LA Light
LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.
Month: August 2011
S&P Cites Tea Party’s Extortion Politics, Which It Calls ‘Political Brinkmanship,’ in Downgrading U.S. Credit Rating
In explaining why it was lowering the U.S. credit rating late on Friday, Standard & Poor’s singled out tea party obstructionism on the economy:
“The political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America’s governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective and less predictable than what we previously believed,” said S&P, one of three leading credit rating agencies.
“The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy.”
“Brinkmanship” is putting it politely, of course. A better description is economic terrorism or political extortion.
It was the tea party, not the Democrats, who took the economy to the brink in the debt-ceiling negotiations, and yet, predictably, conventional wisdom in the Beltway has it that S&P was referring to everyone in Washington — that the hostage negotiators are just as bad as the hostage takers.
McConnell on Extortion Politics: Debt Ceiling Was a Hostage ‘Worth Ransoming’
I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this — it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done.
– Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
Extortion Politics: Koch Brothers Operative Confirms That Tea Party in Congress Is Not There to Negotiate
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Like you, I’m sick to death of the debt ceiling crisis, but before we move on, there was one moment in the debate in the media that requires attention. On MSNBC’s “Hardball” Monday, Matt Kibbe, a longtime Republican Party operative who is the president of Freedomworks, the Koch brothers-funded tea party astroturf group, confirmed to Chris Matthews that members of the tea party in Congress are not there to negotiate — in other words, to govern. They are not there, he says, “to cut deals,” which means, by default, they are there to use the politics of extortion to impose their will on the American people. Where is that in the Constitution?
Transcript, starting around minute 5:00:
MATTHEWS: This is the problem with your argument. You have an ideology behind you which makes sense. But the trouble with it, when it comes down to running the United States government, you guys don’t accept the fiduciary responsibility to be part of the United States government, do you? Your base is still carrying placards, and you’re still standing outside the Capitol yelling. But you’re not willing to come inside the building and help run the government, which means paying the bills, because you don’t accept that responsibility, do you? To pay the bills.
KIBBE: It’s not the job of the Tea Party to cut a…
MATTHEWS: Right. Thank you.
KIBBE: It’s not our job to cut a deal.
MATTHEWS: THANK YOU. You’ve admitted it.
KIBBE: It’s our job to force politicians to accept their responsibilities.
MATTHEWS: Thank you. The trouble is the Tea Party has found its way in to the government. And there are guys on the Hill, and women, who are getting paychecks from the United States government, who won’t pay the bills of the United States government.
Tea Party’s Extortion Politics Is a Southern Tradition
character conservative political influence. This factor, says Lind, helps explains the movement’s reflexive impulse to engage in extortion politics:
From the earliest years of the American republic, white Southern conservatives when they have lost elections and found themselves in the political minority have sought to extort concession from national majorities by paralyzing or threatening to destroy the United States.
The Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 asserted the alleged right of states to “nullify” any federal law that state lawmakers considered unconstitutional. This obstructionist mentality led to the Nullification Crisis of 1832, when South Carolina refused to enforce federal tariffs. Civil War was averted only when President Andrew Jackson, a Southerner himself, forced the nullifiers to back down.
In 1820 and 1850 the South used the threat of secession to force the rest of the United States to appease it on the slavery issue. In 1861, the South tried to destroy the United States, rather than accept a legitimately elected president, Abraham Lincoln, whom it did not control.
Hix in Stix Nix Palin Pix
$5,080
Gross box-office receipts for the third (and probably final) weekend of the theatrical release of “The Undefeated,” the deceptively titled, nearly two-hour long propaganda piece on the tea-baggers’ Dear Leader, Sarah Palin. The right-wing filmmakers were hoping to build boffo box office by appealing to Palin’s fan base of millions of dumbasses in suburbs and rural towns. Apparently, however, the movie was so bad that even idiocrats stayed away in droves. The movie opened in 10 theatres during its first weekend (July 15-17), peaked at 14 theatres the next weekend (July 22-24) and was down to four theatres last weekend (July 29-31). It will now go straight to video — offering more proof, as if any were needed, that conservative movies always suck.
Tea Party Terrorists
Biden on the tea baggers: ‘They have acted like terrorists.”
We’ll second that, ’cause they sure ain’t economists.
From their cave on the right,
Everyone else just might
Look to them like fire-breathing minions of the Antichrist!
