Today, newly Democratic Senator Arlen Specter said that he hopes the Minnesota Supreme Court will rule in favor of Norm Coleman and that he will once again be seated as a United States Senator.
Someone get this man a primary opponent ASAP.
The revelation comes courtesy of an interview the Pennsylvania Senator gave for the New York Times Magazine. The complete interview will be available this weekend.
Arlen Specter recently made my list of Democratic Senators that are in the back pocket of the banking lobby. Specter voted against consumers by opposing the bill that would help to renegotiate home loans for thousands of home owners.
Many Minnesotans are pushing Norm Coleman to drop his pending lawsuit. In fact, failure to seat Al Franken is chipping into Governor Tim Pawlenty’s approval numbers.
The Minnesota Supreme Court will wait until this summer to make a ruling.
With all the innuendo in the following video, you’d think that Michelle Bachmann was gunning for the lead role in Milf Fuckers 39 instead of reelection in Minnesota’s 6th district. On Saturday, Bachmann and Governor Tim Pawlenty gave speeches at a tax day tea party.
Bachmann is angry that the government is having an orgy without her and that it has already “spent its wad.” To be fair, Bachmann simply wasn’t the prettiest girl at the party and the government just couldn’t hold out when they heard this speech by North Carolina congresswoman Virginia Foxx.
We need some real opposition in this country. Not some fire and brimstone, good versus evil nutjob that believes the second coming of Christ will happen the second we have single-payer healthcare in this country. The ideas are so archaic that you have to go back to 18th century, Salem Witch Trials logic in order to wrap your head around the idiocy.
For the love of Nathaniel Hawthorne and all reasonable people, get Bachmann the hell out of Congress.
This feature is part one of a two-part series centered on the two major political parties in the United States. For The 8 Dumbest Things about the Democratic Party, click here.
Is the Republican party going to be ok?
8. Republicans believe that The War on Drugs can be solved if we throw everyone into prison.
Republicans get to take credit for the first recorded usage of the term “War on Drugs.” It was used by Richard Nixon in 1969 as a way to fire up the base of the party against the counter-culture hippies that despised the Vietnam War.
Thanks to the War on Drugs, our prisons are overfilled. The cost is so high to run some of these prisons that they have to be sold to private companies. The legislature of California actually considered selling San Quentin prison this year because of the terrible financial shape that the state is in.
And drug cartels love the illegality of drugs more than Republicans do. Drug demand in the United States will continue and the cartels increasingly find clever ways of evading the DEA. In fact, cartels are now building semi-submergable vessels that can avoid RADAR and infra-red in Costa Rica. They pack these boats with up to seven tons of cocaine and park it on a deserted beach in the United States. If they can get seven tons of cocaine to the coast of the United States without being detected, they can get seven tons of anything into our country.
Legalize drugs. Pull the rug out from under the black market. Levy taxes on the drugs and use that money to educate kids and help addicts get help. This is exactly what happened during prohibition. Legalizing drugs will help to stop the violence and the kidnappings in Mexico and in the southwest.
7. Republicans demonize higher education.
From discounting professors in their “ivory towers” to laughing in the face of modern economic theory, Republicans love to rally their base on the premise of their shared mediocrity. Ann Coulter believes that American teachers are “inculcating students in the precepts of the Socialist Party of America—as understood by retarded people.” (link)
There are intellectuals in the party, but you’ll find few conservatives that know them by name. For every David Brooks, there is a Carrie Prejean. For every George Will, there is a Joe the Plumber.
This isn’t to say that there are plenty of idiots in the Democratic Party as well. The difference is that Janeane Garafalo doesn’t get microphone time at the Democratic Convention, while Joe the Plumber, a moron, is viewed as some everyman harbinger of truth in the Republican Party. The problem with this outlook is that it eventually permeates into the politicians themselves. The Palin phenomenon. A folksy former sportscaster that bounced around from college to college without any sense of history or moder political theory is voted into the governorship of Alaska. Same thing happened with Michelle Bachmann.
The hard right tarnishes the image of the Republican Party just like the Taliban tarnishes the image of Islam.
6. Republicans believe that corporations are more trustworthy than the government.
Let’s get this out of the way quickly. The government has done some shittythings. Buttheyhavealsodoneplentyofgoodthings. Let’s look at the current financial crisis as a microcosm for the shittyness of government versus the shittyness of corporations.
The government allowed for corporations to create the derivatives market as well as offer subprime mortgages to people that couldn’t afford them. That’s shitty.
