May 2013 - Page 6 of 10

In public, tea party activists and pundits and the lobbyists who fund them may be expressing outrage over the admission by the IRS that it has targeted tea party groups over their claims of nonprofit status, but away from the cameras and microphones, the movement’s members and the corporatists who back them are surely dancing the happy dance. Miracles do happen. A purportedly anti-tax movement has been resurrected — by the IRS.

Before the scandal broke last week, the tea party was at its lowest point nationally since its inception four years ago. Now it’s alive again and surely to be increasingly reinvigorated as the scandal drags out over the next weeks and months into next year — just in time to give it the power and influence to tilt the 2014 midterm elections to the extreme right, just as it did in the in 2010 midterms.

In fact, the lobbyists who run the tea party couldn’t have asked for a better scandal. By targeting the tea party, the IRS has played into the movement’s key motivator: the victimhood of conservatives in general and of white right-wingers specifically.

The fundamental paranoia of the movement is evident in its foundational myths:

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Proms Are Being Hijacked by 1% Kids

May 13, 2013 Trish

$1,139

What the average family plans to spend on their child attending a prom this year, putting the event out of reach for an increasing number of high schoolers. Custom-made dresses (to avoid possible duplication), new shoes, hair styling, professionally applied makeup, tanning sessions, limousine and tux rentals, flowers, dinner reservations, and after-parties are frequently “required” to enjoy the event.

Fewer Think Obama Can Get Things Done

May 10, 2013 Buck Banks

49%

Of the public says President Obama is “able to get things done,” down from 57% in January and closer to his levels of confidence in 2012, a new Pew Research poll finds. But the vast majority of Americans, 67%, believe Obama is fighting hard for his policies, a quality that has been questioned in the wake of legislative setbacks.

Paul Ryan ‘Humbly’ Dismisses Progressivism as Arrogant

May 10, 2013 Buck Banks

Progressivism is well-intentioned but it is also — in my humble opinion — arrogant and condescending.

— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), quoted by The Hill.

Fannie Mae is Paying Dividends Almost Equal to Its Bailout

May 10, 2013 Buck Banks

$59.4 billion

Amount of a dividend Fannie Mae will pay to the U.S. Treasury, the company said Thursday after reporting a record first-quarter profit,” the Wall Street Journal reports.”Fannie’s expected payment will bring to $95 billion the amount of dividends it has paid to the Treasury, compared to $116.1 billion in aid it absorbed between 2008 and 2011.”

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Obama’s Approval Rating Remains Much Higher Than Congress’

May 9, 2013May 9, 2013 Buck Banks

51%

President Obama’s job approval rating. By comparison, just 22% approve of the job Republican leaders in Congress are doing, among the lowest approval rating for congressional leaders from either party in 20 years. A record-high 80% say Obama and Republican leaders are not working together to address important issues facing the country, and by nearly two-to-one (42%-22%) more blame Republican leaders than Obama for the gridlock.

Mistakes were made.

— An IRS statement after disclosure that disclosure that the agency was targeting conservative groups for exams.

Previous Presidents, including great ones like Roosevelt, have used the IRS against their enemies. But I don’t think Barack Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is.

— Joe Klein, writing for NYT’s Swampland blog.

32%

Percentage by which Sarah Palin (R) leads a possible Republican U.S. Senate primary, followed by Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell (R) at 30% and 2010 GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller (R) at 14%, a new Harper Polling survey in Alaska finds.

You don’t want the IRS ever being perceived to be biased and anything less than neutral in terms of how they operate. I’ve got no patience with it, I will not tolerate it and we will make sure we find out exactly what happened on this.

— President Obama, at a news conference.

$1,139

49%

Progressivism is well-intentioned but it is also — in my humble opinion — arrogant and condescending.

— Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), quoted by The Hill.

$59.4 billion

51%

Poetic Justice

Verbatim

“If you are committing fraud against the American people, all of us in public leadership should be trying to stop it and throw you in prison for enriching yourself off the American taxpayer.”

— Vice President JD Vance, on Fox News.

“Your generation has a great bullshit meter, because you’re fed bullshit online all day. And the Democratic Party brand right now is so bullshit.”

— Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed (D), quoted by The Atlantic, speaking to college students.

“We are done, Americans are done with endless conflict in the Middle East, spending trillions of dollars, American lives… this is insane and we have to call it for what it is.”

— Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), on CNN.

Numerati

+175,000

“The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it has revoked more than 175,000 visas during President Donald Trump’s administration so far,” Fox News reports.

$4,600

11

30%

A new American Research Group poll finds just 30% of Americans say they approve of the way Donald Trump is handling his job as president and 67% say they disapprove.

61% to 35%