Tag: Tea Baggers

Welcome to the Era of Extortion Politics

Jon Ponder

By manufacturing the crisis over the extension of the debt ceiling for their own political gain, tea bagger Republicans not only broke one of their many sacred campaign pledges to voters last year, they also managed to regress American politics farther than ever from their constitutional ideals by ushering in a new era of what Steve Benen calls “extortion politics”:

I think this is arguably one of the more important realizations to take away from the current political landscape. Republicans aren’t just radicalized, aren’t just pursuing an extreme agenda, and aren’t just allergic to compromise. The congressional GOP is also changing the very nature of governing in ways with no modern precedent.

Welcome to the normalization of extortion politics.

In the debt-ceiling hostage fiction, Republicans are the hostage takers — the extortionists — while the U.S. economy and the financial well-being of American families are their victims. The hostage negotiator, of course, the would-be hero in the piece, is Pres. Obama.

Unfortunately, in this political drama, the hero did not ride to the victims’ rescue. Instead, he legitimized the terrorists’ demands by negotiating with them. By negotiating with them, he allowed them to win — not on points but on politics, which was really all that mattered to them.

Jonathan Chait traces the president’s undoing back to his budget battles with the Republicans in December, when he allowed them to pass a budget that required the Treasury to borrow billions more for additional spending without also raising the debt limit to accommodate the billions in over-spending they voted for:

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Beck Compares Norway Camp to Hitler Youth

Trish

YouthCampMaybe we should thank Glenn Beck for comparing the Utøya, Norway camp where rightwing zealot Anders Behring Breivik killed 68 people and wounded many more to a Hilter youth camp.

“There was a shooting at a political camp, which sounds a little like the Hitler youth, or, whatever. I mean, who does a camp for kids that’s all about politics. Disturbing,”

Tea party camp counselor: ‘Some of the kids will fall for it. Others kids will wise up.’

We should thank him because – ignoring the American Legion’s Boys State and Girls State summer camps, which have provided civics leadership to such alumni as Neil Armstrong, Tom Brokaw, Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Michael Jordan, George Pataki, Jane Pauley, Harry Reid, and even Rush Limbaugh since 1935 – his incendiary and ignorant comment allows us to shine a light on a far more disturbing phenomenon.

Tea party groups are holding their own camps this summer, where children and young people are being indoctrinated with anti-social and scarcity-based beliefs. Take this Florida camp.

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If You Don’t Know About ALEC, You Don’t Know What’s Really Going On

Trish

Whether you live where “Koch brothers schemes get turned into the bat-$#*@ crazy legislation that just happens to pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, in virtually identical form, in 15 states at once,” you’ll want to know about ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. This corporate-funded shadow group is transforming our country, and not in a good way. Watch the video for just one example: privatizing prisons. And remember, although it’s not pointed out in the video, private prisons only want the low-risk, high-profit population. As with health care and Social Security, they want to skim the profitable folks off the top and leave the sickest, the oldest, and, in case of private prisons, the baddest-assed to the government.

Scott’s Law is Likely to Increase Crime in Florida

Trish

3,406

Number of Florida non-violent felons who re-offended after their rights were automatically restored under a program instituted by former Gov. Charlie Crist. They represent about 11 percent of the 30,672 people whose rights, including the right to vote, were reinstated. Before Crist launched the initiative, about one-third of prisoners released were back in jail within three years. The results lead criminologists and others to conclude that encouraging offenders to reintegrate into society makes them less likely to commit further crimes. Gov. Rick Scott recently signed Republican-drafted legislation overturning this automatic process, and requiring felons who have served their time to wait five years before applying to have their rights restored.

U.S. Representative Tweets About ‘Islamic Terror’ in Norway

Trish

DennisRossTweet

The world is finding out about the man suspected of the worst terror attacks in Norway’s history, in which first a bomb killed at least 30 in Oslo, and then an additional 67 people were gunned down at a nearby youth camp. The suspect is 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik and it appears he is a rightwing Christian, anti-Muslim extremist who hates Marxists.

He is the very opposite of — as Florida Teapublican U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross tweeted when news broke of the bombing and mass shooting — forces aligned with “Islamic terror.”

