Today's GOP: The Inmates are Still Running the Asylum - UPDATE: Daniel Schulman's book on the Koch Brothers

by Sunnyjane

The Republican Tea Party is in disarray, and oddly enough, that's a good thing.  It's a little late in coming, but hey, at least the moderate Republicans have become frustrated with the Baggers and the Democrats are becoming bolder in calling them out on it.  More citizens who have always proudly aligned themselves with conservatives are stepping out of that dark hole and seeing the light of liberal policies.

We constantly fight that battle here at Politicalgates.  Let's see what others are saying on the issues in succinct and sometimes humorous ways -- ways that make you nod and think, That's right!

Gun Control

As governor, Ronald Reagan was all for gun control when the Black Panthers were making uncomfortable noises about armed revolution for social change in the 1970s.  Then Reagan decided to run for president in 1980 and reversed course and said citizens should be well-armed.  The NRA endorsed him.  He was shot by John Hinkley two months after his inauguration.  A lesson learned?  Unfortunately, NO.

See Ronald Reagan, above.

Energy Independence

One of the biggest Drill, Baby, Drill fallacies in this country is that by sucking oil out of every available piece of land in North America that we will decrease our dependence on foreign oil by standing next to the rigs and pumping it directly into American gas tanks.

Canada is particularly keen to run the XL Pipeline right smack-dab through America's heartland.  You get that, right?  Americans assume all the risk, Canada and the Kochs get all the money   From the Ogallala Aquifer in Nebraska through Native American sacred tribal lands, somewhere that sucker is going to spring a devastating leak; it's too late then.  And Americans benefiting from the pipeline?   Really?  Here's the truth...

Let's sail, boys, before these idiots figure out they've been lied to!

Immigration Reform -- or the Lack Thereof

One Montana county Tea Party group wants absolutely nothing to do with candidate Drew Turiano.  It seems Mr. T has gotten into a lot of trouble with this bunch for slinging around a heap of racial slurs, aimed primarily at Hispanics.  It is his contention that the U.S. should not just adopt a pathway to citizenship, but should also just send undocumented immigrants -- and their American-born children -- back to where they came from, via Operation Wetback.  [Note to Mr. Turiano: It's illegal to do that, you ignorant creep.] 

Of course, he's not the only GOP asshole to use the term wetback.  So have Don Young in Alaska and Chris Mapp in Texas because in both cases, it's perfectly normal.  Does this sound like your teenager saying, But Mom, everybody says it! 

Priorities, priorities, priorities.

Equal Pay for Women

   

     














  

Now, About the IRS Targeting the Republican Groups

Oh, and that Imperial President and His Executive Orders?

The Far-Right and Voting Rights

It's always dangerous when Tea Partiers start using big words.  You  know, like constitution and sovereignty, for example.  Rep. Ted Yahoo Yoho of Florida is no exception.  He loves his pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution, but has obviously never read it.  He cares about the sovereignty of this country, but has no idea that it necessitates a moral imperative to do right by its citizens.  Yoho was recently heard opining that only property owners should be allowed to vote.  Um, I recommend checking out the 15th Amendment, Congressman.  Oh, and he's awfully fond of voter ID laws.

Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi

And we'll take it all the way to 2016, if necessary!

Climate Change?  No Such Thing!

They don't know where babies come from, either.

Raising the Minimum Wage?  No, No, NO!

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

End Note

+++

UPDATE (by Patrick):

I received an email-message by Daniel Schulman, a senior editor in the Washington bureau of "Mother Jones", in which he promotes his new book about the Koch brothers which was published yesterday, called "Sons of Wichita: How the Koch Brothers Became America's Most Powerful and Private Dynasty", and it is my great pleasure to bring this email-message to your attention:

Hi everyone,

Excuse the email blast, but I wanted to alert you that my biography of the Koch brothers, Sons of Wichita, hit book stores this week. I poured the past (almost) three years of my life into this project, so needless to say I'm pretty excited to see this book leave my computer's hard drive for the real world. The early reviews have been great. Vanity Fair calls Sons of Wichita "never less than engrossing" and "a stylishly written saga." The American Prospect says "despite Schulman’s often-superb eye for the revealing and/or juicy detail…he never stoops to caricaturing his subjects as the Koch Ness Monsters of popular lore." If you'd like a preview, Vanity Fair published a short excerpt on Monday that chronicles my surreal visit with the elegant, elusive, eldest Koch brother, Frederick. Mother Jones published a longer excerpt Tuesday that covers the brutal legal battles among the four Koch brothers. (You can also catch me on NPR's Fresh Air today chatting about the book with Terry Gross. See here for air times in your neck of the woods.)

