'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the House,
Not a Democrat was stirring, not even Bob Strauss.
Progressive bills were stacked in the hopper with care,
In hopes that Nancy Pelosi soon would be there.

The unemployed were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of jobs danced in their heads.
With Reid and McConnell closing their gaps,
Then, the House GOP just acted like saps.

 

Since President Obama took the oath of office in January 2009, Republicans have reversed their stances on many different policies and beliefs. Here are 24 of them.

My choice for the GOP is Here Lyrics " catch a painted pony and spinning wheel spin. " and show you the colors that are REAL" My choice for the Dems is: Here "We will , we will Rock you" message to the GOP   Be nice, COH WILL BE INFORCED.

Ladies and gentlemen, I treat you to an exercise in which, for your elucidation, I critique one of the dumber articles I've seen on Newsvine today (not to mention one of the longest titles I've seen, ever):  Obama's "Poignant Defining" Speech Yesterday in Kansas Hailing Bac …

Right-wing media outlets have rushed to defend Gov. Rick Perry's false claim that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." In fact, experts agree that Social Security's "structure, logic, and mode of operation have nothing in common with Ponzi schemes."

If 2008 was the year a generation of impressionable young voters rallied behind Barack Obama, Newt Gingrich is hoping 2012 is the year the elderly strike back..And so far, his plan seems to be working. The former Speaker has made senior citizens a key plank of his strategy sin …

The International Cultic Studies Association lists the defining characteristics of a ‘cult’. I fully agree with the ‘list’ and also the assertion that the GOP meets most of several atttributes, perhaps all characteristics that define the word ‘cult’.

If you’re having a hard time buying that one party was more reasonable than another in the Super Committee negotiations, read Republican co-chair Jeb Hensarling’s obituary for the panel in the Wall Street Journal.

People with incomes above a quarter million dollars face too great a burden! It's inhuman! We must lower income taxes!

We can pay for it by defunding medicaid.

GOP in New Mexico makes wild allegations of huge amounts of voter fraud, finds 19 cases that might possibly qualify.

I received an email from Senator Bill Nelson today entitled, Congressional panel coming to Florida in probe of voting laws. This is good news for the people of Florida and below is Senator Nelson’s full email message.

THE name “Oklahoma” comes from the Choctaw words okla humma, “red people”. And that is increasingly the most appropriate term, given that red also means Republican in American political jargon. So, at least, thinks Keith Gaddie, a professor at the University of Oklahoma, who is writing a book called “Red State Rising”.

In 2008 Oklahoma was the only state in which John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, won every county. He also carried the state by his second biggest margin anywhere. Last month Oklahomans gave all statewide offices to Republicans for the first time.

If this doesn’t sum up that GOP shilling rag Politico, I don’t know what does.

Less than two years ago, this is what Republicans were saying about the government bailout of GM.

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “Now the government has forced taxpayers to buy these failing companies without any plausible plan for profitability. Does anyone think the same government that plans to double the national debt in five years will turn GM around in the same time?” [6/2/09]

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA): “Unfortunately, this is just another sad chapter in President Obama’s eager campaign to interject his administration in the private sector’s business dealings.” [6/2/09]

Why else would their newly unveiled Republican National Convention logo depict an elephant trampling all over an American flag?

First of all my article, Lie Fest, which had been collapsed by the Newsvine community has been restored so you can visit it again now.

Secondly, I would like to share right wing insanity found on the Internet. Some of the right wing beliefs, ideas, and candidates are beyond insane. They are unbelievable. After you read through these, I'm sure you'll agree!

Note: Some of these are from the author of the page linked and some of these are from the comment section to those pages.

Herman Cain, a very smart man, is accused by two women of something, anything to smear his character. What if he did? There are no completely innocent people in this old world. Next thing that he will be accused of is killing his brother Abel.

Newt Gingrich is the best equipped man in the race with experience and knowledge of what is needed to get us out of the mess President Barack Obama has gotten us into.

Mitt Romney probably will be the nominee. He is highly intelligent and will make a good president if he repeals Obamacare.

http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/article/20111114/OPINION03/111140307/Any-Republican-better-than-Obama

As if we don't have enough innocent blood dripping from our hands as a Nation with our endless murder of the Pre-born in the wombs....no baby is safe.....and our murder of millions in our fake, useless wars, and floridating our water supply, our deadly vaccines with the slow kill mechanism built into them, rock music that encourages suicide... What on earth has this nation evolved into? Now Obama Death Care, murdering our elderly, and you name it.....till we totally destroy ourselves.

