Category Archives: Politics

When Is an Apology Not an Apology?

06 Tuesday Mar 2012

Posted by in Politics, Rush Limbaugh

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When it comes from a radio talk-show host who’s hemorrhaging sponsors and trying to cover his ample backside. After his feeble attempt at an apology on Saturday went over like a lead balloon, Rush Limbaugh began his show on Monday with another try. I suppose to his loyal followers and those who may have been listening for the first time after Slutgate blew up, it might have been acceptable and believable, but for those who have heard him before, not so much.

Rush began this version of his non-apology by saying that his major error was in descending to the level of those who are willing “to say anything or do anything to advance their agenda”–something that he would never ordinarily do (chortle, chortle). Then he repeated the phrase “those two words” five times:

“Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything I know to be right and wrong I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke.  That was my error.  I became like them, and I feel very badly about that.  I’ve always tried to maintain a very high degree of integrity and independence on this program.  Nevertheless, those two words were inappropriate.  They were uncalled for. They distracted from the point that I was actually trying to make, and I again sincerely apologize to Ms. Fluke for using those two words to describe her.  I do not think she is either of those two words.  I did not think last week that she is either of those two words.”

So I guess the part about Ms. Fluke posting sex videos on the internet wasn’t out of bounds? OK then.

That was as close to an apology as he got. From there it became a diatribe against the “socialist agenda” of President Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress who wanted to steer the direction of Darrell Issa’s Oversight Committee hearing away from its original intent of Obama’s unconstitutional attack on the Catholic Church, and make the hearing all about contraception. This was the goal because, according to Rush, “Obama is sorely hurting with women in preelect polls.” Not any more, Rush. Thanks to you and your Republican buddies:

“It’s looking like President Barack Obama may be back in the good graces of women. His support dropped among this critical constituency just before the new year began and the presidential campaign got under way in earnest. But his standing with female voters is strengthening, polls show, as the economy improves and social issues, including birth control, become a bigger part of the nation’s political discourse.

…An AP-GfK poll conducted Feb. 16-20 showed that on overall approval Obama has gained 10 percentage points among women since December, from 43 percent to 53 percent…In one-on-one matchups, Obama beats Romney 54 percent to 41 percent and tops Santorum 56 percent to 40 percent among women…”

Then Rush launched into yet another personal attack on Sandra Fluke. She may not be a slut and a prostitute, but she’s a liar:

“Sandra Fluke gave vague examples based on unnamed friends who she says couldn’t afford birth control to treat medical conditions they had, since Georgetown University wouldn’t pay for them. Georgetown paid for all of their other medical treatment, but it wouldn’t pay for the birth control pills that these doctors prescribed should they be necessary — or so she says. We still don’t know who any of these friends of hers are, these other women, and we don’t know what happened to them. Her testimony was hearsay, and it was unprovable.

[…]

So Sandra Fluke, a 30-year-old birth control activist gives unverified and inexpert testimony about how Georgetown’s long-standing and public policy has hurt her unnamed friends. And let’s be clear on something else. I haven’t called Georgetown to see if they pay for birth control pills when being used to treat her medical conditions. I have no idea if they do or don’t.”

A liar who should have gone to school somewhere else:

“Georgetown is a Jesuit University. It’s Jesuits, run by the Jesuits, which are a Catholic order of priests. Their policy on birth control is not exactly a secret. It’s not given to you in a sealed envelope after you sign up. It’s out there for everybody to see. It’s a Catholic university! Everybody that goes to there knows. Miss Fluke stated on occasion she went there specifically to change the policy. If birth control insurance is important to you as an enrolling student, and you find out that Georgetown doesn’t offer it, you might want to attend (or work at) a school that isn’t run by Catholics. I mean, just a thought.”

So by that logic, James Meredith shouldn’t have applied for admittance to the University of Mississippi. He knew their policy was ‘whites only.’ He should have just gone to a school that wasn’t run by racists. Just a thought.

Rush’s one-time lapse in judgment was also the fault of the Cybercast News Service:

“The story at the Cybercast News Service characterized a portion of her testimony as sounding like (based on her own financial figures) she was engaging in sexual activity so often she couldn’t afford it. I focused on that because it was simple trying to persuade people, change people’s minds.”

Then after 10 minutes of shirking responsibility and accountability, Rush closed with this:

“I am huge on personal responsibility and accountability…”

Nice try, big guy. I’m looking forward to Apology Part III. Coming soon to a radio station near you.

