Political Ruminations

On Mitt Romney's Foreign Policy Speech

No time today to post, but this topic is important so I urge you to read this post on it because it summarizes the media and the Republican pundit reaction to Mitt Romney’s foreign policy speech. Which sucked. Big.

Fact Check: President Obama Increased Federal Spending at Historic Rate

The claim: Romney said it during the debate, and his campaign website loudly proclaims the whopper of a lie depicting President Obama as a Big Government Spender:

“Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history.”

The facts: President Obama has achieved the lowest growth in federal spending in sixty years.

Bob Cesca on the facts:

With the end of fiscal year 2012, the Congressional Budget Office announced the 2012 federal budget deficit: $1.1 trillion. Taken purely at face value, this number is enormous. Yet every Democrat, and especially the Obama campaign, ought to be telling anyone who will listen: Not only has the president cut the deficit by $312 billion during his first term (so far), but he’s cut the deficit by $200 billion in the past year alone. And the CBO projected that the 2013 Obama budget, if enacted as is, would shrink the deficit to $977 billion — a four year total of nearly $500 billion in deficit reduction.

Cesca goes on to discuss the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act enacted by President Obama and a Democratic Congress in February 2010:

As I’ve documented before, the CBO reported in January, 2009 that the federal budget deficit for that fiscal year, which began on October 1, 2008, was already $1.2 trillion. President Obama’s additional ’09 spending added another $200 billion to the deficit, bringing the total to $1.412 trillion. Unprecedented and huge, but given the enormity of the financial crisis and the depth of the recession, there weren’t many other options on the table. Add two wars into the mix and there you go.

But nearly every bill signed by the president has included offsets to make the spending deficit neutral. Why? Because it’s been the law of the land ever since President Obama signed the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act in February, 2010, which mandates that new spending be offset with spending cuts or new revenue. Yes, a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress passed this legislation. Guess how many congressional Republicans voted for the law. Zero. Not one. Perhaps during this week’s debate, Vice President Biden could ask Rep. Paul Ryan who voted against the bill. Mitt Romney should also be asked about it.

Rating of claim? I agree with Cesca……”pants on fire times a thousand” , the president’s record is the actual opposite of Mitt Romney’s claim.

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Liberal pundit Bob Cesca to undecided voters:

“Whenever I confront an undecided voter who can’t really distinguish between the candidates (yes, these people exist in droves), I present the following scenario: Who would you rather have in the Situation Room during the Cuban Missile Crisis? A thoughtful, wonky, even-keeled, disciplined pragmatist or an unpredictably awkward empty-suit waffler who’s beholden to the far-right base of his party and, as such, has been forced to reboot his campaign three times in so many weeks?”

Karl Rove's New Anti-Obama Ad Rendered Toothless

Karl Rove’s new ad is a mish-mash of boldfaced, audacious lies and pandering to racism  utilized by Republicans in their out-of-touch effort to paint the president as a “lazy, shiftless black man” in service to the GOP’s famous ‘Southern Strategy’.

Elsewhere, Bob Cesca awesomely debunks the ad, leading up to it with a discussion of the Romney Campaign’s use of the Southern Strategy since April 2012:

In conjunction with the April roll-out of the campaign’s first major foray into the Southern Strategy, Romney said, “I must say I scratch my head at the capacity of the president to take four hours off on such a regular basis to go golfing. I would think you could kind of suck it up for four years, particularly when the American people are out of work.” He continued, “I know prior Presidents have gone to Camp David and have been able to get a little rest and get away from the demands of Washington, bring some of their key advisers there and focus on solving tough issues. I would not be jetting around the world and using four years in office to see the world, but instead I would consider the four to eight years in office as a time to get America back on track.”

Romney, who famously capped off his dismal nominating convention by cruising around on his yacht for a long weekend, spoke those words on the Bill Cunningham radio show. You might recall Cunningham from 2008 when he spoke at a McCain event and repeatedly emphasized the president’s middle name — another shameless use of Southern Strategy politics. To his credit, McCain repudiated Cunningham and never invited him back.

