Entries Tagged with Republicans

November 8th, 2006

Exercise Your Mind - 11/08/06

Election 2006

  • You have your marching orders…. — Nicole Belle @ Crooks and Liars reminds us of the Republican’s “Contract with America” when they took control of Congress in 1994.

    This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

    Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.

    Let’s hope that the Democrats learn from the Republicans’ mistakes.

  • A Remedy for Negative Political Ads — Paul Silver @ Donklephant has a remedy for all of those negative, deceitful ads since there’s not likely to be any law regulating truth in political advertising anytime soon.

    Perhaps the solution lies in changing the geometry of the question. Instead of trying to regulate the content of ads, we use public funds (or funds from the Parties) to run a frequent public service message that corrects the inaccuracies of any recent ads - perhaps produced by the Factcheck.org folks. Since a candidate would not want to have the airwaves filled with objective criticism they would be inclined to stay as reasonable and civil as possible.

  • A Remedy for Election Tampering– Paul Silver @ Donklephant also thinks there should be a reward for information leading to a conviction in crimes related to election tampering.

More

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November 1st, 2006

Work Your Brain — 11/1/06

Tales of the Detainee Kind

October 31st, 2006

Work Your Brain — 10/31/06

Travel In America

  • Homeland Absurdity – Jill @ Brilliant at Breakfast reports that the difference between life and death is a ziploc bag apparently…

    There you have it: Tiny containers of hand sanitizer in zip-lock bags are harmless and approved. Those not in zip-lock bags are dangerous contraband. Meanwhile, the TSA still cannot justify its methods of confiscation: If certain liquids and gels are taken from a passenger, the assumption has to be that those materials are potentially hazardous. If so, why are they tossed unceremoniously into the trash? At every checkpoint you’ll see a bin or barrel brimming with illegal containers. They are not quarantined or handed over to the bomb squad; they are thrown away. In effect, the agency readily admits that it knows these things are harmless. But it’s going to steal them anyway, and either you like it or you don’t fly.

What the Fuck Are They Thinking?

September 18th, 2006

Quote of the Day: A Proposition From A Democrat To Republicans

Posted in Quote of the Day by n. mallory

“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends… that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”
Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

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August 28th, 2006

Recommended Reading - 08/28/06

August 12th, 2006

Recommended Reading — Terror in the Skies Edition

WTF?

August 10th, 2006

Recommended Reading — Hurricane Katrina Edition

  • Photographer for ‘Times-Pic’ Arrested As He Begs Cops to Kill Him — @ Editor&Publisher

    NEW YORK A photographer for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans who has undergone severe personal trauma since Hurricana Katrina hit was arrested Tuesday after trying to get police to shoot him to death. Police said he claimed he was depressed after he found out he didn’t have enough insurance money to rebuild his Katrina-damaged home.

    They said he was seeking “suicide-by-cop,” but police who found him tasered him instead.

  • Formaldehyde in FEMA travel trailers making people sick — Michael Hampton @ Homeland Stupidity

    Some travel trailers issued to victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita last year by the Federal Emergency Management Agency are emitting potentially dangerous levels of formaldehyde, an industrial chemical used in their manufacture which some residents say is making them sick.

    In Mississippi alone, FEMA has received 46 complaints from people who say they have been affected by symptoms of formaldehyde exposure, including eye, nose, and throat irritation, nausea and breathing difficulties. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, formaldehyde has been found to cause cancer in rats and may cause cancer in humans.

  • What was that about Republican successes? — Pam Spalding @ Pandagon

    R. Neal at Facing South points to matters that we cannot let Republicans try to walk away from as they attempt to talk about this administration and this Congress’s “accomplishments.”

    How feeble and tragic is this — nearly a year after Katrina, the situation with temporary housing is still a flipping mess.

    It has been 11 months since Hurricane Katrina hit and Janice Tambrella still does not have a home. She doesn’t even have a trailer of her own.

    Tambrella is currently jammed in with 10 other relatives in a single trailer delivered to a luckier relative. Sleeping on the floor, living out of cars surrounded by overgrown grass and storm-felled trees, she sighs, “I need a place to stay.”

