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Category Archives: Tea Party

Arizona Governor vetoes ‘birther’ bill?

19 Apr

I honestly never thought I’d ever have to say something nice about Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, but on Monday she vetoed a bill that would have required President Barack Obama and other presidential candidates to prove their U.S. citizenship before their names could appear on a ballot in the state.

Opponents had warned the bill would give another black eye to Arizona after last year’s hullabaloo over the state’s illegal immigration enforcement law.

Brewer said she was mainly troubled that the bill empowered Arizona’s secretary of state – one individual – to judge the qualifications of all candidates when they filed to run for office. Brewer had served as Arizona’s secretary of state before becoming the Governor.

“I do not support designating one person as the gatekeeper to the ballot for a candidate, which could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions,” she said. “In addition, I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on Earth to submit their ‘early baptismal circumcision certificates’ among other records to the Arizona secretary of state … This is a bridge too far.”

But “birthers” – almost exclusively members of the Tea Party – claim there’s no proof Obama was born in the United States, and he is therefore ineligible to be president, even though Hawaii officials have certified Obama was born in that state.

The Arizona bill would have required political parties and presidential candidates to hand in affidavits declaring the candidate’s citizenship and age. It also would have required the candidate’s birth certificate and a sworn statement saying where the candidate has lived for 14 years.

And what if the candidates had been unable – or unwilling – to conform with this new law? Well, if it couldn’t be determined whether candidates were eligible to appear on the ballot, the secretary of state could keep the names of those candidates off the ballot if she didn’t believe the candidates met the citizenship requirement. There were no provisions in the bill providing an appeals process for a candidate whose name was kept off the ballot.

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Carl Seel of Phoenix, said he was disappointed by the veto. It would have been reasonable to have the secretary of state — the state’s top election officer — decide whether a candidate had adequately documented his or her qualifications, he said.

Yeah, one person, deciding if someone could be on the state’s ballot would have been just peachy. There’s no way someone would have ever manipulated circumstances at all. Once again, just how stupid do you think we are?

Because the bill would have required candidates for all offices to submit documentation of their qualifications, he said, “it would have been excellent reform.”

An excellent reform for whom Mr. Seel? This is such a transparently clumsy move it’s laughable, thank goodness you underestimated your Governor, and thank goodness she did the right thing.

 
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Posted by on April 19, 2011 in 2012 Election, Lunatics, Politics, Tea Party

 

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Miss Davenport says ‘sorry’ again for racist Obama e-mail; says she fears for her life?

19 Apr

The Right Wing California Republican Tea Party Grandma, who e-mailed a racist “family photo” of President Obama because she thought it was funny, has offered up a second apology.

But, she didn’t deliver it in person at the Orange County Republican Committee Monday night because she said she feared for her life, so, instead, Miss Davenport delivered her second apology through a statement read by fellow racist Tim Whitacre, who has defended Davenport’s e-mail.

Davenport said, “To my fellow Americans and to everyone else who has seen this e-mail I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness of my unwise behavior.”

“I say unwise because at the time I received and forwarded the e-mail, I didn’t stop to think about the historic implications and other examples of how this could be offensive,” she continued. “I would never do anything to intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity. Everyone who knows me knows that to be true.”

Ok, so, she admits she wasn’t thinking, but that anyone “who knows her” would know she would never “intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity”. No, Miss Davenport would never “intentionally” send out an email to her fellow GOTP friends, who she thought would also find a picture portraying the President and his parents as apes. Please, we’re not as stupid, nor as naïve, as you might hope. You are a racist. You intentionally forwarded a very offensive email to fellow Republicans and Tea Party (GOTP) enthusiasts who you thought would also find it funny. This wasn’t done accidently, it was done to undermine the President and to belittle his family.

Perhaps if you hadn’t rushed to defend the infamous “watermelon” picture your fellow racist sent out on the eve of the President’s inauguration your failed explanation might bear more fruit. But, alas, you can’t defend someone else’s racism, and then commit your own act of racism and think everyone’s going to buy that you’re not racist.

On Saturday, Miss Davenport told the Orange Country Weekly that she was “sorry if my email offended anyone,” but that she “simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth.”

“The thought never entered my mind until one or two other people tried to make this about race,” she wrote in her Saturday e-mail, and referred to Obama as being only “half black.”

This second apology made no mention of whether she would remain on the committee, nor did it dissuade those she offended from demanding she resign.

“When we send communications to our fellow elected officials it is a public action that reflects on the sender, the recipient, and this committee,” GOP chairman Scott Baugh, who called the racist e-mail “despicable,” said to the 75 people at Monday night’s meeting.

But of course, not everyone on the Republican committee feels she should step down. Her fellow racist, Mister Whitacre, is ever ready to defend her, “It was a private e-mail from her private house to some private friends,” Whitacre told ABC 7 News in Los Angeles. “She thought she was doing something quietly among some folks that might have found some humor in it as well.”

So, private or covert racism is OK? Are you kidding me Tim? Racism is racism. Doesn’t matter if it was public – which it now is – or private; her position is indefensible, and those who wallow with her in trying to defend it are also racists. Isn’t it funny how Tea Party folks will yell and scream about being painted with the same brush, but where’s Sarah Palin’s outrage? Where’s Michelle Bachmann’s statement about how this was wrong? Their silence says just as much – if not more  – than if they were openly defending her.

 
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Posted by on April 19, 2011 in Lunatics, Racism, Right Wing Crazies, Tea Party

 

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Driving Miss Davenport, or a Racist Orange County Republican Emails a Picture Depicting President Obama and His Parents As Apes?