Elsewhere, conservatives have taken to calling the president a “vacationer-in-chief.” Even golf enthusiast John Boehner once said, “This is the biggest job in the world and I’ve never seen a president make it smaller.”

Cesca then goes on to slay the specifics of Rove’s (American Crossroads) new ad with a discussion of presidential vacations:

act: during his first 31 months in office, Rove’s former boss spent 180 days on vacation. President Obama, on the other hand, only spent 61 days on vacation in his first 31 months. By the way, it’s important to note what was happening during Bush’s first 31 months: two wars of his own choosing, a catastrophic terrorist attack, corporate scandals and a recession. Yet Bush enjoyed three times as many vacation days as the current president. According to his presidential library, Bush took a total of 1,021 days off during his eight years as president. That’s nearly as many days as JFK’s entire presidency, which lasted 1,036 days. FDR took 958 days off, but he was president for 12 years. In 2005, with three more years left in his presidency, Bush surpassed Reagan for total vacation days. Stacked end-to-end that’s nearly three years out of eight for Bush 43. Of the last seven presidents, Obama, Clinton and Carter spent the fewest days on vacation, with Clinton winning the workaholic competition.

On the intelligence briefings issue:

Now, what about this intelligence briefing issue that Rove brought up in the Crossroads commercial (also noted recently by Breitbart.com and Marc Thiessen)? Specifically, the ad repeats the notion that the president deliberately “skipped” nearly half of all the Presidential Daily Briefs (PDB). You know, because he’s so lazy and irresponsible.

Dana Milbank via Steve Benen debunked that one, “In reality, Obama didn’t ‘attend’ these meetings, because there were no meetings to attend: The oral briefings had been mostly replaced by daily exchanges in which Obama reads the materials and poses written questions and comments to intelligence officials. This is how it was done in the Clinton administration, before Bush decided he would prefer to read less. Bush’s results — Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, and the failure to find Osama bin Laden — suggest this was not an obvious improvement.”

So it came down to Bush being too lazy to read stuff. Instead, Bush asked his intelligence people to read the PDBs to him. It’s frankly shocking that Rove would continue to open this can of worms knowing the ineptitude and incompetency of his former boss.

Read the full article.

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca on Mitt Romney’s pathetically un-presidential reaction to the events in Libya and Cairo on Wednesday:

“They [Republicans] confuse obnoxious loudness with foreign policy expertise.

The opposite of a foreign policy neophyte isn’t a scolding jerkass who pops off with saber-rattling platitudes and political attacks. Romney could have been a statesman about the events in Libya and Cairo and appeared dignified — perhaps qualified in the process, but instead he decided to be a braying dick. Anyone with a lapel pin and a pulse can do that. Braying dickishness doesn’t amount to anything resembling international leadership gravitas.”

Bob Woodward’s New Book

Woodward twisted himself into a knot to lay some of the blame at President Obama’s feet. But seriously, if you were paying attention at the time of the debt ceiling crisis, you know exactly why the whole debt ceiling mess happened in the first place, and you know that it was all a part of the takeover of Congress by the infusion of the Tea Party Crazy People, all of whom were eager to follow the directive of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, to defeat Obama at all costs.

That said, I believe that Obama handled it as well as anyone could without simply giving in to the Tea Party terrorists (and the ENTIRE membership of the Republican House in 2010-2011 was on their knees to the Tea Party fearing for their jobs).

Bob Cesca on why Woodward is wrong:

Elsewhere, Bob Woodward is getting ready to release a new book which details last summer’s remarkably insane debt ceiling negotiation between the White House and the congressional Republicans (freshly infused with midterm tea party radicals). Woodward appears to be pushing a point of view that President Obama bungled his way through the proceedings.

He points to an event that occurred at the 11th hour when John Boehner refused to accept the president’s proposal for tax increases as an additional savings in the debt reduction package, even though the president had agreed to politically-damaging entitlement cuts. The talks collapsed and Woodward, echoing a Harry Reid staffer, blasts the White House for not having a “Plan B.” I’m not exactly sure what a “Plan B” might look like considering a Republican House that vowed to not only vote against everything the president has wanted, no matter how many concessions he makes, but to also bring down his presidency by sabotaging the economy.

