Republican obstructionism delayed the 9/11 first responders aid bill

I have to disagree somewhat with Jeff’s last post blaming the Democrats as well as the Republicans for the failure to pass the bill. King was supposed to get enough Republican but couldn’t because they claimed the bill was a massive new entitlement program. They were going to kill the bill by attaching a poison pill, an amendment that would have prohibited any help at all going to any first responder who was not here legally.

I agree with those who say that any first responder, regardless of citizenship status, should get help. And the Republicans knew the Democrats would vote against such an odious amendment but they would use that vote to accuse them of giving millions to ‘illegals’ in sound bite driven campaign commercials.

It was really sleazy of the Republicans. King was diverting attention away from his failure to get Republican support by attaching amendments he knew the Democrats would reject. The Democrats finally got smart and forced the Republicans’ hand and called them out for their naked partisanship. Good for them.

In other news, some rightwing blogs and sites are walking quietly away from the bogus Laredo invasion fabrication, while the initiators are still sticking to their story. A post on the invasion appeared on redstate (link to google cache), but was disappeared by the powers that be. If you click on the link to the current page, you are directed to new posts. Maybe this is why they are so hostile to google at that site.

It’s another sign, along with the banning of the birfers, that redstate is trying desperately to overcome Erickson’s comparison of White House health care spox Linda Douglass to Goebbels and the unfortunate tweet in which he called Supreme Court Justice Souter a ‘goat fucking child molester.’

My guess is that they still have work to do in that regard.

Breitbart Lies About Shirley Sherrod: do facts actually matter anymore?

By John

[This post has been edited to correct the spelling of Breitbart and Sherrod]

Update: here’s the full original video from the NAACP site, also via TPM:

Update II: go here to sign a petition to support Sherrod being reinstated.

While the NAACP is receiving death threats over their call for the ‘tea parties’ to repudiate racists elements in their midst, the rightwing republican blogs are getting the vapors over a very deceptively edited tape of an Ag Department official who is made to appear to admit to blatant racism against a white farmer. The conveniently redacted video is of a black woman, Shirley Sherrod, explaining how she encountered racial tension and her own mixed feelings, 24 years ago, before working through the difficulties, helping the white family keep their farm and becoming friends with them.

I first saw the video at redstate, although it was first put out by Brietbart’s Big Government site, the same site that put out the very deceptively edited ACORN videos, which created an equally untrue perception. It was clear that it was strategically cut, literally it stopped Sharrod in mid sentence when it appeared she was going to explain how her first reactions were mistaken.

TPM is working on getting the whole, unedited, tape, which a local production company is holding until it gets permission from the local NAACP chapter to release it.

Sharrod has spoken to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and CNN — Media Matters has the video, which I can’t embed. I’ll put it up here as soon as it’s available in a format wordpress supports.

So, do the actual facts matter here? Or are we just going to accept the false rightwing republican narrative that has counter factually smeared Shirley Sharrod, just as they did to ACORN, Van Jones, Dawn Johnson and countless others?

[From the AJC article] The wife of the white farmer allegedly discriminated against by the USDA’s rural development director for Georgia said Shirley Sherrod “kept us out of bankruptcy.”

Eloise Spooner, 82, awoke Tuesday to discover that Sherrod had lost her job after videotaped comments she made in March at a local NAACP banquet surfaced on the web.

…

But Spooner, who considers Sherrod a “friend for life,” said the federal official worked tirelessly to help the Iron City couple hold onto their land as they faced bankruptcy back in 1986.

…

“But Tuesday morning, Sherrod said what online viewers weren’t told in reports posted throughout the day Monday was that the tale she told at the banquet happened 24 years ago — before she got the USDA job — when she worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund.

Sherrod said the short video clip excluded the breadth of the story about how she eventually worked with the man over a two-year period to help ward off foreclosure of his farm, and how she eventually became friends with the farmer and his wife.

“And I went on to work with many more white farmers,” she said. “The story helped me realize that race is not the issue, it’s about the people who have and the people who don’t. When I speak to groups, I try to speak about getting beyond the issue of race.”

Rand Paul and the birfer/teabagger summer

I don’t know if Paul is a birfer and am assuming that he’s not. But he certainly seems to be a teabagger and the people he seems likely to appeal to are largely birfer/teabaggers.

