I've wondered about Rodin's famous sculpture. Is he engaged in deep thought or sitting around wasting time? And why isn't he wearing pants? I ask the same of myself. Here we comment on well, mostly politics. Or we may just sit! If you like it, tell a friend. If not, tell us, but please read the GROUND RULES before you do.
Responding to an editorial by the Charleston Daily Mail, Senator Robert C. Byrd, author of the so-called “Byrd rule” for reconciliation that has been used by opponents of healthcare reform to excoriate the reconciliation process, gave his blessing to the use of reconciliation for merging the House and Senate healthcare bills and passing reform. In so doing, Senator Byrd killed another Republicant talking point. This is what he said, in a letter to editor of the Daily Mail:
“[A] bill structured to reduce deficits by, for example, finding savings in Medicare or lowering health care costs, may be consistent with the Budget Act, and appropriately considered under reconciliation.
With all due respect, the Daily Mail’s hyperbole about “imposing government control,” acts of “disrespect to the American people” and “corruption” of Senate procedures resembles more the barkings from the nether regions of Glennbeckistan than the “sober and second thought” of one of West Virginia’s oldest and most respected daily newspapers.”
What’s that popping sound I hear . . . Could it be the air released from exploding Teabagger, Republicant, and Beckista heads?
Hmm . . . would citizens of the virtual paranoididiotautocracy of “Glennbeckistan” be considered “Beckistas” or Beckistanis?
“From a March 4 post on Twitter by Michael F. Cannon, Director of Health Care Policy Studies at the Cato Institute”
Source: Media Matters (Thank you, thank you, thank you. You guys are good!)
The Cato Institute is a “libertarian” think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Institute’s stated mission is “to broaden the parameters of public policy debate to allow consideration of the traditional American principles of limited government, individual liberty, free markets, and peace” by striving “to achieve greater involvement of the intelligent, lay public in questions of (public) policy and the proper role of government.”
For those of you who missed it, this is President Obama’s clearest statement of intent and determination about finally getting healthcare reform done, and the first time since this long, arduous process began, when Mr. Obama first voiced three broad requirements for reform, that he drew an unmistakable line in the sand. Healthcare reform is going forward, with or without Republican support.
A relieved Congressman Anthony Weiner echoed what progressives felt saying he wished President Obama had made this statement six or eight months ago: “Everything there is to say about healthcare has been said,” acknowledged the President. Finally.
Zeigeist or not, President Obama –- yes, finally -- affirmed what we’ve been urging him to for months:
The top-secret RNC (Republican National Committee) fundraising strategy targeting the Democratic Party came to light in a 72-page PowerPoint presentation document obtained by POLITICO from an enterprising Democrat who snatched an extra copy left behind at the luxury $2,500-a-head GOP donor retreat after the presentation had concluded.
Among the highlights, if you can believe it, are:
The Democratic Party as Ronnie Reagan’s recycled “Evil Empire” moniker for the Communist Soviet Union, in turn borrowed by Reagan from the movies (Star Wars);
The RNC’s bizarre co-opting of the stupid, racist, and offensive Teabagger graphic depicting the President of the United States as the “Joker” from Batman;
Silly, infantile cartoons of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as animated children’s characters “Cruella De Ville” and “Scooby Doo” (?!); and
Lookalike Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged front cover graphic of a wannabe John Galt (Paul Ryan?) holding up the globe weighed down by socialists everywhere, under your bed, in Hollywood, NYC, SF, rising from Joe McCarthy’s grave, hiding in the Cheneys’ basement, etc., with the ominous warning: “Save the country from trending toward Socialism!”
But that’s not the worst of it. Wait until you read what the RNC thinks OF ITS OWN VOTER BASE! Former DNC Chairman Howard Dean was rendered “speechless” by how “contemptuous” this Republican Party is toward the very people they work for –- “you can’t talk about your own team like this” -- and “astonished” by how they “turned the firehose on their own people,” their “Direct Marketing” donors, a.k.a. the Tea Party people:
First, push those “Visceral Giving” buttons! Appeal to FEAR and “Extreme negative feelings toward existing Administration” –- YESYESYES! FEAR! FEAR!! FEAR!!! The GOP’s tried-and-true political strategy to drive our country into the GUTTER from Lee Atwater to Karl Rove: push that FEAR button in those REACTIONARY morons driven by “issue/circumstantially oriented” attitudes, meaning they’re REBELS WITHOUT A CLUE who REACT to fearful circumstances in their lives rather than objective facts and reasoned arguments!
