History Says Otherwise

Raw Story: Former President Ronald Reagan’s oldest son on Monday compared liberals to termites who are “eating away at the foundations” of America. Appearing a campaign event for Newt Gingrich in Florida, Michael Reagan encouraged attendees not to “go home and forget about it.”

Liberals freed the slaves, got women the right to vote, and fought for the worker rights and protecions that created the great American middle class. And conservatives fought them every step of the way. Everything good about America, equal opportunity, environmental protection, upward mobility, public education, civil rights, racial equality & due process exists because of our work and despite theirs.

Here's the bottom line, conservatives have been working on behalf of the plantation owner since this country was founded. And to this day, unless you're a transnational CEO, a war profiteer, a billionaire, or a Chinese factory owner conservative public policy is a God-damn-national-disaster.

Don't Like Democrats, Can't Stand Democracy

Headline: Norquist: Republicans Will Impeach Obama If He Doesn't Extend Bush Tax Cuts

Grover Norquist is Mr GOP. Listen to him. They mean it. They impeached Clinton for nothing. They will do it again.

But whether it's impeachment, going to court to say Obama is not president because he was born in Africa (cause, you know, he's black) or the constant Republican efforts to rob all manner of poor, elderly, and minority Americans of the right to vote, it's pretty clear they can't stand democracy. If you value yours, best you work to keep Republicans from power.

Standing O for Diaper D

Raw Story: Republican Louisiana Sen. David Vitter lashed out at a CNN host on Monday for asking if there were similarities between his prostitution scandal and the infidelities of Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Vitter's right. There are few similarities. Newt had consensual affairs with women who were not prostitutes. That's not illegal. Vitter is reported to have arranged appointments with hookers where the hookers say he got off on wearing diapers. And of course soliciting prostitutes is illegal. Never the less, his Republican colleagues not only didn't call for his prosecution (much less his resignation), but the first time he showed his face after the scandal broke, they gave him a standing ovation.

Except That You're The One Who Crashed The Ship

Raw Story: Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus thought Sunday morning that President Barack Obama merited being compared to Francesco Schettino, the captain of the turned over cruise ship in Italy.

When Obama took over from Preibus's team GOP we were losing nearly 800,000 jobs a month, the stock market had crashed down to 7000 and we were all watching the news to see when we were going to have to run down to the bank and pound on the glass to try and get our money out before the entire system collapsed. Things are far better today. So in reality Obama is like the crew that remained to save the people on the ship after Preibus and his Republicans put it upon the rocks. Preibus is just trying to lie his way into making people believe otherwise.

Thanks For The Ending The Ending Slavery Thing But...

Headline: Allan West To Liberals: Get The Hell Out Of The US

First of all this guy needs to adjust his headgear and deal with reality of the company he keeps. There is a reason that out of 535 members of congress he's the only black Republican. The GOP is the party of The Southern Strategy and well, like we said, Allen West is black. We suggest Mr West stop projecting and self hating and maybe talk to a therapist. He obviously has some issues.

As for what he said, history records that it was northern liberals that defended the nation after southern conservatives made war on the United States to preserve slavery. So southern conservatives already tried to get the hell out of the US. They already made war on the US. They already betrayed the US. And lest anybody think that ancient history, the fact of the matter is, to this day the philosophical and geographical power base of the Republican party is the confederate south. To this day most of the Republican base prefers the confederate battle flag to the American flag. To this day they are still very much the party the built on the back of The Southern Strategy. So on a personal and political level his demand is logically and historically ridiculous.

Tough On Victims

Hernando, Mississippi (CNN): -- The "Reward" sign being nailed above the convenience store counter takes on a little more meaning here in Desoto County, Mississippi. At the Old Road Store, it's personal.

In 1992, this is where Joseph Ozment, the man whose photo is on the reward poster, gunned down a store clerk. He was sent to prison for life, and no one imagined they'd hear from him again. In this small town, south of Memphis, Tennessee, his picture is back up and people are wondering how someone who committed such a brutal crime could be pardoned by their former Gov. Haley Barbour -- and law enforcement authorities can't seem to find Ozment.

"It's just an every minute, constant, in the back of your mind, where is he, what is he doing?" said Mary McAbee, the sister of Rick Montgomery, the store clerk shot to death by Ozment.

"I'm fearful. He's a cold-blooded murderer to do what he's done and if he thinks that he may go back to prison, what's he got to lose?" she said.