The only two options beyond fair, reasonable, adult negotiation were 1) letting the default occur, or 2) letting the childish and destructive tea party have their way. The former is inconceivable to any responsible leader. In fact…….

Check it out for reminders of the debt ceiling crisis.

Morning Quote: Jay Carney

Press Secretary Jay Carney offers some advice to reporters on Air Force One:

“ I simply make the point, as an editor might say, to check it out; do not buy into the BS that you hear about spending and fiscal constraint with regard to this administration. I think doing so is a sign of sloth and laziness.”

Mr. Carney is right, and in fact, he very much understated the problem with our media. Meanwhile, in his column on Huffpost, Bob Cesca, puts the lie to the right wing claim that President Obama is a tax and spend liberal.

Fox News Channel "The Five" Lacking Serious People

Political pundit Bob Cesca describes the show and the panelists of said show, “The Five” (airs on Fox News Channel):

“The Five” — an obvious cable news knock-off of The View (and all of its imitators) in which four conservatives and one liberal (for balance) snark about the issues of the day. If Fox News was trying to create a show that would augment the intellectual stature of the usually moronic Fox & Friends, they totally succeeded.

The moderator of the show is serial race-baiter Eric Bolling and the panel consists of a Lazy Susan of cackling simpletons. Greg Gutfeld, whose previous credits include both Fox News Channel’s overnight show and The Huffington Post where he blogged about his calf muscles and made hilariously smart cracks about Cenk Uygur’s name, is evidently the designated jokester, dickbag and misogynist of the group. There’s also former Bush press secretary Dana Perino and legal analyst Andrea Tantaros. “Democratic strategist” Bob Beckel, who recently said “fuck” on the Hannity show, is the token liberal and, in keeping with Fox News policy, makes really weak points and often appears to be drunk. A perfect target for the conservatives on the panel.

Just in case you were wondering.

Adding...“a Lazy Susan of cackling simpletons” –bwahahahahaha

Ouote of the Day II

Liberal blogger, Bob Cesca, on oil subsidies and  the character of Republicans in the Senate:

“Oil subsidies will continue thanks to the Senate Republicans and several conservadems[...]

But they’ll slash the hell out of social programs because it’s “fiscally responsible.” $4 billion in oil subsidies every year for companies earning record profits that could go towards reducing the budget or making sure people have healthcare. Good people.”

Maher and Alexandra Pelosi Stereotyping in New Video

Alexandra Pelosi shot a video for Bill Maher at a New York welfare office. She, and he, totally blew it, but it was aired on Real Time regardless, despite HBO’s protests. Bob Cesca:

Totally false equivalence. Right there.

When Maher mentioned “apples and oranges” he was absolutely correct, but that doesn’t forgive the misleading nature of the clip he aired. By Maher’s own setup, polling has confirmed the observations from Pelosi’s Mississippi video. The Mississippi people aren’t outliers. They’re a majority representation, and Pelosi’s sampling was accurate.

Second, there are more whites on food stamps — as a percentage of the white population — than blacks on food stamps. To single out several black people (one or two were obvious addicts, if not drunk/high on the video) is extraordinarily unfair to all the people who legitimately need food stamps and welfare. And who even knows if those guys were actually granted welfare checks and stamps. This was never clarified. Yes, some people are abusing the system, and it seems like Pelosi inadvertently illustrated conservative stereotypes against social safety nets: welfare is for lazy, shiftless black people who don’t want to work. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Be sure to watch the video, and read Cesca's full piece on this, which is a totally excellent and much deserved takedown of the video.

TPM’s “Obama Mangles U.S., World History In Energy Speech” Grasping at Straws

The web site ‘ Talking Points Memo’, better known as TPM, has long been a Liberal stalwart, a go-to site for a left wing point of view. Apparently no more.

A former reporter for the the right wing paper, The New York Sun, Benji Sarlin, blasted readers with a HuffPo type headline “Obama Mangles U.S., World History In Energy Speech” today, a headline that was false and intended solely to garner clicks, primarily from right wingers.

