All Entries in the "Rightwing World" Category

As Polls Show Increasing Support For Health Care Reform, Cavuto Claims ‘Polls Are Increasingly Looking Worse’

On Fox News yesterday, Neil Cavuto argued that Democrats want to get health care reform done before the Easter break because “they sure as heck don’t want to see those town hallers.” Cavuto, who was interviewing Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), then claimed that Democrats “agree the polls are increasingly looking worse for health care support.”

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » As Polls Show Increasing Support For Health Care Reform, Cavuto Claims ‘Polls Are Increasingly Looking Worse’.

Conservatives target ‘human kiddie shield’ whose mom died from lack of insurance

An 11-year-old boy whose mother died after losing her health insurance has become an advocate for health care reform — and opponents of reform are gunning for him.

Marcelas Owens of Seattle lost his mother in 2006 after the 27-year-old woman was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension, a condition that can lead to heart failure if left untreated. Due to missed work, Tiffany Owens lost her job, and with it her health insurance. Not long after, she died of her disorder.

Owens appeared at a Capitol Hill press conference flanked by the Democratic leadership on Thursday, the day after he turned 11 years old.

“I don't want any other kids to go through the pain that our family has gone through,” Owens said. “My grandma and I want Barack Obama and Congress and everybody to come together and to help get the health care bill passed.”

Full Story: Conservatives target ‘human kiddie shield’ whose mom died from lack of insurance | Raw Story.

Utah House GOP leader says he paid off woman

Utah House GOP leader says he paid off woman

Utah state House GOP leader Garn says he paid woman to keep silent about hot tub incident

Utah’s House majority leader said late Thursday he paid a woman $150,000 to keep silent about going nude “hot-tubbing” with her when she was minor a quarter century ago.

In a shocking statement on the House floor, Kevin Garn, 55, of Layton said he paid her to keep quiet about the incident during his unsuccessful U.S. congressional bid in 2002, but did not have sexual contact with her.

Garn said the woman, who he didn’t identify on the floor, has been calling news outlets and that he wanted to be open about the incident that occurred when he was 28 years old, before any stories appeared.

Full Story: Utah House GOP leader says he paid off woman | Raw Story.

Ensign sex scandal widens as new emails emerge

The scandal that erupted last year when it was revealed that Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) had not only had an affair with the wife of one of his top aides but may have violated Senate ethics rules in an attempt to hush the matter up expanded this week with the release of emails further documenting Ensign’s efforts on behalf of his former aide.

The New York Times reported in October that when Douglas Hampton confronted Ensign about the affair, Ensign arranged for him to take a job as a lobbyist with a Nevada consulting firm, an apparent violation of Senate restrictions on lobbying by former aides. Ensign then steered some of his own corporate donors to Hampton as clients on whose behalf Hampton lobbied his former boss.

The Times has now obtained emails which appear to show Ensign also trying to arrange for Hampton to be hired by a small Las Vegas energy investment firm which was seeking Ensign’s help on several projects. The firm’s co-owner, Greg Paulk, had previously donated to Ensign’s campaign.

Full Story: Ensign sex scandal widens as new emails emerge | Raw Story.

TurboTax drops Glenn Beck, whose show has gone without ads for more than a month in the UK.

Yesterday, StopBeck.com announced that TurboTax has become the 120th advertiser to drop Fox News host Glenn Beck. In an announcement on Twitter, TurboTax stated:

Thanks everyone for your feedback, & for reminding us of what we value. We’ve pulled advertising from the Glenn Beck show.

TurboTax’s decision to pull out of Beck’s show came just two days after the company began running ads, according to StopBeck.com. Additionally, “the broadcast of Glenn Beck’s show in the U.K. has been running without any advertisers for over a month now.” TurboTax’s announcement comes as Beck has begun endorsing Tax Resolution

Services, the latest in his line-up of questionable endorsement deals.

Full Story: Think Progress » TurboTax drops Glenn Beck, whose show has gone without ads for more than a month in the UK..

170 House Republicans rebuff Steele by voting to ban RNC’s ‘Census’ mailer.

Under Chairman Michael Steele, the Republican National Committee has been using controversial mailers posing as official Census documents to raise money. “Calling itself the ‘Congressional District Census,’ the letter comes in an envelope starkly printed with the words, ‘DO NOT DESTROY OFFICIAL DOCUMENT’ and describes itself, on the outside of the envelope, as a ‘census document,’” notes Politico. Although the mailers have been used before, they were heavily criticized this year because they coincide with the actual Census; many observers worried that people would confuse the two. Yesterday, the House voted 416-0 to ban “misleading mailings designed to appear they’re from the Census Bureau”:

The legislation passed 416-0, after two Republicans who sit on the House panel overseeing the census, Rep. Darrell Issa of California and Jason Chaffetz of Utah, agreed to co-sponsor the measure. Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., has said he intends to move forward with legislation in the Senate.

Full Story: Think Progress » 170 House Republicans rebuff Steele by voting to ban RNC’s ‘Census’ mailer..

GOP CA Gov Hopeful Meg Whitman Holds Press Event, Refuses to Answer Questions –

Reporters Shooed Out As Security Blocks Cameras

Meg Whitman, the billionaire former EBay executive who is seeking the GOP nomination for governor of California, has fumbled again — this time by badly abusing the trust of some of the state’s top political reporters.

Here’s how Carla Marinucci, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, described it:

Press shy GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman found herself challenged by reporters today after she announced an “open press” stop in Oakland, then refused to take questions the press — which was also barred from covering her tour of the port’s Union Pacific facility.

Reporters from Bay Area media outlets — TV, print and radio — turned up for Whitman’s advertised campaign stop in Oakland, where the former eBay CEO had announced a campaign stop and press event.

But once at the Union Pacific Railroad site, the assembled reporters were not allowed to view her tour — and herded into a holding room instead.

Full Story: Pensito Review.

Enough Glowing Comparisons, Glenn Beck’s Tea Party Is Heir to John Birch Society

The Tea Party that worships Sarah Palin and screams for Barack Obama’s birth certificate doesn’t merit comparison to positive social movements of the 1960s.

There is a fresh interpretive fad in the young field of Tea Party Studies: The New Right of 2010 as the New Left of the 1960s.

According to this nascent meme, today’s conservative grassroots holds strong echoes of earlier radicalism on the left. The Tea Party movement that worships Sarah Palin and screams for Barack Obama’s birth certificate is, in this view, more than just the latest herpetic outbreak of Richard Hofstadter’s paranoid “pseudo-conservatism.” It is a reincarnation of the New Left and 1960s counterculture. The Tea Partiers, it is becoming fashionable to argue, are the heirs not just of the John Birch Society and the young Barry Goldwater, but also of Students for a Democratic Society and the young Abbie Hoffman.

If this analogy smells suspect, it’s for good reason. Yet it appears to be gaining traction, especially among a certain breed of moderate with confused understandings of Tea Party conservatism, the New Left, and ’60s counterculture. In late February, Michael Lind wrote a Salon piece in which he claimed, “The tea partiers are the hippies of our time…In Glenn Beck, the countercultural right has found its own Abbie Hoffman.”

Full Story: Enough Glowing Comparisons, Glenn Beck’s Tea Party Is Heir to John Birch Society | News & Politics | AlterNet.

Ignoring His Own Votes, Bond Claims Reconciliation ‘Cannot’ Be Used For ‘Major’ Legislation

Repeating conservative lies about reconciliation, Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell today that reconciliation for health care reform “procedurally cannot be done.” Claiming it was never used for major legislation without “overwhelming bipartisan support,” Bond predicted the Senate will ultimately not be able to pass the health care bill through the reconciliation process:

BOND: Well, first of all the president shouldn’t get his allies to cram through on reconciliation, something to which the American people overwhelmingly object. They object to reconciliation. It was never meant to pass major substantive changes, whether they are trying to make a bad bill slightly less worse. No matter how much you put on the outhouse, it would still smell bad.

MITCHELL: Well, that may be a great Missouri expression but that same outhouse was used for the bush tax cuts and for other major legislation in republican years. why shouldn’t the democrats do exactly what the republicans have been doing?

BOND: Major legislation was passed on reconciliation. Everything from the civil rights to social security passed, overwhelming bipartisan support. Reconciliation was meant to deal only with revenue issues, like — dealing with taxes and spending. Not making substantive changes, which the Speaker is trying to convince the house democrats will be made. They will not be made because procedurally it cannot be done.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Ignoring His Own Votes, Bond Claims Reconciliation ‘Cannot’ Be Used For ‘Major’ Legislation.

Mukasey calls Liz Cheney’s ‘Al-Qaeda 7′ ad ‘shoddy and dangerous.’

Yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) joined a growing chorus of conservatives condemning the McCarthy-like tactics of Keep America Safe, the new group led by Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney, which recently released an ad questioning the loyalties of Justice Department lawyers who were once involved in representing al-Qaeda terror suspects. Today in the Wall Street Journal — without mentioning Cheney, Kristol, their group, or the ad — former Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey denounced their campaign:

Most recently, lawyers now employed at the Justice Department who, while in private practice, volunteered to represent suspected terrorist detainees, or argued legal positions supporting various rights of such detainees, have been portrayed as in-house counsel to al Qaeda.

This is all of a piece, and what it is a piece of is something both shoddy and dangerous. A lawyer who represents a party in a contested matter has an ethical obligation to make any and all tenable legal arguments that will help that party.

Full Story: Think Progress » Mukasey calls Liz Cheney’s ‘Al-Qaeda 7′ ad ‘shoddy and dangerous.’.

OPS: All of the Reichwingers trashing Liz Cheney aren’t’ doing it because of their love of Democracy, The Rule of Law, or the Constitution. There has to be some other reason that involves their own fear of something

Beck: The Census Is The Government’s Attempt To ‘Increase Slavery’

The Census is a popular topic of right-wing conspiracy theories and Fox News host Glenn Beck spent a good portion of his radio show today fear-mongering about it. Going through the form, he determined that the government doesn’t have the right to ask any of the questions — except for the first one inquiring about many people live in your home.

He took particular issue with a question asking for the respondent’s race. But after Beck’s co-host pointed out that the question has been part of the Census since the Founding Fathers’ time, Beck twisted the three-fifths law to claim that the Census is now breeding slavery:

BECK: Why were they asking the race question, you said when, in 1790? … Right, they want to know, do you count as three-fifths? Do you count at all? So, you have to know how many slaves did you have? People find that offensive today because the idea was, if we’re going to count, we want to know how many are here for services etc. etc. and slaves would get less. Well that’s not right. One. One. ‘I’m not three-fifths, I’m one. Whites are not worth than me.’ Now reverse it, why are they asking this question today?

Full Story: Think Progress » Beck: The Census Is The Government’s Attempt To ‘Increase Slavery’.

Romney: ‘I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh.’

