The website ThinkProgress has had a great couple of days:
77 percent of Arizonans want Obama to pass immigration reform – they prefer a federal law over their own brand-new, idiotic state law. (elsewhere on the net, Republican operatives have admitted privately that they chose Tampa rather than Phoenix for their 2012 convention partly because the new Arizona immigration law would make the GOP look bad. Ouch!).
Maine Republican caucus-goers were forced to apologize for vandalizing a junior-high building. They tore down a poster, went through a teacher’s personal effects, and stole property. Even the kids were incensed. My favorite quote: “Republicans opened a closed cardboard box they found near Clifford’s desk and later objected to the fact that it contained copies of the U.S. Constitution donated to the school by the American Civil Liberties Union. “ After busting into the guy’s private effects, they complained that he had a copy of the Constitution!
More frat-house hijinx! The House GOP killed a jobs bill by attaching poison-pill language calling for any federal worker who even sees pornography to be fired. One giggling Republican brayed “We certainly should do more of this type of thing!” And actually they have played this kind of frat-house stunt to obstruct an energy efficiency bill, a health care bill, and a health and education bill. And if the Democrats don’t fold, the Republicans run ads like “Barbara Boxer Votes To Allow Convicted Sex Offenders To Receive Taxpayer-Funded Viagra!”
[ As we noted earlier, the Republicans are stomping all over Democratic ideas because, as they have admitted, they have no ideas of their own. They launched an abortive effort to set up a fancy cool-ideas council which really consisted of holding town halls so the party leaders could crib from the ideas that the voters themselves suggested. Then they set up a remake of “Contract With America” which, again, is just a suggestion box so that voters can do the party’s homework for them. And now House GOP leader Cantor has set up a website called “YOUCUT”, and again the idea is that you, the voter, come up with ideas for how to cut government spending. The problem with the plan is that the cuts proposed on the site are described dishonestly, and even if voters chose all of the cuts, it would only save a billion out of a trillion-dollar budget. So the Republicans are dishonest AND lazy AND futile. ]
The Oklahoma legislature has passed legislation mandating that abortion patients must: give up their personal details so they can be posted on a website, look at an ultrasound of their embryos, give up the right to sue a doctor if he lies about the state of the fetus, and give up any form of insurance coverage for abortion, unless you get a special policy.
http://thinkprogress.org/
And some other reasons to smile:
A new poll shows that a majority of voters would not support Sarah Palin for presidency. A majority of ALASKANS. One of the most conservative, Republican states in the union, and they don’t want her to run. Meanwhile, her opponent should she get the nomination, Obama, is hitting his highest approvals since October 2009, according to a new PPP poll.
The latest USA Today analysis shows that Americans are paying less tax than at any time in the last 60 years – going all the way back to Harry Truman. This is largely based on the middle class tax cut in the stimulus bill that the GOP opposed. So much for the teabaggers – their whole reason for existing is a gigantic fraud. “Taxed enough already” indeed.
Not that this is really good news, but Obama’s effort to pass climate energy legislation seemingly gets another boost every week: coal mines blow up, oil wells spill, nuclear reactors leak radioactive waste into drinking water….just as the nonsense in Arizona gives new momentum to another Obama initiative, immigration reform. Two other issues are also boosting the immigration effort: evangelicals who hope Latinos will vote GOP if the GOP stops fighting immigration reform, are defying rightwingers who want to block reform; also, people are beginning to ask how the Republican plan to build some sort of Maginot Line along the Mexican border can possibly work, when almost half of illegal immigrants cross the border legally and then overstay their visas. And a lot of the rest of them use tunnels, which makes a fence kinda stupid.
As we learned earlier, the GOP leadership said publicly that they would not defend its incumbents against attacks from the right by teabag candidates. Senator Bob Bennett was just tossed out of his own reelection race by the Utah GOP, and some raised the prospect of Bennett running as a write-in; John Cornyn, head of the Republican committee that is set up to elect Republicans to the Senate, reiterated that Bennett will get not a nickel from the party. Wouldn’t it be neat if Bennett stuck it to the Republicans by (a) switching parties, or (b) backing Harry Reid in shooting down GOP filibusters?
For that matter, since the Maine GOP has been hiacked by teabaggers, and has approved a platform slamming Obamacare, unions, motor voter which helps minorities too much, apparently), gay marriage, climate change legislation….isn’t this the perfect time for Collins and Snowe to quit a party that clearly doesn’t want them anymore, and join the Democrats? Particularly when their fellow Maine Republicans are acting like a Mongol horde?
And lastly, I finally figured out why I keep laughing involuntarily whenever John Boehner comes on TV to yell and scream about Obama’s evil communist plots. It’s because he sounds exactly like Sylvester the Cat. Suffering succotash! That one had been bothering me all year.
Showing posts with label GOP lost in the wilderness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GOP lost in the wilderness. Show all posts
Friday, 14 May 2010
Sunday, 9 May 2010
It's official: the GOP has no ideas
It’s official: the Republicans have no ideas.
The Republican “idea machine” has shut down. About a year ago, the Republicans set up a “National Council for a New America”, the GOP’s think tank for its own ideas, to compete with Democratic ideas.
We waited and waited and waited.
It became clear that the GOP had no ideas. Their entire agenda was to tear down Democratic ideas and attack the Democrats themselves. Whenever they were challenged to come up with their own proposals…“the dog ate our homework”. Their promise to hold town meetings across the country to hear ideas from “plain folks”…didn’t do that either – one town hall and they quit.
Now the group is dead. And their excuse? It’s all the Democrats’ fault! Those damn liberals attacked the Council so it couldn’t get going.
Let me see if I get this straight. Over the last year, it’s been the Democrats who have been slamming Republican ideas? And not the other way around?
Sorry, girls. You promised ideas, we waited for you to produce them so we could discuss them, you didn’t produce anything, so the country moved on.
Fast forward a bit. Not long ago the Republicans, still with visions of a 1994 remake in their minds, announced that they were going to repeat the 1994 strategy by announcing a new “contract” with America, this time to be called “Commitment to America”. Presumably it would be a list of things the party promises to do, the ideas it plans to pursue as legislation, and so forth. Right?
Wrong.
It’s a suggestion box.
YOU go to their website, and YOU put the ideas in.
The guy who was stuck setting this up said the goal is for “the public to take ownership.”
As with the failed “Council” effort, the aim was to let common folks do all the work for the “leaders”.
In other words, they are so completely out of ideas, that they’re leaving all the homework to us.
Republican “leadership”. Totally out of gas.
But these same Republicans insist that they must be given control of Congress so that they can turn their ideas into law! Ideas which…they don’t have.
Actually the fact that the GOP “idea factory” is out of business, is hardly a surprise. Just in the last day or two they have shown, over and over, how intellectually bankrupt they really are.
The Republicans have no idea how the Constitution really works -- Sarah Palin went on the air recently and made clear that (a) she’s an idiot, (b) she ridicules knowledge of the Constitution out of spite because she doesn’t have any herself, and (c) she seemingly wants to build a theocracy, like the Iranians did. "Our Constitution, of course, essentially acknowledging that our unalienable rights don't come from man; they come from God….I think we should kind of keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 Commandments. It's pretty simple."…If her presidential aspirations don’t pan out, she can always run for Ayatollah.
More cluelessness about the Constitution -- Kit Bond: “And both of these fellows, on Christmas Day and New York in Times Square, have enough evidence that you could convict them. You don't need to Mirandize them. You don't need to give them that warning and potentially shut them up and certainly give them a lawyer who will tell them to be quiet.” So the wingnuts want to take away the Constitutional right to a lawyer, the Constitutional right to citizenship, and the Constitutional right to a Miranda warning, from U.S. citizens who haven’t been convicted of anything…But it’s Obama who’s the terrible threat to the Constitution, right?
The Republicans have no idea how to write legislation, either. Their legislators at the state level are pursuing a really risky strategy. They are trying to show America that the best lawmaking happens at the state level, not the federal level. And then they are doing all they can to disprove that theory, by pursuing their wingnut agenda in one statehouse after another. Florida Republicans are now obsessed with banning sex with animals. Kansas lawmakers want to impose a tax on abortions. Arizona, which has passed an astounding body of stupid legislation recently, on everything from “papers please” to concealed carry, is now working on a law banning “human-animal hybrids”, so all you mermaids and centaurs better hit the road! And this is how they’re trying to persuade us that state-level lawmakers know better than Washington.
The Republicans have no idea how the economy works -- The latest jobs report showed the biggest jump in manufacturing jobs in almost 12 years. The report shot down the GOP assertion that the new jobs were mostly in the government sector. GOP leader Eric Cantor was force to mumble "An employment report that shows job growth is always a good thing, period”, while his boss, John Boehner, went into complete denial/cognitive-dissonance mode: "Where are the jobs?"
The only idea they do have, is racism right out of the gutter. Skeery brown people! AAUUGGHH! -- America is seeing, ever more clearly, that a lot of what they’re hearing from the GOP comes in the form of racial code words and signals. Down in Florida, my hero, Alan Grayson, is under attack from a wingnut candidate who actually went on the air with a picture of a white guy and a brownish guy, asking -- which one looks more like a terrorist? Message: BROWN PEOPLE SCARY! This perfectly mirrors the intent of the new Arizona law: look at the brown guy on the street, doesn’t he look like an illegal? And when people think about all the other racist things the Republicans have said – “Kenyan” as code-word for “black”, “real American” as code for “white” (which would come as a surprise to native Americans) -- Americans are starting to associate the GOP with the stench of a KKK torch.