18 Apr

Last week a member of the Orange County Republican Party, Marilyn Davenport, who also just happens to be a Southern California Tea Party activist, sent out an email to her fellow conservatives depicting the President of the United States as a monkey with monkey parents, complete with a caption saying, “Now you know why no birth certificate.”

I suppose in the white bread world of Orange County – or in Jefferson Davis’ Administration – this kind of thing is considered funny, but one has to wonder what kind of person would think so.

When asked by reporters if she thought the email was appropriate, Davenport said, “Oh, come on! Everybody who knows me knows that I am not a racist. It was a joke. I have friends who are black. Besides, I only sent it to a few people–mostly people I didn’t think would be upset by it.”

Well Marilyn you got part of it right, you didn’t think. No thinking person would send out this picture and then have the gall to say, “It was a joke. I have friends who are black.”

But not all the Republicans who received the email were amused.

“It’s unbelievable,” an Orange County Republican said. “It’s much more racist than the watermelon email. I can’t believe it was sent out. I’m not an Obama fan but how stupid do you have to be to do this?”

Another Republican said Davenport is “a really, really sweet old lady so I am surprised to hear about this.”

Yeah, she’s a really, really sweet old lady, with (to borrow a phrase from Glenn Beck) a deep seated hatred of black people, but she’s really, really sweet.

The Chairman of the Orange County Republican Party, told the really, really sweet old lady that the email was tasteless; but of course Miss Daisy – er, I mean Davenport said, “You’re not going to make a big deal about this are you? It’s just an Internet joke.”

But Baugh – much to his credit – believes the so-called email joke is a big deal.

“When I saw that email … I thought it was despicable,” he said. “It is dripping with racism and it does not promote the type of message Orange County Republicans want to deliver to the public. I think she should consider stepping down as an elected official.”

And Baugh isn’t alone in his condemnation, Michael J. Schroeder, an Orange County resident and former chairman of the California Republican Party, also said he was disgusted.

“This is a three strikes situation for Marilyn Davenport,” Schroeder said. “She was a passionate defender of former Newport Beach City Councilman Dick Nichols, who stated that he was voting against putting in more grass at Corona del Mar’s beach because, he said, there were already ‘too many Mexicans on the beach.’ She was also on the wrong side of the fence with the Los Alamitos mayor and his White House watermelon patch picture. Now, she has managed to top both of those incidents by comparing African Americans to monkeys. She has disgraced herself and needs to resign. If she doesn’t, the Republican Party must remove her.”

In February 2009, Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose, another Orange County Republican, emailed the White House watermelon image and then apologized.

On Saturday afternoon Davenport sent an email to fellow Orange County Republican elected officials, apologizing if anyone was offended by her depicting President Barack Obama as an ape, while simultaneously blasting the “liberal media” for reporting the story.

“I simply found it amusing regarding the character of Obama and all the questions surrounding his origin of birth,” Davenport wrote. “In no way did I even consider the fact he’s half black when I sent out the email. In fact, the thought never entered my mind until one or two other people [Scott Baugh, Orange County GOP boss, and a member of the media] tried to make this about race. . . . I received plenty of emails about George Bush that I didn’t particularly like yet there was no ‘cry’ in the media about them.”

Excuse me? Is this is another case of, “just how stupid do you think we are?” Does Davenport really think average – non-racist – Americans are for one second going to buy her story? She didn’t think anything about race when she depicted the president – who’s black – as a monkey, and his parents as monkeys? Yeah, OK, I’ll buy that, and do you have a bridge to sell me too?

But wait, Miss – I’m not a racist – Davenport wasn’t through defending herself, “That being said, I will NOT resign my central committee position over this matter that the average person knows and agrees is much to do about nothing.”

The average person knows and agrees WHAT?! ARE YOU INSANE?! Were you dropped – repeatedly – as a child? Did you fall out of the dim-wit tree and hit every branch on the way down? You can’t be serious? You actually accept as true that “the average person knows and agrees [this] is much to do about nothing.”? I’m sorry but no one is this thick.

Of course you just knew that where there’s one racist there have to be more, and that some fellow right wing lunatic would rush to defend Davenport. And here he is, white robes flowing and torch in hand, fellow conservative Orange County Republican activist in Santa Ana, Tim Whitacre, “Marilyn Davenport is a staunch, ethical Republican lady. There is nothing unethical about this from a party standpoint because it wasn’t sent out to the party at large with any racist statements and it wasn’t signed as a central committee member. As a private individual, she is just real big on Birther stuff. One of her passions that drives her is the president’s lack of forthrightness about where he was born. Marilyn believes that nobody knows where he was born and so this picture says a thousand words.”

Whitacre continued: “She is not a perfect lady, but she is no racist. She is a gentle person who would feed you, help you, be there for you if you were in trouble. She is known as a pleasant, loving person, and it kills me that she is being attacked by this non-story knowing her mindset.”

She’s a perfect what? I have no doubt Whitacre believes every word of what he’s saying, but look here Tim; a “perfect lady” would never have sent the image. A “perfect racist” would; but a “perfect lady” would never have even thought of it, and would have been extremely offended to have received it. So, please, spare us your right wing Tea Party, birther, rhetoric. Grow up, be a man, and admit this was wrong. There’s nothing “ethical” in what she did, and her actions prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is no lady.

As of Sunday evening Orange County Republican Party Chairman Scott Baugh had determined that his group’s bylaws prevented a vote to remove Marilyn Davenport as an elected member, even though she emailed a racist image of President Barack Obama to fellow Tea Baggers and Republicans.

If sending a disgustingly racist image of the President to her fellow members of the GOTP wasn’t enough to have her not just removed, but forcefully removed, one has to ask, what exactly would Davenport have to do that would justify being kicked out of the Orange County Republican Party?

