The Rude Pundit Always Nails It

As I was scouring the web looking for something to write about this morning, I found an article by a dude I consider to be one of the unsung heroes of the left--The Rude Pundit, Lee Papa. I don't think I could ever put into words how he did today to compare the Republican agenda to an anaconda's devouring a furry little happy animal. I bow to you, Rude. But once you get past how much he nailed what the GOP is doing in this country, it's hard not to feel like you are the furry little animal, which is precisely the point he wanted to make. Every day, the right wing nutbags are chipping away at the fabric of what has made this country great, and setting us back decades and maybe even centuries in the process. The only saving grace, I believe, is that, thanks to technology, it's easier for us on the left to unite and to call the bastards out before they are able to take over the White House in 2012. There is plenty of time to block them, and to start knocking out the Tea Party members of Congress one by one, provided they haven't succeeded in rigging every election from now until the end of time.

They Are All Liars

The GOP all have their talking points--the president and the administration are spending money and are so reckless that it's killing the economy. They may have slightly different variations of rhetoric, but for the most part they try to compare notes and say the same things. Their message is primarily that more taxes kill economic growth, that we need to have free enterprise with little or no regulation, and that cutting taxes for the rich creates jobs. And they are prepared to block Obama's jobs bill because Obama wants the wealthy to pay up a little. They also are prepared to block funding for FEMA that is needed for victims of Hurricane Irene and of recent wildfires and tornadoes, unless there are spending cuts.

Yesterday on "Up with Chris Hayes" on MSNBC, Hayes and Ezra Klein from the Washington Post grilled representative Tom Graves from Georgia about why he'd want to cut a large sum of money from a green vehicle initiative that would wind up killing jobs in Michigan in order to fund FEMA some more. So on the one hand, he says the administration cannot create jobs, and on the other, he's proposing cuts to kill jobs. This is a sickness that the Republican party is infiltrated with, and it's a sickening sickness at that. When they say they don't agree with Obama and his administration and that their way is best and they will, dammit, cut cut cut--they are lying through their teeth that it will "create jobs," because they know damn well they just want Obama to fail, and that they plan to keep lining the pockets of their wealthy friends and/or campaign contributors.

So you Republicans might know this phrase, because one of you said it out loud at a State of the Union Address a few years ago--"YOU LIE." And you know it.

The Real Class Warfare

I love how Republicans keep using the talking point that when Obama wants to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans that it's "class warfare." Obama called them out by saying he thinks it's unfair that hedge fund managers do not pay the same tax rate as plumbers and teachers. My man Ed Schultz just said Obama "threw a brick through a window," and he's right. It's comical how guys like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and John Boehner keep saying that raising taxes kills job creation. To those guys, I say, "PROVE IT!" You can't!!! You freaking can't!!! I'm sorry right wing idiots, but Obama's jobs plan will work, and you know it will. You are just afraid that he will look good and so you keep spewing your nonsense. And your nonsense, where you keep wanting to cut programs that benefit the middle class or the poor so that you can keep giving more money to the rich, is the real class warfare. It's on, Republicans. It's on.

Heartless Bastards

Thank goodness for smart pundits like Rachel Maddow, who pointed out last night that while on Monday night the Senate filibustered Harry Reid's bill to increase funding for FEMA, they passed it 61-38 last night. Rachel then listed the Republicans who voted no, all 38 of them. I froze the frame and noticed, among others, that my senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin voted no. So did Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Jim DeMint. And on and on.

I thank Rachel, because today you can't find this story in the mainstream media. Instead, it's all about how the GOP took back Anthony Weiner's House seat, and how it spells doom for Obama.

Really, that's what you're going with?

Well, two things....first of all, Johnson and his scumbag cohorts in the tea party are heartless bastards...no, that's not strong enough. They are heartless pricks who would rather give more tax breaks to the rich, big oil and Wall Street than help those in need in our country. And they continue to obstruct Obama's very reasonable and affordable jobs plan too--the one that includes repairing a bridge from Indiana to Kentucky. McConnell was calling Obama's plan political campaigning and the same old, same old, right as the bridge so many of his constituents use every day is indefinitely shut down until repairs can be done.

