The GOP and Another Year of Doing Nothing -- But Expertly!

by Sunnyjane

Official conclusion:  NO HEART DETECTED.   And the year went downhill from there.

Thirteen months ago, Barack Obama won and Mitt Romney lost.  It was a humiliating loss, one that many in the GOP have not yet gotten over.  But National Republican Committee chairman Reince Priebus declared that his party would undergo a political autopsy to see how it could expand its base to be more, ahem, inclusive for those demographics that voted for Barack Obama.

About all that came out of that autopsy was that the Republican Tea Party's policy were sound, but the messaging was lousy.  Of course, shortly after that, Priebus told the party that it should embrace uber-conservative Mike Huckabee as its model.   Great message, Reince; that outta do it!

O GOP, O GOP, Wherefore Art Thou, GOP?

All clowns, regardless of race, gender, or religion are welcome to enter.

The Grumpy Old Partisan party is terminally ill and, no, it's not one of those conditions covered under Obamacare.  This self-inflicted malady is known as Policy Messaging in the Crapper and occurs when you allow the body politic to be overrun by any faction  -- however looney -- who just might vote for you or vote against you.  The losers who fawn over Sarah Palin are a prime example: they're the ones who think fine art is a tattoo of Jesus brandishing an AR-15.  

Full disclosure: I'd be against -- and write about it with glowing disgust -- almost any policy the GOP came up with.  The problem is, I have no earthly idea WHAT their damn policies are!  And I believe that this is exactly the issue:  they cannot announce a policy because of the sizable -- and divisive -- forces making it impossible to develop any significant policies.  So, in the absence of an agenda based on their plans to govern, they just say NO to anything the President or the Democratic-held Senate proposes.

As the President said to Congressional leaders on December 4, You owe it to the American people to tell us what you are for, not just what you’re against.

Immigration Reform, Amigo?  No problemo!

Senor, mi papa es loco!  No se lo digas a nadie!

Translation:  Sir, my father is crazy!  Don't tell anyone!  The House says it will pass immigration reform -- probably not the Senate's version -- later next year.   See, if they pass it this year, or too early next year, the Latino voters they'd like to get into the tent might forget about it by the election in November.  Couldn't have that, now could we?

Frankly, they don't realize that they have at their fingertips the best argument against immigration reform: Rafael Cruz, father of Canadian Senator Ted Cruz (H/T Martin Bashir).  One could easily make the case that no one who is this spiteful towards our country, given the lies and crazy things he's spewing forth to his ignorant followers, should be granted citizenship.   But the GOP can pretty well expect their efforts to be a bust; Latinos know well who is responsible for wasting precious time on an issue that is near and dear to them, just as African Americans will not likely forget that Sen. Cruz said earlier this year  We need 100 more like Jesse Helms in the U.S. Senate.

And leave it to John Boehner to kick himself in the ass by refusing to meet with the Fasting 4 Families group who camped out in front of the Capitol; even when they went to his office,  Boehner refused to see them.  Said his spokesman, The Speaker remains committed to a step-by-step process to fix our broken immigration system.

However, the President and the First Lady -- that would be the Obamas -- went to the Fasters and met with them in their tent.  Do ya see, John, why Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America?

  

Of course, John Boehner is behind the 8-Ball on this one: if he passes immigration reform he loses the racists; if he doesn't pass immigration reform, he's certain to lose the Latino vote.  Added to that, he could lose his Speaker of the House position when the 114th Congress convenes in January 2015; no doubt Eric Cantor haunts Boehner's wine-fueled dreams nightly.

(It's not that John Boehner drinks too much; it's just that he hates to enter the cocktail hour totally sober.)

Iran Nuclear Treaty Causes GOP Heartburn

Peace through diplomacy over war through stupidity.

While the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief when Iran and six major powers around the globe agreed to a six-month treaty to keep that Middle East country from further developing nuclear weapons, with some sanctions restored, the GOP went -- in typical fashion -- absolutely batshit crazy.