Romney: ‘I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh.’

Last month, Rush Limbaugh criticized Mitt Romney for endorsing Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) in his campaign against J.D. Hayworth in Arizona’s GOP Senate primary. “I think he’s risking his career over a guy, endorsing McCain, who is so out of step with what’s going on right now,” Limbaugh complained. Newsmax asked Romney about Limbaugh’s criticism in a new interview. But while Romney (surprisingly) stuck to his position, he couldn’t help but seize the moment to pander to the Limbaugh crowd:

ROMNEY: Well, you know, I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh on topics but on this one I do. I know Senator McCain. [...] It may not be right for me politically but frankly, the country’s in a posture right now. We face such challenges right now. It’s time for people to do what they think is right for the country and to spend less time about what may or may not be good for them politically.

Full Story: Think Progress » Romney: ‘I find it hard to disagree with Rush Limbaugh.’.

The Sky is Falling — on John Bolton

John Bolton has made a cottage industry out of trying to scare people about nuclear weapons. Contrary to the subtitle of Dr. Strangelove – “how I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb” – Bolton’s motto seems to be “why you need to start worrying and embrace the bomb.” He reiterates this point at every opportunity, most recently in a piece published in the Washington Examiner. But does he really believe that the Obama administration’s modest but essential first steps towards reducing global nuclear arsenals are putting us in grave danger? I seriously doubt it.

Bolton believes in maintaining the status quo, a world in which the United States and Russia possess 95% of the world’s arsenal of 20,000-plus nuclear weapons and it’s not worth even trying to use diplomacy to reduce those arsenals, much less those of other nuclear powers. In his most recent piece, he even appears to dismiss President Obama’s pledge to secure “all vulnerable nuclear materials in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists.” What’s Bolton’s logic here? Do we need to leave loose nukes and unsecured bomb-making materials lying around to show we’re tough? Or is he just so intent on opposing anything that the Obama administration is for that he will oppose even the most effective policies available for reducing the nuclear danger?

What are Bolton’s alternatives to diplomacy? Bombing Iran? He has implied as much, even though the effects of such an action would most likely be to undermine the Iranian opposition, accelerate Tehran’s efforts to seek a nuclear weapon, and sow further chaos in a region that can ill afford it. Invading North Korea? Even he doesn’t seem willing to go that far over the top.

Full Story: The Sky is Falling — on John Bolton | TPMCafe.

Crist: Rubio May Wax His Back, Charge It To Florida (VIDEO)

Rubio spokesman Alex Burgos responded to Crist’s allegation that Rubio may be charging the state of Florida for back waxing sessions:

Last night, Charlie Crist gave an 11-minute nationally televised interview in which he made multiple references to back waxing, but not a single mention of fighting the liberal Obama agenda. This speaks volumes about what his priorities are.

Charlie Crist is a desperate politician whose record of supporting the failed $787 billion stimulus, bailouts and tax increases is being rejected by Floridians with every passing day. Today, Charlie Crist is the sitting governor of the fourth-largest state who has fallen so far and so fast that he’s now reduced himself to making up stories about his opponent’s grooming habits.

Full Story: Crist: Rubio May Wax His Back, Charge It To Florida (VIDEO).

Limbaugh vows to flee the country if health care passes.

Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh has been one of health care reform’s most vociferous opponents, warning that “[h]uman beings will die earlier than normal” under the “freedom killing” and “life threatening” plan, and calling for it to be “aborted.” Yesterday, Limbaugh put his money where his mouth is, saying that if health care passes and all his fears are realized, he’ll leave the country:

CALLER: If the health care bill passes, where would you go for health care yourself? And the second part of that is, what would happen to the doctors, do they have to participate in the federal program, or could they opt out of it? [...]

LIMBAUGH: My guess in even in Canada and even in the UK, doctors have opted out. And once they’ve opted, they can’t see anybody Medicare, Medicaid, or what will become the exchanges. They have to have a clientele of private patients that will pay them a retainer and it’ll be a very small practice. I don’t know if that’s been outlawed in the Senate bill. I don’t know. I’ll just tell you this, if this passes and it’s five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented — I am leaving the country. I’ll go to Costa Rica.

Listen here:

Full Story: Think Progress » Limbaugh vows to flee the country if health care passes..

OPS:  BONUS!!!!!

GOP: Law banning child abuse in schools will lead to ‘government takeover’

A proposed law designed to prevent child abuse in schools has been lauded by children’s protection advocates, and slammed by House Republicans as an unnecessary expansion of federal government power.

The House of Representatives last week passed the Keeping All Students Safe Act, which for the first time sets minimum national standards for practices such as the use “seclusion rooms” or forced restraint of unruly students.

The bill would ban the use of “mechanical restraints” such as tying children to furniture, and would allow seclusion and physical restraint to be used only when there is “imminent danger of injury and only when imposed by trained staff.”

Full Story: GOP: Law banning child abuse in schools will lead to ‘government takeover’ | Raw Story.

Conservative Hall of Shame: 8 Anti-Gay Politicians and Demagogues Who Got Caught Having Gay Sex

The state senator arrested leaving a gay club joined a long and illustrious tradition of double-talking, double-living conservative figures.

“I’m gay. Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long,” said Republican Roy Ashburn, breaking the week of silence following his arrest in an interview Monday with conservative KERN (AM1180) talk radio host Inga Barks. Ashburn had hosted a talk radio show at the same station. KERN deleted his DJ page and his show’s description page from their radio station’s website immediately following Ashburn’s arrest.

At 2 AM, March 3 2010, the California state senator was arrested for DUI. Ashburn, a divorced father of four, is well known for his outspoken anti-gay politics. He issued a standard politician’s apology following his arrest:

“I am deeply sorry for my actions and offer no excuse for my poor judgment. I accept complete responsibility for my conduct and am prepared to accept the consequences for what I did. I am also truly sorry for the impact this incident will have on those who support and trust me – my family, my constituents, my friends, and my colleagues in the Senate.”

Full Story: Conservative Hall of Shame: 8 Anti-Gay Politicians and Demagogues Who Got Caught Having Gay Sex | Sex & Relationships | AlterNet.

Republican Senator Roy Ashburn: ‘I’m Gay’

State Sen. Roy Ashburn (R-Calif.), the fierce opponent of gay rights who was arrested last week for drunk driving after leaving a gay nightclub, confirmed in a radio interview Monday that he is gay.

“I’m gay,” Ashburn told local radio host Inga Barks before returning to the Senate for the first time since his arrest. “Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.”

Ashburn, who is divorced, claimed his crusade against proposed gay-rights laws in the California statehouse stemmed from his desire to vote the way his constituents wanted.

Full Story: Roy Ashburn: ‘I’m Gay’.

Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice

On his daily radio and television shows last week, Fox News personality Glenn Beck set out to convince his audience that “social justice,” the term many Christian churches use to describe their efforts to address poverty and human rights, is a “code word” for communism and Nazism. Beck urged Christians to discuss the term with their priests and to leave their churches if leaders would not reconsider their emphasis on social justice.

“I’m begging you, your right to religion and freedom to exercise religion and read all of the passages of the Bible as you want to read them and as your church wants to preach them . . . are going to come under the ropes in the next year. If it lasts that long it will be the next year. I beg you, look for the words ’social justice’ or ‘economic justice’ on your church Web site. If you find it, run as fast as you can. Social justice and economic justice, they are code words. Now, am I advising people to leave their church? Yes!”

Later, Beck held up cards, one with a hammer and sickle and other with a swastika. “Communists are on the left, and the Nazis are on the right. That’s what people say. But they both subscribe to one philosophy, and they flew one banner. . . . But on each banner, read the words, here in America: ’social justice.’ They talked about economic justice, rights of the workers, redistribution of wealth, and surprisingly, democracy.”

Full Story: Glenn Beck Urges Listeners to Leave Churches That Preach Social Justice — Politics Daily.

Graham Falsely Claims GOP Has Only Used Reconciliation With ‘Bipartisan Support’

With President Obama endorsing the use of the budget reconciliation process in the Senate to finish health care reform, Republicans have flown into overdrive to discredit the simple majority procedural tool. Use of reconciliation would be “ripping a piece of the fabric of America off,” said Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) on Saturday.

On CBS News’ Face The Nation today, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) declared that use of reconciliation “would be catastrophic.” Sensitive to charges of hypocrisy over the fact that Republicans have pushed legislation through the reconciliation process more often than Democrats have, Graham claimed that every time the GOP used reconciliation the bills “received bipartisan support”:

GRAHAM: Well, reconciliation will be used to clean up the Senate bill to make House members happy. House members are going to vote for the Senate bill and they hate it. And the Senate and the president saying, OK, we’re going to change what you don’t like.

And when it comes to the Republicans, you all don’t matter anymore. You just need a simple majority. So reconciliation will empower a bill that was very partisan. We’ve had reconciliation votes, but all of them had received bipartisan support. The least was 12 when we did reconciliation with tax cuts.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Graham Falsely Claims GOP Has Only Used Reconciliation With ‘Bipartisan Support’.

Palin Admits To Travelling To Canada For Health Care

In November of 2009, Sarah Palin — who is always suggesting that health care reform will lead to socialism — insisted that Canada needs to reform its health care system to “let the private sector take over.” But this past Saturday in Calgary, Canada — at “her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska last summer” — Palin seemed to deviate from her fear of socialized Canadian medicine when she revealed that her family may have benefited from the Canadian system:

PALIN: We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada. And I think now, isn’t that ironic?

This isn’t the first time Palin highlighted the difficulty of obtaining affordable health care in America. During the presidential campaign, Palin discussed how her and husband Todd had “gone though periods of our life here with paying out-of-pocket for health coverage until Todd and I both landed a couple of good union jobs.” At the Vice Presidential debate, Palin recalled times in her marriage “in our past where we didn’t have health insurance and we know what other Americans are going through as they sit around the kitchen table and try to figure out how are they going to pay out-of-pocket for health care?”

Full Story: Think Progress » Palin Admits To Travelling To Canada For Health Care.

Sen. Graham claims use of reconciliation for health reform ‘would be catastrophic’

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has either a tack for exaggeration or a faltering memory, if his conclusion about the use of reconciliation during a Sunday television appearance is any indicator of such things.

His comments on CBS’ Face the Nation seemed to echo other Republicans who’ve been attempting to frame the 51-vote parliamentary device as some kind of radical usurpation of democracy, almost akin to “ripping a piece of the fabric of America off,” according to Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC).

“It would be catastrophic,” Graham claimed, comparing the pending reconciliation vote on health reform to Republicans triggering the so-called “nuclear option” to ban filibusters over President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Full Story: Sen. Graham claims use of reconciliation for health reform ‘would be catastrophic’ | Raw Story.

OPS;  Catastrophic for the future of the Republican party – for sure.

