Republicans are illogical asshats

Richard Shelby is blocking the nomination of Peter Diamond to sit on the Fed board of governors.

Why?

Shelby says Diamond is unqualified.

Diamond is a professor of economics at a little school called MIT.

Diamond won the Nobel Prize for economics.

Diamond was Ben Bernanke's teacher!

"While the Nobel Prize for economics is a significant recognition, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences does not determine who is qualified to serve on the Board of Governors," said Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee.

via Cesca

Right. He's unqualified. Notice Shelby didn't say he disagreed with him - he said that he's unqualified.

This is stupidity for stupidity's sake.

Question: why do we get mad when Ahmadinejad spouts shit, and orgasmic when teabaggers do?

MSNBC

The U.S. and several European delegations walked out of the U.N. speech of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday after he said most people believe the U.S. government was behind the Sept. 11 terror attacks in order to assure Israel's survival.

In his speech to the annual General Assembly, Ahmadinejad said it was mostly U.S. government officials who believed a terrorist group was behind the suicide hijacking attacks that brought down New York's World Trade Center and hit the Pentagon.

Another theory, he said, was "that some segments within the U.S. government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy, and its grips on the Middle East, in order to save the Zionist regime" — his way of characterizing Israel.

Nuts, right?

But when Palin and Gingrich go full birther and allege the President is a secret Muslim, when Christine O'Donnell insists that scientists are engineering mice with human brains, when Jan Brewer lies about beheadings, when Palin lies every time she speaks, half the nation stands and cheers. The Tea Party can claim that Obama is an African-born, socialist, Muslim, terrorist-coddling, white-people hating, anti-colonial, white-people hating rat out to undermine America - and they pick up support.

I thought a lie was a lie.

What the fuck?

Details emerge on The Republican Pledge to Further Screw America

Ezra Klein

Take the deficit. Perhaps the two most consequential policies in the proposal are the full extension of the Bush tax cuts and the full repeal of the health-care law. The first would increase the deficit by more than $4 trillion over the next 10 years, and many trillions of dollars more after that. The second would increase the deficit by more than $100 billion over the next 10 years, and many trillions of dollars more after that. Nothing in the document comes close to paying for these two proposals, and the authors know it: The document never says that the policy proposals it offers will ultimately reduce the deficit.

...At the end of the day, America may be an idea -- but it is also a country. And it needs to be governed. This proposal avoids the hard choices of governance. It says what it thinks will be popular and then proposes what it thinks will be popular -- even when the two conflict. That's an idea that may help you win elections, but not one that'll help you govern a country.

Oh those Republicans... here's your 2010 lineup

This is mainstream?

Seriously?

George Carlin on the American Dream

h/t the mighty Hammerito

“Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own, and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought, and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year Lobbying. Lobbying, to get what they want.

Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago. They don’t want that.

You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, and now they’re coming for your Social Security money, They want your fuckin’ retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, and you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fuckin’ place. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in The Big Club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.

The table has tilted, folks. The game is rigged. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good honest hard-working people - white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good honest hard-working people continue - these are people of modest means - continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care about you at all. At all. At all. And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care.

That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick that’s being jammed up their assholes every day, because the owners of this country know the truth: It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.”

-George Carlin (May 12, 1937 - June 22, 2008)

Oh no you dit'unt - an incredible linked list of GOP hyperbole, hypocrisy and hatred

An open letter to conservatives - this is an amazing must-read. "You have to start by draining the swamp"

Thursday GOP hypocrisy, part 2: Tort reformers file frivilous lawsuits

Cesca

All of the attorney generals who are filing these lawsuits against the federal government and the healthcare reform mandate are wasting their time and taxpayer money. Why? Because the lawsuits will fail.

As Steve Benen so hilariously put it: they're frivolous lawsuits. Political pandering and not much else.

Funny how one of the Republican "solutions" for healthcare was tort reform. And their first move after losing is to file these ridiculous lawsuits.

Keep going, Republicans! You're special!