 
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Posted by on April 18, 2011 in Lunatics, Racism, Right Wing Crazies, Tea Party

 

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Beck’s anti-Semitism drove him from the airwaves?

15 Apr

So, FOX PAC finally came to the conclusion Glenn Beck’s vitriol was even too extreme for its viewers, and that he was becoming too big of a liability? Well good for FOX, at least its proven it will only sell out so far.

With the end of the Bush/Cheney era of doom and gloom (which was a perfect breeding ground for Beck’s non stop Chicken Little hyperbole), and as the nation’s economic woes began to turn around, Beck’s apocalyptic conspiracies became less persuasive, and his audience began to drift away. With his followers beginning to drift away, Beck did the only thing he could, he became shriller and shriller. Ironically, it was his shrillness which ultimately led to his dismissal at FOX PAC. Of course, when you become too unhinged even for FOX it’s probably well past time to seek some serious professional help.

As Beckies cries became ever more high-pitched he pushed further into the dark corners of conspiracy, urging his viewers to hoard food and stock pile gold in preparation for the end of civilization as we know it, for the time when dogs and cats would be living together.

His deranged tales spun a wild conspiracy theory of the American left being in cahoots with an emerging caliphate in the Middle East. His rantings became filled with anti-Semitic themes backed by the infamous conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin – who has publicly argued that the anti-Semitic tract “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” “accurately describes much of what is happening in our world today”.

But Beckster’s anti-Semitic raves didn’t end there, he’s also described Reform rabbis as “generally political in nature,” adding: “It’s almost like Islam, radicalized Islam in a way.” He’s also regularly attacked Jewish billionaire George Soros, a Holocaust survivor, as a “puppet master” and read descriptions of him as an “unscrupulous profiteer” who “sucks the blood from people.” Beck falsely called Soros “a collaborator” with Nazis who “saw people into the gas chambers.”

On top of attacking Jews, he’s also repeatedly made comments about the President, claiming that President Obama, “has a deep seated hatred of white people,” and is a racist.

It’s all part of what Beck’s FOX PAC colleague Shepard Smith has dubbed the “fear chamber.”

Beck’s career is fast going the way of other broadcasting Dodos, and in losing his mass-media perch, he is following the same path as Father Charles Coughlin, a path that hopefully one day will also be trod upon by Savage, Limbaugh, Hannity and other have wits who regularly spread fear and hate over the airways.

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2011 in FOX PAC, FOX PAC Hypocrisy, Hate, Lunatics, Right Wing Crazies, Right Wing Radio, Tea Party

 

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Arpaio Misspent $99 million dollars?

14 Apr

A six month investigation into the Maricopa County sheriff’s office has discovered that Sheriff Joe Arpaio has inappropriately spent $99.5 million from two jail funds over the last eight years to pay for other law enforcement operations—including immigration patrols.


Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox has told the Washington Post, USA Today and the Phoenix New Times blog, “This is really a disaster for the county … Taxpayers are looking at us and saying, ‘How in the hell did it happen?’…For eight years, [Arpaio has] been signing paperwork that says the budget is balanced, but it’s not.”

The investigation began, after budget officials and members of the county Board of Supervisors suspected that “America’s Toughest Sheriff” was using jail tax money to fund pet projects, such as rounding up undocumented immigrants at places like the Burlington Coat Factory and Pei Wei restaurants, or following county supervisors and judges around in failed public-corruption stings.

The budget paper was quoted in USA Today, “Discrepancies existed for years between sheriff’s employees’ actual duties and the duties reported in county payroll records. As sheriff’s employees were transferred around the agency, the payroll records were not always updated, creating a massive financial problem that will have to be confronted in coming years.”

OK everyone, can you say, “Cover up”?

Interim Chief Deputy Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said there was nothing criminal about the misplaced funds, which he blamed on an outdated payroll system that failed to track when jail duty officers were transferred to regular patrol.

Yeah, right, just a small clerical error; just a small $99 million dollar error; just how stupid do you think people are? Well, wait a tick, that’s not exactly a fair question, after all almost all of your most ardent supporters spend their days listening to Rush, Hannity, et al, and watching FOX PAC the rest of the day. But, how stupid do you think everyone else is?

It’s clear Arpaio manipulated funds to pay for numerous highly questionable operations against immigrants and anyone who opposed him. Yes, the noble sheriff of Maricopa County has used public monies to fund private little witch hunts against county and state officials who questioned his tactics. Where have we seen a person in power going after anyone who questioned him? Well, besides in any number of Steven Seagal movies? Nazi Germany? Soviet Russia? Sarah Palin’s Alaska?

Arpaio is punk thug, and a bully. He’s not the ideal law man. He’s as crooked as a $3 dollar bill. He’s not a hero, he’s a corrupt little fascist and it’s time for him to step down and turn over the keys to his private little Bastille. But please little Tea Party folk, don’t cry for your hero, he’ll be just fine, I hear Hollywood might be thinking about another Duke’s of Hazard movie – he’d make a perfect Boss Hog.

 
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Posted by on April 14, 2011 in Immigration, Politics, Right Wing Crazies, Tea Party

 

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Cut spending, but raise taxes on the wealthy?

13 Apr

So, who’s calling for $4 trillion in long-term deficit cuts while giving a blistering attack on Republican Tea Party (GOTP) plans for taxes, Medicare and Medicaid? The President of these United States, that’s who.

President Obama said spending cuts are OK, but they have to be tied to higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans with an end to Bush-era tax cuts for the top 2%.

