Why Do Republicans Hate Americans?

On the very day President Obama met with leaders of the business world to figure out how to put Americans back to work and all agreed that infrastructure is the key to our economic revival, exactly the key to Obama’s job plan, last night, the jobs bill was defeated because of yet another Republican filibuster. Every single Republican voted no. The 50 page report submitted to the president by this jobs council said there’s no market for anything they’re selling so they’d like to modernize our tunnels, railways, ports, dams, schools, airports, electric grids, water and waste water systems, and expanding our broadband networks.

The filibuster came as no surprise, that’s been the standard practice for the Republicans since this man was sworn in, but what I find upsetting is two Democrats joining them, Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Jon Tester of Montana. From what I’ve read, Harry Reid had to do some serious arm twisting to get Claire McCaskill and Jim Webb to vote yes. What has happened to the Democratic Party? This was the party of the people. And while they’re not as egregiously obvious that they’re in the back pockets of the rich and the powerful, it’s clear that some of them are. As Bill Maher said on Rachel Maddow’s show last night, (not this clip) there are probably 40 good Democrats, but 13 who can’t be trusted to act as Democrats.

If the thousands of Americans protesting the corporate greed from coast-to-coast aren’t making a difference, I’m not sure anything can. I have to say, my stress level and depression are increasing as time moves on. I still have very high hopes for Occupy Wall Street and Occupy wherever, but I’m saddened that there are some Democrats who are more interested in their own jobs than 24 million unemployed Americans. All the 99% want is fairness. Basic fairness has been missing from our system for 30 years. This movement has more in common with the original Boston Tea Party than the racists with tri-cornered hats, carrying guns, screaming about the Muslim Marxist, Nazi from Kenya.

John Stanton of Roll Call discusses the vote with Rachel Maddow.

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*Rachel made the correction after the break to Stanton’s report where he misnamed Webb as a no vote instead of Tester.

Don't Be Fooled, the Protests By Labor Continue

Let's see, a week and a half ago, a hundred teabaggers showed up in Washington D.C. and there was so much media there, they each had their own personal reporter. The reporters even went so far as to keep the shots tight as to not show the sparse turnout. Even duller-than-dull Harry Reid quipped, "There were tens of them there."

Meanwhile the ongoing pushback from the labor movement is not being covered by the mainstream media. How can thousands of people gather ever week, sometimes daily and not get coverage? Oh yeah, that corporate owned "liberal media." What a crock of BS.

This weekend it was Olympia, Washington that went ignored.  Read about it here. How can people be so blind to what is going on. This is our democracy folks. Citizens United was a devastating blow, but we can fight back if we unite. If you believe in it, fight for it. Unfortunately the brainwashing that has turned "we the people" against each other instead of those truly responsible has probably ruined any ability to come together.

So Harry and Barack Walk Into a Showroom...

I wanted to share a PDF which contains a list of the Policy Riders the GOP had introduced for the 2011 budget. Greedy Old Plutocrats Policy Riders.
I dare anyone to challenge those of us on the left who have no doubt that Republicans are willing to take food stamps out of the hand of a child or a senior citizen to give more money to a millionaire. I have no way to know at this time how many of these riders Democrats buckled on, but you can be sure they did on some.

Let me offer you all a tip. If you've got your eye on a shiny new Camaro SS which lists for $38K, don't bring Harry Reid or President Obama with you. You will proudly walk out of the showroom after some intense negotiating with the keys to a shiny new car which ended up costing you $65K. In addition, instead of the 5-year drivetrain/3-year bumper-to-bumper warranty, you agree that it will be cut to 2 and 1 respectively because the salesman persuades you that the 5/3 will place too much of a burden on the service department. But you continue to negotiate! Instead of the 5.75% rate for a 4-year loan, you will be pay 9.50% because you've been convinced that what's best for the dealership will be what's best for you. You will demand a full tank of gas, but are told they'll put in enough to get you home. So you counter, demanding a half tank, they say a quarter tank and you walk away satisfied that you negotiated the best deal possible. But hey, be proud, you've got that hot new Camaro SS so a victory can be claimed!!! Time to schedule another haircut...

*GOP graphic depicting
the 'liberty killing' party, 
courtesy of my friend Tracy Knauss

Democrats Finally Say, "Enough!"