More GOP hypocrisy, this time while condemning violence. In other words, it's Thursday.

Huff Post (my comments in red:)

"I know many Americans are angry over this health care bill, and that Washington Democrats just aren't listening. So the anger that we've fueled for a year with talks about socialist takeovers and losing America is justified because we lost an up-or-down vote. But, as I've said, violence and threats are unacceptable. That's not the American way. Good.  About time. We need to take that anger and channel it into positive change. Call your Congressman, go out and register people to vote, go volunteer on a political campaign, make your voice heard - but let's do it the right way." Yes! Fight it out at the ballot box.

And then, after suggesting that these issues are best settled politically, Eric Cantor, Minority Whip, attacked Democrats for daring to be political.  They are, he said: "dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon."

I get it, Republican anger at losing a fair vote is OK, but Democratic anger at being threatened with violence (and with some threats followed up on) is not.

Right.  Gotcha.

Cantor then attempted to diminish the attacks: "To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible," said Minority Whip Eric Cantor, R-Va., who added that security concerns have been overhyped in media coverage of the debate.

What I notice is that NOWHERE do Cantor or Boehner mention that it's the members of their own party have been the ones creating this atmosphere for the last year.

The DNC has responded: "Let's be clear: calling on Republican leaders who have contributed in part to this anger by wildly mischaracterizing the substance and motives of health reform to condemn these acts is entirely appropriate."

Perrielo, whose brother's gas line was cut Tuesday after right-wing anarchists posted the wrong address, responded:


And yet, the wingnuttery continues as Rp. Louie Gohmert of (where else?) Texas called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment and suggesting taking the power to elect Senators away from the people and giving it back to the states. A direct attack on..... Democracy.



Keep going kids. This will all come back at you in November.

Bush speechwriter: Health care defeat is our fault and our Waterloo

Former Bush 43 speechwriter David Frum takes a hard, fair and sobering look at today's expected passage of President Obama's health care reform.

Several admissions:
1) This is a Waterloo alright, for Republicans.

2) This will not be repealed. How do you take away some of these things (pre-existing conditions, kids staying on your insurance) from voters?

3) In reality, this bill is not much different from Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care.

4) The Fox/Limbaugh noise machine, and the Palin-led lies made it impossible for Republicans to cut a deal. How do you cut a deal with someone that wants to kill your grandmother? In going all-in, Obama wins everything.

5) The Noise Machine is in it for their own ratings, which, with passage of this bill and the flames of anger they fan will ensure high ratings.

David Frum

Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.

It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:

(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.

(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.

So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson:

A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.

At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.

...
Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

...
No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?

We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.

There were leaders who knew better, who would have liked to deal. But they were trapped. Conservative talkers on Fox and talk radio had whipped the Republican voting base into such a frenzy that deal-making was rendered impossible. How do you negotiate with somebody who wants to murder your grandmother? Or – more exactly – with somebody whom your voters have been persuaded to believe wants to murder their grandmother?

I’ve been on a soapbox for months now about the harm that our overheated talk is doing to us. Yes it mobilizes supporters – but by mobilizing them with hysterical accusations and pseudo-information, overheated talk has made it impossible for representatives to represent and elected leaders to lead.

So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.

The Republican party is an abusive alcoholic promising things will be different

From a comment on the Cesca blog. This is brilliant. And true.

The Republican party is an abusive alcoholic promising things will be different if we just ignore the bloody and bruised face and let them back in the house.

They're sorry they weren't conservative enough for the Tea Party. They're sorry they ran up trillion dollar deficits in trying to systematically squeeze New Deal programs and liquidate the U.S. government, baby.

They were just foolin' around with that whole torture thing. Just having some fun, is all. Just some frat house hazing, sheesh. They wouldn't treat human beings like animals... unless they're pickin' cotton.

Joke! Just kidding. So sensitive. They love black people. Clarence Thomas and Michael Steele are on their side. And homosexuals aren't evil abominations of nature, they're just making an evil life choice and destroying American moral fiber. And women...especially when they're in the kitchen making babies who'll oversee the cotton picking. Joking! Gosh. Really sensitive. Is it that time of the month, America?

