The plot to spit on the US Constitution and grind it to pulp under the boot-heel of socialism extends much, much further than even Glenn Beck suspects as he awakes from yet another sweaty nightmare, screaming about millipedes in his underwear.
You can’t trust anyone, not Paul Ryan, not even Michele Bachmann. Here’s what Bachmann said yesterday in a speech at the Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans:
“This hasn’t been talked about very much – the president’s plan for senior citizens is Obamacare,” Ms. Bachmann told party activists here. She added, “I think very likely what the president intends is that Medicare will go broke and ultimately that answer will be Obamacare for senior citizens.”
Now, consider the following syllogism:
Major premise: “ObamaCare,” which provides government subsidies so citizens can buy health insurance from private insurers, is the Crown Jewel of Socialism.
Minor premise: “RyanCare,” which Bachmann supports, proposes funneling government dollars to senior citizens so they can purchase health insurance from private insurers.
Conclusion: RyanCare is a Jewel in Socialism’s Crown, and therefore its author Ryan and supporter Bachmann are socialists!
The logic is inescapable. If only Senator Joseph McCarthy were still with us to root out this Red Menace in Congress…
Er, well, that didn’t exactly work out as hoped. Our knight went down, felled by his own sword, so it falls to us to take up the banner and press forward, riding through the countryside ringin’ those bells and shootin’ those guns, or lances or quoits or suchlike also, to remind the populace of real crimes that actually affect them. These real crimes are concealed beneath not simple grey ring-spun but the intricate folds of Clarence Thomas’s judicial robes, and they’re not just the ones you’re thinking of, either, or even those other ones you might be thinking of, though lord knows they’re all scheevy enough.
There’s actually more to the conflicted Clarence story than just his serial sexual harassment, his “forgetting” to disclose his wife’s earnings for twenty years, and the money she has made while forming two comically different-yet-awfully-alike, wonderfully opaque groups sharing the same Grishamesque mail drop (great Protect Our Elections YouTube, with creepy soundtrack and sekret kam, via bradblog) trying to defeat the HCR bill, the constitutionality of which her husband is due to consider.
As a result they are trying to strong arm a New Hampshire TV station and Comcast into pulling this ad.
Their complaint? That the ad is NOT TRUE, dagnabbit!! And they are very butthurt about it! An excerpt from the nasty letter they wrote:
The Budget Resolution as approved by the U.S. House of Representatives does NOT end Medicare. In fact, the Budget Resolution makes no changes at all to Medicare for current or near retirees, as none of the Medicare-related provisions in the Budget Resolution would even take effect until 2022. This fact makes the Advertisement especially misleading, as the woman featured in the Advertisement is a current Medicare beneficiary, and would not have her Medicare benefits ended, or even changed in any way, under the Budget Resolution.
The emphasis is theirs. The foot stomping and spittle flecking you’ll have to insert on your own.
It should also be noted that the woman in the ad does not say or even imply that her Medicare benefits will be ended; she says the legislation will hurt families like hers. A completely undeniable statement.
When the controversy first came to light some were concerned that if the Rethugs succeeded in getting the ad pulled it could hurt Democratic efforts to make Medicare an issue in the elections next year. Not to worry. Comcast weighed the opinions of both sides and has decided to continue running the ad.
Let’s see if we’ve got this right. As masterfully detailed at ABL’s place by RR friend and longtime commenter Allan, moral cesspool Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, habitually disgusting sexual harrasser and conflict-of-interest exemplar extraordinaire, having been set upon by NYC congressman like a mongoose on a cobra, finally coughs up evidence that he “forgot” over $700,000 dollars of his lovely (not really—not hardly) wife’s lobbyist income on financial disclosure forms in a Memorial Day weekend Friday evening newsdump. That same evening, NYC Congressman is victim of curiously timed Twitterfraud by a rightwing stalker, who falsely accuses him of sending a young woman a mildly louche photo which may have been a stolen private pic of his own privates.
