Republicans Using Foreign Money to Buy the Election

Read the explosive story here. The Chamber of Commerce, the most repulsively anti-worker, reactionary group in America, is pouring money into campaign commercials for Radical Right-wing Republicans. And they're using foreign money to do it. Think Progress has the goods:

In recent years, the Chamber has become very aggressive with its fundraising, opening offices abroad and helping to found foreign chapters (known as Business Councils or “AmChams”). While many of these foreign operations include American businesses with interests overseas, the Chamber has also spearheaded an effort to raise money from foreign corporations, including ones controlled by foreign governments. These foreign members of the Chamber send money either directly to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, or the foreign members fund their local Chamber, which in turn, transfers dues payments back to the Chamber’s H Street office in Washington DC. These funds are commingled to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6) account which is the vehicle for the attack ads...

There are many reasons foreign corporations are seeking to defeat Democratic candidates this November. The Chamber has repeatedly sent out issue alerts attacking Democratic efforts to encourage businesses to hire locally rather than outsource to foreign counties. The Chamber has also bitterly fought Democrats for opposing unfettered free trade deals. To galvanize foreign businesses, the Chamber has commissioned former Ambassador Frank Lavin — who served as the McCain-Palin Asia campaign director and has appeared on television multiple times recently saying a Democratic Congress is bad for business — to speak before various foreign Chamber affiliates to talk about the stakes for the 2010 midterm elections.

The Radical Right Chamber of Commerce has always despised working people. Now they're using foreign money to wage war on them.

We have not heard the last of this. Count on it.

[Click to Enlarge]

Classic. Just Classic

Republican Candidate for Senate in Wisconsin ATTACKS Victims of Child Sexual Abuse

He is seen here some years ago testifying AGAINST a law that would have made it easier for children victimized by sexual predators to gain justice in the courts.



He's talking about the ECONOMIC IMPACT of letting child abuse victims sue the organizations that employed the criminals who sexually assault them?

I think we know what institution he's really going to bat for.

And this monster might actually win??

Right-Wing Republican Fanatic Who Helped Cause the Economic Crisis Calls Obama a "Failure"

There are few people in America who have done more grievous damage to our nation than Texas conservative Republican Phil Gramm. His influence has been malignant in every way. It was Gramm that pushed the incredibly harmful financial deregulation measures that are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the economic crisis we are in. From the linked article:

Phil Gramm, more than any other modern politician, pushed the deregulatory ethos that the financial crisis of 2007-08 exposed as a criminally irresponsible sham. His very name is on the law that repealed the Glass-Steagall prohibition on the commingling of commercial and investment banking. He was the lead force behind the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, which ensured that derivatives trading would be largely unregulated. And yet he has the gall to complain about the "the regulatory burden" that "exploded during the Roosevelt administration"!

The regulations on the financial sector that emerged from the Great Depression are largely responsible for a 50-year period in which the United States managed to avoid hugely debilitating financial crises. That period ended as Republicans set about their great task of dismantling the New Deal -- and sent the U.S. economy hurtling toward disaster. Phil Gramm's thumbprints are all over the Great Recession. Obama's regulatory response -- such as it is -- is a direct consequence of the failure of the deregulatory ideology pushed by Gramm and his cohorts. If there was any real justice in this world, Phil Gramm would be subject to a lifetime ban on ever uttering the words "regulatory burden."

Gramm is simply lying about the efficacy of FDR's program, and he is lying even more deeply about Obama's. This is what almost all of these national conservative leaders are, sociopaths and liars who don't give a DAMN about the average American--and yet, their lies still get respectful hearings. That's what happens when you have a so-called "Liberal Media", I guess.

All of Michele Bachmann's Sick, Perverted Demagoguery in One Place!

If you have the stomach for it, HuffPo keeps a page just for Michele Bachmann, who is perhaps the absolute worst of all the Republicans in the House, and that says something when so VERY many House Republicans are just demented sociopaths. But Bachmann is the absolute Queen of the Right-Wing Gutter, the worst of the worst. If you'd like to help get rid of this vicious pathological liar, who calls people like you--you know, Democrats--un-American and even anti-American, there's a way you can help. Bachmann's opponent is named Tarryl Clark. Her website is right here.

HELP AMERICA FOLKS. HELP TARRYL CLARK GET RID OF THE VERY WORST MEMBER OF CONGRESS, MICHELE BACHMANN.

And feel good about doing it.

Ah, the Republican "Patriots" Strike Again

They block legislation that would have discouraged American companies from outsourcing jobs:

The legislation would have raised taxes on corporations that shift operations overseas, costing U.S. jobs. It also would have awarded companies that bring jobs back from abroad by offering a two-year hiatus from payroll taxes for those positions.

The tax bill under consideration Tuesday included three parts: an end to tax deductions for expenses incurred when companies shutter a U.S. operation and shift the work abroad, a new tax on products once made in the United States but now manufactured by foreign workers and the payroll tax holiday.

That's the Republican Party's slogan: America Last.

The Republican "Pledge to America": A Pack of Lies

FactCheck has the details right here:

The Republican “Pledge to America,” released Sept. 23, contains some dubious factual claims:

It declares that “the only parts of the economy expanding are government and our national debt.” Not true. So far this year government employment has declined slightly, while private sector employment has increased by 763,000 jobs.

It says that “jobless claims continue to soar,” when in fact they are down eight percent from their worst levels.

It repeats a bogus assertion that the Internal Revenue Service may need to expand by 16,500 positions, an inflated estimate based on false assumptions and guesswork.

It claims the stimulus bill is costing $1 trillion, considerably more than the $814 billion, 10-year price tag currently estimated by nonpartisan congressional budget experts.

It says Obama’s tax proposals would raise taxes on “roughly half the small business income in America,” an exaggeration. Much of the income the GOP is counting actually comes from big businesses making over $50 million a year.

And it goes on and on. Read the whole FactCheck analysis to see the full extent of the Republican Party's brazen lying and utter contempt for the American people.

VOTE DEMOCRATIC ON NOVEMBER 2

And save our country from the worst group of right-wing fanatics, frauds, and criminals who ever ran for public office.