The first to display his ignorance and loathing was John Cornyn of Texas, who decried the deal as an Obamacare distraction.

He is wrong, of course.  Now, you're hearing this for the first time, but I happen to be privy to the truth!  Yes, dear readers, this Politicalgates writer has had her ear to the ground and it so happens that it was not the Iran thingy that the President used to distract from the issue the healthcare website.  It was -- don't repeat this -- his clever manipulation of the calendar to ensure that Thanksgiving and Hanukkah occurred at the same time!


GOP: Healthcare Website is Obama's Katrina

It's very true that the healthcare website got off to a less than stellar beginning.  As of December 1, however, it seems to be working quite well, and many Americans are signing up.   That's good news for the entire country.  As of December 3, more than 1.5 million people have signed up.  According to a new report, the ACA is expected to cost billions of dollars less than originally projected.  Wait for GOP heads to explode.

And, President Obama has never uttered the phrases Mission Accomplished or Heckova a job, Brownie!

Something to think about before we leave this subject:  If the healthcare website works only 114 days next year, it will be longer than the House of Representatives will work.

End Note -- The 2013 GOP Sequester

White-Wing Roundup: A Review of The Last Week in June 2013

by Sunnyjane

Is it just me, or is global warming also responsible for the dramatic rise in stupidity and hatred in white right-wingers?  A fanciful question, of course, because I don't believe I've seen an overabundance of our darker-skinned brothers and sisters leaning that far to the right, but you get my drift.

This last week has provided a glut of post topics (all of which have been discussed at length both in the blogosphere and the mainstream media), but I thought it might be interesting to examine in one lump what might well be regarded as the Whackiest Week That Was in American history. 

So let's do that, shall we?

A Nation of Arrogant Squatters and Land Robbers

 

Oh aye, we are, you know.  Many of our lily-white-complexioned ancestors simply sailed west across the Atlantic and claimed the eastern part of this country for England.  Then they proceeded to push the Native Americans further west and began the methodical destruction of the abundant natural resources they discovered.  But that's another story altogether.

They came for various reasons:  the Puritans to avoid religious persecution, the Highland Scots of North Carolina to avoid English prosecution after the Jacobite Rising, and the Jamestown settlers so that three-hundred and fifty years later they could put up a theme park.  No, seriously.

And while life in the United States today is far from hunky-dory, immigrants still want to come.  Eleven million Latinos who are already here are working hard and becoming a vital part of our society without benefit of citizenship.  Thus, we need to reform our immigration laws.  Now.

The U. S. Senate passed -- by a wide margin  of 68/32 -- an immigration reform bill that will, among other things, provide a pathway to citizenship.  The House of Representatives, which has steadfastly refused to offer up a bill on immigration, now says, Huh uh, we're not gonna pass the Senate bill; we'll do our own bill!  And, of course, the House bill will not, according to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, provide a pathway to citizenship, but rather a pathway to legalization.  [Translation: We might let you work toward a green card.]    

While Michele Bachmann is under the deluded impression that the future of America looks like a white baby, the truth is we have become a glorious nation of multiple shades and hues that reflect the various nationalities in this country.  White people love to talk about minorities, when in fact, they are fast becoming the minority.  [Memo to Bachmann and her bigoted followers: Face it and get over it.]

Repeal of DOMA May Cause Right-Wing Hair Loss

 The New Yorker Cover, Moment of Joy,  by Jack Hunter

Clearly, eighty-three year old Pat Robertson is one of the most irritating, homophobic, racist, misogynistic Christians the citizens of this country have had to endure.  After the decision on DOMA was announced, he actually asked a guest about Justice Anthony Kennedy's staff: Let me ask you about Anthony Kennedy. Does he have some clerks that happen to be gays?  Kudos to the rather startled guest, who said he had no idea what sexual orientation the justice's clerks were.

