Just Grabbed Something Out Of The Closet

An Atlanta sheriff photographed wearing a Klu Klux Klan costume admits he donned the white hood but says he shouldn't be judged for a "stupid mistake" he made almost 30 years ago.

Didn't we all dress up like KKKers when we were young?  Where would one get costumes like that?  Wonder if he's friends with this guy. They are both of course, Republicans.

Cancer Givers

The Merrimack Patch reports that a Tea Party leader in New Hampshire is wishing cancer on the justices:

Former Town Councilor Mike Malzone, the founder of the Merrimack Tea Party, said Thursday in a Facebook post reacting to the Supreme Court ruling on health care, “I hope the (5 supremes) get colon cancer.”

We always thought the conservative hatred of environmental laws, public safety laws, food safety laws, access to affordable heath care, etc was based in a corporatist, profit-uber-alles kind of philosophy.  But this indicates that perhaps they actually wish the cancers that result from their dirty public policy to happen.  Either way, if you get cancer, and you vote Republican, you may very well have brought it on yourself. 

Born Poor, Stay Poor

Mitt Romney on education:

I think this is a land of opportunity for every single person, every single citizen of this great nation. And I want to make sure that we keep America a place of opportunity, where everyone has a fair shot. They get as much education as they can afford and with their time they’re able to get and if they have a willingness to work hard and the right values, they ought to be able to provide for their family and have a shot of realizing their dreams.

In Mitt Rmoney world only people with money are entitled to an education.  Which makes him fit to be president of one of those shyster for profit colleges that are bankrolling his campaign, but not president of the United States.

Education is one of the pillars of an upward mobility society.  While Republicans claim this is the land of opportunity, their public policy works against it.  They prefer a social order that has a few rich, white, men on top and everybody else working for them.  The fact of the matter is conservatives have been working on behalf of the plantation owner since before this country was founded.

Back Up Plan

Think Progress:  Republicans, after failing to prevent the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law from passing Congress, have attempted to undermine it by refusing to give Wall Street regulators adequate funds to do their jobs. Both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are short of the funding they require, and House Republicans recently voted in committee to fund the SEC $245 million below the Obama administration’s request for 2013.

How do Republicans enable corruption,   Failing to fund duly passed anti-corruptioin legislation is one of the more scumbaggerish and anti-democratic tactics.

Mitt Romney, Whore

Raw Story:  A former executive at the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Steve Jacobs, has filed a wrongful termination suit in which he accuse the company of “controlling and directing” prostitution at its Macau casinos. 

The charges are politically significant because the company’s chairman, billionaire Sheldon Adelson, has been perhaps the most generous GOP donor of the current campaign cycle. He has promised to supply “limitless” funds to defeat President Barack Obama, much of which would be channeled through 501(c)(4) non-profits that do not divulge the names of their donors.

Let's keep Sheldon Adelsons' whores in his casinos.  We don't need them in the Whitehouse. If Mitt Romney wants to be one of Sheldon Adelson's prostitutes he should move to Macau and put on a cocktail dress.

Pre-Existing Treason

Huffington Post: Conservatives were united in their disappointment over the Supreme Court's upholding of President Barack Obama's health care law on Thursday. But one former GOP spokesman took things a bit further than the near-uniform vows to repeal the legislation.

Matt Davis, a Michigan attorney who was once the state Republican Party's spokesman, sent out an email that asked whether armed rebellion would be justified in the wake of the court's decision. According to Michigan Capital Confidential, a local news service that originally reported the missive, Davis sent it "moments after the Supreme Court ruling to numerous new media outlets and limited government activists." 

Hmmm... we have a different question, would arresting this guy immediately on the charge of conspiracy to commit treason not be an appropriate response to his behavior?  Typical conservative, always ready to betray this country.  They've been doing it since the civil war.

One Less Yacht

President Obama today on Obamacare:  Within the next 4 months 13 million Americans will receive a rebate because insurance companies spent too much on administration or CEO bonuses. 

That's messaging even a hopper can love.  Our healthcare dollars need to go to our healthcare.  They don't need to be going to yet another yacht or a private petting zoo for insurance company CEO's who make ten of millions or in some cases hundreds of million of dollars a year by accepting our premiums and then rationing our care.

Does The KKK Run Jasper, Texas?