There's no more room for debate. This is not a budget issue. Republicans have been officially hijacked by the hard right teabaggers and their corporate masters. They lied to get elected and have launched into a full assault on all social programs. They especially want to pick on the poorest, weakest, sickest and oldest. Right now in their site is Planned Parenthood (next year will be Medicare) and other lesser known womens health clinics. They're willing to shut down the government in order to stop poor women and men from accessing affordable care. Evidently the folks who rely on these clinics for breast and cervical cancer screenings to STD testing and contraception are not worthy. The constant lies from the likes of Mike Pence (R-IN) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) have just fueled the uninformed into a frenzy. For all their bravado about abortion, the Guttmacher Institute reported that nation’s abortion rate would be two-thirds higher and the rate for poor women would be twice as high without PP. So if they want less abortions, why would you close down a service that provides birth control? This is all about repealing every advance women have made over the past 40 years before the move onto all advances the middle-class has made for the past 70 years. How can anyone, especially women vote for the party with one hand in your wallet and the other hand on your uterus? I fear for women in this country if we don't fight back. Meanwhile, these old men are staying active with little blue pills while trying to force every woman who is sexually active to become an incubator, willing or not. This is just wrong. To their credit, in a joint statement that I heard on the radio, Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Patty Murray (D-WA) indicated that their caucus is solid and this is a bridge they will not cross. I couldn't find the complete video that included Murray unfortunately.

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

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

85K-100K Wisconsinites Flood the Capital

03/12/11 - This is so awesome! I love the working class of Wisconsin. They are what democracy is about. After their corporate owned Governor stripped them of their collective bargaining rights after a three week battle, they remain focused. Madison Police estimated the crowd at 85,000 to 100,000 people — along with 50 tractors and one donkey — by late afternoon. No one was arrested. Did you hear that Faux Newz? The 14 state Senators who fled the state have returned and have been treated as heroes, which they are. While thanking their supporters, they promised to shift their energies toward recall drives already under way against eight of their GOP colleagues. If only the national Democrats would show the same resolve. Harry Reid is already caving to the Rethuglikkklans on the budget. Part of me wishes this guy lost in November so we'd have a new Senate leader. I can't believe he was a boxer, or maybe I can and his brain is damaged.
MSNBC

What saddens me is only MSNBC will cover this awesome event. And it's not just because of the Japan disaster. The lack of coverage for this true grass roots movement has been startling. If 10 teabaggers showed up in a liberal state like Massachusetts, the national media was acting as though Jesus returned. The Tea Party is not a grass roots movement. It's been funded by right wing billionaires who managed to get the dumbest among us to do their bidding. The newly awakened labor movement is really what grass roots is - the power of the people. Our corporate owned media will hide that as much as possible while propping up the most racist, ignorant voters in our electorate as "real America," and I'm sick of it.

I love the WI palm trees - Thanks Faux Newz!

Grass roots!

The View From The Deck - Week Ending 7/11/10

Joe Hagan of New York Magazine describes the John McCain of 2010 as a frustrated, anxious and at times insecure man, engaged in a desperate struggle for his political existence. Really, this was worthy of an article? Most of us have watched his continuous meltdown since he lost the 2008 election.

Rand Paul said tea party activists have been mischaracterized as "right-wing lunatics." No, I'd say for the most part that's a perfect description.

Andrew Napolitano: "Bush and Cheney should have been indicted for torturing, for spying and arresting without warrants." I'm surprised the judge is going to be allowed on Fox after making the statements he did about Bush and Cheney during the interview with Ralph Nader on CSPAN2. Or will he lose his new gig for speaking the truth?

Pyscho Republican Senate candidate from Nevada, Sharron Angle stands by her abhorent position that that abortion should be outlawed universally, even in cases of rape and incest. She insisted that a young girl raped by her father should know that "two wrongs don't make a right. Much good can come from a horrific situation like that," Angle added. "Lemons can be made into lemonade." This is so infuriating my head wants to explode. If Harry Reid can't beat this lunatic, I so fear the thumpers and fundies that want this country ruled by theocracy. And I don't believe for one minute, if there is a God, that he'd want to force further punishment on a victim by making her carry the violaters' child to term. This woman and the people who think like her are sick...sick heartless monsters.

And I close on a lighter note: All right Jimmy Buffett! You pissed off Fox and Fiends and that's good enough for me!!! Rock on!!!

Thursday Thoughts - 3/11/10

Some headlines from today that I thought I'd Quick Comment on:

Dumb and Dumber: Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann team up for fundraiser. One will be talking about 're-education camps' and the other needs to enroll in one.

House Votes For Ethics Committee To Re-Open Eric Massa Investigation: Yes by all means investigate this nutball, but don't worry about George W. Bush and Dick Cheney's illegalities. What a country! One clown groped a bunch of men and resigned. The other two groped our country leading to 4300 dead Americans and 30,000 wounded. Where the hell has our common sense gone?!

House Dems Will Forge Ahead Without Stupak Language: It's about time! This anti-choice amendment should've never gotten this far. The Hyde Amendment of 1977 is in place restricting federal money for abortion excepting rape, incest or a woman's life.  Stupak's language actually goes further than current law which is why there's such an uprising amongst pro-choicers. This is about stopping women from being able to pay for insurance that covers abortion at all...even when women have paid for their own insurance with their own money. If "Insurer A" gets federal dollars and "Woman A" has a policy with them, she will not get covered because of that! This is another backhanded restriction on women's reproductive rights. I don't want my tax dollars going to Viagra either Bart, what do you think about that?!