But that wasn't the other thing. The other thing is that this disaster relief bill has to pass the House, and it won't, because there are all of those obstructionist tea party douchebags there too. The ones that represent those other heartless pricks who applauded executions and death at the last two GOP debates. These are twisted people we're talking about, and even more twisted politicians who represent them and who, even more frightening, aspire to be our president.

These are scary times, people. Look up fascism. There, I just did it for you. This is where the Republicans, led by the tea party, the Kochs, ALEC and a whole bunch of federal and state legislators, are trying to take this country. Democracy is under assault, and we must fight back to protect it.

A "Love" Note To Republicans

We are on to you. We know that you are attempting to make this country single-party rule the way the Soviet Union did with communism for 50 or so years. We know that the Koch brothers, ALEC, Roger Ailes/Ruper Murdoch/FOX News, and most every Republican lawmaker at the state and federal level are attempting to destroy the middle class as we know it, or as we once knew it.

But here's the thing. You have awoken a sleeping giant in the form of a groundswell of folks like me that were politically apathetic for most of our adult lives, and that are seeing you for what you really are--frauds. The liberal base is angry, and we're tired of you giving tax cuts to the wealthy and telling the rest of us we need to "cut, cap and balance" the budget(s). Meanwhile, you own large portions of the media, you rig state and federal judicial systems in your favor, you steal elections, and you do dirty, scumbag things that harm what now passes for democracy in this country. And you've brought scads of innocent bystanders, particularly those who are vulnerable and those who worship Jesus and guns, and brainwashed them.

Well, you guys had better think about what you're doing. Because we are educating ourselves, and we still have the ability to do the one thing you worry most about--voting you the hell out of office. You can try as you may to use voter suppression techniques too, but it won't be enough. We're going to win, and you're going to lose.

And we're going to take back our damn country.

More Scary Stuff

A week after New Jersey Governor Chris Christie made fans of some on the left when he talked boldly toward FEMA about the help those in his state needed after Hurricane Irene, he's back in the news for the wrong reasons. Brad Friedman of Brad Blog once again proved that he is one of the best investigative journalists out there, and I'm glad he bats for our team. Brad uncovered some dirt that Christie's staff wanted no part of, and that is that he was the keynote speaker at the Koch brothers' Colorado right wing gathering in June.

This is some scary shit--basically that once behind closed doors with no fear of who might be listening through the walls (and some even scarier truths about how pink noise was piped in to protect against this), Christie bragged about some of the things he's done to benefit the right wing agenda of those who are bankrolling him. He's like Tony Soprano in a legislative position. And I'm telling you guys, this is going to get ugly the more the people of New Jersey read about it.

The War on Voting

I highly, highly recommend Ari Berman's Rolling Stone piece on the GOP's war on voting.

In case you aren't aware, Republicans have been trying to suppress voting in almost every state, and even in 2008 when Barack Obama won in a landslide over John McCain, only two-thirds of those registered showed up to the polls. That's alarming in itself, but with Republicans winning way too many midterm elections in 2010, they (led by groups like ALEC and the Koch brothers) have been passing legislation in record fashion by waging their own war on "voter fraud." In Berman's article, he references the fact that only a teeny-tiny percentage of actual voter fraud cases have been reported, yet the GOP keeps touting this as a major problem. So the laws that are going into effect do things like requiring proof of citizenship, photo IDs and proof of residence; closing DMV locations to make it harder to obtain a license; sending out fake absentee ballots with incorrect information; making it difficult to register; and closing certain polling places to make lines longer and disenfranchise voters. Of course, this is all to skew voting toward the GOP--the less people that vote, the more it is in their favor. Also, they are clearly making an effort to keep minorities, the elderly, and students--all groups that tend to vote Democratic--from voting.

In addition to ALEC and the Kochs and right wing governors like Scott Walker and John Kasich, the article references Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. Excuse my French for a minute, but this douchebag is one of the people spearheading this "war on voting." He has been fighting illegal immigration for years, and his latest claim to infamy is requiring proof of US citizenship to vote in Kansas.

Thankfully, many left wing groups are fighting back, and begging the Justice Department to investigate this war on our democracy that has to have our founding fathers turning in their graves. Seriously. And with only fourteen months before the next presidential election, it's super important that we get the word out early and often and try to expose the GOP for what they are doing here--and what they are doing is criminal, plain and simple.