Well, It Would Be More Honest

(Click to Enlarge)

Jon Stewart on the Republican "Pledge"

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Postcards From the Pledge
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Who is Financing the Radical Right, Part 2

Two right wing billionaires who are helping to bankroll the Radical Right's opposition to the our agenda. Excerpts:

Billionaires David and Charles Koch have been financial leaders in opposing anything that resembles a progressive agenda for years. They have been looming in the background of every major domestic policy dispute this year, and may be the most effective opponents of President Obama's policies. For example, as health care reform protesters descended upon Washington last month, few were aware, as they were greeted with dough nuts and coffee, and handed protest signs and talking points about socialized medicine, that a right-wing billionaire had paid for the meals, buses, or salaries of the helpful guides...

Koch’s hidden presence in the health care debate illustrates the extent to which the right-wing is creating, and then hiding behind, a grassroots fervor of middle-class opponents of health reform.

The AFP, founded in 1984 by David and managed day to day by the astroturf lobbyist Tim Phillips, has spent much of the year mobilizing "tea party" opposition to health reform, clean energy legislation, and financial regulations. According to an article written by a compilation of authors for Think Progress, over the years, millions of dollars in Koch money has flowed to various right-wing think tanks, front groups, and publications. At the dawn of the Obama presidency, Koch groups quickly maneuvered to try to stop his first piece of signature legislation: the stimulus. The Koch-funded group "No Stimulus" launched television and radio ads deriding the recovery package as simply "pork" spending...

Much of the fierce opposition to health reform can be credited to Koch organizations. As the health care debate began, AFP created a front group, known as Patients United, that dedicated itself to attacking Democratic health care reform proposals. The Koch brothers clearly have a financial stake in blocking reform. Koch Industry oil refineries are major carbon dioxide polluters, and George-Pacific, a Koch Industries timber subsidiary, is one of the largest contributors to the loss of carbon-sink capacity.

According to the EPA, Koch Industries is responsible for over 300 oil spills in the U.S. and has leaked three million gallons of crude oil into fisheries and drinking waters. So there are clear economic interests in why the Koch brothers would want to block regulatory enforcement, clean energy, labor, and other reforms. But part of their opposition stems from a long family tradition of funding conservative movements to shift the country to the far right.

Yes, the conservative slogan is still the same, year after year:

"I've got mine, screw you."

Who is Financing the Radical Right? Part One

Karl Rove's political action group, American Crossroads, which has been paying for lying right-wing attack and smear ads against Democrats, has been getting over 90% of its funding from just THREE billionaires. And guess what? Even more money is being paid out by a right-wing cabal that is NOT required to disclose its contributors.

One key thing to note here is that American Crossroads has a partner group, American Crossroads GPS, that is organized under a section of the tax code that does not require disclosure of donors (though it also imposes some spending restrictions). American Crossroads GPS is raising millions of dollars, the group told Politico, but we'll probably never know from whom.

This is what we're up against, folks. The Ultra Rich, Ultra Right-Wing Radicals think they can buy America. You see that Act Blue link in my blogroll? HIT IT.

And fight back.

My Namesake in Alaska is a Right-Wing Fanatic

And he needs to go down HARD.





Alaska has a GREAT Democratic Senate candidate in Scott McAdams. You can contribute to his campaign here.

HELP ALASKA BEAT BACK THE TIDE OF DEMENTED, TEA-BAGGER DRIVEN PALINISM!

And rip my right-wing lunatic namesake a new one.

O'Donnell Raises $1 Million in ONE DAY. Democrats, Go to War!

We thought we had the Senate election in Massachusetts to fill Ted Kennedy's seat in the bag. We simply assumed that this heavily Blue state would stick with its long political heritage.

We were wrong. And Scott Brown helped give the Radical Right a stranglehold on our government.

Now we assume that right-wing lunatic/anti-masturbator Christine O'Donnell will go down to defeat in Delaware.

Don't bet the farm on it. You see, someone forgot to tell the right-wingers she's doomed. They just poured $1,000,000 into her psycho campaign in ONE DAY.

Sam Stein at HuffPost has the grim details here. From the article:

The best spin coming from the Republican Party in the wake of Christine O'Donnell's primary victory in Delaware this past Tuesday has been that a GOP already fueled with conservative enthusiasm is now even more energized.

Appearing on MSNBC Thursday afternoon, RNC Communications Director Doug Heye relayed that the committee had received a $10,000 donation on Wednesday "because they were excited about Christine O'Donnell's win."

Reports emerged shortly thereafter that O'Donnell herself raised more than $1 million online on Wednesday, a staggering total that could go a long way in a state like Delaware.

Every activist here knows what the victory of someone as fanatically right-wing as O'Donnell would mean. O'Donnell represents everything--and I mean everything--you and I have been fighting against all these years: Christianism, the use of religion as a weapon (not to be confused with Christian empathy and compassion); creationist idiocy and the anti-science attitude it represents; the kind of right-wing authoritarianism that feels entitled to interfere with everyone's privacy; and most of all, unyielding devotion to a set of ideas which, if taken to their logical extreme, would mean the death of our country.

Let's assume NOTHING. Limbaugh is stirring up his Neanderthal audience on O'Donnell's behalf, and the Republicans mean to put this utterly unqualified, dishonest, and quite possibly mentally unbalanced woman in the Senate. She must be stopped at all costs, if only to help stop the cancer of Palinism that is threatening our beloved nation.

Chris Coons has asked for our help. Let's give it to him and send Christine O'Donnell back to the obscurity she so richly deserves.

Contribute to Chris Coons here.

Meet Your "Fabulous" 2010 Republican Candidates!

On 9/11

We commemorate the anniversary of the terrible, murderous attacks on our country nine years ago today. It is not a day for partisan shouting, it is not a day to make political points. And this day does not "belong" to any one party or person. It is an American commemoration. It is a day to reflect on the dead and to resolve that the vicious fanaticism that killed them will never be allowed to prevail. And it is a day to resolve something else: that America will never let the terrorists force us to abandon our freedoms, our rule of law, or our highest ideals.

