Saturday, February 27, 2010

It's George Wallace's GOP Now: Right-Wing Populism v Conservatism

A page from the "always looking backwards" GOP gamebook:
"Actually, it shows that, like Wallace and his supporters 40 years ago, today's conservative populists are long on anger and short on coherence. For Wallace, small-government rhetoric was a trope, not a workable agenda. The same is true of his Republican heirs today, who insist that spending cuts alone, without tax increases, will restore fiscal balance but who have not proposed anywhere near enough spending cuts, primarily because they can't."

Sarah Palin fits this racist, pseudo-conservative archetype perfectly. Wallace from Alabama, Palin from Alaska. Long on anger and short on coherence. Lee Atwater would be proud.

Jonathan Rauch writes about the deja vu of the modern conservative:

First, with the important exception of race, not one of Wallace's central themes, from his bristling nationalism and his court-bashing to his anti-intellectualism and his aggressive provincialism, would seem out of place at any major Republican gathering today.

Second, and again leaving race aside, any Republican politician who publicly renounced the Wallace playbook would be finished as a national leader.

Third, by becoming George Wallace's party, the GOP is abandoning rather than embracing conservatism, and it is thereby mortgaging both its integrity and its political future. Wallaceism was not sufficiently mainstream or coherent to sustain a national party in 1968, and the same is true today.

Conservatism is wary of extremism and rage and anti-intellectualism, of demagoguery and incoherent revolutionary rhetoric. Wallace was a right-wing populist, not a conservative. The rise of his brand of pseudo-conservatism in Republican circles should alarm anyone who cares about the genuine article.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

The 8.8 Earthquake In Chile

Watch out, Hawaii! Tsunami is expected at 11:19am local time. That's 4:19pm in New York.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Friday, February 26, 2010

They. Don't. F*cking. Care

At yesterday’s health care summit, Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28) related this story from one of her constituents:

    "I even have one constituent—you will not believe this, and I know you won’t, it’s true. Her sister died, this poor woman had no dentures. She wore her dead sister’s teeth, which of course were uncomfortable and did not fit. Do you believe that in America that that’s where we would be?"

What was the reaction from leading members of the conservative media?

* On Twitter, Michelle Malkin wrote: “We need trillion-$ Demcare cuz someone had to wear their sister’s dentures! O: “Terrific conversation”

* On his radio program, Glenn Beck stated, “I’ve read the Constitution … I didn’t see that you had a right to teeth.”

* Author and radio host Laura Ingraham told Bill O’Reilly that Slaughter’s tale was “ridiculous” and a “sob story.”

* Fox Nation, the website maintained by the Fox News Channel, labeled Slaughter’s comments “Summit Insanity.”

Truly hideous, vile people.

The popular Conservatives and True Believers of the Republican Party should be ashamed of themselves. So willingly ugly. None of their listener/followers seem to even care. They are all culpable of such evil.

They all jump is lock step to help Terri Schiavo who was brain dead. Their whole Culture of Life is complete bullsh*t.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Keith Olbermann: Death Panels v Life Panels

Pretty moving Special Comment by Keith Olbermann. He talks about how his father is very sick in the hospital and how all the options of care and testing are available to him. The conversations he has with the doctors and how they handle each twist and turn in his father's constant fight with pain and infections can be described, as he says, as a "life panel".

Those same conversations and rights to health care would be called a "death panel" by the Right and the health insurance lobbyists who script their political positions.

Life is not a game. Keith sums up the difference between the Right and Left and how serious these matters are.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Pathetic Game Of False Equivalences

They just don't want to do a thing.
"...Republicans — who had weeks to prepare for this particular event, and have been campaigning against reform for a year — didn’t bother making a case that could withstand even minimal fact-checking." - Paul Krugman
The Republicans are just a Frank Luntz-led party of willful misinformation and fear mongering. Luntz gives them their script, they go out and repeat how ineffective they are at governing and their intellectually dishonest and uninquisitive leadership is given the fallacy of false equivalences with the Left by the media.