More mindless racism -- Fox News is now running with a story that illegal immigrants kill 2000 people a year, which the original source admitted was a number that was essentially made-up: it has no basis in fact. The fact is that immigrants are far less likely to commit serious crimes that “real” Americans: they don’t want trouble, because trouble means deportation. As Crooks And Liars noted, the fact that this nonsense has no basis in reality didn’t stop Fox from implying, on the air, that 12 million people are murderous thugs. On no evidence whatsoever.
Some more signs that the American people are realizing how idea-free the Republicans are: first, Crist has pulled ahead. The minute Crist got the Republican stink off his back, he pulled 6 points ahead of Rubio in Florida. And second, the birther solidarity against Obama has begun to crack. The latest ABC poll shows that even among the birthers who think Obama is an illegitimate criminal, one-third of them approve of his job performance. Even the birthers are starting to realize how insane their jihad against Obama really is.
…Oh, wait, they DO have an original idea. They want to dismantle Medicare. Read on!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_05/023704.php
The Republican “idea machine” has shut down. About a year ago, the Republicans set up a “National Council for a New America”, the GOP’s think tank for its own ideas, to compete with Democratic ideas.
We waited and waited and waited.
It became clear that the GOP had no ideas. Their entire agenda was to tear down Democratic ideas and attack the Democrats themselves. Whenever they were challenged to come up with their own proposals…“the dog ate our homework”. Their promise to hold town meetings across the country to hear ideas from “plain folks”…didn’t do that either – one town hall and they quit.
Now the group is dead. And their excuse? It’s all the Democrats’ fault! Those damn liberals attacked the Council so it couldn’t get going.
Let me see if I get this straight. Over the last year, it’s been the Democrats who have been slamming Republican ideas? And not the other way around?
Sorry, girls. You promised ideas, we waited for you to produce them so we could discuss them, you didn’t produce anything, so the country moved on.
Fast forward a bit. Not long ago the Republicans, still with visions of a 1994 remake in their minds, announced that they were going to repeat the 1994 strategy by announcing a new “contract” with America, this time to be called “Commitment to America”. Presumably it would be a list of things the party promises to do, the ideas it plans to pursue as legislation, and so forth. Right?
Wrong.
It’s a suggestion box.
YOU go to their website, and YOU put the ideas in.
The guy who was stuck setting this up said the goal is for “the public to take ownership.”
As with the failed “Council” effort, the aim was to let common folks do all the work for the “leaders”.
In other words, they are so completely out of ideas, that they’re leaving all the homework to us.
Republican “leadership”. Totally out of gas.
But these same Republicans insist that they must be given control of Congress so that they can turn their ideas into law! Ideas which…they don’t have.
Actually the fact that the GOP “idea factory” is out of business, is hardly a surprise. Just in the last day or two they have shown, over and over, how intellectually bankrupt they really are.
The Republicans have no idea how the Constitution really works -- Sarah Palin went on the air recently and made clear that (a) she’s an idiot, (b) she ridicules knowledge of the Constitution out of spite because she doesn’t have any herself, and (c) she seemingly wants to build a theocracy, like the Iranians did. "Our Constitution, of course, essentially acknowledging that our unalienable rights don't come from man; they come from God….I think we should kind of keep this clean, keep it simple, go back to what our founders and our founding documents meant. They're quite clear that we would create law based on the God of the Bible and the 10 Commandments. It's pretty simple."…If her presidential aspirations don’t pan out, she can always run for Ayatollah.
More cluelessness about the Constitution -- Kit Bond: “And both of these fellows, on Christmas Day and New York in Times Square, have enough evidence that you could convict them. You don't need to Mirandize them. You don't need to give them that warning and potentially shut them up and certainly give them a lawyer who will tell them to be quiet.” So the wingnuts want to take away the Constitutional right to a lawyer, the Constitutional right to citizenship, and the Constitutional right to a Miranda warning, from U.S. citizens who haven’t been convicted of anything…But it’s Obama who’s the terrible threat to the Constitution, right?
The Republicans have no idea how to write legislation, either. Their legislators at the state level are pursuing a really risky strategy. They are trying to show America that the best lawmaking happens at the state level, not the federal level. And then they are doing all they can to disprove that theory, by pursuing their wingnut agenda in one statehouse after another. Florida Republicans are now obsessed with banning sex with animals. Kansas lawmakers want to impose a tax on abortions. Arizona, which has passed an astounding body of stupid legislation recently, on everything from “papers please” to concealed carry, is now working on a law banning “human-animal hybrids”, so all you mermaids and centaurs better hit the road! And this is how they’re trying to persuade us that state-level lawmakers know better than Washington.
The Republicans have no idea how the economy works -- The latest jobs report showed the biggest jump in manufacturing jobs in almost 12 years. The report shot down the GOP assertion that the new jobs were mostly in the government sector. GOP leader Eric Cantor was force to mumble "An employment report that shows job growth is always a good thing, period”, while his boss, John Boehner, went into complete denial/cognitive-dissonance mode: "Where are the jobs?"
The only idea they do have, is racism right out of the gutter. Skeery brown people! AAUUGGHH! -- America is seeing, ever more clearly, that a lot of what they’re hearing from the GOP comes in the form of racial code words and signals. Down in Florida, my hero, Alan Grayson, is under attack from a wingnut candidate who actually went on the air with a picture of a white guy and a brownish guy, asking -- which one looks more like a terrorist? Message: BROWN PEOPLE SCARY! This perfectly mirrors the intent of the new Arizona law: look at the brown guy on the street, doesn’t he look like an illegal? And when people think about all the other racist things the Republicans have said – “Kenyan” as code-word for “black”, “real American” as code for “white” (which would come as a surprise to native Americans) -- Americans are starting to associate the GOP with the stench of a KKK torch.
More mindless racism -- Fox News is now running with a story that illegal immigrants kill 2000 people a year, which the original source admitted was a number that was essentially made-up: it has no basis in fact. The fact is that immigrants are far less likely to commit serious crimes that “real” Americans: they don’t want trouble, because trouble means deportation. As Crooks And Liars noted, the fact that this nonsense has no basis in reality didn’t stop Fox from implying, on the air, that 12 million people are murderous thugs. On no evidence whatsoever.
Some more signs that the American people are realizing how idea-free the Republicans are: first, Crist has pulled ahead. The minute Crist got the Republican stink off his back, he pulled 6 points ahead of Rubio in Florida. And second, the birther solidarity against Obama has begun to crack. The latest ABC poll shows that even among the birthers who think Obama is an illegitimate criminal, one-third of them approve of his job performance. Even the birthers are starting to realize how insane their jihad against Obama really is.
…Oh, wait, they DO have an original idea. They want to dismantle Medicare. Read on!
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_05/023704.php
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Republican chaos
Mike Savage is squabbling with Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs is squabbling with John Stossel…All we need now is for Rush and Sean to go at it, and we can just sit down with the popcorn and watch!
This, the leadership of your Republican party.
The latest CNN poll says the Republican party has the lowest approvals since the Clinton impeachment 11 years ago. New Gingrich is whining that the recent ABC poll, which showed that only 20 percent of Americans support the Republicans, must have been “deliberately rigged”. Too bad for him that the CBS poll had it at 22, AP 21, Ipsos 19, Gallup 27, Pew 23, and the ultra-communist Wall Street Journal 18. What this means is that the Republicans have failed both ways: they haven’t brought down Obama, and they haven’t improved their own numbers either.
Even the Wall Street Journal is saying that Republicans who pray for salvation in 2010 should take a good hard look at their sorry-ass performance in that special election in New York.
As Media Matters pointed out, the winguttery is not stopping, or even slowing down: GOP congress members joking about hunting liberal Democrats with their guns, shooting at targets with the initials of Democratic politicians on them, hollering about House leaders bludgeoning opponents to death, talking openly about a coup against Obama, talking about a revolution in America, calling on citizens to bring guns to Obama events, making jokes about lynching Democrats, hanging Democrats in effigy, calling on conservatives to slit their wrists and become blood brothers, speaking out in favor of a political “Project Mayhem” referring to terrorists blowing up banks, calling for citizens to be armed and dangerous…
And my favourite: wingnuts want to boycott the NFL for being mean to Rush Limbaugh. Swear to God.
Republicans are becoming more overt in their fear of the wingnut movement they created: fear that the wingnuts are making the party look like Nazis (which is justified by the polls), and fear that the wingnuts could, Frankenstein-like, turn on their creators (a fear which is justified by the fiasco in the upstate New York race). Months ago Republicans hoped to capitalize on the wingnuts, and on public fears of Obama, but now it’s the GOP rather than Obama which has the image problems, and the whole notion of mainstream Republicans trying to harness the wingnuts sounds kinda scary.
