Tag: Tea Party

Kentucky Proves Republicans Were Right About Obamacare

Trish
Kentucky Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul, AP photo

There’s no shortage of jokes about Kentucky.*

Q: What do a divorce in Kentucky, a tornado in Kansas, and a hurricane in Louisiana have in common?
A: Somebody’s fixin’ to lose the trailer.

Q: What do you get when there are 32 Kentuckians in a room together?
A: A full set of teeth.

We are a nation lost in tea party mission creep, as the Party of No struggles to figure out its evolving hostage demand

Two Kentucky guys were driving in the pickup, drinking a couple of long-neck Buds, when they came upon a police roadblock. The driver told his friend to peel off the label and stick it on his forehead, then stash the bottle under the seat, and he did the same. When it was their turn at the roadblock, the officer said, “Have you boys been drinking?” The driver replied, “No sir, we’re on the patch.”

So it came as small surprise that many in Kentucky who bombarded the state’s phone line and website to sign up for health coverage on Oct. 1 specified that they did not want Obamacare. Instead, they insisted, they wanted to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

[Kentuckians, please note: Emergency FOXectomies are not covered under Obamacare.]

Kentucky’s response proves Republicans were right on almost every point.

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Republicans Own the Shutdown. Next Question?

Trish

Never been a president who won’t negotiate the debt ceiling? Never been a president who had to.

Let the record show that, as usual, Pres. Obama and the Democrats are telling the truth. This government shutdown is 100 percent on the shoulders of the Republicans, and it could end as soon as Speaker John Boehner (R-Oh) allows the House of Representatives to vote on it. Period.

And as far as his assertion, in the “Breaking News” section shown, that there has never been a president who won’t negotiate with Congress to pay the bills it authorized, please further note that there’s never been a president who had to.

Attention American Media: Both Sides are NOT to Blame

Trish

This treatment by ABC News shows the problem

 Perhaps as inevitable as the government shutdown for which the Republicans and tea party are solely responsible is the press’s telling of it. In their version, it’s a 50/50 deal between Republicans and Democrats. But then, isn’t everything, even the stuff that’s clearly not?

For those of you playing along at home, take a shot today every time you hear these words or phrases:

  • stalemate in Congress
  • seek a compromise
  • a game of political chicken…when neither side blinked
  • each has refused to budge
  • amid the finger-wagging

If you’re still sober enough to read, please note those quotes came from a single CNN story.

Eric Boehlert at Media Matters is not only pushing back on the old “Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame” journalistic cop-out, he’s actually holding reporters who use it responsible for what’s happening.

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Justice Dept. Takes Action Against North Carolina GOP’s Voter Suppression Laws

Jon Ponder

Another humiliation for my old home state. Until now, North Carolina was one of the few Old Confederacy states that was not covered by the Voting Rights Act, because, unlike the others, the Democrats who ran the state insisted that voting be open to all who were eligible. Now, just 10 months electing the first Republican-controlled government since the 1870s, those days are over. If the Justice Department prevails, NC will be covered by the VRA just like every other state run by neo-Confederates, and will have to submit its plans for changing voter regulations to the courts in advance for approval.

Charlotte Observer:

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House Republicans Call Out Senate Republicans Over Government Shutdown Plan

Trish

Does Ted Cruz have a plan to get 41 votes? Does he have a strategy he’s executing on to get 41 votes? Not that I’m aware of. Has he ever come to the House leadership and said, ‘Here’s my plan to get 41 votes in the Senate, to hold the line so we can defund Obamacare?’ Never. No. He’s just on his twitter account attacking House Republicans.

A frustrated but anonymous “GOP leadership aide” to NBC News, criticizing tea party Republicans vying for the 2016 presidential race, like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who want to shut down the government (or at least pretend their goal isn’t to gain political advantage) in yet another attempt to derail the Affordable Care Act.

Fact Checking GOP Propaganda in North Carolina

Jon Ponder

Rob Christensen at the Raleigh News & Observer fact checks 10 key planks in the North Carolina Republican Party’s propaganda platform:

Myth No. 1: North Carolina’s public schools are failing its children.

North Carolina fourth and eighth graders performed better than the U.S. national average, according to the 2011 Trends in International Mathematic and Science Study. They out-scored students in Australia, Israel, Sweden, Italy and Norway.

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