The corporations took these allowances and had a field day. Not only did they offer subprimes to the people that couldn’t pay them, but they bundled the mortgages into a security and bet on the outcome of the security.
Johnny thinks Group A of subprime mortgage holders will only pay back 40% of the loan while Philp believes that Group A will pay back 80%. Johnny decides to bet $32,000 on the outcome even though he only has $1,000 in the bank. Philip bets $28,000 even though he only has $900. Group A only pays back 40%. Johnny wins. Now how the fuck is Philip supposed to pay him?
5. Republicans believe that the government doesn’t belong in your pocketbook, but it does belong in your ovaries and in your bedroom.
It seems that every time the Republican party is asked about fiscal policy, the only two words on their lips are “tax cuts.” We’re in a war? We Need Tax Relief. We’re in an economic booming period? More tax cuts. We’re in a recession? Tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts.
People used to be offended if one was yellow and one was dark brown.
Republicans believe that the best judge for whether you should carry your child is the federal government. In fact, they believe that your Church should have no say in the matter. They believe that a marriage between gay people somehow infringe on their rights. There are going to be gay people that your children are going to be exposed to whether they are allowed to marry or not. What difference does a certificate matter to you?
4. Republicans believe that the Second Amendment of the Constitution is the only important one.
Not a peep came from the Republican party when George W. Bush all but suspended the Fourth Amendment with the warrantless wiretapping program. Hell, even after he left office and we discovered that John Yoo had readied an additional memo that would have limited the First Amendment, there was no significant backlash at the Drudge Report and Red State.
But when anyone says that you probably shouldn’t be able to carry an assault weapon capable of shooting 30 times in 10 seconds, Republicans go apeshit.
Here is my compromise. You can buy any gun you want. However, that gun is only allowed to fire three bullets before you reload. Gun manufacturers must make it so that a reload takes more than thirty seconds. Military and police guns do not have to follow these regulations.
Many Republicans will say that that inhibits their ability to protect their family in case the government comes to get them. But that’s idiotic. The government has nuclear weapons, genius. If they want a police state, then they’re going to get one. Until then, three shots is all you get.
3. Republicans say they reject big government when they are out of power, but balloon government when they are in power.
I don’t know how much longer Republicans will fall for this nonsense. During the reigns of Reagan, Bush, and W. Bush, government grew on a massive scale. Hell, George W. Bush added the entire Department of Homeland Security. Government spending went through the roof with all three GOP presidents. None of them ever balanced a budget or saw a surplus.
It wasn’t until Bill Clinton balanced the budget late in his second term that many Americans finally realized that “fiscal responsiblity” did not belong on the Republican party platform. Of course, the minute W took office, he squandared the surplus by adding significant tax cuts for the wealthy. Most republicans don’t realize that the government has to PAY for tax cuts. It is a signficant loss in revenue. I’ll allow you to argue supply-side economic theory when a Republican balances the budget. Until then, Bill Clinton’s “socialistic” 3% tax hike for wealthy people balanced it just fine.
2. Republicans have shitty sources.
I don’t give a damn what some politician “believes” about global warming or Evolution. If I want to hear about global warming, I’ll talk to chemists, geologists, and climatologists. If I want to hear about Evolution, I’ll talk to a biological anthropologist or primatologist. There is no “big science” lobby. These people do not get paid anywhere close to the bullshit experts from the oil lobbying firms. They are scientists whose reputation is contingent upon their adherence to the scientific method.
Many, many scientists would like nothing more than to disprove global warming or Evolution. They would be instant celebrities in the scientific world and they would be written about in textbooks for centuries. But that doesn’t happen.
1. The people that vote for Republicans
On April 15, 2009 an estimated 189,000 people across the United States participated in Tax Day Tea Parties. While simultaneously calling for an increase in defense spending, tea partiers were enraged at the 3% increase in taxes for people who make over a quarter of a million dollars a year. Only 5% of working families in the United States will see a tax hike.
But don’t tell that to the teabaggers.
Sure, you get freedom of speech. You just don't get to dictate policy when your guys lost.
If you asked them, taxes were through the roof on everything. Even though the protests were sponsored by Fox News as well as two of the biggest lobbying firms in Washington, the majority of tea-party goers swallowed the kool-aid that this was a grassroots movement.
To be fair, the most vocal people on Fox and CPAC do not represent Republican voters collectively. After all, the most moderate candidate in the Republican primaries John McCain won the 2008 Presidential nomination. I suppose the proof of where the party is headed won’t be known until 2012. If a Jindal, Palin, Romney, or Gingrich is selected, then they’re going in the wrong direction. But if Jon Huntsman Jr. is able to secure the nod, we may see a more reasonable, more intelligent Republican party.
