Posts filed under ‘Teabaggers’
Reporter Tries to Explain Why Fox is Too Liberal for the Tea Party
If you don’t have time to watch this, here’s all you need to know: “We don’t really rely on facts. We rely more on our feelings and our emotions.”
(Via.)
Did You Know Obama Just Instituted 13 New Tax Increases?
I just got this email from Tea Party Nation:
Obama’s Latest Screw Up May Lead to Impeachment.
Dear Concerned Reader,
Fearing the very worst, the nation’s super-rich are unloading their stocks at an alarming rate.
Even more troubling, the wealthiest 1% of Americans, who typically know the most, are the ones most anxious to sell.
You see, Obama just allowed 13 new tax increases to further slow the economy, wreck the stock market and make it even harder on the 12 million Americans already looking for work.
The bigger question is this…Is Obama’s Latest Tax Screw Up Grounds For Impeachment?
The poll results are likely to shock you.
Cast your vote now to see what America thinks.Yes, impeach President Obama? Or No, higher taxes were necessary?
Thanks for your time on this urgent matter.
When you click on the link to vote, you’re taken to a website called the, ahem, Wall Street Daily. Nowhere (that I could find) are the “13 new tax increases” outlined or explained. There is no information whatsoever about them. Yet, 92% of the respondents think Obama should be impeached for these phantom tax increases.
Amazing.
Oh, and as to those billionaires unloading their stocks? Really? March 5: Dow Hits Highest Close Ever.
Republicans in Big, BIG Disarray
First, there’s this from Politico:
That headline cracks me up. The RNC is off the edge to the right but the folks to the right of the right of the RNC are blasting it?
Okaay.
Then there’s this from a new CNN/ORC Poll: The Tea Party: Favorable 28% / Unfavorable 48%.
So what does the RNC do? Cave to the folks to their right, i.e, the 28%ers or tack to the left like their newly unveiled “Growth and Opportunity” outreach report says they should?
They created the Tea Party as an anti-Obama faction and now look where they’re at.
Man oh man. Are they ever in a hell of a fix.
Red Meat
Even though it’s early, here’s my Tweet of the Day.
The operative word here is “fantasy.” Obamacare isn’t going to be repealed and Paul Ryan knows. But in order to maintain his street cred with the Tea Partiers, he’s got to play this game and throw them some red meat, even though he’s wasting everyone’s time doing it.
Tea Party: Only Fund the Parts of Government We “Really Need”
I’m on the Tea Party Nation’s email list and I just got this email from them.
Poor things. Obamacare isn’t going to be defunded because Republicans already feel it’s too popular.
And my one question for the Tea Party is: Which parts of the government do we “really need” as they say repeatedly?
M. –In the next few days, the Republicans in the House of Representatives will meet with Barack Obama and Harry Reid to discuss and ultimately pass a continuing budget resolution to fund the government for the rest of this year.
Guess what is not in that Continuing Resolution? Perhaps we should say, guess what is in there?
Included, at least as of right now, is full funding for Obamacare.
That’s right, the Republicans who have promised repeatedly to repeal or at least defund Obamacare, are fully funding it.
We the people have every right to be angry about this.
The Republicans lied to us. They passed a couple of meaningless resolutions they knew would go nowhere. Then when the time came, they fully funded Obamacare.
We should accept our portion of responsibility for this too.
When was the last time we were out telling the Republicans to defund Obamacare?
It is not too late.
If the Republican Leadership in the House and the Senate hear from the people, we can still get them to change their minds.
Take a minute to sign our petition.
When the Navy cannot sail because of budget cuts, Obamacare is the first thing that should be defunded. When the government is releasing criminal illegal aliens because there is allegedly no money to hold them, Obamacare should be defunded and the savings used to cut our debt and pay for really important things. When we are told we will see travel delays because the government is cutting air traffic controllers, we must defund Obamacare to fund the parts of government we really need.
