Crazy in Georgia

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #8

Johnathan McGinty at Tondee's Tavern on a few of our Georgia Congressmen in Washington ...

What other state can challenge Rep. Paul Broun, who suggested that President Obama was conspiring to set up an American Gestapo and march our country toward a forced socialist dictatorship?

What other state can boast Rep. Phil Gingrey, who dared question the authority of Rush Limbaugh, only to resort to public groveling on the latter's show (merely reaffirming Limbaugh's rightful spot as head of today's GOP)?

What other state can offer up someone like Rep. Tom Price, who resorted to dangling what appears to be a dead mouse as a way to defend his indefensible opposition to the economic stimulus package?

What other state has someone like Rep. Jack Kingston, who - in addition to numerous other falsehoods - claimed that Obama refused to put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance?

It isn't often than my rep, John Linder, looks reasonable by comparison. There is something seriously sick at the heart of many people of my home state. I'm not sure where we place the blame, but I think it has to go with the people who elect these monsters. 

Expert Opinions

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #7

It's time to nationalize the banks. Here's what the experts are saying (h/t Calculated Risk and Talking Points Memo and Talking Points Memo and Talking Points Memo) ...

Bi-Partisan

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #6

Both issues are part of an emerging GOP case against Obama and the ruling Democratic Party: Strip away the new face, the lofty rhetoric and the promises of post-partisanship and you’ll find the same big-spending party of old, bent on politicizing government to consolidate its hold on power.

Even with the stimulus package on the verge of passing later this week, the unanimous GOP vote against the bill in the House and the near-unanimous opposition in the Senate revealed a Republican Party surprisingly united in direction and in message for perhaps the first time since losing its congressional majority in 2006.

Yes, the Republican party is united in their opposition to anything proposed by President Obama, to the surprise of no one. Of course, it's the Democrats who are not sufficiently bi-partisan, right? Any member of the press who is told by a Republican that the President, or that the Democrats in general are too partisan should laugh in their face. Will they? No. The press is so cowed at this point that they'll never call them on the BS.

For the record, Politico may get the occasional scoop, but they engage in more wankery per word than any news site even slightly to the left of Fox.

Evil

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #5

Evil is a strong word, and I don't think it should be thrown around indiscriminately. ("Axis of Evil" anyone?) Before you brand any person as evil, or any corporation, you need to know why you are saying it. So, here I go.

Call them Xe, call them Blackwater. they are evil. The American people did not commit their crimes, but we are responsible for them none the less. They were, essentially, a miniature army operating in Iraq in our name. The re-branding is little more than an attempt at white washing their reputation.

Don't let them get away with it. Write your Senator, write your Congressman and demand a Congressional investigation into Blackwater's illegal activities in Iraq.

Tragedy

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #4

The crash of Continental Flight 3407 into a home in suburban Buffalo is a massive human tragedy, but it is not one with larger implications for the country. Should the entire news cycle be lost to tragedy while we are in the midst of the debate over the stimulus bill? 

The priorities of our news organizations is astounding. Journalism ceased being about "nobility" and has become far more about the fame. That's the irony of "All the President's Men". The reporting by Bernstein and Woodward was impeccable and just, but the movie and the fame ruined a generation of journalists. The goal is no longer to expose the corruption behind power, but to be played by Robert Redford in the movie based on your story.

Well, those two paragraphs were random.

A Progressive Articulation

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #3

Such knee-jerk disdain for government — this constant rejection of any common endeavor — cannot rebuild our levees or our roads or our bridges ... Only a nation can do these things. Only by coming together, all of us, and expressing that sense of shared sacrifice and responsibility ... can we do the work that must be done in this country. That is the very definition of being American.

I don't think Obama is being nearly aggressive enough with the stimulus package. I find his reluctance to pursue criminal investigations against the previous administration harmful to the future of our nation. His interest in bi-partisan solutions borders on the naive. Still ... I think he has greatness within him. On a day when we celebrated the 200th birthday of one of our great liberal Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, President Obama articulated the liberal vision of America better than any mainstream politician has in years. This can be seen as a call to action.

Darn Those Regulations!!!!

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #2

Georgia could require pickup truck drivers to wear seatbelts if a bill that passed the Senate Thursday becomes law. For years, agricultural interests have opposed the idea, saying it is an unnecessary regulation that could hinder farmers.

Well, that's the beginning of a recent article in the Atlanta Journal and Constitution and I find it hilarious. Wearing a seatbelt would hinder farmers? How?