More Republicans are starting to sound the alarm, about all this chaos. “Unfortunately, I see a lot of Republicans simply involved in political games,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said. “The Republican leadership in the House right now is constantly trying to play a political game to get a headline, and I don’t think that is going to take us anywhere. Most of our Republican friends, they’re only interested in the next couple days’ worth of headlines, rather than what they’re doing and the impact it’s going to have in the long run. I think that Republicans should be more focused on the long term rather than short-term headlines. You have to convince people that you’re serious, and by doing that you talk about your long-term alternatives and what you’re doing. The Republicans need to make sure that the public knows that we are not just in opposition, but we also have very creative alternatives to the horrible things the Democrats are trying to accomplish. I don’t think we’ve put out enough on that.”
And the Republicans regularly afford opportunities to expose their hypocrisy. Republicans like Boehner want Obama to handle Afghanistan the way Bush did in Iraq – figure out the manning first and the strategy second, which is stupid – forgetting that even Bush took months to launch the surge in Iraq. And the Democratic Party helpfully drafted a list of Republicans who bitterly opposed the stimulus package, and then took credit for getting the money. Guess how many? Sixty-seven.
http://dccc.org/blog/archives/hypocrisy_alert_67_house_republicans_take_credit_for_the_economic_bills_the/#
This, the leadership of your Republican party.
The latest CNN poll says the Republican party has the lowest approvals since the Clinton impeachment 11 years ago. New Gingrich is whining that the recent ABC poll, which showed that only 20 percent of Americans support the Republicans, must have been “deliberately rigged”. Too bad for him that the CBS poll had it at 22, AP 21, Ipsos 19, Gallup 27, Pew 23, and the ultra-communist Wall Street Journal 18. What this means is that the Republicans have failed both ways: they haven’t brought down Obama, and they haven’t improved their own numbers either.
Even the Wall Street Journal is saying that Republicans who pray for salvation in 2010 should take a good hard look at their sorry-ass performance in that special election in New York.
As Media Matters pointed out, the winguttery is not stopping, or even slowing down: GOP congress members joking about hunting liberal Democrats with their guns, shooting at targets with the initials of Democratic politicians on them, hollering about House leaders bludgeoning opponents to death, talking openly about a coup against Obama, talking about a revolution in America, calling on citizens to bring guns to Obama events, making jokes about lynching Democrats, hanging Democrats in effigy, calling on conservatives to slit their wrists and become blood brothers, speaking out in favor of a political “Project Mayhem” referring to terrorists blowing up banks, calling for citizens to be armed and dangerous…
And my favourite: wingnuts want to boycott the NFL for being mean to Rush Limbaugh. Swear to God.
Republicans are becoming more overt in their fear of the wingnut movement they created: fear that the wingnuts are making the party look like Nazis (which is justified by the polls), and fear that the wingnuts could, Frankenstein-like, turn on their creators (a fear which is justified by the fiasco in the upstate New York race). Months ago Republicans hoped to capitalize on the wingnuts, and on public fears of Obama, but now it’s the GOP rather than Obama which has the image problems, and the whole notion of mainstream Republicans trying to harness the wingnuts sounds kinda scary.
More Republicans are starting to sound the alarm, about all this chaos. “Unfortunately, I see a lot of Republicans simply involved in political games,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) said. “The Republican leadership in the House right now is constantly trying to play a political game to get a headline, and I don’t think that is going to take us anywhere. Most of our Republican friends, they’re only interested in the next couple days’ worth of headlines, rather than what they’re doing and the impact it’s going to have in the long run. I think that Republicans should be more focused on the long term rather than short-term headlines. You have to convince people that you’re serious, and by doing that you talk about your long-term alternatives and what you’re doing. The Republicans need to make sure that the public knows that we are not just in opposition, but we also have very creative alternatives to the horrible things the Democrats are trying to accomplish. I don’t think we’ve put out enough on that.”
And the Republicans regularly afford opportunities to expose their hypocrisy. Republicans like Boehner want Obama to handle Afghanistan the way Bush did in Iraq – figure out the manning first and the strategy second, which is stupid – forgetting that even Bush took months to launch the surge in Iraq. And the Democratic Party helpfully drafted a list of Republicans who bitterly opposed the stimulus package, and then took credit for getting the money. Guess how many? Sixty-seven.
http://dccc.org/blog/archives/hypocrisy_alert_67_house_republicans_take_credit_for_the_economic_bills_the/#
Friday, 23 October 2009
Support for the GOP outside the South is down to 8.3 percent
That’s eight point three. Not eighty three.
Democrats are now twice as popular as Republicans nationally, and they haven’t even passed their signature legislative package yet.
http://www.dailykos.com/weeklypoll/2009/10/22
Democrats are now twice as popular as Republicans nationally, and they haven’t even passed their signature legislative package yet.
http://www.dailykos.com/weeklypoll/2009/10/22
Monday, 19 October 2009
GOP loses one-sixth of its support in one year!
The Republicans and the wingnuts launched a massive national campaign to win people back to the GOP banner, by trying to smear Obama, bury him with lies, overwhelm him with wingnut attacks on a thousand fronts, and bury him in their bullcrap. Did they win people back? Um, no. According to the latest Gallup poll, support for the GOP has actually dropped from 27 percent in January to 22.5 today – WOW! -- and the Democrats have now widened their lead over the GOP to 11.2 percent. Even worse for the GOP, most of their support is crammed into the southern states: other polling shows that outside the South, support for the GOP isn’t at 22, it’s at NINE. Once you get outside the Confederacy, the GOP is about as popular as rectal cancer. They have completely emptied out the Toolkit Of Crazy, the teabaggers dressed as Betsy Ross, the lies, the smears, the attacks, the birthers, the deathers, the tenthers – all that, and they actually lost ground. So what does that leave them? Pray for a miracle, or prepare for extinction, like the Whigs and the Know-Nothings.
Whoops, this just in! The ABC poll says support for the GOP is down to 20 percent. So...27 down to 20. Yikes!
The Pennsylvania GOP is making the entire national party look even more foolish, by running an ad implying that Obama is a Communist.
Rasmussen actually managed to give us some insight into the GOP race for 2012. They detected a shift in the wingnut vote from Palin to Huckabee. This is excellent news for the Democrats, because it increases the probability that the wingnut voters, rather than splitting their votes between Palin and Huckabee, will line up behind a single candidate, Huckabee, and use that unity to wipe out the relative moderates like Pawlenty and Romney. This is turn gives Obama an easy wingnut opponent, and an easy reelection victory.
Come on, girls, time to grow up and grab a mop.
Whoops, this just in! The ABC poll says support for the GOP is down to 20 percent. So...27 down to 20. Yikes!
The Pennsylvania GOP is making the entire national party look even more foolish, by running an ad implying that Obama is a Communist.
Rasmussen actually managed to give us some insight into the GOP race for 2012. They detected a shift in the wingnut vote from Palin to Huckabee. This is excellent news for the Democrats, because it increases the probability that the wingnut voters, rather than splitting their votes between Palin and Huckabee, will line up behind a single candidate, Huckabee, and use that unity to wipe out the relative moderates like Pawlenty and Romney. This is turn gives Obama an easy wingnut opponent, and an easy reelection victory.
Come on, girls, time to grow up and grab a mop.
Saturday, 26 September 2009
Support for GOP outside the South: 10.3 percent
http://www.dailykos.com/weeklypoll/2009/9/24
After an entire summer of attacks against Democrats and health reform, their support outside Planet Wingnut is 10 percent.
Support among the independents they've been trying to win over: 9 percent.
Support among the Latinos they need, particularly out west: 7 percent.
Support among the seniors they've been trying to frighten: 18 percent.
All that effort all year -- after throwing every weapon, every bullet, every attack at the Democrats, the exhaustive effort to launch all those tea parties, the town hall attacks, the millions of dollars worth of attack ads, the bitter, vicious fighting on Capitol Hill, the incessant visits by rightwing Senators on the Sunday chat shows, the unprecedented campaign of veiled racism (ACORN! ACORN! ACORN!), the endless internet smear campaigns, the thousands of hours spent by Rush and Sean and Beck and Malkin and Bachmann to smear Democrats on the airwaves...after all that, they're at 10 percent.
And Obama's at 54.
Outside the South, where they will always hate him anyway, Obama's at 66.
After an entire summer of attacks against Democrats and health reform, their support outside Planet Wingnut is 10 percent.
Support among the independents they've been trying to win over: 9 percent.
Support among the Latinos they need, particularly out west: 7 percent.
Support among the seniors they've been trying to frighten: 18 percent.
All that effort all year -- after throwing every weapon, every bullet, every attack at the Democrats, the exhaustive effort to launch all those tea parties, the town hall attacks, the millions of dollars worth of attack ads, the bitter, vicious fighting on Capitol Hill, the incessant visits by rightwing Senators on the Sunday chat shows, the unprecedented campaign of veiled racism (ACORN! ACORN! ACORN!), the endless internet smear campaigns, the thousands of hours spent by Rush and Sean and Beck and Malkin and Bachmann to smear Democrats on the airwaves...after all that, they're at 10 percent.
And Obama's at 54.
Outside the South, where they will always hate him anyway, Obama's at 66.
