So, it looks like the Republicans are really looking to destroy themselves as a national party:
“Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope,” said Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) at a town hall. “I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington.”
She went on to name Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — all white males.
Tags: fail, great white hope, republicans
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Great band name, huh? It should probably be Newt and the Lying Hypocrites, but that is beside the point.
On a serious note, the latest health care lie pushed by the republicans is “Obama is going to kill your grandma.” Classic shock and awe, baby. It has ignited outrage, protests, and many viral forwarded emails. (Has anyone received a mass forwarded political email that’s actually true? I haven’t.)
Too bad it’s not true. (Despite being continuously pushed, to this day, by the likes of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, the teabaggers, and various repub congresspeople.) And too bad the republican leadership (read Newt Gingrich) were for it, before they were against it.
In comes a great post from Matt Taibbi on True/Slant titled, Newt Gingrich Changes What’s Left of his Mind on End-of-life Care.
So, a few months ago someone wrote this in the Washington Post:
More than 20 percent of all Medicare spending occurs in the last two months of life. Gundersen Lutheran Health System in La Crosse, Wisconsin has developed a successful end-of-life, best practice that combines: 1) community-wide advance care planning, where 90 percent of patients have advance directives; 2) hospice and palliative care; and 3) coordination of services through an electronic medical record. The Gundersen approach empowers patients and families to control and direct their care. The Dartmouth Health Atlas has documented that Gundersen delivers care at a 30 percent lower rate than the national average ($18,359 versus $25,860). If Gundersen’s approach was used to care for the approximately 4.5 million Medicare beneficiaries who die every year, Medicare could save more than $33 billion a year.
via Health Care Rx: Across the Country, Some Systems Are Getting It Right – Newt Gingrich.
Yup, Newt Gingrich. So Newt loves him some advanced care directives! Would save Medicare more than $33 billion per year. Sounds good, right? So good, we should include it in the health care reform bill.
Except that is the portion of the health care bill the baggers are flipping out about. Kill Grandma! Obama loves Euthanasia! Government Death Panels! So, Newt must be trying to set them straight, right? Nope. He’s against it, now.
Newt defending Palin’s crusade against Death Panels:
STEPHANOPOLOUS: The only thing that’s in the bill is that Medicare would pay for what they say is voluntary counseling on end-of-life issues.
GINGRICH: I think people are very concerned when you start talking about cost-controls… you’re asking us to trust the government. Now I’m not talking about the Obama administration, I’m talking about the government. You’re asking us to believe that the government is to be trusted. We know people who’ve said routinely, well, you’re going to have to make decisions. You’re going to have to decide. Communal stadards, historically, is a very dangerous concept.
STEPHANOPOLOUS: It’s not in the bill.
GINGRICH: (stammering) B-but, the bill’s… a thousand pages of setting up mechanisms. It sets up 45 different agencies. It has all sorts of panels. You’re asking us to trust the government when there clearly are people in America who believe in establishing euthanasia, including selective standards.
Yeah, you go Newt. Say it like you really mean it! Matt nails it at the end of his post:
Amazing. I mean, talk about being full of shit. This is as clear a case as you will ever find of a politician just getting up on television and just flat-out dogging it, saying something without even the faintest shred of belief, just as a means to an end. What an asshole!
The sad thing is, while health care is obviously in need of reform, the teabaggers/birthers/fringe lunatics that are out at town halls screaming their heads off (and getting all of that news coverage) don’t want ANY bill to pass. Their goal is to make sure no bill passes — anything else and they fail.
It’s ridiculous really, that anything the neocons are against they cue up the script: distort/lie about the issue (the more dramatic and shocking the better), scream until they are heard, the media feels like they need to provide a soapbox to this fringe group (all sides need equal time, of course!), and the story spreads. It always seems to work. They may have really bad ideas (when they do have ideas, other than ‘No! We don’t want that.’) and nutcases (Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, Steele, Santorum, etc. etc.) for spokespeople, but they are good marketers. They know how to work the system.
Tags: healthcare, hypocrites, liars, newt gingrich, Politics, republicans
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Cheneys speech contained omissions, misstatements – Yahoo News.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s defense Thursday of the Bush administration‘s policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.
Surprised? Didn’t think so… read the article for the many examples.
Tags: cheney, darth cheney, GOP, republicans
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I can’t help but think the current Republican Party really is Beavis and Butthead, as Krugman stated a week or so ago. The more I read about their take on the current economy and other issues, I consistently come to the conclusion they are either really dumb, clueless people OR they are just playing dumb to act as a counter to Obama’s proposals. I’d like to give them the benefit of the doubt and go with the second option, but either way it’s a no win situation for the United States.
On the economy…
Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking member of the Banking Committee on insolvent banks:
“Close them down, get them out of business. If they’re dead, they ought to be buried,” he said. “We bury the small banks; we’ve got to bury some big ones and send a strong message to the market. And I believe that people will start investing [again] in banks.”