He says he’s not personally racist, and I’ll grant him that as well. But he supports the rights of businesses providng pubic services — and benefiting from government services such as roads, sewers, police, fire, health departments, business districts, etc — should have the right to discriminate against people on the basis of race, disability, sexual orientation and, it would seem logical to presume, gender and any other reason.

That is in line with hard core libertarianism that says it’s okay for me to sell you poison baby food because after your baby and X number of other babies dies, people will not buy my product and I will go out of business. The market will have spoken.

Thankfully, a large majority of Americans don’t share this (Ayn) Randian point of view. As I have been predicting, these are just a few more of the opening skirmishes in what will be a bloody and damaging civil war among the rightwing Republicans.

Demint, Cantor and Cornyn have delayed with ‘no comments’ today but they can’t dodge the question much longer.

With immigration on the national mind, things are only going to get more difficult and uncomfortable for the Republican leadership. One only has to look at the comment threads in general readership sites, and especially at rightwing sites such as redstate, to see that a large chunk of the rightwing Republican base agrees with Paul and doesn’t like the way the leadership is going ‘squishy’ on the issue.

In addition to the immigration debate, whatever form it takes and in whatever venues, there is also the birfer/teabagger demand for ‘full repeal’ of the hcr bill. Additionally, we now see candidates pulling back on their pledge to the birfer/teabaggers to repeal the 17th amendment.

That’s the one that allows for popular election of senators rather than election by state legislatures. Somehow, the birfer/teabaggers are convinced that this amendment was a mortal blow to the liberty of individual citizens and want to repeal it.

Again, as with most birfer/teabagger policy positions, this one is not supported by a majority of Americans who will be voting in 2010, 2012 and every two years thereafter.

Arizona brings immigration reform back to the front burner

[Updated below]

I’ll resume regular posting, two to four times a week.

Aside from travel and school stuff, I’ve been distracted by the reaction to this video I shot of my mayor questioning Obama’s citizenship at a local ‘tea party’ rally. The rally was in a public park of course and many of the attendees looked like they are drawing social security and medicare checks, but they sure hate government. Except that one of the organizers called 911 on me for filming. She said they ‘rented the park’ and had the authority to kick me out.

A police captain set her straight, but it nicely demonstrates their authoritarian mentality.

As this post at Think Progress notes, the people who attend these rallies, aside from being mostly older white far right Republicans, also support the incredibly intrusive Big Brother ‘show me your papers’ Arizona law:

Not only are Tea Partiers not speaking out against SB-1070, they’re actively supporting it. The Arizona Tea Party Network called on its members to support Brewer’s big government. In fact, the sponsor of SB-1070 is state Sen. Russell Pearce (R), a Tea Party backer.

Why are they so supportive of Big Government in this case? The Think Progress post quotes a University of Washington study sheds some light on the attitudes toward people who are, unsurprisingly, vastly unrepresented at their rallies:

For instance, the Tea Party, the grassroots movement committed to reining in what they perceive as big government, and fiscal irresponsibility, also appear predisposed to intolerance. Approximately 45% of Whites either strongly or somewhat approve of the movement. Of those, only 35% believe Blacks to be hardworking, only 45 % believe Blacks are intelligent, and only 41% think that Blacks are trustworthy. Perceptions of Latinos aren’t much different. While 54% of White Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be hardworking, only 44% think them intelligent, and even fewer, 42% of Tea Party supporters believe Latinos to be trustworthy. When it comes to gays and lesbians, White Tea Party supporters also hold negative attitudes. Only 36% think gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to adopt children, and just 17% are in favor of same-sex marriage.

Update: Redstate blog, whose head honcho is best know for calling former supreme court justice David Souter a “goat fucking child molester,’ has this up today about how congressional black congress members and civil rights movement heroes were, y’know, lying about ‘tea partiers’ calling them n!gg4r and otherwise abusing them. Hey, if it wasn’t caught on video, then it could not have happened, right?

Bolding mine: yes, you can see for yourself. Why? Because people brought cameras*. Otherwise, this wouldn’t have gotten challenged, and the Democrats wouldn’t be trying to hide from this story right now. And no, this is not something that people should just move on from, either. We can move on after the Members of Congress involved either publicly retract their accusations, or else prove them.

This is just one more way the ‘tea partiers’ are proving how moderate and inclusive they are. It’s just that all the non white, younger, non far right Republicans — who totally, totally exist and who support the ‘tea party agenda’ — for some reason don’t seem to be able to make it to the rallies. Maybe it’s all the angry white people with guns…

Redstate’s Erickson: threats of violence are bad, but not really that big a deal and Democrats deserve them anyway

[This post has been edited to correct the spelling of Eric Cantor’s name.]