CNN Headline: Racial flames fanned in Texas town  

This is a story about Jasper, Texas.  You may remember Jasper, Texas from the news.  It's the town where three white men chained a black man, James Byrd, to the back of a truck and murdered him by dragging him along until his body came apart.

Being black in Jasper, Texas doesn't seem very fun.

Keep em Stupid

Huffington Post:  Early this month, Texas Republican delegates met in Fort Worth to approve their 2012 platform, notable parts of which take aim at the state's education system. 

In the section titled "Education Our Children," the document states that "corporal punishment is effective" and recommends teachers be given "more authority" to deal with disciplinary problems. 

Additionally, the document states the party opposes mandatory pre-school and kindergarten, saying parents are "best suited to train their children in their early development." 

The position causing the most controversy, however, is the statement that they oppose the teaching of "higher order thinking skills" -- a curriculum which strives to encourage critical thinking -- arguing that it might challenge "student's fixed beliefs" and undermine "parental authority." 

That's right America, Republicans want to give teachers the right to beat your child but not teach them critical thinking skills.   Which makes perfect sense because if you effectively think about things it's very difficult to remain a Republican.

Fast And Dishonest As Hell

Fortune Headline: Fast and Furious Truth 

It's a long article that explores how so many Americans falsely believe the Obama administration did something wrong regarding the failed Mexican gun sting (started by the Bush administration, and stopped by the Obama administration) and is now trying to cover it up.  We would love for you to read it.  But it is long, so if you don't have time, allow us to summarize it for you:  the Obama administration has done nothing illegal or unethical, the real reason for "Fast and Furious" is a ridiculous NRA backed lack of gun laws, and congressional Republicans are dishonest scumbags.

Less Democracy = Better For Republicans

Raw Story:  The Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday began discussing a bill that would make it a federal crime to knowingly mislead voters as to the time and place of a public election — an effort Democrats say will help crack down on voter intimidation and disenfranchisement due to dirty political tricks.

This is of course a Democratic bill.  It is of course opposed by Republicans.  This is because Republicans know, and have said, they do better when less people vote.  Which is why they're always trying to rob the young, the old, the poor and minorities of that right.  Which, if you're thinking about voting for the Republicans, should give you pause.  Hell, if you're thinking about having a Republican over for dinner, it should give you pause.

Still Upset We Ended Slavery

As Think Progress reported yesterday, conservative Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion claiming that Arizona’s entire harsh immigration law should be upheld sacrifices both factual and mathematical accuracy in order to attack one of the Obama Administrations recently announced policies. Perhaps the oddest part of Scalia’s dissent, however, is the fact that he actually relied on pro-slavery laws excluding free persons of African descent from much of the south to justify allowing Arizona to target undocumented immigrants:

Notwithstanding “[t]he myth of an era of unrestricted immigration” in the first 100 years of the Republic, the States enacted numerous laws restricting the immigration of certain classes of aliens, including convicted crimi­nals, indigents, persons with contagious diseases, and (in Southern States) freed blacks. State laws not only provided for the removal of unwanted immigrants but also imposed penalties on unlawfully present aliens and those who aided their immigration

Yeah, states also enacted numerous laws making slavery legal.  While nobody should be surprised to hear this from a justice of the party of the The Southern Strategy, Scalia should be impeached.  His full-throated endorsement of corruption in Citizens United should have been enough, but this is so far beyond the pale it's not even funny.  Either way, this court and it's five incredibly destructive Republican justices show how important it is that good Americans make sure there are no more Republican presidents to appoint any more corrupt, racist, Republicans to the bench.

Can't Have Black People Voting

Think Progress:  The Republican Party of Texas released its platform this month, calling on Congress to repeal the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. “We urge that the Voter [sic] Rights Act of 1965 codified and updated in 1973 be repealed and not reauthorized,” the platform reads. Texas is one of nine states with a history of racial discrimination that must get clearance from the Department of Justice before altering its voting laws.

If these people could repeal the Emancipation Proclamation you can bet your last confederate dollar that's exactly what they would do.  This is after all a political party that deliberately built its base with racists and to this day has its geographical and philosophical power base in the confederate south.  Take a drive through the south and let us know if you don't see white Republican types flying the confederate flag far more often than the American flag.