Take a moment to tell the Republican leadership to stand up for the people who put them where they are. Tell them to honor their promises and defund Obamacare in the upcoming Continuing Budget Resolution.
Share this email with your friends and members of your Tea Party group and ask them to sign this petition too. Washington must hear from us now!
Tea Party Nation
Hey Boehner, Maybe the House Should Get Off Its Ass
This morning Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Useless), trying (but failing) to look tough, told the Senate to get off its ass and get a move on in their work to avoid the sequester.
So funny, because there’s this:
A meat cleaver hangs over the federal government, but the unflappable men and women of the House majority [Republicans] remain cool and poised.
With just four days left to stop automatic spending cuts from affecting everything from air travel to food inspections, House Republicans had but one item on their agenda Monday: renaming a NASA facility in California.
H.R. 667, as this urgently needed legislation is known, would “redesignate the Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center.”
[...]
The naming proposal, sponsored by Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), was taken up at a time when House Republicans are pursuing a considered strategy of deliberate idleness.
[...]
Of the 56 days so far in 2013, the House has been in session for 20 — and a large chunk of those have been pro-forma sessions without votes, or with ceremonial bills. After a week’s recess, the chamber returned Monday with just a few items on the calendar.
Just infuriating.
Poor Florida Seniors: Get Ready to Die
Apropos of this, there’s this:
(Image via Wikipedia)
Fla. Medicaid Privatization Plans Moving Forward
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Federal health officials said Wednesday they expect to approve Florida’s request to privatize Medicaid statewide as long as the state resolves several outstanding issues, including hiring an independent entity to monitor the process and having a robust plan to measure the quality of patient care in the controversial program.
More…
Rick Scott, Florida’s Tea Party Governor, the guy who’s moving this along should be in prison. If you’ve got time, read this: Rick Scott’s Dirtiest Deeds.
I predict Scott will privatize Medicaid in Florida right into the hands of his hospital chain / insurance company buddies and three, four years from now the “Medicare” system in Florida will be a corrupt mess. And people will have died as a result, including Tea Partiers who voted for this narcissistic monster.
Buyer’s Remorse in Tea Party Florida
Voters in Florida are realizing that when Tea Party ideology is implemented in real life, it sucks:
Obamacare is a particular target of tea party wrath in Florida, but it’s hardly the only one in a state where the movement’s ideology has permeated every layer of government. In just one year, Scott and his conservative allies slashed state spending by $4 billion even as they cut corporate taxes. They’ve rejected billions in federal funds in one of the states hardest hit by the recession. They’ve axed everything from health care and public transportation initiatives to mosquito control and water supply programs. “Florida is where the rhetoric becomes the reality. It’s kind of the tea party on steroids,” says state Rep. Mark Pafford, a Democrat. “We’ve lost all navigation in terms of finding that middle ground.”
[...]
Now, the Sunshine State may be a harbinger of another realignment: Support for Scott and the GOP is plummeting as Floridians see anti-government governance at work. But it may be too late for buyer’s remorse. After two years at the helm, the tea party’s legacy is likely to far outlast the movement.
Here are “a few” of the federal grants Florida has turned down under its balance-the-budget-at-all-cost, Tea Party government. Amazing.
Tea Party Booster FreedomWorks Made Video of “Panda” Having Oral Sex with Pretend Hillary Clinton
The only way I an think to preface this is to say yes, there are people whose mind lives in the gutter. I mean, who thinks of something like this much less brings it to fruition? This is perversion:
An internal investigation of FreedomWorks—the prominent conservative advocacy group and super-PAC—has focused on president Matt Kibbe’s management of the organization, his use of its resources, and a controversial book deal he signed, according to former FreedomWorks officials who have met with the private lawyers conducting the probe.
One potential topic for the inquiry is a promotional video produced last year under the supervision of Adam Brandon, executive vice president of the group and a Kibbe loyalist. The video included a scene in which a female intern wearing a panda suit simulates performing oral sex on Hillary Clinton.
[...]