Friday, 25 September 2009
Wednesday, 16 September 2009
CBO exposes Baucus plan as worthless; Obama gains momentum
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/59067-cbo-estimate-baucus-plan-reduces-deficit-covers-29-million-by-2019
The CBO said immediately that the Baucus bill would leave 25 million uninsured even in 2019, ten years on, and his coops probably won’t establish a significant market share and will have very little effect on total enrolment. His state-level coops don’t let big businesses enroll, so the coop can’t grow and keep costs down, nor can they have the same negotiating leverage as the federal government so they can’t cust costs that way either; so no one will join the coops. Some House Blue Dogs like the plan but House liberals are already condemning it; in the Senate Burris, Feingold, Klobuchar, Franken, Bayh and Brown expressed dismay at the Baucus bill, and Nelson may vote against it if the Medicare Advantage cut isn’t removed. Conrad is trying to game the CBO system to help Baucus, but liberals have already busted him publicly.
The coming carnage on the Baucus bill shows the wisdom of Obama’s decision not to put forward his own detailed plan – it would have been a target for months, ripped apart. Obama’s unstated message on the Baucus bill is “if I’m going to own the bill, I’m not going to own a piece of crap like that.”
Obama will be helped and encouraged by three things:
1. He has the votes for the public option.
http://washingtonindependent.com/59440/senate-public-option-scoreboard
As the link shows, Obama already has 47 votes in the Senate for the public option. He only needs 3 more out of the 14 fence-sitters, and he’s got the 50 he needs to get through the budget reconciliation process. And as you look at the statements of the fence-sitters, the votes are there. Begich, Bayh, Tester, Pryor and Carper will vote for it. Some folks are making bold statements about public-option packages that were never going to be proposed: Lincoln insists she won’t vote for a public option that is solely government-funded, and McCaskill said she won’t vote for a public option that becomes a mandate. They’re talking tough while setting themselves up to vote for the real public option bill. Baucus and Conrad, proponents of the doomed Gang Of Six package, have said the public option can’t pass the Senate, which isn’t the same as rejecting the idea.
So that’s 56. Unless we’re dead wrong on more than 6 of them, Obama has the 50. And it is just as clear that it would be hard to get to 60, which is why we need the 50-vote threshold in the reconciliation process.
2. His popularity is rising. Obama’s job approval ratings are bouncing back all over the place: On Message has the approval/disapproval at 55/43, Anzalone-Liszt 56/41, ABC/Washington Post 54/43, USA Today/Gallup 54/43, CNN/ORC 58/40, Bloomberg (9/11-9/14) 56/37.
3. The GOP scare tactics are backfiring.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/poll-big-majorities-dismiss-leading-right-wing-health-care-attacks-as-scare-tactics/
According to a new Bloomberg poll, the American people finally woke up and realized that the GOP was using a strategy of dishonesty: that the crap they were spewing was not only dishonest, but a deliberate scare tactic. 63 percent said the claim that “death panels of government officials would decide how much medical care ailing individuals will receive” is a scare tactic. “Health care would be rationed” is a scare tactic: 53 percent. “Health care would become socialized medicine” is a scare tactic 52 percent. “Government money would be used to pay for abortions”: 61 percent. “Government money would pay for health care for illegal immigrants”: 58 percent.
4. And for dessert:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/judge-puts-birther-orly-on-notice.php?ref=fpb
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land whomped the leader of the birther movement, Orly Taitz, throwing out her latest frivolous lawsuit claiming Obama isn’t really president, threatening her with sanctions if she tries this crap again, and comparing her to Alice in Wonderland. Taitz then screeched to the media that the judge was a puppet of the Obama regime and should be tried for treason, and compared herself to Nelson Mandela.
The CBO said immediately that the Baucus bill would leave 25 million uninsured even in 2019, ten years on, and his coops probably won’t establish a significant market share and will have very little effect on total enrolment. His state-level coops don’t let big businesses enroll, so the coop can’t grow and keep costs down, nor can they have the same negotiating leverage as the federal government so they can’t cust costs that way either; so no one will join the coops. Some House Blue Dogs like the plan but House liberals are already condemning it; in the Senate Burris, Feingold, Klobuchar, Franken, Bayh and Brown expressed dismay at the Baucus bill, and Nelson may vote against it if the Medicare Advantage cut isn’t removed. Conrad is trying to game the CBO system to help Baucus, but liberals have already busted him publicly.
The coming carnage on the Baucus bill shows the wisdom of Obama’s decision not to put forward his own detailed plan – it would have been a target for months, ripped apart. Obama’s unstated message on the Baucus bill is “if I’m going to own the bill, I’m not going to own a piece of crap like that.”
Obama will be helped and encouraged by three things:
1. He has the votes for the public option.
http://washingtonindependent.com/59440/senate-public-option-scoreboard
As the link shows, Obama already has 47 votes in the Senate for the public option. He only needs 3 more out of the 14 fence-sitters, and he’s got the 50 he needs to get through the budget reconciliation process. And as you look at the statements of the fence-sitters, the votes are there. Begich, Bayh, Tester, Pryor and Carper will vote for it. Some folks are making bold statements about public-option packages that were never going to be proposed: Lincoln insists she won’t vote for a public option that is solely government-funded, and McCaskill said she won’t vote for a public option that becomes a mandate. They’re talking tough while setting themselves up to vote for the real public option bill. Baucus and Conrad, proponents of the doomed Gang Of Six package, have said the public option can’t pass the Senate, which isn’t the same as rejecting the idea.
So that’s 56. Unless we’re dead wrong on more than 6 of them, Obama has the 50. And it is just as clear that it would be hard to get to 60, which is why we need the 50-vote threshold in the reconciliation process.
2. His popularity is rising. Obama’s job approval ratings are bouncing back all over the place: On Message has the approval/disapproval at 55/43, Anzalone-Liszt 56/41, ABC/Washington Post 54/43, USA Today/Gallup 54/43, CNN/ORC 58/40, Bloomberg (9/11-9/14) 56/37.
3. The GOP scare tactics are backfiring.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/poll-big-majorities-dismiss-leading-right-wing-health-care-attacks-as-scare-tactics/
According to a new Bloomberg poll, the American people finally woke up and realized that the GOP was using a strategy of dishonesty: that the crap they were spewing was not only dishonest, but a deliberate scare tactic. 63 percent said the claim that “death panels of government officials would decide how much medical care ailing individuals will receive” is a scare tactic. “Health care would be rationed” is a scare tactic: 53 percent. “Health care would become socialized medicine” is a scare tactic 52 percent. “Government money would be used to pay for abortions”: 61 percent. “Government money would pay for health care for illegal immigrants”: 58 percent.
4. And for dessert:
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/judge-puts-birther-orly-on-notice.php?ref=fpb
U.S. District Court Judge Clay Land whomped the leader of the birther movement, Orly Taitz, throwing out her latest frivolous lawsuit claiming Obama isn’t really president, threatening her with sanctions if she tries this crap again, and comparing her to Alice in Wonderland. Taitz then screeched to the media that the judge was a puppet of the Obama regime and should be tried for treason, and compared herself to Nelson Mandela.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
The conservatives have no leaders
http://us.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/12/tea.party.express/index.html
The article attached leads us to some observations.
First, the obvious one -- the wingnuts really are nuts.
Second, the conservatives have no leader. Also pretty obvious -- the fact that the GOP seriously considers hoopleheads like Palin and Jindal as presidential timber, people who in the real world would have trouble handling a middle-management job, shows that they really did succeed in chasing everyone with a 3-digit IQ out of the Big Tent years ago.
Third, the guy in the article said they don't need a leader until after 2010. Suggesting that they don't expect to find one any time soon. And considering the current range of potential choices, I'm not surprised.
And that's the problem. Because political leaders don't just pop up out of nowhere.
Bush 43 was elected governor twice before he ran for President; almost all the presidents before him had been national names for years before getting the top job (the exceptions being Carter and Hoover -- eek!). Even Obama was a national name after his 2004 convention speech. Generally when an unknown is thrust into the national spotlight, we have a mess like Ferraro or Quayle or Palin.
So who do the Republicans run in 2012? Someone we know and despise like Romney or Palin? Or someone from even deeper in the unknown backwoods of swamp-head wingnuttery? Considering that the popularity of the GOP outside the South is in the single digits, how do they get any electoral votes outside the South?
Do these drooling idiots really believe that another Reagan is going to come riding into town like Shane and save us all from the scary Negro?
Don't you want to see the looks on their faces when they finally realize that their nightmare is really true and is really not going to go away when they wake up?
The article attached leads us to some observations.
First, the obvious one -- the wingnuts really are nuts.
Second, the conservatives have no leader. Also pretty obvious -- the fact that the GOP seriously considers hoopleheads like Palin and Jindal as presidential timber, people who in the real world would have trouble handling a middle-management job, shows that they really did succeed in chasing everyone with a 3-digit IQ out of the Big Tent years ago.
Third, the guy in the article said they don't need a leader until after 2010. Suggesting that they don't expect to find one any time soon. And considering the current range of potential choices, I'm not surprised.
And that's the problem. Because political leaders don't just pop up out of nowhere.
Bush 43 was elected governor twice before he ran for President; almost all the presidents before him had been national names for years before getting the top job (the exceptions being Carter and Hoover -- eek!). Even Obama was a national name after his 2004 convention speech. Generally when an unknown is thrust into the national spotlight, we have a mess like Ferraro or Quayle or Palin.