Digging Your Own Grave

Transcript:  

Out of the blue one day, we were told to build a 30-foot stage. Gathered the guys, and we built that 30-foot stage, not knowing what it was for.

Just days later, all three shifts were told to assemble in the warehouse. A group of people walked out on that stage, and told us that the plant is now closed, and all of you are fired. I looked both ways, I looked at the crowd, and we all just lost our jobs. We don’t have an income.

Mitt Romney made over a hundred million dollars by shutting down our plant, and devastated our lives. Turns out that when we built that stage, it was like building my own coffin. And it just made me sick.

This is actually what most Americans do when they vote Republican.  Many more people will lose their jobs if they elect an outsourcer in chief instead of a president that does right by the country.

Fugitives From Democracy

TPM: Pennsylvania House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R) said that the voter ID law passed by the legislature would help deliver the state for Mitt Romney in November.

That's just sick.  Robbing all manner of poor, elderly, young, and minority Americans of their right to vote  to steal elections should land more than a  few Republicans in prison, not government. 

The Corruptionists

Think Progress: The Supreme Court just announced a 5-4 decision striking down Montana’s ban on corporate money in elections. The decision was handed down without hearing oral argument on the case, meaning that the five conservative justices were not even open to hearing arguments that their election-buying decision in Citizens United might have been wrongly decided.

This was of course, the five Republican appointed, conservative justices telling Montana they can't ban corruption in their own state (even though this law had been on the books for over 100 years).  The other four justices voted to allow Montana to continue to work to get corruption out of government.  If you're a fan of corruption, vote Republican.  If you're not, and you don't want Republican presidents appointing Supreme Court justices that will make corruption legal and sell our democracy to the monied interests, you should vote for the Democrats.

Additionally, the Republican party is corrupt at it's core.  It's an institutional aim of the GOP to enable corruption in government.  The Democrats need to say so.

White, Christian, Republican, Terrorists

Think Progress:  Rep. Peter King (R-NY) has a long history of demonizing American Muslims. So it’s no great surprise that his hearing earlier this week on the radicalization of Muslims fell under attack as both a waste of time — Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-MI) commented that his time would be better spent discussing how to protect water resources for his constituents — and yet another example of King congratulating himself for his previous hearings attacking Muslims. But appearing on Fox News yesterday, King continued his factually challenged attack on Muslim Americans:

What I am very concerned about is that while the overwhelming majority of Muslims are good people, the fact is even though Muslims are 1 percent of the population, almost 90 percent of the terrorist crimes are carried out by the Muslim community. And there are not enough people in the community willing to step forward and speak out against this and cooperate with law enforcement.

The truth is that in this country Islamic fundamentalism is a lesser threat than the right-wing terrorists that are part of Peter King's flock.  According to the chart you will see if you follow the link, since 1995 the right-wingers are responsible for 56% of terrorist attacks in the US while the Islamic variety, only 13%.  If King was actually trying to keep the country safe he would be holding hearings into Republican terrorists.  That's not our opinion, it's what the data shows.

The Transnational President

Washington Post:

Mitt Romney’s financial company, Bain Capital, invested in a series of firms that specialized in relocating jobs done by American workers to new facilities in low-wage countries like China and India.

During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

We knew Romney used his daddy's money to start a firm that made hundreds of millions of dollars bankrupting American companies, destroying American jobs and screwing American workers out of their pensions.  Turns out the company helped pioneer the practice.  Like we've been saying, Willard's great for job creation... in China... and India.  But here at home he's a God-damn-national-disaster.  He should run for President of China.

Teh Crazy

A new poll conducted by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino found that 63 percent of Republican respondents still believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the United States invaded in 2003, even though this assertion has been thoroughly debunked. In comparison, only 27 percent of independents and less than 15 percent of Democrats believed in the misinformation. Additionally, 64 percent of Republican respondents believe that President Obama was born in another country.

Putting aside the conservative corporate media that wont tell the people the truth, 1 in 4 Republicans believe Obama may very well be the anti-Christ. These people are crazy.  It is dangerous to vote with crazy people.

Suspending The Truth

Raw Story:  Politico on Thursday suspended their veteran White House correspondent after several conservative websites complained that he had observed that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney appeared to be more comfortable when he’s around white people.