In addition to being the Governor of Mississippi and the GOP's favorite super-lobbyist, Boss Hog has been both chairman of the Republican Party and chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

Forced Birthers

WRAL:

Republican Rep. Larry Pittman, who was appointed to the District 82 House seat in October, expressed his views in an email sent Wednesday to every member of the General Assembly. [...]

“We need to make the death penalty a real deterrent again by actually carrying it out. Every appeal that can be made should have to be made at one time, not in a serial manner,” Pittman wrote in the email. “If murderers (and I would include abortionists, rapists, and kidnappers, as well) are actually executed, it will at least have the deterrent effect upon them. For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Funny, he puts kidnappers and rapists in with doctors who provide abortions, because his Republican party would force a woman who was abducted and raped to have that rapists' baby. Barbarians.

If you're a woman thinking of voting Republican, you had better know this: if you do, and you get raped, and you get pregnant, the GOP will force you to have that rapists' baby. Even if it puts your life in danger. If they're in charge they will make that happen. It's not only what people like Larry Pittman say they will do, but it's a plank in the Republican party platform. Chose wisely.

Cutting Costs

Daily Kos on a recent Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell show: O'Donnell asked Tim Pawlenty to name a great businessman who has gone on to become a great president. Pawlenty's logic circuits seemed to be EMP'd for a moment. He babbled a bit before saying Ronald Reagan. O'Donnell laughed at him and suggested that Reagan was head of a union (SAG) and was a "union thug". Then T-Paw went back in history, citing Abraham Lincoln. O'Donnell too, laughed at this. Then T-Paw hit the $1 bill and said George Washington.

Reagan was an actor, Lincoln was a lawyer, but indeed, George Washington owned a plantation. On which he was able to really lower his labor cost. He owned 124 slaves. Apparently in GOP world this is a business model to be admired.

Smart

Bill Gates: “Well, the United States has a huge budget deficit, so taxes are going to have to go up. And I certainly agree that they should go up more on the rich than everyone else. That's just justice"

You don't have to be Bill Gates to figure that out. You just need to have an ounce of common sense and some decency. Republicans have neither.

White-Washers

Huffington Post: A little more than a year after the conservative-led state board of education in Texas approved massive changes to its school textbooks to put slavery in a more positive light, a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country's founders being slave owners.

Ah yes, nothing like watching the party of the Southern Strategy try and bury history. Can't blame them though. History hits them pretty hard. Southern conservatives took up arms against the United States to fight for slavery. Northern progressives defended the United States against those traitors and fought to end slavery. And to this day the philosophical and geographical power base of the Republican party is the confederate south. To this day most of the Republican base prefers the confederate battle flag to the American flag.

Going To The Well

In a stunning turnaround, Newt Gingrich won Saturday's South Carolina GOP presidential primary, and thanked voters "who decided to be with us in changing Washington." FULL STORY

By all accounts Newt really turned it around in South Carolina during the last five days when he 1) starting calling Obama "the food stamp president," 2) said he would tell black people that earning a paycheck is better than being on food stamps, and 3) when he "put Juan Williams in his place" during one of the debates. His victory is just more evidence that the way to get over on the GOP base is to be a racist. Such is life in the party of The Southern Strategy.

Blame Colbert

NBC's Chuck Todd lit into Stephen Colbert on Thursday, accusing the Comedy Central host of corrupting the political process with his presidential run and Super PAC in South Carolina.
...

"What is his real agenda here?" he said. "Is it to educate the public about the dangers of money and politics, and what's going on? Or is it simply to marginalize the Republican Party? I think if I were a Republican candidate I would be concerned about that."

The successful Republican efforts to strike down anti-corruption laws is what has corrupted the political process, not Steven Colbert. Corporate personhood and decisions such as Citizens United have led to government by the Koch brothers instead of government by the people. Chuck Todd, being a right-wing tool, and his employer, being the corporate media, would rather accept the billions of dollars in ad revenue they get from the current arrangement than report the truth. So it's no wonder he's upset that Colbert is pointing it out.

Cancer

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) turned down on Thursday a $37 million grant that would have helped to provide health care services for tens of thousands of Wisconsinites, saying he would rather deny his citizens treatment if it means he is resisting the “encroachment of ObamaCare.”

The money would have been used in Wisconsin to implement health care exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, meant to pool insurance resources to drive the cost of policies down for individual citizens and people with pre-existing conditions.