It takes a village to launch a book, so I'd certainly appreciate your help in spreading the word. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Talk loudly about it at crowded places where strangers will overhear you. Tweet it. Tumble it. Facebook it. Forward this email to anyone you can think of. Anything helps. And, if you're so inclined, buy a copy of the book. You can purchase it online from Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or via iBooks. It should also be available at your local book store (and if it isn't, ask them why not!). If you do buy the book, please make sure to let me know what you think.

Best regards—and thanks,

Dan Schulman

I also want to use this opportunity to promote my video-clip about the Koch Brothers from 2011, which features the secret recording of one of their super-secret meetings:

Rand Paul: Pre-2016, He's Dumpster Diving and Trash Talking

by Sunnyjane

I did NOT have plagiarized sex with my hair!  That was my OWN idea!

There is a major chapter in Reince Priebus' 2016 Republican Tea Party playbook titled When You're Desperate, Just Spout Stupid Shit.   In Rand Paul's copy, this particular section has been referred to so often that it's become thoroughly thumb-spit-moistened and dog-eared. (I understand that the Centers for Disease Control is considering classifying it as an infectious disease carrier.)

Just one of about three hundred or so Republicans who are planning to run for president in 2016, Senator Paul (RTP-McConnellville) is searching high and low (mostly low) for a solution in need of a problem.  And because he's up against some tough competition for the top Tea Party spot in the Governors v. Congress Cretins race to the bottom, he intends to get the publicity he thinks he so richly deserves: I want to be part of the national debate, so whether I run or not, being considered is something that allows me to have a larger microphone.

So anxious is the senator for that larger microphone, that he actually gave a pre-taped response to President Obama's 2014 State of the Union address.  In it, he began with the Godhead we discussed in a recent post, Ronald Reagan.  I  kid you not!  If you're up for it, you can watch Paul's less-than-riveting rant for nine minutes and thirty seconds.  Personally, I decided I didn't have enough time left in my life to waste more than sixty seconds on him.

Obamacare:  BAD Thing!  Freedom to Die:  GOOD Thing!
 

Even though Ted Cruz has pretty much co-opted the Affordable Care Act for his own Down-With-Obama project, Rand Paul has had to take a stand against it, too; his Tea Party backers demand it.   Sen. Paul has said that Obamacare will kill women, kill seniors, kill children...oops, sorry, wrong Tea Party hack.  What he really said about the ACA was equally stupid:   Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court declare something to be "constitutional" does not make it so.  The whole thing remains unconstitutional.  Gosh, why didn't the Democrats come up with that argument after the Citizens United decision?  Although it is definitely not true that President Obama injured his knee when he fell on the floor laughing at this statement, there may be some truth to the rumor that the Supreme Court has sent the esteemed senator a fifth-grade United States Government textbook with the chapter on Role of the Supreme Court in American Democracy prominently highlighted.

Since the upstanding Sen. Paul admitted to an audience in October 2013 that while he never lies or cheats, he sometimes spreads misinformation.  It's a great tactic.  Misinformation can be very important, it should come as no surprise that he spread a little misinformation about his son's being signed up for Medicaid against his will.  Turned out, not surprisingly, that it  was a lie.

Even weakling Wolf Blitzer, who rarely if ever challenges a Republican's veracity, pummeled Paul on his statements about the Affordable Care Act:  [President Obama is] making the point that if you have health insurance you're going to be healthier, presumably, because you'll be going to doctors. You're a physician; you understand that.  Senator Paul's response was a spin that's definitely snort-worthy: It doesn't necessarily equate. Now, good behavior, exercise, and diet may prevent illness. Going to the doctor doesn't necessarily prevent illness.  (Gosh, I don't believe I've seen the senator speak out in support of a similar initiative that is championed by the First Lady.  Hmmm...)  Besides, if this is his philosophy -- good behavior, exercise, and diet may prevent illness -- I wonder why he hasn't told his Medicare and Medicaid patients that these practices would prevent their glaucoma, cataracts, and macular degeneration.  Perhaps then he could avoid accepting that awful government socialized medical insurance.

Paul's war on Obamacare seems to be a losing one, as the latest figures show that over three million people nationwide and more than two hundred and thirty thousand citizens of Kentucky have signed up, thirty-five percent of whom happen to be under age thirty-five -- a significant number for the push to insure young people.  In addition, six Republican-run states (Florida, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin) are expected to meet or exceed figures they had originally projected.         

Keep digging, keep digging...