Stating the Facts AGAIN

[Click to Enlarge]

AMERICA DOES BETTER UNDER THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY!

My Response to Right-Wing E-Mail Lies About "High Taxes Under Obama"

[This is my actual response to a viral right-wing tissue of lies being circulated about Obama's "high taxes" and how the economic crisis is due to his policies]

Hey all. I apologize if you don't know me and you are receiving it unwillingly. Just delete it without reading it, OK?

You know, I always debate with myself whether I should respond to right-wing propaganda like this. One of the reasons I get it is that people are trying to get a rise out of me, which is something I've gotten more tired of than you could know. I realize what's going on.

But G-d damn it, I hate being lied to.

And G-d damn it, I hate being talked to as if I were one of Limbaugh's damn fool/sucker audience.

So here's the TRUTH. The kind you won't get from FOX "News", right-wing hate radio, and BS like this post being forwarded.

1. THE RECESSION/DEPRESSION WE ARE IN IS THE BUSH-CHENEY RECESSION. IT HAS BEEN CAUSED BY CONSERVATIVE ECONOMIC POLICY. PERIOD.

This conservative economic gibberish--"supply-side economics", "tax cuts pay for themselves", "de-regulate Wall Street and pigs will sprout wings and fly"--has been repeatedly discredited in the empirical realm of actual, measurable reality. But it never matters. The right-wing propaganda robots keep spouting the same lies, as if lying repeatedly makes something true. Too many cowardly Democrats have gone along with these lies, and too many corporate Democrats have influence on the current administration. But the facts are these:

The measures pushed in 1999 and 2000 by Phil Gramm (R-TX) and his cohorts in Congress to de-regulate banks and insurance companies were disasters of epic proportions. The derivatives racket that followed generated $675,000,000,000,000--yes two-thirds of a QUADRILLION dollars--in Monopoly Money, equal to 12 times the annual GDP of every nation on this planet. The wolves and thieves who run our financial community set up a system wherein they would be protected from economic disaster while the average person was screwed. It's the right-wing version of "free enterprise": corporate profits kept in private hands, corporate losses inflicted on the general population. In other words, private gain is capitalized; private loss is socialized. The TARP bailout INITIATED BY GEORGE W. BUSH AND ENDORSED BY BOTH McCAIN AND PALIN was made necessary because these banking bastards had us over a barrel. Of course, when you totally gut the regulatory structure and put your cronies and contributors in positions of power as "regulators", what the hell do you expect? Government by Goldman-Sachs has been a tragedy, and people like me are trying to pry these bastards from Obama's government, where too many survive. I want Obama to be like FDR--I want him to be hated by these criminals, not influenced by them.

Oh, and another thing: the Republicans have made repealing the tepid financial sector regulations that have recently been put in place as one of their top goals if they re-gain power.

2. THE MASSIVE, STRUCTURAL DEFICITS WE ARE SUFFERING FROM ARE DIRECTLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO BUSH-CHENEY CONSERVATIVE TAX POLICIES AND BUSH-CHENEY BIG GOVERNMENT CONSERVATIVE SPENDING.

A recent analysis based on data from the CBO shows us the TRUTH about the catastrophic conservative policies that have brought this country to death's door. Please take note of the massive effect of the Bush-Cheney conservative tax cuts for the rich on our national deficit projected into 2019. Also note the impact of the wars that Bush and Cheney bogged us down in and refused to pay for, putting them OFF-BUDGET.



The deficit for the Fiscal year ended 30 September 2009, Bush's last fiscal year, was $1.4 trillion. We are mired in this pattern because of the unemployment triggered by the BUSH-CHENEY RECESSION, which has depressed tax receipts severely, and the tax giveaways for the rich.

Oh, and speaking of that, here is the "prosperity" spread by Dear Leader Bush during his administration. Guess those tax cuts for the rich really boosted everyone up!! [Click to enlarge]

Of course, it could be that people are angry because they're being lied to about who's benefiting from all this tax cutting. From the BUSH era CBO: [Click to enlarge]

Oh, and by the way, to shoot down the lame right-wing argument that the rich "pay almost all the taxes": an exhaustive survey was done of this in 2009. When all taxes--federal income, FICA, state, and local--are acounted for, the upper 5% of our population gets 36.5% of all income, and pays 38% of all taxes.

Oh, and boys and girls: let's not forget that Bush and Cheney and Rove and DeLay and McConnell almost DOUBLED the national debt of the United States in just eight years. Yes, almost doubled all debt that had been accumulated since the presidency of George Washington. But gee whillikers, they're so outraged by President Obama's "massive spending". What a crock. What a G-d-damned crock of shit.

3. THE BUSH-CHENEY CONSERVATIVE TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH ARE BEING REPEALED. TAX RELIEF FOR THE REST OF THE ECONOMY IS BEING PUSHED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA, INCLUDING MAJOR HELP FOR SMALL BUSINESSES.

This report from the Communist/Socialist/Marxist/Muslim/Terrorist/

Hitler/Stalin/Mao Wall Street Journal is instructive:

Nestled in the list of small-business initiatives that President Barack Obama announced in the State of the Union address was a measure providing incentives to small firms that hire employees and raise wages.

The details of the initiative, which Mr. Obama is expected to highlight when he visits Baltimore today, include a $5,000 tax credit for every net new employee in 2010. This credit would be retroactive to the beginning of the calendar year and could be received on a quarterly basis, if the business so chooses. In addition, employers would receive a tax credit to cover Social Security payroll taxes on wage increases.


In fact, Bloomberg is worried thaty Obama is DOING TOO MUCH FOR SMALL BUSINESS.

“If we can help the big banks, then we should certainly be able to help small-business lending,” Obama said June 30. He’s been pushing to increase credit for entrepreneurs since October and summoned leaders of the biggest banks to the White House in December. The Small Business Administration estimates the nation’s 30 million small firms defined as those with fewer than 500 employees create 64 percent of new jobs.

The Independent Community Bankers of America is “wildly supportive” of the bill, said chief economist Paul Merski, whose Washington-based lobby represents almost 5,000 lenders. The American Bankers Association favors passage and the National Federation of Independent Business, which lobbies for small companies, says it supports financing for “creditworthy” firms that have trouble getting loans.