I’ll move on from the ludicrous contortions of the Underpants Gnomes smear I touched on yesterday, to check out one reason why Anthony Weiner may have been the target of a desperate attempt by a bunch of idle gossiping vindictive shitheads to send up a smokescreen over the weekend (and coincidentally target a number of young women as objects of their revolting fantasy life just because they followed Weiner on Twitter). From Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones:
Following an old Washington tradition of dumping required but embarrassing information on a Friday night before a major holiday, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas finally released the details of his wife’s income from her year or so working for the tea party group Liberty Central, which fought President Obama’s health care reform law. His new financial disclosure form indicates that his wife, Virginia Thomas, received $150,000 in salary from the group and less than $15,000 in payments from an anti-health care lobbying firm she started.
The disclosure was apparently prompted in part by Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who had been needling Thomas (including on Twitter) for months to disclose how much money his wife earned from Liberty Central. That’s because challenges to Obama’s health care reform bill are likely to end up before the Supreme Court sooner rather than later, and if Thomas and his wife benefited from her income working against the bill, the justice has an enormous conflict of interest in hearing any legal challenge. Thomas had failed to disclose Virginia’s income on his financial disclosure forms for 20 years, and under pressure from Weiner and others, he had recently amended old ones to reflect hundreds of thousands of dollars she had earned working for the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, which also opposed Obama’s health care plan.
But Thomas had not disclosed how much money his wife made from her controversial venture into Liberty Central.
...
Justice Thomas finally released the details of her compensation Friday night, but the disclosure, and Weiner’s triumphant press release announcing the move, were largely overshadowed by Weinergate.
He is going to be keeping his government healthcare instead of going to purchase the exquisite healthcare available through the revered auspices of the Free Market, Peace Be Upon It, because it’s FREE, just like he “went to Walgreens and bought Activon when I don’t have any arthritis pain. Because it’s free.”
Because doesn’t EVERYBODY, given the opportunity to snarf up all the swill in the government trough, just plunge their snouts right in and SUCK IT ALL UP? SUCK ON, PROUD REPUBLICAN!
Here is your very own opportunity to tell truth from fiction as we recount three stories of bastardly wingnut mind blowing hard heartedness and just plain meanness. Your job is to guess which story is actually true, astonishing though it may seem. (For that reason, of course, actual links are not being provided until we reveal the winning story.) Ready? Here we go.
Story Number 1: Everyone must certainly be aware of the devastating tornado that demolished a hospital and several other buildings in Joplin, Missouri over the weekend. The scenes of devastation and misery that have come out of the tragedy are horrific and heart rending. The area has been given federal disaster designation and the government is rushing to provide funds to help the victims as much as possible. Except, hold on, not so fast there. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor wants to put on the brakes. Spending on the Joplin disaster should be allowed only if it is paid for by cutting spending elsewhere. Otherwise let’s just hope all the victims have rilly, rilly good insurance.
Story Number 2: Kansas state Rep Pete DeGraaf, commenting on a state bill to outlaw abortion coverage (except to save the woman’s life) in any general health insurance policy issued in that state compared women who become pregnant as a result of rape to motorists who fail to carry spare tires in their trunk. You see the law would allow women in Kansas to purchase special insurance just to cover abortions. Any right thinking women, opines Rep. DeGraaf, R-Hell, would think ahead, expect to possibly be raped and purchase the insurance as a safety precaution. After all, he argued, “I also have life insurance. I have a lot of things that I plan ahead for.”
Story Number 3: At a town hall in Georgia Repub Rep Rob Woodall made an outright case for terminating Medicare. When one of his constituents objected to the Republican proposals by pointing out that her employer did not provide retiree insurance and she did not otherwise know where she would find it (you know, pre-existing conditions and all) Woodall replied “Hear yourself, ma’am. Hear yourself. You want the government to take care of you, because your employer decided not to take care of you. My question is, ‘When do I decide I’m going to take care of me?’” Not, of course, that the honorable Congressman has such a concern. No, his years as a house staffer and now a member of the House of Representatives will guarantee nice retirement benefits and full insurance coverage.