Sarlin explains:

President Obama got a laugh out of a Maryland audience on Thursday when he mocked the Republican Party in a speech, comparing their skepticism of alternative energy to the “Flat Earth Society” in Christopher Columbus’ day and President Rutherford B. Hayes’ apparent dismissal of the telephone. But while Obama thinks the GOP is in need of a science lesson, he may need to bone up on history himself.

In mocking the GOP, Obama cited an anecdote about Hayes in which, upon using the telephone for the first time, he said, “It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?”

“That’s why he’s not on Mount Rushmore,” Obama said. “He’s explaining why we can’t do something instead of why we can do something.”

In painting his energy critics as being mired in the past,  President Obama made a joking comparison with a predecessor,  the 19th President of the United States Rutherford B. Hayes.

The quote itself is often cited, is listed on Wikiquote, and was intended by the president to be humorous, a quality which Mr. Sarlin is apparently unfamiliar with. President Obama:

“One of my predecessors, Rutherford B. Hayes. He said “It's a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?” talking about the telephone. That's why he's not on Mount Rushmore. He's explaining why we can't do something instead of why we can do something. The point is there will always be cynics and naysayers who just want to keep on doing things the same way we have always done them.”

President Obama also made a quip about  Columbus and the flat earther type wingnuts:

“If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the Flat Earth Society,” Obama said. “They would not have believed that the world was round.”

Mr. Sarlin, I dislike having to disillusion you, but the majority of Americans still believes that during Columbus’ time most people thought that the earth was flat.

A reader offers an explanation for the outrage seen in the comment section:

“I think the nerve you've struck is that the substance of the "error" doesn't in any way match the language and primacy which you've shown it, to the point of being absurd. Obviously that's an editorial decision, and some thought goes into it. But this was so obviously a bad call, that it makes some of your long time readers here question what has happened to this site. Perhaps, it's time you guys, y'know, 'boned up' on some journalism.”

My contention is that anecdotal cracks regarding technologically impaired presidents such as Rutherford Hayes,  and flat earth societies used as a rhetorical device for laughs/humor, using generally/widely accepted, albeit erroneous, beliefs, does not qualify as a "mangling of history”.

Mr. Sarlin, I sincerely hope that your editor has enlightened you because your regular readers certainly tried in your comment section, and I think that if you are unable to do better, Josh Marshall would do best to kick you to the curb.

UPDATE: If you were as angered by Sarlin’s piece as I was, be sure to catch the Bob and Chez Show (podcast-also on DC radio) as Bob Cesca  had some pretty harsh words for TPM/Sarlin’s piece.

Quote of the Day

“By the way, you know what a slut is? A guy who takes erection pills to the Dominican Republic without any female companions. We can only assume the purpose was to engage in anonymous sex with one or more partners — he didn’t bring one or two, but an entire bottle indicating he planned to have sex multiple times. That’s a slut.”

- Progressive pundit, Bob Cesca in a piece for The Daily Banter, obviously referring to Conservative radio show host, “she’s a slut” Rush Limbaugh.

Andrew Breitbart Dead at 43

Andrew Breitbart, Conservative Wingnut activist, responsible for much of the ongoing godawful craziness to be found festering in the modern Republican Party, died this morning of unknown causes. The New York Times:

Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger and activist who used
undercover video to bring discredit and disgrace to his liberal targets, died Thursday. He was 43.

Mr. Breitbart was as polarizing a figure as he was popular. Hailed by the political right as a truth-teller who exposed bias and corruption, he was derided by many on the left as a provocateur who played fast and loose with the facts to further his agenda.

“Fast and loose with the facts” is apparently New York Times speak for “the left thought Breitbart to be an outrageous liar and con-man.” And so he was.

Like Bob Cesca, I have nothing positive to say about Andrew Breitbart.

“Andrew Breitbart’s slash-and-burn pursuit of his own career destroyed countless lives and livelihoods. Innocent bystanders in the public debate — noncombatants as I sometimes call them — were crushed by Andrew’s mendacity, his obsessive careerism and his unethical business practices. Workers at ACORN and everyone who that organization sought to help have been crushed. The war against Planned Parenthood was started by Andrew Breitbart and that’s led to its defunding by both Congress and Komen. Who knows how many women will ultimately be hurt by Breitbart’s scams and prank videos. I have nothing positive to say about him.”

