Did Any Of Them Build This?

Aug 30th, 2012

For all of the mileage the GOP is getting from what is shaping up to be the all time gaffe of President Obama's career, they still just don't seem to have thought this thing through.

The Only Thing They Did Build

"We Built It."

Okay. It's glib but clever. Obama handed it to them. Here's the problem with this theme for the week; it's beginning to look like they didn't actually find anyone to speak at the convention who didn't benefit from public investment.

GOP: It's Completely Different When We Do It, cont...

May 23rd, 2012

The recent decision by the Obama administration to grant a visa to Mariela Castro Espín, the daughter of current Cuban strongman Raul Castro, allowing her to attend the Latin American Studies Association in San Francisco later this week where she is set to chair a panel on LGBT issues has set off a firestorm of indignation in GOP circles. It's quite the conniption.

GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney is "greatly distrubed."

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) called it "outrageous and an enormous mistake." (Video HERE)

The ever-temperate Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) participated in an angry joint statement with fellow congressional Republicans and some Florida Democrats writing that "The State Department needs to wake up from its delusional love fest with the dictators in Havana. I urge them to immediately revoke these visas."

Ed Morrisey sees it as a possible tipping point that will send Florida to Romney in the general election:

"The Cuban-American community in Florida leans Republican, but they’re strongly anti-Castro. They won’t appreciate the decision by the Obama administration to give the dictator’s daughter a pass to the US, especially not for the purpose of politicking. Listening to lectures from the Castro family on the nature of political and cultural freedom is somewhat akin to having to sit through a seminar on graciousness by Morton Downey."

What's that you say? You've never heard of Mariela Castro Espín? That's funny because she came to the United States repeatedly under the last administration.

Where was the outrage then? There was none. Where were the screaming headlines on right wing blogs and breathless pronouncements of near-treason on Fox and talk radio? There weren't any.

It's always just "different" when they are in charge.

The Gaffes Are Uncountable

May 23rd, 2012

Rachel Maddow notes the sheer volume of GOP blunders in recent days and wonders why they are largely going unchallenged.

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The GOP, The Generals And "Waste"

April 10th, 2012

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) recently was forced to apologize for portraying the Pentagon leadership as liars on matters of the budget. 

The problem he had with their numbers was that they were lower than his preferred spending levels over the next decade.

The fracas drew attention to the hollowness of the GOP mantra that we should always "listen to the generals." So often have we heard this phrase that Ryan's blunder was an extremely important exposure of the Republican party's inherent hypocrisy on the issue of waste.

Keying off of Gordon Adams' take on the affair last week, Stan Collender fires with both barrels (pardon the expression):

"In the now closer-to-four-than-three decades I've been involved with the federal budget in some way, it has never ceased to amaze me that congressional Republicans are able to detect waste, fraud, abuse and overspending from a mile away when it involves a domestic program but are completely deaf, dumb and blind to the same thing when it involves the Pentagon. Why is it, for example, that an extra sandwich in a school lunch program is waste while an extra missile that will never be used and wasn't requested by DOD is vital to national security?"

There is no rational, much less decent, explanation. It's simply how these bastards operate.

Citizen Vs. Bureucrat

Feb 29th, 2012

Santorum Watch - Home Schooling Edition

feb 21st, 2012

When I noted yesterday that the least insane of Rick Santorum's statements recently was his assault on public schools, I was unaware of an interesting (and unsurprising) piece of information.

Stephen D. Foster writes:

"Rick Santorum has been very vocal about his preference for home schooling. There’s a reason for this of course. He holds a grudge. Santorum enrolled his children in the Western Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School and stuck the taxpayers for 80% of the costs which were paid through the Penn Hills School District. In November 2004, Penn Hills asked Santorum to repay $67,000 in tuition costs because he and his family were spending most of the year in Virginia and did not meet the qualifications for residency status. So Santorum pulled his kids out of school and has home schooled them ever since. If parents are supposed to be responsible for teaching their own kids, how come Santorum wasn’t home schooling his children before 2004?"

Santorum is a hypocrite of a very rare breed.

The GOP's Ala Carte Religious War

Feb 12th, 2012

Juan Cole takes aim at the hypocrisy of the GOP's Dominionist darlings:

"The right wing Republican politicians who have been denouncing the requirement that female employees have access to birth control as part of their health benefits as an attack on religious freedom completely ignore the church teachings they don’t agree with. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are both Catholics, and wear their faith on their sleeves, but they are hypocritical in picking and choosing when they wish to listen to the bishops."

By ignoring the Catholic Church's opposition to pre-emptive war and the death penalty as well as their support for expansion of welfare programs and organized labor - all argued in the name of theological duty - the candidates have demonstrated a conveniently narrow interest in "protecting" religion in public life.

