The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You've lost me and you've lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I'd like to give you some advice and an invitation.
First, the invitation: Come back to us.
Now the advice. You're going to have to come up with a platform that isn't built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.
Your party -- the GOP -- and the conservative end of the American political spectrum have become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it's tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some examples -- by no means an exhaustive list -- of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.
If you're going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you'll have to start by draining this swamp:
It goes on and is quite lengthy, but has links to all the destructive behaviors exhibited by the wrong wingers who hold major offices in our country. Slightly rearranged, it would make an excellent peer reviewed paper of our current political situation.
Ladies & gentlemen (sheesh, he was 16 when he recoded this!?) please welcome Alex Chilton
"Yes Mr. Peabody. Isn't that the year the American's finally got a watered down version of Universal Health Care that most countries had in full strength for years?"
Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio): Health care passing 'over my dead body.' - March 17, 2010 "You know, I've been telling my staff nine months, 'They can't pass this bill.' And finally my staff wrestled me to the ground last fall and said, 'Mr. Boehner, we have to quit saying this because they're gonna pass this bill.' And I looked at my staff and I said, 'Alright, I'll try to throttle it back a little bit. But it'll be over my dead body.'"
Boehner on "Meet the Press" -- September 20, 2009 "So you think the plan is dead?" asked host David Gregory. "I think it is," said Boehner.
Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) - March 12, 2008 "I've been being asked that question over the last couple days, and to be honest with you, I don't think they can pass the bill... I don't even think we need to be talking about 'after they pass it' because they don't have the votes right now..."
– Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Minority Whip, February 24: “Speaker Pelosi doesn’t have the votes in the House. . . . It is futile for for them to continue to try and push something on the American people that frankly won’t result in better health care.”
– Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), March 5: “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have the votes needed to pass a health-care bill in the House of Representatives.”
– Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), Minority Leader, March 14: “If she had 216 votes, this bill would be long gone. They tried to pass it in September, October, November, December, January, February. Guess what? They don’t have the votes.”
– Cantor, March 19: “[T]here’s no way they can pass this bill.”
"Gee Mr. Peabody, I don't remember that part!"
"No one does Sherman. Once HCR passed everyone in America had access to health care, mental and physical, and they decided that the crazy, lying, crazy & lying folks who made those statements just needed help. But since treatment is voluntary the poor republicans and teabaggers just eventually spent their days wandering around the Capitol, looking for handouts from the K Street whores, ranting and raving about socialism and black people who don't know their place, and President Hayes."
"Gee Mr. Peabody, aren't there any of them left!?"
"Only one Sherman, poor Rep. Boner. His Congressional lifetime health care has paid for all his organ transplants except his brain. It's such a shame, he still thinks he's pimping for the K Street whores and the president refuses to speak to him."
"You mean ...?
"Yes Sherman, the Mack Senate was censored by the Hayes Commission."
If you thought that was bad, just wait till you see this:
1. Rove distorts Senate report to claim Bush didn't "lie us into the war"
2. Rove falsehood: Obama claims "Obamacare would not add to the deficit ... evidence shows just the opposite"
3. Rove revives tired smear that Gore wrongly said "that he had created the Internet"
4. Rove revives Gore-Love Story smear
5. Rove falsehood: Gore said he had "discovered the Love Canal chemical disaster"
6. Rove pals around with falsehood that Ayers was "Obama's great friend"
7. Rove wrong on number of presidents who left office by "assassination or resignation
And that's just the first page! Seriously, check it out, they do the research and have the links to it. Thank the FSM they have more time than I do. ********************
Sarah Palin has a message for critics of her crib-notes during February's Tea Party keynote speech: God did it too.
At a fundraiser on Friday for the Ohio Right to Life group, Palin assailed the media for getting "all wigged out about that" and claimed they're attacking her because they "couldn't argue the content" of the words.
Referring the crowd to a Bible passage from Isiah 49:16, she assured them she's "in good company."
"If what was good enough for God, scribbling on the palm of his hand, it's good enough for me, for us," Palin said. "In that passage he says, I wrote your name on the palm of my hand to remember you. And I'm like okay, I'm in good company."
Actually, the chapter and verse is Isaiah saying The Lord (maybe it's my lack of indoctrination, but isn't 'the lord' Jesus!? I get so confused by the bible) told him "Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."
And I'm so totally, ya know, like, also, too, not okay, with the Bimbo from Limbo comparing god (or jesus) carving their hand, with this retard having to scribble on her hand of the 3 major talking points she (and every republican) has given in every speech! i.e. “energy,” “budget tax cuts,” and “lift American spirit" ********************* Next up in the Race for the Loon:
Officials and student leaders at Virginia colleges are reacting mutedly, so far, to an order from state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that the schools stop protecting LGBT students.