Adding....Breitbart’s reaction to the death of Ted Kennedy.

Image from the NYT: Andrew Breitbart at a DC rally in November 2011.
Photographer Nicholas Kamm/AFP — Getty Images

Political Commentary of the Day

In a piece titled “Dow 200,000”, Bob Cesca:

It looks as though the Republicans have found their plan of attack against the president on the economy. If it wasn’t for the president, GDP would be growing at 10 percent per quarter and the Dow would be at 200,000. For example, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and crazy person Alan Keyes:

KEYES: So it sounds like [the economy's] improved in spite of President Obama?

FRANKS: No question about it. No question about it. It’s a strong country, but Mr. Obama seems to be doing everything he can to hold it back.

Yes, because presidents facing re-election always want a shitty economy.

Morning Quote: Newt Gingrich

“I think that we need to consider taking more explicit steps to make it expensive to be a drug user. It could be through testing before you get any kind of federal aid. Unemployment compensation, food stamps, you name it.

It has always struck me that if you’re serious about trying to stop drug use, then you need to find a way to have a fairly easy approach to it and you need to find a way to be pretty aggressive about insisting–I don’t think actually locking up users is a very good thing. I think finding ways to sanction them and to give them medical help and to get them to detox is a more logical long-term policy.”

- Newt Gingrich declares war on recipients of federal aid, says mandating drug tests should be the standard, and tries to paint his position as concern for drug users.

Bob Cesca responds:

The drug testing should include anyone who receives federal subsidies. Oil companies ($24 billion), defense contractors ($12 billion), the financial sector (trillions!) — all of them. Let’s drug test the entire management team of each company from the CEO to the board and all the way down the line. If anyone fails the test, take away their federal aid, just like Newt Gingrich says.

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

“This is somehow a new rule [hand over your heart during the national anthem]. We gotta put our hands on our hearts, and you know, wrap a little miniature flag around our scrotal sacs or something, in order to adequately represent our patriotism.”

- Bob Cesca on a special edition of the Bob and Chez Show yesterday.

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

“The Republicans will oppose anything remotely associated with the left or the Democrats. Hell, if we came out in favor of tax cuts, limited government and an across-the-board abortion ban, they’d take the opposite position. They’re Daffy Duck in the Rabbit Fire episode (with apologies to Daffy).”

~ Bob Cesca

Quote of the Day II

Bob Cesca nails it:

“Which presidents failed to oust Qaddafi?

Ronald Reagan — Strong on national security!
George H.W. Bush — Strong on national security!
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush — Roid Rage on national security!

But even though he ordered the death of Bin Laden, and will likely preside over the ousting of Qaddafi, the Republicans will still claim he’s an effete wimpy wimp.

Oh, and how many U.S. military casualties in the process?

ZERO.”

Quote of the Day II

Bob Cesca on Republican sabotage of the U.S. economy:

“The Republicans, inclusive of the tea party, have been orchestrating another economic decline knowing that it will damage the president’s re-election chances as well as the perceived efficacy of Democratic economic policies. Put another way, the Republicans are threatening your personal well-being in order to defeat the president, and they’ve just completed the latest successful attack in their economically bellicose strategy.”

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca’s response to this quote from Bill O’Reilly:

“The far-right is utterly dominated by impotent middle aged men with small penises who hate women. I wonder what the correlation is.”

Quick Take: Obama’s Record on LGBT Concerns

I meant to post this earlier in the week, but forgot. Bob Cesca’s primer on President Obama’s record on the concerns of the LGBT community.

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca on presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann:

“Michele Bachmann isn’t stupid, she’s just insane. I don’t know to what degree it’s a political calculation or whether she’s really crazy.”

Agreed. I also don’t know to what degree her act is a political calculation, but I would guess that it is to some degree.

Media and Democracy

From Bob Cesca’s excellent piece on hard news vs. “underpants” news:

Information is the life blood of democracy. The democratic process depends upon our active participation, and whenever real information is replaced with nonsense, democracy suffers due to an ignorant public.

This is the crux of the matter.

