And He Flunks

Thomas Lindaman writes:

With the budget battles in Wisconsin garnering a lot of attention, it's easy to overlook the budget battle going on in Washington, DC, right now. And much like in Wisconsin, the battles are contentious. Democrats and Republicans are fighting over what to cut and how much. Although Republicans have introduced a decent plan to cut over a trillion dollars,
Biggest whopper of 2011 so far.  See below.

but after reading some of the proposed cuts (and noticing some of the things that aren't being cut), I'm have to say Republicans aren't serious about it.

Allow me to step in and offer some suggestions for areas to cut.

Department of Education - Since the inception of the Department of Education, America's educational standards have slipped significantly. Whether it's students who can barely read coming out of high school or watching our math and science scores slide further and further down the list of countries, it's clear the Department of Education is failing. Oh, and when you consider Department of Education funds were used to buy the National Education Association a new office building in DC...it's time to make some serious cuts in their budget.
Sounds like Ron Paul.  "Education is not a right!"

Just because you talk about it in your conservative sewing circles, doesn't make it reality.

The Department of Education being eliminated is about as likely as winning the lottery while being attacked by a polar bear.

The Department of Education direct lending program has been doing it better and cheaper without the private enterprise middle man.

Funny, when Obama wanted to stop federal aid for diploma mills, the geniuses in the radical right were suddenly in favor of funding education.

Thank god the traitorous Pentagon disagrees with cutting education.

Keep cutting education, and businesses won't want to move to your state.
There is never a good reason to eliminate the Department of Education. You absolutely need national, not local, standards of education.

Superfund - The EPA set up this fund as a means to help clean-up efforts at pollution sites. A good idea in theory, but in practice? Not so much. Superfund has constantly been funded, but the number of pollution sites being cleaned is pitiful at best. The list of pollution sites has been growing, but the number of sites actually being cleaned is practically non-existent. Put the clean-up efforts in the hands of private industry and defund Superfund.

 Private industry is what caused the spill in the first place.  Naturally, Lindaman somehow tried and failed to blame the government for it. lol

Department of Defense - Cost overruns aren't unusual for defense spending, but the amounts are obscene. If you're a Republican House member reading this, you honestly don't see a single cent that could be cut in the defense budget? I do, and we need to get a serious grip on our defense spending so we can stop spending $350 on a hammer. That's mini bar prices, kids. Go to Ace Hardware and pick up a hammer for a fraction of that. Then, let's cut a lot more.

 Though I agree we spend too much on defense, the hammer story is not really true.  Just because the movie "Independence Day" said so doesn't mean it's true. lol

Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae - Does anyone really think the government needs any hand in the mortgage industry? After all, the government only caused the current mortgage crisis. Strip them of funding yesterday.
The mortgage crisis came from predatory lending, not Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.  It was DEregulation that caused the mess, not government intervention.  Yet again, Conservatives live in Bizarro World.

National Endowment for the Arts - I appreciate a good dramatic play, opera, or art exhibit as much as anyone. But given how Leftists are the ones who claim to appreciate them far more than a guy like me, maybe they should dip a little deeper into their pockets to support the arts. And why not cut out the middle man (i.e. government) and have them donate directly?
Picking on public funding for the arts is as classless as taunting a midget at an AA meeting.  Leave it to Republicans to cut funds to museums (except Creationist ones, of course).

"After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form. The greatest scientists are artists as well."

"The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think of something that cannot be learned from textbooks."

-Albert Einstein.
But hey, what does he know?

The FCC - What part of "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech" is confusing to the FCC? The very fact it exists defies the Constitution, and the fact it keeps getting funded is absurd.
You have only yourselves to blame for the FCC.
The FCC's entire existence is due to televangelists refusing to stay on their assigned frequencies, deliberately interfering with other broadcasters, and the FCC's predecessor having no enforcement power to deal with the televangelists' shitting all over the airwaves.

See? I've already shaved off billions with only a few suggestions. Come back when you have a serious budget cutting plan, Republicans.

The Republicans aren't going to cut jack shit. 

The House Republican budget adds $6 trillion to the debt.

How was that going to cut a trillion dollars again?

Way to go, Party of Fiscal Responsibility(tm).

Uncivil Unions?

Thomas Lindaman does his usual anti-union claptrap.

It really amuses me that the GOP seems to be building a long term electoral strategy around making villains out of teachers, police, firefighters, nurses, and secretaries. They want to try and convince us that these people are the problem for our budget problems because they make too much money?

The thing is, all normal people know people like this. Just off the top of my head, I can think of a dozen plus teachers, cops, firemen, and government employees that I know, and not a single one of them are rich and stupid. Chances are, most normal people know a dozen people like this too.

How out of touch with working people do you have to be to think that a majority are willing to go along with this?

I've yet to read any of the anti-union shills that post on these right-wing blogs concede that corporate or government demands/tactics are sometimes unreasonable. And certainly none of the "DISMANTLE THE UNIONSGARBL" types are equally calling for the dismantling of corporations and especially public contractors. I didn't realize that union members don't pay taxes!  Oh, they do?

