Behind the anti-tax , anti-government worldview of our Republican cabal, there is a deeper philosophical vision. It is mean spirited, elitist and vindictive. I blogged aobut it before. Let me quote myself:
...to the right wing, the good citizens are the disciplined ones - those who have already become wealthy or at least self-reliant - and those who are on the way.... Wealth is a measure of discipline. Taxes beyond the minimum needed for such government take away from the good, disciplined people rewards that they have earned and spend it on those who have not earned it.
Behind the anti-tax , anti-government worldview of our Republican cabal, there is a deeper philosophical vision. It is mean spirited, elitist and vindictive. I blogged about it before. Let me quote myself:
...to the right wing, the good citizens are the disciplined ones - those who have already become wealthy or at least self-reliant - and those who are on the way.... Wealth is a measure of discipline. Taxes beyond the minimum needed for such government take away from the good, disciplined people rewards that they have earned and spend it on those who have not earned it.
If you think this way, how do you pay for government since some of it is still necessary? How do you find money for programs that the unenlightened masses/ non-elite, i.e. "losers" insist on having government pay for? There are several answers.
There they go again. The GOP clown shows complete with its outrageous signs are out in full force this week. Health care reform has Republicans and its teabagger wing in a state of hysteria.
Too bad most do not understand that they will actually benefit from health care reform legislation. But oh well, I've given up on expecting rational thought and reason to prevail among a bunch of misled and manipulated extremists.
Glenn Beck must have spiked U.S. Rep. Gohmert's iced tea. Or maybe the weather has been so cold in Washington that most of Gohmert's brain cells have frozen. Or perhaps the fact that over 30 million uninsured Americans will now be able to afford health coverage and the insurance companies will no longer be able to hand out death sentences to patients is simply too much for Gohmert to bear.
Speaking shortly after he riled up a crowd at Tuesday's Tea Party protest, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) declared that "demons" - yes, demons - have invaded the capital (and likely the souls of Democrats), forcing lawmakers to mislead the public about the content of the health care bill.
Distortions and lies have been the only weapon they could use against health care reform. With a final bill pretty well set, the House Dems have put out talking points for their junior members in the face of another Tea Bagger invasion. They can be of use to us all. Via The Hill's Blog Briefs, see the full memo after the jump.
TPM has obtained the White House's more comprehensive talking points and framing effort see here for that.
After over a year of Republican obstruction, whopping lies, Halloween type driven fright frenzies, hate fests, death panels, clown shows, biased news coverage, tea parties, Dick Armey and his Freedom Works and other shills for the health insurance industry,the American people will finally be able to realize a long and overdue life line known as health care reform.
Thirty three million Americans will soon be able to afford health insurance coverage.
Wow. What a step forward for a first world country that does third world access to affordable health care.
Unfortunately for Texans the ruling GOP here is totally on board with third world health care.
Gregg Phillips was the state's No. 2 social services official several years ago, and he led a push to hire a private company to evaluate applications for public assistance.
Now his Austin-based company, AutoGov Inc., has received $207,500 since November to help the state eliminate errors in deciding whether an applicant gets food stamps or other aid and how much recipients get. AutoGov was hired without other companies having a chance to bid for the work.
Health and Human Services Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said that the agency's commissioner, Tom Suehs, and his predecessor, Albert Hawkins, agreed that the company's software might alleviate the problem.
"They both faced the same problem - high error rates - and thought it offered a potential solution," Goodman said.
What does that quotation even mean? The one saving grace of greedy crooked people is that they can't help themselves. They keep on being greedy and crooked. It is like an addiction, they can't help themselves.
Well, it has come to pass that our Texas School board nut cases have prevailed on a number of points. Let Think Progress explain:
Texas Board of Education cuts Thomas Jefferson out of its textbooks. The Texas Board of Education has been meeting this week to revise its social studies curriculum. During the past three days, "the board's far-right faction wielded their power to shape lessons on the civil rights movement, the U.S. free enterprise system and hundreds of other topics":
- To avoid exposing students to "transvestites, transsexuals and who knows what else," the Board struck the curriculum's reference to "sex and gender as social constructs."
- The Board removed Thomas Jefferson from the Texas curriculum, "replacing him with religious right icon John Calvin."
- The Board refused to require that "students learn that the Constitution prevents the U.S. government from promoting one religion over all others."
- The Board struck the word "democratic" from the description of the U.S. government, instead terming it a "constitutional republic."
What else is there to say? It is my understanding that the process of setting these curriculi occurs every 10 years. Since
Election Loosens Conservatives' Hold on Texas Board The Texas state school board's influential Christian conservative bloc was weakened last week after one of its most prominent members lost a primary election to a moderate Republican. Another reliably conservative seat was headed to a runoff.