The people blocking relief for small business in Congress are CONSERVATIVES.

The Bush-Cheney conservative tax cuts for the rich will blow a $700,000,000,000 hole in our budget over the next ten years if not repealed. That's why President Obama is doing the adult, responsible thing and letting them expire.

I received a tax cut, reflected in my pension check, in April 2009. Some 95% of the population received a tax cut as well. One-third of the stimulus package was tax cuts. The EFFECTIVE rate of taxation is now as low or lower than it was under Reagan. But the Right continues to lie...and lie...and lie.

Here are the FACTS:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/15/tax-day-2010-protesters-i_n_538556.html

The U.S. level of taxation is at a FIFTY YEAR LOW. That is not an opinion. That is a FACT.

Finally, the Democrats will keep the middle class portion of the Bush-era tax cuts IN PLACE:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40112.html

From the article:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Thursday that the House will extend tax cuts for middle-income families passed in 2001 and 2003 while letting lower tax rates for top earners lapse at the end of the year, as scheduled.

“My stance is that the Bush-era tax cuts contributed to the deficit, did not create any jobs, that they should be repealed,” she said. “What we should, though, renew are the middle-income tax cuts. Our position has been that we support middle-income tax cuts.”

You know, I get sick and tired of the Right Wing Noise Machine in this country. I'm sick and tired of being lied to and having my intelligence insulted. And I'm God-damned sick and tired of the vast majority of conservatives who refuse to take ANY responsibility for the mess we're in, even though it is overwhelmingly THEIR FAULT. David Stockman has admitted conservative economic policy failed. Alan Greenspan has admitted the Bush tax cuts for the rich failed. Former Reagan official Bruce Bartlett has said Bush's economic policies were a diaster. Other than those people, I don't know of many others on the Right who have shown any integrity, honor, or honesty in these matters. And one last thing to everyone BITCHING AND MOANING about their terrible tax burdens: I'm 58. Our mothers and fathers paid the highest taxes in our nation's history AND loaned the government the 2009 equivalent of $750,000,000,000 through War Bonds. You see, the country was in a war for its existence. The right-wingers shout that we are in a similar war today. There's just one difference between them and our parents:

They don't feel like paying for it. But then again, that would actually require some modicum of sacrifice for the well-being of our nation.

Sincerely,

Joe Miller

BTW, the Teabaggers who are moaning that they live in a "tyranny" can blow it out their asses. Those idiots wouldn't know a real tyranny if they saw one. And stop insulting the survivors of the Holocaust and the Gulag by comparing Barack Obama to Hitler and Stalin. People who do that are a disgrace to humanity.

NO. BY GOD, NO.

Yes, everyone is convinced that a Republican victory this year is foreordained.  Yes, everyone knows about the supposed huge enthusiasm gap between Republicans and Democrats this year. And the blame is already being spread for our defeat. We hear--from people who, overwhelmingly, have NEVER held elective office of any kind but still seem to know all the answers-- about "Obama's broken promises" and Gibbs' criticism of the professional left, and Obama's compromises, and Obama failing to get everything the progressives want, and Obama and the Democrats not rolling over the Right as we all hoped they would. And people are sitting on their hands or saying that they don't plan to vote or even saying that it makes no difference who wins.

To which I say: Are you kidding me?

I've lived 58 years. Barack Obama has accomplished as much as any Democratic president I've ever seen, and that includes LBJ. He is winding down the Iraq War--AS PROMISED. He has succeeded in getting a national health care law through Congress, flawed as it may be--AS PROMISED. He has abolished the use of torture against terrorist suspects--AS PROMISED. He has stood up for pay equality for women--AS PROMISED. He has stood up for children's health care--AS PROMISED. He has gone after the terrorists in their hideouts--AS PROMISED. He fought for the stimulus which quite possibly saved us from a worse meltdown--AS PROMISED. He has helped the U.S. auto industry recover--AS PROMISED. That's a damned record of achievement if I ever saw one.

And a lot of us are going to let it be destroyed or halted in its tracks.

A lot us are going to let Obama's administration go down in flames.

A lot us aren't going to act until it's too late.

If the Republicans win control of Congress, they have vowed to try to repeal the health care act, even though Obama's veto will stop them--for now. They have vowed to wipe out even the lukewarm financial regulation law that has been passed. They will push to make the Bush-Cheney-Rove tax breaks for the Upper 5% PERMANENT, to hell with the deficit. They will attempt to implement Paul Ryan's insanely bad economic policies, which will privatize Social Security, abolish Medicare, and CUT THE TAXES OF THE RICH BY AN ADDITIONAL 50% ABOVE AND BEYOND THE TAX BREAKS THE GOP WANTS TO SEE EXTENDED. They will strangle any and all environmental legislation. They will beat the drums for a war with Iran. They will continue to shovel money to the oil industry. In short, their whole nightmare program will be pushed--and ours will lie dead.

Am I getting through to you? Am I reaching you? Are you getting the point? If not, let me be absolutely clear:

If the Republicans win, this idiot wins:




If the Republicans win, this fool wins:



If the Republicans win, this repulsive  human wins:

If the Republicans win, this little loser wins:



Oh, and in case anyone hasn't figured it out, if the Republicans win, this psychotic, pathological liar will gain much greater national power:


If the GOP wins, it means that this demented professional liar who has called Barack Obama a Nazi some TWO HUNDRED  TIMES will be even more powerful:



A Republican victory means that the Confederate Party, the party that remembers the greatest act of mass treason in U.S. history with fondness, has triumphed:



A Republican victory vindicates Palin, who ginned up the "death panels" smear:



A Republican victory is a victory for Sean "Scumbag" Hannity, his phony "veterans charity", and his vicious lie that Barack Obama sympathizes with the 9/11 attackers.



A Republican victory allows this lying propaganda hack to win:



A Republican victory means that the whole set of lying, neoconservative war-mongering thugs wins--Kristol, Krauthammer, Bolton, All of them:



It means that every lying con artist/propaganda hack at Fox "News" wins.