“We have to live within our means, reduce our deficit and get back on a path that will allow us to pay down our debt,” President Obama said. “And we have to do it in a way that protects the recovery, and protects the investments we need to grow, create jobs and win the future.”

The President called out the GOTP saying, they want to “end Medicare as we know it,” and extend tax cuts for the wealthy while demanding 33 million seniors pay more for health care.

“That’s not right, and it’s not going to happen as long as I am president,” he vowed.

So-called Representative Paul Ryan, GOTP, the point man for the House Republican Tea Party budget, was invited to the speech, mistakenly thinking the administration was “extending an olive branch”.

“Instead, what we got was a speech that was excessively partisan, dramatically inaccurate and hopelessly inadequate to addressing our country’s pressing fiscal challenges,” Ryan said. “What we heard today was not fiscal leadership from our commander in chief. What we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner in chief.”

Yeah, OK Eddie Munster, whatever; it’s time for you to realize your fifteen minutes of fame was over a long time ago. You can’t seriously think America was just going to bend over while you and your chums on the far right gutted the poor, the elderly, and everyone else who doesn’t earn millions a year? Earth to Eddie … hello?

Now what about the President’s call for $4 trillion in cuts? He said $2 trillion should come from spending, $1 trillion from taxes – yes Eddie he said taxes – including ending Bush-era tax breaks for the wealthy, and the rest recouped from lower interest payments on the national debt.

What will be cut? To start, military spending would be reduced by $400 billion through 2023, domestic programs would absorb $770 billion in cuts and mandatory programs such as agricultural subsidies another $360 billion, an additional $480 billion would be saved from Medicare, which of course provides health care to an estimated 33 million seniors, and from Medicaid, a state-federal program covering lower-income families and which is set for a huge expansion under the health care program Obama signed into law last year.

What about Social Security?! Right wing nut jobs are screaming. The President said that Social Security is neither in a crisis nor “a driver of our near-term deficit problems.” He did however say that he supports unspecified steps to strengthen it for the long term, but ruled out any attempt to privatize it.

What about Republican Tea Party proposals to end traditional Medicare for anyone currently under 55, and to give the states near-total control over Medicaid?

For Medicare, the President said, “It says instead of guaranteed health care, you will get a voucher. And if that voucher isn’t worth enough to buy insurance, tough luck — you’re on your own.”

He added that the so-called Republican Tea Party budget could cost 50 million Americans health care coverage, including grandparents needing nursing home care, children with autism and kids “with disabilities so severe that they require 24-hour care. These are the Americans we’d be telling to fend for themselves.”

“Well”, think many on the far right, “If they can’t afford heath care, than perhaps they had better just die and decrease the surplus population.” This group of Republicans is so busy cow towing to the Tea Party, the group which thinks people like Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann are viable presidential candidates, that they have become drunk on right wing extremism. They have lost whatever souls they once possessed.

The President made a point of placing the blame for the nation’s debt and deficit where it squarely lies, recounting how it all started rolling downhill in 2000, “we increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug programs, but we didn’t pay for any of this new spending. Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts.” A very clear reference to policies pursued by President George W. Bush and the Republicans who controlled Congress for six of his eight years in office.

Thank you Mr. President for having the courage to say what needs to be said; for sounding Presidential, and for being the progressive leader we all knew you could be. It’s time for the far right Tea Party Republicans to reel back on their heels and understand that the rest of us are not drinking whatever brand of Kool-aid they’ve been drinking. You have put them on notice, and if they continue charging down this path they will soon see the Congress switch not only back to the left, but to the left in an overwhelming majority.

 
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Posted by on April 13, 2011 in 2012 Election, Federal Budget, Politics, Right Wing Crazies, Taxes, Tea Party

 

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Glenn Beck leaving FOX PAC

07 Apr

Ding dong the witch is dead; yep, dead as the proverbial door nail; well, at least his FOX PAC show is. How dead? Well, not quite dead yet, but if it were a patient on House, according to the heart monitor it would be going into cardiac arrest … beep … beep … beep … beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep … Glenn Beck’s reign of insanity at FOX PAC will be ending at some undetermined time later this year.

FOX PAC and Beck’s company, Mercury Radio Arts, said Wednesday they will stay in business creating other projects for FOX PAC television and digital, starting with some documentaries Beck is preparing. Yippee, can’t wait to see a Glenn Beck documentary, this will be really informative – no doubt …

Beck’s slide into television oblivion began when during a visit to Fox and Friends he said President Barack Obama had “a deep-seated hatred for white people.”

Just how broken up is FOX PAC management?

“Half of the headlines say he’s been canceled,” Roger Ailes said. “The other half say he quit. We’re pretty happy with both of them.”

Says it all doesn’t it?

But wait a second, Beck isn’t done yet, he has something to say to all of his detractors, “One year from now, you on the left will be crapping yourselves so much, you haven’t crapped in your pants as much as you will a year from now as you did since you were a child, you’ll be making more, you’ll crap yourself more than when you were a baby! And you will find Jesus! You will suddenly find religion and you will be kneeling at some altar lighting candles every day praying to Jesus that Glenn Beck would please just do 5:00 on the Fox News Channel. There’s my prediction…”

Yeah that’s very professional and also very Christian Beck. The likelier prediction Glenn is that you’ll either be in a rubber room somewhere, or you’ll have founded your own church and will be hiding out in your “religious bunker” in the wilderness of southwest Utah.

Beck has gone from mildly amusing to full blown far right wacko in the space of his two year stint at FOX, and he really has no one to blame but himself. You can’t say extreme things over the air. When you do your audience will expect you to continue to do so, and then they will demand that you become more and more extreme. Rush, Hannity, et al, take note. If you’re going to continue to say extreme right wing talking points which have absolutely no resemblance to the truth, eventually it is going to catch up to you.