Charity Begins at (Somebody Else’s) Home

01 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by in Politics, Republicans

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Len Burman at Forbes:

“As many have pointed out, Mitt and Ann Romney have been very generous, donating 19.2% of their income [to charity] in 2011 and 13.8% in 2010.  Barack and Michelle Obama were in a similar league, donating 14.2% in 2010… At the other end of the generosity spectrum were Newt and Callista Gingrich, who made gifts of only 2.6% of their $3.1 million income in 2010, and Rick and Karen Santorum, who donated 1.8% of their $0.9 million income in 2010.  (The Santorums gave 2.7% in 2009. The Gingriches have not released earlier tax returns.)”

I’m a little surprised that two avowedly religious candidates are so stingy with charity.  The bible says tithe, which is 10 percent, and that would seem to be a small sacrifice for someone earning close to a million dollars (Santorum) and chump change for Gingrich ($3 million).”

Practice what you preach much?

Madison and Reagan Would Also Make Santorum Throw Up

27 Monday Feb 2012

Posted by in Politics, Religion, Rick Santorum

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Rick Santorum on This Week yesterday, describing his reaction to John Kennedy’s 1960 speech on the issue of separation of church and state:

“To say that people of faith have no role in the public square?  You bet that makes you throw up.  What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?” Santorum said.

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.  The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country,” said Santorum.

Obviously Santorum is the one who hasn’t read JFK’s speech because that is not at all what Kennedy said. He didn’t say people of faith have no role in the public square. He did say this:

“I believe in an America that is officially neither Catholic, Protestant nor Jewish; where no public official either requests or accept instructions on public policy from the Pope, the National Council of Churches or any other ecclesiastical source; where no religious body seeks to impose its will directly or indirectly upon the general populace or the public acts of its officials, and where religious liberty is so indivisible that an act against one church is treated as an act against all.

…“I do not speak for my church on public matters; and the church does not speak for me. Whatever issue may come before me as President, if I should be elected, on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject, I will make my decision in accordance with these views — in accordance with what my conscience tells me to be in the national interest, and without regard to outside religious pressure or dictates.”

Then there’s this:

“I don’t believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute.  The idea that the church can have no influence or no involvement in the operation of the state is absolutely antithetical to the objectives and vision of our country, said Santorum.”

That would put Santorum at odds with two other American presidents–James Madison, the man who wrote the First Amendment, and conservative icon Ronald Reagan.

Madison wrote in 1822:

“Every new and successful example, therefore, of a perfect separation between the ecclesiastical and civil matters, is of importance; and I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Govt will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together”

It was also Madison who, as president; vetoed a bill that granted a charter to an Episcopal church in the District of Columbia; vetoed a bill that would have given Federal land to a Baptist church in the Mississippi territory; opposed appointing chaplains to both Houses of Congress, all because it was his opinion that these actions violated the non-establishment clause of the First Amendment, which he wrote. If Madison were around today he would no doubt be accused by Santorum of taking part in President Obama’s “war on religion.”

Reagan would also have made Santorum ill with these remarks in October of 1984:

“We in the United States, above all, must remember that lesson, for we were founded as a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. And so we must remain. Our very unity has been strengthened by our pluralism. We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate.”

Somebody pass Ricky another barf bag…or two.

Shared Sacrifice in Romney’s World

25 Saturday Feb 2012

Posted by in economy, Politics, Romney, Taxes

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The stadium may have been empty but the speech certainly wasn’t.

During Mitt Romney’s speech in Detroit yesterday, he laid out his bold, new economic policy. Massive tax cuts for the top bracket paid for by cutting spending on programs that benefit the neediest of the needy. As Ezra Klein put it:

“When Romney said he “wasn’t concerned about the very poor,” he wasn’t kidding. He’s using the policies they depend on most as a piggy bank for tax cuts.”

Most of what Romney addressed was familiar territory–raising the retirement age, privatizing Medicare, and repealing “Obamacare.” He also called for cutting things like subsidies to Amtrak and Planned Parenthood, which amount to pocket change in the federal budget, and bringing federal worker’s pay down to the same crappy level as people in the private sector.

But the bulk of the spending cuts would come from sending Medicaid back to the states:

“Romney’s real savings come in the next section. He’ll “send Medicaid back to the states and cap that program’s rate of growth,” and then “do the same for other programs, like food stamps, housing subsidies and job training.”

