A Website Makes The Right Wing Go Higgledy-Piggledy

Sept 14th, 2011

As hard as it is to believe, a simple interactive website launched by the Obama re-election campaign has indeed caused an apoplectic conniption fit within the American Right.

Simply titled AttackWatch.com, the site is designed to allow supporters of the president to chime in about misinformation in the blogosphere, forward wacky e-mails from fringe types and generally complain about Fox. I guess.

"The Grass Is Blue"

March 27th, 2011
 

If you have never curiously clicked some of the links in the right column, our "reader's companion," you are really missing out. 

The excerpt below is from "The Book Of Cletis," a terrific blog that ranges from cultural and political observations to wonderful short fiction on Sundays. A native of Kentucky, the publisher takes some time here to lament the sad state of their senate representation today:
 
No Damn Wonder The Grass Is Blue
Ahhh, March Madness continues. Our beloved Kentucky Wildcats have made it to the Sweet Sixteen and will play Ohio State Friday night. Hopefully, we will prevail and move forward in our quest for a national championship. If, however, we fail, Kentuckians can take solace in the knowledge that no other state can boast two, that's right two, U.S. Senators even close to being as devoutly ignorant and self-serving as ours. Here's a few quotes to bring you up to speed:
 
"The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." ~Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader, (R-Ky.), October 2010
 
"Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers." Mitch McConnell December 2007 commenting on the deaths of Americans fighting in Iraq.
 
"This discussion reminds me, somewhat, of the conversations that were going on after the BP oil spill last year," Mr. McConnell said during an interview on Fox News Sunday. "I don’t think right after a major environmental catastrophe is a very good time to be making American domestic policy." Mitch McConnell March 13, 2011 regarding the catastrophic nuclear reactor meltdowns in Japan.
 
"We need to get insurance out of the way and let the consumer interact with their doctor the way they did basically before World War II." Rand Paul in an interview with Kentucky public TV on Dec. 2, 2002.

 

There's more...

A Climate Of Hate

Feb 23rd, 2011


The dramatic rise in racially motivated hate activity according to The Southern Poverty Law Center:


"Hate groups topped 1,000 for the first time since the Southern Poverty Law Center began counting such groups in the 1980s. Anti-immigrant vigilante groups, despite having some of the political wind taken out of their sails by the adoption of hard-line anti-immigration laws around the country, continued to rise slowly. But by far the most dramatic growth came in the antigovernment “Patriot” movement — conspiracy-minded organizations that see the federal government as their primary enemy — which gained more than 300 new groups, a jump of over 60%."

The Great Climate Change Distraction, part 3

Feb 17th, 2011

First, I stipulated that the debate over climate change was actually a tool that benefits polluters. The next day, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) lent vulgar credence to my thesis. Today, I argue with humor.

Copyright © Joel Pett 2011 

The Great Climate Change Distraction, cont...

Feb 10th, 2011

by F. Grey Parker

Yesterday, I published a piece arguing that the climate change "debate" has effectively neutered the environmental movement. 

We aren't talking about childhood leukemia and it's links to air pollution anymore. We aren't discussing industrial toxins and their direct correlation to neurodevelopmental disease. Instead, we are listening to Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) calling global warming a "hoax" and not only arguing against EPA regulations on that basis but hyping his new book on the subject before a house subcommittee.

From Tulsa World:

"I won’t tell you what it’s about, but the name of the book is 'The Hoax,'?" he said during testimony before a House subcommittee. 

"I did finish it last week." 

Just five days ago, the findings of yet another study proving a correlation between airborne toxins and childhood respiratory illnesses was published. 

From Environmental Technology:

"Childhood exposure to air pollution, particularly during pregnancy and in the first year of life, has been positively linked to the development of asthma by scientists in Canada."

The GOP doesn't care. More importantly, they have ensured that we don't publicly review the findings because the "climate" arguments take all of our time.

More from Tulsa World:

"Inhofe and House Republicans on the subcommittee focused on what they consider the enormous costs of EPA’s efforts to regulate greenhouse emissions, the jobs that could be lost and the questions that, in their view, continue to surround climate change science. 

Science is mixed, Inhofe said, but the economic impact is not."

As we all have now been trained like obedient little poodles to obey them when they start down this path, we followed the Republicans again into the trap of not discussing any other possible reasons for slowing the steady and intentional poisoning of ourselves.

FreedomWorks VS. Immelt

Jan 24th, 2011

In a report today from The Daily Caller comes the news that some of the more prominent Tea Party activists are gearing up their opposition to President Obama's appointment of General Electric CEO Jeffery Immelt as head of his new Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Matt Kibbe

"According to a press release, FreedomWorks and the Free Enterprise Project – the two groups pushing the campaign – believe Immelt’s appointment is a sign that more favors will be traded between the White House and GE.

"It’s time to break up the unethical romance between government and big business,” said Freedom Works President Matt Kibbe in a statement. “For too long, corporate elites have lobbied to profit from the size and growth of government at the expense of hard-working Americans."