 
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Posted by on April 7, 2011 in FOX PAC, FOX PAC Hypocrisy, Lunatics, Politics, Right Wing Crazies, Right Wing Radio, Tea Party

 

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Ohio Governor tells 360,000 Ohio workers this state’s government belongs to the corporations?

04 Apr

Ohio Governor John Kasich (another GOTP wanabee dictator) has signed a bill stripping collective bargaining rights from more than 360,000 state workers and bars them from striking. Democrats throughout the state have said they will collect some 230,000 signatures in the next 90 days to block immediate implementation of the law and put it to a public referendum on the November ballot.

“This idea of government of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations has actually taken hold,” said Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D), who represents Ohio’s 10th District. “Unions are one of the last lines of defense against a corporate plutocracy.”

So, an out of control governor in Wisconsin decides he’s been essentially appointed as a dictator with his over the top attack on collective bargaining in his state, going so far as to ignore federal court orders to stand down, and now the governor of Ohio looks and says something like, “Oh goodie, I want to play too”?

Which states are next in our lineup of crazies from the far right GOTP? New Jersey? Florida or maybe New Mexico or Arizona? Wait, strike that, Arizona is already led by the looniest of the crazies; but where does this madness end? At the ballot box that’s where. Voters have got to wake up to fact that there are GOTP candidates out there who believe they have some sort of god given mandate, and that no power on earth can stop them. Enter the voters. Recalls have begun in Wisconsin, and will more than likely follow in Ohio as well.

It’s time for the Republican Tea Party politicians to get the message loud and clear, “ENOUGH”! You weren’t anointed, you were elected. You do not possess “phenomenal cosmic powers in the tiny little living space”. But keep it up, please.

Ignore the people of your states, and you will soon be some ex-governor working as a spokesperson for FOX next to another ex-governor from Alaska. FOX is always looking for another has been to add to its lineup.

 
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Posted by on April 4, 2011 in Politics, Right Wing Crazies, Tea Party, Unions

 

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GOTP presidential hopefuls hammer health care, have nothing new to offer? Nope not one new idea, just more of the same old tripe they’re always scooping out …

26 Mar

And so, it’s 20 some odd months until Election Day 2012 and a very small group of potentially high-profile Grand Old Tea Party (or the group formerly known as Republican) candidates show up like the early spring honey bee hoping to impress the equally small hundred or so conservative activists Saturday in Des Moines, Iowa that most Americans (that would be GOTP, Independent and the very small smattering of Democratic voters) agree with their particularly odd variation of “values”, and opposition to all and everything President Obama represents, but mostly his socialistic health care overhaul; and that all of this could somehow magically help the GOTP make historic gains in 2012.

One of the most incredible long shots in political history, except for possibly with this year’s gathering of right-wing odd balls and fruit cakes is Michigan Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, who not surprisingly is a huge a tea party favorite, and who – also not surprisingly – got the noisiest reception when she told the “huge” hundred plus crowd gathered that voters are ready to overturn the federal health care law and oust President Barack Obama during next year’s election.

“The ultimate arrogance, in my opinion, is Obama-care,” Bachman said. “That’s why I am so absolutely confident in 2012. Americans have made the decision that we’re going to take our country back.”

Ah yes, the perennial GOTP favorite line, “we’re going to take our country back.” But to where do you want to take it, and for whom Congresswoman? Are we going back to 2008? Back to those happy carefree days of Bush/Cheney when habeas corpus was suspended on a whim if your name had Mohamed in it, or before our military was free from Gays and Lesbos? Or back to the pre-Camelot days before all those pesky Black people dared to eat at the same lunch counter?

Of course the Newt was there, and the deep south’s Haley Barbour and even former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain spoke to add a splash color to the Midwest white bread event as the token conservative African-American, since Justice Clarence Thomas was unable to attend due not being sure how to bill the gathering and still at least try to appear impartial on the bench.

But why Iowa you ask? Is it because it’s a field of dreams, and hopefully Newt, Barbour and company will all walk into the corn and finally fade away? Or is it simply because event organizer, Iowa Congressman Steve King, believes that his home state, the state where the nation’s first presidential caucus will take place, is the proper venue to help conservatives shape the debate as members of the GOTP begin looking for a candidate to run against Obama.

“We need to take this nation to the next level of its destiny,” King told the crowd. “You can shape that destiny.”

Of course with Bachman, Newt and Barbour that “next level of its destiny” can only mean backwards or farther off the cliff of economic collapse started during the last administration.

While Iowa is the traditional launch pad for the presidential nominating season, when one sees the sharply conservative rhetoric from Saturday’s little rally, allegedly reflecting an Iowa GOTP that’s drifted not just to the right, but to the far right, coupled with some polling data from last year showing more than 60 percent of GOTP caucus-goers there are identifying themselves as not only Christians but evangelicals, you have the makings of a gold old fashioned revival meeting, the type where Mormons – such as Mitt Romney – need not apply; of course it’s also then going to be an evangelical crowd that’s going to have a hard time getting its arms around a two time adulterer, or a deep south nominee, which leaves the nomination wide open for Huckleberry, Bachman and Palin. How wonderful.

Interestingly enough Newt insisted that most Americans agree with his conservative values, with the Newtster actually saying the 2012 election would provide a chance to end the “domination of the left and move this country back to the center-right.”

That would be the center right where family values stands for cheating on not just one but two spouses, marrying each mistress in turn and then claiming you couldn’t control your hormones because of your deep seated love of country?