Conservative Outrage In Wisconsin

Dec 5th, 2011

With more than half of the signatures to force a recall against Governor Scott Walker already collected, conservatives have joined their fellow liberal citizens in expressing some outrage over events unfolding in Wisconsin.

Are they troubled by the man who is being held on tampering charges, a felony, for defacing recall signatures?
Nope.

Are they incensed at the destruction of pro-recall campaign signs?
Nope.

Are they disturbed by reports of intimidation, coordinated plots to undermine the electorate and even death threats against recall supporters?
Nope.

Are they at least bothered by the callous disrespect to children and state traditions Gov. Walker displayed at the annual capital Christmas Tree lighting ceremony?
Nope.

What has the right wing blogosphere burning mad instead of any of these things? Two jerks appear to have violated Godwin's Law at the aforementioned Christmas Tree lighting ceremony by using Nazi salutes. VIDEO BELOW

We shouldn't be surprised. As we all know from the heady days of early 2009, conservatives were the first ones to immediately brand all Tea Party supporters as racists because some attendees carried signs claiming Obama was a "Kenyan," was going to institute "White Slavery" and conflating him with Hitler.

They didn't?

They said it was totally unfair to paint a whole swath of Americans as hateful because of the acts of fringe dwellers? Hmm...

Perhaps, at that time, too few on the left were willing to be so soberly deliberative. That doesn't make this spasm of contempt from the right any more forgivable. They should also consider occasionally condemning blatantly un-American behavior from their own team.

"You Want A Job, Right?"

Nov 7th, 2011

"You want a job, right?"

These are the words Herman Cain uttered when his sexual advances were rebuffed by Sharon Bialek according to allegations made public this afternoon.



This is the most damning evidence in the Cain saga so far. If true, and there is no reason to doubt Ms. Bialek, this represents a quid pro quo. It meets the standard for true abuse of power.

Since the story broke, Cain and his defenders have not only attempted to portray his accusers as liars, they have also sought to ridicule the very existence of sexual harassment allegations in our culture. Conservative pundits, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh in particular, have been truly vicious. Some have even gleefully trotted out "race" as a factor in their defense of the current GOP front-runner. Cain himself employed this tactic in an attempt to raise money off the charges. Apparently, using the race card is different when "conservatives" do it.

There are examples of all this apologism and pandering HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. In fact, just after the press conference today, Limbaugh resorted to mockery of the accuser's name. This derision was, of course, sexual in nature. "Buy a lick," he said. Get it? He then made a slurping sound and repeated his joke, "Buy a lick."

Dahlia Lithwick wrote about this astounding phenomenon last week, before we had a face and a name for one of the accusers:

"Sexual harassment is now nothing. Welcome to the era of gender harassment denialism. The harassment skeptics claim that harassment, like racism, used to exist but is now over. Twenty years ago, when charges were leveled at Clarence Thomas, supporters of the accused refused to take the accuser seriously. Now supporters of the accused refuse to take the accusation itself seriously. We have gone from not knowing what sexual harassment is to not believing it still happens. All in less than 20 years.

Remember, we don’t know what happened, beyond the fact that several employees came forward with complaints and received cash settlements. That’s not a lot of information. Cain defenders could have stopped there. Instead, great swaths of them have opted to assert that there could never be a valid sex discrimination claim because the whole thing is just a racket. And they went even further: The same folks criticizing the National Restaurant Association employees who came forward with claims that they were uncomfortable in their workplace are willing to deploy the most archaic and gender-freighted stereotypes to get there. Sexual harassment can’t be “real” because the women who claim it are money-grubbing, hysterical, attention-seeking tramps."

Limbaugh suggested last week that "sexual harassment is a political tool of the left to get rid of people or to score money gains."

Really? Meet Sharon Bialek; She is a registered Republican. She is also a Tea Party supporter.

Andrew Sullivan made note of this while liveblogging the presser:

"Cain has countered with a statement denying any sexual harassment of anyone. So these four women are, according to him, lying. Including the latest who was, at one point, a fervent Cain fan and subsequently attended a recent Tea Party event. It will be hard to turn Bialek into a liberal tool."

At last, some social conservatives are demanding the Cain take the charges a little more seriously. That hasn't stopped guys like Hannity from responding with a resounding "so what."

Howard Kurtz noted this afternoon that many Republicans seem to share Hannity's sentiment:

"The news conference followed the first sign that the controversy is beginning to chip away at Cain’s standing in the polls. A Reuters/Ipsos survey found his favorability rating among Republicans slipping from 66 percent a week earlier to 57 percent. And a majority, 53 percent, believe the harassment allegations are true.

In an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll out Monday, negative impressions of Cain among Republicans doubled, from 18 to 35 percent. At the same time, 54 percent of those responding said they aren’t concerned about voting for Cain despite the allegations." EMPHASES MINE

This what the GOP base has become. They no longer care about fundamental questions of character or decency within their own ranks. The same party which made a spectacle of Paula Jones for years in an attempt to undermine President Clinton, now believes an almost identical allegation is no big deal.