But over in the land of Robertson's legislative kindred spirits there was much angst and dire warnings.  Louie Gohmert is ominously predicting that allowing gays and lesbians to marry will lead to bigamy and polygamy, while Michele Bachmann (yes, again) says that Marriage was created by the hand of God. No man, not even a Supreme Court, can undo what a holy God has instituted. In a later press conference, Bachmann called the Court's decision an affront to the Constitution...   Must we remind Ms. Bachmann one...more...time that this country is governed by the man-made laws of the Constitution of the United States, and not what she perceives as God's law?

Prop 8 Plaintiffs Kris Perry and Sandy Stier: We do! 

Surely Nancy Pelosi's Who cares? when asked what she thought of Bachmann's condemnation of the ruling on gay marriage has to rank right up there with President Obama's Please proceed, Governor during one of the 2012 debates with Mitt Romney.  Soooo satisfying.

The Unconscionable Death of the Voting Rights Act

Rep. John Lewis:  I didn’t think that when President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act that I would live to see five members of the United States Supreme Court undo what he did with those pens.

Chief Justice John Roberts successfully set the voting rights of minorities, the elderly, the poor, and the young back fifty years when he gutted Sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  By ruling that the 1965 Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced unless Congress comes up with a new way of determining which states and localities require federal monitoring of elections, Roberts willfully gave GOP governors untethered license to do anything they damn well please to keep certain demographics in the country from voting.

The right to vote is the foundation of American democracy. In the 2012 election, that right was challenged in a way we have not seen since the civil rights and voting rights movements of the 1960s. Legislatures in primarily Republican-governed states decided that the freedom to vote must be restricted, and they erected unnecessary and discriminatory barriers to registration and voting.

There was nothing remotely covert about the Republicans' plans to repress citizens' ability to cast their votes on November 6.  From Pennsylvania, where the state's House Majority Leader told committee meeting attendees, Voter ID [laws], which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done!  to Florida where Gov. Rick Scott reduced early voting days from fourteen to eight, Republican plans to prevent people from voting were put into place.

It will happen again, and we'll get a good taste of it in 2014 because the GOP controlled House of Representatives will never pass effective legislation to prevent it from happening.

End Note

The Approaching Tempest: Immigration Reform

by Sunnyjane

The President's Second Term Domestic Policy Agenda

Mitt Romney (R-Failed Presidential Candidate) had a Day One To Do List that would have repealed everything President Obama had fought for to make life better for the American people. Fortunately, the President won that little battle, and is going forward in his second term to continue making life better for everyone in this country.


One of those issues is Immigration Reform.  The so-called Gang of Eight is already working on a nonpartisan (ahem!) bill.  Frankly, from my point of view, this does not look promising.  I hope that I'm wrong.

Those People Actually Voted!

How dare you people exercise your right to register and vote!

The 2012 Presidential Election proved that there is no resurrection from blatant political hubris.  After disregarding, demeaning, or dismissing  every needed-to-win demographic voting bloc in the country, the Republicans' arrogance still led them to believe victory would be theirs -- in a landslide, no less.  Their thinking was, to put it mildly, somewhat flawed.   According to their thought processes, Obama had done nothing for those who Rick Santorum insisted were blahs, not blacks, whose lives he didn't want to make better by giving them someone else's money.  I must have missed that particular segment of the electorate; was there an exit poll that singled out the blahs?  No, I didn't think so.  

But what of the Latino vote?  The Republicans actually believed that their candidate could win the Latino vote after refusing to endorse the President's Dream Act; insulting them by saying that, had his father been Mexican, he'd have a better chance to get their vote; praising Arizona's severe SB1070 immigration law as a model for the rest of the country; and advising undocumented immigrants to self-deport and get in line in their own countries for American citizenship. 


Where Have All the Angry White Guys Gone?

Lord, let the angry white men rain down upon us -- and be quick about it!