Extending Unemployment Benefits Makes Jobless People Lazy

Go to hair school and I'll let you give me Mohawk.  I've gotta pow-wow with Native Americans.

When the Republicans left Washington in late December to enjoy their bounteous holidays with their families, they did so with a Let-them-eat-fruitcake disdain for 1.3 million Americans who, because they remain jobless due to the GOP's refusal to pass a jobs bill, are now without unemployment benefits. 

Using Tea Party Libertarian logic, Sen. Paul had no compunctions about this unfairness at all because ...the longer you have [unemployment benefits], it does provide some disincentive to work and there are many studies that indicate this.  And just which study did he rely on to back up his idiocy?  Welllll...he chose a paper by economist Rand Ghayad, who upon hearing this bit of news, said that Rand Paul was a colossal idiot had completely misread his work.  In a rebuttal article, Ghayad said, There's no reason to cut unemployment benefits.  People aren't long-term unemployed because they prefer getting benefits. People are long-term unemployed because there still aren't enough jobs. 

Well, at least he didn't plagiarize Mr. Ghayad's work, right?  And speaking of which...

I Challenge Thee to a Duel!

Too many laws and regulations!  Stealing other people's work shouldn't be a crime!

Like another Tea Party ignoramus we could easily name, Rand Paul hasn't learned to keep his mouth shut when he's called out for his political ignorance and his various transgressions.  And he certainly should not pick a fight with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow; that is one he'll never win.

Maddow has been all over Paul about his little plagiarizing habit, so much so that he'd like to shoot her or stab her -- if dueling were legal in Kentucky of course, because people who call him out are haters and hackers.  Maddow's response:  There is nothing wrong with the reporting.  You can try to make this about me, but how about addressing the substance?  Responding to the person rather than to the charge is a time tested tactic. Honestly, it is a symptom of immaturity in our political discourse that it's expected that this is part of the way he'll respond.

It has also come to light that for his book, Government Bullies, the senator lifted three pages almost verbatim from a Heritage Foundation paper without a proper citation. 

Snarling Little Ankle-Biter Goes After Beloved Big Dog

Before the interminable Benghazi hearings even began, little Rand Paul was hot-footing it around the country telling anybody who would listen that Benghazi should disqualify Hillary Clinton from ever again holding high office.  Then, during the hearings, he told her directly that If I were president, I would have relieved you of your post.  I'm not certain, but I believe I saw former Sen. Clinton stifle a grin.

Well, that whole thing didn't turn out too well for the GOP or Rand Paul, and it was delightful to read General David Petraeus's praise for the former Secretary of State:  Hillary Clinton would be a tremendous president. Like a lot of great leaders, her most impressive qualities were most visible during tough times. In the wake of the Benghazi attacks, for example, she was extraordinarily resolute, determined, and controlled.  Ouch!  That certainly must have put a crimp in Sen. Paul's colon.

Further demonstrating his acute economy of good sense, the flapping yapper has decided to attack the Big Dog.

The senator initiated this bit of argle-bargle when he decided that Bill Clinton's 1998 peccadillo with then twenty-five-year-old intern Monica Lewinsky was somehow germane sixteen years later.  It gets a little confusing here, dear readers, so bear with me: Randy thinks that is important now because the Democrats insist that the Republicans are waging a war on women and Bill's predatory behavior and being a serial philanderer and people who benefited when Bill raised money for their campaigns should be ashamed and should give it back and if they don't they have a lot of explaining to do because Bill used his authority to take advantage of a young woman in the workplace and even though he's not so sure what all of this has to do with Hillary running for president, it's hard to separate Bill from Hillary.  

Jesus!  Did you get all that?  (I continue to be perplexed by the GOP's definition of what is timely news and what is not.  Scott Walker seems to think that his emails from 2010 are old news not worthy of discussion, while Rand Paul thinks that the 1998 Monica Lewinsky issue is pertinent and must be rehashed immediately.)

While I cannot think of one person who condoned Bill Clinton's behavior, it's important to understand a little of Ms. Lewinsky's less than savory sexual history.  She was having an affair with a married man when she decided to become a political intern.  In fact, she told the wife of the guy she was screwing that I'm going to the White House to get my presidential knee pads.   So it's difficult to put her in the category of a sweet young thing who was an innocent being taken advantage of by a powerful man.  

Oh, you do remember that Rand Paul called Newt Gingrich, who had an affair with his twenty-seven-year-old intern at the same time he was trying to get Bill Clinton impeached, a sexual predator and a serial philanderer when Newt was running for president in 2012, right?  No, I don't remember that either.  Didn't happen.