    Nearly 1,200 St. Bernard Parish families are still waiting to get into trailers that sit locked on their home sites but need utilities or other services; another 400 families waiting for trailers have none at all, FEMA said.

    BTW, 10,000 FEMA trailers are rotting away in the Arkansas mud (your wallet is $1 billion lighter for that travesty), and even worse, Dear Leader’s government has unused, undeployed trailers sitting right there in Louisiana.

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May 26th, 2006

Homeland Stupidity & Republican Evil

Homeland Stupidity has been expanding since, well, the real Homeland stupidity has been growing. The blog has added two new writers to it’s mix; Mark Jaquith’s first post is up today and he admits that he voted for the Republicans “as the lesser of the two evils” much the same way, I suppose, that I tend to vote for the Democrats. :P What I appreciatied about his article is that he has the actual intelligence to point out that there is in fact a difference between what the Republicans claim to be (on paper) and what they have actually been doing, something I think that most of the country seems to be missing big time.

Here’s an exerpt:

The reason I can no longer vote for Republicans as the lesser of two evils is that I’ve begun to seriously doubt that they are the lesser of two evils.

I’ve come to see that Republicans are two-faced. On paper, Republicans are easily more favorable than Democrats to a libertarian-minded person such as myself. On paper, they support lower taxes, less socialism, limited government, a rigid interpretation of the Constitution, property rights, parental rights and gun rights. In practice, they do little to permanently relieve the tax burden, they support wealth redistribution in a variety of forms, they’ve bloated the government to an unprecedented degree, they’ve made a mockery of Amendments One, Four, Six, Eight and Ten, they’ve been slow and inadequate in their response to the Supreme Court’s eminent domain decision. That leaves parental rights and gun rights. So if all you want to do is to teach your kid that God created the world in seven 24-hour periods or shoot empty beer cans for fun, the Republican Party has your back. Otherwise, it’s time to wake up and realize you’ve been duped.

It’s largely the Republicans [who] have vamped up the Drug War, and who have regretfully expanded it even into doctor’s offices, where drug warriors now decide what courses of treatment are and aren’t acceptable. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez [sic] recently stated that under his watch, eradicating pornography will be a priority on par with fighting terrorism. And several members of Congress are now pushing to expand FCC regulation to include cable TV, satellite radio, and perhaps even the Internet, all in an effort to protect Americans from bad words and dirty pictures. — FOX News

Not only do they abandon their principles and encroach upon American freedoms, Republicans have also shown themselves to be active members of the culture of political corruption.

One of the things I like about Homeland Stupidity, even if I don’t always agree with the slant, is that there’s always a link to support the facts.

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May 4th, 2006

Six Years Of GOP-Controlled Government & They Still Blame Clinton

Posted in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World by n. mallory

Think Progress has both film and transcript of Katie Couric’s interview with Senator Bill Frist from Tuesday’s Today Show; here’s the transcript:

COURIC: Let me ask you about another aspect of your plan, because I know the $100 rebate is just one component, that it’s tied to another controversial proposal, which allows oil companies to drill for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. That has repeatedly failed to pass Congress. Some question the Republicans’ sincerity because they know in the view of these critics that this won’t pass.

FRIST: Let’s talk about it. We passed it last month in the United States Senate. It has overwhelming — maybe you don’t support it — but it has overwhelming support. We passed it in the legislature back in 1996. President Clinton vetoed it. Unbelievable. Passed the House. Pass the Senate. And if President Clinton had not vetoed that, we would have more than a million barrels of oil coming here every single day. That’s more oil than we import from Saudi Arabia right now. It’s a matter supply and demand. Right now we would have increase supply if it had not been vetoed by President Clinton.

COURIC: I don’t have a position on it.

FRIST: Overwhelming support in this country today and we passed it in the United States Senate. [“Frist on High Gas Prices: It’s Clinton’s Fault” (Think Progress)]

O.K. So…Not only are the Republicans still blaming Clinton for everything that’s wrong in the country after six years of a Republican-controlled Congress and a Republican-controlled White House with a president who’s never vetoed anything ever, but if there’s such overwhelming support in this country for drilling in Alaska and destroying our environment, why haven’t the Republicans been able to pass that legislation in the last six years while they were passing everything else?