I wonder where all those teenage foster kids go when they disappear forever, never to be heard from again? -- -- DID THEY BECOME ORGAN DONORS? -- --

Under-estimate how evil the Child Welfare system (CPS) is at your own peril. We believe they are a HUGE Organized Crime Ring.

Once again, another horrific truth concerning this admin. 1984 and the Big Brother N.W.O. Did anyone catch the "Re-creating mankind through genetics, robotics, BRAIN MACHINE INTERFACING, Artificial Intelligence, synthetic biology, and nanotechnologies? "Something Trans-human this way comes." Incidently, the Brain Machine Interfacing sounds like they'll have the ability to read our minds, possibly using a device similar to an MRI. Won't that excite the masses....

John Mccord not only do they have it but the interface works BOTH ways. They can force thoughts and actions as well as the persons being able to recieve information.

Where do you think the idea of the BORG of Star Trek TNG came from. It was floateed to get us used to the idea. So when the introduce it to us we will know resistance is futile (at least in thier minds). It also coincides with the mark of the Beast. Once you accept it, there will be no going back

Did Dr. K write this before he died? This is the government playing god, oh wait BO thinks he is god.

Are you kidding this admin. thinks that they can do no wrong and are within their rights to do whatever they want. So yeah in essence you're right this admin thinks that he or they are in fact some type of a god. More than likely the evil one himself.

This is pure Evil!! It reminds me of Islam. They take organs from slaves while the people are still alive. This has to stop!! Since the Muslims came into our Country, first as students and workers and then allowed citizens in 1965, they have destroyed our country. Do Not listen to Polls, Vote Newt Gingrich!!

That monster wants to rip the organs out of live Christians to build his army of urban thugs!

And isn't it strange that NO one except Glenn Beck, has exposed the Czars for who and what they are? Google the long list of president pantload's evil czars, and their discusting Fabian Socialist views. Wake up America!

Obama need to be impeached and imprisoned. Obama Care is ironically a 21st Century Model for Neo-Slavery.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=368257

You are correct. It is possible that Israel will, as the Bible states, destroy (flatten) Damascus and the world will blame the Jews for what was actually a necessary attack. That will bring on the Ezekiel War, which will cause the supernatural elimination of 82 percent of the invading army from all the named Islamic nations (playing world's smallest violin over this). The rest will regroup in the North and try again and lose again.

These people always looking for an excuse to attack Israel!! and blaming the nation of Israel for everything happens with these nations that hates GOD. But I have news for you all GOD is watching, Israel is GOD'S apples eyes.Just imagine someone touching or hurting your eyes, how bad that is?

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=368237

Finally, you have all these various women accusing Herman Cain of acting inappropriately. Not having been there at the time, I don't know what he did or didn't do. What I do know is that whenever a woman shows up in public joined at the hip with Gloria Allred, it is safe to assume that she either belongs in jail, a brothel or a psycho ward.

At this point, I suppose we should all be grateful that Anita Hill hasn't yet come forward to claim that Mr. Cain once gave her a funny look.

Not to provide any alibi for PSU nor Paterno or others, but what we really need to review in this country is the root of the sexual revolution. As a Hoosier by birth, I am quite ashamed of the research done by one Alfred C. Kinsey - the chief pervert and pedophile who led to the muddying of what were once pristine waters. Most folks accepted the judeo-christian moral / ethic of the only acceptable sexual relations being between a husband and wife. To heal our country we need to return to our roots.

@ Michael Brandt - The Communists in the APA removed the the diagnosis of homosexuality as mental illness back in 1973. They returned with an even more Satanic approach this past August; 

"Psychiatrists seek to destigmatize adult-child sex
Conference concludes better to 'focus on the needs' of pedophile than worry about protecting children"

The president of the United States finds nothing unacceptable in this kind of education, nor do his friends at the NEA. The NEA has established the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual & Transgender Caucus along with the NEA Drag Queen Caucus to queer elementary school children who certainly aren't old enough to know they are being manipulated by professional adults who supposedly have their best interests in mind.

The "Right Thing" is for humanity to rise up against the evil in this society, the queers, including women lesbians, the ultra liberals who keep foisting their equally evil agenda upon all of us, and the liberal agenda, which does not believe there is a righteous' Godly America which knows that all this perverse activity is NOT AT ALL WITHOUT THE CONSEQUENCES OF SIN, WHICH IS HELL AND ETERNAL DAMNATION.

I've said it before, I say it again: homosexuals need to go back to their closets. We leave them alone, they leave us alone. Mutual tolerance.