Karl Rove, whom you will remember is trying very hard to keep Republicans from being verbally asinine (and losing the battle), said recently that Rand Paul spending a lot of time talking about the mistakes of Bill Clinton does not look like a big agenda item for the future of the country.  Snort!

But Reince Priebus, who's never been accused of being the sharpest pair of scissors in the tailor's shop, thinks it's all fine and dandy, telling Andrea Mitchell earlier this month, Hillary Clinton provides a lot of opportunity for us.  Everything's on the table for 2016.   

Trust me, that particular statement will come back to haunt the GOP during the upcoming presidential campaign cycle.  Everything's on the table for 2016 cuts both ways.

End Note

HELP!  I'm stuck ass-up in here, a rat is eating my face, and I still haven't found a scandal!

The GOP's Funeral Will Be Held When They Finish Digging Their Own Grave

by Sunnyjane

The GOP has been on life support since 2008 or so, but it has finally succumbed to its self-inflicted case of Wingnuttery Inclusionus Nervosa.  And it isn't just the legislators who brought on this condition; their followers, Big Money supporters, and the far-right media have aided and abetted them the whole way.

There are so many instances of the GOP's determination to thwart anything the Obama administration tries to accomplish that it's difficult to know where to begin when discussing the latest hoohahs.  However, with Benghazi, the IRS, and the AP stories a'sizzling on the grill in the last two weeks, the Republican Tea Party seems to have finally found themselves red meat on which to chew, and they're snarling and yelping like a bunch of savage wolves.

So let's just jump right in, shall we?

Louie Gohmert's Latest Nutso Rant   

Did you hear Gohmert say I was casting aspersions on his asparagus?

It all began during another House hearing; this is all they do, you see, hold hearings, and it's especially fun when the victim is Eric Holder.  Anyhow, Louie Gohmert (R-Texas Idiot) decided he had not had enough irate spew time on the TV machine lately, so he took the opportunity on May 15 to rage against the Attorney General on everything from the IRS going after Christian organizations like Billy Graham to the handling of information from Russia on Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to PETA insulting his pet rock.  (OK, I made that up about the pet rock; the truth is that Gohmert's pet rock left home some time ago after being yelled at for pooping pebbles in Louie's favorite pair of bedroom slippers.)

Whatever.  Louie accused the FBI of failing to question the now-dead-and-buried-in-Virginia Tsarnaev brother thoroughly enough, even after Russia had said the Boston bomber had been radicalized.  Then there ensued some crosstalk with the Chairman about Gohmert's having run out of questioning (questioning?) time, but he insisted that the AG respond.  So Holder said, The only observation I was going to make is that you state as a matter of fact what the FBI did and did not do. Unless somebody has done something inappropriate, you don't have access to the FBI files.  I know what the FBI did. You cannot know what I know. That's all.

Louie then entered red-faced stroke-zone territory and said, I cannot have a witness challenge my character … The attorney general will not cast aspersions on my asparagus.  Oh, yes, he really said that.  Check it out.  (No word on whether or not his Hollandaise sauce was likewise insulted.)
 
You Say Benghazi and I Say Bullshit

Sarah Palin demands that the lamestream media interview Mr. Ben Ghazi immediately and find out what he knows about the attack.

So anxious to bring an impeachment resolution (we can be sure it's already been drafted) against President Obama, the Hill obsesses daily on the September 11, 2012 attack on the embassy outpost in Benghazi where four staff were killed by Islamist militants.

House Speaker John Boehner is, according to insider sources, totally fixated with the issue.  See, it takes away all the pressure on him to actually be a leader, and he can earn much-needed creds with the far-right crowd.   And, of course, he doesn't have to focus on those distasteful Obama-agenda issues like gun reform, immigration, and jobs -- those icky  thingies that would actually benefit Americans. Boehner has told Darrell Issa (well known car thief and illegal possessor of guns) how to run the show, and the salivating Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has done the job with a passion, concluding that the White House has been involved in a cover-up!  Why?  Well, because the President of the United States committed the grievous offense of calling the attack an act of terror!

Here's what the Benghazi cover-up consists of, according to Issa himself: The words that are being used carefully — an ‘act of terror’ is different than a ‘terrorist attack.’   

And what, dear readers, did George W. Bush (you remember him, don't you?) call the September 11, 2001 violence against America that killed more than three thousand people?  An unbelievable act of terror.  See, it's not what's done that counts, it's who does it:  Bush = That's Cool!  Obama = Grounds for Impeachment!