(I couldn’t have said it better myself . . . ) That’s right, Teabaggers: Be afraid, be very afraid of President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, because the RNC is targeting your wallets with FEAR, FEAR, FEAR, FEAR!!!!
Second, schmooze the “Major Donors” ($30,000 and up) with lots of “Personal” attention and “EGO DRIVEN” appeals!
Yikes . . . Talk about a party self-destructing using obsolete PowerPoint technology. The presentation, delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart, was prepared by the party’s finance staff. POLITICO reports that “the RNC reacted with alarm to a question about it Wednesday, emailing major donors to warn them of a reporter’s question, and distancing Steele from its contents.” Incidentally, there was not a single idea in any part of that 72-page document.
Here are some of those HILARIOUS RNC OFFICIAL documents, boys and girls:
Even Republican Lite “Morning Joe” calls this “shameful” and says whoever is responsible “should be fired.”
Following her Tonight Show appearance, Sarah Palin and her posse descended on Silver Spoon’s Oscar gifting Suite, benefiting the Red Cross. Despite reports that Palin planned to donate $1,750 to the Red Cross, E! Online says, “too fab she gave money, but we can assure you she did not give up any of her swag” as the Palin posse swarmed the freebies “like locusts.”
Ouch.
According to E! Online: “We're told Palin was quite the prima donna and that she insisted the suite be opened two hours early so she could come when no looky-loos would be around.” One “annoyed source” said they were told to get there “super-early” for the Palins, “then, she wouldn't let anyone take her picture or do any interviews.”
Ouch.
Explains E! Online: “For those of you who think that's a standard request—uh, it's not, especially when you're getting thousands of dollars worth of free goods. Some of the products Palin picked up included Bloom facial products, which she told the vendor she needed for her under-eye area.”
The free loot valued in the thousands included United Hair Care products, jewelry from Pascal Mouawad, watches from Skagen and product from Lash Food. They also received a “blow-out” by colorist Erick Orellana from the Chris McMillan Salon.
One vendor at the suite described the Palins and the “large group of hangers-on” in Sarah’s posse: “They were like locusts. She showed up with like 20 people, and they immediately swarmed the place taking everything!”
Ouch.
Sister Sarah might have to buy a bigger trailer to fit all her free loot from the lower 48.
The SNL actors who played every president since Jerry Ford -- Will Ferrell, Fred Armisen, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Dana Carvey and Darrell Hammond -- plus Jim Carrey doing Reagan team up to urge passage of a consumer financial protection agency. Funny stuff:
Ezra Klein, the wiz wonk from the Washington Post/Newsweek, made an important point about the process being contemplated through reconciliation for the House and Senate healthcare bills, which he termed “micro-reconciliation.” That is, essentially reconciling both bills by making minor tweaks, as suggested by the President, contained in the 11 pages posted by the White House.
That is exactly what the reconciliation process is intended to in this instance: to reconcile the two bills passed in the House and Senate without drafting an entire new bill. The Senate bill has already passed with a 60-vote supermajority, and the House needs to pass it with 216 votes. According to Sara Rosenbaum, chair of the Department of Health Policy at George Washington University, “the way in which virtually all of health reform, with very, very limited exceptions, has happened over the past 30 years has been the reconciliation process.”
For 30 years, major changes to health care laws have passed via the budget reconciliation process. Here are a few examples:
1982 — TEFRA: The Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act first opened Medicare to HMOs
1986 — COBRA: The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act allowed people who were laid off to keep their health coverage, and stopped hospitals from dumping ER patients unable to pay for their care
1987 — OBRA '87: Added nursing home protection rules to Medicare and Medicaid, created no-fault vaccine injury compensation program
1989 — OBRA '89: Overhauled doctor payment system for Medicare, created new federal agency on research and quality of care
1990 — OBRA '90: Added cancer screenings to Medicare, required providers to notify patients about advance directives and living wills, expanded Medicaid to all kids living below poverty level, required drug companies to provide discounts to Medicaid
1993 — OBRA '93: created federal vaccine funding for all children
1996 — Welfare Reform: Separated Medicaid from welfare
1997 — BBA: The Balanced Budget Act created the state-federal childrens' health program called CHIP
2005 — DRA: The Deficit Reduction Act reduced Medicaid spending, allowed parents of disabled children to buy into Medicaid
Of course, Fox viewers wouldn’t have an earthly clue about this. After all, NPR is to Fox “News” what the New York Times is to National Enquirer. Which is why Fox viewers are generally referred to in polling parlance as “low-information voters.”