It means that unrepentant racist Rush Limbaugh wins.

It means that all of right-wing hate radio wins.

It means Speaker of the House Boehner.



It means Senate Majority Leader McConnell



AND IT MEANS THE ENTIRE RIGHT-WING PHILOSOPHY PREVAILS--AND OUR COUNTRY PAYS THE PRICE




And please, please, PLEASE don't give me any of this holier-than-thou, more-progressive than-thou, purer-than-thou nonsense. I KNOW that Obama hasn't delivered on everything. I know that he has retained too many Bush policies, and I know there are too many financial big-wigs in his administration. And I sure as hell know that the Democratic Party has its corrupt and irrational members.

BUT MY GOD, I'VE NEVER--NEVER--SEEN A WORSE, MORE DANGEROUS GROUP THAN THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES THIS YEAR.

There's Sharron "I was anointed by God" Angle in Nevada.

There's Joe "Social Security is Unconstitutional" Miller in Alaska.

There's David "Diaper Man" Vitter in Louisiana.

There's Rick "Lying Scumbag Criminal" Scott in Florida.

There's Rick "Secession Ain't Such a Bad Idea" Perry in Texas

There's Carly "I want to do for California what I did to HP" Fiorina

There's Rand "Screw the Coal Miners" Paul in Kentucky

and it goes on, and on, and on.

There is a difference between mediocre and horrible. The Republican Party is horrible this year, run by its most radical, extremist, dangerous elements. You think I'm going to sit around and watch these people devastate my country? You don't know me.

I FIGHT.

I VOTE. AND I RALLY OTHERS TO VOTE.

LET THE REPUBLICANS WIN AND CRIPPLE THIS COUNTRY ?

NO. BY GOD, NO.


HELL NO!

Majority of Republicans Now Certifiably Insane

If this poll in Newsweek (reported in HuffPo) is true, then by a 52-33 margin, Republicans ACTUALLY BELIEVE that President Obama wants to impose "Islamic Law" ON THE ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD.

This is the result of the non-stop hate propaganda vomiting out of Fox "News", right-wing hate radio, and right-wing hate sites on the Internet. The radicals and extremists on the Right have been assaulting President Obama with an unprecedented barrage of vicious lies, smears, and slanders. The Republican national leadership and the right-wing media figures who lie on their behalf are largely sociopaths who don't give a damn about the truth, and they sure as hell don't give a damn about the vast majority of the American people.

THEY JUST WANT POWER, AND THEY WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET IT--ANYTHING.

And these are the people who will take over Congress if we Democrats, Independents, and sane Republicans don't get off our asses and

A. Register people as Democrats.

B. Contribute to Democratic candidates (see the Act Blue link at the top of my blog roll).

C. Campaign for Democrats.

D. Vote Democratic.

Are you ready to fight back? I know I am.

Leonard Pitts Tells the Truth About Who REALLY Started the Civil Rights Movement

And it sure as HELL wasn't people like Glenn Beck, who claims that "we" (right-wingers) founded the push for racial equality in America, and that Martin Luther King was a Republican in the 1950s (before lunatics like Beck grabbed control of the party). Pitts is having none of it:

But even by those standards, Glenn Beck's effrontery is monumental. Even by those standards, he goes too far. Beck was part of the ``we'' who founded the civil rights movement!? No. Here's who ``we'' is.

``We'' is Emmett Till, tied to a cotton gin fan in the murky waters of the Tallahatchie River.

``We'' is Rosa Parks telling the bus driver no.

``We'' is Diane Nash on a sleepless night waiting for missing Freedom Riders to check in.

``We'' is Charles Sherrod, husband of Shirley, gingerly testing desegregation compliance in an Albany, Ga., bus station.

``We'' is a sharecropper making his X on a form held by a white college student from the North.

``We'' is celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando and Pernell Roberts of Bonanza, lending their names, their wealth and their labor to the cause of freedom.

``We'' is Medgar Evers, Michael Schwerner, Jimmie Lee Jackson, James Reeb, Viola Liuzzo, Cynthia Wesley, Andrew Goodman, Denise McNair, James Chaney, Addie Mae Collins and Carole Robertson, shot, beaten and blown to death for that cause.

``We'' is Lyndon Johnson, building a legislative coalition of moderate Republicans and Democrats to defeat intransigent Southern Democratic conservatives and enshrine that cause into law.

And ``we'' is Martin Luther King, giving voice and moral clarity to the cause -- and paying for it with his life.

The we to which Glenn Beck belongs is the we that said no, the we that cried ``socialism!'' ``communism!'' ``tyranny!'' whenever black people and their allies cried freedom.

The fatuous and dishonorable attempt to posit conservatives as the prime engine of civil rights depends for success on the ignorance of the American people. Sadly, as anyone who has ever watched a Jay Walking segment on The Tonight Show can attest, the American people have ignorance in plenitude.

This, then, is to serve notice as Beck and his tea party faithful gather in Lincoln's shadow to claim the mantle of King: Some of us are not ignorant. Some of us remember. Some of us know very well who ``we'' is.

And, who ``we'' is not.

Read all of Pitts' BRILLIANT column here.

Oh, and one more thing. This is a picture from Birmingham, Alabama, taken in 1963 during a civil rights demonstration.

The man on whom the dogs are being let loose is a founder of the civil rights movement.

The white cops are the kind of people who would be followers of Glenn Beck today.

Any questions?

Glenn Beck Would Have Hated Martin Luther King

Steve Benen is my hero of the day for saying what needs to be said:

As anti-government zealots assemble in the nation's capital for a rally intended to glorify a deranged, self-described rodeo clown, it's worth emphasizing a simple truth: Glenn Beck would have really hated Martin Luther King, Jr.

Beck recently told his minions, "Damn it, we will reclaim the civil rights [movement]. We will take that movement because we were the people who did it in the first place!"

It's hard to overstate how blisteringly stupid this is.