It was for good reason that the Law of Moses prescribed the death penalty for sodomites. Some sins and afflictions are so vile that society must adopt a zero tolerance approach in order to protect the innocent and survive.

Eventually this sexually perverse mentality will lead to "Pedohomonecrobestiality" - those whose "orientation" is toward young dead animals of the same gender. God help us!

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=368209

You don't use a popgun for stuff like this, you don't shoot at the White House. This is an attempt to propagandize the removal of firearms from the American public. It was a staged event.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=368209

Today Islamic supremacists are demanding more accommodation of Islamic principles and practices than ever, and daily growing more aggressive in eroding our freedoms—with politically correct public officials only too happy to oblige them. Speaking from the fruit of her experience as the national leader of the fight against the Ground Zero mega-mosque and numerous other initiatives, Geller’s guidebook provides a much-needed wake-up call about a sinister agenda that could do nothing less than destroy the United States - with unique instructions about how we can, and must, fight back now to defend our nation and civilization.

Packed with current information drawn from Geller's front-line experience in the struggle against Islamist organizations and creeping Shariah in the United States, Stop the Islamization of America is an indispensable guidebook for everyone committed to defending American liberty.

http://superstore.wnd.com/books/Current-Affairs/Stop-the-Islamization-of-America-A-Practical-Guide-To-The-Resistance-Autographed-Hardcover

With the economic crisis worsening and Barack Obama resorting to rule by executive order and the presidential election still a year away, Americans from both sides of the political aisle are wondering if there are ways to "stop the bleeding" before January 20, 2013, and a change of administration.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=365865

The anti-christ, or Satan himself may already be alive, well and scheming. His name could even be George Soros! :-P

Seriously, if Soros isn't a candidate, then you will not find a stronger biblical representation of either of God's end time adversaries.

Of course, I suppose Michael Moore could be a close second.. unless his arrogance is so overwhelming it's simply made him self-blinding and stupid... as with most on the left.

Yes, Steven, Satan and his lackeys (our liberal leaders) are very aware of this, which is why there is now such a HUGE anti-God/Christianity movement in progress all over the world!

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=368249

Remember folks, these people vote. :(

What do you think after reading these?

With Recovery Act funding running out, that old TPM favorite — the anti-stimulus Republican who takes credit for stimulus funding in their district — is becoming somewhat of a rarity. But Rep.

The voice belonged to Paul Babeu, the sheriff of Arizona's Pinal County and a possible Republican congressional candidate. ...[b]ut Babeu comes with some serious baggage.

The secretive oil billionaires the Koch brothers are close to launching a nationwide database connecting millions of Americans who share their anti-government and libertarian views, a move that will further enhance the tycoons' political influence and that could prove significant in next year's presidential election.

Ohio Governor John Kasich signed into law a bill that makes it more difficult for minors to obtain permission for an abortion. Ohio law already requires either parental permission or court order for any woman under 18 to legally obtain an abortion. The new law signed late on  …

The sideshow is a time-honored part of American elections, but at a time when the party's fringe is blurring with the base, it can start to determine the whole tone and tenor of the debate. Wishing that it wasn't happening won't cure the problem.

“Herman Cain is probably well-liked by some of the Republicans because it hides the racist elements of the Republican Party, conservative movement and tea party movement,” Garofalo said.

“People like Karl Rove like to keep the racism very covert and so Herman Cain provides this great opportunity so he can say, ‘Look: This is not a racist anti-immigrant, anti-female, anti-gay movement. Look: We have a black man.’ And look he’s polling well and he won a straw poll.”

I think it’s generally agreed upon by all non-Republicans that the Republican party has become a party of its own fantasy ideals, without regard for reality and/or the modern world. It may very well be that in the ideal world there would be no need for safety regulations; perhaps in such a place Rand Paul would make an acceptable leader. But the actual world is not ideal, and in the actual world regulations are needed.

Obama’s coverage “has been substantially more negative in every one of the last 23 weeks of the last five months — even the week that Bin Laden was killed,” Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, said of the president’ …

Vote for me or burn in hell.

I can't imagine someone running for office saying that.

And yet four candidates -- Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum -- have said they had a sense that God was leading them to run. How far can we be from "vote for me or burn in hell" when it seems we're already comfortable with "vote for me, I've been called by God"?

Cain evinces no recognition of the Founding Fathers' role in erecting a cruel pigmentocracy that continues to poison virtually every aspect of American political, social and cultural life. This is not an abstruse or academic matter. The president nominates federal judges.

Conservatives love saying that Occupy Wall Street has no coherent idea of what it wants.

Thus far the Republican field of 2012 is a Democratic dream come true. This crop of candidates is not just weak, it is a joke.