Government Regulated Health Care

Call it what is is. Democrats are pushing for the government to reform the way the Health Care industry is regulated. Pre-existing conditions, for example.

Regulating is not a takeover of the entire system.

Does the FDA own every meat packing company and chicken ranch?

Does the FAA own every airplane?

Is the Health Care Bill looking to buy all the hospitals and employ all the doctors?

Frame the debate and the arguments properly. It truly sucks having to defend the utter bullshit the Republicans are throwing up to see what sticks. Sucks even more that their constituents don't expect more out of their politicians.

And by offering an option to what is out there, competition and the market forces will decide what will be popular. Just like State Universities do not put private Universities out of business, the added Government option is all part of the choices Americans are used to.

The scare tactics of the Right are slowly losing their steam. Today's Summit proves that. Obama and Democrats are civil about their majority. America is opening its eyes and getting a look at real leadership.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

America 2010

Same goes for moving sidewalks in airports.

The Republican Paradox

The anti-government types are all working for the government: They spend the whole time doing a horrible job, then turn around saying that the horrible job they are doing is why government is bad.

The anti-elites are elite: George Bush went to Harvard and Yale. Sarah Palin has a best seller and national fame. The whole Fox team like Beck, Hannity and O'Reilly are millionaires with extensive solo media empires.

Nothing like sucking of the public teet in a three piece suit with your private school education or millions in the bank on a TV show telling me about how government is the problem and elites are ruining the country.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Michael Steele's Spending Spree

Fiscal responsibility? Belt tightening? Real America?
"A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000. [...] When [Michael]Steele took over the chairmanship last winter, he inherited a $23 million surplus. Since then, the former Maryland lieutenant governor has raised $10 million less than the party collected in 2005 and has spent $10 million more. By the end of 2009, the committee’s surplus had shrunk to $8.4 million, according to campaign finance reports."
It's just like a Republican to blow someone else's money while doing half the job they should be. Republican donors are pissed. Great news for Democrats are midterm elections are nearing.

Source: Politico

Using Corrupt Lawyers To Justify Unlawful Presidents

Read this to yourself a few times. This is what Bush and Cheney based all their illegal activities on. From the DOJ's OPR [Office of Professional Responsibility] report:
"Based on the results of our investigation, we concluded that former Deputy AAG John Yoo committed intentional professional misconduct when he violated his duty to exercise independent legal judgment and render thorough, objective, and candid legal advice."
Andrew Sullivan points out:
"So, in plain English, the Justice Department's internal watchdog found that John Yoo intentionally decided not to provide independent legal judgment to the president on the question of what was legal with respect to interrogation, that he did so knowing that the law unambiguously prohibited what he said was legal, and did so with the purpose of providing a golden shield for war crimes."
And it should be known from mountain top to mountain top that all the critical e-mails and evidence were destroyed by the Bush government:
After it became apparent, during the course of our review, that relevant documents were missing, we requested and were given direct access to the email and computer records of Yoo, Philbin, Bybee, and Goldsmith. However, we were told that most of Yoo's email records had been deleted and were not recoverable. Philbin's email records from July 2002 through August 5, 2002 - the time period in which the.Bybee.Memo was completed and the Classified Bybee Memo (discussed below) was created - had also been deleted and were reportedly not recoverable. Although we were initially advised that Goldsmith's records had been deleted, we were later told that they had been recovered and we were given access to them.
From the videotapes of the CIA waterboarding sessions to the last taped interrogation session of Jose Padilla to the surveillance videos of the Gitmo "suicides", they were all destroyed by Bush and Cheney to cover up their bloody hands. "Out, damned spot; out I say

Where is the outrage over that? Libertarians and Conservatives I can't hear you.

Source: Daily Dish

Republicans Won't Even Vote For Tax Cuts

The Party Of No continues:
"Ladies and gentlemen, the modern Republican Party. In the midst of the deepest, sharpest economic slowdown since the Great Depression, only five of 41 GOP senators were willing to vote for a modest jobs bill based entirely on tax cuts. One of those five, a conservative hero a mere four weeks ago, is practically excommunicated from the movement for voting in favor of the bill. A bill, to repeat, based entirely on tax cuts that would spur hiring. What's left to say?" - Kevin Drum
Sen. Scott Brown is a Republican in the middle of New England. Did the GOP really think they had a new Red State? The delusions of conservatives are always based on power, not policies and governing.