Don't make them sorry they apologized!

...
C'mon. Give us one more chance. We can prove we'll be more conservative than Bush and Cheney(long live tax cuts!). CPAC only applauds Dick because he's old and doesn't have too many more heart attacks left. They hardly mean it.

Whatya say, baby? We're really, 'burp', sorry.

This sad little story and chapter of American history has to end with a restraining order

McConnell's strategy of blocking progress, accomplishing nothing and trashing America for votes

There is an extraordinary piece in the Times where Republicans readily admit their strategy is nothing more than to obstruct, say no, deny Obama any accomplishments and then blast him during the elections as a do-nothing President.

Of course, the fact that the business of the American people is not getting done, people are dying for lack of health care, the economy is still teetering, jobs are still being lost, financial shenanigans are still going on and people are losing their homes isn't important. Winning elections is, no matter how many Americans have to be hurt in their electoral games.

This is douchebaggery at it's highest level. And there is still no sense of shame.

New York Times

Before the health care fight, before the economic stimulus package, before President Obama even took office, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican minority leader, had a strategy for his party: use his extensive knowledge of Senate procedure to slow things down, take advantage of the difficulties Democrats would have in governing and deny Democrats any Republican support on big legislation.

...
(He) has come to embody a kind of oppositional politics that critics say has left voters cynical about Washington, the Senate all but dysfunctional and the Republican Party without a positive agenda or message.

...
More fundamentally, Mr. McConnell’s strategy has left Republicans at risk of being tagged as pure obstructionists and a party without a positive agenda.

...
“Their goal,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, “is to slow down activity to stop legislation from passing in the belief that this will embolden conservatives in the next election and will deny the president a record of accomplishment.”

...
As the year went on, Mr. McConnell spent hours listening to the worries and ideas of Republicans, urging them not to be seduced by the attention-grabbing possibilities of cutting a bipartisan deal

...
“Throwing grenades is easier than catching them,” acknowledged Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a fellow member of the Republican leadership.

Terror fear-mongering: truth vs. fiction

Excellent article from Daniel Klaidman in Newsweek:

Jostling before the midterms has begun, and so too has the GOP's ritualistic hazing of Democrats on national security. At every turn Republicans are hammering the Obama administration for "capitulating" in the fight against terrorism. But their macho rhetoric actually sends a message of weakness: we can't try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in the same civilian courts that have convicted dozens of other international terrorists because Al Qaeda might attack New York. (When since 9/11 has New York not been a target of Al Qaeda?) Our criminal-justice system can't deal with a failed underwear bomber. The GOP assault may be smart politics, but in the long run it damages U.S. security by undermining our confidence and resiliency in the face of certain attacks to come.

...
Americans are historically a tough lot. But the policies and rhetoric of the Bush-Cheney years, which set the tone for the current GOP attacks, are infantilizing: be very afraid, we're told, and let the government take care of you. The tough-guy bluster has led to a permanent state of anxiety—and a slew of counterproductive policies, from harsh visa restrictions to waterboarding. Our politicians rail about apocalyptic threats while TSA officers pat down toddlers at the airport. The irony is that many potentially lethal terror attacks—from United Flight 93 to Richard Reid to the underwear bomber—have been foiled by regular citizens. The aim of terrorists is to make people feel powerless and afraid. Un-fortunately, not every plot will be foiled. But if that's the standard we and our leaders set for ourselves, we are doomed to perpetuate dumb policies that flow from irrational fears. Just what the terrorists want.

They don't even know what they stand for

via Cesca

John Boehner several days ago:

"If the President intends to present any kind of legislative proposal at this discussion, will he make it available to members of Congress and the American people at least 72 hours beforehand?"

As Benen notes, in response, the White House agreed to release the healthcare plan online 72 hours before the summit. Which, of course, Boehner bitched about, suggesting that no proposal be presented. Just a blank sheet of paper.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are vigorously opposing policies they used to endorse.