Some FreedomWorks staffers worried last year about a promotional video created ahead of FreePAC, a FreedomWorks conference held on July 26, 2012, where thousands of conservative grassroots activists nearly filled the American Airlines Center in Dallas to hear from tea party favorites, including Glenn Beck and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah). The short film hailing FreedomWorks was intended to play on the large video screens inside the arena.
In one segment of the film, according to a former official who saw it, Brandon is seen waking from a nap at his desk. In what appears to be a dream or a nightmare, he wanders down a hallway and spots a giant panda on its knees with its head in the lap of a seated Hillary Clinton and apparently performing oral sex on the then-secretary of state. Two female interns at FreedomWorks were recruited to play the panda and Clinton. One intern wore a Hillary Clinton mask. The other wore a giant panda suit that FreedomWorks had used at protests to denounce progressives as panderers. (See here, here, and here.) Placing the panda in the video, a former FreedomWorks staffer says, was “an inside joke.”
Another FreedomWorks staffer who worked there at the time confirms that ”Yes, this video was created.”
[...]
Brandon, a former FreedomWorks official says, defended the film, insisting it was creative and funny.
Yeah, it sounds hilarious.
Geezus.
GOP Rep. Invites Racist Hater / Washed Up Musician Ted Nugent to Tomorrow’s State of the Union
I see Republicans are doing that moderation thing, you know, trying to appeal to middle-of-the-roaders (not):
(Image via ThinkProgress.org)
Lots of chatter about the news that GOP Rep. Steve Stockman, who threatened Obama with impeachment over guns, has invited Ted Nugent to the State of the Union address. Nugent has accepted:
“I am excited to have a patriot like Ted Nugent joining me in the House Chamber to hear from President Obama,” Stockman said in a press release. “After the Address I’m sure Ted will have plenty to say.”
That’s a good bet; apparently Stockman is encouraging reporters to interview Nugent after the speech. Nugent, of course, is best known for making this claim, which was investigated by the Secret Service:
“If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year,” Nugent said, according to a video that the NRA posted on YouTube. “If you can’t go home and get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating administration, I don’t even know what you’re made out of.”
That’s bad, but if I were the GOP leadership, the prospect of further comments from Nugent after the speech would have me a bit worried. After all, there’s little doubt that reporters will seek him out, and there’s really no telling what Nugent will say. The GOP leadership has not commented on the news.
So this should be interesting. Nugent is so desperate for attention I wouldn’t be surprised if he yelled something out while Obama’s speaking. He’s a live wire but if you don’t believe me, check out some of his more memorable quotes here. He’s a real case.
But we can be sure, the 27%-ers will love Stockman for this!
Tea Party Launches Alternative to Facebook — UPDATED
Yep, the Tea Party has launched an alternative to Facebook. Why, I don’t know. Is Facebook inherently liburl or something? News to me. It’s called “Tea Party Community.” Check it out here.
(Image via TeaPartyCommunity.com)
Far as I know this launched within the last few days if not the last few hours and hey look, they’re already talking about assassinating Obama.
UPDATE @ 5:06 p.m. ET
I just tried to register and I got this message:
(Image via TeaPartyCommunity.com)
So things are going swimmingly thus far.
Fox News Being Destroyed By a Monster It Helped Create
Good article over at PoliticusUSA: Obama’s Reelection is Literally Destroying Fox News:
However, the biggest problem for Fox News is that they were wrong. FNC was so blinded by their partisan mission that they got the 2012 election completely wrong. They were wrong about Obama’s vulnerability, wrong about Romney’s victory, wrong about who would show up to vote, wrong about Republicans retaking the Senate, and most importantly, they were completely wrong about the direction of the country. The success of Obama’s tax message, the popularity of ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and his action on immigration were a clear signal that the country was moving left. Instead of injecting a bit of reality into their coverage, Fox News kept trotting out people like Sarah Palin and Dick Morris to tout the inevitability of Romney’s victory. Viewers reacted to Fox’s propaganda over facts attitude by giving award the network their lowest trust ratings ever. Except for the political right, viewers don’t trust Fox.