King's "I Have A Dream" speech was 47 years ago tomorrow, and over the years since its delivery, King has taken his place in the pantheon of legendary American heroes. His iconic status was hard-earned, and well deserved. But to argue that the civil rights movement that King helped lead was a product of right-wing activists who hate government and domestic social programs, is to stray so far from reality that it's hard to even capture it with words.

Americans wisely revere the King legacy now, but a half-century ago, Beck's conservative predecessors loathed the civil rights leader. The right-wing snake-oil salesmen whose shtick Beck is borrowing now used words like "communist" and "radical" to dismiss King and his movement.

I saw King's speech on television when I was 11. During the sixties, I also saw on television church bombings, beatings, Klan rallies, and generally vicious CONSERVATIVE assaults on blacks who were demanding their constitutional rights. Beck's attempt to co-opt the civil rights movement is an outrage, pure and simple.

Glenn Beck is a national disgrace, a con man, a self-promoting huckster, a lying sack of sh*t, and a general waste of skin.

However, I don't wish to be critical.

Fox "News" Explained

Yes, the Venn Diagram of the Fox "News" view of President Obama, courtesy of the folks at Cracked. (Click to Enlarge.)

Yes, in the psychotic world of Fox "News", also known as the New (Soviet-Era) Pravda, President Obama is no less than a Satanic figure who embodies everything that the demented, elderly, white, right-wing clowns who watch it hate and fear. These clowns don't, however, always have the exact words or images by which to express their hatreds, so Fox does them a service by associating Obama with every threatening symbol they can imagine.

Think I'm exaggerating? Just try watching Beck or Hannity for five minutes and see if I am.

And then realize just how dangerous Fox "News" is to the well-being of our country.

Republican Candidate for Governor of Florida: Scum of the Earth Rick Scott

Man, I've never seen as many hideously bad Republican candidates as I have this year. And they don't come any worse than Rick Scott, who made a pile of money by treating the health care industry as if it were McDonald's or WalMart--and patient care be damned. Think Progress has the goods on this bastard right here: Here's how Scott made his huge fortune:

Indeed, through an aggressive strategy of rapid acquisitions and consolidation, Scott turned Columbia/HCA into one of the largest health care companies in the world. Forbes magazine noted Scott ruthlessly bought “hospitals by the bucketful and promised to squeeze blood from each one.” HCA/Columbia executives saw health care as any other commodity. “This industry’s not any different than an airline industry or a ball bearing industry,” said David T. Vandewater, Columbia’s chief operating officer. “You run at 40 percent of capacity or at 60 percent of capacity you’re not getting the maximum value out of your assets.”

Under Scott’s leadership, Columbia/HCA pled guilty to an massive array of fraud charges — which resulted in a fraud settlement of $1.7 billion dollars, the largest in U.S history. Columbia/HCA systematically defrauded taxpayers, charging Medicare $15,000 for Tiffany pitchers and other luxury goods, “exaggerating the seriousness of the illnesses they were treating,” and engineering a program where doctors were granted partnerships in hospitals as a kickback for referring patients. In 1997, “disaster struck in the form of an FBI raid.” In July of that year, “federal agents swarmed Columbia/HCA hospitals and offices in five states. Within weeks, three executives were indicted on charges of Medicare fraud, and the board had ousted Scott.” Scott left in disgrace, but not before walking away with “a $9.88 million severance package, along with 10 million shares of stock worth up to $300 million at the time.”

During Scott’s tenure at Columbia/HCA, his cost cutting methods threatened patient care and safety:

– Susan Marks, a technician at one of Scott’s hospitals, was forced to monitor 72 heart monitors by herself. Marks explained, “I have to. I’ve been told you either do it, or there’s the door.” [ABC News, 9/26/97]

– Scott downsized nursing staffs, created conditions where “babies were attended as infrequently as every three hours. Once, the only nurse caring for seven ill infants was so busy she failed to hear an alarm when a baby stopped breathing. A parent dashed to the baby and stimulated breathing, the state report said.” [New York Times, 5/11/97]

– Hospital workers in Florida complained, “gloves come in only one size, and rip easily.” In addition, California employees protested “filthy conditions,” and being “stretched to the limit” as Scott’s company slashed “the ratio of nurses to patients.” [Money Driven Medicine, pg. 119]

And this is who the Tea Party fanatics who run the Republican Party think should be governor of Florida. Scott is simply a CRIMINAL who got away with it, a moral degenerate who made his money by neglecting the well-being of sick and suffering people. What can be done about this?

CONTRIBUTE TO DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA ALEX SINK. You can contribute to the Sink Campaign right here.

Let's Join Together, and Sink Rick Scott Forever!

Yes, One of the Financers of the "Ground Zero Mosque" is a FOX "NEWS" OWNER!!

Jon Stewart (Bless Him!) has the goods:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Parent Company Trap
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Jon Stewart, the Voice of Reason and Sanity--Again

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Mosque-Erade
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Gingrich Compares American Muslims to Nazis

Is there a more sickening, repulsive excuse for a human being than Newt Gingrich? Now, he is comparing the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque" (which is, in actually a community center two full city blocks away that does not overlook Ground Zero in any way, shape or form) to the Nazis putting up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. You got that everybody? The people putting in the Muslim community center in lower Manhattan are just like the Nazis. Steve Benen puts it well:

Gingrich insisted, without proof, that the cultural center's leaders are "radical Islamists" who intend to demonstrate that "they can build a mosque next to a place where 3,000 Americans were killed by Islamists." (The former Burlington Coat Factory store is not, in reality, "next to" Ground Zero.)...

We're well into the realm of farce at this point, and Gingrich seems to be playing a little game with the media establishment -- let's see just how ridiculous he can be on national television, but still be treated as a "serious" person, and still be invited back.

That's the real scandal here. This miserable, lying, two-bit hack Gingrich has been one of the most frequent guests on network news talk shows over the past year, despite having held no public office since 1998. His smears, his garbage, and his sickening falsehoods are given a respectful hearing. Now, he is trolling the lowest gutters of religious and racial hatred, playing up to the group of sick, hate-filled individuals that make up the Republican Party's "base". It is a national disgrace that an evil, corrupt man like Gingrich has the national platform he has.