OK, have we all made our guesses? Well, just slip under the fold and we’ll reveal the answer.
At the rate the GOP are getting through Candidates of the Moment, come the election we’ll be reduced to blogging about how horrible a disappointment Obama is just in order to have something to say every day.
“I think that that is too big a jump.” He called the plan “right-wing social engineering,” which he considers not “any more desirable than left-wing social engineering.”
Such treacherous blasphemy, coupled with his defense of personal mandates for healthcare, put him firmly in the sights of Limbaugh and the GOP enforcement machine. And when the going gets tough, the Gingrinch buckles. Not up. Just buckles:
Newt Gingrich’s walk back tour reached its zenith Tuesday night, as Newt Gingrich personally apologized to Paul Ryan for dismissing his Medicare plan as “right wing social engineering.”
But don’t quote him on that:
In an added twist, Gingrich claims that the merest mention of his extensive condemnation of Ryan’s budget from Sunday’s Meet The Press by Democrats is now out of bounds as a result. “Any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood, because I have said publicly those words were inaccurate and unfortunate,” he told FOX’s Greta Van Susteren. ““When I make a mistake, and I’m going to on occasion, I’m going to share with the American people that was a mistake because that way we can have an honest conversation.”
At this point, you cycle back to the honest armwrestling bout up top there. Good luck with that strategy, Newt. What could possibly go wrong?
Has anyone noticed yet that Rand Paul is batshit crazy? Well if you had any doubts watch this:
With regard to the idea of whether you have a right to health care, you have realize what that implies. It’s not an abstraction. I’m a physician. That means you have a right to come to my house and conscript me. It means you believe in slavery. It means that you’re going to enslave not only me, but the janitor at my hospital, the person who cleans my office, the assistants who work in my office, the nurses.
Yes, American citizens who believe they have a right to not die in poverty of untreated illnesses are JUST LIKE Simon Legree. If that’s not batshit crazy then you tell me what it is.
What was supposed to be a routine vote in the House—to knock down an amendment authored by conservative Republicans—turned into pandemonium on the House floor Friday, as Democrats tried to jam the plan through, and hang it around the GOP’s necks.
The vote was on the Republican Study Committee’s alternative budget—a radical plan that annihilates the social contract in America by putting the GOP budget on steroids. Deeper tax cuts for the wealthy, more severe entitlement rollbacks.
...
In an attempt to highlight deep divides in the Republican caucus. Dems switched their votes—from “no” to “present.”
Panic ensued. In the House, legislation passes by a simple majority of members voting. The Dems took themselves out of the equation, leaving Republicans to decide whether the House should adopt the more-conservative RSC budget instead of the one authored by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan. As Dems flipped to present, Republicans realized that a majority of their members had indeed gone on the record in support of the RSC plan—and if the vote closed, it would pass. That would be a slap in the face to Ryan, and a politically toxic outcome for the Republican party.
So they started flipping their votes from “yes” to “no.”
In the end, the plan went down by a small margin, 119-136. A full 172 Democrats voted “present.”
GOP heartthrob Paul Ryan (such Reaganesque hair!) has inspired right-leaning stiffies nationwide with his budget proposal. Glenn Beck openly declared his love and was immediately requited by the man himself.
Liberal Eeyores (god love ‘em) predictably, preemptively and pessimistically prognosticated doom. But I want to focus on Ross Douthat’s “Paul Ryan and the Triumph of the Will Policy” paean because it’s so…well, take it away, Douthat:
You do not have to like the long-term budget that Paul Ryan and the House Republicans have released this morning. There’s plenty in the plan for liberals to hate, moderates to doubt, and conservatives to question. But you do have to respect it.
No. Actually, I don’t. For all the huffing and puffing about Ryan’s honesty and courage, this budget proposal is an amalgam of the same turds the GOP has been pinching out since Calvin Coolidge.