The third wheel to fall off the Fox News juggernaut is the now out in the open civil war between the Republican Party establishment, and the tea party. Fox News employs both Karl Rove, the leader of the establishment push back, and several tea party darlings, like Mike Huckabee. Fox News was a big factor in the promotion of the right wing billionaire backed AstroTurf movement known as the tea party in 2009 and 2010, but over the past year, they have been trying to distance themselves from the monster that they helped create. President Obama’s landslide reelection turned what was stealth conflict inside the Republican Party into full on public warfare. Fox News is going to be forced to alienate a portion of their audience by picking a side. So far, the network has tried to straddle the middle publicly, but the firing of Sarah Palin made it clear that Murdoch and Ailes are siding with the party establishment.
More at the link above…
What poetic justice. I remember the likes of Fox’s Neil Cavuto going to Tea Party rallies in ’09 and ’10 and egging attendees on. They helped create this monster and now they’re stuck with it. I love it.
We will see what happens next. I’ve heard a number of talking heads say they think the Tea Party wing of the party will win this battle.
Ohio — ObamaCare’s Biggest Red-State Catch
I have a good friend who lives in Ohio and she says everything Governor John Kasich does is self-serving:
(Image via DownWithTyranny.Blogspot.com)
John Kasich’s Obamacare Flip Burns Conservatives
Conservative groups wanted to stop the march of Obamacare expansion at ground zero: the states.
But one of their best hopes just caved.
John Kasich, the fiercely conservative governor of Ohio, announced Monday that he’s going to expand Medicaid dramatically using federal money — a 180-degree turn from what conservative groups swore their allies in governors’ mansions would do when the Supreme Court gave them an out last year.
That leaves Kasich, who built his political identity arguing for smaller government, at odds with the same movement conservatives who propelled him to victory in Ohio and have eyed him for a presidential run in 2016.
“I think it’s definitely going to weaken him with the conservative base,” said Chris Littleton, the Ohio director for American Majority Action.
Yeah, it probably will “weaken him with the conservative base” — as in the 26%ers – but it will help with independents, moderates and who knows, maybe even some Democrats, so this move sure points toward him eying a run for prez.
Now it’ll be interested to see what the wackos do.
Karl Rove Too Liberal for Tea Partiers
Republicans have a real mess on their hands thanks to their own doing, as in creating the Tea Party:
Conservative Victory Fund, New Karl Rove Super PAC, Seeks To Block Tea Party Influence On Senate Races
No more Todd Akins. No more Richard Mourdocks. No more Republican primaries that produce divisive, gaffe-spewing GOP candidates.
That’s the aim of a new super-PAC, the Conservative Victory Fund, spearheaded by Karl Rove and his big-money juggernaut, American Crossroads.
So there’s that and now Rove is the bad guy because — oh my God, I can’t believe I’m tying this: he’s too liberal. Check out what’s going on over at “CrushRove.” It’s vicious.
House Republican Leaders: Our Tea Party Members Are Crazy, We Can’t Control Them So Give Them What They Want
This is what Republicans call compromise:
Republican leadership officials, in a series of private meetings and conversations this past week, warned that the White House, much less the broader public, doesn’t understand how hard it will be to talk restive conservatives off the fiscal ledge. To the vast majority of House Republicans, it is far riskier long term to pile up new debt than it is to test the market and economic reaction of default or closing down the government.
GOP officials said more than half of their members are prepared to allow default unless Obama agrees to dramatic cuts he has repeatedly said he opposes. Many more members, including some party leaders, are prepared to shut down the government to make their point. House Speaker John Boehner “may need a shutdown just to get it out of their system,” said a top GOP leadership adviser. “We might need to do that for member-management purposes — so they have an endgame and can show their constituents they’re fighting.”