The entire uproar over the "Ground Zero Mosque" is yet another example of the perverse ability of the Radical Right to drum up an issue by screeching about it on FOX "News" and right-wing hate radio. The Muslims of Lower Manhattan have EVERY RIGHT to have their community center. The people attacking them for exercising their religious liberty are spitting on this nation's history, laws, and traditions--and Gingrich, Palin, and the rest of the anti-American Right are in front of the mob, whipping it into a greater and greater frenzy.

ADDENDUM: From Balloon Juice: (Click to Enlarge--It's Worth It)

Michele Bachmann, a Brazen Liar--The Evidence

Politifact, which keeps tabs on the utterances of public figures, has an astonishing page on Michele Bachmann. Ten of her public statements are assessed: every single one of them is a blatant, unambiguous LIE. Geez, this psycho lies as much as Sean Hannity does, and that says something. Among her most despicable lies:

"The New England Journal of Medicine released a survey the week that President Obama signed Obamacare stating that over 30 percent of American physicians would leave the profession if the government took over health care."

LIE.

Page 92 of the House health care bill "says specifically that people can't purchase private health insurance after a date certain."

LIE.

Ezekiel Emanuel, one of President Obama's key health care advisers, "says medical care should be reserved for the nondisabled. So watch out if you're disabled."

LIE.

ACORN "could get up to $8.5 billion more tax dollars despite being under investigation for voter registration fraud in a dozen states."

LIE.

"Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table" of abandoning the dollar for a multinational currency.

LIE.

And remember folks--if you don't vote DEMOCRATIC this year, this lying psychopath who has called Democrats "anti-American" and has accused President Obama of wanting to set up concentration camps to imprison conservatives will gain power.

NOW are you going to vote in November?

The Republicans, the Party of the Confederacy

This post by Dennis G. in Balloon Juice deserves to be widely read. It is a powerful and devastating takedown of the attempts by the American conservatives to rewrite American history and portray the Confederate movement as "honorable" and "noble". And Dennis makes these points loudly and clearly:

There are many myths about the Confederacy, but one of the biggest is that it was a political movement built around honor. It wasn’t. It was a movement built around protecting a system of stolen labor and the ‘rights’ of a selective few to grossly profit from that system. Selling ideas of honor, states rights and outright racism was how a small group of 19th century Southern Oligarchs built an army to fight for injustice. Ever since their defeat these Confederates and their idealogical descendants have worked hard to spin their treasonous racist enterprise into an honorable ‘lost cause’ and in recent decades they have completely captured the Republican Party and the modern conservative movement.

In the beginning of the last century the Confederates were early adapters of new technologies to spread their myth. It was D.W. Griffiths’ “The Birth of a Nation” that spread the myth of Confederate honor across America and presented millions of white immigrants a narrative of white supremacy and shiftless, lazy, untrustworthy and threatening blacks. It was a narrative that generations of immigrants embraced as they and their children became Americans and it was a narrative that spread the reach of the Confederate Party and its ideology of hate to all 50 states.

Read the whole thing, and keep it in mind when you hear Republican governors proclaiming "Confederate Heritage Months" or keeping Confederate flags as sacred relics (as does Mississippi's Haley Barbour), or when right-wingers rewrite American history curricula to present the Confederacy as a virtuous "Lost Cause", or when a Republican congressman from Georgia refers to the Civil War as "the War of Yankee Aggression". Roll it over in your mind: the so-called "patriots" of the Republican Party are the biggest fans of the worst group of traitors and murderers in American history, Jefferson Davis and his friends. They remember the greatest act of mass treason in American history with fondness. They are sentimental about the war that killed more Americans than all other wars in which the U.S. has been involved combined. They rhapsodize about a war that was fought for two reasons, and two reasons ONLY:

1. to perpetuate human slavery

2. to tear the United States of America apart.

The Confederate cancer used to live in the body of the Democratic Party, but beginning in 1948, the Democrats began cutting it out of themselves in a difficult but necessary procedure. But now the Confederate cancer has found a new and enthusiastic host: the radical, deeply anti-American right wing that dominates the modern Republican Party and which comprises its "base" of voters. Remember, folks, that it is the CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE YAMMERING ABOUT SECESSION. Remember that CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN GLENN BECK IS TALKING ABOUT A NEW CIVIL WAR. Remember that when the malcious adolescents that make up the conservative "leadership" in this country lose an election, they start threatening violence and revolution.

And if you, my beloved Democrats and Democratic leaning independents, don't bother to vote this November, the Confederate Party will win control of the Congress. So yes, it really does matter. You can vote to keep a flawed, often inept but basically correct Democratic Party in power.

Or you can let Jeff Davis and company drag this country down the drain.

It's up to you.

Right Wing Idiot Declares War on Theory of Relativity

No, really.

Actually.

Read about it here.

And then cringe about the possibility of these wretched people coming to power in November, if we don't get out the Democratic vote.

YES! Prop 8 Ruled Unconstutional!

In a victory for fundamental human rights, a California judge has struck down the ugly measure known as Proposition 8, which specifically discriminates against an entire class of our citizens. (A good analysis of this is here.) Prop 8 forbids gay marriage, an act antithetical to the personal freedom on which our nation is based.

Again: civil rights are NOT subject to the whim or wish of other people, and we don't permit people (ordinarily) to vote on other people's rights for a reason. Let's hope this decision stands up on appeal.

A great day for America.

41% of Republicans Are Birther Idiots

CNN has the goods here. From their latest national poll:

"Not surprisingly, there are big partisan differences, although a majority of Republicans thinks Obama was definitely or probably born here," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Eighty-five percent of Democrats say that Obama was definitely or probably born in the U.S., compared to 68 percent of independents and 57 percent of Republicans. Twenty-seven percent of Republicans say he was probably not born here, and another 14 percent of Republicans say he was definitely not born in the U.S."

These right-wing clowns continue to insult my state (Hawaii) by saying that our REPUBLICAN governor and her administration are lying about Obama's birth 49 years ago today in Honolulu. (BTW, Happy Birthday, Mr. President!) The hatred and stupidity of these birther idiots knows no bounds. They wouldn't believe Obama was a citizen if they had witnessed his birth personally. That they form more than two-fifths of self-identified Republicans is yet another sign of the moral and intellectual rot that pervades the conservative "base" of the Neo-Confederate Party, AKA the Republicans.