The best part is that the bill will probably die a quick death in the House because in the state of Georgia, saving 105 lives a year and receiving an additional 4.6 million dollars from the federal government is not as important as the "freedom" to not wear a seat belt.

This is a deeply stupid state.

Buh Bye Now

8 Random Items for 2/13/2009 #1

Is there anyone on either side of the aisle who cares about Sen. Judd Gregg (R - NH)? So, first, he enthusiastically pursues the position of Secretary of Commerce, but after being pressured by various right wing groups, he backs out. It doesn't appear they are any happier with him now, so I'm not sure what he accomplished by backing out of the potential appointment. It appears that he may have screwed himself even worse than he screwed Obama.

If I may offer a humble suggestion to President Obama, pick a Democrat. 

Republican Priorities

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #8

Can you believe that all but 5 Republican Senators voted for an amendment to the stimulus package that would have stripped all spending out of the stimulus package and replaced it with permanent tax cuts? It's never about reality with a Republican. It's all about faith and they have no higher faith than their faith in tax cuts to solve every problem, all evidence to the contrary be damned.

Fidelity

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #7


"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.

I Don't Know

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #6

I don't know enough about him to know for sure, but this sure seems like a bad idea to me. If it happens, I hope I'm wrong.

More Thoughts on the Stimulus

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #5

• It looks like the President has gotten serious about selling the stimulus. Reviewing the news sites, it looks like Obama gave a particularly impassioned plea to a group of House Democrats at a retreat last night. The President said, "If you’re headed for a cliff, you’ve got to change direction. That’s what the American people called for in November, and that’s what we intend to deliver." It's an important point and a necessary point if we are going to pull ourselves out of the mess. The people in charge when the mess was made should not be the ones calling the shots about how to fix it. That was a decision made by the American people in November.


• Even better was this lecture for the bad guys from the President: "What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending — that's the whole point! Seriously." Some of the members of his party need to be clued in to this point as well. I'm looking at you Blue Dogs. 


• It looks like a vote on the stimulus package could happen as early as today, or maybe Sunday. Either way, the Republicans are attempting what KargoX has called "filibuster by amendment". It also appears that the debate is getting angry. Good. If guys like Max Baucus are getting upset with the obstructionism, then maybe we'll toss their caucus out the door, refuse to hear them out any longer and push this legislation through.

Stunned

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #4

I am stunned at the news of Justice Ginsburg's pancreatic cancer. She is a truly great woman who brings honor to both the country and to the Supreme Court that she has served so well.

Additional Thoughts on the Stimulus

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #3

• How dishonest are the Republicans in their rhetoric about the stimulus package? Wednesday on the floor of the Senate, Sen. Jim DeMint (R - SC) derided the lack of infrastructure investment in the stimulus bill. The day before? Sen. DeMint voted against an amendment that would strengthen the infrastructure investments. (Nobody is doing a better job of covering the Senate debate on the stimulus than Kargo X at Congress Matters who is the first I've seen to notice the inconsistency.)


• To reiterate a point that has been made again and again: why would anyone care what John McCain thinks about the stimulus? He has an amendment up in the Senate to the stimulus bill that would suspend all spending measures if the economy grows for two consecutive quarters. In other words, if we are fortunate enough to enter a recovery, he would like to stall it.


• Is there anything that rank and file Republicans won't accept on faith? Karl Rove is just the latest conservative liar to claim that the stimulus bill would provide ACORN with billions of dollars. As usual, the truth runs contrary to the conservative statement.

An Amazing Story

8 Random Thoughts for 2/6/2009 #2

In 1961, Elwin Wilson was a bigot who was part of an attack that left Rep. John Lewis (D - GA) bloodied in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 50 years later, Mr. Wilson stepped forward and apologized to Rep. Lewis. The words were simple. 

Elwin Wilson: "I am sorry."

Rep. John Lewis: "I forgive you."

The courage to stand up and repent for your racist past must be difficult to find. The courage to face a man that you attacked for the most irrational hate of all must be astounding. The courage to give forgiveness is stunning. In moments like this, this ability of an American to both atone for his past wrongs and for another American to forgive them, leaves you almost speechless.

The in person apology was arranged by Good Morning America.

(Read more about what led to this apology at this link.)

Republicans and Stimulus

8 Random Items for 1/29/2009 #8

I had typed a bunch of lofty words and long sentences espousing my views of the crisis and the stimulus package and why liberal solutions were needed to both mitigate the impact of the crisis and to pull us out of it. The more I think about it, the more I realize that anyone who has even the most passing familiarity with history, and with the Great Depression in particular, already knows this to be the case. As Richard Nixon himself said, "We're all Keynesians now."