Folks, when even Bloomberg is calling out the GOP master debaters last night for two hours of constant lying, we may have reached something of a tipping point.

Stealing oil from Indian reservations, cheating dying workers out of compensation for asbestos-exposure claims, voter-roll purging -- just some of the work of these kingmakers. edge fund magnate Paul Singer likes to breakfast on decayed carcasses.

Boogeymen are everywhere these days, if you believe the conservatives' Perpetual Paranoia Machine. A few years ago, WorldNetDaily and the American Family Association warned that Barney the Dinosaur was trying to "surreptitiously indoctrinate young children into [homosexuals'] lifestyle." Then, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly warned that "secular progressives" were waging a "War on Christmas" and pressing the "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will [and] gay marriage." Now, schools are busy banning books for their "filthy" messages, while Fox and Friends warns that SpongeBob is leading a sinister plot to convert kids to Al Gore's eco-crusade.

Welcome to America at the edge of insanity, where even the most innocuous items are now considered diabolical threats to the culture.

“Follow the money” is an elementary rule for understanding American politics, and in the case of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, the money trail leads to a case of apparent money laundering that involves his Republican presidential rival Mitt Romney and a $1 million contribution from the same Texas tycoon who bankrolled the “Swift Boat” attacks against the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry.

At this moment, there are growing protests on Wall Street in Manhattan, in Boston at the Bank of America, and in cities around the country. These embryonic and creative efforts are targeting the greed of the banks, the collusion of the corporate class with their corrupt elected officials, the high level of unemployment, the huge burden of student loans in a time of diminished opportunities, the increasing numbers of poor and hungry people, and much more. These protests, along with those earlier in Wisconsin, Michigan and Ohio, are signs of revival of a long tradition of popular revolt against excesses of wealth and the corporate class. 

Between now and 2012, Michele Bachmann and others will have to defend a movement many see as extreme. How do their answers stack up?

Rep. Michele Bachmann will seek the Republican presidential nomination, she announced Monday evening during CNN’s GOP presidential debate in New Hampshire.

Republicans are always standing with things. They “stand with Israel.” The “stand with” each other. They “stand with” themselves. Sarah Palin even once said America should “stand with our North Korean allies.” Suffice it to say, they got this standing thing down. If you like Ronald Reagan, lower taxes and Pat Boone, chances are you know how to stand.

But can they skip? Not as well. In fact, as Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman have been showing us, skipping tends to make Republicans look bad.

A firestorm on the US right has erupted after the Guardian reported that Sarah Palin will be denied a meeting with Lady Thatcher on the grounds that it would be "belittling" for her to meet the darling of the Tea Party movement.

Rush Limbaugh, the conservative radio host, devoted the opening section of his radio show to denouncing the "preposterous" Guardian report, as Palin supporters accused Thatcher's circle of disgracing the former prime minister.

The US conservative right reacted furiously after the Guardian reported that Thatcher's aides had decided it would be inappropriate for her to meet Palin, who is planning to visit London next month en route to Sudan. Palin has been touring US historical sites (an excursion that saw her slip up this week on the subject of Paul Revere, the American patriot who made a famous "midnight ride" to warn of approaching British forces).

Everytime I see Dick Cheney suit up in a cheerleader outfit and scream "give me a T!  Give me an O!  Give me me an R!", I roll my eyes and change the channel.  Yesterday, Cheney said -- again -- that we need to be torturing people in order to get reliable intellig …

We could raise other issues. We could ask: What changed between May and the previous six months in which job growth was relatively strong? But that would require examining actual facts about what is going on the world, like Japan's recession or high gas prices or declining government spending, particularly at the state level.

Here’s the bottom line: if a measure proposed by Dems does not in some way line the pockets of Republican donors, then GOP members are opposed to it no matter how beneficial it might be for Americans. Can it be any clearer?  They are more than willing to kill Medicare, hold back funds for tornado victims and the unemployed, cut school funding, refuse to increase taxes for the top 2% of wage earners which would reduce the national debt but they are adamant about keeping subsidies for big oil while refusing to spend $7 billion over 5 years for a measure which benefits America’s schoolchildren and helps ensure a healthier nation.

If you are arguing with your friends about how John Boehner doesn't wield much power, here's some ammunition. When the Republican's took control of the House of Representatives last year, Speaker Boehner said he would put an end to all earmarks. Well, guess what? Lawmakers found a loophole for their own rule.

