February 2012

Just received a breaking news alert that Olympia Snowe of Maine won't be seeking re-election to the Senate this year. This could turn into a possible pick-up for the Democrats.

One Republican presidential hopeful today:

Newt Gingrich said it is impossible to “fix” Afghanistan and suggested the U.S. should to tell Afghan citizens to “figure out how to live your own miserable life.”

Speaking at a Republican luncheon here on Monday, Mr. Gingrich amped up his criticism of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after a string of attacks by Afghan soldiers on American troops. ”We’re not going to fix Afghanistan,” the former House speaker said. “It’s not possible.”

His prescription:”What you have to do is say, ‘You know, you’re going to have to figure out how to live your own miserable life… Because you clearly don’t want to learn from me how to be unmiserable.’”

So we can't "fix" Afghanistan? What kind of message does that send to our troops fighting over there and the families of our fallen soldiers?

It sounds like Newt is wanting to cut and run. Wouldn't this give a clear message to the terrorists that they have won?

Now do I believe these notions? Absolutley not. I am simply repeating the very same lines of attack that the Republicans used against anyone who questioned our involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan. This was the sickening way that the Republicans used war to divide our country and now they are sitting on the other side of the fence. Even worse is that it comes from a bunch of chickenhawks, who did anything possible to get out of putting on the uniform.

Yup - here you have today's GOP.

When it comes to trying and scare the hell out of constituents the Republicans never let us down. The latest chapter of "OMG you will all die" fear mongering comes from the state that bought us one of the greatest fear mongers of all time, Dick Cheney:

State representatives on Friday advanced legislation to launch a study into what Wyoming should do in the event of a complete economic or political collapse in the United States.

House Bill 85 passed on first reading by a voice vote. It would create a state-run government continuity task force, which would study and prepare Wyoming for potential catastrophes, from disruptions in food and energy supplies to a complete meltdown of the federal government.

The task force would look at the feasibility of Wyoming issuing its own alternative currency, if needed. And House members approved an amendment Friday by state Rep. Kermit Brown, R-Laramie, to have the task force also examine conditions under which Wyoming would need to implement its own military draft, raise a standing army, and acquire strike aircraft and an aircraft carrier.

Of course Wyoming needs all the protection they can get, hence the aircraft carrier. Remember when the Bush administration was doling out homeland security money and Wyoming received over double what New York did per capita?

This is the craziness that has taken over the Republican party over the past several years. Even scarier is the number of American's who buy into this thinking. My hopes for our country's future are really diminishing with each passing day.

PoitiFact PolitiFarce is at it again:

In a promotional spot for his MSNBC program, Lawrence O’Donnell speaks proudly of his father attending college on the post-World War II benefits package that transformed the nation.

O’Donnell further says of the original GI Bill: "It’s the most successful educational program that we’ve ever had in this country -- and the critics called it welfare."

They did? Austin lawyer Terral Smith, a former Republican member of the Texas House, urged us to check this after seeing the ad in January.

So what did they rule?

We found no evidence of critics referring to the GI Bill as welfare. Yet some fretted that the law’s unemployment compensation element would encourage laziness. We see a touch of truth to O’Donnell’s claim, which we rate Mostly False.

Well OK, they didn't call it "welfare" verbatim, but they did say this:

Comments from Rep. Rankin about fearing a "tremendous inducement to certain elements to try to get employment compensation. It is going to be very easy… to induce these people to get on federal relief." Another Rankin comment, suggesting the proposal would reward those who delayed seeking work: "The bane of the British Empire has been the dole system." He also aired a racist comment, saying: "If every white serviceman in Mississippi… could read this so-called GI Bill, I don’t believe there would be one in 20 who would approve of it... We have 50,000 Negroes in the service from our state and in, in my opinion, if the bill should pass in its present form, a vast majority of them would remain unemployed for at least another year, and a great many white men would do the same."

(emphasis added)