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April 4th, 2006

The Fall of DeLay

Posted in Politics & Causes, The World by n. mallory

I really feel like I should say or write something about Tom DeLay withdrawing from the House re-election race and what all that means and of course all the conspiracy theories involved, but there’s so many good theories and postings already flinging about the web and my Republican-hating liberal-activist lesbian co-worker can barely contain herself that I think she’s about to break out in song and dance and I don’t want to miss it…in fact, I think I want to fetch her some sugar and coffee…I think I’ll let the dust settle a bit on this one.

Still, it’s good news for the Democrats, even if they don’t realize it.  It’s a long time coming.

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March 30th, 2006

Had Enough Indeed

Posted in Politics & Causes, The World by n. mallory

According to Editor & Publisher, a recent Gallup poll shows that more Americans consider themselves Democrats than Republicans. 33% of Americans now call themselves Democrats while only 32% call themselves Republicans. While this might seem too tight to matter, the 34% of the population that now make up Independents are the telltale sign of which way the nation will go in upcoming elections, it seems.

Independents, it appears, are leaning 49% Democrat and only 42% Republican this year, whereas last year, they were dead even at 46% each.

Not a good sign for the GOP in the 2006 elections.

The latest poll was taken from January to March 2006, with a national sample of about 1,000 adults. [“Gallup: In Shift, More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats” (Editor & Publisher)]

Hat tip to Ron Beasley @ Middle Earth.

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March 28th, 2006

Had Enough?

I nearly choked on my Diet Dr. Pepper when I read this. Too funny!

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, who masterminded the 1994 elections that brought Republicans to power on promises of revolutionizing the way Washington is run, told TIME that his party has so bungled the job of governing that the best campaign slogan for Democrats today could be boiled down to just two words: “Had enough?” [“Republicans On The Run” (Time Magazine)]

I so want that on a bumper sticker, only one of those ones that goes on the inside of the window so it won’t ruin my car. Oooo, or maybe a cute little t-shirt for Pugly? :D

Hat tip Bull Moose via Suburban Guerrilla.

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March 24th, 2006

Republican Lies -er- Spin

Posted in Politics & Causes, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism by n. mallory

This Week the Republicans released a new radio ad in Wisconsin:

RNC AD: “Censure”

Announcer: September 11th changed our country. And it changed how America responds to terrorists. President Bush is working to keep American families safe. Passing the PATRIOT Act which has disrupted over one hundred and fifty terrorist threats and cells making sure the US is monitoring terrorist communications. But some Democrats are working against these efforts to secure our country, opposing the PATRIOT Act and terrorist surveillance program. Their leader is Russ Feingold. Now Feingold and other Democrats want to censure the President. Publicly reprimanding President Bush for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda. Some Democrats are even calling for President Bush’s impeachment.
Is this how Democrats plan to win the War on Terror? Call Russ Feingold and ask him why he’s more interested in censuring the President than protecting our freedom. Paid for by the Republican National Committee not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee www.gop.com. The Republican National Committee is responsible for the content of this advertising.

FactCheck.org does a nice analysis of the inaccuracies and mischaracterizations of Feingold’s Censure Resolution in the Repulican’s ad. I’d like to review some of that here, but I want to be fair and point out that these kinds of commercials are a personal pet peeve of mine as they come from both sides. They were particularly aggrevating during the 2004 election and after awhile they sound less like spin and more like lies and after awhile I’m just offended by both sides.

Now Feingold and other Democrats want to censure the President. Publicly reprimanding President Bush for pursuing suspected members of al Qaeda.

This must be more of that “if they aren’t with us, then they’re against us” mentality. Feingold nor any Democrat has ever reprimanded President Bush or anyone for pursuing suspected terrorists. In fact, Feingold has repeatedly, publically said that we should be wiretapping terrorists and suspected terrorists; that isn’t the issue — the issue is the wiretapping of Americans on American soil without obtaining court orders as well as a failure to disclose what he was doing to the appropriate Congressional committees.

Some Democrats are even calling for President Bush’s impeachment.

But not Russ Feingold. John Conyers in the House, yes, but he isn’t even calling really for an impeachment so much as an investigation that could lead to an impeachment. The implication is that the Democratic agenda is to impeach President Bush, which I find hilarious because if they were paying attention, they’d know that the Democrats are too scared to do any such thing.