Don McLeroy, the former chairman, was handed a GOP primary defeat by lobbyist Thomas Ratliff.
relief may be on the way, but too late for thousands and thousands of Texas school children.
In its latest and desperate attempts to kill off health care reform, insurance industry lobbyists will unleash $1 million in HCR attack ads over the next few days. This is $1 million, by the way, that could be put to far better use such as funding treatments for patients. But who cares about patients?
The ads, which will run on cable, will focus on "setting the record straight about rising health care costs" as the Obama administration goes after big insurers for raising insurance rates.
I betcha the industry's attempts to set the record straight will be a verbatim replay of last summer's fear fest frenzies that were ginned up by the health industry lobbyists and its go to politicians. Why is it that the fear fests surrounding health care reform remind me of another orchestrated event called Iraq?
Fear coupled with deception.
Health insurance CEOs take home record profits while volunteer groups of doctors and nurses will roll up their sleeves to clean out animal stalls, if need be, to set up free health clinics in Republican held states that are hell holes for the jobless and uninsured.
In Texas we have Good Hair, nationally, well, what Republican politician has NOT invoked the Gipper over and over again. St. Reagan is the all purpose quote machine. Charlies Crist down in Florida is invoking him as his moderate, big tent Republican approach is overwhelmed by the Republican right-wing.
How Reagan ruined conservatism Battling my way through Sarah Palin's book, Going Rogue, last weekend, I began to wonder how American conservatism had come to this. Ms Palin's book is smug, lightweight, nationalistic, entirely free of original ideas. How has this woman become the darling of the American right? How has she become so popular that some bookmakers make her the favourite to win the Republican party nomination in 2012?
And then I realised - the rot set in with Ronald Reagan
How Reagan ruined conservatism The most damaging idea propagated by the Reagan myth is the cult of the idiot-savant (the wise fool). You can see it in the very first line of Dinesh D'Souza's admiring biography of Reagan, which proclaims: "Sometimes it really helps to be a dummy." Mr D'Souza recounts numerous stories in which intellectuals - even conservative intellectuals - disdained Reagan. They scorned his tendency to spend cabinet meetings sorting jelly beans into different colours, and his taste for flaky anecdotes. But, Mr D'Souza concludes, the "dummy" was right and the pointy-heads were wrong.
This week on Left of College Station, Teddy covers all of the results of the primary elections including the surprising defeat of Don McLeroy in the State Board of Education District 9 Republican primary. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines, and this week will begin coverage of the local municipal elections.
We used to hustle over the border for health care we received in Canada," Palin said in her first Canadian appearance since stepping down as governor of Alaska. "And I think now, isn't that ironic?"
The Party of No and Obstruction not only despises jobless and uninsured Americans, apparently it also loathes its donors, both big and small.
According to Politico, The RNC Finance Director gave a 74 page power point presentation to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Florida a couple of weeks ago. The presentation mocked at its donors urging fundraisers to appeal to their egos and play upon their fears.
The memo candidly confirms that the aim of such caricature is to amp up "fear" among the GOP's conservative base. The memo also makes fun of major RNC donors, categorizing some as "ego-driven" and easily pacified with "tchochkes" (a Slavic word for toys).
Go ahead Republicans. Keep on emptying your pockets for those who disrespect and ridicule you.
The reason we know about this no longer secret strategy is because someone attending the retreat had left behind a paper handout of the presentation. As we can see, the handout is now making its way through the tubes and Internets. The mainstream media, including FOX "News" has covered this.
Thanks for making our day you careless and irresponsible silly ones.
More info from diarist Deep Harm over at Daily Kos:
Because HVP is used in so many products, consumers can expect to see rolling recalls over subsequent weeks and months, as we saw during the pet food crisis of 2007. Consumers therefore need to take the initiative to protect their health by carefully examining labels on any processed foods they purchase and any already on pantry shelves. Keep in mind that the federal government's 'food safety' strategy serves the profit-making interests of industry, i.e., issuing narrowly focused recalls based on test results. Consumers, however, need to take an opposite approach, avoiding the consumption of all suspect products until proven safe.
(John Robert Behrman is an economist and fifth-generation Texan. He is Executive Vice-Chair of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party and State Committeeman for Senate District 13 writing his column here on Texas Kaos with his personal views only - promoted by boadicea)
Nominations for Tax Assessor-Collector (voter registrar) and County Clerk (elections administrator) in both parties were swept by newbies. The incumbent and annointed successors went down in the GOP Primary, and a former County Chair and State representative lost in the Democratic Primary.
So, in November, four relatively inexperienced candidates will be contesting the two offices responsible for elections in Harris County.
The projections for Democratic turnout in Harris ran 40 to 60,000. The actual turnout was close to 100,000. Also hopeful is the data on the undervote. The undervote is a measure of the difference between the voter totals for candidates at the top of the ticket and those down ballot. That figure was 30+%.