This could be the beginning of the rightwing meltdown.

If King George Will Not Listen . . .

This is one of those posts that has to be written and has to be said, though I know going in to it I’m going to get beaten up from all sides, though especially from a left particularly out to get me right now.

Nonetheless, this must be said.

The threats, potential acts of violence, and violence against those who voted for the health care legislation must be condemned. They are neither helpful to those seeking repeal nor the acts of a civilized society. I comfortably say I speak for all the front page posters here condemning the violence and threats. The people who think this country has descended into the darkness do in fact send us down a dark path themselves with these actions.

…snip…

I’ve said for weeks I was a bit fearful of what would happen as a result. I sincerely pray we are not on the cusp of some group of angry and now unhinged mob lashing out at congressmen for a vote in the Congress. But something seems to be brewing and I frankly don’t think the Democrats should at all be surprised. They were and they knew they were playing with fire to advance legislation many Americans see as the undoing of the American Experiment. Some of those Americans will now conclude that, like with the founders, if King George will not listen, King George must be fought. [emphasis added]

In a sane political environment, this could be the beginning of a rightwing meltdown. But, in our current politics, it’s probably not. How many Republican party officials will condemn this?

I’d be surprised if one did. Cantor is supposed to speak on the violence in a couple of hours today — will he be called, or feel compelled, to comment on this disgusting post?

This mealy mouthed cowardly condemnation of violence in one weak breath followed by full throated expressions of support and understanding of the violent impulses is exactly what too many on the right think they can get away with.

They cannot.

They can also not get away with claiming Rep Lewis lied about being the recipient of our most vile racial epithet. They are on record and will pay the price for cozying up to violent extremists in the court of public opinion and at the ballot box.

Erickson is explaining away, and in so doing, condoning and supporting political violence. Now and forever, he owns this.

Redstate commenter calls people with Obama bumber stickers “targets”; how will admins respond?

I’ve noted before, as have the redstate admins and regulars themselves, the far rightwing Republican site aggressively polices its comments sections.

They decry and swarm comments they disagree with, frequently ban commenters for comments they deem inappropriate and even disappear comments they see as sufficiently problematic.

I hope they do some or all of the above to this comment and commenter. Unfortunately, I won’t be holding my breath. They tend to be a bit selective in their faux completely fair and balanced (TM) outrage.

That Obama sticker on your bumper………
makemyday Thursday, March 18th at 9:50AM EDT (link)
used to show the rest of us how stupid you are.

If this passes that bumper sticker just made you a target!

When all else fails…….. Shoot!

“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” –American author Mark Twain (1835-1910)

“We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.” –George Washington, letter to Philip Schuyler, 1777

click for link

Beck and Redstate — a fanatical cultist and a group of sleaze merchants

During a week when Glenn Beck told the vast majority of Christians to leave their churches, redstate’s head honcho decided posting this would be a good way to show that the site is dedicated to serious discussion of political differences:

When they get sanctimonious about their discourse, they will of course simply just write this off as a joke.

Hate Groups, Intimidation, Militias and Nullification: will the 10s make the 90s seem sedate?

Is the recent spate of stories about organized violence from various right wing groups just a coincidence or is it a sign where things are heading, especially if hcr passes?

A Louisiana sheriff is arming old white guys and training them in hand to hand combat.

Members of a group comprised largely of police officers are proclaiming in oaths that they won’t follow “unconstitutional” orders.

A vigilante xtian American Taliban group, describing itself as Hezbolllah Army of God, is harassing and violating the privacy of people whose behavior doesn’t live up to the wonderful ideals spelled out in three or four thousand year old mythology.

Well, parts of it at least.

At least some of these nutters have direct ties to the domestic terrorists ‘militia movement’ of the 90s.

I think it’s all too likely that some out their will act on their extreme views as Obama’s presidency continues. And the chance of this happening will grow if hcr passes. And if the Republicans don’t take over both houses of congress in November, and especially if Obama is reelected in 2012, the likelihood will increase even more.

I’ve noted before on this blog how some in the redstate.com community casually talk, always in a joking way of course, about a coming epic violent confrontation with everyone to the left of Tom Tancredo. David Neiwart has written about the serious threat behind the eliminationist discourse of some elements of the right.