So when Senator Lamar Alexander stated that reconciliation would be a “political Kamikaze mission” for the Democrats, his rapturous apocalyptic warning rings hollow indeed. Particularly, considering that Senator Lamar “the hypocrite” Alexander has himself voted for reconciliation four times on Republican agenda items. Next, the Republicans mischaracterize reconciliation (see above) as a “nuclear option” (yeah, right) to “ram/or jam through” healthcare reform that has been debated for the past 13 months and passed with a supermajority in the Senate and a sizable majority in the House.
Enough is enough. It is time for Republicans to step aside, stop obstructing the will of the majority, and allow an up-or-down vote on healthcare reform. As for Senator Alexander, he doth protest too much. If the Republicans really believe passing this bill is the equivalent of a “political Kamikaze mission” for Democrats, why are they being so nice as to counsel their opponents against it? Knowing the Republican MO, if they really really believe this “political Kamikaze” crap, they would be encouraging the Democrats.
Here’s a shovel, Lamar, and it’s not to shovel snow.
Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, flips the bird to a Democratic colleague, and throws 400,000 unemployed Americans and seniors dependent on Medicare under the bus:
“TOUGH SHIT!”
Senator Bunning is filibustering a bill extending unemployment and COBRA benefits as well as Medicare payments for doctors, which the AMA said would result in a “meltdown” for seniors in urgent need of medical care, as well as furloughs for highway workers with a halt in funding. Just so that he can make a point about deficit spending on the backs of the most needy. This hypocrite did not block any of the deficit-exploding measures passed by the Bush regime, such as tax cuts for the rich, Medicare prescription drugs sweetheart deals for corporations, and off-budget war funding. In fact, Bunning voted for all of them.
As the great Brazilian band, Legião Urbana (Urban Legion) defiantly asked: What country is this!?
Progressives are pushing back against the DINOs (Democrats in name only) in the Democratic Party along with the White house’s stubborn support for them. Yes, it’s a good thing that the White House is finally getting off the dime and moving toward passage of desperately needed healthcare reforms without the obstructionist Republicans.
Water under the bridge. The time for reckoning has come.
Among the DINOs, Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas was boldly intransigent in blocking the public option despite repeated polls in her state that gave the public option solid majorities. Now progressives, the netroots -- derided by Chris Matthews who used his program Hardball as a platform to bash the public option -- have launched a dump Lincoln/draft Arkansas Lt. Governor Bill Halter drive, raising substatial funds for Halter's campaign even before he made his challenge. The netroots message to candidates contemplating a challenge to DINOs was support healthcare reform and the public option and the netroots will have your back. Lt. Governor Halter has officially tossed his hat into the ring. Did the netroots have a role in nudging Halter? Hard to say, but the money’s real. Certainly Matthews’s obstreperous outbursts and techy asides are fundraising boosters.
Matthews’s delusional argument is that the netroots are now trying to defeat “centrist” Democrats like Lincoln. Wrong, Chris! First, corporatist is not centrist. Second, the public option is good public policy; it is neither left nor right. His interrogation of Dr. Dean was not only transparent but utterly ridiculous. The so-called “weakness” in Dr. Dean’s position is not yet apparent, yet Chris continues to go over that waterfall and keeps coming back for more. Realistically, Matthews should do that promo drenched to the bone. It’s his show. So far the netroots have raised $400,000 for Halter’s campaign out of a 500K goal for the week. Thanks for your support, Chris; keep saying stupid things!
Well, the latest four-year lollapalooza known as the Winter Olympics has come to a close with a grand finale: USA v. Canada in Olympic hockey. For our Canadian hosts, there was one bit of unfinished business in an otherwise successful Games: The men must match the women’s hockey team and beat the Yanks, as a matter of national (and gender) pride. As Bush 43 said, “Fool me once, shame on . . . We won’t get fooled again!” I mean, the women laid down a cigar-puffing, champagne-guzzling gauntlet on center ice, but the men's celebration was deservedly more exuberant.