Translation: I'm a corrupt son-of-a-bitch and I won't do a Goddamn thing that will hurt the massive profits of the insurance companies that bankroll my grip on power. I would rather let people in my state die than negatively impact my cronies in the for-profit health care industry.

Elections GOP Style

(CNN) -- Rick Santorum finished the Iowa Republican caucuses 34 votes ahead of Mitt Romney, but results from several precincts are missing and the full actual results may never be known, according to a final certified tally released Thursday by the Iowa GOP.

The Republican party can't be trusted to run elections. They stole the 2000 presidential election in Florida and they did it again in Ohio in 2004. This time they tried to do it to one of their own. The GOP establishment wants Romney. The reason we have such ridiculous explanations for the results in Iowa is that they tried to steal for him an election that he didn't win. They do a lot of that.

The UnAmericans

Headline: Romney Hiding Millions In Dozens Of Secret Offshore Accounts

Republicans have been deliberately trying to destroy the tax base since Reagan. As a result we're losing everything that made this country great. This week it came out that Romney indeed pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Now we have news the Willard, a man that got filthy rich by bankrupting American companies, screwing American workers out of their pensions and destroying American jobs, is actually paying even less than that because he's hiding income in the Cayman Islands and cheating his country out of much needed and owed tax revenue. That makes him a good Republican but a bad American.

Bas(ic) Instinct

A speaker told a coalition of tea party groups in South Carolina on Monday that the U.S. could save $260 billion on the border fence if they “force these Mexicans to make 5$ a day” to build it.
...

The tea party speaker also drew a comparison between Adolph Hitler and President Barack Obama, but admitted that the current White House resident would not have caused the Holocaust.

“The only difference between Adolph Hitler and Barack Obama is that Barack Obama not overtly ethnically challenged with regards to various groups and religious paradigms,” he said. “But socialism is alive and well in Washington.”

First, Hitler was a right-winger, his party was socialist in name only, and anybody in the Reich that pushed socialism was soon tortured and killed. This speaker is also a right-winger, and if you follow the link and listen to him you will find he has a lot more in common with Hitler than Obama ever could.

Second, we don't want to try and say this guy is a prominent Republican or he speaks for the Republican party. But if you follow the link and watch the video, you will see a room full of Republicans give him a standing ovation upon the conclusion of his remarks. This is the GOP base. If you're thinking of voting GOP in November we beg you first consider the company you keep.

Drink Up

A Georgia Republican who wants all welfare recipients subject to drug tests failed one himself after he ran a red light on Friday morning.

Putting aside the hypocrisy and disdain this clown displays for (other peoples) civil liberties, one would think Republicans might want to encourage people to impair their judgement. Given the historical results of their public policy Americans would have to be drunk to vote GOP.

The Fear From Within

Explaining why he put forward a bill that would ban trangender people from using dressing rooms and restrooms that do not match the gender on their birth certificates, State Rep. Richard Floyd (R) was quoted recently as threatening to “stomp a mudhole” in anybody who might be wearing the clothing of the opposite sex if they came anywhere near his family.

So, who wouldn't be surprised to find out this guy goes out late at night to hook up with transvestites? It's almost always the case that those who get so worked up over such things are being driven by the fact they're gay themselves. The rest of us just don't give a rip.

KKK Projection

The founder of a movement to increase racial diversity within the Republican Party told a crowd of tea party supporters on Sunday that they weren’t racists because “the Democratic Party is the party of the KKK"

Definitely suspect coming from the party of the confederate flag. Of course even a minor student of history would know the Democratic Party was the party of the KKK, before the Republican party employed the self named Southern Strategy to suck all the racists out of the Democratic party and with them, build their base. And to this day the philosophical and geographical power base of the Republican party is the confederate south. While we don't imagine it's in their best interest to bring it up, we always appreciate the opportunity to see them get smashed by the sledge hammer of history.

Don't Spend It All In One Place

Sumter, South Carolina (CNN) – Mitt Romney gave a handful of cash Saturday to a woman who had told him she was struggling financially after an event in Sumter, South Carolina.

An aide said the GOP candidate gave the supporter "what he had on him" - about $50 or $60.

Great. Outsource millions of American jobs, hollow out our economy, and devastate the middle class, and then when somebody complains about it, give them 50 bucks and tell them to shut up. Marie Antoinette would be proud.

Let It Burn?