It’s really all about the spin. Scare Americans into thinking that only Republicans can keep them safe. God knows that the terrorists are going to attack Wisconsin any day now. You aren’t a patriot if you vote Democrat.

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March 15th, 2006

Congress Is Dead

Posted in Politics & Causes, The World, Featured by n. mallory

With everything going on in the blogsphere, in national politics, in women’s rights, in the Middle East, in Iraq in particular, in the world in general, I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed the last few days. Politics in particular has made me particularly restless the last three or four days. I’ve been debating a personal rebellion, a political mutiny. However, what I’ve come to realize is that it’s hard to defect from a party when you don’t belong to one. You just can’t up and flounce out of the room with a dramatic slam of the door behind you if you weren’t in there in the first place.

More

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March 13th, 2006

Call Your Senators Today

Posted in Politics & Causes, The World by n. mallory

Susie @ Suburban Guerrilla has a link today to firedoglake where they’re organizing support for Senator Russ Feingold’s censure yesterday. They want everyone to call their senators, Republican or Democrat, and ask them where they stand on the matter. The idea is two fold: First of all, it lets the Senate know just how many people care and support this resolution even if their representative is a line-stepping Republican (like here in Maine) and it gives those of us out here in America an idea of what the intial reaction in the Senate looks like.

This really isn’t a lot to ask. Russ Feingold is putting a lot on the line for us and we need to back him up now. We need to show our support and we need to show Washington that we are tired of the complacency and the incompetency and the line-stepping. We want answers.

You can contact the US Senate via the switchboard at (202) 224-3121, and they will connect you with any Senator’s office. Or you can find your particular Senator’s direct dial here.

I’ve already contacted Senators Snowe and Collins; how about you?

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March 9th, 2006

House Veto-Proofs Anti-UAE Amendment

Well, I must admit that I had to pick my jaw up off the ground earlier when I learned that House Republicans had not only listened to their constituents but grown back bones. It would seem that despite threats by President Bush, who has yet to veto anything since he took office, to actually veto anything from Congress blocking the UAE ports deal, yesterday, the House Appropriations Committee went right on anhead and blocked the deal by voting 62-2 for an amendement to a $68 billion emergency supplemental funding bill for military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan — tricky that. (After all, he wouldn’t want to veto spending for his war and come off having to say something stupid like “I was for the war before I was against it…” :p ) Oh, and the bill also includes about $19 billion in disaster assistance for the Gulf Coast for Katrina and right now really isn’t the time to be vetoing that either.

Anyway, the messure still has to go before the whole House next week, but it’s expected to pass by a wide bi-partisan veto-proof margin.

Source: “Senator: UAE firm to transfer port operations to U.S. ‘entity’” (CNN.com)

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March 8th, 2006

Bush Remains Untouchable

Well, apparently there isn’t going to be an investigation into Bush’s post-9-11 warrantless wiretapping. It pisses me off becauce I know that if the roles of the parties were reversed Rush and O’Reilly and the Republicans would be calling for an investigation and an impeachment and saying it was the American public’s right to know.

It’s even more suspicious after all the threatening and posturing Frist did last week when it looked like the committee in question might indeed vote to investigate.

Instead, as a compromise, a new seven-member subcommittee is being formed to scrutinize the eavesdropping under a plan approved by the White House. The proposed plan would authorize the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a warrant for 45 days but require the White House to justify every decision to continue beyond that timeframe. The legislative proposal, titled the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006, also would force the eavesdropping program to cease after five years unless renewed by Congress. [“Senate panel rejects bid for NSA inquiry” (Reuters.com)]
I’m telling you there is something very wrong going on in Washington D.C. Some very bad mojo indeed.

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October 22nd, 2005

Political Hypothetical What-If Rambling — What Will The Right Do?

As I watch the Traitorgate/Plamegate/ whatever-you-want-to-call-it investigation and the various related blogosphere commentary unfold, I have to wonder to myself how it will affect our country and our voters on both the left and the right. Mostly, I’m curious about those on the right who are deeply in denial. I mean, I’ve seen the commentary by some very liberal bloggers who believe that Bush could rape young boys on live tv and even still his “base” would stand by him and I wonder how close to the truth that is.