So who do the Republicans run in 2012? Someone we know and despise like Romney or Palin? Or someone from even deeper in the unknown backwoods of swamp-head wingnuttery? Considering that the popularity of the GOP outside the South is in the single digits, how do they get any electoral votes outside the South?
Do these drooling idiots really believe that another Reagan is going to come riding into town like Shane and save us all from the scary Negro?
Don't you want to see the looks on their faces when they finally realize that their nightmare is really true and is really not going to go away when they wake up?
Monday, 31 August 2009
Support for GOP takeover of Congress: 34 April, 34 August
The GOP is telling itself that America is ravening for a GOP takeover of Congress in 2010. They have thrown everything at the kitchen sink at Obama and the Democrats, and as a result...the GOP has made exactly no progress. 34 percent supported a GOP takeover in April, and it's the same now.
http://us.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/31/health.care.wrap/index.html
http://us.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/31/health.care.wrap/index.html
Beck: Obama's Marxist revolutionary coup, also known as "an election"
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/31/774767/-Beck-thinks-there-is-a-coup-going-on-in-America
BECK: If I could just — if we could just be like Cuba. Let me give you the last piece of evidence that there is a revolution going on, and it is coming. It is — there is a revolution, and they think they can get away with it quietly....They think they — and they — they — you know what? At this point, gang, I’m not sure, they may be able to because they are so far ahead of us. They know what they’re dealing against; most of America does not yet. Most of America doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on. There is a coup going on. There is a stealing of America, and the way it is done, it has been done through the — the guise of an election, but they lied to us the entire time....Some of us knew! Some of us we’re shouting out, you were: "this guy’s a Marxist!" "No, no, no, no, no, no." And they’re gonna say, "we did it democratically," and they are going to grab power every way they can. And God help us in an emergency.
As Jon Stewart explained months ago, there's a difference between "tyranny" and "losing". You lost the election, and now come the consequences.
BECK: If I could just — if we could just be like Cuba. Let me give you the last piece of evidence that there is a revolution going on, and it is coming. It is — there is a revolution, and they think they can get away with it quietly....They think they — and they — they — you know what? At this point, gang, I’m not sure, they may be able to because they are so far ahead of us. They know what they’re dealing against; most of America does not yet. Most of America doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on. There is a coup going on. There is a stealing of America, and the way it is done, it has been done through the — the guise of an election, but they lied to us the entire time....Some of us knew! Some of us we’re shouting out, you were: "this guy’s a Marxist!" "No, no, no, no, no, no." And they’re gonna say, "we did it democratically," and they are going to grab power every way they can. And God help us in an emergency.
As Jon Stewart explained months ago, there's a difference between "tyranny" and "losing". You lost the election, and now come the consequences.
Sunday, 30 August 2009
The Democrats need a "Sherman"
Bob Cesca pointed out the need for a huge, crushing victory over the lie-riddled GOP, on health care:
"The winners write the history, and I want these "comically ridiculous lies" to be remembered and I want posterity to know that it doesn't work. Put another way: not only do I want the Republicans and Blue Dogs to lose badly, I want them to be humiliated by the way they lost. I want posterity to laugh and shake their heads at these pathetic hooples."
I'd like to take it further. We need to destroy the Republicans so thoroughly that they never dare try these tactics again.
Robert Kagan's verdict on General Sherman, the guy who devastated Georgia in 1864:
"The northern generals who prosecuted the war most effectively , and most ruthlessly, had more understanding of its ideological purposes..."We are not only fighting hostile armies," William Tecumseh Sherman declared, "but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war"....Therefore the North must "make the war so terrible...[and] make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it "...The Union's conduct of the Civil War would remain, for American commanders in both world wars of the twentieth century, the very model of a great war...a war of 'power unrestrained' unleashed for 'complete conquest.'"
That's what I'm talking about! The Democrats need to do to the GOP what Sherman did to Georgia. To repay redneck evil with complete and total destruction, so they never try this crap again. And these thugs won't get the message until we destroy their plantations, burn down their homes, burn their crops, poison their wells, and make their women cry.
Actually we're fighting the same people that Sherman fought: southern white trash who hate blacks and despise all progress.
Obama gave the Republicans a year to make nice, and they repaid him with total war -- lies, attacks, armed goon squads, the works. The Republicans see this as a battle for their very survival, so they will stop at nothing. Accordingly, Obama needs to take off the gloves and "go Sherman". He needs to stop listening to Reid and Sebelius and start hanging with guys like Schumer and Emanuel, guys who want to, you know, win. Wartime consiglieres.
And at a certain point, Vito Corleone would even reach beyond his wartime consigliere, Genco Abbandando, and go to...Luca Brasi. We need a Luca Brasi. Because the GOP has an army of them.
Obama wanted to build a centrist consensus, but that is not possible. This is a war, and there are two sides. One must win, one must lose. Standing out there in the middle, in no-man's-land, will just get you shot. Clinton never learned that; either did Gore or Kerry. Or Dukakis.
And if he does "go Sherman", all the Democrats who have soured on him will leap to their feet, jump out of their trenches, and kill, kill, kill.
"The winners write the history, and I want these "comically ridiculous lies" to be remembered and I want posterity to know that it doesn't work. Put another way: not only do I want the Republicans and Blue Dogs to lose badly, I want them to be humiliated by the way they lost. I want posterity to laugh and shake their heads at these pathetic hooples."
I'd like to take it further. We need to destroy the Republicans so thoroughly that they never dare try these tactics again.
Robert Kagan's verdict on General Sherman, the guy who devastated Georgia in 1864:
"The northern generals who prosecuted the war most effectively , and most ruthlessly, had more understanding of its ideological purposes..."We are not only fighting hostile armies," William Tecumseh Sherman declared, "but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war"....Therefore the North must "make the war so terrible...[and] make them so sick of war that generations would pass away before they would again appeal to it "...The Union's conduct of the Civil War would remain, for American commanders in both world wars of the twentieth century, the very model of a great war...a war of 'power unrestrained' unleashed for 'complete conquest.'"
That's what I'm talking about! The Democrats need to do to the GOP what Sherman did to Georgia. To repay redneck evil with complete and total destruction, so they never try this crap again. And these thugs won't get the message until we destroy their plantations, burn down their homes, burn their crops, poison their wells, and make their women cry.
Actually we're fighting the same people that Sherman fought: southern white trash who hate blacks and despise all progress.
Obama gave the Republicans a year to make nice, and they repaid him with total war -- lies, attacks, armed goon squads, the works. The Republicans see this as a battle for their very survival, so they will stop at nothing. Accordingly, Obama needs to take off the gloves and "go Sherman". He needs to stop listening to Reid and Sebelius and start hanging with guys like Schumer and Emanuel, guys who want to, you know, win. Wartime consiglieres.
And at a certain point, Vito Corleone would even reach beyond his wartime consigliere, Genco Abbandando, and go to...Luca Brasi. We need a Luca Brasi. Because the GOP has an army of them.
Obama wanted to build a centrist consensus, but that is not possible. This is a war, and there are two sides. One must win, one must lose. Standing out there in the middle, in no-man's-land, will just get you shot. Clinton never learned that; either did Gore or Kerry. Or Dukakis.
And if he does "go Sherman", all the Democrats who have soured on him will leap to their feet, jump out of their trenches, and kill, kill, kill.
Thursday, 27 August 2009
We’re done talking to the GOP
Obama has said that you Republicans have until 15 September to work seriously on health care, and then the train is leaving the station without you. But seriously, we are already finished listening to you Republicans. You guys had their chance, fellas, and you royally blew it. A solid year of stupid, guys.
We’re not listening to you because you are so lacking in leaders that loons like Palin and Gingrich and Steele and Limbaugh, the Mount Rushmore of Wingnut Lunacy, have managed to seize the reins of what is left of your “movement” and dominate the Party of Lincoln.
We’re not listening to you because you’ve been proved wrong, and in fact outright dishonest, on virtually every issue: on Obama’s birth certificate, which almost every party leader finally had to admit was a bogus issue; on Obama’s stimulus which has already saved or created thousands of jobs, as even Republican economists admitted; on Sonya Sotomayor, which made plain the GOP’s fear and hatred of Hispanics; on Cheney’s illegal effort to torture and murder detainees without trial, the diapers, the threats of rape, the beatings, the threats of murdered children, the ominous waving of power drills at the faces of prisoners.
We’re not listening to you because the screeching of your teabaggers is, as intended, making all rational debate impossible. When you’re not howling “Heil Hitler” or issuing death threats against Democrats, you are dropping bon mots about lynching Democrats, shooting Obama, stabbing Howard Dean, poisoning Nancy Pelosi.
We’re not listening to you because you’re not listening to any of us. You are laboring with might and main to destroy, not just Democrats, not just independents, but even Republicans who aren’t crazy enough to suit you. You’re even slamming rock-ribbed conservatives McCain and Bob Bennett and Lindsay Graham and John Huntsman. If the Reagan of 1980 were still around, even he would have been condemned by you wingnuts for making too many deals with Democrats.
We’re not listening to you because of your inane howling about Obamacare: Obama will kill seniors, kill our troops, kill Republicans, promote suicide, let people go blind, invade your home and decide how to raise your kids, impose martial law – all while your own Republican leaders wrote and supported the same dreaded “death panel” provisions you’re screeching about.