Romney’s policy director Lanhee Chen today: “In January 2009, the month President Obama assumed office, the total US public debt outstanding was $10.4 trillion. Today it exceeds more than $15 trillion. The American people are all too well aware that this is money that they must eventually pay back.”

Yes Obama had to spend money to reverse the meltdown Romney's team one 1% left us in. But the solution to that isn't to return team 1% to the Whitehouse, that's what caused the meltdown in the first place. The solution to that is to never let their public policy come back into effect again.

It does go to the complete lack of honesty and character on the right though, that they would set the house on fire and then blame Obama and the Dems for the cost of putting it out.

Block The Vote!

John Stossel on Fox News: I’m not saying we should have a test or something. But this endless cheerleading — let’s go to the rock concerts and register the kids. And the kids aren’t paying attention. And it’s important in a democracy, it’s important to vote. And these are important issues. The people who participate ought to be the ones who pay attention…I’m just saying we shouldn’t have these “Get Out The Vote” campaigns and make these statements: “Everyone has to vote. It’s your patriotic duty!” Well if you’re not paying attention, I think it’s your patriotic duty not to vote.

Actually, since young people mostly vote for Democrats and progressive public policy that history has shown to be a proven winner, and against Republicans and conservative public policy that history has shown to be a national disaster, they appear to be paying plenty of attention. Old, white, Republicans that watch Fox News all day on the other hand, need to get a clue before they take us all down. And of course, it's no surprise that yet again we have Republicans trying to get people not to vote. They pretty much hate democracy.

Red State Math

Think Progress: Parents in Norcross, Georgia blasted school officials at Beaver Ridge Elementary School after teachers gave third graders a math worksheet that used examples of slavery in word problems ... Examples on the worksheet included “Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?” and “If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?”

This is what happens when we give power to a political party that deliberately built its base with racists. Slavery is over. Conservatives need to let it go.

Corruption Unlimitted

WASHINGTON -- In the latest GOP effort to accord corporations the same rights as people, the Republican National Committee wants to strike down the century-old ban against direct corporate contributions to candidates and party committees. The ban, part of a 1907 anti-corruption law that helped curb the influence of corporate robber barons, is one of the last bulwarks of campaign finance law left after the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision two years ago.

This along with their obvious disdain for democracy makes quite clear the Republican party is all about corporate rule. If you're the CEO of a transnational corporation and you can afford everything from your own private security and food safety inspectors to your own private cancer care, it might make sense to vote GOP. In the interest of self preservation, everybody else should think twice.

(corporate) Raider Nation

Willard Romney: I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.

Yes we took the Romney quote out of context. But the guy did get filthy rich by bankrupting American companies, screwing American workers out of their pensions and destroying American jobs, so we figure what we said he said is just as true as what he actually said, and far more important.

Who Needs Food Inspectors Anyway

Raw Story: In a Sunday evening segment, Fox News business reporter Brenda Buttner suggested that the loss of public sector jobs — which have come largely out of cities, counties, school districts and states — is actually “a positive” development for the U.S. economy.

“Government is a little bit losing jobs, and that’s something that we see as a positive because we want government to lose jobs to get more in-line with the private sector,” she explained during an appearance on America’s News Headquarters.

It's either government by the people or corporate rule. It's clear team 1% prefers the latter. Since the corporation will sell you out quicker than you can say "I have cancer," it would be wise to vote for people who actually believe in a strong and capable government by the people.

Job Creators

Headline: DNC chair calls Romney a "job cremator"

Cute, but not entirely true. Team 1% has created tons of jobs... in China, and in India. But while their public policy is fantastic if you're a transnational CEO or a Chinese factory owner, here at home it's a God-damn-national-disaster.

Elitist Snobbery Projection

Think Progress: While talking about education during a campaign stop in New Hampshire today, Santorum stated that Obama “said every child should go to college,” then declared, “What elitist snobbery out of this man!” The claim drew cheers from many in the crowd.

Because in GOP world it's elitist snobbery to want everybody to have the chance at a good education, but it's not elitist snobbery to restrict that opportunity to the children of the rich. Attacking, restricting, and denying public education is a major way in which Republican party public policy reduces upward mobility, making America very much less the land of opportunity. But it's no surprise. Fact of the matter is conservatives have been working on behalf the plantation owner since this country was founded.

He Already Did

Raw Story: Failed Republican presidential candidate John McCain’s endorsement of current candidate Mitt Romney may being doing more harm than good.

At an event in South Carolina Thursday, the Arizona senator managed to confuse the candidate he was supporting with Democratic President Barack Obama.