Just so we're straight here, there is no truth to the rumor that the GOP-run House of Representatives is going to introduce a bill to change the bronze plaque on the Statue of Liberty to read: Give me your energetic, your rich, your white guys yearning to own guns and stamp out the brown folks... etc.

Since there are enough over-paid white men  -- and women -- flapping their yaps on anti-American far-right "news" stations to colonize New Gingrich's moon base, one has to do some head-scratching to ponder the where have they gone? question.  I suggest we just send the GOP the 2010 Census.  The angst-filled lamentations after President Obama got between seventy and seventy-eight percent of the Latino vote (figures vary according to exit polls and sponsored polls) in the November 6 election would be amusing if they weren't so damned daft. 

Ann Coulter makes no pretense of being fair and balanced in her rants.  What she does not admit, however, is that she's a loud-mouthed racist liar: frequently wrong, but never in doubt.  To far-right conservatives such as herself, research (a valuable guide to the truth) is an abomination.  Labeling immigrants from Latin America nitwits who deserve lives of misery and joblessness confirms that.  In truth, Latinos use fewer benefits to which they are entitled than do non-Hispanic whites.  Another truth Coulter refuses to acknowledge:  while calling Latinos a deluge of unskilled immigrants pouring into the country, the inconvenient fact is that, since 2000, they have created twice as many businesses as the general public.
 

Cartoon from 1850 -- Irish Immigrants Coming to America: Oh No!

Watching Bill O'Reilly mourning over the loss of traditional America is a sight to behold.  This descendent of Irish immigrants who came to America during the Eighteen Hundreds is one of the loudest critics any pathway to citizenship for Latinos.  At the time of the Irish influx into this country, Protestant whites were outraged and fearful. The Irish were stereotyped as  uncivilized, unskilled and impoverished and were forced to work at the least desired occupations and live in crowded ethnic ghettos.  Irish immigrants often found that they were not welcome in America; many ads for employment were accompanied by the order "NO IRISH NEED APPLY."    

O'Reilly is consistent in his racism, you have to give him points for that, I suppose.  He took up vital oxygen shortly after the election to ponder why Hawaii always votes Democratic.  Noting that thirty-five percent of Hawaiians are Asian, he declared that Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature. They're usually more industrious and hard-working.  The message, of course, is twofold: Liberals and Latinos are not industrious and hard-working.  Got that?

Oh Baby, No Anchor Baby!

I'm not a racist, I just don't want "people of color" in my country!

Far-right white Christians lustily sing on Sunday mornings that Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world; red and yellow, black and white -- so long as He loves the reds, yellows and blacks in any country other than America.  

Ignoring the fact that the Supreme Court has consistently maintained that anyone born in the United States, regardless of their parents’ immigration status, should receive citizenship under the 14th Amendment,  Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa Bigot) already introduced a bill to -- wait for it -- clarify those classes of individuals born in the United States who are nationals and citizens of the United States at birth.  Translation:  White people, Citizens; Colored people, Not Citizens.

There, wasn't that easy?

End Note

 

Mitt Romney Refuses to Reveal His Immigration Reform Plan

by Sunnyjane

Master engravers nationwide are sharpening their chisel tips in anticipation of carving Mitt Romney’s first astute – or even mildly thought-provoking – words on the base of Mt. Rushmore.  To date, the big granite mountain in South Dakota is safe from blade and hammer because Romney's typical response of, Well, you know, we’re going to be looking at that and… just doesn't cut it.  (Pun intended.)

By the time our little neighborhood Trick-or-Treaters have finally come down off their sugar highs, Americans will stand in line at their specified polling stations (provided they have their state’s restrictive documentation in order) to vote in the 2012 general election for those candidates we wish to be our president, representatives, and senators.  In the meantime, there will be rallies, town hall meetings, campaign fundraisers, and debates.  Much will be written, opined, and argued about throughout the land.  Claims and counterclaims will be hurled freely against opponents.  The two presidential candidates, Democratic President Barack Obama and former Republican Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney, will state their positions -- their vision for America -- and voters will decide which position they support and for whom they will cast their ballot.