We’re not listening because we know who sent you. It was the corrupt thugs who run the insurance industry, with GOP leaders cheering them on, who directed your “spontaneous” goon squads to launch violent attacks, and shout so much that democratic debate is possible, and send armed thugs to Obama events, and commit acts of vandalism, and tear up posters of Rosa Parks, and paint swastikas on the doors of black Congressmen, and prevent our elected representatives from even doing their jobs because it’s too dangerous – the next step to killing democracy outright. We don’t intend to listen to psychotic lynch mobs sent by well-heeled criminals.
We’re not listening to you because you’re not listening to us on health care. Americans have said in poll after poll that we want the public option. But you’re listening, not to the people, but to the insurance firms who bribe you with campaign money every year, and to other Republicans who are putting pressure on you to ignore the needs of the people. That’s why your Congressional leaders are bragging about stalling all progress on Capitol Hill, and admitting that all efforts at compromise are a sham, and rejecting one proposal after another, and spreading lies and fear, and promising to oppose any bill regardless of the contents, and screeching that Obama must have an 80-seat majority to win, and whining that the same reconciliation process which the GOP used to ram fat-cat tax-cuts down our throats is now an outrageous “nuclear” tactic, and proposing unworkable co-op plans although you’ve admitted that you will oppose even a co-op plan in the end; and offering absurd amendments on abortion and health care for pets; all after admitting that you had no real health care plan of your own, so why would anyone listen to you anyway?
We’re not listening because you’re the same crowd that defended the Bush gang as they stole two elections, trashed the Constitution, trashed the army, trashed New Orleans, trashed our international reputation, trashed Iraq for no reason, destroyed our economy, turned the entire U.S. justice system into a political weapon to smash enemies with, launched the torture program, and lied about it all.
We’re not listening anymore. Almost 80 percent of America wants the public option (the AMA and drugmakers are on board, and even the CBO admitted it would run a surplus, once they finally scored a completed bill), and we want to cancel the tax breaks for the rich, to pay for it. We want to stop the needless sickness and death and bankruptcies and foreclosures and corporate betrayal and fear caused by the health care mess we have now. GOP support outside the south is in the single digits, and the Democrats have actually gained on the electoral map, so Obama will crush whoever opposes him in 2012.
We’re not listening to you anymore because you’re no longer a political party. You’re a terrorist group.
The 80 percent of the country that is not insane has stopped listening to the 20 percent that is.
Pretty scary, looking in the mirror, huh?
We’re not listening to you because you are so lacking in leaders that loons like Palin and Gingrich and Steele and Limbaugh, the Mount Rushmore of Wingnut Lunacy, have managed to seize the reins of what is left of your “movement” and dominate the Party of Lincoln.
We’re not listening to you because you’ve been proved wrong, and in fact outright dishonest, on virtually every issue: on Obama’s birth certificate, which almost every party leader finally had to admit was a bogus issue; on Obama’s stimulus which has already saved or created thousands of jobs, as even Republican economists admitted; on Sonya Sotomayor, which made plain the GOP’s fear and hatred of Hispanics; on Cheney’s illegal effort to torture and murder detainees without trial, the diapers, the threats of rape, the beatings, the threats of murdered children, the ominous waving of power drills at the faces of prisoners.
We’re not listening to you because the screeching of your teabaggers is, as intended, making all rational debate impossible. When you’re not howling “Heil Hitler” or issuing death threats against Democrats, you are dropping bon mots about lynching Democrats, shooting Obama, stabbing Howard Dean, poisoning Nancy Pelosi.
We’re not listening to you because you’re not listening to any of us. You are laboring with might and main to destroy, not just Democrats, not just independents, but even Republicans who aren’t crazy enough to suit you. You’re even slamming rock-ribbed conservatives McCain and Bob Bennett and Lindsay Graham and John Huntsman. If the Reagan of 1980 were still around, even he would have been condemned by you wingnuts for making too many deals with Democrats.
We’re not listening to you because of your inane howling about Obamacare: Obama will kill seniors, kill our troops, kill Republicans, promote suicide, let people go blind, invade your home and decide how to raise your kids, impose martial law – all while your own Republican leaders wrote and supported the same dreaded “death panel” provisions you’re screeching about.
We’re not listening because we know who sent you. It was the corrupt thugs who run the insurance industry, with GOP leaders cheering them on, who directed your “spontaneous” goon squads to launch violent attacks, and shout so much that democratic debate is possible, and send armed thugs to Obama events, and commit acts of vandalism, and tear up posters of Rosa Parks, and paint swastikas on the doors of black Congressmen, and prevent our elected representatives from even doing their jobs because it’s too dangerous – the next step to killing democracy outright. We don’t intend to listen to psychotic lynch mobs sent by well-heeled criminals.
We’re not listening to you because you’re not listening to us on health care. Americans have said in poll after poll that we want the public option. But you’re listening, not to the people, but to the insurance firms who bribe you with campaign money every year, and to other Republicans who are putting pressure on you to ignore the needs of the people. That’s why your Congressional leaders are bragging about stalling all progress on Capitol Hill, and admitting that all efforts at compromise are a sham, and rejecting one proposal after another, and spreading lies and fear, and promising to oppose any bill regardless of the contents, and screeching that Obama must have an 80-seat majority to win, and whining that the same reconciliation process which the GOP used to ram fat-cat tax-cuts down our throats is now an outrageous “nuclear” tactic, and proposing unworkable co-op plans although you’ve admitted that you will oppose even a co-op plan in the end; and offering absurd amendments on abortion and health care for pets; all after admitting that you had no real health care plan of your own, so why would anyone listen to you anyway?
We’re not listening because you’re the same crowd that defended the Bush gang as they stole two elections, trashed the Constitution, trashed the army, trashed New Orleans, trashed our international reputation, trashed Iraq for no reason, destroyed our economy, turned the entire U.S. justice system into a political weapon to smash enemies with, launched the torture program, and lied about it all.
We’re not listening anymore. Almost 80 percent of America wants the public option (the AMA and drugmakers are on board, and even the CBO admitted it would run a surplus, once they finally scored a completed bill), and we want to cancel the tax breaks for the rich, to pay for it. We want to stop the needless sickness and death and bankruptcies and foreclosures and corporate betrayal and fear caused by the health care mess we have now. GOP support outside the south is in the single digits, and the Democrats have actually gained on the electoral map, so Obama will crush whoever opposes him in 2012.
We’re not listening to you anymore because you’re no longer a political party. You’re a terrorist group.
The 80 percent of the country that is not insane has stopped listening to the 20 percent that is.
Pretty scary, looking in the mirror, huh?
Monday, 24 August 2009
So the GOP wants an alley fight?
Compare and contrast the kiddie version of law and order, and the grownup version.
1. A Republican Congressman is yelping that he may launch yet another doomed lawsuit against Obama regarding his birth certificate.
And…
2. The Attorney General has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA’s illegal use of torture. Also Obama is reopening an FBI investigation which Bush blocked, regarding the massacre of prisoners in Afghanistan, a war crime. It is not impossible that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Wolfowitz and others could be subpoenaed, indicted….
Hey, Republicans! Obama didn’t want to declare war on the GOP, and spend four years investigating Bush’s crimes. He wanted to move on, to build a new post-partisan world. But you Republicans weren’t interested. Obama extended the hand of bipartisanship to you, and you tried to chop it off with an axe, time after time after time, on the stimulus package, on health care, even on the Somali pirate case. You attacked him with lies, you sent armed goon squads to his speaking engagements, you called him an alien, a traitor, and Nazi….And the whole country saw it – that’s why support for the Republican party outside the South is below ten percent.
You people didn’t really think through what it means, when you dare a popular sitting President to take the gloves off and fight bare-knuckle.
So: you want war to the knife, you got it. After we ram health reform down your throats and indict half the Bush administration for war crimes, we’ll go into all of the other crimes of the Bush crime family: outing Valerie Plame, violating Congress’s prerogatives by lying to them to get us into a war, blackmailing Congress into funding unnecessary troop deployments, defying subpoenas, using illegal signing statements and administrative actions, perverting the executive branch into a partisan political weapon, illegally prosecuting Democratic politicians and firing Democratic attorneys, directing government offices to spread dishonest political propaganda, failing to uphold Article II responsibilities by keeping or financial system safe or enforcing product safety laws, sending thugs to disrupt officials from counting votes while screaming “don’t count the votes!”, trying to convert the Vice Presidency into a fourth branch of government with no oversight, violating the prerogatives of the courts by defying orders to preserve emails and concealing evidence, illegal spying and secret prisons and torture, keeping innocent people behind bars indefinitely…
You wanted partisan warfare? Welcome to the sawdust ring, try not to step in the blood.
By the time Obama is done prosecuting your crimes and ripping your party to shreds, you will face yet another bloodbath at the polls in November 2010. And assuming you insist on nominating a wingnut airhead like Palin in 2012, your doom is assured.
I’m sure you guys think you’re tougher than Obama. Hillary and McCain thought the same thing. Look how well that turned out.
1. A Republican Congressman is yelping that he may launch yet another doomed lawsuit against Obama regarding his birth certificate.