Start with the claim that the G.O.P. plan simply reforms Medicare rather than ending it. I’ll just quote the blogger Duncan Black, who summarizes this as saying that “when we replace the Marines with a pizza, we’ll call the pizza the Marines.” The point is that you can name the new program Medicare, but it’s an entirely different program — call it Vouchercare — that would offer nothing like the coverage that the elderly now receive. (Republicans get huffy when you call their plan a voucher scheme, but that’s exactly what it is.)

The silly season has begun for the Republican candidates for the Presidency. This is the time before the primaries they are obligated to attend one right wing forum after another proving their right wing creeds. This week it was the turn of the Faith and Freedom Conference two day gathering in Washington, DC. Like good Christian soldiers, the candidates paraded before them reassuring them of their personal family values (not a bad thing in itself) and promising to protect those values from those horrible LGBT Americans (a very bad thing).

...Early voting, which enables people to skip long lines and vote at more convenient times, has been increasingly popular over the last 15 years. It skyrocketed to a third of the vote in 2008, rising particularly in the South and among black voters supporting Barack Obama.

And that, of course, is why Republican lawmakers in the South are trying desperately to cut it back. Two states in the region have already reduced early-voting periods, and lawmakers in others are considering doing so. It is the latest element of a well-coordinated effort by Republican state legislators across the country to disenfranchise voters who tend to support Democrats, particularly minorities and young people.

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy on Friday by saying he believes that humans are responsible, at least to some extent, for climate change.

“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.”…

"On one point, I only want David Lewis to talk," Stam said, an Apex Republican. "The talk about redistricting and this thing in the budget is extremely sensitive to the other people not in this room who are voting with us. No one but David talk. David can obfuscate more than anybody I know."
The "other people not in this room" is an apparent reference to the five Democrats voting with Republicans on the budget.

This is a sizable collection of misstatements and bloopers for a 30-minute interview. You could say it is almost Newt-sized.

A New York Magazine article has blown the lid off the problems at Fox News, and exposed why Sarah Palin will never be the darling of Fox News.

The New York Magazine piece quoted a Republican who is close to Roger Ailes as saying, “Roger is worried about the future of the country. He thinks the election of Obama is a disaster. He thinks Palin is an idiot. He thinks she’s stupid. He helped boost her up. People like Sarah Palin haven’t elevated the conservative movement.”

The circus Roger Ailes created at Fox News made his network $900 million last year. But it may have lost him something more important: the next election.

Last Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich offered a carefully-conceived, triangulating strategy of attacking Obama’s health reform plan as well as the Republican plan proposed by Paul Ryan that privatizes Medicare. “I don’t think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering,” he said.

When the right-wing base predictably flipped out at Gingrich’s criticism of Ryan, Gingrich quickly folded, calling Ryan to personally apologize while stating on Fox News on Tuesday night that his comments were an “unfortunate…mistake.” But by Thursday, Gingrich offered a new formulation to Rush Limbaugh, arguing that his original comments about “right-wing social engineering” were not a reference to Paul Ryan.

What? We’re still here? Well, hell’s bells. I guess Harold Camping was wrong about that end of the world thing. I’m sure he’ll figure out where he went wrong, though, and come back with the real date for the end of the world. But unless he comes up with something a few million years from now, we can be quite certain that he’s wrong again.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we won’t blow up the place ourselves before Earth’s natural end comes about. We’ve sure got the capacity to do that, and our own politicians seem to have no problem edging us in that direction whenever and wherever possible.

But now that we’ve dodged this bullet, maybe we should all take a deep breath and another look at what we’ve wrought here.

There’s not much new in the story, but it does remind us that Tim Pawlenty — who is supposed to be a non-crazy– has declared his opposition to fiat currencies — i.e., demanded a return to the gold standard (although he may not know that that’s what it means).

What Politico doesn’t include, but should, is the lemming-like rush to endorse the Ryan plan, which, although Very Serious, is also complete crank economics, with its insistence — in the teeth of all the evidence — that privatizing Medicare can somehow provide adequate health care at much lower cost. And then there’s the recent rise of default denialism — hey, let’s signal to everyone that we’re a banana republic, what harm can it do?

 

Republican House members brought this on themselves by voting nearly unanimously for the Ryan plan, so caught up in ideological fervor and hubris that they failed to anticipate the inevitable voter backlash. While the House leadership has acknowledged that the Medicare plan will not pass, the party will not allow any dissent. When Newt Gingrich called the plan “right-wing social engineering,” he was all but shunned from the presidential nomination race, and was forced to recant and apologize.

“I want to make sure every House Republican is protected from some kind of dishonest Democratic ad. So let me say on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood, because I have publicly said those words were inaccurate and unfortunate.”