Romney is an active member of a religion that didn't let black people participate until 1974, he's a mega-rich, country club guy, he's member of a political party that deliberately built its base with racists and to this day has its political and philosophical power base in the confederate south.  Of course he's more comfortable around white people.  Just another reason he shouldn't be president - at least not of this country.

Against America

TPM:  Mitt Romney’s campaign asked Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) to downplay his state’s job growth after several press releases from the governor’s campaign and messages from the Florida Chamber of Commerce trumpeted gains for the month of May, according to Bloomberg News.

Once again the truth and Republicans find themselves on opposite sides (reality has a well known liberal bias - Steven Colbert).  Another truth the Romney campaign will ignore is that when Obama took over from Romney's team GOP we were losing nearly 800,000 a month and now we've gained jobs for 27 straight months. In order for him to win this election Romney must try and hide the fact Obama and democratic public policy is good for jobs growth (in America) while GOP public policy is a God-damn-national-disaster (but great for job growth in China).  This story is proof of that reality.

Rapists

A right-wing “think tank” released a report today criticizing the Obama administration’s new anti-prison rape protections as a “burden” that is too “costly” and “heavy-handed.”

Figures.  The right wing has been raping the American people for decades.  Their support of the private prison industry sells out public safety, promotes harsh sentences for minor offenses, corrupts judges, fleeces the taxpayer, and enriches their friends and political supporters. Right wingers in government serve only themselves and their cronies, the American people be damned.  If there were any justice in this world they would be in prison for their corruption and forced to deal with the epidemic of prison rape in the most "heavy handed" way possible.

Reverse Robin Hoods

TPM: A new report by Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee concludes that the GOP plan to enact large income tax cuts that disproportionately benefit top earners will be difficult to pay for by closing myriad tax loopholes — and that the loopholes that would likely have to be closed disproportionately benefit the middle class. The net result, according to Democrats, is that the Republican party’s tax plan would increase the tax burden for middle-income earners while lowering it for the wealthiest Americans.

We don't need a report to tell us that.  The Republican party has been legislating on behalf of the mega-rich and the transnational corporation at the expense of the poor and the middle class since Reagan. On the bright side though, the super rich have been creating lots of jobs... in China, and India, and a lot of other places not called the United States of America..

War On Us

Raw Story: A document declassified this week by the National Security Archive reveals that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) delivered a briefing to the Bush administration which directly contradicts former Vice President Dick Cheney’s claim that 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta visited an Iraqi intelligence official in Prague. 

The document (PDF), dated Dec. 1, 2001 and delivered to the White House on the 8th, claims that Atta “did not travel to the Czech Republic on 31 May 2000,” and adds that “the individual who attempted to enter the Czech Republic on 31 May 2000… was not the Atta who attacked the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001.”

Despite this briefing, just days later on Dec. 9, 2001, Cheney told the late Tim Russert, host of Meet the Press, that the meeting in Prague had been “pretty well confirmed.”

Right.  Well. Add this to the list of stuff they knew they lying about when they tricked us into that devastating, counter productive 9 year disaster that was Iraq.  Hell, at least their crony war profiteering supporters got to walk off with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars, right?.  They should all be in prison and anybody outside of the crony war profiteering industry or big oil would have to be crazy to vote Republican and risk all this happening again.  If you're in the military, before you vote GOP again, know this, they will lie and cheat to send you into a meat grinder to make money and confer power upon themselves.  This is what the evidence shows. 

Horseshit

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney says he won’t be giving reporters a chance to photograph him watching his wife Ann’s dressage horse perform ballet at the Summer Olympic Games in London.

Perhaps that's because he took a $77,000.00 tax deduction for the horse.  People like Romney  don't get down to 13.9% tax rate without doing stuff like this to skip out on their tax obligation.  People who actually work for a living and pay twice that or more in taxes should be upset over it.  Especially since Romney is running for president on a plan that would lower his own taxes even more - America - be -  damned.

Sold

Raw Story:  In the wake of the Citizens United ruling that allowed for unlimited and undisclosed corporate political spending, many progressives called for a constitutional amendment to overturn it. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is one of them, and he’s not impressed by arguments that such an effort is too time-consuming or complicated. “Yes, it’s hard to amend the constitution, but it’s been done 27 times before so I feel our chances are pretty good,” he told attendees at the Take Back the American Dream conference in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.