Sending the programs back to the states is a red herring. The key bit for deficit reduction is capping their rates of growth. Which is to say, cutting their rates of growth. Which is to say, cutting them.

What Romney is essentially proposing to do is finance a massive tax cut by cutting Medicaid, food stamps, housing subsidies and job training. In other words, the neediest Americans…will be financing a massive tax cut.”

This is Romney’s idea of shared sacrifice:

“My plan for America requires real leadership. And it calls for sacrifice. It doesn’t require a leader to promise bigger and bigger benefits, and something for nothing. Let me underscore that. It doesn’t require a leader to promise bigger and bigger benefits, and free stuff. It requires a leader … to call for sacrifice.”

Here’s who would bear the brunt of that sacrifice (BCCA is an acronym for Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment Act that allows states to provide early access to Medicaid to women with cancer).

Here are the Medicaid dollars spent per beneficiary:

So in order for cuts in the scope of what Romney is proposing to have any substantial affect, here’s what would have to happen:

“…[T]he amount we spent per blind or disabled person, or per elderly person, is much, much more than the amount we spend per child or adult. This means that if we really want to cut Medicaid spending, and we want to do it on the backs of adults or children, we will have to drop many, many more of them to make a real impact on spending.

If we cut 1 million elderly from the Medicaid rolls, we reduce Medicaid spending by about 5%. If we cut 1 million adults, however, we reduce Medicaid spending by only 1%. We need to cut 5 times as many adults. If we want to cut Medicaid spending by 10%…we’d need to drop more than 10 million adults from Medicaid. That’s almost three-quarters of all of them. If we want to cut overall Medicaid spending by 20%, then we’d need to drop all non-elderly adults, including all pregnant women, as well as about 10 million kids, or more than a third of them.

So what will we do? Should we cut some of their benefits instead? Again, look how little we already spend on children and adults. If we cut spending on every child and every non-elderly adult by 25%, that will reduce overall Medicaid spending by less than 8%.

Or do you want to go after the money we spend on the blind and disabled? Women with breast cancer or colon cancer? The elderly?”

Right on, Mitt. Let’s take all that “free stuff” away from all those “something for nothing” freeloaders like the blind, the disabled, the elderly, and women with cancer. They’ve had it too easy for too long. It’s high damn time they sacrificed something so your buds can have another yacht to water ski behind or another vacation home.

God Tells (insert name of Republican here) to Run for President

24 Friday Feb 2012

Posted by in Election 2012, Politics, Republicans, Rick Santorum

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And God said, “This shall be a sign unto you. If Obamacare passeth, thou shalt surely run for president”:

“The wife of Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says that God is responsible for her husband’s recent surge in popularity.

“I personally think this is God’s will,” Karen Santorum told GBTV’s Glenn Beck on Thursday. “I think He has us on a path. And I do think there’s a lot more happening that what we are seeing.”

[…]

“Before we made the decision [to run], it was about a year, a year and a half, and initially when Rick mentioned it, I was just, ‘No way.’”

“I said we need to pray about it,” Rick Santorum recalled. “She said, ‘No, I’m not going to pray about it. God couldn’t possibly want you to do this.’”

But Karen Santorum said she eventually sought God’s guidance on the matter.

“I really started to pray about it, and I did always feel in my heart that God had big plans for Rick,” she explained. “Eventually it was there, that tugging at my heart.”

“It is hard because you know it’s a hard path,” Karen Santorum agreed. “What did it for me, though, was Obamacare. Because we have, as you know, a little precious — a little angel, little Bella — special needs little girl. And when Obamacare passed, that was it. That put the fire in my belly.”

” Vodpod videos no longer available.

 

“Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain have all claimed that God urged them to seek the Republican nomination for president.”

So going by what Republicans themselves have said, so far God’s 0 for 3. And BTW Mrs. Santorum, that skirt’s a bit short for the wife of the Morality Sheriff, don’t you think? Could it be…Satan.

The “Etch-a-Sketch Party”

23 Thursday Feb 2012

Posted by in Politics, Republicans

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A quick overview of last night’s Republican debate in Arizona. Mitt Romney is the sane person who has to play crazy to try and convince the base that he’s one of them. Something he hasn’t been able to accomplish in 5 years of running for president, but he keeps trying. Rick Santorum knows his crazy appeals to the base but he has to try and appear sane for anyone outside the rabid right-wing who might be tuning in. Newt Gingrich has had his day in the sun and is now back to the bomb-throwing Newt of old, like calling President Obama the “most dangerous president on national security grounds in American history,” and Ron Paul is…well, Ron Paul. Admiral Stockdale version 2.0.