And related, the Johns (McCain and Boehner) have both been echoing the ‘let them fail’ mantra and speaking out against nationalization. Do these fellows not know about the FDIC? The FDIC taking over banks (which they have to do, since they guarantee deposits — as well as all the other guarantess that have come through the bailouts, TARP, etc.) and putting them in receivership IS effectively nationalization.
Luckily Krugman is out in the media, putting the story straight:
On Shuster today, Krugman very calmly explained that if what they mean by “letting them fail” is that we put them into receivership, then they’re right. After all that’s what the FDIC is doing about twice a week now with banks all over the country. If it makes these bozos feel better to call it “letting them fail” rather than “nationalization” that’s fine with me. Maybe that’s a good way to phrase it. Unfortunately, it’s pretty obvious that they don’t understand it that way. They think these banks can go “bankrupt,” just close the doors and stop operating like the corner hardware store. Apparently they don’t understand that the government has to take over banks that are deemed to have failed.
And on “spending restraint” — Boehner and the Repub’s latest brilliant idea — Krugman effectively dismisses that…
First, the Boehner quote:
“It’s time for government to tighten their belts and show the American people that we ‘get’ it.”
And Krugman:
What’s insane about Boehner’s remark? He’s talking about the current economic crisis as if it were a harvest failure — as if we faced a shortage of goods, so that the more you consume the less is left for me. In reality — even most conservatives understand this, when they think about it — we’re in a world desperately short of demand. If you consume more, that’s GOOD for me, because it helps create jobs and raise incomes. It’s in my personal disinterest to have you tighten your belt — and that’s just as true if you’re “the government” as if you’re my neighbor.
Plus, who is “the government”? It’s basically us, you know — the government spends money providing services to the public. Demanding that the government tighten its belt means demanding that we, the taxpayers, get less of those services. Why is this a good thing, even aside from the state of the economy?
Again, this is what the leaders of a powerful, if minority, party think. Can this country be saved?
Amen, Krugman.
Then to pile on, my favorite quote on the Repub’s economic “theories”:
I think it’s actually quite clear that these self-professed guardians of the free market and the capitalist system know less about economics than the average high school sophomore. And that is profoundly disturbing.
Then we move on to health care non-sense:
Seriously? Being healthy, fighting disease and sickness, etc. is a want or a privelage in our modern society? That is utterly ridiculous. I am fine if you don’t agree with nationalized healthcare (even though virtually every other industrialized country provides it to their citizens), but to swing so far in the opposite direction? I mean, owning a really fancy car or a mansion or even buying really expensive shoes can be classified as a want or privelage… but health care? Come on. They can’t be serious!?
And finally, the whole “I hope Obama fails” meme going through the Repubs. How is this not treason? Actively hoping and campaigning that the leader of your country fails? In essence that your country fails? The Repubs called out the Dems for far less than that during the Bush years… and yet, they get away with this in the media. It’s purely strategic politics and selfish. Especially in times like this… but, I guess when all you have are really bad ideas, it’s all you have left.
Tags: boehner, economy, healthcare, krugman, mccain, republicans, shelby
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Crooks and Liars has an excellent post on the myth of Republican fiscal responsibility, highlighted by this chart:
Other key points from the post:
And as an FYI, the current national debt as of today is almost $11 trillion.
[Obama's Summit and the Myth of Republican Fiscal Responsibility | Crooks and Liars]
Tags: fiscal responsibility, myths, national debt, republicans
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CLINTON: [T]here’s 100 economic studies which show that you get a better return in terms of economic growth on extending unemployment benefits or investing money in energy conservation jobs to improve buildings than you do giving people in my income group a tax cut. But it doesn’t stop them. Those guys are on automatic. You punch a button and they give the answer they give you.
[via Think Progress » Clinton hits GOP for automatically opposing Obama’s agenda.]
This quote makes me think of this site:
Tags: clinton, economy, republicans, tax cuts
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From VP experience, to teenage pregnancy and sexist criticism of female candidates:
Love it.
Tags: daily show, election, hypocrisy, Politics, republicans, video
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Obviously the media is covering her a lot, now that the pick has been made, so we’re gradually learning more about her and the repercussions of his pick. Here are some of my favorites:
Dave Winer says a lot of the same things I’ve been thinking, but says them way better than I did yesterday.
Politico examines 6 things the Palin pick says about McCain:
1. He’s desperate.
McCain officials even admit:
“She’s a fresh new face in a party that’s dying for one — the antidote to boring white men,” a campaign official said.“I think we’re going to have to examine our tag line, ‘dangerously inexperienced,’” a top McCain official said wryly.