RNC Fallout: ‘Ashamed’ donor closes checkbook

A prominent Evangelical figure and Republican donor says he will end his contributions to the organized Republican Party in reaction to the leaked fundraising presentation that advised using “fear” to solicit contributions and displayed an image of President Obama as the Joker from Batman.

Mark DeMoss, who heads a major Christian public relations firm in Atlanta and served as a liaison to the Evangelical community for Mitt Romney in 2008, wrote Chairman Michael Steele yesterday that he was “ashamed” of the presentation, calling depictions of Obama, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Majority Leader Harry Reid “shameful, immature and uncivil, at best.”

“I’m afraid the presentation is representative of a culture and mindset within the Republican National Committee,” DeMoss, a past member of the RNC's “Eagle” program for top donors who gave the party $15,000 in 2008, wrote in the letter to Steele, which he shared with POLITICO. (DeMoss hasn't given this cycle.) “Consequently, I will no longer contribute to any fundraising entity of our Party—but will contribute only to individual candidates I choose to support.”

Full Story: RNC Fallout: ‘Ashamed’ donor closes checkbook – Ben Smith – POLITICO.com.

Indiana faces wave of ’sovereign citizens’ who declare independence

An increasing number of Indiana residents are declaring themselves “sovereign citizens” and personally seceding from the United States, says a report from ABC channel 6 in Indianapolis.

By doing so, residents contend that they no longer have to pay taxes, claiming their homes as embassies and using identification cards that show them as diplomats, 6News’ Rafael Sanchez reported.

Indiana authorities call such proclamations both illegitimate and illegal. About 10 people every month ask the state to put a seal on a document so that they can claim freedom from taxes.

Channel 6 profiled Donald Moore, a father of seven who has made himself “official- looking” identification that he says exempts him from U.S. laws and U.S. taxes by making him an “ambassador” to the United States.

The ID card “gives me diplomatic immunity,” Moore said. “The way I understand it, the federal government is incorporated, and all the states are incorporated. This takes me out of the corporation.”

Full Story: Indiana faces wave of ’sovereign citizens’ who declare independence | Raw Story.

Money worries curb GOP optimism

Republicans are feeling pretty good about the midterms. Prognosticators don’t laugh anymore when they talk about taking back Congress.

But while wind at one’s back is a good thing, cash in the bank would be better, and on that score Republicans are lagging behind. Their candidates have raised less than half the $84 million that experts estimate it will take to seriously threaten the Democratic majority in the House. The situation at the National Republican Congressional Committee is even bleaker.

In 2008, the committee spent more than $34 million on advertising and other assistance to candidates, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Today, the NRCC has a grand total of $4 million in the bank — and that is after one of its best fundraising months. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, by contrast, has about $18 million.

Full Story: Money worries curb GOP optimism – Jeanne Cummings – POLITICO.com.

OPS: BS. This is a sympathy tactic. The Corporations will give them all they need

McCain’s DADT Support Letter Signed By A Bunch Of Dead Guys

On the matter of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) once promised that he would listen to “leaders in the military,” telling people that the “day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, Senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it.” But when those military leaders came to him and told him it was time to change the policy, McCain retreated from his previous pledge, because it turns out he gets to pick and choose which military leaders he gets to heed.

And in this case, McCain has chosen the signatories of a letter signed by “over a thousand retired and flag general officers,” among other folks. But, as noted by Amanada Terkel, that letter turns out to be something of an exercise in ghost whispering:

…a new Servicemembers United report obtained in advance by DC Agenda severely undermines the legitimacy of this letter. Some of the problems:

Full Story: McCain’s DADT Support Letter Signed By A Bunch Of Dead Guys.

Did secretive religious group subsidize Congressman’s rent?

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI) has been making headlines recently by threatening to torpedo health care reform unless the bill excludes coverage for abortion.

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow believes that Stupak is just looking for publicity with “this antiabortion stunt” and that “it is not rational to think that the Democratic-led House and the Democratic-led Senate are going to let him use health reform as a way to effectively ban abortion.”

She points out, however, that Stupak’s new notoriety means that he may “end up having to answer for some of the unexplained things that no one cared to have [him] explain before.”

Full Story: Did secretive religious group subsidize Congressman’s rent? | Raw Story.

Conservative author: Liz Cheney ‘worse than Joe McCarthy’

Liz Cheney is used to drawing the ire of liberals, but her latest attack campaign against the Obama administration has conservatives likening her to one of the most notorious political villains in the last century.

Cheney’s political advocacy group “Keep America Safe” this week launched an ad suggesting that a number of Justice Department officials are terrorist sympathizers for having represented detainees against illegal treatment by the Bush’s administration. The spot labels them the “Al-Qaeda 7.”

The Huffington Post’s Sam Stein spoke to attorney and author Paul Mirengoff, a fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute, who today blogged that the attack was “vicious” and “unfounded.”

Full Story: Conservative author: Liz Cheney ‘worse than Joe McCarthy’ | Raw Story.

Pentagon Shooter Was Right-Wing, Anti-Government Terrorist

Last night, a California man armed with two semiautomatic weapons and “many magazines” of ammunition opened fire on police officers at the entrance to the Pentagon, wounding two before being killed by police. The shooter, 36-year-old John Patrick Bedell, was “well dressed in a suit” and “very calm,” walking “very directly to the officers” before engaging them, a police spokesman said.

Bedell “appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings,” the Christian Science Monitor reports, who traveled from California specifically to attack the Pentagon. While police were hesitant to assign a motive, “writings by someone with his same name and birth date, posted on the Internet, express ill will toward the government and the armed forces and question whether Washington itself might have been behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.”

In one posting, Bedell ranted against “big government.” In another, he wrote, “I am determined to see that justice is served in the death of Colonel James Sabow” — a Marine whose suicide has been the subject of conspiracy theories — because it would be a “step toward establishing the truth of events such as the September 11 demolitions.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Pentagon Shooter Was Right-Wing, Anti-Government Terrorist.

After Supporting Medicare Cuts Through Reconciliation, Maverick McCain Now Opposes Them

Last night, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) introduced legislation preventing Democrats from using reconciliation to change Medicare spending. If adopted, the amendment would prohibit lawmakers from making changes to a program that makes up some 20% of the federal budget through the reconciliation process:

SA 3427. Mr. MCCAIN (for himself and Mr. GRAHAM) proposed an amendment to amendment SA 3336 proposed by Mr. BAUCUS to the bill H.R. 4213, to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend certain expiring provisions, and for other purposes; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following: SEC. lll. PROTECTING MEDICARE. Section 310(g) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 641(g)) is amended by inserting before the period the following: ‘‘or to the medicare program established by title XVIII of such Act’’.

Full Story: Think Progress » After Supporting Medicare Cuts Through Reconciliation, Maverick McCain Now Opposes Them.

ANti Gay Republican Senator – Caught Being Gay

Entering the Larry Craig Pantheon

It’s no good for a family values Republican to get picked up on a DUI. But substantially worse to get picked up for a DUI after leaving a gay nightclub with an unidentified man in a state vehicle.

That’s the sorry state that befell California state Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) early Wednesday.

[[SLIDESHOW: Greatest GOP Sex Scandals]]

In better days Ashburn, a fierce opponent of gay rights, was fighting marriage equality and organizing anti-gay marriage rallies as part of his “Traditional Family Values” campaign.

Full Story: Entering the Larry Craig Pantheon | Talking Points Memo.

Bachmann Peddles False Right-Wing Rumor Accusing Obama Of Selling Judgeship To Win Health Care Votes

Yesterday, the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack received a press release from the White House announcing that President Obama had nominated Scott Matheson, Jr — a former Utah Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate — to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. McCormack noticed that Matherson’s brother, Rep. Jim Matheson (D-UT), was one of ten Blue Dog Democrats invited to the White House that evening and naturally assumed that Obama nominated Scott Matherson to pressure his brother to vote for health care reform. “So, Scott Matheson appears to have the credentials to be a judge, but was his nomination used to buy off his brother’s vote?,” McCormack asked in his late-evening blog post.

Less than an hour later, Politico picked up the story and by 9 pm, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) was calling for an investigation of the White House on Larry King Live:

BACHMANN: Because today, the president offered a judgeship to the brother of a member of Congress. Tonight, the president has that same member of Congress at the White House, pressuring him to change his vote on health care. We need to have an — an independent investigation into this matter, because we’ve seen the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase the union loophole. And now, the big question is, is the White House trading health care votes for judgeships? This is a pretty serious issue, Larry. …If you offer a judgeship to a brother of a member of Congress and the same night you have that member at the White House, where the president’s twisting his arm to ask that member of Congress to switch his vote on health care?

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Bachmann Peddles False Right-Wing Rumor Accusing Obama Of Selling Judgeship To Win Health Care Votes.

Erick Erickson: ‘GOP Does Not Want A Black Man In The Senate’

Despite paeans to diversity, the Republican Party clearly does not want a black man — or any minority candidate — in the Senate, leading conservative blogger Erick Erickson wrote Wednesday.

“It is starting to get really disgusting,” Erickson, the editor-in-chief of the right-wing site RedState wrote. “First, the GOP said it needed diversity and chose the orange Charlie Crist over the Latino, Marco Rubio. Then the GOP said it needed to do better outreach in the black community, so it ignored Michael Williams in Texas and tried to find a rich white guy to run for the Senate. Now that Kay Bailey Hutchison has lost the Texas primary to Rick Perry without even making it into a runoff, the Washington, D.C. Republicans are scared to death a black man might actually get appointed to the Senate as a Republican.”

Even South Carolina GOP Sen. Jim DeMint supports Michael Williams, Erickson noted. “This is really sick,” he wrote.

Full Story: Erick Erickson: ‘GOP Does Not Want A Black Man In The Senate’.

OPS:  So you can imagine what they think about a Black Man in the White House

Ronald Reagan $50 Bill? Congressman Wants Money REDRAWN

A U.S. congressman from North Carolina wants the $50 bill redrawn to feature the face of former President Ronald Reagan.

Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry wants Congress to tell the U.S Treasury to replace former President Ulysses S. Grant on the bill. McHenry announced his bill Tuesday. He has 13 Republican co-sponsors.

Grant was a Union general during the Civil War who led the North to victory and later became the nation’s 18th president.

Full Story: Ronald Reagan $50 Bill? Congressman Wants Money REDRAWN.

OPS: Hey $50 is the new $20 thanks to Ronnie  so why not? No, seriously folks this clown pushed this country over the edge we should be making dart boards of his face not putting him on our money. Problem is that Obama is enough of a pussy to let them do it.