Former Republican Congressman Urges Followers to Break Laws They Don’t Like
Talk like this is so dangerous, especially when it comes from someone people see as an authority figure. If it hits just the wrong, insane ears, who knows what could happen:
(Image via Wikipedia)
CHICAGO — Tea Party favorite Joe Walsh says conservatives are losing the “war” for U.S. voters and encouraged his backers at a South Loop rally to engage in civil disobedience to defy the Affordable Care Act or new gun regulations.
At his most aggressive, he told dozens of supporters [yesterday] to “defy and or break the law and engage in civil disobedience” if faced with federal health care law restrictions or new gun laws.
He paraphrased Thomas Jefferson in saying, “We may have to shed blood every couple hundred years to preserve our freedoms.”
The one-term McHenry County congressman, who lost his re-election bid to Democrat Tammy Duckworth in November, openly contemplated breaking away from the Republican Party during a Wednesday rally at Blackie’s, 755 S. Clark St.
And in the end of the rally he began organizing a statewide movement he said would “scare Republicans and Democrats.”
“No rah rahs,” he said as he kicked off his address with tough love. “We’re losing.”
Conservatives are losing to progressives, he said, because “our side doesn’t understand we’re at war.”
So irresponsible. So self-serving. So frightening.
Oh, and BTW, this is the same Joe Walsh who didn’t pay child support for his three kids — to the tune of $100,000. I guess he practices what he preaches so-to-speak.
The Tea Party is Toast
Just 8% Now Say They Are Tea Party Members
Views of the Tea Party movement are at their lowest point ever, with voters for the first time evenly divided when asked to match the views of the average Tea Party member against those of the average member of Congress. Only eight percent (8%) now say they are members of the Tea Party, down from a high of 24% in April 2010 just after passage of the national health care law.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 30% of Likely U.S. Voters now have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party. Half (49%) of voters have an unfavorable view of the movement. Twenty-one percent (21%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 3-4, 2013 by Rasmussen Reports.
Even though their membership and approval numbers are low, the Tea Party has a disproportionate amount of influence in the Republican party.
Man, did they ever create a monster.
Tea Party Republicans Ignore Hurricane Sandy Relief, Prepare to Spend Millions Defending Discrimination
Tea Party priorities (hate and divisiveness appear to be at the top):
It’s emerged that House Republicans have decided to continue to spend taxpayer funds defending the Defense of Marriage Act in court. GOP lawmakers gave the green light to this idea in a private meeting last night, and it is expected to pass the House as part of a rules package when it is voted on today.
The optics of this move are intriguing. DOMA has already been found unconstitutional by lower courts. The House GOP has already spent over $1.5 million paying outside counsel to defend this law, and while the amount it will ultimately spend on this means little in the larger fiscal scheme of things, it comes just after House Republicans took a beating for failing to vote on aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
“They found the time to appropriate extra money to defend discrimination, but they didn’t find the time or money to push the hurricane relief bill through,” prominent gay advocate Richard Socarides told me today.
Smaller government. Less spending. Yeah, right.
John Boehner Taking His Toys and Going Home
This is encouraging:
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) is signaling that at least one thing will change about his leadership during the 113th Congress: he’s telling Republicans he is done with private, one-on-one negotiations with President Obama.
[...]
The influential editorial page of TheWall Street Journal on Wednesday urged Boehner to “from now on cease all backdoor negotiations and pursue regular legislative order.” Linking to the article, a top adviser to Boehner posted on Twitter: “That’s the plan.”
Poor John. First there was the failure of his famous “Plan B” just before Christmas and today New Jersey Governor Chris Christy read him the riot act over the House’s failure to pass a Hurricane Sandy relief bill which the Democratically-controlled Senate did weeks ago. It’s a beautiful thing:
No wonder the folks in New Jersey love Christie. I’m a raving liberal I love his guts and straightforwardness. I wish some (no, a lot) of it would rub off on timid Obama.
Anyway, so how does Mr. Tough Guy Boehner respond? He takes his toys and retreats into his office.