Obviously the Romney campaign had the hall packed with their supporters. Everything he said got a standing ovation. Romney also had the best non-response response of the night when moderator John King asked all the candidates what was the most popular misconception about themselves. Romney launched into his boilerplate campaign stump speech, “ make America strong,” “fundamental change in Washington,” blah blah blah. When King tried to bring him back to the original question Romney went Sarah Palin:

“[Y]ou ask the questions you want– I give the answers I want.”

But the best take I’ve seen this morning comes from Andrew Sullivan:

“It’s like an etch-a-sketch party. Shake it one election cycle – and the past disappears completely!”

Hammer. Nail. Bam. Republicans can’t shake their fixation on solutions which are proven failures. Like tax cuts equals economic growth and prosperity for all. Keep lowering taxes on the so-called job creators and somehow the supply-side fairy will come and sprinkle trickle-down pixie dust on everyone else. Never mind that we have 30 years of evidence to the contrary. Romney released another tax cut plan yesterday, because the first one wasn’t big enough, which will cost 4 times what the Bush cuts did and by some slight-of-hand not increase the deficit.

Like get the gub’mint out of the way, cut regulations, and let the unfettered free market work. Never mind that lack of proper regulation and letting Wall Street run free is what led to the near-collapse of our entire system in 2008.

Like beating the war drums with the threat of imminent nuclear attack from Iran. Gingrich was the lead drummer last night:

“Everybody needs to understand, and by the way, we live in an age when we have to generally worry about nuclear weapons going off in our own cities. So everyone who serves in the fire department, the police department, not just the first responders but our National Guard, whoever’s going to respond, all of us are more at risk today, men and women, boys and girls, than at any time in the history of this country.”

That all sound very familiar. Never mind that it cost us a trillion dollars and 4400 dead Americans the first time we were sold that line, and that it is just as much a fabricated claim now as it was in 2003. The etch-a-sketch has been shaken since then.

Indiana Republican: Girl Scouts are Anti-Family Values

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Bob Morris, a Republican (what else) state legislator in Indiana, says the Girl Scouts have “been subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of traditional American family values.” He knows this because he read it somewhere on the internet:

“Saying that the Girl Scouts is a “radicalized organization” that promotes “homosexual lifestyles” and is aligned with honorary president Michelle Obama’s “pro-abortion” viewpoint, an Indiana state legislator has told his fellow Republicans he can’t support a proclamation honoring the organization’s 100th anniversary.

[…]

The proclamation, as the newspapers says, “applauded the group ‘for the strong positive influence it has had on the American woman.’ ”

But Morris, saying he “did a small amount of web-based research,” claims to have found that the Girl Scouts has “a close strategic affiliation with Planned Parenthood.” He makes that assertion even as he concedes “you will not find evidence of this on the [Girl Scouts’] website — in fact, the websites of these two organizations explicitly deny funding Planned Parenthood.”

All in all, according to Morris, the Girl Scouts is an organization that’s “been subverted in the name of liberal progressive politics and the destruction of traditional American family values.”

You just can’t make this stuff up.

Santorum and Gingrich Pass Graham’s Christian Smell Test: Obama Not So Much

22 Wednesday Feb 2012

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This is exactly the kind of hypocrisy, judgementalism, and not-so-thinly veiled racism that drove me away from organized religion. Franklin Graham on Morning Joe, when ask whether or not he believes President Obama is a Christian, first says “I cannot answer that question for anybody,” then goes on to do just that about Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich. From Think Progress:

So Mr. Graham is sure about the Christianity of Gingrich the serial adulterer, and Santorum, the man whose “values are so clear on moral issues,” never mind that his stance on those moral issues changed for political expedience,  but the monogamous black guy with the funny name  not so much. That guy might be a seekrit Mooslim:

“Islam sees him as a son of Islam because his father was a Muslim, his grandfather was a Muslim, great grandfather was a Mulsim and so under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as a Muslim,” Graham said, before explaining that he could not rule out the possibility that Obama may secretly be Muslim. “I can’t say categorically [that Obama is not a Muslim] because Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama,” he said.”

You might want to check with Osama bin Laden about that “free pass,” Rev.