From a deficit commission to PAYGO, cap-and-trade to a financial industry bailout, civilian trials for terrorist suspects to stimulus aid for their districts, it's become routine for Republicans to embrace and reject the same proposals, almost at the same time.

And, even though they voted against the stimulus and are currently campaigning against it, they're petitioning various governmental departments to hand over stimulus money to their districts:

More than a dozen Republican lawmakers supported stimulus-funding requests submitted to the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Forest Service, in letters obtained by The Wall Street Journal through the Freedom of Information Act.

What the hell is this? What do they stand for? Last night, Rachel Maddow described the Republicans as not caring about policy. That's putting it nicely. They're a party that only stands for the opposite of what the Democrats stand for. No wonder Republican voters are so insane right now.

Obama never had a chance with the GOP on Afghanistan

Obama never had a chance. In giving the generals exactly what they wanted, he's being torn to shreds by the right wing. "We must end this now," they cry. But I'll ask you to be truthful... what would they have said if we pulled out immediately?

He literally never had a chance. He inherited Bush's war and was set up to fail. Not in the mission, mind you, but in the perception. The right wing HATES him and will do whatever is necessary to see him hurt him.

Watch the video clip. In the first minute Rush Limbaugh, the leader of those saying that we don't criticize the president in a time of war when Bush was in the Oval, now abandons that scenario. They have no scruples, no sense of honor, and are seemingly all about hypocrisy for power's sake.

(Media Matters)

It didn't matter what decision he came to regarding troop levels in Afghanistan, or what he said about the ongoing conflict there, because Fox News and the rest of the conservative media had already reached two conclusions. First, he took too long. Second, he was wrong.

Since the Bush administration stuck him with the untended-to mess in Afghanistan, Obama had to make a choice -- more troops, fewer troops, withdrawal. When Obama signaled that he actually wanted to consider his options before making a decision, the Fox News followed the lead of Dick Cheney -- one of the primary authors of the Afghanistan debacle -- in accusing the president of "dithering" and "inaction." Glenn Beck, never one to be subtle or reasonable, accused the president of "letting our troops literally bleed and die" and said Obama would "pay for it" in the hereafter.

Of course, Cheney's idea of "dithering" is another man's idea of a "substantive discussion" that came as part of a "good" process. That other man just so happens to be Gen. David Petraeus, who was asked by MSNBC's Joe Scarborough on December 2 if Obama had been "dithering" as Cheney alleged. Petraeus responded: "This process was actually quite good, Joe. It was a very substantive discussion. Everybody's assumptions and views were tested. I think out of this have come sharpened objectives, a very good understanding of the challenges and the difficulties and what must be done in a much more detailed and nuanced fashion."

Public option health bill CHEAPER and more popular; Reid shows his weakness, GOP hypocrisy coming home to roost

Let's see how the fiscally-conservative Blue Dogs react to this news. For months they've been distancing thekmselves from a public option because it would be 'too expensive'. Now comes this report:

On Tuesday, House Democratic leaders received a new cost estimate of $871 billion from congressional budget umpires who measured a robust version of a so-called public option for health insurance, according to a Democratic aide. [...]
The House bill with the strong public plan would extend coverage to 96 percent of uninsured Americans and significantly reduce budget deficits.

With that news comes this hard-charging jewel of a quote from the spineless leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid. Ol' blood and guts had this to say:

“We’re leaning towards talking about a public option.”

Harry Reid (Cognitive Dissonance Award Winner)

Leaning towards talking....


Now, as to the notion that it's just "teh lefties" (TM) who are for the public option, this graph should dispel that.

That's a shitload of lefties.

Or maybe it's true, maybe we are going a little lefty. Maybe the clusterfuck of the Bush Years really did push shove the electorate to the left. Read the following from ABC News/Washington Post:

Only 20 percent of Americans now identify themselves as Republicans, the fewest in 26 years. Just 19 percent, similarly, trust the Republicans in Congress to make the right decisions for the country's future; even among Republicans themselves just four in 10 are confident in their own party. For comparison, 49 percent overall express this confidence in Obama, steady since August albeit well below its peak.