And…
2. The Attorney General has appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the CIA’s illegal use of torture. Also Obama is reopening an FBI investigation which Bush blocked, regarding the massacre of prisoners in Afghanistan, a war crime. It is not impossible that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzalez, Wolfowitz and others could be subpoenaed, indicted….
Hey, Republicans! Obama didn’t want to declare war on the GOP, and spend four years investigating Bush’s crimes. He wanted to move on, to build a new post-partisan world. But you Republicans weren’t interested. Obama extended the hand of bipartisanship to you, and you tried to chop it off with an axe, time after time after time, on the stimulus package, on health care, even on the Somali pirate case. You attacked him with lies, you sent armed goon squads to his speaking engagements, you called him an alien, a traitor, and Nazi….And the whole country saw it – that’s why support for the Republican party outside the South is below ten percent.
You people didn’t really think through what it means, when you dare a popular sitting President to take the gloves off and fight bare-knuckle.
So: you want war to the knife, you got it. After we ram health reform down your throats and indict half the Bush administration for war crimes, we’ll go into all of the other crimes of the Bush crime family: outing Valerie Plame, violating Congress’s prerogatives by lying to them to get us into a war, blackmailing Congress into funding unnecessary troop deployments, defying subpoenas, using illegal signing statements and administrative actions, perverting the executive branch into a partisan political weapon, illegally prosecuting Democratic politicians and firing Democratic attorneys, directing government offices to spread dishonest political propaganda, failing to uphold Article II responsibilities by keeping or financial system safe or enforcing product safety laws, sending thugs to disrupt officials from counting votes while screaming “don’t count the votes!”, trying to convert the Vice Presidency into a fourth branch of government with no oversight, violating the prerogatives of the courts by defying orders to preserve emails and concealing evidence, illegal spying and secret prisons and torture, keeping innocent people behind bars indefinitely…
You wanted partisan warfare? Welcome to the sawdust ring, try not to step in the blood.
By the time Obama is done prosecuting your crimes and ripping your party to shreds, you will face yet another bloodbath at the polls in November 2010. And assuming you insist on nominating a wingnut airhead like Palin in 2012, your doom is assured.
I’m sure you guys think you’re tougher than Obama. Hillary and McCain thought the same thing. Look how well that turned out.
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Would-be President McCain moans "if only we had a leader like Kennedy"
Today on ABC McCain was moaning that Kennedy was "as close to being indispensable as any individual I've ever known in the Senate....He had a unique way of sitting down with the parties at a table and making the right concessions, which really are the essence of successful negotiations. So it's huge that he's absent, not only because of my personal affection for him, but because I think the health care reform might be in a very different place today."
Senator McCain -- a year ago you told us that YOU were the leader who could move America forward, and solve problems like this. But since then, what leadership have you shown? Just the same brain-dead obstruction that any first-year Republican Congressman could manage.
2008: By golly, I'm the leader America needs!
2009: Dang, if only there was a leader around here!
Everybody remember this in 2012 when the Republican presidential hopefuls start crowing about what great leaders they are.
Senator McCain -- a year ago you told us that YOU were the leader who could move America forward, and solve problems like this. But since then, what leadership have you shown? Just the same brain-dead obstruction that any first-year Republican Congressman could manage.
2008: By golly, I'm the leader America needs!
2009: Dang, if only there was a leader around here!
Everybody remember this in 2012 when the Republican presidential hopefuls start crowing about what great leaders they are.
Sunday, 9 August 2009
a masterpiece from Kos
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/9/763919/-Race,-Taxes,-Birth-Certificates,-and-Eugenics
But these are not three disparate movements with three different practitioners, three different conspiracy theories that simply happen to share the same summertime stage. In practice and organization they are one movement, a single collection of the same set of animated citizens and televised leaders, and their signs decrying fascism, Naziism, communism, taxes, euthanasia and outrage over 1960's-era Hawaiian government paperwork mingle freely at every protest. If you find a newly minted tax protestor, you are as likely as not to find a birther and a deather as well, all tucked neatly inside the same polo shirt. They are nearly exclusively white, predominantly middle aged and elderly, and unambiguously conservative. Many of those shouting against their government are already participants in the same "socialized medicine" they decry, but to a person will not consider their Medicare to be of that evil ilk.
It is, in short, a movement made up of the enfranchised and enabled; people who have gained every benefit from the politics of America and yet who feel in their very bones that they are the oppressed ones, the ones who have nothing left to lose, so rapidly is America falling away from them. It is rare to run across any movement so deeply angry -- or more to the point, a movement which explicitly celebrates anger as the primary mission of their activism. They are not willing to listen to any factual evidence that contradicts their own beliefs in whatever dark conspiracies have been peddled to them; they have in fact made it their publicly proclaimed mission to block any such explanations from even being attempted.
That seems the operative element of discourse, of late. It is angry beyond any objective rationale. It is actively hostile to fact. It finds the mere premise of debating a political argument to be deeply offensive.
But these are not three disparate movements with three different practitioners, three different conspiracy theories that simply happen to share the same summertime stage. In practice and organization they are one movement, a single collection of the same set of animated citizens and televised leaders, and their signs decrying fascism, Naziism, communism, taxes, euthanasia and outrage over 1960's-era Hawaiian government paperwork mingle freely at every protest. If you find a newly minted tax protestor, you are as likely as not to find a birther and a deather as well, all tucked neatly inside the same polo shirt. They are nearly exclusively white, predominantly middle aged and elderly, and unambiguously conservative. Many of those shouting against their government are already participants in the same "socialized medicine" they decry, but to a person will not consider their Medicare to be of that evil ilk.
It is, in short, a movement made up of the enfranchised and enabled; people who have gained every benefit from the politics of America and yet who feel in their very bones that they are the oppressed ones, the ones who have nothing left to lose, so rapidly is America falling away from them. It is rare to run across any movement so deeply angry -- or more to the point, a movement which explicitly celebrates anger as the primary mission of their activism. They are not willing to listen to any factual evidence that contradicts their own beliefs in whatever dark conspiracies have been peddled to them; they have in fact made it their publicly proclaimed mission to block any such explanations from even being attempted.
That seems the operative element of discourse, of late. It is angry beyond any objective rationale. It is actively hostile to fact. It finds the mere premise of debating a political argument to be deeply offensive.
GOP: street thugs working for insurance mafiosi
Take a good look at the insurance industry’s zillion dollar campaign of lies and attacks against health reform, the death threats and goon squads intended to silence their enemies, the blatant bribery of members of Congress to water down health reform under the pretense of bipartisanship (all of which the media has tragically failed to expose to the American people).
So, bribes to your friends, threats and violence to your enemies, and lies and scare tactics for everyone else. All to protect a criminal enterprise that steals $600 billion from us every year.
How is the insurance industry distinguishable from a Mafia family?
It’s bigger and more successful, and the goombahs who run it have nicer suits and fewer vowels in their names. That’s pretty much it. Other than that, the insurance industry is simply an organized crime “family” like the Gambinos or the Genoveses.
And the Republican politicians have been demoted to street thugs working for the bosses.
Break heads when the bosses tell ya to, take the bribes and vote like the bosses tell ya to, scare innocent people when the bosses tell ya to.
But we already know that the Republicans were thugs anyway.
And next year these criminals want to take over Congress, and then put the Head Thug in the Oval Office in 2012.
Whee! Can’t wait!
So, bribes to your friends, threats and violence to your enemies, and lies and scare tactics for everyone else. All to protect a criminal enterprise that steals $600 billion from us every year.
How is the insurance industry distinguishable from a Mafia family?
It’s bigger and more successful, and the goombahs who run it have nicer suits and fewer vowels in their names. That’s pretty much it. Other than that, the insurance industry is simply an organized crime “family” like the Gambinos or the Genoveses.
And the Republican politicians have been demoted to street thugs working for the bosses.
Break heads when the bosses tell ya to, take the bribes and vote like the bosses tell ya to, scare innocent people when the bosses tell ya to.
But we already know that the Republicans were thugs anyway.
And next year these criminals want to take over Congress, and then put the Head Thug in the Oval Office in 2012.
Whee! Can’t wait!
Friday, 7 August 2009
Fox's Beck jokes about poisoning Pelosi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/06/glenn-beck-jokes-about-pu_n_253448.html
This is right after they were joking about poisoning Chris Dodd and lynching Democratic Congressmen.
Haedy har har!
This is right after they were joking about poisoning Chris Dodd and lynching Democratic Congressmen.
Haedy har har!
Monday, 3 August 2009
Gallup: Dems actually gained on the electoral map since Obama was elected
http://www.gallup.com/poll/122003/Political-Party-Affiliation-States-Blue-Red-Far.aspx
Democrats have actually gained on the electoral map since Obama was inaugurated.
Gallup polled voters across all 50 states and then categorized states in accordance with their level of support for the two parties:
--solid support for one party (a 10 point lead over the other party)
--"leaning" toward one party (a 5-10 point lead)
--competitive (within 5 points either way)
And boy is it bad for the GOP.
There are 30 states solid for the Dems, and 4 states solid for the Republicans (Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska).
There are eight more states leaning Dem (Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida), and one leaning GOP (Alabama).