Haley said the GOTP can win next year if their candidates stay focused on key issues — health care and balancing the federal budget — without getting distracted by arguments about personality. Of course by balancing the budget he means zeroing out any progressive programs, while continuing to cut taxes to the top 2% of the nation’s population and allowing defense spending to maintain its unabashed feeding frenzy.

“What is important to us is to have a new president,” Barbour said. “This election needs to be about policy.”

That’s right. It’s all about the policy of taking our country back to a time when uppity folks like foreign born blacks knew their place, isn’t that right Governor? It’s about an America where homos and lesbians weren’t allowed in polite society, and it’s about the America where the term foreign policy meant telling our allies to shut up, sit down and do what we told them to do.

During the “event”, the speakers all focused on criticizing President Obama and the Democratic Party, and the Newter even took the time to say how he “helped balance a budget for four straight years” while House speaker. That of course was due more largely to the efforts to his fellow philanderer President Clinton, than for anything he himself managed to do, between his own affairs while impeaching the President for his infidelity.

But of course, Newty also took the opportunity to attack – yet again – President Obama’s handling of the air strikes in Libya. He ridiculed Obama for consulting the Arab League and the United Nations, but not Congress, before getting involved. The Newt said he wouldn’t have approved the air strikes, even though he pushed for air strikes and a no-fly zone just a week or two before the President implemented that very policy, but said Newt, “once you get involved, you put on the pressure and you win quickly.” As compared to becoming bogged down in not one but two wars with absolutely any exit policy, clear cut goals or objectives.

Cain, who decided to be the one speaker not talking about the federal health care law, said the conservative movement is gaining strength and will help the GOTP “take back the government”.

He does understand that the GOTP’s version of “taking back” the government would mean he’d be serving them the pizza, and driving Miss Daisy around town, doesn’t he? Taking the country back doesn’t mean equality for Blacks, Hispanics, Gays or Lesbians. It’s taking the country back to the happier times of Herbert Hoover before Labor Unions and desegregated class rooms.

Seeming to be oblivious to all of this, and believing the fact that since he’s a wealthy black man meant he shared in the GOTP dream, he said the U.S. has “an entitlement spending crisis” that must be reformed in order to solve the nation’s financial woes. Being the GOTP code for throwing the poor and the elderly out on the street where they belong. Cutting social security benefits to the disabled, cutting WIC and women’s pre-natal and health care, slashing college loan programs to the poor and zeroing public broadcasting, and arts programs.

“We don’t like the radical socialist agenda that is being shoved down our throats,” he said.

And what he wanted to say is we don’t like the idea that the poor can have free health care, and have their standard of living increased, and that we have a minimum wage and child labor laws and the like, and that he could’ve made much higher profits if only he could’ve paid lower salaries or could’ve had five and six your olds slaving away in his pizza kitchens.

Meanwhile, Bach on the farm, the Congresswoman from Michigan steered things back onto the effort to repeal the health care reform law and said that American’s bad feelings for the law had created a strong tide of support for the GOTP positioning itself for next year’s election.

“It’s never gone below a majority of Americans who want to see Obama-care repealed,” Bachmann said. “This is, I believe, the greatest power grab that I have ever seen.”

Really, “it’s never gone below a majority of Americans who want to see Obama-care repealed”? While that might be true of any Rasmussen poll, in the world outside of the FOC PAC bubble the clear majority doesn’t want it repealed, and is happy with the law. And are you really serious when you claim this is the greatest power grab you’ve ever seen Congresswoman? So, one can only assume you either haven’t paid any attention to the whole political coup thing in Wisconsin? Or, you wholeheartedly agree with it?

Bachman exhorted the hundred or so listeners that the stakes in next year’s election are enormous, and that “what we are going to determine together, here in Iowa, is quite frankly whether we will pass the American Dream on to the next generation.”

Of course that’s the American dream of white, Anglo-Saxon, Christian evangelicals. Not the one that includes people of color – except to clean the house, repair the roof, pick the vegetables and maybe collect your garbage. It’s also not the American Dream of any of those darned Muslims and their Mohamed; it’s not the American Dream of religious freedom, unless you strictly uphold to the idea that America is a Christian nation; of course it’s a Christian nation that is largely denying the Christ, and his teachings regarding caring for the poor and the sick among us, and of brotherly love etc. It’s the Evangelical Christian American Dream of the Old Testament where Gays are stoned to death, and only white people get to be President. It’s the American Dream of preemptive warfare and unending tax cuts and never having to pay the bill for the Wild West diplomacy.

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2011 in 2012 Election, Health Care, Immigration, Libya, Middle East, Politics, Right Wing Crazies, Tea Party

 

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Rush mocks the Obama Administration, Claims it Invented “Ludicrous Term”

26 Mar

During his Friday, 25 Mar 11, broadcast Rush Limbaugh, the self proclaimed spokes bovine of the GOTP decided he needed to “weigh” in – no small feat for Rush – on the United Nations no fly zone in Libya by mocking the Obama administration for using the term “kinetic” to describe the military action, saying the President’s people had “come up with the ludicrous term”.

“We’re not at war. We are engaged in ‘kinetic activity’,” Limbaugh brayed. “Here we have a headline, this is from the DC Examiner, ‘In the last few days the Obama regime — officials frequently faced the question, is the fighting in Libya a war? And for military officers to White House spokesmen up to the president himself, the answer’s been ‘no.’ Well, OK then, what is it?”

Gee Rush, I don’t know? Why don’t we rely on your extensive military service to explain it to us? Oh wait, you never served in the military did you? No, Rush Hudson Limbaugh III a.k.a. “Rusty” never served.