Great game: 3-2 Canada in overtime! Well done, lads:
And how about the USA 1 four-man bobsled team! Piloted by stocky and cocky Steve Holcomb, the U.S. team tamed the world’s fastest and most dangerous track to break a 62-year Olympic gold medal drought in the sport. Holcomb’s strong but non-athletic shape, with a respectable beer belly has given every couch potato, near-sighted, beer-guzzling “athlete” hope that one day he, too, can become an Olympic champion, provided:
It’s a downhill sport all-the-way!
Gravity, manual dexterity (not unlike reaching for a beer bottle), and
The aerodynamics of your couch-like cockpit, determine how fast you plunge downhill, while
You ride sitting in a crouch (not unlike reaching with outstretched arm for a chip on the coffee table) from start to finish.
Holcomb’s deteriorating tunnel vision – the result of a degenerative eye disease – helped him learn to steer his sled downhill at breakneck speed. So much so that after Steve recovered 20-20 vision with an experimental procedure, he said he still likes to attack the 50-50 curve (named by Holcomb because 1 of 2 teams wiped out there in the World Cup) with a slightly scuffed visor that reminds him of his impaired vision.
Like a great thoroughbred, Apolo Anton Ohno proved that it’s not only speed that wins races, but class above all. And like every great thoroughbred he has a best distance.
Sean White is head and shoulders above anyone else in the art of half-pipe snowboarding. Maybe he makes the sport so mainstream that those silly baggy pants won’t be so cool.
Naperville’s own, Evan Lysacek won the Olympic men’s skating gold fair and square. The defending world champion skated a clean program that was rich in every element, not just the jumps. Russia’s great champion, Evgeny Plushenko, came up short in his comeback. His program wasn’t as good or as clean as Evan’s. Simple as that. Get over it, Putin, and don’t be such a sore loser, Evgeny. There’s no such thing as a platinum medal.
Great as the hockey game was, the lasting memory of these Games for me was Canadian Joannie Rochette skating through her grief, days after her mother’s sudden death from a heart attack, to win a bronze medal. The medal was de minimus. Joannie Rochette’s memorable performance exemplified the best of the Olympic spirit: Amazing grace.
“While some people would gain insurance, the people losing insurance would be those who need it most. Under the Republican plan, the American health care system would become even more brutal than it is now.
What I took away was the arrogance that the success of things like the death-panel smear has obviously engendered in Republican politicians. At this point they obviously believe that they can blandly make utterly misleading assertions, saying things that can be easily refuted, and pay no price. And they may well be right.
But Democrats can have the last laugh. All they have to do — and they have the power to do it — is finish the job, and enact health reform.”
After yesterday’s White House health summit, President Obama and the Democrats must finish the job on healthcare reform alone, turning to the reconciliation process with eyes wide open and, hopefully, signs of a spine. The President gave bipartisanship his best shot and clarified for the American people some of the lies that have been spread about the healthcare bills. In this sense, the summit was a success. Now it’s time to move forward and pass a healthcare bill.
Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming -- Dick Cheney’s home state –- represents the elitist mindset among Republicans in Congress that is completely divorced from the reality of people’s lives. To put it another way, one of the Republicans’ favorite preemptive talking points over the years is to accuse Democrats of “class warfare,” when in fact it’s the Republicans who represent American oligarchs in the corporate and moneyed elites. (It is interesting to note that Wyoming is the least populous state in the Union, with a U.S. Census estimated population of 544,270 in 2009, and has the second-lowest population density behind, you guessed it, Alaska.) This telling exchange between Senator Barrasso and President Obama demonstrates how differently Republicans and Democrats view the world:
BARRASSO: “. . .And “What's it cost?” ought to be the first question. And that's why, sometimes, people with catastrophic -- catastrophic health plans ask the best questions, shop around, are the best consumers of health care.
[. . .] And, Mr. President, when you say, with catastrophic plans, they don't go for care until later, I say sometimes the people with catastrophic plans are the people that are best consumers of health care, in using -- the way they use their health care dollars.
OBAMA: “I just am curious. Would you be satisfied if every member of Congress just had catastrophic care? Do you think we'd be better health care purchasers?
I mean, do you think -- is that a change that we should make?
BARRASSO: Yes, I think -- I think, actually, we would. We'd really focus on it. You'd have more, as you'd say, skin in the game ... and especially if they had a savings account. They could put their money into that and they'd be spending the money out of that.
OBAMA: Would you feel the same way if you were making $40,000 or you had -- that was your income? Because that's the reality for a lot of folks. I mean, it is very important, when you say to listen, to listen to that farmer that Tom mentioned in Iowa, to listen to the folks that we get letters from.