America needs a jobs bill and Republicans can only complain how Scott Brown delivered on that need.

Source: Mother Jones

The Press and Reconciliation

Don't believe all the loaded language about what reconciliation is.
"The truth, of course, is simpler. The basic healthcare bill has already been passed in the Senate via normal order. The House can pass the Senate bill and President Obama can sign it into law via normal order. Changes to the bill that affect revenues and outlays — i.e., things that affect the budget — can then be tacked onto a budget bill later this year and passed on an up-or-down vote via the budget reconciliation process. Here's a reconciliation primer:
  • It was created in 1974 as a way of ensuring that annual budgets could be passed without being filibustered.
  • It has been used to pass the annual budget in all but seven years since 1980. It's a routine procedure used by both Republicans and Democrats.
  • It was used to pass Ronald Reagan's 1981 tax cut and both of George Bush's big tax cuts.
  • It was used to pass welfare reform.
  • Virtually every healthcare reform of the past three decades, including COBRA, EMTALA, S-CHIP, and others has been passed via reconciliation."
Health Care Bill already had 60 votes in December. It has passed the House vote, too. Reconciliation does nothing more than allow a simple majority vote to pass budgetary issues and that it's been used routinely by both parties for decades. That's just the simple truth.

Source: Kevin Drum

Reconciliation's Long History

NPR's Julie Rovner completely debunks Republican claims that reconciliation "has never been used for this kind of major systemic reform"; i.e., like the healthcare bill.

The Reconciliation process has been used for the past 30 years in almost every major bill. Twenty of those years Republicans were President. You may be entitled to your opinions, but you are not entitled to your own facts.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Yoo To Pick Up Soul In Hell, Devil Confirms

Law Prof. Bruce Ackerman in the Washington Post:
"...in clearing the Bush administration lawyers who authored the memos of all charges of unprofessional conduct, the department [of Justice] invites future John Yoos to rubber-stamp future presidential abuses at moments of (real or imagined) crisis.

...the president and Congress have a constitutional obligation to establish an institutional framework that will keep future John Yoos under control. "
Remember Harriet Myers for Supreme Court? How did all these judicial novices get such jobs? Painful to think of all the cronyism and blind devotion to the Republican mullahs.

Bush is actually lucky he left the country in complete shambles as to keep the heat of his illegal activities. We are too distracted fixing everything he broke to put him and Cheney in prison.

Source: http://www.realitychex.com/

Joseph Stack Was Technically A Terrorist, But…

Matt Steinglass refutes Kevin Drum:
"So I think that on definitional grounds, you have to grant that Stack’s suicidal plane attack on the IRS was an act of terrorism. But at the same time, we don’t put it in the same league as attacks by trained agents of Al-Qaeda or the Stern Gang, because it’s not part of an organized campaign of violent intimidation that furthers the aims of a political organization. The Oklahoma City bombing, with its clear links to the militia movement and its explicit (if crazy) ideology, was more like the terrorism we see from Al-Qaeda or the Qassam Brigades. Stack’s act was more like what the Unabomber was up to: the lone act of a disturbed man with no coherent vision of how his desired political change could come about. But, again, we’d all call the Unabomber a terrorist."

Like Stack’s, the motives of Al-Qaeda terrorists are a baffling swirl of resentments and half-formed, incoherent demands.

Quoting Stack's Manifesto: "Nothing changes unless there is a body count…I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt”.

Community organizer for light-skinned terrorists, Glenn Beck, would be proud.

He is hoping to inspire massive violence against the IRS. IRS staffers are civilians. The fact that only one person died does not change the definition.

Recall the Homeland Security report warning about Right Wing violence?

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Is Palin Running For PM of Israel?