A grateful nation thanks you, Newt Gingrich. The presidential campaign is just starting, and already you’ve given us a passage that will live in infamy — forever — in the annals of American political speech. Your delightful quotation shall be filed under “fiascos” and flagged with a cross-reference to “utter nonsense.”

 

In a gesture to end its characteristic gridlock, the Senate began the 112th with a vote to end “secret holds” — a procedural move that allows lawmakers to anonymously block legislation or nominees. GOP Sens. Jim DeMint (SC), Mike Lee (UT), Rand Paul (KY), and John Ensign (NV) were the only four to vote against the measure. “No longer will senators be able to holdup legislation anonymously,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) at the time. “From now on, they’re going to have to own it.”

But anonymous obstruction dies hard in the Senate. After keeping up appearances for five months, a GOP senator placed a secret hold last Friday on the nomination of Heather Higginbottom as the deputy budget director at the Office of Management and Budget. Democratic aides suggest that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) broke the pledge:

 

Americans know how to work hard. We put a lot of hours at the office or in the field. We also know how to play hard. Millions of Americans sit in front of the television for the Super Bowl and World Series. What we don’t do is pay attention to our democracy. While our military defends our democracy from outside threats, the average voter is the domestic defender of internal threats.

Americans are ignorant of the real issues, which is why the regressive Republicans are able to use fear and jealousy as pinpoints in election. The GOP have been masters at turning brother vs. brother, father vs. son, mother vs. daughter and fighting within one class of people, mainly the working class.

From PoliticsUSA

Americans view fascism through the horrific prism of Hitler's extermination camps, particularly in terms of the extermination for European Jews. But fascism itself is a political-economic system and there's nothing inherently anti-Semitic about it. In fact, with a few exceptions-- like Henry Ford-- the plutocrats who financed the rise of German and Italian fascism in the 1920s and '30s did it for the exact same reasons plutocrats like the Koch Brothers are financing the Republican Party and other right-wing movements today. It's not because they hate Jews (or Mexicans or gays or women); it's because they are obsessed with greed and selfishness and seek an economic system that emulates the Law of the Jungle. Does this sound familiar?

A high school sophomore from New Jersey is challenging Rep. Michele Bachmann to a debate on civics and the U.S. Constitution. In an open letter to to Bachmann, Amy Myers of Cherry Hill, N.J., said, “I have found quite a few of your statements regarding The Constitution of the United States, the quality of public school education and general U.S. civics matters to be factually incorrect, inaccurately applied or grossly distorted.”

Limbaugh then claimed that African Americans teach their children hatred of America, “Now, I know what you’re shouting at me. Wait a minute. This hasn’t happened in the black population. Yeah, it hasn’t.

Suddenly the shoe is on the other foot. Prominent American Catholic scholars are accusing John Boehner of violating Jesus Christ's most basic teachings by aggressively pushing the Republican Party agenda targeting the poor and disadvantaged. They're not happy about Boehner giving the commencement address today at the Catholic University of America.

What one hand giveth, the other seeks to take away. Such is the case with our Republican Congress, who wants to publicly appear sympathetic with the long-term unemployed while backing away from the deal they made with Democrats last year to extend tax cuts in exchange for extended unemployment benefits.

Hey, remember how Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) called for a truce on social issues a bunch of times? Apparently there was an asterisk no one noticed, because he's leading the way on the right's extreme social agenda:

One reason the resurgent antigovernment "Patriot" movement is taking off so quickly is the support for many of its central ideas that comes from ostensibly mainstream figures in politics and the media. 

These men and women have helped to put key Patriot themes — the idea that President Obama is a Marxist, that he and other elites in the government are pushing a socialist takeover, that the United States plans secret concentration camps and so on — before millions of Americans, many of whom actually believe these completely false allegations.

In short, what we saw this week was Obama and his Muslim friends literally "making love" with each other, all made possible thanks to the death of OBL. While it was "theatre of the absurd," there does not seem to be a denouement in sight to Obama and his administration's support of Muslims at our expense.

The Republicans are making a cynical bet that Americans over 55 really are the "greedy geezers" of conservative ideology, people who care only for themselves and not for their children and subsequent generations. 

That calculation is at the center of Rep. Paul Ryan's proposal to replace Medicare with a voucher system, but only for those reaching retirement age in a decade. 

Ryan and the Republicans have sought to dilute the political toxicity of their radical plan by grandfathering in people who are currently within the Medicare system and those who are now 55 or older.