What does this mean about November? Several things. First, out base is more energized than the dismal projections of the national electorate seems to be projecting for November. Voting in primary elections is not that much fun. The ballots are long and, outside of the races at the top of the ticket, few know or care about who is running. To have this kind of turnout is very encouraging and projected to November bodes well. Even more so, the undervote of 30% means that 70% of the primary voters have bought into the whole ticket, into the party itself. It means that they are more likely to vote in November as well.
A strong Democratic voter turnout in Harris in November is a very good thing for Democrats.
According to the health care industry, c. would be the correct answer. According to the GOP c. is also the correct answer.
Lately we've been hearing a lot of hot air and pure BS spewing from the mouths of Republicans on health care reform. When in front of TV cameras the GOP tools for the health care industry say they speak on behalf the American people. According to the GOP:
The American people don't want it.
Oh really? Since when? You, Sir and Madam, certainly do not speak for me or for the vast majority of Americans, thank you.
One would think that broadcast journalists would at the very least ask the merchants of misinformation to cite the source of their lie. Where is John Boehner getting his data that reveals the majority of the American people are opposed to health care reform?
Why do few broadcast journalists fact check Republican statements and ask them to reveal their sources of information when there are blatant and obvious differences between known facts and GOP myths?
Crickets are chirping and they will continue to chirp until a pollster polls viewers and readers.
Broadcast journalists are unprepared, essentially lazy and don't care.
Broadcast journalists possess few if any critical thinking skills.
Broadcast journalists can't think straight b/c of the distracting voices in their ear pieces.
Broadcast journalists can't think while reading teleprompters especially when there are voices in their ear pieces at the same time.
The voices in the ear pieces and the those feeding the words into the teleprompters work for the same interests as the Republicans who lie about HCR and just about everything else 24/7/365.
All of the above.
The Senator from Kentucky blocked extended federal unemployment benefits and Cobra health coverage for the down and out and jobless Americans. Both expired today for millions.
No one in the Senate could reason with the man who is obviously hell bent on a crusade to further punish the struggling and out of work families in his district and across the U.S. Senator Bunning does not care about people in Kentucky. Nor does he care about anyone other than his vile, mean-spirited and narcissistic self.
There is no reason for Senator Bunning to have done this other than spite and pure cold hearted vindictiveness. He is not running for a third term. He chose to retire but he obviously has every intention of heaping as much hell and misery upon the American people as possible until November.
It takes a Texas Republican to go as low as Bunning.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) took the floor after Reid to stick up for Bunning. He noted that there is broad bipartisan support for extending benefits, but said Bunning was right to take a stand against adding $10 billion to the deficit. He also pointed out that the jobs bill that Reid scrapped two weeks ago, crafted by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), contained an extension of UI and COBRA.
Can someone please tell me why Republicans continue to vote for politicians who so nakedly hate them?
(This is so much more polite than I was feeling when I read about McCain's comment. Thank you, Pollchecker for crossposting from the Great Orange Satan... - promoted by boadicea)
At today's health care summit, Senator McCain used Texas as an example of HCR. Bad example John.
Yesterday I had emailed Senators Cornyn and Hutchison in a hopeless attempt to prevail upon them to work with President Obama on passing health care reform. I knew that my plea was very likely a useless exercise in both the hopeless and the impossible.
At the very least, I thought, the horrible statistics I presented would perhaps grab the attention of one of their staff members.
Surely, I thought, both U.S. Senators would put aside their partisan differences, at least for a few hours, in order to serve the needs of those who elected them to office.
23 million folks will lose their insurance this year, 930,000 will file bankruptcy and 45,000 more people will die.
As we know Texas has the highest number of uninsured resident. Folks can learn about the appalling state of our health care system here and here.
Below is Senator Hutchison's response.
Hint: My efforts were a miserable failure. I did not get through. Senator Hutchison, it seems, has received $619,450 from the insurance industry and she is obviously working overtime to protect it.
None of the above statistics had any impact on her whatsoever. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison could care less about the plight of hard working Texans.
Texans are particularly aware of the need for health care reform, but it cannot come with a trillion dollar price tag and a government takeover of our health care system. Our state has over 6 million uninsured residents, the highest percentage of uninsured in the nation. This number poses a huge challenge for our hospitals, taxpayers, and many working individuals and families who cannot afford the health care coverage they need.
Lie 1: Several months ago, Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC challenged Senator Hutchison's assertions that the current proposals for HCR are a government takeover of health care. HCR is not a government takeover of the insurance industry. Mitchell is correct, Hutchison lied.
As far as 6 million uninsured residents in Texas are concerned, all have been posing problems 24/7/365 for doctors, hospitals and taxpayers. Senator Hutchison has been in the U.S. Senate since 1993. If she was so concerned about affordable insurance for Texans she would have done something about it by now.