Oh, and naturally, the draft-dodging drug addict (you may know him as Rush Limbaugh) continues to push Birther lies relentlessly.

It's Time

This Little Thing - Legalize It!!! Funniest video ever! - watch more funny videos

Bwa-Ha-Ha!

(Click to Enlarge)

Yes, the Radical Right DOES Intend to Impeach President Obama

If the nation once again falls into the catastrophe of Republican control of Congress, we can count on a campaign to remove President Obama by means of a trumped-up impeachment. Steve Benen, as is so often the case, has the story here:

The far-right Washington Times published two op-eds, on the same page, on the same day, demanding the impeachment of President Obama. One was from the perpetually deranged Jeffrey Kuhner, who insisted, "Obama has betrayed the American people. Impeachment is the only answer. This usurper must fall."

The other was from Tom Tancredo, the former Republican congressman and presidential candidate, and apparent Colorado gubernatorial candidate.

"Yes, Mr. Obama is a more serious threat to America than al Qaeda. We know that Osama bin Laden and followers want to kill us, but at least they are an outside force against whom we can offer our best defense. But when a dedicated enemy of the Constitution is working from the inside, we face a far more dangerous threat. Mr. Obama can accomplish with the stroke of his pen what bin Laden cannot accomplish with bombs and insurgents. [...]"

Now Democrats, and Democratic leaning independents...

GET OFF YOUR A*S AND START WORKING FOR A DEMOCRATIC VICTORY IN NOVEMBER--UNLESS YOU WANT A PSYCHOTIC LIKE MICHELE BACHMANN DICTATING OUR NATION'S AGENDA.

The Disgusting Racial Lies and Fear-Mongering of Fox "News"

Rachel Maddow is my hero for this piece.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

FOX "NEWS" IS DELIBERATELY TRYING TO STIR UP FEAR AND HATRED AGAINST BLACKS IN ORDER TO FRIGHTEN WHITE VOTERS INTO SUPPORTING CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICANS.

Is that clear enough?

Rick Perry Lies--AGAIN

PolitiFact catches Perry in another of his pathetic lies right here. It seems Perry claims the White House never consults him--a demonstrable falsehood. Naturally, he disseminated this lie on the right's favorite propaganda outlet, Fox "News".

Oh, and Perry said that President Obama is harming Texas and has Texas "in his radar", and not in a good way. I guess that's why Perry accepted $17 BILLION in Federal stimulus money--the program President Obama pushed and Perry's right-wing fanatic allies in Congress opposed. The facts are right here.

I think "conservative office holder" and "pathological liar" are becoming synonymous terms.

Karl Rove, the Cancer of American Politics, Hits New Depths of Dishonesty and Hypocrisy

I'll let Steve Benen take it from here:

The key to dealing with Karl Rove's presence in American politics is understanding the role he plays. Once one fully appreciates the extent to which he's a poison in our democracy, smearing our institutions with a pernicious venom, it becomes easier to endure his nonsense without developing an antacid addiction.

But once in a while, Rove's pathological tendencies are a little harder to take.

...Rove's "biggest mistake," he said, was not fighting harder against Democrats who questioned Bush's honesty on the war in Iraq. His column came seven years to the day after Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) concluded that Bush and his team "put a spin on the intelligence and a spin on the truth." It wasn't long before this obvious truth became the standard position of the Democratic mainstream...

In Rove's bizarro world, it wasn't Bush's spectacular failures that undermined the nation, it was the nerve of Democrats to point out that nearly all of the claims the former president made about a war turned out to be false. In this strange alternate reality, those who lied and failed are the heroes, while those who called out the liars "lost their honor and blackened their reputations."

It's quite literally nauseating.

Read the whole thing and the accompanying comments. And try to control your disgust and amazement at the damned nerve of this son-of-a-bitch calling other people liars.

Right Wingers Lying (Again) About Sen. Franken's VICTORY in 2008

The typical disgusting story is here. Naturally, Fox "News", the Propaganda Arm of the Republican Party, is helping to push this utter BS.

They just lie and lie and lie. They have no shame. They have no morals.

And these are the people who will win in November if the Democrats don't bother to vote.

Question: Is Mitt Romney Mostly a Liar, an Idiot, or an Ignoramus on the START Treaty?

Fred Kaplan utterly destroys Mitt Romney's absurd, dishonest attack on the new START treaty right here. Romney has quite literally gotten EVERYTHING WRONG about the treaty--everything. Excerpt:

In 35 years of following debates over nuclear arms control, I have never seen anything quite as shabby, misleading and—let's not mince words—thoroughly ignorant as Mitt Romney's attack on the New START treaty in the July 6 Washington Post.

Senate Republicans are looking for some grounds—any grounds—to defeat this treaty, which was signed in April by President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitri Medvedev, and which will soon come to the Senate floor for a vote.

Romney, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, clearly feels the need to pump up some foreign-policy swagger in advance of the 2012 presidential primaries. But one would think he could have found a ghostwriter who had even the vaguest acquaintance with the subject matter.

The Senate Republicans have only one real objection to the Treaty: it was proposed by President Obama. And so, in their typically reflexive, brain-dead manner, they have to oppose it, even though America would benefit from it.

But then, when have most of the Senate Republicans ever given a damn about what benefits the American people?

REMEMBER, DEMOCRATS AND DEMOCRATIC-LEANING INDEPENDENTS: IF YOU DON'T VOTE THIS YEAR, LYING, IGNORANT RIGHT-WING FANATICS LIKE ROMNEY WILL COME TO POWER.

Period.

What You'll Get If the Democrats Don't Vote This Year

You'll get borderline right-wing psychotics like Michele Bachmann doing everything they can to destroy President Obama--and America.

DEMOCRATS, GET OFF YOUR TAILS, GET PEOPLE REGISTERED, GET THEM TO VOTE, AND VOTE YOURSELVES!!