What scares the Republicans is the fact that Conservatives have chronically underfunded and/or raided public pensions to the point where they are a massive liability at all levels of government.

Instead of admitting that it was the Republican politicians of the past that screwed up, and the decent legal thing to do is to raise taxes to pay for the underfunding of pensions... the Republicans are taking this opportunity to union bust.

The GOP really can't even come up with too many people for their followers to hate. They're diseased.

"Well, I didn't hate teachers yesterday, but now that Rush told me to, I fucking hate the ever-loving shit out of them now! I can't stand them! I want to do everything in my power to get them! They should be destroyed and ground into the fucking dirt!"

Remember folks: Unless you are rich, the Republicans absolutely hate you.

"Unions are always the problem!

...unless it's minorities...

...or welfare cases...

...or the homeless...

...or the illegals...

...or people who drink lattes...

Aw hell, let's just generalize it. It's the poor and middle class. The poor and middle class are always the problem!"

Right now, it's public sector workers getting the shaft. In the past it has been, in and the future it will be again, private sector workers. "That guy works for a living and makes more than you! Tear him down!" And the people who have really sucked the blood out of the US will continue to laugh all the way to the bank, with your work and your money.

Don't tear each other down! Unionize.  Organize!

And to the corporations: Don't want union activity to impede your profit? Create a culture (and reputation) that makes it obsolete.  Don't like unions? Don't create a system that gives birth to them.

Fiddle Fiddle Fiddle

Thomas Lindaman writes:

When Barack Obama ran for President in 2008, he promised change. And today, his Administration delivered a big change to our relationship with Israel. In a stunning move reversing years of policy, the Administration announced it would lend support to a UN Security Council statement rebuking Israel for its stance on the settlements in the Gaza Strip. Rumor has it this move was done so the US wouldn't have to veto a UN Security Council resolution by the Palestinians condemning Israel.

Wow. What bold leadership there, huh?

We can debate endlessly over which side is right when it comes to the Gaza Strip, but let's look at some facts.

Here are some facts about Israel, the country we're rebuking:

- Under Israeli law, Muslims have as much freedom as Jewish citizens do, including the right to vote or own a business.

- Although Israel has earned quite a bit of land through military actions, it has given most of the land back through peace treaties.

- Israel has produced numerous Nobel winners in the areas of science and medicine.

- Although the land in Israel is arid, the Israelis have managed to find ways to make the land prosperous.

- Israel is a strong military ally whose form of government is similar to our own in many ways.

- The United States played a sizable role in Israel's reformation in the 1940s.

And we're rebuking these folks?

YEP.  What are you going to do about it?  The fuckers shouldn't be there.  They deserve rebuking.

Sorry, guys... Israel is its own worst enemy.

Let's see some right-wing solutions.  Oh!  Here's one:

Mike Huckabee wants Israel to keep Gaza, and let the Palestinians make a new state from some other country.  That is high-grade retardation from the right.  Never mind that Palestine is their home and has been for centuries.

They don't want some other land. They want their home, the one Israel has decided it deserves and has all the rights in the world to take from them. Never mind if any other country in the world took land like Israel takes from Palestine they'd be charged for war crimes.  It's Zionists like you that caused 9/11 to happen.

Better solution: Give the West Bank territory to Jordan and the Gaza strip to Egypt. Problem solved!

It has to be said again and again, lest someone get confused: The one and only reason right-wingers are in favor of supporting Israel, is because of Armageddon in their Christian book of bullshit, and because they want to stay in good standing with rich Neocons.  They still actually hate Jews because they killed their fictional messiah.

Israel is playing the right-wingers like a fiddle. And in doing so, taking a lot of American cash to basically run amok. Surely we could use that money for something else, right?

Come on, Teabaggers, you know this is wasteful. Call out all those nasty RINOs. All that Israel money could be going for American jobs.

Got A Condo Made Of Stone-A

Thomas Lindaman says Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak isn't going to step down, then he does... the very next day.  Oops!

For damage control, Lindaman has to pull out his usual soundbite of "Obama isn't a leader", accusing him of being indecisive regarding Egypt.

Right-wingers who think these Republicans aren't the ones playing it safe are either quick to forget or simply kidding themselves.  In the grand tradition of chickenhawk right-wing motherfuckers everywhere, the GOP talks a lot but aren't really saying (or doing) anything of substance.

Do you know why people like Lindaman isn't saying what Obama should've done?  Because what the President did, is pretty much what any intelligent President would've been able to do: offer assistance for peaceful resolution, and support for the legal government, while standing for a solution that ends up with less people dead by their own government's forces, and where all parties are represented in the formation of a new government.

Of course, that won't stop right-wing cow-fuckers from waving the flag to support the Freedom Loving Peoples of Egypt, or trying to scare folks about the scary Muslims and trying to make poor analogies to the Iranian Revolution that has little to no relation to the current crisis in Egypt, but in the end, for the GOP candidates, it isn't really an issue, because they are personally powerless to do much, and in the end, it has little to do with the US, and by not engaging the issue, they don't have to admit that there isn't much different really to do.