Our corporate overlords have an overwhelming interest in keeping the general populace ignorant of the true state of our “Democracy”.

As a currently relevant example, I would go so far as to say that if it were not for online, non-traditional media, Paul Ryan would very likely get his damn budget with out much in the way of pushback from traditional media.

The state of our media is one of the most important issues facing us in our time.

Morning Quote: Herman Cain

Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, veers from GOP messaging, calling the Ryan plan’s Medicare “makeover” a “voucher" [system]:

Nobody’s talking about the fact that the centerpiece of Ryan’s plan is a voucher. Now, a lot of people don’t like to use that term because it has a negative connotation. That is what we need.

Bob Cesca:

Yes. Cain is right. Call it a voucher system. Please, do it, Republicans. Because it’s not backfiring enough.

Cesca Debunks Another Right Wing Meme

There is a right-wing meme going around that the 2012 election may resemble that of 1992..you know, the one where Bill Clinton defeated the incumbent, George H.W. Bush.

Uh, not really likely. Bob Cesca:

But let’s look at the Democratic field in and of itself. Bill Clinton — even prior to announcing — was a rock star in the party. Like President Obama years later, he had delivered a memorable keynote address at the previous presidential nominating convention and was most often compared to the Kennedys. Meanwhile, there was a populist former governor of Californa, Jerry Brown, a liberal spoiler, Paul Tsongas, a war veteran and former Navy SEAL, Bob Kerrey, and a swing-state governor of Virginia, Doug Wilder.

Hardly the equivalent to the goofballs and ragtags in today’s Republican field.

But that’s not why the comparison is being made. It’s wishful thinking. The Republican establishment is desperate for a similar (and opposite, party-wise) outcome as 1992. And so the comparison is completely fallacious.

Sorry, Republicans. Your field sucks. Live with it.

Wrapped Up

Republican Sen. Tom Coburn up to his neck in the cover-up of the Ensign affair.

After bin Laden’s death, the fallout begins.

Rep. Ron Paul announces his candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination.

This is a piece I missed from May 8, but it’s well worth a read. President Obama made a very gutsy call on the bin Laden raid.

The Fallacy of Union Busting

The Bubble Genius Bob & Elvis Show 5/12/11

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca on the “accomplishments” of the 112th Congress thus far:

Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and John Boehner have introduced ideologically far-right, inconsequential and symbolic bills that kill Planned Parenthood and NPR. They've passed legislation that cuts spending for pregnant women. They've passed legislation that magically circumvents the constitutional lawmaking process. They refuse to raise taxes on the rich while trying to gut Medicaid and kill Medicare, even though supermajorities of Americans support both of these crucial healthcare programs -- including majority support from tea party Republicans.

Civil War History Buffs

Bob Cesca is doing a series on Civil War History. If you have an interest, it’s well worth your time to read.

Bob’s latest post in this series, is “Secession and Non-Slaveowners”

Morning Quote: Bob Cesca

Bob Cesca, in response to a recent Pew Poll result:

The Republicans are about to be crushed under the weight of history. Instead of evolving with the browning of America, the Republicans are raging against it, and it's only going to further and further marginalize them. Good luck with the race-baiting and Southern Strategy to secure the aging and dwindling white vote, Republicans.

The Pew Poll result being referred to:

White:
2008 exit polling: Obama 43%, McCain 55%
2012 polling: Obama 43%, GOP 57%

Black:
'08: Obama 95%, McCain 4%
'12: Obama 99%, GOP 1%

Hispanic:
'08: Obama 67%, McCain 31%
'12: Obama 80%, GOP 20%

Tim Pawlenty Pretends to be Ronald Reagan?

Former governor of Minnesota, Republican Tim Pawlenty has officially announced his newly formed “Tim Pawlenty for President Exploratory Committee”. Consider this his first campaign ad.

Yawn.

Bob Cesca:

Wow. He's trying really, really hard to not be Tim Pawlenty. But regardless of how much shaky-cam he uses and how many rockets-red-glare he surrounds himself with, he's still Tim Pawlenty -- a rather boring moderate pretending to be Ronald Reagan when we all know he's just Tim Pawlenty.