As long as they win, they seem willing and poised to elect almost anyone.

Repulslican Economics

Aug 22nd, 2011

Proving, for the umpteenth time, that contemporary elected Republicans simply don't understand the college freshman concept of aggregate demand comes this little excerpt from the HuffPo today:

"...many of the same Republicans who are fiercely protective of tax cuts for the wealthy have already said they oppose Obama's plan to extend the payroll tax cut for low income Americans.

"It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn," Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) told the AP, "but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again."

Amazing. I am compelled to give a lesson. For all the "rich" people and their mouthpieces that call the President a "socialist" but fail to grasp even the most childlike fundamentals of consumer society (psst, that's called Capitalism, by the way), here's a primer:

The Riots and Conservative Audacity

Aug 13th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

As the meltdown of order overcame England last week, the reading public was simultaneously subjected to a riot online. There were absurd proclamations by the left that this was a desperate response to the "austerity" measures enacted by the Torys. There were equally vulgar rushes to judgment, a lot of them, from the right. In particular, there was an incredible smear from England's answer to Michelle Rhee, Katharine Birbalsingh, who wrote hastily about the "race" of the man who was killed by London's police in the incident that lit the fuse:

"I'd like to know what they’re angry about. Mark Duggan is dead. He was shot by the police in a shootout. Duggan was in a minicab and shots were fired from both the cab and the police elsewhere. A police officer was hurt in the incident and a bullet was found lodged in a police radio. Either Duggan was shooting at the police or the driver of the minicab was. Either Duggan was in the wrong place at the wrong time and his death is a terrible tragedy – he was caught in the crossfire – or he shot at the police and the police defended themselves. Whatever the explanation, the police did not kill this man in cold blood."

First of all, she exposes a viewpoint which is actually shocking... outside of American right wing circles. The casual acceptance of official violence against people "in the wrong place" has become so common here that we in the States no longer raise much more than an eyebrow. Second of all, this sputtering and angry little rant demonstrates again why no one, either on the left or right, should rush to make political hay before the facts are established.

Conservative Victim-Hood

July 28th, 2011

Jon Stewart takes a look at the contemporary conservative obseesion with trying to convince everyone that they are victims.

The Daily Show - In the Name of the Fodder
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It's Different This Time

June 9th, 2011

Rachel Maddow on the current wave of Republican Hypocrisy surrounding "Weinergate."

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Seriously, FOX?

May 12th, 2011

After the all day FOX hate-fest directed at the White House over their decision to host rapper and poet Common, Hannity really took the prize for most blatantly racist and hypocritical. Think Jon Stewart gave the FOX gang and Sean a pass? Not a chance.

Oh, It's Different If THEY Might Have Done It

April 8th, 2011
Please CLICK HERE to petition the Justice Department to investigate "magic votes" in Wisconsin.
by F. Grey Parker
UPDATE: 4/9/2011 John Fund did the right thing today

An incredibly ugly thing happened yesterday in America. I am not explicitly referring to the discovery of "magic votes" that were previously uncounted due to "human error" in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. That is a factor in what disturbs me, to be sure. More troubling than this potential impropriety is that the previous day's media cycle began with a coordinated series of attacks

throughout the usual conservative outlets making baseless claims of "potential fraud" by Democrats in the race. At that time, it looked like the liberal was winning.

This is the modern, post-election playbook for the American Right. If they win, even by the slimmest of margins, it is called a "mandate." Ah, but if they lose, well then they goose step to their laptops and TV cameras and imply illegitimacy. It is red meat for those who believe that Americans with whom they disagree are, well, not really American.

Prominent right wing commentator and activist John Fund fired the first shot in Wednesday's WSJ. He laid the usual groundwork for mistrust and it was widely linked to by organizations like FOX.

Some selections from his agit-prop:

"Any recount will be scrutinized for irregularities and possible vote fraud. A recount in a similarly close race in neighboring Minnesota's 2008 U.S. Senate race stretched on for months, amid charges that some counties counted absentee ballots according to different standards than others did. Al Franken, the Democrat, was eventually sworn in after pulling ahead by 315 votes. His victory gave—for a time—Senate Democrats the critical 60th vote they needed to pass ObamaCare over a potential filibuster."

Paul Ryan's Recipe For Misery, cont...

April 4th, 2011

Well, the reactions are flying now that Rep Paul Ryan's anti-middle class hand is tipped.

From Paul Krugman:
"For all those older Americans who voted GOP last year because those nasty Democrats were going to cut Medicare, I have just one word: suckers!"