Because the truth of the matter, John, is they're not premiers of any place. They're not sultans from wherever. They don't fly in to Mayo and suddenly, you know, decide they're going to spend a couple million on the absolute best health care. They're folks who are left out. And this notion somehow that for them the system was working and that if they just ate a little better and were better health care consumers they could manage is just not the case.
The vast majority of these 27 million or 30 million people that we're talking about, they work, every day. Some of them work two jobs. But if they're working for a small business they can't get health care. If they are self-employed, they can't get health care.
And you know what? It is a scary proposition for them.
And so we can debate whether or not we can afford to help them, but we shouldn't pretend somehow that they don't need help. I get too many letters saying they need help. And so I want to go to...
BARRASSO: Mr. President, having a high deductible plan and a health savings account is an option for members of Congress and federal employees...
OBAMA: That's right, because members of Congress get paid $176,000 a year.
(CROSSTALK)
BARRASSO: ... 16,000 -- 16,000 employees take advantage of that.
OBAMA: Because they -- because members of Congress...
(CROSSTALK)
BARRASSO: It's the same plan that the -- that the park rangers get...
OBAMA: John...
BARRASSO: ... in Yellowstone National Park.
OBAMA: John, members of Congress are in the top income brackets of the country, and health savings accounts I think can be a useful tool, but every study has shown that the people who use them are folks who've got a lot of disposable income. And the people that we're talking about don't.”
Perhaps Senator Barrasso should poll his colleagues to determine just how popular his idea for them to switch their coverage to catastrophic is. Better yet, Senator Barrasso should lead by example and swith his own insurance to catastrophic, much like Senator Sherrod Brown has refused to participate in the Senate’s healthcare until all of his constituents have access to the same healthcare he does. But then again, Senator Brown (the good one) is a liberal, and liberals have heart.
Class warfare is a preemptive Republican talking point because they could never justify the massive transfer of wealth from our pockets, the middle class taxpayers, to the pockets of the top two percent of the population, or the sweetheart deals, tax breaks, and reciprocal kickbacks to the corporations that grease their campaign wheels. Those ginormous tax cuts for the top two percent of Americans were the first order of business for Republicans after George W. Bush took office, immediately plunging the nation from surplus to deficit.
If anything, the White House healthcare summit exposed the Republican approach, which does not contemplate universal coverage, and pretty much buried any illusions some in the public may have had of “bipartisanship.” The Republicans do not believe in universal coverage for all Americans. It’s that simple. It’s a repugnant worldview, and one that is out of step with every advanced democracy in the world.
The odious John Boehner, who has yet to be spotted exercising his facial smile muscles (does he have any?), in the end launched into a prepared speech tirade in which he pretended to have “listened” to all that was said, and then repeated the Frank Luntz talking points. President Obama was clearly annoyed and told Mr. Boehner that partisan outbursts were not helpful. Perhaps Mr. Boehner’s idea of nonpartisanship is to refrain from referring to the Democratic Party as an adjective, the “Democrat Party,” as he did on the White House lawn. Here is a MoveOn video reminding Boehner’s constituents whom he really represents:
Now, the very same Republicans who voted for the massive Bush deficits have suddenly found religion, in the most despicable ways. Yesterday, despite repeated pleas from his Democratic colleagues, Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky placed a hold on desperately needed unemployment and Cobra benefit extensions for hundreds of thousands of unemployed Americans, because he wants to make a deficit point and have the benefits paid for by the stimulus funds, which are already allocated. This stunning meanspiritedness, the crass cruelty of making a political point on the backs of unemployed Americans is almost unbelievable; but it is par for the course in the Republican Party. Abe Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would not recognize today’s Republicans.
This isn’t only a Republican sin, to be sure. Democrats, the so-called DINOs (Democrats in name only) are almost equally at fault for feeding from the corporate trough and benefiting corporations with their votes in detriment to the public interest. They have been mentioned here in the DINO Hall of Shame (Mary Landrieu, Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, and Traitor Joe Lieberman, who is an “independent” wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry); even Evan Bayh, who has more integrity than some of these others, has found it so hard to reconcile his coporate ties with his tilt to the right that he is leaving the Senate, with $13 million in his campaign chest and a fairly easy reelection. Senator Bayh’s complaints about excessive partisanship were not convincing and to the cynics among us, his reasons may well be those of a self-serving, ambitious coporatist. Through this prism the Citizens United SCOTUS ruling did not benefit Bayh. Unless, of course, he took himself out of the running. Look for Senator Bayh to return to electoral politics in 2012 or 2016 as a corporatist in sheep’s clothing.
