From an AP breaking news alert:
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Tim Scott, black lawmaker, defeats Strom Thurmond's son in GOP runoff for House nomination.
Tim Scott is a teabagger, but the beauty of him beating out segregationist Strom's son - well that is priceless.
Washington, D.C. - House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) today issued the following statement about an article in Rolling Stone regarding the top military officer in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal:
"Obviously a General and his top brass don't make statements like these without being frustrated, so I hope that the President's meeting with General McChrystal will include a frank discussion about what is happening on the ground, and whether the resources and the plan are there to defeat terrorists and accomplish our mission in Afghanistan. Without question, the article in Rolling Stone raises a lot of concerns, but our top priority must be to ensure that our forces in Afghanistan have what they need in order to successfully execute their mission and win the war there.
"At the moment, Democrats in Congress are standing in the way of a clean bill to fund our troops and provide the resources needed because they want to lard it up with domestic spending. We need to get our troops these funds, and should do so without any pork or unrelated domestic spending items thrown in."
And now we got the first big Republican trying to blame this all on President Obama and crying “poor Stanley”. I seem to remember a lot of Republicans yelling “treason” when all those retired generals were speaking out against the Iraq war. Funny how a retired general can’t get “frustrated”, yet an active general in charge of one of America’s war can. Double standard anyone?
And Greg Sargent reminds us of this:
Joe Barton apologizing for BP has been the talk of the media and beltway for the past several days, but Barton wasn't alone. He was just saying what a lot of prominent GOPers are thinking, such as Bill Kristol:
Transcript via Think Progress:
WALLACE: Question Bill Kristol, is the President standing up to big business or is he bullying boardrooms?
KRISTOL: I think his own Interior Secretary said something about keeping his foot on the throat of BP, which doesn’t sound like standing up to anyone. It sounds like bullying. I have no sympathy for BP. We have an article in the Weekly Standard this week saying that BP should stand for “Beyond Pathetic.” I think it was the least responsible of the Big Oil companies. It has managed to handle itself pretty poorly even since the disaster let alone before. But it’s not healthy for the country, for the economy as a whole, for the President to bully different companies and different industries and I think it’s not helping us.
Welcome to the new meme, same as the old meme. Republicans view themselves as the "last defenders of big business", and they don't care if it destroys our environment or economy. With the oil leak exposing this dangerous view of the GOP, November should be a little easier on Democrats.
This is absolutely amazing. Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) apologized to BP today for the “shakedown” from the President:
This is so bad that even John Boehner is distancing himself from it:
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) broke with a top Republican on Thursday who suggested BP had suffered a "shakedown" by being forced to set up a $20 billion fund to pay out damages.
Boehner distanced himself from remarks by Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) lamenting the BP fund, with the GOP leader expressing thanks for the fund.
“They’ve agreed to put this $20 billion dollars in escrow," Boehner said during an appearance on Fox News. "I don’t know what context Mr. Barton was making that remark, but, I’m glad BP has accepted responsibility for their actions.”
TPM is also compiling a list of Republicans who appear to share the same sentiment for BP.
Here's a view of a Republican America:
From Think Progress:
Yesterday, Chevron discovered a leaking pipeline that was spewing 50 gallons of crude oil per minute into Red Butte Creek in Salt Lake City, UT. By the time crews capped the leak, more than 21,000 gallons — between 400-500 barrels — of oil had spilled out, “coating geese and ducks” and closing the city’s largest park.
This was just days after Utah's Republican Governor, Gary Herbert, called for more drilling. Yes - more drilling, more destroying of America's envrionment. That seems to be the wishes of the GOP and it's an assault on the place we all call home.
'Drill Baby Drill' may no longer be a good rallying cry for the GOP, as Americans are now turning on offshore drilling according to a new CBS poll:
Isn't it ironic that the warnings all of us "tree-hugging liberals" have been yelling for years about offshore drilling are coming to fruition? And now that Americans are turning on offshore drilling, could we please start a moon landing style project on alternative energies? America needs to become the country of "yes we can" again, not "nah - we'll wait".
Yesterday another attempt to raise the liability limit on big oil for spills was blocked by the GOP. Now the GOP is trying their own bill:
After a third Republican block of a Democratic bill to raise the liability on oil spills, the GOP put forward its own bill on Tuesday afternoon. This one would eliminate the cap only for the current spill, but not change the cap set under the Oil Pollution Act for future spills, which stands at $75 million.
The new bill comes from Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and David Vitter (R-La.), and also contains provisions that would expedite the claims process for Gulf residents. Vitter said on the floor that their measure would hold BP to its pledge to cover all costs related to the current spill. "That's a contract offer," he said on the floor Tuesday. "We're saying we'll take it."
So Murkowski and Vitter want to pass a bill going after only BP for the current spill? And these people call them self Senator?
To show the problem with what Murkowski and Vitter is trying, I’ll go back to that pesky little document called “The Constitution”, particularly Article 1; Section 9:
No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.
And that is exactly what this measure is. Now either these two Senators are down right stupid, or they are being very sneaky. I tend to go with the second one. They know that if this passes, BP could take it to court and it would instantly get struck down as a constitutional violation.
Welcome to my newest acronym – Angry Men With Guns. I came up with it while reading this article from Politico talking about the rise in threats against lawmakers. The key passage:
Though each threat case is different, the FBI documents reveal some common characteristics. The suspects are mostly men who own guns, and several had been treated for mental illness. Most of the suspects had just undergone some kind of major life stress, such as illness or the loss of a job.