But when has a lack of knowledge and facts, either institutional or educational ever stopped Rush? And so, he attempted his own “expert” military analysis, “At any rate, this guy, the deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes took a crack at an answer said, ‘Well, I think what we’re doing is enforcing a resolution that has a very clear set of goals,” Limbaugh said. “‘Which is protecting the Libyan people, averting a humanitarian crisis, and setting up a no-fly zone; obviously, that involves kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.’

“Folks, this is pathetic. Literally, genuinely pathetic. ‘Kinetic military action, particularly on the front end.’ Kinetic simply means motion. That’s all it means. Depending on movement for its effect, of, relating to, or resulting from motion. So, now we’ve got ‘kinetic military action.’”

There are two things wrong with Rusty’s statement. First, in terms of a military action being “kinetic” – or being set in motion – it would be “depending on motion for its “affect” not “effect”. Maybe you should’ve stayed in school Rusty. Had you done so you would’ve known that you almost always use affect with an “a” as a verb (motion as used here is considered a verb) and effect with an “e” as a noun; once again, so much for being right 99.9% of the time. Second, exactly how is this pathetic, the use of the term “kinetic” when referring to military action? In order for the no fly zone to take “affect” we, the United States and our allies, had to put the Navies and their planes into motion, allowing the no fly zone to be put into effect, thus affecting the air and ground forces of Qaddafi.

Rusty then quoted a statement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday in Moscow as he spoke with reporters about the Libya operation, “I think as we are successful in suppressing the air defenses, the level of kinetic activity should decline. I assume in the next few days.”

Limbaugh went on to conclude, “KMA, kinetic military activity, has replaced WTF. Winning the future — I’m sure you thought it was something else. Kick my — has replaced — what the — kinetic military — OK, so I guess we’re to assume it’s not a protest anymore, it’s a kinetic assembling action. It’s not a riot, it’s kinetic thuggery action. It’s not a vacation, it’s kinetic leisure action. It’s not golf, it’s kinetic ball-striking action. It’s not dancing, it’s kinetic food action. It’s not sex, it’s kinetic Lewinsky. It’s not — I’m not drunk, I’ve been engaging in kinetic adult beverage action. It’s not an election, it’s kinetic voting. It’s not radio, its kinetic Limbaugh action. Whatever. It’s just — kinetic means motion. Military means armed forces, action means motion. Kinetic action, moving motion. And these are the smartest people in the world. Well, the reason they can’t say it is because they don’t want to say what it really is.”

Yeah, that’s right Rusty; the President doesn’t want you to say what it “really is”. OK, whatever that means? So, why don’t you try to explain it for us?

“You know, we all know what it is, but they don’t  want to say it, they don’t want to go on record as saying what it really is because they’re actually trying to pretend it isn’t anything,” Rusty said. “It’s — and it’s not really a military intervention, it’s kinetic military action. That’s why they’ve come up with this ludicrous term. Right, that’s why they don’t want to call it a war on terror because the Muslims don’t intend to occupy us, they just blew up the World Trade Center. Of course, you might get some argument on that from certain people.”

By the way, for the record Rusty, during a Presidential press conference on 11 Oct 06 President Bush used a certain word to describe military conditions in Iraq; do you know what word that was Rusty? Let’s take a walk down memory lane and see.

A reporter asked, “I’m just wondering, two months ago, Prime Minister Maliki was here, and you talked about how we had to be nimble and facile in our approach. And my question is, are we being nimble and facile in the right way? Is what General Casey telling you the most effective advice? Because it would seem in the two months since Prime Minister Maliki was here, things have only gotten more bloody in Iraq.

President Bush answered, “No question, Ramadan’s here. No question, we’re engaging the enemy more than we were before. And by the way, when you engage the enemy, it causes there to be more action and more kinetic action. And the fundamental question is, do I get good advice from Casey? And the answer is I believe I do. I believe I do.” [Federal News Service, 10/11/06, accessed via Nexis]

And guess who else used a certain word Rusty? Why none other than your pal the former Secretary of Donny Rumsfeld during an 18 Jun 03, Defense Department operational update briefing, “Security throughout the country is indicated here. Green is what’s characterized as permissive. That’s not to say perfect, but it’s permissive. The yellow is semi-permissive and the red area in Baghdad and then in the area north towards Tikrit is considered not permissive or semi-permissive. There are now some 8,000 police officers back at work and 2,000 on patrol. And in those pockets, you’ll recall that when President Bush indicated that the major military activities had ended, we said very explicitly that that did not mean that the — that was the end of kinetics; that there would continue to have to be significant efforts to root out the remnants of the regime. That’s been going forward, and it’s been going forward in recent days, particularly, in ways that have been quite helpful. [Federal News Service, 6/18/03, accessed via Nexis]

And oh snap, Donny used it again while discussing Afghanistan during a 6 Feb 04, interview on an edition of FOX PACs’ Special Report, “The bulk of the problems are along the Pakistan border. And that is where the kinetics, for the most part, are taking place,” Don said. “And it is entirely possible that that would be the last sector.” [Fox News, Special Report, 2/6/04]

But wait Rusty, there’s more, in a 5 July 05, interview on Hot Talk with Scott Hennen, Rummy said, “Well sure. I mean to the extent people say things that give encouragement, and if you’re engaged in a test of wills as we are here, this is partly a battle on the ground using kinetics, and partly it’s a test of will as to whether or not we’ll be willing to continue to aggressively help the Iraqi people defeat this insurgency, depends on support from the American people. It depends on support from the international community. It depends on confidence level on the part of the Iraqi people. Which side’s going to win, they say to themselves. Do we want to support the Iraqi government and the coalition, or do we wait and see maybe they’re not going to have the staying power?” [Federal News Service, 7/5/05, accessed via Nexis]