If Obama Supports Public Option, It Could Pass Senate:  I'm very sure this is true.  This is the thing that bothers me.  Why has Obama taken every chance he's gotten to say that the public option is not essential to health care reform yet he backs the mandate? I'm very worried about whatever kind of backroom deal may have been worked out with insurance companies. Keeping my fingers crossed that the bill we get helps the uninsured, not the insurers.  Not feeling great at this time although Wendell Scott says this is a start.

God Helps With Personal Decisions, Most Americans Say: Say what? The confusion for me in such statements is that most religious people claim to believe in personal responsibility. So why wouldn't they want to take personal responsibility for their own decisions? Oh that's right, when they do something wrong, they use the "devil made me do it!" Idiots.

Finally, let's hope for full recoveries for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's wife and daughter. They were hospitalized today – after their minivan was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer truck on an interstate highway in suburban Virginia. Reid's wife, Landra, 69 has a broken back and neck and their daughter, Lana Barringer, 49 has a neck injury and facial lacerations.

I really hope some fright-wingnut doesn't say something stupid about this being some kind of karma for Reid's support of HCR. How bad is it, that I feel confidant that one of those losers, whether it's Limbaugh or Beck will go there?

Saturday Evening Thoughts...

First, an FYI: Rachel Maddow will appear tomorrow on Meet the Press. Other guests will include, VP Joe Biden, former Rep. Harold Ford Jr. (D-TN), Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL) and journalist David Brooks.

• Clearly, the Senate Republicans strategy is to filibuster everything to win in November. "Republicans are gambling they can convince the American people Democrats can't get much done, and at the moment, their gamble is paying off," said former Sen. Bob Kerrey, a Nebraska Democrat and the president of the New School in New York. Here's my fear; which Democrat will be the first one to utter that the American people are smarter than that...they understand that the Republicans are obstructionists? Let me say now... No they're not! The American people are not smarter than that! Work on the message NOW!

• The GOP is outraged that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pared the bipartisan jobs bill unveiled on Thursday. It appears that old Harry reached down and found some golden nuggets! Why are Republicans outraged? He removed the K Street Kickback, which extends huge tax credits to large corporations. The K Street payoff is counted in the tens of billions of dollars. Chuck Marr, director of federal tax policy at the Washington-based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said tax extenders don't belong in the jobs bill. "They have nothing to do with the jobs bill, nothing to do with unemployment." Give 'em hell, Harry!

• The previous paragraph leads me to this one. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) sobbed on Senate floor about his chief of staff heading for K Street. His right-hand man, Kyle Simmons, is leaving his side after 14 years. Simmons is starting up a lobbying firm with another chief of staff. Was he crying that his pally might not make as much money on the backs of taxpayers? Maybe Mitchy boy thought Reid wouldn't have the "nuggets" to put a stop to the payouts! There's something about McConnell (besides his party) that bothers me. He has a very evil, deceitful little smirk every time you see him.

• Tea Party leader Dale Robertson cautioned Tea Partiers to be wary, because Sarah Palin, headliner of last week's National Tea Party Convention, represents a threat "to the heart of the Tea Party:" [] "I am sending an alarm to the Tea Party membership! Be alert to turncoats and deceivers being herded into the Tea Party by usurpers from the weakened Republican Party for the sole purpose of capturing our populist movement." Poor Sarah, not even the Tea Partiers are taking her seriously anymore. I guess when you give a "hand written" Republican stump speech at a movement that some of them actually believe is grassroots, you get blowback. Who knew any of them would figure it out?

• Newly elected Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) is going to write a book that combines memoir and inspiration. Evidently he wants to tell his personal story about his life leading up to his election as a United States senator from Massachusetts. I literally started laughing when I read this. He's been a senator for what, 9 days?! I guess he's following fellow shallow shell Palin, cashing in while the iron is hot. Rumors up here are that Joe Kennedy regrets not running for his uncle's seat...so do we. If I were Scotty, I wouldn't be moving too much homey furniture into his D.C. office.  I think a Kennedy may regain that seat in 2012.

• New Hampshire State Rep. Nancy Elliott (R) shared some of her visions of gay male sex at an executive session to repeal same sex-marriage. I wasn't sure I wanted to post this, but since my point is going to be that she's the real pervert, I'm going with it. "We're talking about taking the penis of one man and putting it in the rectum of another man and wriggling it around in excrement. And you have to think, I'm not sure, would I allow that to be done to me?" She continued until interrupted by someone off camera, "Representative Elliott... Let's keep our discussion directly to the bill." She then went on with some other nonsense about it being taught in schools. That statement is such a blatent lie, yet anti-gay fear mongers continue to get away with saying it. And how can you visualize and describe in detail something you (allegedly) don't participate in?! If not participating, maybe she's into pornography? You know, most people secure with themselves don't put much thought into activities that don't affect them. The fact that this lunatic has put a lot of thought into this and was giving details creeps me out as to who she actually is. I hope NH voters send her to the unemployment line.