Most of the yelping is little more than compensation for feelings of insecurity and ineffectualness that will go nowhere. But, the 90s showed us that we ignore the threat of rightwing domestic terrorists at our peril.

Birthers, Bunning and Birchers: how rightwing Republicans are setting themselves up to fail

There has been no shortage recently of Republicans concern trolling for the electoral future of Democrats. As Steven Benen notes, the Republicans are so sure that passage would be a disaster for their opposition, they’ve been working furiously to make it happen. Uh huh.

Dave Weigel writes about McCain’s birther gambit against an opponent that should never have been a problem for the former presidential nominee. As he notes, despite rightwing Republican protestations that it will not be effective, Democrats and allies are poised to use this and similar fringe issues and conspiracy theories as a wedge from now till November.

The strategy is to force Republican candidates to choose between their extremist base, who views the conspiracy as undebatable gospel, and potential independent supporters, who largely run away from the slightest hint of such fringe notions.

Bunning is receiving accolades at redstate for, with the help of other rightwing Republicans, furloughing thousands of workers and cutting off unemployment relief for hundreds of thousands of Americans. While the Sunday morning pharisees would rather gossip about the WH social director, this is an issue that will not help the Republicans at the voting booth.

Last, Rachel Maddow notes that the Birchers were not only in attendance at CPAC, they were actually sponsors of the annual rightwing pilgrimage. Nearly five decades after WF Buckley exiled them, they are being welcomed back into the rightwing complex with open arms.

Much has been made of the short memory of the American electorate recently, usually in the course of concern trolling advising Democrats not to even mention anything that happened from Jan 2001 to Jan 2009. I think most of this is just plain wrong if not outright disingenuous hot air.

Every time Cheney snorts in public, rational Republicans cringe. I know that’s an increasingly small subset of the party, but that’s my point.

By Scozzafavaing anyone who doesn’t toe the birther-bunning-bircher line, and toe it with gusto, the rightwingers and Republicans are walking into more election outcomes like NY23 than like Scott Brown’s unusual victory in Massachusetts.

If the American electorate truly does have a short memory span, then the drawn out, boring debate over hcr might be reduced to two images:

1. histrionic middle aged white people shouting about socialism, ‘government interference’ in social security and medicaid/medicare, and birth certificates
2. representative samples of the millions of people who were uncovered before Obama signed the bill expressing untold relief that they will not have to die to ensure the profits of the health insurance industry

What will be fresh in their minds’ eyes as they enter the voting booths will be the bloody infighting fueled by the birther-Bunning-bircher troika and whatever other nuttiness the rightwingers decide to put on display between now and November.

Is there any doubt that, feeling emboldened, they will really let their freak flags fly in the coming months?

Another Day, Another Rightwing Republican Flip Flop: why are they now afraid to meet with Obama on camera?

I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘dean’ Broder’s latest ridiculously out of touch panegyric of Sarah Palin, despite poll numbers from his own paper on the same day showing a sharp decline in even Republican’s estimation of her competency to sit in the oval office.

You’ve also probably seen the teams at The Daily Show and the Colbert Report, The Rachel Maddow Show and others take down the Republican and rightwing deliberate and willful ignorance regarding global warming and climate change.

But there’s another story, in line with the rightwing Republicans ramping up their blatant hypocrisy, that is even more telling about the political climate today. After demanding transparency and television cameras for hcr debates, the rightwingers and Republicans are now balking at, what else, transparency and television cameras.

The redstaters are not happy with the prospect of their side making their arguments in public. With seemingly no sense of self awareness or irony, a few of them even admit why they fear media borne sunlight:

The danger…
writeblock Thursday, February 11th at 6:46AM EST (link)
…is that this revives the bill. It gives bipartisan cover to a bill the public eyes with suspicion primarily because of a lack of bipartisanship and shading dealings behind closed doors. This show of bipartisan openness will change the dynamic of public perception–which will work in favor of its passage. Not good [emphasis added].

As this regular commenter freely acknowledges, calls for transparency were merely a tool to gin up resistance to the bill. As soon as transparency threatens to become a reality, it must be opposed at all costs.

It must be opposed because, once enough people see what the bill proposes — and that the rightwingers and Republicans offer nothing but rejectionist obstructionism — the ‘public perception’ of the bill will become favorable, which will lead to its passage.

The rightwingers and Republicans are for transparency.

Except when they’re against it.