Maddow Slams Orrin Hatch For Lying, Washington Post For Printing It (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow took aim at Sen. Orrin Hatch Tuesday for lying about health care reform and reconciliation in an op-ed written by the senator and published by The Washington Post. Maddow called Hatch a hypocrite and wondered aloud why the Post published his falsehoods:

Maddow:”[Hatch's op-ed] has so many blantant, out-right falsehoods in it that It made me wonder if maybe there’s a deal or something. Where if maybe you’re a United States Senator who’s been in office for 33 years like Orrin Hatch has, you just don’t get fact-checked anymore in the Washington Post. They just allow you to print whatever you want. Is that the rule? ‘Cause if it isn’t the rule, than how do you explain this?”

Sen. Hatch’s column, “Reconciliation on health care would be an assault to the democratic process,” argued against the use of reconciliation, a simple majority voting procedure, to “to jam through [health care] legislation.” Maddow noted that Sen. Hatch used reconciliation no less than 10 times over the past 21 years.

WATCH:

Full Story: Maddow Slams Orrin Hatch For Lying, Washington Post For Printing It (VIDEO).

Despite 935 documented lies, Rove book insists Iraq war was justified

Blames Democrats for Katrina aftermath

Republican strategist Karl Rove says in a new memoir that the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq badly damaged the Bush administration’s credibility and led to dwindling public support for the war.

The former White House political adviser blames himself for not pushing back against claims that President George W. Bush had taken the country to war under false pretenses, calling it one of the worst mistakes he made during the Bush presidency. The president, he adds, did not knowingly mislead the American public about the existence of such weapons.

Full Story: Despite 935 documented lies, Rove book insists Iraq war was justified | Raw Story.

FLASHBACK: Bunning Enthusiastically Backed Extending Unemployment Benefits That Weren’t Paid For In 2003

In recent days, Sen. Jim Bunning has been obstructing the passage of a bill that would extend unemployment benefits for nearly a million Americans, claiming that they aren’t “paid for.”

But in 2003, Bunning not only voted for an unemployment extension but also put out a glowing press release lauding the extension of unemployment benefits as “hopeful news for our most needy families in Kentucky“:

Full Story: Think Progress » FLASHBACK: Bunning Enthusiastically Backed Extending Unemployment Benefits That Weren’t Paid For In 2003.

Former Texas GOP chairman: Bush ‘was a lousy president of the United States.’

Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Pauken, a former chairman of the Texas Republican Party, has a new book called “Bringing America Home,” a harsh criticism of how conservatives have squandered the “political capital” built up by Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. He has particularly harsh words for his state’s former governor, whom he has known since he was a “young man”:

George W. Bush might have made a terrific Major League Baseball commissioner, but he was a lousy president of the United States. [...]

Full Story: Think Progress » Former Texas GOP chairman: Bush ‘was a lousy president of the United States.’.

OPS:  They’ll give him a Time-out for this!

After initially applauding Bunning’s obstruction, Cornyn now runs away.

This week, there has been a significant public backlash against Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY), the obstructionist who has been blocking the temporary extension of unemployment benefits. The Republican Party is also coming under fire for largely staying away from criticizing Bunning (with the exception of Sens. Susan Colllins and James Inhofe). Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) was doing damage control today, insisting that Bunning was just “one senator. This does not represent the position of the caucus.” On Friday, however, Cornyn was singing a very different tune, and actually took to the Senate floor to laud Bunning:

Full Story: Think Progress » After initially applauding Bunning’s obstruction, Cornyn now runs away..

Limbaugh compares Pelosi to a terrorist for saying passing health care is more important than re-election.

On ABC’s This Week last Sunday, host Elizabeth Vargas asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) what she would say to her members “who are in real fear of losing their seats in November” when it comes time for the House to vote on health care reform again. Pelosi replied that “we are not here just to self perpetuate our service in Congress. We’re here to do the job for the American people.” The comment was interpreted as Pelosi saying that lawmakers should sacrifice their jobs for health care reform. On his radio show yesterday, Rush Limbaugh took that a step further, saying that “Mullah Nancy Bin Pelosi” was “no different” than those who “convince all these people to put bombs on their kids.” Listen here:

Full Story: Think Progress » Limbaugh compares Pelosi to a terrorist for saying passing health care is more important than re-election..

Hatch Forgets About The Bush Years, Claims Reconciliation Is Meant To ‘Balance The Budget’

Following the election of Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) in the Massachusetts special election, Democrats have been discussing ways to pass a comprehensive health care bill that will not be killed by a GOP-led filibuster. One idea that has been floated is for the House to pass the Senate’s health care bill and also immediately amend the bill to make it more progressive and acceptable to members in the House via a reconciliation bill, which requires only a simple majority vote in the Senate to pass.

Today, in the Washington Post, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has written an op-ed condemning the use of reconciliation for health care, saying that it would be “inappropriate” to use the process, claiming that it was “designed to balance the federal budget.” While admitting that “both parties have used the process” in the past to pass legislation such as the Welfare and Medicaid Reform Act of 1996, he claims that using reconciliation would amount to an “abuse that stifles dissent and badly undermines our constitutional checks and balances.” Yet what Hatch fails to mention is that he has voted for bills passed through reconciliation every single time a bill was offered through the process during the Bush years, including to pass massive tax cuts for the wealthy that served to do anything but “balance the federal budget”:

Full Story: Think Progress » Hatch Forgets About The Bush Years, Claims Reconciliation Is Meant To ‘Balance The Budget’.

Sen. Bunning Says He’s Single-Handedly Halted Unemployment Benefits Because They’re Not Paid For

– But He Voted for Bush’s Unfunded Tax Cuts and Wars and Against Pay-Go

More GOP hypocrisy. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will not be receiving unemployment checks, at least in the short term, and thousands more will find themselves without health insurance coverage — all because Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky, is having a temper tantrum on the national stage.

Bunning says he opposes extending benefits to the unemployed during an economic crisis he helped create on principle.

“If we can’t find $10 billion to pay for something that we all support, we will never pay for anything on the floor of this U.S. Senate,” he said…

“We cannot keep adding to the debt,” he said. “It’s over $14 trillion and going up fast.”

But that is a lie.

Full Story: Pensito Review.

How Reagan ruined conservatism

Battling my way through Sarah Palin’s book, Going Rogue, last weekend, I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms Palin’s book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favourite to win the Republican party nomination in 2012?

And then I realised – the rot set in with Ronald Reagan.

This might seem an odd conclusion, since President Reagan is a conservative hero who won two presidential elections. But the ideas that are now known as “Reaganism” are, in fact, profoundly subversive of some of the most important conservative values. Traditional conservatives disdain populism and respect knowledge. They believe in balancing the government’s books. And they are pragmatists who are suspicious of ideology. Reagan debased all these ideas – and modern American conservatism is still suffering the consequences.

Full Story: FT.com / Columnists / Gideon Rachman – How Reagan ruined conservatism.

GOP Sen. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job

A debate on the Senate floor Monday over unemployment compensation crystallized, at least for a moment, the divide between the two parties in Washington.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona, the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting “because people are being paid even though they’re not working.”

Unemployment insurance “doesn’t create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,” Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.

Full Story: GOP Sen. Kyl: Unemployment Benefits Make People Not Want To Get A Job.

Graham says GOP should stop demonizing climate change: You’re risking ‘your party’s future with younger people.’

Last week, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) spoke with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to discuss clean energy legislation. During the interview, Graham warned his party that it will fall into irrelevancy if it continues to embrace climate change deniers:

I have been to enough college campuses to know if you are 30 or younger this climate issue is not a debate. It’s a value. These young people grew up with recycling and a sensitivity to the environment — and the world will be better off for it. They are not brainwashed. … From a Republican point of view, we should buy into it and embrace it and not belittle them. You can have a genuine debate about the science of climate change, but when you say that those who believe it are buying a hoax and are wacky people you are putting at risk your party’s future with younger people.

Full Story: Think Progress » Graham says GOP should stop demonizing climate change: You’re risking ‘your party’s future with younger people.’.

OPS: Sociopathic Cult member to the point of suicide.  He’s worried about the Party’s future, not the Planet’s or his grand children’s.

Mitch McConnell lies again in healthcare interview

Mitch McConnell who brazenly misrepresented and lied about polls during the healthcare summit was at it again in an interview with Candy Crowley on CNN.

Emboldened by the fact that Crowley was not going to challenge him, McConnell repeated the lie that the American people by large margins rejected the Democrats health plan when in fact the polls show that by large margins the American people support and want a public option which is a Democratic initiative.

McConnell also dragged out the inept Gallup poll that asked people if reconciliation should be used to pass healthcare reform. The question did not specifically ask people if they supported using reconciliation to pass a public option — the most important and contentious aspect of reform and the one part of healthcare reform that polls better than anything else. Instead it asked if people supported using reconciliation to pass the current senate bill, a bill that most Democrats in and out of congress called “disappointing” and Tom Harkin said ” was better than nothing”.

Full Story: Mitch McConnell lies again in healthcare interview.

Cantor: We need ‘to get people more uninsured’

Republican House Whip Eric Cantor may have made a Freudian slip Sunday when he told NBC’s David Gregory that the GOP wants to “get people more uninsured.”

Gregory asked a panel to comment on what he called the fundamental tension of the health reform debate.

“The tension seems to be that individual elements are popular. You can talk to people who want better health care, better access to health care, reform. But there’s a lot of distrust that government can deliver this kind of care and handle it well.”

“The reality is Republicans do care about health care,” Cantor replied. “We want to address the first and most foundational element which is cost. Because if we can bring down cost, more people can access care. But we also know that there is something we can do to get people more uninsured.”

Full Story: Cantor: We need ‘to get people more uninsured’ | Raw Story.

Glenn Beck, Radical Hit Man for the Tea Partiers, Is Breeding Potential Violence

I wish this were just a bad joke, but Beck isn’t messing around — he’s painting bull’s-eyes on the backs of progressives.

Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy rode to power in the late 1940s by claiming the government was riddled with Communists bent on destroying our way of life. Many Americans, worried about the Cold War and our nuclear-armed adversaries, found his fear-mongering credible. Institutions large and small purged themselves of anyone suspected of having been a member or even a sympathizer of the Communist Party. It didn’t matter if the suspicions were based on anything real, and even if they were, if the dalliance had happened 20 years earlier.

The FBI fanned the flames by collecting dossiers on tens of thousands of Americans and then privately leaking damaging information to employers. Blacklists were common. Due process and free speech were violated repeatedly and careers were destroyed. It was one of the darkest periods of our history. McCarthy went one step too far when he claimed the Army was coddling scores of communists. The televised Army-McCarthy hearings finally brought him down. He was censured by the Senate and died in a drunken stupor. But McCarthyism — virulent red-baiting — lived on for many more years.

Can we expect a replay?

Full Story: Glenn Beck, Radical Hit Man for the Tea Partiers, Is Breeding Potential Violence | | AlterNet.