From Ezra Klein:
"In Medicaid’s case, the reform is block-granting. Right now, the federal government shares Medicaid costs with the states. That means their payments increase or decrease with Medicaid’s actual rate of spending. Under a block grant system, that’d stop. They’d simply give states a lump sum at the beginning of the year and that’d have to suffice. And if a recession hits and more people need Medicaid or a nasty flu descends and lots of disabled beneficiaries end up in the hospital with pneumonia? Too bad."

From Ryan Witt:
"Under Ryan’s plan, beginning in 2021, people over 65 would no longer be automatically covered under a government plan. Instead, each senior would be given a voucher with which to purchase their own private health insurance plan.

The problem for seniors is that insurance companies tend to charge older adults more for coverage. The risks for heart disease, strokes, cancer and many other diseases increases dramatically with age. Private insurance companies, unlike the government, must make a profit to continue in operation. Insurance companies only make a profit if they can charge more in premiums than they pay out in claims. Most older adults would not be covered by a group policy since they would no longer be employed. As a result, under the Republican plan, health insurance companies could demand much higher premiums from older adults."

From Jon Perr:
"When Ryan unveiled his Roadmap back in February, as Ezra Klein, Matthew Yglesias and TPM all noted, privatization of Medicare was the centerpiece. But because the value of Ryan's vouchers fails to keep up with the out-of-control rise in premiums in the private health insurance market, America's elderly would be forced to pay more out of pocket or accept less coverage." 

Uwe Reinhardt made some predictions about this in February:
"Under the defined contribution approach envisaged by the Rivlin-Ryan plan, most of the risk of future health-care cost increases would be shifted onto the shoulders of Medicare beneficiaries. This feature makes the proposal radical."

Tomorrow should be interesting. We'll all be reading the plan itself. Let me just say this in advance; if one of the cornerstones in Ryan's scheme is a permanent extension of the "W Tax Cuts," the whole thing is bullshit.

Chris Christie, Dr. Strangelove And Tax Cuts

Feb 19th, 2011

An item in today's Wall Street Journal reminded me of the scene in "Dr. Strangelove" when the Soviet ambassador refuses a non-Cuban cigar and says he won't take the products of "imperialist stooges." A general then responds "Oh... only commie stooges, eh?"

From the WSJ:

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a slew of tax-cutting proposals that had been championed by Democrats as job-creation legislation and were passed with bipartisan support in the state Legislature.

The Republican governor said he agreed with some of the legislation but didn't want to authorize "piecemeal" programs and promises outside of the annual state budget, which he is scheduled to propose on Tuesday.

"We cannot continue to do this type of irresponsibility in terms of budgeting," Mr. Christie said Friday."

It would seem that the only tax cuts Gov. Christie supports are those from Republican stooges.

GOP Budget Insanity, ctd.

Feb 9th, 2011

James R. Horney writes for The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities providing an analysis of the GOP's proposed spending cuts announced last week:

"Under the plan, non-security programs would shrink, on average, by 15.4 percent below current funding under the continuing resolution (which expires on March 4) and 19.4 percent below what President Obama proposed for fiscal year 2011.  Programs and activities that face the risk of such cuts include funding for K-12 education, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Centers for Disease Control, and food safety inspections, and a number of programs that serve low-income children, seniors, and people with disabilities."

Take a very close look at their plans for defense. Their intention is to raise it. The one department of government which literally misplaced 2.3 trillion dollars just before the 9/11 attacks will get higher funding without any greater oversight. The one government agency which awarded over 280 Billion dollars in contracts between 2007 and 2009 to private contractors convicted of defrauding the American taxpayer is the only body that will have it's purse increased without any new demands for accountability. 

And We Can't Say ANYTHING

Feb 31st, 2011

Abuse by U.S. Forces Abu Ghraib 2003

There was a time when reportage like this from Raw Story about a puppet-state could legitimately be met very differently by the U.S. Government. Not anymore. Now that we have become what we beheld, what can we say? 

"BAGHDAD — Security forces linked to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki are operating a "secret detention site" and elite teams are torturing detainees at a separate facility, Human Rights Watch charged on Tuesday.

The New York-based watchdog's claims come a week after the Los Angeles Times reported some detainees at a prison in the Iraqi capital's heavily fortified Green Zone had been abused and held without charge for up to two years, charges Baghdad denies."

The American Right's Tribalism

Feb 1st, 2011

In an interesting piece on the disconnected devotionalism of the American conservative fringe, Charles Johnson writes: 

"Within the tribe there's no need to be concerned with facts or accuracy; if the goal is to demonize a hated opponent, for example, anything and everything goes, including smears known to be false. That's because the objective is not to convince an impartial observer -- it's to reinforce the tribal bonds, the sense of belonging to something, with its own shared reality. That shared reality doesn't have to reflect actual reality; anybody who doesn't share it is by definition not part of the tribe, and therefore an enemy."

To the Becks, the Gellers, the Gaffneys, etc..., I'd say Mr. Johnson has you pegged.