In general, over the last few months, I’ve really tried to pay attention to my blogging as far as what I say about the right and in particular, the Bush Administration. What I mean by that is that unlike other liberal bloggers I’ve read, I try to restrain myself from name-calling.

It’s not always easy. Sometimes I just get frustrated as it does indeed seem like Bush&Co. is untouchable and the mindboggling of the excuse-making from the right or worse, the inability to admit that a Republican could do anything wrong, makes me want to run back to that time when in my life when it was easy to believe what I wanted like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and that all Republicans were indeed above badness. Gosh, that was a long time ago and my favorite insult then was “you poopy head!”

But I digress.

I really want to ponder the whole hypothetical of how the “base” right will react if evidence is finally provided that Bush and Chenney did have knowledge of the release of Wilson’s wife’s name to reporters and that it was done as retaliation for Wilson disagreeing with their talking points for why the U.S. had to go to war with Iraq. I’m curious if it would change anything if evidence is presented that the U.S. did in fact go to war on information that was created specifically for the purpose of going to war with Iraq and that Bush and Chenney knew about that too and encouraged it or worse, ordered it.

And if it doesn’t matter to them, then what’s the point? Why prove we were right all along if the other side refuses to believe the truth?

I mean, there isn’t a person, liberal or conservative, that doesn’t deny that Clinton had sex in the White House. We don’t even disagree that he lied about it to the country. Most of us disagree on how important it was, especially considering the fact that Ken Starr was supposed to be investigating Clinton’s business practices and not his sexual ones.

So, if we liberals are big enough to recognize that much, is it too much to ask that the right keeps an open mind and accepts the evidence rather than makes excuses for it or denies it?

Remember, Patrick Fitzgerald is a Republican himself. This is not a Democrat on some sort of political agenda out to destroy the enemy. This is a man who is out to find the truth. He’s spent far less money than Starr, let’s hope he finds something more damning that Bush having sex in the White House.

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October 6th, 2005

The Elephant Has A Short Memory

Posted in Politics & Causes, In the News, The World, Featured by n. mallory

I find it amusing that less than a month ago, when Democrats were agonizing over the nomination of now Chief Justice John Roberts and they were nitpicking over important questions like Robert’s positions on the woman’s right to choose and minority rights and all the big Supreme Court issues, Republicans were indignantly telling Democrats to just sit down and vote “yes” and let the President have his chosen man.

Now just weeks later, the President’s second nominee is out there and the conservative Right aren’t so sure about where she stands on those same important issues and now they’re agonizing over the choice they’re same lord and chief has made.

It would serve them right if the Left told them to just lay down, close their eyes, and imagine they’re somewhere else until it’s over.

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October 6th, 2005

Bush Is Losing His Iron Grip

Well, well, well…it appears that Bush is losing his hold over Congress. At the very least it appears that some Republicans in Congress are starting to think for themselves or are maybe listening to the increasingly disenchanted majority.

There’s a growing alarm in both parties over the mistreatment of prisoners in the Middle East and Guantanamo Bay and yesterday, in defiance of the White House, 46 Senate Republicans joined forces with 43 Senate Democrats and 1 Independent Senator in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, suspected insurgents, and the like. (And in case you’re wondering, 9 Senators voted against this anti-torture addition to a military funding bill…that’s 9 Senators voting “for” torture if you use the Republican’s own understanding of how these votes work, if last year’s campaign is any indication.)

Meanwhile, President Bush is threatening to veto the larger bill this language is now attached to — a $440 billion military spending measure. If he does veto it, doesn’t that mean he doesn’t support our military? I mean, doesn’t he want the military to be properly funded and armed?

McCain said military officers have implored Congress for guidelines, adding that he mourns “what we lose when by official policy or by official negligence we allow, confuse or encourage our soldiers to forget . . . that which is our greatest strength: that we are different and better than our enemies.”

In his closing speech, McCain said terrorists “hold in contempt” international conventions “such as the Geneva Conventions and the treaty on torture.”

“I know that,” he said. “But we’re better than them, and we are the stronger for our faith.” [“Senate Supports Interrogation Limits (WashingtonPost.com)”]

I just puffy heart McCain.

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