McCain: It Wasn’t Just Me — America Was ‘Misled’ On TARP (VIDEO)

Speaking on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) repeated his claim that he — and the entire country — was lied to about the TARP program in 2007.

Asked about the claim by host David Gregory, McCain was adamant. “We were all misled” by Bush administration Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, McCain said.

Video of the exchange, and the transcript, after the jump.

Video:

Full Story: McCain: It Wasn’t Just Me — America Was ‘Misled’ On TARP (VIDEO) | TPMDC.

OPS: Grampy and a few teabaggers must have been the only ones that didn’t realize that TARP would go to banks. He’s sinking farther into senility

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: To call Trent Franks ‘Lizard-Brain’ would be an insult to all reptiles

SD House of Representatives: Astrology can explain Climate Change

MSNB’s Rachel Maddow: To call Trent Frank’s Lizard-Brain’ would be an insult to all reptiles

The entire segment can be seen here

Full Story: YouTube – MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: To call Trent Franks ‘Lizard-Brain’ would be an insult to all reptiles.

The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged

Frank Rich -

No one knows what history will make of the present — least of all journalists, who can at best write history’s sloppy first draft. But if I were to place an incautious bet on which political event will prove the most significant of February 2010, I wouldn’t choose the kabuki health care summit that generated all the ink and 24/7 cable chatter in Washington. I’d put my money instead on the murder-suicide of Andrew Joseph Stack III, the tax protester who flew a plane into an office building housing Internal Revenue Service employees in Austin, Tex., on Feb. 18. It was a flare with the dark afterlife of an omen.

What made that kamikaze mission eventful was less the deranged act itself than the curious reaction of politicians on the right who gave it a pass — or, worse, flirted with condoning it. Stack was a lone madman, and it would be both glib and inaccurate to call him a card-carrying Tea Partier or a “Tea Party terrorist.” But he did leave behind a manifesto whose frothing anti-government, anti-tax rage overlaps with some of those marching under the Tea Party banner. That rant inspired like-minded Americans to create instant Facebook shrines to his martyrdom. Soon enough, some cowed politicians, including the newly minted Tea Party hero Scott Brown, were publicly empathizing with Stack’s credo — rather than risk crossing the most unforgiving brigade in their base.

Full Story: Op-Ed Columnist – The Axis of the Obsessed and Deranged – NYTimes.com.

Despite Running A Health Industry ‘Trade Association,’ Gingrich Says He Will Not Register As A Lobbyist

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has founded several businesses, including a for-profit health care firm called the “Center for Health Transformation” (CHT) and a communications firm called the “Gingrich Group.” CHT serves approximately 94 health industry corporations and lobby groups, including health insurance (BlueCross BlueShield Association, WellPoint, AHIP, UnitedHealth), health IT (L-3 Enterprise, Microsoft, IBM), and pharmaceutical companies — with each paying up to $200,000 annually. And although CHT has no registered lobbyists or lobbyists on retainer, Gingrich has used his CHT business to promote his clients’ interests in Congress:

– Gingrich Meets With Lawmakers To Help Craft Specific Policy, Legislation: In March 2009, Gingrich met with Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) and other members of the GOP Doctors Caucus to help write conservative health reform alternative legislation. “Gingrich provided us with great insight as we work to craft health care solutions for the 21st Century,” proclaimed Gingrey after the meeting. As FireDogLake has reported, through his CHT firm, Gingrich wrote healthcare legislation introduced by Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA). Gingrich’s CHT also “consulted” with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) on health reform legislation that would deregulate the insurance industry. As the American Spectator reported, the Coburn-Ryan bill also contained the exact health IT proposals backed by Gingrich.

Full Story: Think Progress » Despite Running A Health Industry ‘Trade Association,’ Gingrich Says He Will Not Register As A Lobbyist.

Republicans Are Completely Silent When Millionairs & Billionairs Get Tax Cuts!

Sen Whitehouse

speech from the floor

Part 1

Part 2

GOP Rep: Blacks Worse Off Now Than Under Slavery (VIDEO)

Rep. Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, said on Friday that because of U.S. abortion policy, “far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.”

Franks made the comments in an interview with video blogger Mike Stark of StarkReports.com.

Slavery, said Franks, “is a crushing mark on America’s soul, yet today half of all black children are aborted. Half of all black children are aborted. Far more black children, far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.”

Putting aside whether it’s appropriate to define slavery as a “policy,” Franks is correct, according to a Guttmacher Institute study on the rate of abortions in the African-American community, but the same report found that the higher rate was directly related to lack of access to contraceptives.

Full Story: GOP Rep: Blacks Worse Off Now Than Under Slavery (VIDEO).

City removes trash cans, streetlights to save cash

Colorado Springs, Colorado (CNN) — If you come to a neighborhood park in Colorado Springs, plan on bringing your own trash bags.

To save money, the city has removed the trash cans.

Need to catch a bus? Don’t try on evenings or weekends. The city has cut that service, too.

And when the sun goes down, Colorado Springs is going to look a little bit dimmer. City crews are removing every third streetlight to save money on electricity and light bulbs.

Full Story: City removes trash cans, streetlights to save cash – CNN.com.

OPS:  Perfect – This Reich wing experimental suicide run will be fun to watch. I hope they keep going with this insanity LOL

Alleged Stanford fraud victims want money that was given to campaign committees

It’s bad enough for a politician or a party when a campaign contributor is accused of being a major league swindler. But what if the contributor’s victims also want their money back?

Several Democratic and Republican campaign committees in Washington have been hit with a highly unusual federal lawsuit demanding the return of $1.6 million in political contributions, which are linked to R. Allen Stanford and his firm, the Stanford Financial Group.

Ralph S. Janvey, a Dallas lawyer appointed as the receiver of Stanford’s estate, argues that the money, donated by Stanford or his associates, rightfully belongs to investors whom the financier is suspected of defrauding. The political committees “have no legitimate right to retain the funds, and the Receiver is entitled to the return of the funds for the benefit of the claimants injured by the fraud,” Janvey’s office said in a statement this week.

Full Story: Alleged Stanford fraud victims want money that was given to campaign committees – washingtonpost.com.

GOP Rep. Dean Heller claims extending unemployment benefits is creating ‘hobos.’

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is trying to pass an extension of unemployment benefits, but is facing resistance from Republicans who are throwing up procedural hurdles and trying to use the extension as leverage to push through a tax cut for the wealthiest families in the country. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) today questioned the necessity of an extension on the grounds that “we intend to have some immediate impact on the economy through what we’re doing.” And discourse in the House isn’t any better, with Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV) positing that extending unemployment benefits may be creating “hobos”:

Heller said the current economic downturn and policies may bring back the hobos of the Great Depression, people who wandered the country taking odd jobs. He said a study found that people who are out of work longer than two years have only a 50 percent chance of getting back into the workforce. “I believe there should be a federal safety net,” Heller said, but he questioned the wisdom of extending unemployment benefits yet again to a total of 24 months, which Congress is doing. “Is the government now creating hobos?” he asked.

Full Story: Think Progress » GOP Rep. Dean Heller claims extending unemployment benefits is creating ‘hobos.’.

South Dakota legislators tell schools to teach ‘astrological’ explanation for global warming.

Last week, the South Dakota House of Representatives passed a resolution to “urge” public schools to teach astrology. By a 36-30 vote, the legislators passed House Concurrent Resolution 1009, “Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in the public schools of South Dakota.” After repeating long-debunked denier myths and calling carbon dioxide “the gas of life,” the resolution concludes that public schools should teach that “global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact”:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:

(1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;

(2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect [sic] world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and

(3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena; and

Full Story: Think Progress » South Dakota legislators tell schools to teach ‘astrological’ explanation for global warming..

Lieberman Claims That Settlements Are Not A Major ‘Obstacle To An Israeli-Palestinian Peace’

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) is one of Congress’ biggest Israel hawks, opposing “any attempt to pressure Israel” and worrying that President Obama doesn’t have “the right stuff to bomb Iran.” But in a recent interview with the Jewish Ledger, Lieberman offered a harmful understanding about the situation in the Middle East, rejecting the fact that the expansion of Israeli settlements is impairing the peace process:

Q: There’s been a great deal of pressure on Israel to stop building in the “settlements.” Some in the Administration and in Congress believe it is a major impediment to peace. Do you agree?

A: No, I really don’t think that the “community building,” as it is now called, is the obstacle to an Israeli-Palestinian peace. Respectfully, I think the President made a mistake when, earlier in the year, as an attempt to try to engage the Arab world, he specifically called on Israel to freeze the settlements, because that had not been a specific request of the Palestinians themselves, and it led others in the Middle East to think that they could continue to pressure us. … We can’t – and in my opinion, we shouldn’t – push both peoples to do something that they don’t want to do.

Full Story: Think Progress » Lieberman Claims That Settlements Are Not A Major ‘Obstacle To An Israeli-Palestinian Peace’.

McCain Assails Reconciliation, Forgetting He Once Said The GOP Laid ‘The Groundwork’ For Its Use

Today at the White House bipartisan health care summit, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) tried to argue against the Democratic majority using reconciliation to pass health care reform. He first claimed to be an anti-reconciliation champion, falsely equating the “nuclear option” to pass judicial nominees (which he opposed in 2005) with reconciliation in general.

He then admitted that reconciliation has been used in the past, but “never before” for something as costly has health care and that using it now would all but ruin the U.S. Senate as an institution and “harm the future of our country”:

Video follows

Full Story: Think Progress » McCain Assails Reconciliation, Forgetting He Once Said The GOP Laid ‘The Groundwork’ For Its Use.

Mitch McConnell’s dishonest quoting of healthcare polls

During the healthcare summit,Republican senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, in a level of political and intellectual dishonesty that has earmarked Republican opposition to healthcare reform from the beginning, said that recent polls show that the American people oppose the Democratic health care reform proposals by 57%-38% and that they oppose the use of reconciliation to pass healthcare reform and a public option by a similar margin.

The problem is that not only are the polls McConnell quoting bogus as a reflection of what the American people want in terms of healthcare, the way he chooses to use them and frame them are also bogus.

McConnell;s first statement that an average of all the healthcare polls shows that the American people oppose the Democrats healthcare reform is nonsensical.

Full Story: Mitch McConnell’s dishonest quoting of healthcare polls.

Stewart: No winning in GOP health care ‘carnival game’

For the past year, Republicans’ demands for supporting health care reform have been a moving target. Jon Stewart has a simple question for the so-called party of no: “What the fuck do you really want?”

Republican leaders called for health care reforms negotiations to be televised but changed their tune after President Barack Obama invited them a summit to be carried live on C-SPAN.

“The Democrats spell summit S-E-T-U-P,” complained Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

video at link

Full Story: Stewart: No winning in GOP health care ‘carnival game’ | Raw Story.