Maybe being an ass will help him win re-election as speaker. You know, solidify his bona fides with the Tea Party crazies.
One thing’s for sure, we’ve got to ahem, admire, is his love of self country.
Remember When the Police Beat Tea Partiers and Infiltrated Their Group?
Me neither:
FBI Investigated ‘Occupy’ As Possible ‘Terrorism’ Threat, Internal Documents Show
According to internal documents newly released by the FBI, the agency spearheaded a nationwide law enforcement effort to investigate and monitor the Occupy Wall Street movement. In certain documents, divisions of the FBI refer to the Occupy Wall Street protests as a “criminal activity” or even “domestic terrorism.”
[...]
According to the documents, the FBI coordinated extensively with private companies, including banks, that feared they could be affected by Occupy protests. Occupy, which took root in New York City’s Zuccotti Park in September 2011 and spread to cities across the country, targeted corporations and other forces it believed to perpetuate social inequality. The FBI’s investigation included the movement’s manifestations in New York; Milwaukee; Indianapolis; Anchorage, Alaska; Jacksonville, Fla.; Richmond, Va.; and Memphis, Tenn., among others.[...]
According to the new documents, the FBI began meeting with representatives of the New York Stock Exchange and other businesses as early as August 2011, a month before the Zuccotti Park protests.
(Image via the WashingtonPost.com)
I get it. The FBI is protecting the corporatocracy. Tea Partiers are essentially on the side of the corporatocracy, so they’re good.
The Tea Party: A “Grassroots” Organization?
Imagine how the media would laugh (its ass off) if a founder of the grassroots Occupy Wall Street movement got an $8 million buyout:
(Image via CBSNews)
Dick Armey left the deep-pocketed tea party group he helped build over a clash with a top lieutenant who Armey and others in the organization believed was using the group’s resources to pad his pockets, POLITICO has learned.
Armey received an $8 million buyout to step down as chairman of FreedomWorks at the end of last month…
Let’s stop playing this game. The Tea Party is not a “grassroots” organization; it just uses the grassroots to push its pro-corporate, anti-grassroots agenda.
The Tea Party Gets Their Own “News Network”
Hah! I can only imagine the kind of “news” the Tea Party News Network will carry:
Tea Party conservatives are getting their very own news site.
The Tea Party News Network, self-described as “the only trusted news source and the antidote to mainstream media bias,” is already live but will announce its launch tomorrow morning, with plans to start live video on election day. TPNN claims to have a “war room of 40-plus volunteers” who will operate out of the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, and has established partnerships with the Talk Radio Network and radio host Rusty Humphries, who will be co-anchoring the election night coverage.
So, this band of “40-plus volunteers” is operating out of the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas? Sounds so grassrootsish.
Scientists Adopt a Tiny Washington Island to Track Climate Change
Food for thought tonight (warning to those who are science and fact adverse):
(Image via CascadeClimbers.com)
From a stretch of rocky shoreline on this tiny island [Tatoosh Island, Washington], one can, on any given morning, watch otters floating on their backs, elephant seals hauling out of the water and a bald eagle flying past murres huddled along a cliff face. The startled birds perform a synchronized dive into the sea, their ovoid black-and-white bodies resembling miniature penguins.
[...]
But for over four decades, with the blessing of Makah leaders, Tatoosh has been the object of intense biological scrutiny, and scientists say they are seeing disturbing declines across species — changes that could prove a bellwether for oceanic change globally.
Cathy Pfister and Timothy Wootton, both biology professors at the University of Chicago, have been trekking to the island since the 1980s, often accompanying their former graduate adviser, Robert T. Paine, a nominally retired zoology professor from the University of Washington. At 79, Dr. Paine still returns to Tatoosh several times a year to continue the ecological research he began in the 1960s.
[...]
Among the declines the researchers are noticing: historically hardy populations of gulls and murres are only half what they were 10 years ago, and only a few chicks hatched this spring. Mussel shells are notably thinner, and recently the mussels seem to be detaching from rocks more easily and with greater frequency.