And the competitive states: Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina.
The news from Texas, Florida and Georgia is particularly scary for the GOP because it means Obama could win in a total avalanche in 2012.
And states like Oklahoma and Mississippi are scary for the GOP because they should never, ever be in danger in those states. Even on Planet Wingnut, the GOP can't defend their own territory reliably.
And it's all scary for the GOP because it shows, yet again, that their entire strategy -- a year-long campaign of anti-Obama attacks and obstruction -- has actually backfired. And what else do they have? An actual program of policy? LOL
Democrats have actually gained on the electoral map since Obama was inaugurated.
Gallup polled voters across all 50 states and then categorized states in accordance with their level of support for the two parties:
--solid support for one party (a 10 point lead over the other party)
--"leaning" toward one party (a 5-10 point lead)
--competitive (within 5 points either way)
And boy is it bad for the GOP.
There are 30 states solid for the Dems, and 4 states solid for the Republicans (Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and Alaska).
There are eight more states leaning Dem (Nevada, Colorado, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida), and one leaning GOP (Alabama).
And the competitive states: Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina.
The news from Texas, Florida and Georgia is particularly scary for the GOP because it means Obama could win in a total avalanche in 2012.
And states like Oklahoma and Mississippi are scary for the GOP because they should never, ever be in danger in those states. Even on Planet Wingnut, the GOP can't defend their own territory reliably.
And it's all scary for the GOP because it shows, yet again, that their entire strategy -- a year-long campaign of anti-Obama attacks and obstruction -- has actually backfired. And what else do they have? An actual program of policy? LOL
Sunday, 19 July 2009
The GOP and message management
In politics, in business, in product merchandising, in media, in entertainment, there is a thing known as message management. Pick out a few key messages which you want to convey to your audience, and hammer them home. In the past few years the GOP, led by guys like Rove and Atwater, have excelled in this area.
Now, let's listen to the GOP's message over the last two months:
Sotomayor is a racist but Jeff Sessions isn’t!
Sotomayor, who was originally nominated by Republicans and approved by Jesse Helms, is a radical!
La Raza is bad because it’s connected to Sotomayor, but good because they gave awards to Boehner and Lindsey Graham!
Sotomayor was an affirmative action pick, but Palin, Jindal and Steele weren’t!
Investigating Clinton’s blow job was more important than Congress even being informed about Cheney’s secret, illegal murder squads, even if there’s no restriction on the teams operating in the U.S.!
Democratic judges are activists even though Republican judges are the ones who overturn legislation more often!
Government health care is too expensive even though every country that tried is paying half what we’re paying per head, and in the meantime almost half the personal bankruptcies in America happen in families that HAVE health insurance!
The GOP insists they want a bipartisan health plan even though their notion of bipartisanship is Democratic surrender – no to an independent insurance board, no to the public option (and of course no to single payer), no to mandating employer participation (but yes to employee participation), no to health care information technology, no to comparative effectiveness research, no to eliminating overpayments to insurers!
Passing a law to ban mermaids and centaurs is more important than a health care bill!
We’re the party of family values even after Sanford and Ensign, even though the red states lead the country in porn, pregnant teens and divorce!
Sanford’s lunatic behaviour was caused by Obama and big gummint!
Rick Perry is a small-government hero even though he spent all summer begging Obama for money to clean up his fiscal mess – and used 11 million in stimulus money on his mansion in Austin!
Palin didn’t quit even though she did!
Palin is a better executive than Obama, although even Republicans screamed at her (unsuccessfully) to figure out how to manage the most basic management functions such as making a schedule and returning phone calls!
Reporting on Bristol Palin is bad, but hurling racial slurs at Malia Obama is okay!
The census is the first step toward concentration camps!
Republican policy czars good, Democratic czars bad!
Terrorism is evil except when it’s aimed at abortion doctors – then they’re heroes!
Obama’s doomed even though his approvals are still high, he’s ahead even the worst-hit states like Michigan, and is leading Pawlenty by 11 in Pawlenty’s home state, and leading every major potential GOP candidate by at least a touchdown for 2012, and is more trusted than the GOP on the budget, the economy, and health care, buy a 2-to-1 margin!
The GOP is the voice of reason on the economy even though they have no new ideas, their “budget” was an empty folder, and their House leader has already been caught lying about the stimulus!
The teabagger movement isn’t partisan, even though their whole platform consists of criticizing Obama for allegedly doing things Bush was doing a year ago!
Obama’s guy at the Department of Education will turn your kids gay!
Gays caused the recession!
Conservatives are more patriotic than you, even though Rush is screaming for the army to overthrow Obama and the wingnut blogosphere is cheering soldiers who refuse to serve the Commander in Chief!
....and Rush is also rooting for GM to collapse because it will hurt Obama, even as it puts thousands out of work!
Questioning Rush is like questioning Jesus!
The GOP House members resisting Obama are the same as the Iranian protesters because Obama = Ahmadinejad!
The House Speaker looks like she had a little Botox -- just ignore the fact that her GOP counterpart spends more time in a tanning bed than a teenage girl!
Pelosi's a liar although even the CIA and the members of Congress and the supporting documents prove she was right!
The birth certificate conspiracy includes the Republican governor of Hawaii who certified that he is a citizen, the Republican members of Congress who certified his election victory, the Republican vice president who ratified that vote, the Republican President who handed the White House to him, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court which repeatedly rejected challenges to his eligibility for the White House, and the Republican Chief Justice who swore him in -- twice!
Torture is good but empathy is evil!
Well, I'm no expert....A message like that, I can't figure out why it's not selling...?
Now, let's listen to the GOP's message over the last two months:
Sotomayor is a racist but Jeff Sessions isn’t!
Sotomayor, who was originally nominated by Republicans and approved by Jesse Helms, is a radical!
La Raza is bad because it’s connected to Sotomayor, but good because they gave awards to Boehner and Lindsey Graham!
Sotomayor was an affirmative action pick, but Palin, Jindal and Steele weren’t!
Investigating Clinton’s blow job was more important than Congress even being informed about Cheney’s secret, illegal murder squads, even if there’s no restriction on the teams operating in the U.S.!
Democratic judges are activists even though Republican judges are the ones who overturn legislation more often!
Government health care is too expensive even though every country that tried is paying half what we’re paying per head, and in the meantime almost half the personal bankruptcies in America happen in families that HAVE health insurance!
The GOP insists they want a bipartisan health plan even though their notion of bipartisanship is Democratic surrender – no to an independent insurance board, no to the public option (and of course no to single payer), no to mandating employer participation (but yes to employee participation), no to health care information technology, no to comparative effectiveness research, no to eliminating overpayments to insurers!
Passing a law to ban mermaids and centaurs is more important than a health care bill!
We’re the party of family values even after Sanford and Ensign, even though the red states lead the country in porn, pregnant teens and divorce!
Sanford’s lunatic behaviour was caused by Obama and big gummint!
Rick Perry is a small-government hero even though he spent all summer begging Obama for money to clean up his fiscal mess – and used 11 million in stimulus money on his mansion in Austin!
Palin didn’t quit even though she did!
Palin is a better executive than Obama, although even Republicans screamed at her (unsuccessfully) to figure out how to manage the most basic management functions such as making a schedule and returning phone calls!
Reporting on Bristol Palin is bad, but hurling racial slurs at Malia Obama is okay!
The census is the first step toward concentration camps!
Republican policy czars good, Democratic czars bad!
Terrorism is evil except when it’s aimed at abortion doctors – then they’re heroes!
Obama’s doomed even though his approvals are still high, he’s ahead even the worst-hit states like Michigan, and is leading Pawlenty by 11 in Pawlenty’s home state, and leading every major potential GOP candidate by at least a touchdown for 2012, and is more trusted than the GOP on the budget, the economy, and health care, buy a 2-to-1 margin!
The GOP is the voice of reason on the economy even though they have no new ideas, their “budget” was an empty folder, and their House leader has already been caught lying about the stimulus!
The teabagger movement isn’t partisan, even though their whole platform consists of criticizing Obama for allegedly doing things Bush was doing a year ago!
Obama’s guy at the Department of Education will turn your kids gay!
Gays caused the recession!
Conservatives are more patriotic than you, even though Rush is screaming for the army to overthrow Obama and the wingnut blogosphere is cheering soldiers who refuse to serve the Commander in Chief!
....and Rush is also rooting for GM to collapse because it will hurt Obama, even as it puts thousands out of work!
Questioning Rush is like questioning Jesus!
The GOP House members resisting Obama are the same as the Iranian protesters because Obama = Ahmadinejad!
The House Speaker looks like she had a little Botox -- just ignore the fact that her GOP counterpart spends more time in a tanning bed than a teenage girl!
Pelosi's a liar although even the CIA and the members of Congress and the supporting documents prove she was right!
The birth certificate conspiracy includes the Republican governor of Hawaii who certified that he is a citizen, the Republican members of Congress who certified his election victory, the Republican vice president who ratified that vote, the Republican President who handed the White House to him, the Republican-dominated Supreme Court which repeatedly rejected challenges to his eligibility for the White House, and the Republican Chief Justice who swore him in -- twice!
Torture is good but empathy is evil!
Well, I'm no expert....A message like that, I can't figure out why it's not selling...?
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