Republican judges appointed by Republican presidents gave us the democracy killer that is Citizens United.  So this is just another illustration that Democrats are trying to save our democracy while Republicans are about the business of selling it.

Hell

Think Progress:  Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is advancing an amendment to the 2012 farm bill that will cut more than $4 billion from the food stamp program and could take $90 out of the average benefit just as millions of lower-income families are struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy. 

That's nice.  Cut food stamps for the poorest among us in order to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires and transnational corporations.   Jesus would not be pleased. 

By the way, food stamps are part of the foundation upon which upward mobility, America - the land of opportunity, is based.  After all, how can you work a steady job much less get a quality education if you're starving?  Once again Republicans work against that which makes us Americans.

His Name Isn't Even Joe

Samuel Wurzelbacher, more commonly known as Joe the Plumber, blamed gun control for the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust in a web video released Monday.

Republicans consistently misrepresent and minimize the Holocaust.  Of course this is be expected from a political party that makes common cause with Nazis, has candidates that like to dress up and behave like Nazis, pose for pictures with Nazis deny the horrors of the Nazis, and accept endorsements from Nazis, has Nazis working for them overseas,  former officials that were Nazis, current officials that are Nazis, senators who are supported financially by Nazis, commentators that praise Nazis, supporters that are fascists, and administrations that employ "Jew Hunters."  And oh yeah, whose preeminent political family got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine.

History

Raw Story: On Friday night’s edition of “Real Time with Bill Maher,” host Bill Maher and his panel discussed racism in the U.S. and its role in the blatant disrespect some conservatives show for President Barack Obama.

Of course the Republican party is racist.  That's not our opinion, it's the historical record.

Etch-a-Wretch

TPM: President Obama put Mitt Romney in a political box Friday when he circumvented a congressional blockage and implemented the spirit of the DREAM Act through executive action. With no other choice, Romney finally started talking about immigration — and showcased an emerging general election message that’s much different from the hardline anti-immigration rhetoric that was a key component of his primary campaign.

Again we ask, if you like Mitt Romney, how do you know?

Where Corruption Meets Treason

WASHINGTON -- In a series of speeches and interviews over the past day, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued against adding a further layer of disclosure to the campaign finance system, suggesting that the Obama administration would use it to browbeat political opponents. 

Not only are Republicans selling our government, but they want to keep who's buying it a secret.  And since even John McCain will tell you much of that blood money comes from foreign sources, it's not a surprise they want to hide the origins of that cash.  So if you allow foreign interests buy our government, is that treason or corruption (or both?).

Racketeering

Headline: Former Romney Adviser: Republicans Are ‘Rooting Against The Economy’

Not only that, but they're legislating against it.  And they have been for a long time.  Since Reagan their public policy has hollowed out our economy, outsourced our middle class, destroyed the tax base, exploded the deficit, and in 2008/2009, put us in complete economic and fiscal meltdown.  But they don't care.  Their MO is to loot the economy for the benefit of their billionaire transnational cronies, use their corporate media for cover, and when it gets so bad that they they thrown out of power anyway, blame the Democrats for not fixing it fast enough.

Die Quickly

Romney: Repeal the ban on preexisting condition discrimination.

That's your Republican party folks.  Give them power and you will have people dying in the gutter.  Hell, with a bit of bad luck, you might even be one of them.  

editor's note: people dying in the gutter is not good for the economy. 

Revenue, Bitches!

Gingrich: Romney Policies Will Lead To Less Teachers’

KING: The president says use federal dollars to help. Governor Romney says no. [...]

GINGRICH: We have to come to grips with how big the challenge is, and does that mean there will be fewer teachers? The honest answer is yes. Does it mean that you’re not going to get quite the same pension plan people have been getting? The honest answer is yes. President Obama may say well, we can borrow our way out of that decision. I don’t think the American people agree with him.

The American people don't need to agree with Obama on that because that's not his policy. Obama's policy, Democratic party public policy, is to pay for things like teachers, and firefighters, and food inspectors, by enacting tax policy that actually taxes billionaires and trans-national corporations. And the American people agree with that.