Adding….of course, there had to be a dog in that ad.

[via Bob Cesca]

Teabagger Republican House Votes to Defund NPR

The House voted today to defund NPR. James O’Keefe’s video purportedly exposing unethical behavior by NPR, was debunked, so why would they defund NPR?

In a largely symbolic move, the House today voted to block all federal funding for NPR, a week after the embattled public radio station found itself the subject of a conservative activist's sting that led to the ouster of its chief executive.

The bill passed by a 228-192 vote. No Democrats voted for it. Only 7 Republicans voted against the measure

Bob Cesca:

Once again, the Very Serious House Republicans have acted based upon a known fraud and scam artist who selectively edits his videos in order to frame otherwise innocent officials. James O'Keefe inspired this vote, and now 228 Republicans have attached their name to his latest scam. They're a major political party and they control the House of Representatives. When will the traditional press highlight how unserious these people are?

Adding….O’Keefe’s latest fake sting involves the Right’s favorite billionaire whipping boy, George Soros, and has also been debunked.

Adding also.... Just found video of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) mocking the Teabaggers (over the defunding of NPR) on the House floor today.

 

Nationwide Protests Planned Against Republican Budget Terrorism on Tuesday, March 15, 2011

YES! GO! 

Okay, I’ve settled down now….

Via Bob Cesca, Chris Bowers with the details:

On Tuesday, Americans in all 50 states will rally in front of schools, libraries, fire stations, hospitals, and parks to protest the rising tide of austerity gripping all levels of our government. There's a rally near you—sign up here to attend.

Many of the structures that long operated as a check against corporate power—campaign finance laws, unions, ACORN, public broadcasting—are being dismantled. As a result, the working and middle classes are being forced to pay for tax breaks for the wealthy, corporate giveaways, wars, and economic crashes caused by Wall Street. Money continues to flow upward, and our already undemocratic level of inequality is worsening.

Bob Cesca:

If we can apply Wisconsin-style pressure against these slash and burn Republican budget cuts, we might roll back some of the awfulness they're planning -- mainly because the Democrats are planning to meet these bastards halfway. And the Democrats will be much more susceptible to pressure from widespread protests. Let's go!

Republicans Vote to Defund Planned Parenthood

Gah. They are such morons, it makes me want to pull my hair out. Washington Post:

WASHINGTON -- The House has approved a Republican proposal to block federal aid for Planned Parenthood.

The 240-185 vote on Friday is a victory for anti-abortion forces led by Indiana GOP Rep. Mike Pence. He says taxpayer money should not go to groups that provide or promote abortion.

Democrats say Planned Parenthood provides contraception and other valuable family planning services, and that cutting off the money will make it hard for women to get such basic help.

It won’t get through the Senate, so once again, the Republican majority in the 112th Congress is wasting time and taxpayer dollars on promoting utter crap.

Also, Bob Cesca on the Washington Post’s silly wording:

I love that last paragraph from the very liberal Washington Post, by the way. Democrats say that? How about REALITY says that. It's a fact -- not a political opinion -- that Planned Parenthood "provides contraception and other valuable family planning services."

Bastards.

Related: Why Do Republicans Hate Women?

Quote of the Day re Clarence Thomas and the Citizens United Ruling

It turns out that Clarence Thomas should have recused himself from the Citizens United case because it now appears that the corporatist right wing supreme court justice was a shill for Citizens United, a right wing organization. Bob Cesca:

So Citizens United runs a favorable ad for Thomas. Then Thomas decides in favor of Citizens United. This decision has to be vacated. It's obvious -- now more than than ever -- that Thomas shouldn't have been allowed to plunk himself anywhere near the Citizens United case. Ads, Koch Brothers money, spousal associations. This is more egregiously wrong than just about any Supreme Court decision in a long, long time -- even worse than Bush v Gore.

Impeachment, and VACATE the damn decision! both get my vote.