2. He’s willing to gamble — bigtime.
3. He’s worried about the political implications of his age. (having just turned 72)
4. He’s not worried about the actuarial implications of his age.
5. He’s worried about his conservative base
6. At the end of the day, McCain is still McCain. People may find him a refreshing maverick, or an erratic egotist. In either event, he marches to his own beat.
(JD note: well, he used to at least, before he got serious about his chances to be president… pre-2000 era McCain was respectable.)
A good read, at least.
Think Progress has an article on her maverick-ness: Palin Repeatedly Professed Desire To Renew Federal Funding For ‘Bridge To Nowhere’. So she was for it before she was against it.
The choice stunned some politicians from Alaska. Choice quotes:
“She’s not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president?” said State Senate President Lyda Green, a Republican from Palin’s hometown of Wasilla. “Look at what she’s done to this state. What would she do to the nation?”
Anchorage Democratic state Sen. Hollis French said it’s a huge mistake by McCain and “reflects very, very badly on his judgment.” French said Palin’s experience running the state for less than two years hasn’t prepared her for this.
State House Speaker John Harris, a Republican from Valdez, was astonished at the news. He didn’t want to get into the issue of her qualifications.
“She’s old enough,” Harris said. “She’s a U.S. citizen.”
And this surprising news:
Former House Speaker Gail Phillips, a Republican political leader who has clashed with Palin in the past, was shocked when she heard the news Friday morning with her husband, Walt.
“I said to Walt, ‘This can’t be happening, because his advance team didn’t come to Alaska to check her out,” Phillips said.
Phillips has been active in the Ted Stevens re-election steering committee and remains in close touch with Sen. Lisa Murkowski and other party leaders, and she said nobody had heard anything about McCain’s people doing research on his prospective running mate.
“We’re not a very big state. People I talk to would have heard something.”
Which also jives with this post on Firedoglake: McCain Campaign Sending Investigators to Alaska to Check Into Palin’s Troopergate: Did these idiots not vet her?
And finally (for tonight), Palin’s superb leadership as mayor left her former town in a budget crisis that they are still paying for today (six years later), with tax increases and service cutbacks. All due to her wanting to leave a legacy with the town by pushing to build a $15 million sport venue (for a town of 8,500!) – a deal that was badly managed with arrogance and incompetence. [Also, more reflection on her time as mayor, by a long-time resident.]
The more I read about her, I think as people get to know her ideology (she was an avid Pat Robertson supporter for goodness sake!) and her record, I think this pick is going to start looking worse and worse for McCain’s presidential bid. Time will tell, though.
Tags: 2008, election, mccain, palin, republicans, VP
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In contrast to Obama’s moving victory speech, you have these, well, uh, not so elegant responses to losing.
Are these guys serious? I mean come on!
“Mitt Romney on Iowa”:http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/04/romney-change/ :
bq. “Well, you know, I think the race in Iowa was really a very clear call that people want change in Washington, not in the White House, in Washington.”
So in Iowa, where the primary caucus was for THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES WHO LIVES AND WORKS IN THE WHITE HOUSE, they were indicating they want change in Washington, not the White House?! What?
Then, you have Rudy Giuliani, Mr. 9/11, American’s Mayor (who wouldn’t even get elected in NYC or New York state nowadays), “returning to his comfort zone”:http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/01/03/2008-01-03_giuliani_positive_despite_weak_campaign.html. That’s right, 9/11.
bq. “None of this worries me – Sept. 11, there were times I was worried,” Giuliani said.
Man, when you lose in politics, I guess it’s easy to come up with the dumb excuse when you have nothing else.
Tags: election, obama, republicans
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Lots of news lately, so here’s a round up of the most interesting stories:
* One year ago (“wow!”:http://www.end-on-end.com/txp/2007/12/03/hmm-why-is-bush-so-hot-and-bothered-over-iran), Seymour Hersh wrote in the New Yorker that the Bush Administration was holding up the “release of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that had failed to find any evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons program. “:http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/11/27/061127fa_fact
* Surprise of the day! “Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan want hearings over the Iran NIE.”:http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/12/05/morning-joe-scarborough-and-buchanan-want-hearings-over-nie/ Bush is either “lying” or “stupid”? Wow. Bush can even alienate his closest allies!
* Rising Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee “had a role in releasing a serial rapist who went on to rape and murder at least one other woman”:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2007/12/04/documents-expose-huckabee_n_75362.html
* Not to mention Huckabee doesn’t seem to be up on current events. He recently claimed he “didn’t know about the Iran NIE or what it said.”:http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/04/huckabee-clueless-on-iran-nie/
And this guy wants to be president? “I agree with Krugman.”:http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/26/why-hate-huckabee/
* And “Barack finally has a small lead in Iowa!”:http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22863769-2703,00.html Yes.
Tags: bush, election, huckabee, iran, new yorker, NIE, obama, republicans, Seymour Hersh
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