Notice Sarah Palin had the US and Israeli flags on her lapel? She also had a Israeli flag in his Governor's Office in Alaska.
The reason so many conservatives (and I am certain that includes Palin) support Israel is that they believe in the false doctrine of Premillennialism -- a belief that considers the founding of Israel in 1948 a sign of the End Times leading to the Rapture, the battle of Armageddon, the return of Christ... and the end of the Jews, either by death or conversion to Christianity.
Evangelicals like Palin and George Bush really believe these "stories". However complex the Middle East can be with Israel and Palestine and all it's history and current tensions, simpleton Jesus freaks like Palin can deduce it to what's in her best interest. Not trade. Not intelligence. Not even military spending. Just her personal salvation.

Also, wearing the flag of a foreign country at a political event? Why so willing to subordinate the interests of the United States to a foreign power? Just like the 'life is a journey" code spoken by reborns, the flag is code for Zionist hicks who want to go to heaven.

The fact of the matter is, Israeli interests and American interests are not always aligned, and Israel’s actions are not always worthy of American support.

So when Iran and Iraq and Israel have beef in the world of Sarah Palin, whatever gets her to heaven is how she'll govern. She may say "America First" to fire up her fan club, but it's "Sarah First" and Bible scriptures when it comes to policies that effect America.

File this under "Obama is a secret Kenyan Muslim Marxist who wants to destroy America".

Is It Too Big Or Too Small?

Congressional Dems release Health Care proposal, Republicans say it too long. White House releases outline, Repubes say it too short. Ultimately the GOP will find any plan unacceptable because it contains numbers, words and is printed on paper.

At least they are consistent with offering no alternative. House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was on Good Morning America earlier today, and described the plan that incorporates Democratic and Republican ideas as "a non-starter." Asked if he thought there's any room for possible compromise, Cantor added, "There can't be."

Too big? Too small? Compromise? It's not about being one side of the Health Care debate, Republicans want to kill the entire conversation. Just make it go away.

The GOP is all reflexive contrarian posturing, no governing or representing new ideas.

Young And Old Alike Turn Left

As more and more Americans enter the 65-and-over bracket, this constituency will pull inexorably leftward on entitlements. They’re well-informed, they turn out to vote, and there are more of them every day. Old people know where their bread gets buttered.

Does this look good for the GOP? Umm, no. The small-government conservatives that exist in Republican fables have no idea or interest on how to govern an aging population.

The GOP has already driven away young voters, alienated blacks, Hispanics, and virtually the entire Northeast. They still have old white guys in the South.

That may be enough to sustain a cable news channel and occasional victories, but not a long term strategy for a National Party.

Threat Of Republican Filibuster Just Got PWNED

Five Republicans split from their party on a proposed Jobs Bill filibuster. Among the enlightened ones was new Senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown.

"It's a small step, but it's still a step," Brown told reporters after casting a procedural vote in favor of the Democratic jobs bill, bucking his party leaders and the strategy of opposition they have carried out since President Obama took office.

For Senate Democrats, it was much bigger step. Four Republicans followed Brown's lead, giving the jobs legislation 62 votes, two more than needed to cut off a GOP filibuster.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thanked the newly-elected Republican from Massachusetts. "I hope this is the beginning of a new day here in the Senate. Whether this new day was created by the new Senator from Massachusetts or some other reason, I'm very, very happy that we were able to get this done. But there are some winners. Not any individual Senator, not Democrats or Republicans. The winners are small business people throughout this country."
The four others were Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.),

Source: HuffPo

Monday, February 22, 2010

Reid Dares GOP To Oppose Jobs Bill

"Most important, I ask my reluctant Republican colleagues to show those Americans who deserve a job to go to every the morning that we're willing to do our jobs this evening," Sen. Harry Reid said. "It's remarkable that we have to hold a procedural vote on a bill that will create jobs. It will be regrettable if the minority prevents us from moving forward, from taking that first step, from giving millions of unemployed Americans the hope that tomorrow will be better than yesterday."

Dems gaining momentum. GOP in the corner still saying "no".