All that and I didn’t even mention getting us into crazy wars, justifying torture, and the annual gay sex scandals.
Bill O’Reilly giddily “corrected” an answer Obama gave during his press conference last night on “The O’Reilly Factor” relating to the torture of detainees in the United States. Here is the clip.
That's the biggest projection since Ryu's Ultra-Hadoken.
For those of you who haven’t seen the above video, I’ll try to give a fair interpretation of what was said by both Obama and O’Reilly.
Obama: Churchill understood that if you start taking intelligence shortcuts by torturing detainees, then that corrodes the character of a country.
O’Reilly: Obama should have used a better example than the British Government. Afterall, they tortured several members of the Irish Republican Army.
Does Bill O’Reilly think that the average viewer of the O’Reilly Factor is so dumb, that they do not know that Winston Churchill was out of power and even dead by the time things started heating up the IRA in the 1970s? Clearly Obama was evoking the pedastool that the world puts Churchill on when discussing war and foreign policy, not the actions of the entire history of the British government.
What’s next O’Reilly? Maybe we can’t fully trust the marriage vows of Gordon Browne because Henry VIII went through so many wives. Different times, different leaders, different situation.
I’m about to pull a Fox News. Bill O’Reilly is sympathetic to terrorists. With a name like O’Reilly and a proven track record of agressive attacks on the Britsh Government’s handling of the terrorist-Nazi-socio-fascist-communists of the IRA, I have to wonder who O’Reilly really pals around with on the weekends. He’s got his eyes on Northern Ireland.
I can’t even tell you what the fuck North Carolinian congresswoman Virginia Foxx is talking about. If you shut your eyes, you may think that the hate spewed from Foxx’s mouth could only be attributed to someone as dumb as Michelle Bachmann. Here is the video:
The Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed. But we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery, it wasn’t because he was gay. The Hate Crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax.
Where are the facts to back up your claim? Who is we? You and Fred Phelps? Every major newspaper and the local police department agreed that Matthew Shepard was lured from the bar by two men and then beaten to death. He was not committing a crime.
Foxx’s statement was made while the House was debating a new Hate Crimes bill. Apparently, Matthew Shepard’s mother was in attendance.
I’d like to see a source outside of godhatesfags.com that will corroborate Foxx’s foolish story.
During her time in the United States House of Representatives Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) has been a laughing stock. From calling on a violent revolution in the streets to blaming Democrats for swine flu, Bachmann has pushed the limit on reasonable thought.
Put the coke down.
But hold all insanity queries until tomorrow because Bachmann has temporarily regained intelligence. Bachmann, along with Alan Grayson (D-FL), Ron Paul (R-TX), Walter Jones (R-NC), Peter Defazio (D-OR) and Corrine Brown (D-FL) signed a letter today encouraging more transparency in the activities of the Federal Reserve.
Here is the full letter:
Dear Chairman Spratt,
As you meet with fellow conferees to reconcile the House- and Senate-passed budget resolutions, we urge you to adopt the Senate provision regarding the Deficit Neutral Reserve Fund for Increased Transparency at the Federal Reserve in the final version of the resolution. This language calls for the Federal Reserve to identify banks and other financial institutions that have received more than $2.2 trillion in taxpayer-backed loans and other financial assistance since March 24, 2008.
Under Chairman Bernanke, the central banking system has opened a range of extraordinary funding facilities that are providing additional credit to banks, large financial institutions, and primary brokers, as well as guaranteeing commercial paper. All of this activity is happening in secret, with the Federal Reserve disbursing money and credit to the large financial institutions that have put our credit markets and economy at risk. The Federal Reserve has resisted FOIA requests, and will not make public even the terms of payment for the contractors it is using to run these extraordinary programs.
At the very least, Congress and the public should have knowledge about which banks are receiving taxpayer money, what they are doing with the money, and the credit risk taxpayers are taking on through the Federal Reserve. The Senate language encourages such transparency, allowing for audits and public disclosure of secret loans and financial assistance from the Federal Reserve to these large institutions.
We urge you to include the Senate language in the final Budget Resolution.
The Federal Budget today passed the House of Representatives without a single Republican vote. How’s that for bipartisanship?
An eighteen-year-old South Carolina resident is suing Republican Governor Mark Sanford for not accepting some of the money offered by the federal government’s Stimulus Bill. The teen contends that the state legislature should have jurisdiction over the money and not the Governor.