Exclusive: Newt Gingrich ‘Sharing Resources, Coordinating Efforts’ With Oil Lobby

Newt Gingrich, through his political attack group “American Solutions for Winning the Future” (ASWF), has organized tea party protests, conservative legislative efforts, and is best known for driving the Republican “Drill Here, Drill Now” campaign in 2008. Until now, the only known financial backers of ASWF were the donors disclosed on his 527 IRS forms, like Peabody Coal and investor Rex Sinquefield. Gingrich — who once believed in climate change science and believed the U.S. must act “urgently” to reduce carbon emissions — has moved far to the right on environmental issues, and has allied himself with polluters fighting tooth and nail against clean energy reform.

While his support from King Coal is widely known, new revelations reveal that Gingrich has established direct support from the oil lobby. The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the umbrella trade association for the oil industry, lobbying on behalf of corporations like ExxonMobil and Chevron, as well as for refineries and pipeline companies. In addition to spending millions on political lobbying, API has blanketed the country with pro-oil drilling ads and has coordinated “grassroots” rallies to oppose clean energy reform.

Full Story: Think Progress » Exclusive: Newt Gingrich ‘Sharing Resources, Coordinating Efforts’ With Oil Lobby.

Republicans Attack Size of House Health Care Bill – Now it’s too small

Republican House leader John Boehner, appearing on Fox News today, criticized the House health care legislation released Thursday as a bloated bill that his office claims will “raise the cost of health insurance for most American families, kill jobs with new tax increases and new mandates, and cut seniors’ Medicare benefits.”

“All you need to know is there are 1,990 pages,” Boehner said. “That should tell you everything.”

It should be noted that spending bills routinely exceed 1,000 pages, as do some other bills. President Bush’s 2007 budget bill was 1,482 pages long.

Full Story: Republicans Attack Size of House Health Care Bill – Political Hotsheet – CBS News.

Conservatives Turn On Scott Brown Over Jobs Bill Vote: ‘Low Life Scum Hypocrite!’

Not long ago, Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was elected to the United States Senate and a nation rejoiced, because he was going to drive down to Washington D.C. and become the President of Filibusters. But a funny thing happened yesterday, when Brown decided not to cast the 41st vote, and instead to vote as if he’d like to one day get re-elected to office in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

“It’s a small step, but it’s still a step,” Brown told reporters after casting a procedural vote in favor of the Democratic jobs bill, bucking his party leaders and the strategy of opposition they have carried out since President Obama took office.

For Senate Democrats, it was much bigger step. Four Republicans followed Brown’s lead, giving the jobs legislation 62 votes, two more than needed to cut off a GOP filibuster.

Full Story: Conservatives Turn On Scott Brown Over Jobs Bill Vote: ‘Low Life Scum Hypocrite!’.

Chest pains send ex-VP Cheney to hospital

WASHINGTON – Former Vice President Dick Cheney was at George Washington University Hospital Monday in Washington, D.C. after experiencing chest pains.

A family member told NBC News he was resting comfortably while doctors evaluated his condition.

Two doctors at George Washington University Hospital said Cheney was stable but may have additional treatment Tuesday. “We don't know what the plan is,” one physician told NBC News.

Full Story: Chest pains send ex-VP Cheney to hospital – More politics- msnbc.com.

OPS: Think the miserable little troll wil confess to 9-11 before he kicks? Nahaaaaaaa……

McCain Rewrites History, Falsely Claims Bush Asked Him To Suspend His Campaign In Sept. ‘08

Facing a primary challenge from former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has been “moving starkly — and often awkwardly — to the right,” even abandoning some his past positions like support for cap-and-trade. In an interview with the Editorial Board of the Arizona Republic on Thursday, McCain tried to distance himself from the bank bailout he supported in the fall of 2008, claiming that then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke misled him on the TARP plan.

In the same interview, McCain reportedly claimed that he suspended his campaign to return to Washington, D.C. only at the request of President Bush:

In his new book “On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System,” Paulson belittles McCain’s contribution to the response, noting that “when it came right down to it, (McCain) had little to say in the forum he himself had called.” He also called McCain’s decision to return to Washington, apparently without a plan, “impulsive and risky” and even “dangerous.”

McCain said Bush called him in off the campaign trail, saying a worldwide economic catastrophe was imminent and that he needed his help. “I don’t know of any American, when the president of the United States calls you and tells you something like that, who wouldn’t respond,” McCain said. “And I came back and tried to sit down and work with Republicans and say, ‘What can we do?’”

Full Story: Think Progress » McCain Rewrites History, Falsely Claims Bush Asked Him To Suspend His Campaign In Sept. ‘08.

Virginia lawmaker: Children with disabilities are God’s punishment to women who previously had abortions.

On Thursday, Virginia State Delegate Bob Marshall (R) spoke at a press conference against state funding for Planned Parenthood. He blasted the organization for supporting a women’s right to choose, saying that God punishes women who have had abortions by giving them disabled children:

“The number of children who are born subsequent to a first abortion with handicaps has increased dramatically. Why? Because when you abort the first born of any, nature takes its vengeance on the subsequent children,” said Marshall, a Republican.

“In the Old Testament, the first born of every being, animal and man, was dedicated to the Lord. There’s a special punishment Christians would suggest.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Virginia lawmaker: Children with disabilities are God’s punishment to women who previously had abortions..

OPS:  Why are Republicans insane?

More than a hundred Republicans bash stimulus, then seek money

“I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around and pushing back on the stimulus money and saying this doesn’t create any new jobs. Then, they go out and they do the photo ops and they are posing with the big check and they say, ‘Isn’t this great?’”

A quote from a high-ranking Democratic official? Nancy Pelosi? Howard Dean?

Nope: Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California.

Democrats have begun to push back against GOP criticisms of their $862 billion stimulus package, noting that many of the Republicans who’ve attacked the measure have sought funds themselves. And the number of those who voted against the bill who have cashed in is growing. According to a count by Bloomberg News, more than 100 Republicans and several Democrats who voted against the bill have written to collect on the cash they didn’t want spent.

Full Story: More than a hundred Republicans bash stimulus, then seek money | Raw Story.

Fox News scrambles to discredit CPAC after Ron Paul wins presidential poll

Remember the big conservative conference Fox News has been hyping over the past 10 days?

The Conservative Political Action Conference’s presidential straw poll, a key marker of the mood among conservative voters, apparently didn’t mean anything to the network. And if it did mean something, the only real result is bragging rights for the individual candidates who were so well exposed. And hey, even Dick Cheney showed up.

Or, at least that’s how Fox News characterized the poll, after it was reported that Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) had won it by a wide margin.

CPAC participants voted for Paul as their favored candidate by some 31 percent, giving him the largest margin of victory in recent years. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has won the vote over the last three years, was the runner up with 22 percent. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin was third with seven percent.

Full Story: Fox News scrambles to discredit CPAC after Ron Paul wins presidential poll | Raw Story.

Pawlenty completes global warming flip-flop, calls cap and trade a ‘disaster.’

Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), a potential candidate for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, completed the reversal of his stance on global warming today on Meet the Press. When asked by NBC’s David Gregory if climate change is real, the former champion of strong climate action questioned “how much of it is man-made,” charging climate scientists with “data manipulation and controversy.” He then said a cap-and-trade system of market-based limits on global warming pollution would be a “disaster“:

The climate is obviously changing, David. The more interesting question is how much of it is man-made and how much is as a result of natural causes and patterns. Of course, we have seen data manipulation and controversy, or at least debate within the scientific community. . . . And the way you address it is we should all be in favor of reducing pollution. We need to do it in ways that don’t burden the economy. Cap and trade, I think, would be a disaster in that regard.

Watch it:

Full Story: Think Progress » Pawlenty completes global warming flip-flop, calls cap and trade a ‘disaster.’.

More Palin Hypocrisy: Tripp Has Government Provided Health Insurance

The dangers of “death panels” were explained to Americans on Sarah Palin’s Facebook page. Oh, sweet Lord, she must not sleep at night…her grandson could be the next victim of “socialized medicine”.

Recently released documents from the custody battle show clearly Tripp Palin Johnston has socialized health care through Indian Health Services and the Alaska Native Medical Center.

Palin’s family has federally funded health care afforded to them…but if you had it Barack Obama might kill you. Put this on the list of Palin’s Greatest Hypocritical Hits…volume 97.

Full Story: Shannyn Moore: More Palin Hypocrisy: Tripp Has Government Provided Health Insurance.

Bolton Admits That ‘Things Could Go Wrong’ After Military Strike On Iran

Earlier this month, John Bolton claimed that “Iran simply has no intention of being talked out of its nuclear weapons program” and that “very severe sanctions” will not work. “There are two outcomes,” Bolton concluded, “one is Iran getting its nuclear weapons, the other is Israel or somebody uses military force to stop it.”

Back in December, Bolton argued that a simple “campaign of public diplomacy” would prevent Iranian civilians from rallying around the regime after a military strike on the country’s nuclear facilities. Yesterday at CPAC, ThinkProgress asked Bolton if this strategy would work if civilians are killed in a military campaign against Iran’s nuclear program. “I don’t accept that” civilians would be killed, Bolton replied. However, he later admitted that he’s unsure if civilians would die, but even then, his “campaign of public diplomacy” would still work:

Full Story: Think Progress » Bolton Admits That ‘Things Could Go Wrong’ After Military Strike On Iran.

OPS: No Shit Buckwheat

Gingrich: GOP Should Be Bipartisan “Until We Finish Defeating The Left”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich urged a crowded hall of CPAC conservatives on Saturday to be “brave enough” to pursue “responsible, principled bipartisanship” even with the temptation of huge gains in the upcoming elections.

It was a type of message that would get a speaker booed off the CPAC stage, certainly after two straight days in which other speakers classified the Democratic agenda in terms best fit for third world despots. But Gingrich — who has long assumed the role of intellectual godfather of the modern conservative movement — was cheered for his plea, entering and exiting the hall to roars, clapping, and Rocky-theme music.

That’s because bipartisanship, as he defined it, was not ideological compromise. Rather, it was a means to hasten the GOP’s return to political power. Predicting that Republicans would take over both chambers of Congress in 2010 and the White House two years later, Gingrich declared:

Full Story Gingrich: GOP Should Be Bipartisan “Until We Finish Defeating The Left”.

Bush Official Criticizes Obama For Killing Too Many Terrorists

Just how unpopular are President Barack Obama’s anti-terrorism policies with his Republican critics? Even when he’s killing terrorists they find flaws.

At a panel on national security policy at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, a prominent lawyer from the Bush administration’s Department of Justice said he was concerned that the higher number of terrorist executions taking place under Obama was compromising U.S. intelligence operations.

“Why have executions increased?” asked Viet Dinh, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and one of the authors of the USA Patriot Act. Citing a recent Washington Post article on the increased targeted killing of terrorists, Dinh complained that “the president and vice president expound this fact as a fact that they are actually successful in war.”