As per usual, the turd is polished with focus group-approved language about “protecting seniors” and “saving Medicare” when its true aim is to abolish Medicare as a defined benefit plan altogether and leave granny to the tender mercies of a deregulated insurance industry, which has worked out so well for us healthier-as-a-group under-65-year-olds.
Ryan titled his proposal “The Path to Prosperity: Restoring America’s Promise.” Had he called it “Tax Cuts for Tycoons: Bounty for the Better-Off and Deprivation for the Disadvantaged,” I might have been impressed. Now? Not so much.
Did I mention that it sexually assaults innocent kittehs? Although it might not say so directly in the bill, that description is at least as accurate as Palin’s “death panels” and Boehner’s “job-killing health care bill,” the provisions of which the GOP is apparently poised to serve up as sauce for the gander:
House Republicans are preparing to introduce a 10-year budget Tuesday that will eliminate Medicare and replace it with a private insurance system that closely resembles the new health care law, and end Medicaid as an entitlement program all together.
[snip]
Ryan’s plan will also propose tax reforms that lower corporate and upper-income tax rates, while eliminating certain loopholes. The details of that part of his plan are unclear, but if they adhere to his Roadmap for America’s Future, the GOP budget will propose to overhaul the tax code in a way that reduces the burden on the wealthy and increases it on the poor and middle classes.
Batter up, Democratic Party. The GOP’s pitcher is about to lob a slo-mo grapefruit over home plate. If you whiff this one, I’m burning my jersey and throwing out my cowbell.
Republican Congressman and serial liar Mike Pence has published an article in “The National Review” which he labels “the truth about the debate over defunding Planned Parenthood”. If “truth” equals “bald faced lies” then he’s surely told the truth. Pence, as he tells us, was the author of the Pence Amendment which called for defunding of the organization. He then states:
In response, Planned Parenthood used its vast resources to launch slick Madison Avenue television ads portraying the group — the nation’s largest abortion provider — as an altruistic organization that provides health-care services to the poor and has only an incidental interest in abortion.
Pence then tries to convince us that abortion services vastly outweigh all other services provided by Planned Parenthood.
Planned Parenthood clinics focus mainly on abortion — and because money is fungible, there is no way to fund the useful services without freeing up money for the organization to spend on abortion. In 2009, the group made only 977 adoption referrals and cared for only 7,021 prenatal clients, but performed a record 332,278 abortions. In other words, a pregnant woman entering a Planned Parenthood clinic was 42 times more likely to have an abortion than to either receive prenatal care or be referred for adoption.
Clearly Pence extracted his statistics from Planned Parenthood’s annual report available on their website (he also quotes revenues sourced from the report later in the article). If that’s true one wonders how he missed the pie chart on page 6 clearly showing that abortion services comprise all of 3% of total services provided by Planned Parenthood. The actual breakdown is 35% contraceptive services, 34% STD testing, 17% cancer screening and prevention, 10% other women’s health services, 3% abortion services and 1% other services.
So stating that “Planned Parenthood clinics focus mainly on abortion” is not just misleading, it is downright false and presumably a deliberate lie.
We liberals comfort ourselves with the axiom that even though we can’t depend on our maddening party to get the messaging right or put up a proper fight, we can depend on our opponents to overreach. It’s a slim reed on which to hang our hopes, but it’s often all we’ve got.
During the first couple of years of the Obama Administration, as the halting recovery failed to deliver sufficient momentum to break the Bush Economic Deathstar’s tractor-beam of malaise, it seemed like trends in the Rust Belt were most ominous for Democratic fortunes.
A trio of wingnut governors—Walker in Wisconsin, Kasich in Ohio and Snyder in Michigan—swept into power, eager to play mad scientists in their respective laboratories of democracy. But the overreach is proceeding apace, and in just a few months, the voters whose electoral temper tantrum installed these Koch-blowing teabaggers in Midwestern statehouses have come down with a case of buyers’ remorse.