Brave New Foundation's latest video project, Koch Brothers Exposed, launched a video yesterday that features activists knocking on the doors (or talking through the intercoms at the gates) of five mulitimillion-dollar homes belonging to either Charles or David Koch, the principals of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held corporation in the United States. The video bears the title, "The Kochs are Buying Our Democracy."

Three weeks ago today, House Republicans approved their radical budget plan, which included, among other things, a measure to eliminate Medicare and replace it with a privatized voucher scheme. After the vote, GOP officials were all smiles, confident they'd made the right move. As of this morning, the party's leadership is retreating. Over the course of 24 hours, Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp all backed away from the Medicare privatization scheme. Rank-and-filed Republicans, who apparently weren't told this was coming, were left dazed and confused.

Anti-gay rights groups around the country will see a cash infusion over the next two years through a plan called “Ignite an Enduring Cultural Transformation.” And the groups are remaining mum about who is responsible. The campaign, which largely targets states where Republicans won control of legislatures or governorships, has garnered the support of Republican political superstars such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (Va.), Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Jon Kyl (Ariz.), and Rep. Trent Franks (Ariz.). The groups intend to pass anti-gay marriage amendments, curtail abortion rights and, in at least one case, ban “transgender bathrooms.”

“This is a hard-fought privilege,” he added. “This is something people die for. You want to make it convenient? The guy who died to give you that right, it was not convenient. Why would we make it any easier? I want ‘em to fight for it. I want ‘em to know what it’s like. I want them to go down there, and have to walk across town to go over and vote,” he said.

One of the dominating justifications that the right uses for its economic policies is that lowering taxes and regulations on society’s wealthiest members and big businesses will cause an explosion of wealth that will eventually “trickle down” to the vast majority of Americans. Yet while a record number of Americans are receiving some form of government assistance as unemployment remains high and the economy is in shambles, one group is doing very well: corporate America. The 2011 Fortune 500 list was unveiled today, surveying the growth and profits of the nation’s largest 500 corporations. It found that the profits of these companies “soared 81″ percent over the past year, causing the editors of Fortune to say that “we’ve rarely seen such a stark gulf between the fortunes of the 500 and those of ordinary Americans”:

Republicans lost the first battle in their newly invigorated war on contraception and other health services for sexually active people, such as STD testing and treatment, when the Democrats called their bluff in the federal budget standoff.

After all, that is what the American people voted for last November, rape audits.

Predictable voting by the Republicans. The GOP was unanimous in their support of handouts for the oil industry despite what they told voters back home.

Seriously unpatriotic. 

House Republicans say they have no plans to follow the Senate in passing a resolution honoring the military mission that killed Osama bin Laden.

The first debate on the road to the Republican 2012 presidential nomination is being held with most major potential candidates absent from the stage. In South Carolina on Thursday, five men were expected to debate the US economy, the budget and healthcare, and to take shots at President Barack Obama. But only ex-Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty is seen as a credible candidate for the Republicans in 2012.

The plan would essentially end Medicare, which now pays most of the health-care bills for 48 million elderly and disabled Americans, as a program that directly pays those bills. Mr. Ryan and other conservatives say this is necessary because of the program's soaring costs. Medicare cost $396.5 billion in 2010 and is projected to rise to $502.8 billion in 2016. At that pace, spending on the program would have doubled between 2002 and 2016.

At a press conference this afternoon, the Wisconsin Democratic Party announced their formal challenge to all three recall petitions filed against Democratic state Senators. The DPW is alleging widespread fraud, and some of the specifics of their challenge are brutal:

From the May 5 edition of Fox News' Glenn Beck:

The right fears nothing more than unionized workers, and found a cunning way to scapegoat workers to derail a campaign to organize the TSA.

Yesterday, in a vote of 251-175, sixteen anti-choice Democrats joined every House Republican present to pass H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding For Abortion Act. The GOP’s focus on abortion legislation contravenes their insistence over the past few months that “jobs” were their utmost priority. ThinkProgress has compiled a series of quotes demonstrating how Republicans have flipped their priorities in a short period of time:

Exxon's taxes were actually less than zero! Big Oil's lobbyists have so skewed the system that Exxon was able to extract a $156 million rebate from us taxpayers last year.

If you get pregnant outside of their very narrow parameters of what's acceptable (middle class, married, white), conservatives simply want you to suffer for it.

Religious zealotry plays an equal if not more significant role in Tea Party politics than its obsession with budget deficits and government spending.

No, it was never possible. Republicans are responding to this the way they respond to everything: by seeking to divide America and undermine Democrats and liberals. They do this for the same reason the scorpion stings the frog in the fable: it's their nature. They will continue trying to divide America until we wake up and realize that they hate America -- or at least they hate any America in which we don't turn over all the power to them. They'll undermine and weaken that pluralistic America until we finally recognize their disloyalty and marginalize the dividers.