Full Story Bush Official Criticizes Obama For Killing Too Many Terrorists.

OPS: Apparently this piece of shit didn’t bother stating what the optimum number of terrorists is in the minds of Republicans.

Former Bush Treasury Secretary Describes Eric Cantor As A Policy Dunce

When it first came before the House of Representatives, the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was defeated after House Republicans failed to deliver on their promised votes. At the time, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) and other House Republicans circulated a plan that, instead of authorizing the government to purchase toxic assets, would have it ensure hundreds of billions of dollars in mortgages.

Cantor claimed that the plan “does not leave the American taxpayers with the bag and makes sure that Wall Street pays for this recovery.” However, as economist Robert Waldmann noted then, “I can’t manage to find any reason to doubt that the House Republicans’ plan would destroy the US financial system,” as it actually gave mortgage holders an incentive to push for defaults (since the U.S. would explicitly cover the losses).

As it turns out, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson didn’t think very much of Cantor’s plan either (or the GOP response to the economic crisis, as a whole), and in his memoir derides Cantor’s “unformed” proposal:

Full Story Think Progress » Former Bush Treasury Secretary Describes Eric Cantor As A Policy Dunce.

Pawlenty disregards Bachmann: ‘I don’t think anybody’s gonna’ try to ‘abolish or reduce’ entitlement programs.

Earlier this month, ThinkProgress reported a comment made by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) in favor of eliminating entitlement programs. To deal with the national debt, Bachmann suggested that the government should ultimately “wean everybody” off Social Security and Medicare. In this month’s edition of Esquire magazine, Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN) seemed to rebuke Bachmann’s call for eliminating entitlements, saying Republicans should never try to “abolish or reduce” Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid:

ESQ: Or how about the Social Security Act? Is Social Security a proper role of government? How are those programs materially different from the health-care reform that has been the focus of the president’s attention?

PAWLENTY: Well, in 1965 I was only five years old. I think if you look at Medicare and Medicaid, the premise was that government needs to provide some assistance to people who aren’t able to take care of themselves. I think we all share that goal, Republicans and Democrats. I don’t think anybody’s gonna go back now and say, Let’s abolish, or reduce, Medicare and Medicaid.

Full Story Think Progress » Pawlenty disregards Bachmann: ‘I don’t think anybody’s gonna’ try to ‘abolish or reduce’ entitlement programs..

Teabaggers are a Cult, Not A Movement

BILL MAHER, NEW RULES 02/19/2010

“Now here’s an amazing statistic. In a recent poll almost ninety percent of Tea Baggers said that they thought taxes had either gone up or stayed the same under Obama. Only two percent thought they went down. But the reality is taxes have gone down… for ninety five percent of working families taxes went down.

Think about that. Only two percent of the people in a “movement” about taxes named after a tax revolt have the slightest idea what’s going on…with taxes.”

Poll: Large Number Of Texans Doubt The Theory Of Evolution, Believe In Human-Dinosaur Coexistence

A new University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey shows just how destructive a politicized right-wing curriculum can be. A large number of Texans polled said they still don’t believe in evolution and are convinced that humans and dinosaurs co-existed:

– 51 percent disagree with the statement, “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.”

– 38 percent agree with the statement, “God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago.”

– 30 percent agree with the statement, “Humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time.” Another 30 percent said they “don’t know” whether the statement is true.

Full Story Think Progress » Poll: Large Number Of Texans Doubt The Theory Of Evolution, Believe In Human-Dinosaur Coexistence.

Republicans Consistently Turn To Lobbyists For Strategies To Block And Kill Legislation

Yesterday, The Hill reported that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) may not have the votes to begin debate on a $15 billion jobs package. Reid, for his part, is reaching out to Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA), in the hopes that he will provide support to overcome a GOP filibuster. A Reid spokesman said simply that “the vote is in the hands of Republicans.”

However, as Roll Call reported, the Senate Republican leadership is trying to persuade members to simply block the legislation. And this push comes after the GOP spent an afternoon huddled with more than 100 lobbyists, trying to figure out how to react to Reid’s bill:

Senate Republican leadership staff are huddling with K Streeters this afternoon over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) decision to forgo a bipartisan jobs package in favor of a smaller, targeted plan…The business community has been up in arms since Reid decided to ditch a bipartisan job-creation bill last week.

And this is not the first time that Republicans have organized a pow-wow with lobbyists in order to devise a strategy and gin up support for killing a significant Democratic initiative:

Full Story Think Progress » Republicans Consistently Turn To Lobbyists For Strategies To Block And Kill Legislation.

Utah state senator wants to create holiday honoring ‘gun pioneer’ on MLK Day.

Utah State Sen. Mark Madsen (R) is introducing legislation to create a holiday honoring John Moses Browning — the Utah native and “gun pioneer” who founded the Browning Arms company — on the same day as Martin Luther King Day. Browning’s birthday is believed to be around Jan. 21, so “Madsen proposes doubling up Browning and King”:

“I see them as complimentary,” [Madsen] said. Browning is known for developing a variety of guns, including the gas-operated machine gun. Madsen said he plans to meet with the NAACP to discuss his proposal.

“We’ll see if they can take it in the spirit it’s intended,” Madsen said. [...]

“Guns keep peace,” [state Senate Majority Leader Scott] Jenkins [R] said. “I kind of like the idea of making his birthday a holiday. I’m all over that.”

Full Story Think Progress » Utah state senator wants to create holiday honoring ‘gun pioneer’ on MLK Day..

On House GOP Website, Republican Leadership Takes Credit For Successful Stimulus Project

Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the historic American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus. Despite being called a success by most economists and independent analysts, Republicans have mocked the stimulus, calling it a boondoggle that has “failed to create a single job.” Essentially, the GOP has lied about the stimulus in order to justify their unified opposition to its passage.

Yesterday, GOP.gov, the official website for the House Republican caucus, continued the anti-stimulus drumbeat, blaring press releases calling the stimulus a failure. Ironically, posted just above two releases attacking the stimulus, the website features a release from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) taking credit for $35 million dollars in stimulus highway money. Below is a screen shot:

Full Story Think Progress » On House GOP Website, Republican Leadership Takes Credit For Successful Stimulus Project.

Kansas lawmaker compares rape to auto theft.

Kansas lawmakers are currently considering a law that would bar insurance providers from covering elective abortions — unless a woman pays extra for a special plan. The problem with such coverage, however, is that it forces women to “plan for a completely unexpected event.” The bill “wouldn’t apply to abortions performed to save the life of a woman, or to pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.” However, in the latter case, women would first be forced to file a police report:

The bill would require a police report to be filed if the woman wants an abortion to be covered by her insurance under the incest or rape exemptions. [...]

“You’d have to have a report that someone stole your car,” said Rep. Steve Brunk, a Bel Aire Republican. “This is kind of the same thing.”

Full Story Think Progress » Kansas lawmaker compares rape to auto theft..

CPAC: Brought To You By Unionized Workers

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual congregation of archconservative activists and right-wing politicos, is beginning today in Washington D.C. thanks to a labor union.

The event, taking place at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel until this Sunday, is being run by unionized staff who will serve drinks and other amenities to those who are attending the convention.

“It’s been here for a very long time,” says one hotel worker, noting that the hotel has been unionized for years. Another server next to him dons a Unite Here Local 25 button on his uniform. The union represents around 7,000 workers in the hotel and food service industries in the Washington area.

Full Story CampusProgress.org | The Bullhorn: CPAC: Brought To You By Unionized Workers.

South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency

South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency as legal tender in his state.

As the Palmetto Scoop first reported, Pitts, a Republican, introduced legislation this month banning “the unconstitutional substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold coin” in South Carolina.

In an interview, Pitts told Hotsheet that he believes that “if the federal government continues to spend money at the rate it’s spending money, and if it continues to print money at the rate it’s printing money, our economic system is going to collapse.”

Full Story South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency – Political Hotsheet – CBS News.

REPORT: After Voting To Kill Recovery, 110 GOP Lawmakers Tout Its Success, Ask For More Money

Today marks the one year anniversary of President Obama signing into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus. As the economy continued to crater after President Bush left office, Obama’s stimulus sought to provide tax cuts for 95% of working Americans, funds to buoy cash-strapped state governments, new construction and infrastructure projects, and other programs to create jobs, retrain workers, and promote economic activity throughout the country. In December, the Congressional Budget Office reported that the stimulus had successfully created up to 1.6 million jobs, and today, a report shows the Recovery Act will ultimately create 2.5 million jobs. Even the conservative American Enterprise Institute found that the stimulus had boosted the U.S. economy by 4 percent.

House Republican leaders have fought to maintain partisan unity in their effort to kill the stimulus. And they were largely successful. Every single Republican in the House and every single Republican in the Senate — with the exception of Sens. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Susan Collins (R-ME), and then-Republican Sen. Arlen Specter — voted against the Recovery Act. By drawing a sharp distinction between Obama and the GOP, Republican leaders gambled on casting the stimulus as a failure in order to win elections in 2010. In a coordinated effort, Republicans have used every opportunity to attack the stimulus for allegedly failing to create “a single job.”

Full Story Think Progress » REPORT: After Voting To Kill Recovery, 110 GOP Lawmakers Tout Its Success, Ask For More Money.

Beck loses 103 sponsors as his UK television broadcast runs for five days straight without any ads.

Today, Color of Change and StopBeck.com announced that the United Kingdom has forcefully rejected Fox News host Glenn Beck. In fact, the UK broadcast of his show “was forced to run without any advertisements” for five days in a row as of yesterday. Additionally, 103 companies have agreed to stop their ads from appearing on his program. Some of the latest defections include Allstate Insurance, Anheuser-Busch, Idaho Potato Commission, Marriott International, Volkswagen, and Western Union. Some of their comments:

– “We in no way want to promote the hateful rhetoric of Mr. Glenn Beck, and therefore take this matter very seriously,” said Dino Balzano, director of advertising at Concord Music Group, parent company of Hear Music, in an email to ColorOfChange.org.

Full Story Think Progress » Beck loses 103 sponsors as his UK television broadcast runs for five days straight without any ads..

Failed K Street Kickback

- Republicans Furious

Fox News Scolds WellPoint Rate Hike, Not For Hurting Consumers, But For Energizing Health Reform Advocates

California Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, a subsidiary of health insurance giant WellPoint, announced recently that it would be hiking premiums for customers in the individual market by up to 39 percent. The looming hike unleashed a firestorm of criticism, and provoked two Democratic lawmakers to launch congressional probes into the matter. Even a spokesman for Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) was compelled to feign concern, telling reporters, “If the argument is that the WellPoint hike means we need reform, well, ‘duh.’”