In a letter (PDF) sent to the state's public colleges and universities and obtained by the Washington Post, Cuccinelli declared that the schools don't have the authority to uphold bans on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation when the state itself has no such ban.
"It is my advice that the law and public policy of the Commonwealth of Virginia prohibit a college or university from including 'sexual orientation,' 'gender identity,' 'gender expression,' or like classification, as a protected class within its non-discrimination policy, absent specific authorization from the General Assembly," the letter stated.
Virginia has many fine colleges and universities, but I have a feeling they aren't going to get many applicants next year. ******************** Another contestant in the Race for the Loon:
A proposed law designed to prevent child abuse in schools has been lauded by children's protection advocates, and slammed by House Republicans as an unnecessary expansion of federal government power. [...] Though the bill was a bipartisan effort in reaction to a government report last year that found "hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death" related to the practices, it was opposed by a vast majority of Republicans, who said the bill amounted to an intrusion on states' rights and the ability of local school districts to determine their own policies.
It really sucks that the Federal Government has to intervene, but if the local boards and the states can't protect the weakest among us it is past time. Torturing kids when the 'act up' is the job of the parents, not the states. ****************** We has another contender for Peak Loon:
A Louisiana sheriff plans to arm volunteers with shotguns, riot shields, batons, and a .50-caliber machine gun mounted on a "war wagon," as part of "Operation Exodus," a program to provide security in the event of a terrorist attack or civic unrest. "It's a calling," he says.
But wait! There's more:
The office of the Louisiana sheriff who's forming a citizen militia to defend the parish in the event of a terrorist attack says it has information about possible Islamic terrorist activity in its midst.
Srsly!? LOL! I mean OMG, terrorists live and train in BumFuk Lousiana?
Anyone else want to bet the sheriff & his pussie [sic] are 100% caucasian? (as far as they know;-)
Bunning's "hold" also affects jobless benefits for thousands of unemployed workers, rural television customers, doctors receiving Medicare payments and others. [...] 1.2 million unemployed workers, including 14,000 in Kentucky, would lose federal jobless benefits this month if Congress doesn't extend them, and they all said that Bunning is an a$$hole
OK, I made the last sentence of the last paragraph up.
Pardon my outrage when one f**king republican is once again holding our nation hostage. Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY jelly) claimed he was acting on principle, or maybe it was the interest on the principle he gets from 'campaign contributors.'
Bunny is retiring with a pension that we Americans pay for, and he and his family will have government health care for the rest of their lives that we Americans pay for.
Why doesn't he cry Socialism! about that? ***************
[...] Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona [R - Ustupid], the Republican whip, argued that unemployment benefits dissuade people from job-hunting "because people are being paid even though they're not working."
Unemployment insurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work," Kyl said during debate over whether unemployment insurance and other benefits that expired amid GOP objections Sunday should be extended.
where to start, where to start ... OK, how about here: 1) It's called Unemployment Insurance for a reason, these people have been paying insurance, mandated by the gov't, in case they are unemployed. Guess what, it's time to collect. 2) Max payout in most states is 55% of what they were earning. Try living on 1/2 of what you're making now and most folks have a difficult time of it. Heck, even the banksters complain when their multi-million dollar salaries/bonuses are cut, imagine what it's like for real people! That sounds like an incentive to find work to me ... if there were any jobs. 3) Maybe it doesn't create new jobs, but it sure allows a lot of people to keep their jobs. From grocery stores to landlords to everyone else in the community, the basic fabric breaks down if millions of people have zero income.
And while the 2 above examples seem about as heartless as republicans can be, here comes the corker:
Emergency rooms should be able to turn patients away to cut costs, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) said last night
Appearing on Fox News's "On the Record with Greta Van Sustren" last night, Pawlenty said the federal law that mandates ER treatment should be repealed.
"Well, for one thing you could do is change the federal law so that not every ER is required to treat everybody who comes in the door, even if they have a minor condition," Pawlenty said.
First the repubes claim that everyone has access to health care because they can always go to the ER.
That's always been a specious argument because while you might be able to go to the ER for an emergency, they do nothing about post trauma care or even tests if you don't have the $$. And now these heartless bastards want to limit access to the ER!
Taken together the arguments the republicans espouse are 'lose your job? Tough.' 'Lose your unemployment insurance benefits that you paid into? Tough shit.' 'Lose your health? Die.'
Grayson was right. "the Republican plan is don't get sick. And if you do get sick, die quickly."