Well, that's the way it should be.  Rarely, if ever, has a candidate for the highest office in the United States simply refused to take a stand and explain his policy positions to the American people.    But Mitt Romney has done exactly that, which should make for some interesting presidential debates. Will Romney take a page from Sarah Palin's 2008 debate-prep book for vice president and, ahem, pivot? (Translation: just refuse to answer the moderator's questions and talk about something else -- anything else you're comfortable with -- like venture capitalism or offshore banking.)   Should voters wish to know what Romney thinks of the height of trees in Michigan, they will be relieved to learn that he thinks they're the right height.  So that issue is settled and we can all breathe easier.


And what of the really important issues?  The Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act pretty much knocked other campaign topics off the media's radar screen, including the Supreme Court's ruling on Arizona's immigration law.  But it's time to take a deeper look into how Mitt Romney would approach immigration reform because American voters deserve  the opportunity to evaluate the wannabe Commander in Chief's position on the subject. 


The Backstory in Brief 

In accordance with Arizona's line of succession, Jan Brewer became governor of that state in early 2009 after President Obama named Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security in his new administration.


Ever mindful that she would have to run for governor in 2010, Brewer began to hunker down on familiar regressive issues, including hordes of illegals coming across Arizona boarders.  She claimed the citizens of her state were living in fear, that the crime rate had risen, that headless bodies were being discovered in the desert, and Phoenix had become the world's Number Two Kidnapping Capital.  The truth is that citizens living in fear is hard to calculate; the crime rate has gone down steadily since 1990; there have never been headless bodies found in the desert, and the kidnapping story is a hyped up stretch of the facts that was put forward as gospel by none other than John McCain.  As the Washington Post's Dana Milbank reported in July 2010, There's not a follicle of evidence to support Brewer's claims.


But never mind all of those bothersome facts.  In April 2010, Jan Brewer signed the racially motivated SB1070, the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, the genesis of which can be easily traced to one Russell Pearce, the first state legislator in Arizona history to be removed from office through a recall election.  In cobbling together this piece of legislation, Pearce sought assistance from the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which is identified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.  Added to that little piece of information, is the fact that this hate group has received funding from the Pioneer Fund, which has been identified by the SPLC as a neo-Nazi organization for advocating white supremacy in the U.S.  Can a clearer picture be painted here?   

SB1070 Goes to Washington

As the Washington Post reported after Brewer signed SB1070, President Obama criticized the Arizona law, which requires police to question anyone who appears to be in the country illegally. Obama called the effort "misguided" and directed the Justice Department to monitor its implementation, warning that it could violate citizens' civil rights. Immediate legal challenges were expected from outside groups.   


Democratic leaders immediately trashed the Arizona law, while typically, Republican lawmakers couldn't decide whether to support it and advance stricter immigration in their own states, or ignore it and try to get the Latino vote.  What a quandary, eh?


Various law suits were filed against the law, which would become effective ninety days  after Brewer signed it.  On July 6, 2010, the United States Department of Justice filed for an injunction against enforcement of the law, and the day before SB1070 was to go into effect, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the law's most controversial provisions. 


Prior to the Supreme Courts' announcement that it would hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Arizona law, however, there was much beating of breasts and tearing  of hair during the 2012 Republican primaries.   In a February debate, Mitt Romney  called the controversial Arizona illegal immigration law a model for the country, and blasted the Obama administration for challenging it in court.  "I will drop those lawsuits on Day One," Romney said in response to a question on illegal immigration during a GOP candidate debate in Mesa, Ariz.  Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the bill, was in the audience.   Romney also declared on several occasions that he would build a high-tech fence...or advocate self-deportation...or veto the DREAM Act...or whichever gets the nod of his puppeteers.