Earlier today on Fox Business, WellPoint VP Brad Fluegel appeared to discuss the hikes. Fox hosts Charles Payne and and Stu Varney lashed out at WellPoint for increasing rates just when “it was safe to get out of the healthcare debate.” The hosts were uninterested with how the increasing rates would affect customers and struggling families in California. Instead, the pair attacked Fluegel for re-energizing advocates for health reform. Payne groaned, asking Fluegel why he didn’t “take Wall Street’s lead” and “wait for this to blow over and maybe a year from now try to hike rates”:

Full Story Think Progress » Fox News Scolds WellPoint Rate Hike, Not For Hurting Consumers, But For Energizing Health Reform Advocates.

Utah delivers vote of no confidence for ‘climate alarmists’

The US’s most Republican state passes bill disputing science of climate change, claiming emissions are ‘essentially harmless’

Carbon dioxide is “essentially harmless” to human beings and good for plants. So now will you stop worrying about global warming?

Utah’s House of Representatives apparently has at least. Officially the most Republican state in America, its political masters have adopted a resolution condemning “climate alarmists”, and disputing any scientific basis for global warming.

The measure, which passed by 56-17, has no legal force, though it was predictably claimed by climate change sceptics as a great victory in the wake of the controversy caused by a mistake over Himalayan glaciers in the UN’s landmark report on global warming.

But it does offer a view of state politicians’ concerns in Utah which is a major oil and coal producing state.

Full Story Utah delivers vote of no confidence for ‘climate alarmists’ | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

NH lawmaker claims children ’subjected’ to anal sex lessons in school

New Hampshire State Representative Nancy Elliott just became a blog superstar for all the wrong reasons.

Elliott, a Republican and member of the state’s judiciary committee, thinks that because New Hampshire allows gay marriage, children in schools are now being “subjected” to lessons on how best to penetrate members of the same sex.

She even went so far as to level such an allegation during a recent hearing on a bill to repeal the state’s marriage equality law, much to the confusion of school officials who vehemently denied her claims.
Full Story NH lawmaker claims children ’subjected’ to anal sex lessons in school | Raw Story.

Far-Right Radio Host Savages Palin: It’s ‘Suicide’ For Republicans To Choose Palin As Our 2012 Nominee

On Thursday, a Washington Post-ABC News poll had some bad news for Sarah Palin: 71 percent of the American public — including 52 percent of Republicans — don’t think the former Alaska governor is qualified to be president. This week, far-right radio host Michael Savage voiced some of these GOP complaints, saying that the Party would essentially be committing “suicide” if it made Palin its 2012 nominee:

If you want Obama for a second term, just make sure that Sarah Palin is the Republican nominee. … And I am telling you, that if they make that idiotic mistake of pushing her as their lead candidate, it’s over; Obama will get a second term, no matter how bad his presidency has been. That’s my opinion. It’s one man’s opinion. It doesn’t mean I don’t agree with her politically. It doesn’t mean I think she’s a bad person.

She’s not electable as president. She doesn’t have…the gravitas. He doesn’t either. That doesn’t mean — She’s not the right person. We need a businessman. We need someone with guts, preferably someone who’s served in the military. That means we have nobody. And please don’t tell me about Mr. Brown. God! Please! I warned you! Don’t Obama-size these guys.

Full Story Think Progress » Far-Right Radio Host Savages Palin: It’s ‘Suicide’ For Republicans To Choose Palin As Our 2012 Nominee.

OPS; The Savage Wiener strikes

McConnell Objects To One-Week Extension Of Unemployment Benefits (VIDEO)

On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) introduced an amendment to push back one week the eligibility deadline for extended unemployment benefits. After Feb. 28, nobody will be eligible for extended benefits made available by the stimulus bill — Reid wanted the deadline moved to March 7 as a stopgap measure.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.) objected, suggesting instead that the Senate take up the bipartisan jobs proposal unveiled earlier in the day by Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which includes extensions of unemployment insurance and COBRA subsidies.

“Now, I know my friend and colleague is going to offer some scaled-down version of that shortly, but if we offered instead the Grassley-Baucus amendment, which was filed earlier today, that would include the unemployment extension,” said McConnell.

Reid did not accept McConnell’s suggestion — he had already rejected the Grassley-Baucus jobs proposal.

Full Story McConnell Objects To One-Week Extension Of Unemployment Benefits (VIDEO).

‘Profound Pain’: Organization Seeks To Make Massive Corporate Giveaway Fla. Senate Issue

A Puerto Rico advocacy group wants to put a stop to an impending mammoth tax giveaway to a global booze conglomerate by making it an issue in Florida’s high-profile Senate race.

At issue is a pending measure in Congress that would steer billions of dollars in federal aid from public projects in Puerto Rico to one of the world’s largest liquor conglomerates over the next 30 years.

The National Puerto Rican Coalition (NPRC) is challenging Florida Senate hopefuls Gov. Charlie Crist (R), Rep. Kendrick Meek (D) and former state House Speaker Marco Rubio (R) to join former six-term mayor of Miami Maurice Ferre in denouncing a massive taxpayer-funded corporate handout to the British liquor conglomerate that owns Captain Morgan Rum. The scheme, as Puerto Rico-born Ferre notes, will cost Puerto Rico upwards of $400 million in rum excise tax revenues each year.

Full Story On The Hill: ‘Profound Pain’: Organization Seeks To Make Massive Corporate Giveaway Fla. Senate Issue.

Republicans Whine After Reid Scraps Jobs Bill That They Said ‘Does Not Create One Job’

Yesterday, Senate Finance Committee members Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released what they were calling a jobs bill, an $85 billion piece of legislation composed of tax incentives for businesses to hire as well as a handful of extenders to expiring tax provisions (that had nothing to do with job creation). Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) had been working on a jobs package, but as Ezra Klein put it, “the Finance Committee wants control of the process, so it’s trying to muscle its way in front of them.”

The Baucus/Grassley bill was roundly panned by the rest of the Democratic caucus. “It looks more like a tax bill than a jobs bill to me,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). So Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) scrapped it in favor of a $15 billion bill with four pieces: a payroll tax break, and one-year extension of highway funding, an extension of the Build America bond program, and a business tax break for equipment expensing.

Full Story Think Progress » Republicans Whine After Reid Scraps Jobs Bill That They Said ‘Does Not Create One Job’.

GOP Sen. candidate refuses to apologize for comparing embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experiments.

As ThinkProgress noted earlier this week, GOP Senate candidate Curtis Coleman (R-AR), who is running against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), compared embryonic stem cell research to “what the Nazis did to the Jews.“ Yesterday, progressive radio host Thom Hartmann invited Coleman onto his show and offered him a chance to apologize to survivors of the Holocaust for his statement. Coleman flatly refused to apologize and went on to say that it is “not at all” a horrific comparison:

HARTMANN: I wanted to give you an opportunity to apologize to the Holocaust survivors of Arkansas for that comparison and that remark.

COLEMAN: I’m not sure an apology is needed. [...]

Full Story Think Progress » GOP Sen. candidate refuses to apologize for comparing embryonic stem cell research to Nazi experiments..

Teabaggers upset Marvel Comics turned them into ’supervillians’

It seems there's a new third rail in American politics — don't mess with the Tea Partiers — and Marvel Comics has inadvertently grabbed it with both hands. And even though members of the Tea Party movement have extracted a half-hearted apology and a promised retraction from Marvel, their anger has barely abated.

In a recent issue of Captain America, the long-time superhero and his African-American partner The Falcon travel to Idaho to investigate a white supremacist militia group, the Watchdogs, who are long-time villains in the Marvel Universe. On the way, they pass an anti-tax rally where the protesters are holding up signs bearing familiar Tea Party slogans, such as “Stop the Socialists!” and “Tea Bag the Libs Before They Tea Bag You.”

This implied mockery of the Tea Partiers quickly aroused a firestorm of indignation on conservative blogs and message boards, made even worse by the implied association between the protesters and the local racist militia.

Full Story Teabaggers upset Marvel Comics turned them into ’supervillians’ | Raw Story.

Fear of a ‘Multicultural’ Nation

Last Thursday night former Congressman and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo made opening-night remarks at the inaugural National Tea Party Convention in Nashville. Tancredo fired verbal shots at Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain and “the cult of multiculturalism,” stating that people who “could not spell the word vote or say it in English” had elected the president. And that Obama’s election reveals the need for us to “have a civics [or] literacy test before people can vote in this country.”

Tancredo is wrong. United States political history reveals our long-standing tradition in this area. In “Before the Mayflower,” Lerone Bennett Jr. recounts how literacy tests were first employed at the federal level as part of the immigration process in 1917. Southern state legislatures adopted literacy tests once African-Americans were granted citizenship rights under the 15th Amendment, as part of the voter registration process. As practiced, the literacy test became notorious for denying suffrage to African-Americans. Adopted by a number of Southern states, the tests were applied in a patently unfair manner and were used, along with the poll tax, to disfranchise many literate Southern blacks while allowing many illiterate Southern whites to vote.

Full Story Marcia Alesan Dawkins: Fear of a ‘Multicultural’ Nation – Truthdig.

GOP Senate candidate compares embryonic stem cell research to ‘what the Nazis did to the Jews.’

In March 2009, President Obama issued an executive order that removed President Bush’s limitations on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, ending the tragic politicization of the issue that existed under the former president. GOP Senate candidate Curtis Coleman (R-AR), who is running against Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), blasted Obama’s decision in an interview yesterday, comparing embryonic stem cell research to “what the Nazis did to the Jews“:

On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order, removing barriers to responsible research involving human stem cells.

Coleman, however, has different view on things.

Full Story Think Progress » GOP Senate candidate compares embryonic stem cell research to ‘what the Nazis did to the Jews.’.

Republicans Demand Brennan Resign For Calling Out GOP Politicization Of Terrorism

Almost immediately after Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab failed to detonate a bomb on an airplane on Christmas Day, conservatives rushed to politicize the attempted terrorist attack. “People have got to start connecting the dots here and maybe this is the thing that will connect the dots for the Obama administration,” Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) said before he’d even been briefed on the incident. Karl Rove and Rep. Peter King (R-NY) criticized President Obama for issuing a statement on the failed bombing 72 hours after the event, even though President Bush waited longer to comment on “shoe-bomber” Richard Reid’s failed attempt to bring down an airliner in Dec. 2001.

The drumbeat of political criticism from conservatives since then has been unrelenting, especially focusing on the fact that Abdumuttalab was read his Miranda rights after he awoke from surgery. Recently, the Obama administration has begun pushing back at the GOP’s political onslaught. On Meet The Press this past Sunday, Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan, a 25-year veteran of the CIA, pointed out that he had kept key Congressional Republicans informed of Abdulmuttalab detainment by the FBI

Full Story Think Progress » Republicans Demand Brennan Resign For Calling Out GOP Politicization Of Terrorism.