They're doing it again: After jettisoning controversial legislative language narrowing the definition of rape for the purposes of abortion law, House Republicans are attempting a backdoor maneuver to ensure that solely victims of "forcible rape" are eligible for federal funding if they seek abortions.

Yet again, the right-wing has largely proven that its own bias knows no bounds.  Literally within minutes of CNN breaking the news last night that the President's then-pending late evening speech would inform the world that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, a person on my Fa …

ThinkProgress notes the hypocrisy of the GOP Congress' claim that every bigoted piece of legislation deserves a lawyer when they don't believe that actual human beings, especially poor people and women beaten by their husbands, deserves lawyers.

IN THE SPRING of 2009, as the titanic fight over President Barack Obama's health care proposal was beginning, Frank Luntz—an infamous Republican consultant who specializes in the language of politics—drew up a confidential 28-page report (PDF) for congressional GOPers on how they could confront, and defeat, Obama on this crucial issue. He suggested that they use a particular phrase: "Government takeover of health care." And they did. Again and again, for the entire months-long debate. During one Meet the Press appearance, Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio), then the House minority leader, referred to Obama's plan as a "government takeover" five times (without once being challenged). 

It was a clear falsehood.

On Wednesday the Indiana State legislature voted 55-43 to approve the largest private school voucher program in the nation’s history. The passage of Indiana House Bill 1003 shows that Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN) and his Republican-led legislature are more committed to an extreme conservative agenda than actually helping students in high-poverty schools.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who suggested that conservatives should engage in a truce on social issues and focus on deficits, will sign legislation that will ban state funding for Planned Parenthood.

  For anyone who’s been following the events here in Wisconsin, it’s common knowledge that Koch Industries’ oil/energy billionaire owners, David and Charles Koch, have been the object of scrutiny for their involvement with GOP Governor Scott Walker.

If there’s one constant in the elite national discourse of the moment, it is the claim that America was founded as a capitalist country and that socialism is a dangerous foreign import that, despite our unwarranted faith in free trade, must be barred at the border. This most conventional “wisdom”—increasingly accepted at least until the recent grassroots mobilizations in Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan and Maine—has held that everything public is inferior to everything private, that corporations are always good and unions always bad, that progressive taxation is inherently evil and that the best economic model is the one that allows the wealthy to gobble up as much of the Republic as they choose before anything trickles down to the great mass of Americans. Rush Limbaugh informs us regularly that proposals to tax people as rich as he is for the purpose of providing healthcare for kids and jobs for the unemployed are “antithetical” to the nation’s original intent and that Barack Obama’s reforms are “destroying this country as it was founded.”

Donald Trump gave a speech last night at the Treasure Island casino in Las Vegas in which he had an imaginary conversation with the Saudi Arabian government over the price of oil. “You’re not gonna raise that @!$%#ing price!” he said to a crowd lubricated by the event’s open bar.

A new USA Today/Gallup Poll found that 47 percent of Americans have unfavorable views of the tea party, compared with just 33 percent who said they have favorable views. Americans have soured on the tea party, as their views of the right-wing movement have grown increasingly negative over the past year.

Over the past few weeks, many people have dismissed Donald Trump’s possible presidential campaign as a joke. But don’t tell that to the people volunteering behind the scenes—an eclectic crew of young enthusiasts, old Reagan hands, and one especially slimy and notorious political operative.

"Our leaders are stupid, they are stupid people," suggested Trump in taking issue with President Barack Obama's handling of foreign policy issues related to Libya, Iraq, China and Afghanistan. "It's just very, very sad."

And you thought he was liberal? The Washington Post’s Ezra Klein (who also writes for Newsweek and The Daily Beast) argues that the problem with Republicans today is that President Obama is following their ideology, cribbing ideas from the GOP of the mid-1990s and leaving today’s Republicans without some of their signature policies.

For the record, again, the Obama plan should not be considered the left pole in the budget debate. It's a very conservative plan. It's been correctly called "center right" by Paul Krugman, and "a rather conservative one, significantly to the right of the Rivlin-Domenici plan" by the Center on Budget and Policy Priority's Bob Greenstein.

Via Brad DeLong, I see that John Taylor is peddling the zombie claim that there has been a huge expansion in the federal government under Obama. Sigh. One way to address this claim is to ask, where are the huge new federal programs? The Affordable Care Act has not yet kicked in; the stimulus, such as it was, is fading out; where is this big government surge?