Romney's fully packed agenda for what he would do away with on Day One got a little shorter when the Supreme Court handed down its decision on June 26, 2012.  Basically, the ruling said Arizona could not make laws outside of existing federal immigration laws, including making it a state crime for illegal immigrants who don't have registration cards and a state crime for illegals to seek work or hold a job.  It also struck down provisions that would have allowed police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants without a warrant.  The one provision not struck down was the "show me your papers" part of the law; there will doubtlessly be law suits on that in the future, should Arizona begin forcefully implementing that part of SB1070.


The Predicament of the Political Puppet 

 Romney: Uh oh, I guess I said

something else that the puppet

masters didn't like!

So now the primaries are over and, in every practical sense, Mitt Romney is the Republican puppet candidate for President of the United States.  (Oh...goody.)   


The Republicans have outdone themselves in this election cycle by nominating a candidate who will   take orders from the murky confines of corporate boardrooms, political hacks, and unidentified big-money sponsors.   Romney's flip-flops, lies, obfuscations, and ignorance are legendary, and point out not only his willingness to change his stand with the latest smoke-signal from headquarters, but show that he is nothing more than a coreless political neophyte trying to compete on a national level.


"What is your position on immigration reform?" should not be a difficult question.  After the Supreme Court ruling, Romney had nothing to say about his own stand on reform, but merely sent out a six-line statement bashing President Obama: Today’s decision underscores the need for a president who will lead on this critical issue and work in a bipartisan fashion to pursue a national immigration strategy. President Obama has failed to provide any leadership on immigration. This represents yet another broken promise by this president. I believe that each state has the duty — and the right — to secure our borders and preserve the rule of law, particularly when the federal government has failed to meet its responsibilities. As candidate Obama, he promised to present an immigration plan during his first year in office. But four years later, we are still waiting. Yes, Mitt, and American voters are still waiting for something from you.  It's not like you haven't been running for president for five years; it's not like you didn't know immigration reform would be a campaign issue; and it's not like you didn't know the Supreme Court would rule on this Arizona law.  So, what's The Romney Plan?  

In an obvious Latino-outreach attempt, Mitt got bold on June 21 and spoke to the attendees at NALEO, clarifying absolutely nothing on how he would address immigration reform:  Some people have asked if I will let stand the president's executive order [to stop the deportation of young Mexicans who would be eligible to stay under the DREAM Act]...The answer is that I will put in place my own long-term solution that will replace and supersede the president's temporary measure.  Uh huh.  Well, that's definitive.


Romney has been asked so many times to take a stand on immigration reform that there is neither time nor space to analyze them all.  But pertinent articles can be found at Daily Kos, Huffington Post, The Daily Beast, and The Political Carnival, just to name a few. 


Perhaps the most revealing interview with Romney on the subject came on Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer, who had been liberally chiding the candidate for not appearing on a non-Fox news program.  He said to Ed Gillespie at one point, You think we're ever going to see him on one of these Sunday morning interview shows?   Gillespie responded by saying that Romney spoke to school children that week.  Never missing a beat, Schieffer said,  I know schoolchildren are happy to see him.
  
Schieffer finally got Mitt to come on Face the Nation.  "A" for effort, "F" for content. In typical Romney fashion, his answer to the question on President Obama’s decision to stop deporting hundreds of thousands of younger illegal immigrants went like this:

Schieffer again: "Well, what would you do about it?"


Romney said Obama “was president for the last three and a half years, did nothing on immigration.” 


Schieffer’s third attempt: “Sure, but would you repeal this?”


Romney: “Well, it would be overtaken by events, if you will, by virtue of my putting in place a long-term solution.”


Nice try, but Schieffer wasn’t buying: Just to make sure I understand, would you leave this in place while you worked out a long-term solution or would you just repeal it?”


Romney: “We’ll-- we'll look at that -- we'll look at that setting as we -- as we reach that.”

End Note

When you won't take a stand, you're on pretty shaky ground