But with the Republicants it isn’t only a matter of ambition and greed; it is also a matter of faith, ideology, and class privilege. Most of all, it’s heartless. There is a word for this institutional political ideology: Fascism.
New York Congressman and healthcare reform hero Anthony Weiner smacked down Republicants with a direct assault on their meretricious relations with the health insurance industry. One Republicant fool on the Hill objected despite Weiner’s warning, “You don’t want to go there.” The Republicants did, much to our delight:
After all we’re paying their medical bills with our tax dollars while their party steadfastly refuses to provide healthcare for more than 50 million Americans who are either uninsured or underinsured, or prevent outrageous rate hikes for the rest of us clinging to our healthcare by our fingernails. Americans are now being dropped from health insurance rolls at a record pace so that company CEOs can maintain their lavish lifestyles on the backs of the sickest of the sick, as they’re cast away to die in the gutter of neglect. But not Dick Cheney. The Dark Lord has had five heart attacks, and if not for his government-run healthcare he’d be dead by now. As Ed Schultz said, we wish Mr. Cheney a speedy recovery since he has just become the evil posterchild for universal healthcare in America.
So what do the Palins and Cheneys have in common? Nope, not only that. Surprise, surprise . . . (not really) Tripp Palin Johnston and the “death panels” Queen herself have federally funded healthcare; what the clueless Teabaggers carrying signs that say, Hands off my Medicare!, call “socialized medicine.” On Thursday the President will hold a bipartisan confab in which he presents the White House tweaks to the healthcare bills passed by the two chambers of Congress, and challenge Republicants to submit their plans. They have none. They are constitutionally and ideologically incapable of providing health insurance for all Americans. The party of NO will bellow the Frank Luntz talking points “government takeover” and “setup” to mischaracterize a right-centrist, market and employer based healthcare reform package that pays for itself, reduces the deficit by at least $100 billion, and was first proposed (in concept) by Richard Nixon.
In the end, the Democrats must act. Failure to pass a healthcare bill is not an option after the President went out of his way to include Republicant proposals. Harry Reed warned Republicants to “stop crying” about reconciliation. Republicants, unlike Democrats, are not in Congress to legislate and pass laws. They are there to obstruct and gum up the works of government. Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn summed up the Republicant philosophy perfectly: “I love gridlock. I think we’re better off when we’re gridlocked because we’re not passing things.”
Well, Ronald Reagan isn’t president and President Obama isn’t the enemy. If the Republicants refuse to play a constructive role putting country first ahead of party and ideology and refuse to compromise, then they should stand down, step aside, and allow the Democrats to govern. As President Obama said eons ago, it seems: “The time has come to set aside childish things.”
Realistically, the time has come for Democrats and our President to act boldly and decisively; their political health depends on it.
Perennial libertarian presidential candidate Ron Paul won the CPAC straw poll with 31% of the vote, far outpacing the runner-up, Mitt Romney, who polled only 22% of the vote. Asked what made the difference in his selection, the self-effacing Dr. Paul (pictured below with GOP Boss Rush Limbaugh) said he made no off-color jokes about Tiger Woods.
Dr. Paul’s non-interventionist foreign policy and limited government domestic platform would eliminate several government agencies such as the Education, Energy, Commerce, HHS, and Homeland Security departments, as well as FEMA, ICC, and the IRS. His economic proposals include eliminating the income tax and dissolving the Federal Reserve in favor of a return to commodities-backed currency such as gold and silver. Dr. Paul has attracted a fiercely loyal following among conservatives of a libertarian bent, including so-called objectivists.
In some ways, Dr. Paul is riding a similar kind of wave in the Republican Party that George McGovern rode to primary victory in 1972 on the rebellious anti-war, liberal activist wing of the Democratic Party. Dr. Paul’s insurgent wave of outsiders is powered by purist and idealistic libertarian conservatives who do not really fit in with the GOP, much less with extremist elements of the Tea Party mob.
The Republicants have much to ponder, not least the fractured state of their party, the anarchy among the Teabagger mobs (to date 17 different “Tea Party” groups with competing interests have surfaced), and the continuing (growing?) popularity of Dr. Paul’s message among disaffected libertarian conservatives.