Still, the Republican opposition to Obama's stimulus package has left me with conflicting emotions. I do not believe that the majority of elected Republicans in Washington want to see the financial crisis deepen, but I do believe that they think it would a small cost to pay to avoid a Keynesian solution that pulls us out of the crisis. They are more than willing to sacrifice our paychecks, our bank balances, our brokerage accounts and our small businesses to prevent enactment of a liberal solution.

Let's state this plainly.

Republicans do not oppose Obama's stimulus plan because they do not think it will work.

Republicans oppose Obama's stimulus plan because they are afraid that it will work.

When conservative economic ideology is thoroughly debunked again, just as it was in the Hoover administration, the American people will again reward the Democratic Party, as they did after FDR.

This is what keeps the Republicans bed wetters up at night.

Moral Authority

8 Random Items for 1/29/2009 #7

I think we can truly say that Pope Benedict XVI is the type of Pope that American conservatives can truly love. This Pope isn't a kindly old Grandfather. This is a Pope who yearns for the days when the Catholic Church had absolute authority. (It is just a coincidence, I'm sure, that those were the days in which the Vatican openly practiced anti-Semitism and managed to rack up a body count that would historically dwarf the actions of Al Qaeda.)

If you haven't heard, the Pope has invited back into the fold Bishop Richard Williamson. Williamson was excommunicated from the church in the late 80's for belonging to a group of Catholics that oppose the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, where the Church categorically rejected the idea that Jews killed Jesus and condemned the practice of anti-Semitism. Williamson gave a television interview this past December where he made his opinion of the Holocaust known ...

I believe there were no gas chambers ... I think that two to three hundred thousand Jews perished in Nazi concentration camps ... but none of them by gas chambers.

Of course the Vatican has rejected this opinion because to do otherwise would make them appear not just anti-Semitic, but stupid and ignorant. Still, how can you can justify allowing a man who would express these views a member of your church?

The Pope is conflicted on the subject of Jews anyway. On the one hand, he reaches out to them as friends, and then he sanctions the use of an old mass that calls for the conversion of Jews to Catholicism (I would assume they mean to use methods other than those used during the inquisition) and he would like to see Pope Pius XII beatified despite his silence during the Holocaust.

Much like the Protestant right-wing nut jobs in our country, the Pope seems to want to turn back the clock on religious reform. It will be to the world's peril if he accomplishes it.

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The Rod Blagojevich Show

8 Random Items for 1/29/2009 #6

Well, this show could be wrapping up today, perhaps within the hour. His closing argument in front of the Illinois Senate has done nothing to change my opinion that this guy is just insane and I think the state of our political discourse will be in a far better position once he has been removed from power.

As to the question of whether that removal is justified ... well ... that's a tough one. It's hard for me to have any sympathy for someone who has been recorded saying the things he says, but, if no criminal acts have been proven, how can his removal be justified?

A more just solution would have been for him to step down to clear his name, but I'm not sure that's possible. There's no doubt that he shouldn't be removed until a crime has been proven, but does anyone believe at this point that this is an inevitability?

We Won, They Lost

8 Random Items for 1/29/2009 #5

Here's what the title above means:

President Barack Obama is signing into law an equal-pay bill that is popular with labor and women's groups and is expected to make it easier for workers to sue for decades-old discrimination.

Equal pay for equal work? Is this even a controversial matter? Well, yes. It is highly objectionable to many Republicans. Why?

Well, many conservatives just don't believe the government has any place telling any business what they can and cannot do. (Of course, telling individuals what they can or cannot do in the privacy of their own bedroom is a different story.) If the market wants to punish those companies that discriminate, it can do it. If not, then discrimination must be a good thing. This would be the "it's just not the government's place" position.

Then their in the misogyny position. These are those groups of white male Republicans who don't believe that women could possibly perform equal work. They also believe a woman's place is in the home. These are largely religious people who believe that God created man superior to women. This would be the "evil and stupid" position.

Finally, there are those Republicans who realize that their hold on power requires discrimination. They know that deep down they can't measure up to their competition, so they support anyone who is holding down someone else. This would be the "maintaining control" position.

Republican controversy aside, we voted Obama into office and we can now see the beginning of the end of pay inequality in the workforce. That is real progress.

The Death of the Republican Party

8 Random Items for 1/29/2009 #4

I repeat my favorite line about the Republican Party in 2009.

I have one word for the Republican Party. Whigs.

Read this and enjoy. The only thing standing between the implosion of the Rush Limbaugh led Republican Party is the lack of a killer instinct by the Democratic Party.