouldn’t be news to anyone….

Because:

a)  We all knew Governor GoodHair was an Airheaded Ex-Cheerleader just like George W Bush- but with worse grades at a worse school and an even meaner disposition.

b) Everyone should know by now the entire GOP- and some of the Dems- are bought and paid for by the Corporations and the Rich.  They are just starting to be honest about it….

c)  “I Don’t Care” should be the Republican Party’s  Campaign Slogan for 2012.  The Rickster is just ahead of the curve on messaging.

 

From The Huffington Post:

 

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry says he wants a huge tax break for the rich, and he doesn’t care what it means for income inequality.

Rick Perry announced on Tuesday that if elected president he would slash the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from 35 and give everyone the option of paying a flat income tax rate of 20 percent.

He also would try to encourage U.S. companies who have stored $1.4 trillion overseas to move their profits back to the United States by allowing them to pay 5.25 percent in taxes at first, according to Reuters.

The plan, if enacted, would dramatically reduce the tax burdens of the wealthiest people in the United States, saving millions of dollars for some, while raising taxes for poor and middle-class people who opt into the plan.

“I don’t care about that,” Perry said of the increased economic inequality that would result from the tax plan in an interview with The New York Times. “If that’s what comes, I’ll take that criticism.”

via Rick Perry On Increasing Income Inequality: ‘I Don’t Care About That’.

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October 15, 2011 · 5:54 pm

Tea Party Co-Founder Expresses Support for Occupy Wall Street

Very interesting article.  On many levels

a) He admits the Tea Party was co-opted by the GOP

b) He thinks Occupy Wall Street is smarter

This guy was obviously too bright for the room that held the Tea Party captive…

From RawStory.com

One of the original founders of the Tea Party movement has told RT.com that he believes Occupy Wall Street is not only comparable to the earliest states of the movement he helped launch but can learn from its mistakes.

“The problem with protests and the political process is that it is very easy, no matter how big the protest is, for the politicians to simply wait until the people go home,” financial blogger Karl Denninger observed. “And then they can ignore you.”

“Well, Occupy Wall Street was a little different,” he continued. “And back in 2008, I wrote that when we will actually see change is when the people come, they set up camp, and they refuse to go home. That appears to be happening now.”

Denninger has been complaining for some time that the Tea Party was hijacked by the Republican establishment and used to protect the very prople it had originally opposed. A year ago, he wrote, “Tea Party my ass. This was nothing other than the Republican Party stealing the anger of a population that was fed up with the Republican Party’s own theft of their tax money at gunpoint to bail out the robbers of Wall Street and fraudulently redirecting it back toward electing the very people who stole all the ****ing money!”

Now he advises Occupy Wall Street, “Don’t let it happen.”

“One of the things that the Occupy movement seems to have going for it is it has not turned around and issued a set of formal demands,” he explains. “This is a good thing, not a bad thing. Everyone is looking for a set of demands. The problem is that as soon as you pipe up with a list of four or five things — and you’ve got to keep it simple and short — then somebody’s going to say, ‘Well, we gave you 70 percent of it, now go home.’ And the fact is, that’s exactly the sort of thing that happened with the Tea Party.”

“Stay on message, which is that the corruption is not a singular event,” Denninger urged. “You can’t focus in one place. You have to get the money out of politics, which is very difficult to do, but at the same time you can’t silence people’s voice.”

via Tea Party co-founder expresses support for Occupy Wall Street | The Raw Story.

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October 12, 2011 · 9:25 pm

Georgia Considers Replacing Firefighters With Free Prison Laborers

Well, this is one of the dumbest, most outrageous ideas from the GOP yet.  I’m surprised it didn’t come from South Carolina, Mississippi and Alabama as well…

I guess someone in Georgia got the idea from “Gone With the Wind” when Scarlett used prisoners to run her lumber mill.

They’ve never been real good at separating fiction from reality in Georgia….

Not only does this endanger the prisoners, it endangers professional firemen who have to work with them as well as the general public since they will have neither the training nor the enthusiasm of a professional.

Next, they’ll be trying to use prisoners to fill the gap in General Practice doctors.  Or as school teachers.  Or as policemen!