The Democratic Party has its own problems, namely governing the nation in the midst of our worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Even though there’s been more progress made than Democrats are given credit for, this is one of those fights they should sit out, grab a bucket of popcorn and watch, while concentrating on getting their own house in order. Reviving healthcare under the President's more assertive leadership is the place to start.
Suffice it to say that reports of the so-called “Republican Tsunami” in November are premature and vastly exaggerated. Even fans of the Dark Lord should know by now not to believe anything Dick Cheney says.
Some right wingers congratulated themselves after a few CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) audience members booed this homophobe off the stage. As if behaving in a tolerant, nondiscriminatory way is cause for great celebration. Apparently it hasn’t occurred to them that welcoming bigots, racists, xenophobes, nativists, and conspiracists (among other subsets of the lunatic fringe) inevitably invites this behavior.
Conservatives are snarled in their own contradictions. They may claim they’re not anti-gay or racist till they’re blue in the face yet continue to attract that element to their ranks like moths to a light. This year CPAC is sponsored by one of the granddaddies of fringe of the fringe conspiracists, the John Birch Society:
Glenn Beck is tonight’s CPAC keynote speaker. Until their Fuehrer arrives, Rush Limbaugh (last year’s bouncy porcine blob/keynoter) and Beck himself will have to do as placeholders. It seems Jason Mattera didn’t get the Beckster memo when he said:
CPAC should strike up Eric Clapton’s Cocaine when Beck takes the stage.
This happens all the time. It's just that when "conservatives" gather in Washington for their annual conference, we get to see first-hand how consistently strange, weird, and not funny these people are. Yuck-Yuck, WHAT A HOOT! Two dead and 13 injured in Austin, two critically. Now that's really rich material for a joke. And we haven't even mentioned Tim Pawlenty's Tiger Woods golf club "joke" on the day Woods asked reporters to leave his wife and kids alone: “I think we can learn a lot from that situation, not from Tiger, but from his wife. She said, ‘I’ve had enough.’ She said, ‘No more.’ I think we should take a page out of her playbook and take a nine iron and smash the window out of big government. We've had enough.” Then Pawlenty swings a phantom golf club with chopping, bashing motions. Yuck-Yuck. Another side-splitting wingnut joke.
These are examples of right wing “humor” and inappropriate expressions of hubris. Twice Senator Brown raises the “connection” with his campaign. So he’s tacitly embracing violence because “people are frustrated” and there’s a “logjam” in Washington, “at least until I got here”?
First, get over yourself, Brown “41”. Second, if you want to associate yourself and your campaign with the kind of violence that occurred in Austin, good luck justifying it. Jackass.
Absolutely unbelievable. Texas Governor Rick Perry equates “tyranny” with the federal government’s airport security measures (inconveniencing and annoying, to be sure) to keep the flying public safe from terrorism. And this in response to an anti-IRS/government madman crashing a plane into a building housing the IRS. Here is Governor Perry’s statement:
“I hope we don't turn our capitol into DFW airport or Bush international from the standpoint of security that Texans still, and visitors still have freedom to come and go and don't feel like they're being inappropriately hassled. But the other side of that is we have people's safety. So it is always a battle between anarchy and tyranny always has been.”
Inciting anti-government fervor with the “tyranny” Tea Party buzzword after an anti-government lunatic crashes a plane into a building is just about the most irresponsible thing the state’s top elected official can say. After word of Stack’s semi-coherent rant spread through the “patriot” nets, several web pages popped up celebrating his act of violence against the federal government.
For Rick Perry to pander for votes with the anti-government Tea Party types at such a time is shameful. The deranged pilot, Joseph Anthony Stack, was killed and 13 people were injured, two of them critically. Judging by the building's condition, it could have been much worse. The survivors lucked out big-time.
I hope there are enough rational Texas Republicans to vote for conservative Senator Kaye Bailey Hutchison and reject Rick Perry, the Clown. This is one of those elections where issues, on the Republican side, take a back seat. Hutchison passes the rational and responsible adult test.
“Now the smart thing will be for independents who are such a part of this Tea Party movement to, I guess, kind of start picking a party . . . Which party reflects how that smaller, smarter government steps to be taken? Which party will best fit you? And then because the Tea Party movement is not a party, and we have a two-party system, they’re going to have to pick a party and run one or the other: ‘R’ or ‘D’.”
Whooops!
Take the money and run, Sister Sarah . . . run, run, run!