It appears Ross wanted to phone in (or in this case, drop a 140-character line) a quick condemnation of the horror and get on with his weekend. His knee-jerk assumption that any act of terror must be perpetuated by Muslim extremists is embarrassing for both his party and his state.

Comments on Facebook, where Progress Florida posted the image of the tweet shown, are not kind to Ross:

  • When Rep. Ross departs the mortal coil, the average IQ of Floridians will skyrocket. How does someone with a Fallwell-Robertson understanding of the world get elected?
  • Dennis is MY Congessman and I cannot tell you how unhappy I am with him. He used to be a smart moderate until he embraced the tea party.
  • Sadly, this kind of crap resonates with a LOT of voters. Never underestimate the combination of stupid + xenophobia x fake patriotism.
  • Maybe he can re-tweet: “We stand with you against right-wing ultra-conservative Christians.”

No word on that last idea but we won’t hold our breath waiting for anyone to step up and condemn Christian violence.

Debt Ceiling Default Is a ‘Chosen Crisis’ Created by the Radical Tea Partyists

Jon Ponder

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow on MSNBC Wednesday night:

MADDOW: It’s worth remembering this is a crisis created by Congress. Option A for dealing with raising the debt ceiling has always been, hey, let’s raise the debt ceiling. Congress did it seven times under George W. Bush. I said five times the other night, forgive me, it was seven. Eighteen times under Ronald Reagan, 17 times since the 1960s, and 130 Republicans in Congress right now voted happily throughout the George W. Bush era to raise the debt ceiling without so much as a peep. This time however for some reason, no. This year they have decided for political reasons that they are just not going to do it.

That’s the whole crisis here. That’s the origin of the crisis, that’s where it comes from, and Option A for solving this crisis has always been let’s not choose to have this crisis. This is a chosen crisis. Let’s choose not to have it. That has always been Option A.

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Reagan Claimed Default ‘Threatens Those Who Rely on Social Security, Veterans Benefits’ – Was He Lying, Too?

Jon Ponder

Right: Reagan claiming in 1987 that debt-ceiling default would threaten recipients of Social Security and veterans benefits; left: leading freshman House tea bagger accuses Pres. Obama of lying when he said the same payments were at risk

The House Democratic Caucus found this audio from Pres. Ronald Reagan in 1987:

REAGAN: Congress consistently brings the Government to the edge of default before facing its responsibility. This brinkmanship threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits. Interest rates would skyrocket, instability would occur in financial markets, and the Federal deficit would soar. The United States has a special responsibility to itself and the world to meet its obligations. It means we have a well-earned reputation for reliability and credibility – two things that set us apart from much of the world.

Reagan’s claim that defaulting on the debt ceiling “threatens the holders of government bonds and those who rely on Social Security and veterans benefits” is noteworthy because after Pres. Obama made a similar assertion, tea party Republicans in Congress accused him of lying.

Rep. Joe Walsh, a hyped-up freshman tea bagger from Illinois, rushed out a amateurishly produced video in which he said, “Pres. Obama, quit lying. You know darn well that if Aug. 2 comes and goes, there is plenty of money to pay off our debt and cover all of our Social Security obligations.”

So, just to connect the dots, Rep. Joe Walsh, R-Ill., has inadvertently also accused Reagan, the patron saint of tea baggery, of lying, too.

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The More Like Reagan Republicans Try to Be, the Less Like Reagan They Are

Trish

The question is, if Ronald Reagan could compromise, why wouldn’t folks who idolize Ronald Reagan be willing to engage in those same kinds of compromises?

— Pres. Barack Obama, trying to understand why today’s Republicans allow themselves to be bullied by Ronald Reagan protege Grover Norquist, putting their pledge to him above Ronald Reagan himself.

Bachmann’s Campaign Wardrobe Malfunction

Trish

BachmanChest

O.K., seriously? Michele Bachmann is starting to remind me more of Katherine Harris with each passing day. Could someone please get with her about appropriate attire for campaigning for the office of President of the United States? And before everyone slams me for being sexist…Seriously Michele Bachmann?