Dumb, dumb, dumb….

Almost as dumb as voting for these fools…..

From ThinkProgress.org:

A select group of inmates may be exchanging their prison jumpsuits for firefighting gear in Camden County.

The inmates-to-firefighters program is one of several money-saving options the Board of County Commissioners is looking into to stop residents’ fire insurance costs from more than doubling. […] The inmate firefighter program would be the most cost-effective choice, saving the county more than $500,000 a year by some estimates. But that option is already controversial, drawing criticism from the firefighters who would have to work alongside – and supervise – the prisoners.

The Camden program would put two inmates in each of three existing firehouses, and they would respond to all emergencies – including residential – alongside traditional firefighters. The inmates would have no guard, but would be monitored by a surveillance system and by the traditional firefighters, who would undergo training to guard the inmates.

The inmates would not be paid for their work, but upon release they would be eligible to work as firefighters five years after their conviction dates instead of the normal 10.

Naturally, many are questioning the wisdom of asking prisoners to put their own lives at risk in a dangerous job they don’t necessarily want to do. Not only would the program jeopardize inmates’ safety, but their potential lack of enthusiasm and training could jeopardize the lives of fire victims they are supposed to be saving. Firefighter Stuart Sullivan told the Florida Times-Union that firefighters choose the profession because they have a passion for serving the public and helping people, while the inmates would only be there as an alternate way to serve their sentences.

Many firefighters are speaking out against the idea, and don’t relish the additional responsibility of having to guard and worry about inmates as they are trying to put out fires and save lives. This distraction could be another life-threatening consequence of the measure. The program also runs the risk of inmates escaping — all in all a very dangerous proposition for public safety just to save money.

Georgia is not the first state to use prison slave labor to try to cut costs: in California there are more than 4,000 firefighting inmates stationed at 45 camps throughout the state. (HT: Gawker)

via Georgia Considers Replacing Firefighters With Free Prison Laborers | ThinkProgress.

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October 12, 2011 · 8:24 pm

Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves: Part 2

Great comments from Andrew Sullivan at the Daily Beast during last night’s GOP Debate:

“Huntsman I can understand and appreciate. Perry is an empty bad suit. Romney lies with such facility it unnerves me. Bachmann is a fanatic, as, although I am extremely fond of him, is Ron Paul. Santorum just seems like a lost child from the 1950s, trying to have the campaign he dreamed about when he was ten. Cain is an egomaniac businessman with a talk show host patter and a mild wit. Gingrich is a giant, gaseous asshole.”

“Thank God for painkillers.”

via Vicodin Live-Blogging The Bloomberg Debate – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

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October 10, 2011 · 7:45 pm

Rupert Murdoch Uses His Media Empire to Declare War On Occupy Wall Street

Sounds like some folks are getting a little scared….

The Murdoch machine, headlined by Fox News and the NY Post, is going to war against Occupy Wall Street.

I hate to tell them, but no one who would support Occupy Wall Street pays attention to their right-wing media machine anyway….

Still, this is truly getting interesting when Murdoch’s gang is threatened enough to start portraying Occupy Wall Street as a bunch of dirty, drug addicted, over-sexed hippies…

Isn’t that what they tried to do in the 1960’s?

This really is back to the future…

 

 

Murdoch is using his vast media empire to declare war on Occupy Wall Street and the 99%. News Corp is now coordinating their message and attacks. The anti-Occupy message has been appearing on several News Corp owned properties individually, but the media giant is now trying to unify the dissemination of their misinformation. News Corp has gone from mocking the protests, to denying the size of the protests, to launching an all-out coordinated misinformation campaign against Occupy Wall Street.

News Corp and the right wing media have been trying for over a week now to slow down the growth of this movement with no success. More people are joining the existing protests, and new protests are springing up around the country. The 99% don’t have a Rupert Murdoch, but they do have thousands of people taking to Twitter, Facebook, blogs and websites to report the truth about these protests.

The one percent have their media machine churning out their propaganda 24/7, but they are fighting a message war that they are destined to lose.

MORE:   Rupert Murdoch Uses His Media Empire to Declare War On Occupy Wall Street.

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