Goose barnacles are also suffering, and so are the hard, splotchy, wine-colored coralline algae, which appear like graffiti along rocky shorelines.
While not entirely understood, the declines are not entirely mysterious. Biologists suspect that the shifts are related to huge declines in the water’s pH, a shift attributed to the absorption of excess carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere in ever-greater amounts by the burning of fossil fuels for energy.
[...]
“You can predict change,” Dr. Paine said, “and most of the changes are going to be in a direction we don’t want.”
Time to Think Twice About Watching the Discovery Channel
I guess the Discovery Channel is turning into the Discover Racism, Hate and Bigotry Channel. Check this out: VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: Discovery Channel To Air Special Starring Ted Nugent.
I’m Thinking Romney Might Regret Picking Paul Ryan as His VP
More evidence of what a mess Mr. Fix It’s campaign has been:
(Image via M. Spencer Green / AP)
Thanks to Ryan’s Medicare plan, Medicare may well be eclipsing Obamacare — which was supposed to be one of Obama’s leading liabilities — as an issue. Today’s new Post poll finds that Ryan’s scheme is overwhelmingly opposed in Ohio, Florida, and Virginia. The poll finds that this opposition is powering a 19 point advantage for Obama in these states on who is more trusted to handle Medicare. Republicans won a huge victory in the 2010 elections, largely because of Obamacare, by claiming (falsely) that the health law cut Medicare benefits for seniors. The GOP ticket reprised that attack this year.
Whoda thought? No, seriously, this was a predictable result of picking Ryan, which makes his pick seem like an impulsive, knee-jerk attempt on Mitt’s part to endear himself to “the base,” but the thing is the base is on, and likes, Medicare too.
Oops! Sh*t happens when you live in the Fox bubble.
Romney Goes Birther
An apparently desperate Romney, who has been whining for weeks about how mean Democrats have been to his poor self, went birther today:
(Video via.)
I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where both of us were born. Ann was born in Henry Ford Hospital, I was born in Harper Hospital. No one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate; they know that this is the place that we were born and raised.
Romney knows Obama was born in the U.S. but — really? — he just joined the folks who believe Obama perpetrated an elaborate plot to fake his birthplace and ascend to the presidency. Really?
Willing-to-say-anything Mitt.
Disgusting.
Why Isn’t the Tea Party Throwing a Fit About This?
We have bipartisanship in D.C. Woohoo:
House Votes to Appropriate $607 Billion for Defense
The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday approved $607 billion in defense spending for next year after two days of debate that saw lawmakers from both parties line up to condemn the ongoing war in Afghanistan as a waste of lives and money.
Yet they voted to keep the war going anyway.
What I want to know is how the “deficit hawks” justify this. Why isn’t the Tea Party throwing a fit?
Why Wingnuts Want to See Obama’s College Records
Ever wonder what the big fuss over on the right is about seeing President Obama’s college records? Me too.
Now we know:
(Image via TempCity.com)
In context of the “mounting pressure” for Mitt Romney to provide more tax and employment records, a reporter recently asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney whether President Obama would set an example in transparency and release some of his records that critics have asked for.
[...]
When the reporter got specific and asked if Obama would release his college records, Carney replied: “Right, this is the Donald Trump question. It is preposterous. This is from the guy who insisted he didn’t believe the president was born in the United States.”
Asking for college records is preposterous?
Writing for the TheBlaze.com, Jason Howerton suggests:
Carney was obviously trying to lump those who are interested to see what types of college courses Obama took in college into the same category as ‘birthers.’ However, many who want to see the president’s college transcripts say wanting to see the president’s transcripts has nothing to do with his citizenship. Rather they argue it could help provide insight into the types of courses Obama sought out while in college, which some believe promoted radical ideologies.
Yes, many want to see Obama’s college records for grades and courses (as with G.W. Bush and others). But in Obama’s case, the primary reason to see his college applications is to learn whether the president applied for college in the U.S. as a foreign student.