McConnell and the GOP are weak - and scared. Their plan has backfired. Even the tea baggers are turning against them. They vote against funding the troops. They vote against deficit reduction. They vote against jobs. They're voting against America.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Cowards Are Not Heroes

Joe Stack lights his house on fire and then flies his plane into the IRS Building killing an arbitrary and innocent worker, Vernon Hunter, who was a two-tour Vietnam veteran.

Guess who Tea Partiers think is the "hero"?

Whatever injustices Joe Stack thought there was, and he thought there were a lot, from religion, to tax codes, to George W. Bush, he ended up killing someone who had nothing to do with his personal woes.

This is how I see the Tea Party's current mindset. They want to attack Obama because he represents the government even if previous administrations did the real harm. They think cowards are heroes and only see their opinions through a predisposed, inaccurate, groupthink, purely political, historically and morally selfish vantage.

It's 2010, not pre-1862. Stop looking backwards in time for your power and anachronistic themes. Stop with the unblinking partisan fidelity. America is moving ahead which really scares the shit out of you. Deal with it.

Don't think you are all of a sudden a hero because you dislike government vis a vis Obama and Democrats. Your cowardice does not entitle you to re-write histories to justify your fairweather patriotism.

Obama: Putting Americans In Control of Their Health Care

"The President will bring a comprehensive proposal to the bipartisan meeting that builds on the progress Congress has already made and aims to give the American people and small business owners more control over their health care choices."

Awesome website. There is even a "Republican Ideas" section. GOP "we're being ignored" talking point DEAD.

Critics and fans aside, this is how government works.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Beck And The GOPalin Megolomania

When Glenn Beck looks at his out-of-power compatriots on the Right, the aging out of step Conservatives and failed "cut taxes and spend" Republican policy dullards, and pontificates that a bigger tent is not needed to resume power, how obvious is his message about him and keeping him relevant in the extremist movement.

Beck even joked at CPAC that America is not a circus, no metaphorical tents are needed. How appropriate that the clown of the GOP wants all the attention to himself. Saying you don't need a bigger tent is akin to saying you don't need more votes. The textbook delusional fantasies of wealth, power, and omnipotence of the GOPalin train wreck continues.
"The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved. To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history." - Bertrand Russell

GOP's Theism: Wacked Out On Wafers

The fusion of politics and religion - from the world of Islam to the West Bank in Israel to the core of the GOP, is objectively dangerous and neurotic in our modern world. But there was a warning from within:
"When you say "radical right" today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican party and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye." - Barry Goldwater in 1994
After watching CPAC this weekend, the Right are still reflexively ignoring the facts and circling their God Squad wagons to shield themselves for the obvious multi-cultural future of the US. How long can the "scared white guy, anti-science, pro-God in vengeful" schtick work?

God transcends duality. God is light and dark, male and female. God is eternal. Yet the Republicans think God is on their side? God has no side. God is in us all. It would impossible to defend such a statement. That being said, God does not exist and would surely never vote for conservatives.

"You Can't Govern From A Teleprompter" Read Off Teleprompter At CPAC

Jim DeMint in his CPAC speech yesterday: "You can't govern from a teleprompter."

He read that from a teleprompter.

Only the Republicans would criticize the same thing they and everyone who gives public speeches does, but only find the opposition to be at fault. It's so sad that this kind of attack resonates with the GOP.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Tea Party-style Right-Populist Paranoia

Tea Party populism is based on trolling for miserable people who are mad for all sorts of reason, then try to pin decades of this rage, who's misery was amplified by Bush-era policies, at today's Democrats and Obama. Add a little racism and the boogie man and there you are.
"We can’t just play defense in this fight. What Yglesias fails to understand is that the ideology Stack subscribed to is the problem. All across the country are sleeper cells preaching hatred of the tax code, gathering in public to denounce the results of a democratic election and sow the seeds of sectarian violence. They even have a major television network sympathetic to their sick agenda. The threat is there for all to see."

Joe Stack was encouraged to attack the IRS building by the radical clerics on Fox. Are we going to wait for these Tea Party threats to gather?

Extremist cells are not just in the Middle East.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com