But this brings up another point.  The media never calls them on this lie.  Never suggests there is another solution beyond cutting investment in our future (hell, the media never even calls this stuff investments in the future)  And the media never ever brings up the fact we have revenue problems because the GOP has been deliberately destroying the tax base for the last 30 years.  Of course this is exactly what one would expect from transnational corporations that don't want to be taxed.  Anybody who says the media is liberal has either been in a coma since Bill Clinton became president, is an idiot, or a liar.

Democracy Wars

Think Progress: The U.S. Justice Department is suing Florida after the state disregarded the federal government’s request to suspend its voter purge campaign. In a letter to the Florida Secretary of State, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez argues that Florida is violating the National Voter Registration Act and the Voting Rights Act. “Please immediately cease this unlawful conduct,” Perez writes. The full text of the letter is available HERE. 

It's really back to the future with these conservatives, isn't it.  What's next?  We going to have to sue the red states to enforce the repeal of the Jim Crow?  Slavery?

Simple Choice

Bay Buchannon to CNN: “Those three groups — firemen, policeman and teachers — are critical to society.” 

Well she better tell her boss because he just said we need less of them and strongly implied they're not real Americans. And before anybody claims he was taken out of context, his campaign chair re-affirmed that that position.  So.. if you think we should fire teachers to pay for tax cuts for billionaires, vote for Romney.  If not, if you think education is an investment in the future competitiveness of the country, you better vote for Obama.

The Cheneys

Headline: Liz Cheney suggests Obama personally behind intelligence leaks

An accusation for which she has zero proof.  There is however mountains of evidence that her father deliberately burned the American spy network that existed to keep WMD from terrorists in order to discredit the guy who was exposing one of his Iraq lies..  Which of course makes him a traitor.  To be fair it must be hard being the spawn of one of the most unpopular political figures in US history.  It's actually a part of popular culture that Dick Cheney is most compared to Darth Vader.

Oily

Think Progresss:  Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is no stranger to attacks on the environment, as seen in his ads against clean energy jobs, his pledge to roll back fuel economy standards that protect public health and reduce carbon pollution, and the fact that he doesn’t know “the purpose of” public lands that belong to all Americans.

It was the drill baby drill Republicans that deregulated the oil industry and allowed BP to operate without the $500,000 blow out preventer that would have saved us from having our oceans filled with oil.  We don't need another president who does the bidding of big oil at the expense of everybody else.  Dick Cheney was enough.  If Romney is elected we can look forward to more of our oceans filled with oil, more cancer, and the complete abandonment of what environmental regulation we have left.  We can look forward to a far dirtier country.  It's about that simple.

The Corruptionists

Think Progress:  The Supreme Court’s Citizen United decision has created a flood of television ad spending — hundreds of millions of dollars — by outside groups, corporations and individuals. The Justices who voted for the decision and its supporters argue that disclosure is all voters need to make informed decisions. But yesterday, a panel of House Republicans moved to keep much of this spending in the dark. A new FCC guideline that would have forced the nation’s top television stations to list the funders behind political advertisements online.

But the House Appropriations financial services subcommittee voted along party lines to prohibit the FCC from implementing their proposal to add another layer of transparency to the political ad process. Committee Chair Hal Rogers (R-KY) argued that fiscal matters are private and should remain that way, according to the LA Times

They're supposed to be working on behalf of the people. Instead they're working to hide their corruption. And they're being pretty blatant about it.  Let's be clear:  Democrats are trying to pass public policy that makes our government less corrupt.  The Republicans are working to make government more corrupt.  That's not spin.  It's not hyperbole. It's just the way it is.  This is just more evidence of that.

A Teachable Moment

Mitt Romney on Obama:

“He wants another stimulus, he wants to hire more government workers. He says we need more fireman, more policeman, more teachers. Did he not get the message of Wisconsin? The American people did. It’s time for us to cut back on government and help the American people.”

Putting aside for a moment that Mitt Romney just said we don't really need teachers or fireman, and that he apparently thinks they're not Americans, the message of Wisconsin is that through Citizens United Republicans have sold our democracy to the top 1% of the top 1%. Walker and the Koch brothers outspent Barrett 10 to 1 and won by 7 points. Without that Koch brothers blood money Walker would have been history. The only way to take our democracy back is is to vote Republicans out of power. Until we do we'll be ruled, we'll be used, we'll be stepped on by the Koch Brothers and their private jet set. 