Imagine thinking that’s the most important, urgent thing going on around here.
Colorado Springs Begging for Our Tax Dollars — Tea Party No-New-Taxes Policy a Failure in Light of Waldo Canyon Fire
I’ve written extensively over the years about how Colorado Springs — a Tea Party haven — has slashed its budget (turning off street lights, deputizing cabbies as “police officers,” letting the grass in parks die, etc.) because of its obsessive adherence to the Tea Party way of governance, i.e., no new taxes.
I hate to kick the second largest city in the state when it’s down, but now they’re begging for help from the federal government (meaning they want our tax dollars) because of the Waldo Canyon fire and frankly, that ticks me off. You get what you pay for folks, now live with it. Or at the very least, learn from this please.
(Image via AP / John Wark)
Wildfire Tests Police Force in Colorado Anti-Tax Movement’s Home
As Colorado Springs battles a rash of burglaries after a wildfire that still licks at its boundaries, it does so with fewer police and firefighters.
The city where the Waldo Canyon fire destroyed 346 homes and forced more than 34,000 residents to evacuate turned off one-third of its streetlights two years ago, halted park maintenance and cut services to close a $28 million budget gap after sales-tax revenue plummeted and voters rejected a property-tax increase.
The municipality, at 416,000 the state’s second-largest, auctioned both its police helicopters and shrank public-safety ranks through attrition by about 8 percent; it has 50 fewer police and 39 fewer firefighters than five years ago. More than 180 National Guard troops have been mobilized to secure the city after the state’s most destructive fire. At least 32 evacuated homes were burglarized and dozens of evacuees’ cars were broken into, said Police Chief Pete Carey.
“It has impacted the response,” said Karin White, a 54- year-old accountant, who returned home June 28 to a looted and vandalized house, with a treasured, century-old family heirloom smashed.
“They did above and beyond what they could do with the resources they had,” she said. “If there were more officers, there could have been more manpower in the evacuated areas.”
[...]
Colorado Springs, which depends on sales tax for about half of its revenue, was hit harder than most. The city — the birthplace 20 years ago of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which later passed statewide and has been pushed around the country to restrict government spending — became a high-profile example of cost-cutting. The law restricts government spending to the previous year’s revenue, adjusted only for population growth and inflation.
[...]
The city, home of the evangelical Christian group Focus on the Family, is known for being conservative and libertarian. It “was the Tea Party before the Tea Party was cool,” Dunn said.
Six of the nine candidates in last year’s nonpartisan mayoral election, including the victor, Mayor Steve Bach, signed the no-tax pledge pushed by Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.
Richard Skorman, one candidate who didn’t, was flooded with angry e-mails after saying in a debate why he opposed such a pledge. What, he asked, if the city got hit by a major wildfire?
And here we are.
The city has been aggressive in applying for federal grants, too, which have funded wildfire mitigation efforts, said Bret Waters, emergency management director.
Dunn notes that the city, where there is strong anti- federal government sentiment, is now turning to the U.S. for assistance. Before visiting Colorado on June 29, President Barack Obama declared the state a disaster area, which frees aid for communities affected by the wildfires.
“Ironically, Colorado Springs is going to rely heavily on federal funds for rebuilding,” Dunn said. “But it won’t cover everything.”
It isn’t “ironic.” It’s totally predictable.
Michele Bachmann Proves Me Right
What did I tell you? That the neocons would start railing against “activist judges” because they don’t like SCOTUS’s decision on health care?
Well, thank you very much Michele Bachmann:
Bachmann Rails Against Activist Court After Health Care Ruling
These guys are so boringly predictable.
Oh, and look at the time on that screenshot (see larger version at the link above). It says 8:37 PT. That means she was doing the “activist judges” thing at 10:37 ET, roughly 90 minutes after the decision was announced. She obviously turned to the GOP talking points manual and looked under disagree-with-court-decision and found: Scream: Activist judges!