More from Karoli, at Crooks and Liars

Republicans Want to Deprive Pregnant Women and Babies of Food

Krugman notes some of the spending cuts Republicans are proposing, emphasis mine:

WIC 1008 million
Food for Peace 544 million
NOAA 450 million
NASA 579 million
Energy efficiency and renewable energy 899
Science 1111 million
Nuclear nonproliferation 648 million
Federal buildings fund 1653 million
Homeland security administration 489 million
FEMA, various, around 1.2 billion
EPA clean water and drinking water about 1.8 billion
Community health centers 1.3 billion
Centers for disease control 900 million

WIC is nutritional aid for pregnant women and women with young children; let’s cut that, because the damage to the nation from malnourishment is a problem for future politicians.

Bob Cesca, emphasis mine:

The Republicans want to take food from the mouths of babies and pregnant women. Yeah, and they consider themselves "pro-life" and "anti-abortion" without laughing or acknowledgement of the self-contradiction and disgusting irony of their actions.

As I predicted in the beginning of January:

They will cut funding for education, the environment, social programs, and anything that does not directly benefit the wealthy.

So….does anyone really believe that Republicans don’t hate women?

Via Bob Cesca

Huffington Post Blogger Bob Cesca on the AOL Deal

A long time blogger on Huffington Post, and one of their most popular bloggers, Bob Cesca gives readers his take on the sale of HuffPost to AOL:

On the other hand, I don't know what that will mean for the flow of opinion. And of course, I'm referring to my own participation. Until now -- and perhaps into the future -- I've been given full latitude to write whatever I want each week (with a few exceptions now and then). Naturally this is partly because the "bloggers," including me, aren't paid.

…To these points, I've been assured that nothing will change, and I hope that's true. Again, it's really been the blog that makes that site great, and it would be a shame if voices were tempered or silenced. I hope AOL understands this. I really hope. I wrote for AOL's Walletpop blog last year and the arrangement didn't work out very well. We'll see what happens this time around.

 

Adding… I truly hope that AOL does not move the site further right in terms of political outlook. Arianna has been something of a Firebagger, but at least the site is still mostly left-leaning.

Disclosure: I was a commenter on HuffPost for quite a long while, but rarely comment any more for a variety of reasons. I stopped commenting when they installed the badge system in spite of the fact that I had what was at the time, one of the larger followings. That system was simply the final annoyance in a long list of them.

A few of the other reasons…. were The Huffington Posts’ use of false, inflammatory headlines to drive traffic--this really, really annoys me; their so-called “science” section [the science section is just BAD, with no redeeming qualities. It isn’t science, it is pseudo-scientific drivel from the likes of anti-vaccination queen, Jenny McCarthy, and assorted quacks such as Dr. Joseph Mercola. If this move to AOL improves that situation, AOL will have done us all a great service, because Arianna is way out there when it comes to anything science related.], the anti-semitism which was allowed by the moderators, and the trolls that many of us believe are on HuffPosts payroll.

Quote of the Weekend: Bob Cesca on Jim DeMint

Bob Cesca's response to Jim DeMint's [R-SC] stated positions on gays and unmarried women in the classroom:

“DeMint prefers a government small enough to fit into your bedroom.

McCain Attempts to Justify the Republican Filibuster of DADT Repeal Yesterday

This man seriously needs to retire.

Bob Cesca:

McCain being at the top of that list of panderers. These are truly awful people who have zero interest in "country," and would rather obstruct and block and sabotage the economic well-being of the people who have been suckered into supporting them.

"Democrat" Politicians Video Full of Outright & Easily Proven Lies

Via Bob Cesca:

This video is making its rounds through the wingnutosphere. It starts out with the incorrect and pejorative "Democrat politicians," which is a red flag for the avalanche of stupid that follows. [......]

Dear Tea Party People,

Did you know that if the Republican Party regains control of Congress in November, they plan to shut down government? Well, my friend, Bob Cesca, has a message for you.

The Republicans are threatening to shut down the government if they manage to take back Congress in the November election. Hooray! It's the 1990s all over again, but this time in the middle of a slow-growth jobless economy. Really smart, Republicans.

Oh, and all of those older tea party members who can't wait for the Republicans to take over? They're totally screwed.

No social security checks. No medicare reimbursements.

Homelessness, hunger, and true hardship for many older Americans. This is what you would vote for if you vote for Republicans in November. This is what they have promised to do.