Reports have been made that suggest the Republicans did a tad of, shall we call it, wordsmithing with the talking-points emails they're so adamant about seeing.  On Thursday, May 16, Major Garrett on CBS Evening News pretty much called the Republicans liars:  Republicans told us these were the quotes; that wasn’t true.  Copies of the emails the GOP leadership gave CBS appear to have been, um, altered. 

And ABC admitted that in their haste to smear the Obama administration, they didn't actually read the Benghazi emails.  These are journalists?  Perhaps they attended the Sarah Palin School of Journalism and/or Communications -- take your pick. 

Investigations?  You Really Wanna Talk Investigations?

Would you care for a little arson on the side, Mr. Issa?

In 2010, an investigation was conducted on Darrell Issa's background and it revealed that a fire that burned his Ohio manufacturing plant was, according to inspectors,  most likely the work of an arsonist.  Because the fire insurance policy had been raised from $100,000 to $462,000 just a few weeks prior to the fire, and evidence arose that Issa had removed computers and papers from the building, led inspectors to suspect Issa himself.  Neither he, nor anyone else, has ever been charged, however.

Ari Melber and Martin Bashir discussed this issue on Thursday, May 16.

Curiouser and curiouser.    

The Scourge of Sexual Assault in the Military

 Not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful...  President Obama, May 16, 2013

The President is pissed, and rightly so.  He hauled Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey to the White House on Thursday to read them the riot act.  Attending were also the chiefs of each military service, the civilian heads of each service, and enlisted advisers.

The issue received needed attention when the Air Force official in charge of its sexual-assault prevention program was recently arrested for groping the breasts and buttocks of a female.

And just this week,  the Sexual Assault Program Manager at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, was arrested in a domestic dispute with his former wife.  

It's rather like what happens when the fox is guarding the hen house, isn't it?  Where's the GOP outrage?  When's the hearing on this issue going to be scheduled?  Oh, sorry...since it's only assaults against women, that doesn't count.

Obamacare: Let's Vote to Repeal it for the 37th Time!
 

And they did.  And it passed.  Yawn.

The Speaker of the House decided, once again, to spoil the children and let the seventy newbies in Congress vote to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act.  I did think it was very considerate that they waited until the lying adulterer Mark Sanford was sworn in on Wednesday, don't you?

Mr. Speaker, please let me introduce my mistress.  I found her while hiking the Appalachian Trail.

And Darrell Issa was having such a good week that he took the opportunity to start a little rumble on Obamacare, tweeting: 
 

Darrell Issa        ✔ @DarrellIssa

Hey folks, #ObamaCareInThreeWords -- go!

The White House lost no time in responding:

  The White House        ✔ @whitehouse

It's. The. Law. #ObamaCareInThreeWords, pic.twitter.com/yCHSmuxkKj

 
Curses!  Obama Ruined Our IRS Scandal!

Revelations that the IRS had been targeting conservative groups that had applied for tax exempt status hit the news on Monday, May 13, when ABC obtained the Inspector General's [IG] draft report.  Naturally, the GOP leadership began salivating at the prospect of another Obama Scandal!  YIPPEE!  Surely they had him by the short hairs this time, dontcha think?  Well...no.  They prepared all their talking points for when the President went on  defense.  That scenario didn't come to pass, however, because President Obama said on Wednesday that the actions that were outlined in the IG's report were unacceptable.  He further said that his administration would accept all of the recommendations in the report and would work with the Congress in their investigation.   Please proceed, Mr. Speaker.  

Naturally, there was no outrage when, under George W. Bush, the IRS targeted liberal organizations, including the NAACP, Greenpeace, and an Episcopal Church in California. 
   
Deaths by Idiots With Guns Continue Unabated

My Bonnie looked into the gun barrel, the contents she wanted to see. She fired the gun to assist her, oh bring back my Bonnie to me.

No post on the GOP would be complete without a mention of gun violence.  

According to Slate, which is (thankfully) keeping track of gun violence since Sandy Hook, 4,127 people have died since that awful day in Newtown.  At least seventy-one victims of that horrid statistic are children, many of whom had been killed by, um, accident.  This is not only unacceptable, it's a sin. 

Logic, Republican Tea Party style:  Dr. Kermit Gosnell, an abortion doctor who has recently been found guilty of murder in the deaths of three babies, is representative of all abortion doctors.  But gun-wielding mass murderers, children's deaths by their own hand or by accident, and all other gun injuries and deaths are not representative of the NRA-backed House and Senate...or, by responsible, law-abiding gun owners.

End Note