And why don't people trust the GOP? Because they're hypocrites, that's why. Here's just the latest example: They made a huge stink about the stimulus that's saved the economy. They went in front of the cameras and 'turned down' the money, only to go back and take it in the dead of night. And then they had the balls to take credit for taking the money!

Let's summarize:The president is at 57 percent approval, and the public option is at 57 percent. The public has no belief in nor trust in Congresional Republicans, who seemingly have no boundaries to their hypocrisy. Yet Congress doesn't get it and the media is pushing this story like it's an athletic contest. The media like close contests because it gives them a story with angles to report on. So they manufacture an artifical reality where this is a close call, when in all reality, the public option has won over America.

And yet both government and the media will scratch their heads and wonder why people don't have any faith in them.

Amazing.

One other warning: woe be to any legislator that kils this and pisses off 60% of the electorate.

30 Republicans vote against rape bill to protect Halliburton

(Huff Post)
In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her Halliburton/KBR co-workers while working in Iraq and locked in a shipping container for over a day to prevent her from reporting her attack. The rape occurred outside of U.S. criminal jurisdiction, but to add serious insult to serious injury she was not allowed to sue KBR because her employment contract said that sexual assault allegations would only be heard in private arbitration--a process that overwhelmingly favors corporations.

This year, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) proposed an amendment that would deny defense contracts to companies that ask employees to sign away the right to sue. It passed, but it wasn't the slam dunk Jon Stewart expected. Instead the amendment received 30 nay votes all from Republicans. "I understand we're a divided country, some disagreements on health care. How is ANYONE against this?" He asked.

Uh-oh

Research 2000

Frank Rich
Now, as then, a Dixie-oriented movement like this won’t remotely capture the White House. Now, unlike then, it is a catastrophe for the Republicans. The old G.O.P. Southern strategy is gone with the wind. The more the party is identified with nasty name-calling, freak-show protestors, immigrant-bashing (the proximate cause of [Joe] Wilson’s outburst at Obama) and, yes, racism, the faster it will commit demographic suicide as America becomes ever younger and more diverse. But Democrats shouldn’t be cocky. Over the short term, the real economic grievances lurking beneath the extremism of the Beck brigades can do damage to both parties. A stopped clock is right twice a day. The recession-spawned anger that Beck has tapped into on the right could yet find a more mainstream outlet in a populist revolt from the left and center.

BTW, most of those look like giant middle fingers. Coincidence?

Family values

The 2012 GOP field just narrowed. Again. At least these last 2 were heterosexual.

Stewart: Repubs a repressed minority, like Iranian protesters

Jon Stewart devoted two segments last night to Republican claims that their plight is akin to that of Iranians protesting a rigged election.

Because dozens of dead people in the streets trying to protest the results of a rigged election are comparable to the GOP driving their party into the ground by embracing every half-assed economic idea and phony war to come down the pike. I also have information that, like the GOP, Iranians are upset that David Letterman made fun of Sarah Palin's knocked-up kid.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Irandecision 2009 - Iranians Support the GOP
www.thedailyshow.com

Gallup: GOP losing ground among nearly EVERY demographic

(Huff Post)
The decline and fall of the Republican Party in recent years has been so widespread that the party has lost support among nearly every major demographic subgroup of likely voters across the country, according to a new Gallup poll.

The party lost support among a broad swath of Americans, from conservative to liberal, low-income to high-income, married to unmarried, and elderly to young.

The only subgroup in which the party saw a slight increase in support from 2001 to 2009 was frequent churchgoers.

The biggest declines, of roughly 10 percent, occurred among the college-educated, 18 to 29-year-olds, and Midwestern voters.

The turning point was 2005, after Hurricane Katrina and Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, when the party's support really started to free-fall, according to Gallup: "By the end of 2008, the party had its worst positioning against the Democrats in nearly two decades."