So they not only have guns, but also mental illness? Now that’s some 2nd amendment yumminess right there. Kind of like this guy:
I voted for you,” the caller said in a voice mail to Democratic Rep. Heath Shuler’s district office. “If you vote for that stimulus package, I’m gonna kill you. Simple as that.”
The FBI says the caller was a 70-year-old resident of Shuler’s North Carolina district with a history of mental illness and a cache of guns. In the weeks before calling Shuler’s office, the FBI says, the caller beat and choked his wife. She told the FBI that she’d tried to clear her home of guns — and that she went to bed at night with a can of mace tucked under her pillow.
But we sure don’t need more gun control! The founding fathers intentions were that crazy people can get mad and threaten to blow away our democratically elected leaders, wasn’t it?
And you can be sure that if Congress took up more background checks for people buying guns and possibly denying people with mental issues, the Republicans would start screaming. That alone shows exemplifies the mental illness of the GOP.
Rachel Maddow started her show last night with Rand Paul, the Kentucky GOP Senate candidate. By the end of the 20-minute long interview, Rand Paul came off looking like some totally blabbering idiot.
Jack Conway’s campaign must be thankful for this interview, as it has just given them a ton of information to use against the tea bagger.
An ad by Dan Fanelli, the Republican running against Alan Grayson, shows a dark skinned man and uses it to promote racial profiling:
For a party trying to appear as not being racist, the GOP sure is doing a crappy job. I hope Grayson decides to go after this ad, in a way that only Alan Grayson can. It should be an awesome take down.
Pat Bertroche, who is running for Congress in Iowa has a great idea:
“I think we should catch ’em, we should document ’em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going,” said Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician. “I actually support micro-chipping them. I can micro-chip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I micro-chip an illegal?
“That’s not a popular thing to say, but it’s a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under,” Bertroche said.
Sure – let’s pay out all the big bucks to microchip these people. Forget human rights and the costs to implement and run such a huge bureaucratic system. But doesn’t this beg the question; if we just caught them then why not just deport them? Nah that would make too much sense and we are talking about a Republican here.
With Charlie Crist facing more pressure to drop out and the rumors growing of him running as an independent, it leaves a big question; if Crist wins, who will he caucus with?
Now take that a step further. Imagine a Senate much like we had after 2006, one that was pretty much evenly split. The balance of power in the Senate could lie in the hands of Joe Lieberman and Charlie Crist. Crist could feel burnt enough by the Republicans that he decides to caucus with the Democrats, which could push Joe Lieberman to caucus with the Republicans. That would leave the problem intact. Of course the Democrats would still hold control with the tie breaker going to Biden, but it still makes for a very interesting dynamic.
Then there’s a bigger possibility. Having both Crist and Rubio on the ballot could split enough votes for the right that Meek ends up pulling out a win.
It’s like 2000 all over again. Florida will be the state to watch this fall if Crist goes the independent route. Stuff like this is why I love politics – the strategy and the outcomes.
It finally looks like the White House is going to get out front and show America who the party of no really is:
The White House is preparing late this week to aggressively go after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his GOP colleagues on financial reform.
A Democratic party source said Thursday evening that the White House was preparing to take an "aggressive stance" against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) over Senate Republicans' vocal opposition this week to a financial regulatory reform bill set for debate on the Senate floor.
Democrats released a new video Thursday night to that end seeking to portray McConnell as parroting talking points that Frank Luntz, a GOP pollster who specializes in word choice, had recommended to Republicans in the financial debate.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. So much of the Tea Party is built out of anger over the bailouts of Wall Street; the same bailouts that were started by a Republican President. Now the Democrats are working to put a system in so that we can avoid these disasters in the future and (right on cue) we have the Republicans opposing it. So the very thing the Tea Party was founded to oppose is now being protected by the GOP. That makes for some very interesting political theater.
It’s going to be the Republicans big campaign talking point this year – REPEAL! That might work for the crazies in the Tea Party, but a new poll shows that a big majority of those who support repeal actually want the bill repealed so we can get something better – a public option:
When asked how important they thought it was for Congress to work on “establishment of a public option that would give individuals a choice between government provided health insurance or private health insurance,” 67 percent of Americans rated this as an important topic to address. This finding is even more striking given the fact that 59 percent of those in favor of repealing the health care reform legislation rated the public option as important to pursue. Another surprise is that 67 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of Independents also agreed that the public option was an important topic to be addressed by Congress.
That really puts a crimp in the GOP arguments to just do away with reform.
Yesterday morning Joe Scarborough was providing us with his infinite wisdom by declaring that Americans are mad because their taxes have gone up so much under Obama. Imagine how shocked I am to find out Scarborough is wrong about the tax issue:
According to a recent CBS News/New York Times poll, the vast majority of Americans do not perceive that they have received a tax cut from President Obama. Asked if the President “has already raised taxes this past year,” 53 percent of those polled said that the President has “kept taxes the same,” and 24 percent think that the President has “raised taxes.” A mere 12 percent believe that the President has cut their taxes.
This is an astonishing level of misunderstanding. The truth is that the major tax cuts enacted in the 2009 economic stimulus bill actually reduced federal income taxes for tax year 2009 for 98 percent of all working families and individuals. These tax cuts saved working families and individuals an average of $1,158 on the tax returns they will file by April 15. (The median tax cut was approximately $600.) [emphasis in original]
First off only 24% of Americans actually thought their taxes went up. Kind of hard to declare that as all Americans – isn’t it Joe? But more importantly is the fact that 98% of Americans have seen their tax burden reduced. So does that mean that Joe Scarborough only considers the top 2% all Americans, or is he just simply trying to repeat failed GOP/Tea Party lies? Let me know what you think.