Continued ignorance of the fact that Freedom Works was formed as a shill for just those purposes seems to be a characteristic Mr. Kibbe is counting on from his followers. Indeed, the vast majority of Tea Partiers seem blissfully content to chew their red meat without asking from where it comes. Perhaps they should listen to one of their own.

The radical Constitutional revisionist and freshman Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) put it succinctly at a post election Freedom Works sponsored "retreat" last November. "There is nothing FreedomWorks stands for that hasn't been lockstep with what the Republican Party stands for" he said.

Allen West - Standing By His Craziness

Jan 3rd, 2011

Rep. Elect Allen West (R-FL) has said some nutty things in the past. From declaring himself to have a higher security clearance than The President to calling for the censorship of American journalists, he has come across as, well, crazy. Has he tempered his public pronouncements in the wake of the resultant withering criticism?

Nope. He officially doubled down on the crazy during an appearance yesterday on The Murdoch Device:

"Asked by host Chris Wallace if he was willing to stand by his comments that the "liberal, progressive" agenda was "tyrannical, socialist, despicable," West responded... "I think it is."

You'd think that someone who has been described by fellow veterans of the Iraq War as "a verified torturer, war criminal and a liar" might not play so fast and loose with words like "despicable."

rePUBLICan ENEMY #1, part 3

Jan 3rd, 2011

Rep. Darrell Issa is embroiled in some very recent allegations of financial impropriety out west. Perhaps even bribery...

"Last summer, Issa went on a property-buying spree. In the span of two months, he bought industrial complexes in Oceanside and Carlsbad and a condo overlooking Oceanside Bay. Even his son picked up a home in Vista. 




The Carlsbad complex, however, is at the center of a lawsuit playing out in Los Angeles County Superior Court. A bank lender in Ventura County is accusing a bank of selling Issa the building for at least $3 million less than it should have.

The property is a series of five brand-new buildings near McClellan-Palomar Airport in Carlsbad. Currently, all but one unit is empty, but they can be rented through Greene Properties, a company that employs Issa’s wife and son. The project was dreamed up by Orange County “new urbanism” developer David Dirienzo, who defaulted on a $36-million construction loan in January 2009. 

The main lender, East West Bank, put the property up for auction but decided not to sell, instead filing a $12-million “credit bid” to hang onto it. Two weeks later, the bank sold the property to Issa’s company, DEI LLC, for $8.5 million"

Rep. Darrell Issa in Washington, D.C.

202-225-3906

Rep. Darrel Issa in Vista, CA.

760-599-5000

rePUBLICan ENEMY #1

Jan 3rd, 2011

by F. Grey Parker

The most dangerously irresponsible man in the 112th Congress will very likely be Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA). As the incoming Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, it is his plan to use his new found subpoena power to attempt to grind the basic operations of government to a halt. 

His extremism is matched by his dishonesty.

Making the rounds on the Sunday talk shows yesterday, he threw as much red meat to the American right as he could while masquerading as a devoted public servant. On CNN, he portrayed President Obama as having used $800 Billion in TARP money as "walking around money." 

On The Murdoch Device (FOX), Rep. Issa made sure to appeal to their "demographic" by affirming his intention to investigate Attorney General Eric Holder over his handling of the phony New Black Panther Party controversy and ACORN. It matters not to him that both stories have been consistently debunked. He's going to spend our money to make sure the Tea Party base knows that he's looking out for whitey.

His record as an apologist for some of the most evil actors over the last 10 years deserves more scrutiny before he is allowed to attempt to sabotage and smear the Executive branch of our government on our dime.

Tim Pawlenty FAILS The Smell Test

Dec 23rd, 2010

In just the latest example of jingoistic, right-wing corruptocrats who seem hell-bent on exploding any appearance of a lack of impropriety:






"Gov. Tim Pawlenty reached around the standard judicial selection process Tuesday for one of his last appointees to Hennepin County District Court, naming Jamie L. Anderson, the 35-year-old wife of his deputy chief of staff, to the state's busiest bench."


We are sure it's just a coincidence.

One Big Phony

Nov 12th, 2010

There's nothing inherently harmful about a phony. Jim DeMint, on the other hand, is of the dangerous variety. His vow to prevent the raising of the debt ceiling unless he gets some wholly ineffectual and purely symbolic something is deeply irresponsible. Watch this video. Then, go to the bottom of the page. There, you will find his home and D.C. official contact information. USE IT.

340 Russell
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-6121
Fax: 202-228-5143

112 Custom House

200 East Bay St
Charleston, SC 29401
Phone: 843-727-4525
Fax: 843-722-4923

Ben Stein's Hyperbole

Sept. 27th, 2010

Here's Ben over on the Cavuto show this past Saturday morning suggesting that the President and unions are trying to institute "the beginning of Peronism" in reference to protests against Michigan home foreclosures. Also noteworthy is when Charles Payne, sitting in for host Neil, brings up "some sort of beatdown of a guy" by union members from a completely unrelated incident.