Dick

Daily Kos:  So Mitt Romney stages a campaign event inside an Iowa restaurant ... but couldn't be bothered to take the time to introduce himself to the restaurant's owner's:

Romney held a roundtable discussion at the restaurant prior to his talk in the park.  His staff and security ushered Bauer and her husband Earl to a back portion of the restaurant and they were unable to meet the former Massachusetts governor, Dianne Bauer said. The restaurant has hosted other candidates, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who introduced himself.

“The Secret Service said they would ask to make sure we got to be introduced and get a picture,” Bauer said. “I don’t care as much about the picture but at least let me meet the guy who I tore my place up for.”

If the fact Mitt Romney's Republican party public policy always turns out to be a disaster for the country, or that a vote for him is a vote against you own self-interest doesn't sway you, perhaps that this guy is a total asshole will.

And This Is Illegal

The Miami Herald on the GOP Florida voter purge:

Florida’s noncitizen voter purge looks like it’s all but over.

The 67 county elections supervisors — who have final say over voter purges —are not moving forward with the purge for now because nearly all of them don’t trust the accuracy of a list of nearly 2,700 potential noncitizens identified by the state’s elections office.The U.S. Department of Justice has ordered the state to stop the purge.

“We’re just not going to do this,” said Leon County’s elections supervisor, Ion Sancho, one of the most outspoken of his peers. “I’ve talked to many of the other supervisors and they agree. The list is bad. And this is illegal.”

Think long and hard before you consider voting for a political party that is yet again trying to purge eligible voters from the voter rolls in order to steal elections.  And a note to Eric Holder: it's illegal.  You're the Attorney General, act like it.

Traitors

Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) on Thursday blasted Republicans  for failing to act on the transportation funding bill while touting the repeal of the medical device tax as a “jobs bill.”

“This is further evidence of what is really going on here in this establishment,” he said on the House floor. “A deliberate effort, now increasingly undisguised, to close the door on action to engender job creation and economic growth before the election. November 6 is what is driving the Republican Congress. Politics, not people. This is not only cynical; it is indeed pernicious. We owe it to the American people to blow the whistle on this.”

Republicans are traitors.  It's about that simple.  And they've been that way for a long time.  In 1865 Southern conservatives betrayed the United States - made war on the United States - in order to preserve slavery. And of course their love of the confederate flag indicates they still celebrate it today.  In 1968 Nixon committed treason by reaching out to North Vietnam to extend the war past the election.  Reagan made a deal with the Ayatollah to keep the hostages until Carter got beat and in return he sold them munitions of war (he then took that money to run an illegal war in Nicaragua where the recipients of his funds raped and murdered nuns and massacared women and children in churches).  And of course Bush/Cheney deliberately burned the spy network that existed to keep WMD from terrorists.

It's actually understandable given that they really can't stand anything that makes us uniquely American.  They should get out and find a new country.  Or maybe start their own, a racist police state that has a Christian theocracy, a set social structure with a few rich white men at the top,  and no environmental regulations perhaps.

Send In The National Guard

Think Progress:  In a letter sent tonight, Florida Governor Rick Scott said the state will continue to purge registered voters from the rolls despite the Department of Justice’s warning that the effort is illegal. The Miami Herald reports, “the letter all but dares the Justice Department to sue Florida for allegedly violating the 1965 Voting Rights Act and the 1993 National Voter Registration Act.” You can read the full letter here.

There is no individual voter fraud.  Dead people and Micky Mouse never show up to vote. The GOP is using a made up problem, and just like they did in Florida in 2000, purging the voter rolls to steal elections. Rick Scott should be arrested.  The Republican party should be shunned as the enemy of democracy it is. 

Only Works If You Watch Fox News

At a campaign appearance in San Antonio, TX Wednesday, Mitt Romney accused President Obama of slowing down the economic recovery on purpose in order to get his health care plan passed.
The transcript:

“A book that was written in a way thats apparently pro-President Obama, was written by a guy named Noam Scheiber and in this book he says that there was a discussion about the fact that Obamacare would slow down the economic recovery in this country and they knew that before they passed it.  But they concluded that we would all forget how long the recovery took once it had happened, so they decided to go ahead.  The idea that they knowingly slowed down our recovery in order to put in place Obamacare, which they wanted and they considered historic but the American people did not want or consider historic, is something which I think deserves a lot of explaining, because I think the President’s responsibility is to put people back to work. To get people out of poverty and to help people have good jobs and have prospects for a brighter tomorrow.”