“I am confident with the leadership and backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around,” McCain told the Charleston crowd before Romney and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley both stepped in to remind him who he was campaigning for.

The only time Republicans are right about such things is when they mistakenly say the opposite of what they intend. Obama already turned this country around after Romey's team 1% left us is economic and fiscal meltdown. Any vote for a Republican is a vote for economic devastation. We all lived it. Let's not live it again.

Eat Racist Rhetoric

Gingrich: I'll tell blacks not to be satisfied with food stamps.

And we'll tell Republicans it's more than difficult to get a job, much less an education, if you're starving. Pretty much every Republican party policy has the effect of reducing upward mobility, making America very much less the land of opportunity.

Corrupt, Destructive, Counter Productive

CNN: Former CIA Director Michael Hayden says the sectarian strife in Iraq was predictable and could have been lessened if the Obama administration had kept troops there.

Huffington Post: MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Texas Gov. Rick Perry hit President Obama for ending the Iraq war and pulling out U.S. troops -- carrying out a Status of Forces Agreement first negotiated between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government. "I would send troops back into Iraq," he said ... Perry added, "We're going to see Iran, in my opinion, move back in at literally the speed of light. They're going to move back in, and all of the work we've done -- every young man that has lost his life in that country will have been for nothing. Because we've got a president that does not understand what's going on in that region."

The Sunni/Shia strife has gone on in Iraq for a thousand years. It will go on for another thousand. Republicans know this. They want us spending taxpayer money in Iraq forever because the military-industrial complex turns around and uses some of it to bankroll the Republicans grip on power. It works out for them; they spend some of their billions of get Republicans elected, Republicans start bullshit wars, they get even richer, tens of thousands of Americans get killed and maimed.

As for the part about Iran moving in, that's true. With a majority Shia population, that outcome was ordained the minute the GOP power structure decided to get rid of Sadam. Perry and his fellow Republicans handed Iraq and the worlds second largest oil reserves to Iran on a silver platter. But that's certainly not a reason to vote for them.

Big Lie # 467

Fox News host Gretchen Carlson: “Is the mainstream media trying to spin the election?”

The implication being that long standing GOP lie that the media is Liberal. Garbage. We could go all the way back to the way the corporate media treated Bill Clinton over a marginal lie about sex vs the way they kept their hands off Bush/Cheney for lying us into a disaster of a war in Iraq, but we don't even need to do that. The proof is more immediate. If the media was anything but a tool for the monied interests, they would be telling us every day that Republican party public policy results in economic and fiscal disaster. Because that's what the evidence shows. They don't say that. Case closed.

Letting The Psychopaths Run The Asylum

Bloomberg's William D. Cohen asks if psychopaths have taken over Wall Street:

[A]ccording to Boddy’s “Corporate Psychopaths Theory of the Global Financial Crisis,” these men were “able to influence the moral climate of the whole organization” to wield “considerable power.”

They “largely caused the crisis” because their “single- minded pursuit of their own self-enrichment and self- aggrandizement to the exclusion of all other considerations has led to an abandonment of the old-fashioned concept of noblesse oblige, equality, fairness, or of any real notion of corporate social responsibility.” [...] These psychopaths “present themselves as glibly unbothered by the chaos around them, unconcerned about those who have lost their jobs, savings and investments, and as lacking any regrets about what they have done. They cheerfully lie about their involvement in events, are very convincing in blaming others for what has happened and have no doubts about their own worth and value. They are happy to walk away from the economic disaster that they have managed to bring about, with huge payoffs and with new roles advising governments how to prevent such economic disasters.”

One of the most important differences between Democrats and Republicans is that Democrats understand we need a big and capable government by the people to regulate these psychopaths. Republicans on the other hand, not only want to destroy governments' ability to watch over these transnational robber barons, they want to let them rule.

Smallish Government

Raw Story: Legislation introduced to the Indiana Senate would make it a crime to stray from approved lyrical or melodic guidelines while performing the national anthem at any event sponsored by public schools and state universities.

The bill was proposed by Sen. Vaneta Becker (R). She told The Indianapolis Star that it was inspired by a constituent who emailed her after being upset by a parody of the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Republicans only want small government when it comes to things that promote the greater good and upward mobility, education, healthcare, the safety net, emergency response, etc. They want big government when it comes to controlling your personal life, who you can marry, what you can smoke, what language you speak, and now apparently, how you sing.