Don Larsen, a Republican delegate from Springville, Utah, pushed a resolution to the Utah County Republicans titled, “Resolution opposing the Hate America anti-Christian Open Borders cabal.” In the resolution Larsen says that an “invisible government” is feeding money to the Democratic Party so that Christianity will erode and our borders will open. The head of this invisible government is no mere man, but Satan himself.
Barack Obama listens to this guy.
The bill is rife with quotes from the Bible, something that clearly belongs in our government. Larsen stresses the importance of knowing good (Republicans) and evil (Democrats) and that the rift between the two parties fulfills biblical prophecy. Larsen says that “Satan’s ultimate goal is to destroy the family and these people are playing a leading part in it.”
Sane Republicans in Utah narrowly rejected the resolution. Led by David Rodeback, a demon in disguise, Republicans decided that aligning themselves with fundamental Christianity may alienate some voters.
This is some Orwellian dickery. Florida Republican Representative Adam Hasner hosted the “Free Speech Summit” over the weekend where a keynote speaker demanded that the Koran be outlawed and that religious freedom should not include Islam. Hasner also left the House chamber during a Muslim prayer on Monday.
Hasner invited Chair of the Parliamentary Party of The Netherlands Geert Wilders to speak at his “Free Speech Summit.” At the event, Wilders said that Islam was not a true religion, that the Koran calls for hatred and terrorism, and that free speech should not apply to Muslims. Here is the video:
Hasner also showed Wilders’ movie FITNA at the summit and applauded its Anti-Islam message.
Wilders is a devoted Catholic and apparently hasn’t read the portion of the Bible where God tells Aaron to slaughter every Canaanite in sight. The good people of Florida need to get rid of Hasner. He clearly hates the founding principles of this country.
Well, there was no way in hell Specter was going to win as a Republican in Pennsylvania. Republicans had already been preparing primary opponent Pat Toomey for the Senate. Latest polls in Pennsylvania had Toomey 21 points ahead of Specter among likely voters in the Republican primary.
Like many sane people, Specter was forced out of the Republican Party.
After Al Franken is finally seated, Democrats will have a full filibuster-proof 60 seats in the Senate. Specter released the following statement today:
I have been a Republican since 1966. I have been working extremely hard for the Party, for its candidates and for the ideals of a Republican Party whose tent is big enough to welcome diverse points of view. While I have been comfortable being a Republican, my Party has not defined who I am. I have taken each issue one at a time and have exercised independent judgment to do what I thought was best for Pennsylvania and the nation.
Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.
When I supported the stimulus package, I knew that it would not be popular with the Republican Party. But, I saw the stimulus as necessary to lessen the risk of a far more serious recession than we are now experiencing.
Since then, I have traveled the State, talked to Republican leaders and office-holders and my supporters and I have carefully examined public opinion. It has become clear to me that the stimulus vote caused a schism which makes our differences irreconcilable. On this state of the record, I am unwilling to have my twenty-nine year Senate record judged by the Pennsylvania Republican primary electorate. I have not represented the Republican Party. I have represented the people of Pennsylvania.
I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary.
I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.
I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters. I can understand their disappointment. I am also disappointed that so many in the Party I have worked for for more than four decades do not want me to be their candidate. It is very painful on both sides. I thank specially Senators McConnell and Cornyn for their forbearance.
I am not making this decision because there are no important and interesting opportunities outside the Senate. I take on this complicated run for re-election because I am deeply concerned about the future of our country and I believe I have a significant contribution to make on many of the key issues of the day, especially medical research. NIH funding has saved or lengthened thousands of lives, including mine, and much more needs to be done. And my seniority is very important to continue to bring important projects vital to Pennsylvania’s economy.
I am taking this action now because there are fewer than thirteen months to the 2010 Pennsylvania Primary and there is much to be done in preparation for that election. Upon request, I will return campaign contributions contributed during this cycle.
While each member of the Senate caucuses with his Party, what each of us hopes to accomplish is distinct from his party affiliation. The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation.
My change in party affiliation does not mean that I will be a party-line voter any more for the Democrats that I have been for the Republicans. Unlike Senator Jeffords’ switch which changed party control, I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture. For example, my position on Employees Free Choice (Card Check) will not change.
Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy’s statement that sometimes Party asks too much. When it does, I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America.
Pretty disappointing that his position on EFCA hasn’t changed, but now that Specter will caucus with the Democrats, he may be more easily convinced eventually. The Democratic Party doesn’t need another Joe Lieberman; the American people need health care reform, energy reform, and reform in the financial sector. Hopefully, Specter is on board.
Real Weird Politics 