But hey guess what Rusty? Military leaders regularly use that special word to describe military campaigns too; for instance when yours’ and Hannitys’ personal hero GEN Tommy Franks used it during a 15 Aug 02 Defense Department briefing, “What I prefer to do is think about the amount of energy that is devoted to what I call kinetic work in some provinces and places inside Afghanistan, where there is much work left to be done, and then work which is much more humanitarian, if you will, in nature, that goes on across 10 to 12 additional provinces in Afghanistan. [Federal News Service, 8/15/02, accessed via Nexis]

Hold on to your formerly nicotine stained fingers Rusty because Franks isn’t the only military officer to use it. BG Stanley McChrystal during a 23 Mar 03 Pentagon news briefing said, “Well, sir, we can see whether or not we hit targets, in many cases. And we’re still gathering that. But we’re running an effects-based campaign that is partially kinetic, partially non-kinetic, partially information operations. And so what we judge effectiveness by is not just whether there’s a hole in the roof of a building, but whether or not the function that that element did before ceases to be effective. [CNN, 3/22/03, accessed via Nexis]

Are you ready for more, big guy? Are you ready for more proof as to why you’re an idiot? OK then, on with facts.

LG Raymond Odierno used our special word on 17 Jan 08, “”We have not done a kinetic strike in at least six months. It might even be longer than that. I think it’s even longer than that, but it’s been a very long time. I track every one of them and they brief me weekly on that. [Political Transcript Wire, 1/17/08, accessed via Nexis]

Of course non-military types have also repeatedly used the term. Why, as a matter of fact, you – Rusty – withheld from your listeners that Byron York, in the very 23 Mar 11 column you sited said, “Kinetic” is a word that’s been used around the Pentagon for many years to distinguish between actions like dropping bombs, launching cruise missiles or shooting people and newer forms of non-violent fighting like cyber-warfare. At times, it also appears to mean just taking action. [The Washington Examiner, 3/23/11]

From a 20 Nov 02, Slate article, “In common usage, ‘kinetic’ is an adjective used to describe motion, but the Washington meaning derives from its secondary definition, ‘active, as opposed to latent.’ Dropping bombs and shooting bullets — you know, killing people — is kinetic. But the 21st-century military is exploring less violent and more high-tech means of warfare, such as messing electronically with the enemy’s communications equipment or wiping out its bank accounts. These are ‘non-kinetic.’ (Why not “latent”? Maybe the Pentagon worries that would make them sound too passive or effeminate.) Asked during a January talk at National Defense University whether ‘the transformed military of the future will shift emphasis somewhat from kinetic systems to cyber warfare,’ Donald Rumsfeld answered, “Yes!” (Rumsfeld uses the words “kinetic” and “non-kinetic” all the time.) [Slate, 11/20/02]

In trying to drive home his misguided, uninformed, litany to his generally equally misguided and uninformed listeners, Rusty closed with, “All of this is nothing more than one of these intellectual exercises to excuse Obama, give him a pass. It really isn’t war. Democrat presidents don’t like using the U.S. military. If the truth be known, liberals actually are happier when the U.S. military loses.”

Really Rusty, Democratic Presidents don’t like using the military? Which Democratic Presidents would you be referring to? Woodrow Wilson? Franklin D. Roosevelt? Lyndon Johnson? Bill Clinton? Barrack Obama? News flash Rush! They all used the United States military. And what’s wrong with a President not wanting to rush into a war? To not want to place our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen in harms way? Difference between Democratic Presidents and most of their Republican counterparts is that the Democrats try to use up every possible avenue before the killing and maiming begins, wherein some Republican Presidents have almost gleefully sent our young men and women off to war. So, maybe in that sense you’re right, Democratic Presidents really don’t like “using the military”. But hey Rusty, even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in awhile.

And WOW Rusty, did you really mean to say this, or is your drug addled mind no longer capable of rational thought? “If the truth be known, liberals actually are happier when the U.S. military loses”? I’m not sure if you’re just plain stupid, or if you’re crazy. You are a certifiable jackass Rusty. You’re no longer the spokes bovine of the GOTP, you’re now the official talking spokes jackass of the GOTP. And you no longer bloviate, now you bray. This is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard, and it belongs right up there with comments by progressive commentators who claim Republicans hate the environment. You’re right Rush, Liberals hate America, and want it to fail. Grow up, or move on.

Rusty, the truth (something I’m sure your ten perpetually ham sandwich stained fingers could never find, even with a flash light) is first, this is a military action; an honest to goodness United Nations sanctioned military action, unlike Bush/Cheney’s “war” in Iraq; second, the term kinetic has been used frequently to describe this very type of military action, and is a perfectly suitable word to use here; finally, you Rush Hudson Limbaugh III are either an ignoramus or a charlatan, and probably both. You’re not right 99.9%, but are frequently never right. You hate the President, and I believe a good part of that hatred is due to your southern Missouri upbringing. Yes, Rusty, I think you’re a racist. Your previous comments to African-American callers and about African-American athletes are well documented and stand as a witness. You’re inability to ever base your comments on facts is shameful, and your deliberate misleading of your listeners, whether they’re gullible little sheeple or not is criminal. Rusty, one day in all probability your name will be mentioned in the same breath with Father Coughlin, and Joseph Goebels, not a place any self respecting broadcaster would ever choose to be. But who could ever accuse you of being a self respecting broadcaster?

(Many thanks to hard working folks at Media Matters for supplying the background information)

 
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Posted by on March 26, 2011 in Foreign Policy, Libya, Military, Right Wing Crazies, Right Wing Radio, Tea Party, War on Terror

 

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