Right-wing idiots have no idea. Seriously. This was one of the most delicate diplomatic situations we could have possibly faced. Mubarak, though a dictator, was our ally in the war on terror. He was also an ally of Israel. Had we backed the protesters and he then stayed in power, we'd be in deep trouble in the region as far as diplomacy and intelligence gathering goes.

If you look at this in the context of the Bush administration's disastrous "support" for democracy, it is clear as can be that the result of the Egyptian uprising was the best possible outcome. If Obama had come out swinging for the "freedom fighters" in Tahrir Square, or some Reaganesque tripe along those lines, you can bet the dictatorship would have immediately accused the protesters of being foreign agents, with predictable results. (Compare Iran's failed Green Revolution.)

We can support what the protesters want, we can push for a peaceful resolution, and we can condemn the fighting, but we cannot openly back an internal revolution against a legitimate government.  Obama took a hands off approach, but was in favor of the guy stepping down. End result? The guy steps down, Obama gets his end result of choice, and it cost us very little.  The right would have had us make the revolution about us, and not the Egyptians, and that would have made things worse.

Obama did the intelligent thing and let our military and their military talk through the thirty years of back channels to figure out what the hell needed to happen.  The right has no idea how to handle something like this, as they are short-sighted failures when it comes to statesmenship.

Thank Christ this happened while the deliberative (not indecisive) Obama was president instead of Bush or McCain - or, god help us, Palin. Can you imagine?

A peaceful revolution in a Muslim country flies in the face of the 'spread democracy though force' ideology of the right. To make matters worse, Egypt tossed out a guy they were heavy supporters of.

It's a huge embarrassment for the right-wingers. It proved popular revolution can come without the US having to attack, or support a violent anti-government party.

It's a wrench in the Neocon fucked up book of foreign policy. No more grand American narrative about being the peacekeepers, no more fantasies about running roughshod all over brown people to be the white savior of a oppressed but simple mass of people. Nope, they can do it just fine on their own, which means all our of military buildup (justification for our budget wasted on expensive shit that can't stop a jetliner full of people as a terrorist threat) is wasted cash, effort, and time.

Obama played this one just right.  And it absolutely infuriates the right wingers.  Yay!

Thanks, Republicans!

Thomas Lindaman writes about the federal district court judge ruling the health care reform bill as unconstitutional.

The funniest part is when he says Obama was weak because he wanted others to help on it.  Oh, and he wanted Obama to pander to the judge.  Yeah, that'd be a showing of strong leadership there!

Meh, hillbilly Republican redneck district judge toes the party line, pandering to right-wing lunatics.  Didn't stop enforcement or implementation.  The fact that the judge refused to enjoin or suspend the enactment of the law is very telling. He obviously knows his decision doesn't rest on a sound argument and is unwilling to put his ass on the line. He just wanted to stir the pot and make a few headlines by kissing political Neanderthal-ass. The righties are eating it up too.

What's hilarious is that he basically struck down what was pretty much the Republican healthcare package of 1990s. lol

This is an enormous trap for the right wing.  Many classes of citizens have already begun to receive the benefits of HCR. People who could not get insurance now can. Drug benefits for seniors exist that do not exist before. Millions of people will be directly impacted.  Now that is going to be taken away.  By Republicans and nothing but Republicans.  Let's see how this kind of populism works out for them.

The Republicans are protecting the HMOs and have been since Nixon introduced them. HMOs are about making money, not helping patients.

We have the most ass-backward health system in the civilized world, despite being the richest country in the entire world.

How anyone with a brain could be against universal health care is beyond me.

You get sick in Canada? Walk into a hospital and they treat you. Get sick in America? If you can't pay they literally stick you in a taxi cab and drop you off on the side of the road like trash.  And Republicans get off on that.  Loving Christians, all of them.

To think that some people actually believe these low-level wingnutty Federal judges are really putting the brakes on health care reform. Truly adorable.

These rulings will almost certainly be overruled at the circuit courts. I really doubt SCOTUS will want to touch it. Even though the supremes are dominated by Republican judges, they can't easily gut HRC without opening nearly every Federal mandate to successful challenge by the states. There are a hell of a lot of Federal mandates in our legal code, to open them all to successful legal challenge would spell mayhem.

This is a can of worms even our overtly right wing SCOTUS will probably not dare risk opening. Nobody will touch it. There is no way to please everyone and to touch it would only piss a lot of people off. Bad for your political future, bad for your party.

There is absolutely no chance that the US Supreme Court will rule against the individual mandate. It was a provision put in for the benefit of the health insurance industry. Just as the Supreme Court ruled in favor of corporations in the Citizens United case, so shall they rule in favor of the insurance companies regarding the individual mandate.

Ruling against the mandate would only accelerate the health care delivery crisis in this country, and there may very well be a reinvigorated cause for *GASP!* a public health plan. Big health insurance and lobbyist influenced politicians on both sides of the aisle don't want that.

Wake me when the SCOTUS makes a ruling on the matter.  Good luck with that!

Thanks to you hicks, we're now even closer to a public option!  Thanks guys!

UPDATE: Health Care Repeal Is Dead.  HAHAHAHAHAHAA