Voters = The Enemy

Think Progress: In recent weeks GOP congressmen have resorted to all sorts of underhanded schemes to avoid interacting with their angry constituents back home over August recess. Now two Republican freshmen, Reps. Daniel Webster (R-FL) and Tim Griffin (R-AZ), are taking this trend one step further, using disturbing intimidation tactics and “watch lists” to discourage constituents from asking them questions.



This is the same Tim Griffin that made a name for himself in the Republican party by scheming to rob Americans of their right to vote. These people are hostile to democracy. If you want to keep yours, best not vote for them.

Right-Wing Profile

Raw Story: A 24-year-old Oregon man — who told police that he was a “Christian warrior” — has been charged with a hate crime for allegedly firebombing a mosque last November. In an unrelated incident, Crawford had ranted to police about Muslims, according to court documents. "You look like Obama,” he said to a McMinnville officer in December. “You are a Muslim like him. Jihad goes both ways. Christians can jihad too.”



31% of registered Repubicans believe Obama is a muslim. About the same percentage believe that Obama might just might be the anti-Christ. So at least 1 in 4 Republicans are psychopaths. And oh yeah, the evidence shows right-wing Republicans are prone to violence and must be watched.

Deal

Think Progress Headline: Cantor Says No Earthquake Disaster Relief For His Home State Unless Spending Is Cut Elsewhere.

Fine. Cut defense. Ain't bi-partisanship grand?

It's worth noting however, that Cantor voted to borrow billions to rebuild Iraq without any problem at all. That apparent inconsistency must be due to the fact he knew most of that money was going to GOP cronies instead of American communities that need it. You're a peach congressman, you're a peach.

Broken Clock

Think Progress: When Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett (R) unveiled his budget in April, students and parents protested the $1.2 billion in education cuts it contained by holding a mock bake sale at the state capitol, where they estimated they would have to sell 2.4 billion cookies to make up the cost of the cuts. Corbett eventually signed into law a budget, with $900 million in education cuts, reducing the amount of cookies the parents needed to sell but still forcing school to districts to find creative ways to fill their budget gaps. In Carlisle, Pennsylvania, those cuts meant putting an end to traditional means of cutting grass at two local schools. Instead of lawnmowers, the schools are using sheep.



As tragic as a billion dollars worth of cuts to education is, this may be as close as the GOP will ever get to going green.

Not Exactly

Raw Story: Tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) explained Wednesday that he was helping black voters escape slavery of the “21st-century plantation” overseen by black liberals like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA)... “So I’m here as the modern-day Harriet Tubman, to kind of lead people on the Underground Railroad, away from that plantation into a sense of sensibility,” said West.

We're not sure how participating in the party of the confederate flag and The Southern Strategy makes him the modern-day Harriet Tubman. In fact, it makes him an apologist and promoter of a political party that deliberately built its base with racists.

Yes, But...

Janeane Garofalo: Do female GOP candidates have Stockholm syndrome?



... you could ask that question about any GOP voter who isn't very rich, very white and very Christian.

Cancer

Today, Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) issued the first policy position of his presidential campaign by asking the White House to issue a “moratorium on regulations across this country”:

We’re calling today on the president of the United States to put a moratorium on regulations across this country, because his regulations, his EPA regulations are killing jobs all across America.

The EPA protects us from corporations who's only concern is profit. Get rid of it and we'll be killing people all across America. Rick Perry and the Republicans simply want to get rid of government by the people and replace it with corporate rule, and they really don't give a rip how many people get sick or die in the process. This should disqualify them from public office.

Running To Be Inconsequential

Rick Perry: I promise to make Washington inconsequential in your lives ...



The transnational corporations should be happy about that. People who are clearly hostile to representative democracy should not be allowed to serve in it. When they do, we end up with the truism that Republicans run around saying government doesn't work until they get elected and prove it.

Tariffist

"In a trade war, everybody loses. Some may lose more than others, but everybody loses," said Nicholas Lardy, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.



That's not true. Unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, we win a trade war. We're the biggest consumers in the history of the universe. A black hole for consumer goods. We'll consume you to death. At only 4% of the world's population we're responsible for 25% of the world's consumption. We're the only people we need to sell to.



Slap stiff tariffs on all imported goods and we'll fix our economy. Produce at home what we consume at home and we'll fix our economy. Restore the buying power of the great American middle class and we'll fix our economy. It's as simple as that.

Teh Gay

Headline: Anti-gay State Rep Solicited Teen Boy On Craiglist

Yawn, it happened again. People need to understand that anybody who gives a rip to the degree they need to be outwardly anti-gay is definitely gay themselves. The rest of us just don't care enough about it.

Friends

Firedog Lake reporting on Mitt Romney: Pressed by an attendee at the Iowa State Fair on Thursday as to why he was focusing on entitlement reforms as a means of deficit reduction over asking corporations to share part of the burden, the GOP frontrunner shot back: "Corporations are people, my friend..."



Allow us to retort: You're a multimillionaire who made his money outsourcing American jobs. You're not my friend.

Shrinking Democracy

LEE FANG: Were you praying today for reducing the size of government even if it comes to a government shut down?

TOM DELAY: I’m always praying for reducing the size of government!

Yep, they want to reduce the size of government by the people. Republicans would rather have corporate rule and they're not shy about saying so.

Pictures, Words

Raw Story: Rep. Allen West (R-FL), a favorite among tea party Republicans, insisted Monday during an appearance on the conservative Fox News Channel that a refusal to increase government revenues through taxes had "nothing" to do with Standard & Poor's dropping America's credit rating last week.



On Friday (just below) we posted the quote from S&P that demonstrates this latest GOP lie in the clearest possible way. So no need to post it again. But if you follow the link you'll see that in the backround of his interview is a massive yacht. Which is entirely appropriate given who Republicans represent.

Money Talks

S&P on their credit downgrade of US debt: Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. We have changed our assumption on this because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues, a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act.

When Republicans win America loses. But Eric Cantor's making money.

Crimes Against Democracy

Paul Weyrich, father of of the modern right-wing movement and co-founder of the Heritage Foundation: "I don't want everybody to vote... As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down"

If you ever had any doubt the longstanding cesspool that is Republican party voter suppression is deliberate, this should be the end of that.

Half Baked

Think Progress: Popular hate blogger Pam Geller has received scrutiny in recent days as the public became aware that the right-wing terrorist in Norway, Anders Behring Breivik, had praised her blog and thoroughly cited her writing in his political manifesto. After a number of blogs made the connection, as well as the New York Times, the Atlantic, and other major outlets, Geller became incensed and began lashing out at her critics. In a post defending herself yesterday, Geller — who has called Obama “President Jihad” and claimed that Arab language classes are a plot to subvert the United States — reached a new low. Geller justifies Breivik’s attack on the Norwegian Labour Party summer youth camp because she says the camp is part of an anti-Israel “indoctrination training center.”

She goes on to post a picture of a gathering at the camp where Breivik committed his mass murder. Under it she writes: “Note the faces which are more Middle [sic] Eastern or mixed than pure Norwegian.” Well, we note two things... first, what this horrible person espouses is pretty typical of right-wingers. They are a truly dangerous and disgusting bunch. And second, as a Jew one would think Geller would realize that people who respond to "pure" racial rhetoric would just as easily bake her in an oven just because she's Jewish. In fact, they already have. She would do well to rediscover her humanity before she helps it happen again.