It's a testament to the stupidity, hatred of Obama, and party over country disposition of his audience that he would peddle this garbage.  Even though the Republican party has been hollowing out our economy and outsourcing our middle class for the last 30 years, even though it was Republican party public policy that had us in absolute meltdown in 2008/2009, and even though Mitt Romeny would implement that same failed policy if elected, if Obama doesn't continue to improve things, he won't get re-elected. Unlike the Republicans in congress who have been trying to sabotage the economy to get Obama out of office, it's not in Obama's interest to do so.  Any idiot would know that.    

Additionally, more people with access to healthcare, lower healthcare costs and a reduction in the deficit, all of which Obamacare delivers, makes our country more competitive, not less.  Romney's lunacy, like his public policy, fails on every level.

Everybody Is Just Like Hitler

Think Progress: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) compared the Chinese government to Adolf Hitler during debate on an Energy and Water spending bill on Tuesday. The Congressman “offered an amendment that would prevent $7.5 million from being spent by the Department of Energy on a Clean Energy Resource Center in China” and proclaimed, “I’m opposed to cooperation with the Adolf Hitlers of our day, the people who are murdering Christians and other religious people as we speak. No, we should not be cooperating with that government in developing their technologies.”

It's just like Republicans to minimize the horror of Adolf Hitler.   One would expect nothing less from a political party that that makes common cause with Nazis, has candidates that like to dress up and behave like Nazis, pose for pictures with Nazis deny the Holocaust, and accept endorsements from Nazis, has Nazis working for them overseas,  former officials that were Nazis, current officials that are Nazis, senators who are supported financially by Nazis, commentators that praise Nazis, supporters that are fascists, and administrations that employ "Jew Hunters."  And oh yeah, whose preeminent political family got rich underwriting the Nazi war machine.

Additionally, Republican tax policy is responsible for the great outsourcing.  Republicans make policy first and foremost on behalf of the transnational corporations that maximize their short term bottom line by outsourcing.  To criticize the Chinese now that his party has sold out our middle class to them is ridiculous.

Doesn't Take a Rocket Scientist

Headline:  Nobel Winning Economist Predicts Romney Recession

Of course you don't need to be a Nobel winning economist to know that Romney supports the exact same public policy that caused the meltdown at the end of the last Republican administration, and that if you bring it back into effect it will have the same results.  It's Einstein's definition of insanity to expect otherwise.

War On Democracy

Headline: Voter ID advocate fails to name single instance of voter fraud.

That's because it doesn't exist in any kind of relevant way.  If you follow this link you'll find the best shot the GOP has taken to date to prove it does.  It will show you about 300 instances of individual voter fraud cases over a 10 year period.  Just in national and statewide elections alone over the last 10 years there have been 1.2 billion votes.  300 divided by 1.2 billion is 0.000000025.  There hasn't been an election in the history of the universe that has been anywhere near that close. Therefore it cannot be possible that individual voter fraud could impact our elections.

By contrast, before the 2000 election, Katherine Harris disenfranchised 7000 Florida voters because they had the same name as felons.  By the time the conservative majority on the USSC shut down the vote counting and appointed Bush president the margin of "victory" was 535 votes.

So it's quite clear: by their constant efforts to rob all manner of poor, elderly, young, and minority Americans of their right to vote, Republicans are stealing elections. Forget about government, more than a few of them should be in prison for these crimes against democracy.

Saving Myself Millions

Raw Story:  Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would save almost $5 million next year alone if he is elected president and able to enact his tax policies, according to a new report. 

Since their policies always turn out to be a a disaster for the country we often wonder why do Republicans run for office.  This is among the most likely explanations.

Charts And Facts And Stuff

Despite decades of Republican lies, the truth is the federal government grows far more under GOP rule than under Democratic rule.  And at the same time they cut taxes for the super-rich and the corporation thereby degrading the tax base and exploding the debt.  This is the historical result and more than noteworthy given that shrinking government is the bedrock of their pitch. It's also a testament to the conservative bias of the corporate media that in this regard most Americans believe exactly the opposite of what's true.