"The Republican Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the insurance industry."

At least one Democrat is not a wimp: Anthony Weiner.

Two Worlds: Fans of Joseph Andrew Stack and the son of Vernon Hunter

As reported by the Associated Press:

Authorities say Stack, 53, targeted the IRS office building in Austin on Thursday, killing employee Vernon Hunter and himself, after posting a ranting manifesto against the agency and the government. He apparently set fire to his home before flying his plane into the office building.

Hunter's son, Ken Hunter, said he's alarmed by comments that the pilot was a hero.

"How can you call someone a hero who after he burns down his house, he gets into his plane ... and flies it into a building to kill people?" Hunter told ABC." "My dad Vernon did two tours of duty in Vietnam. My dad's a hero."

What follows are messages posted to the wall of Fans of Andrew Joseph Stack on Facebook as of approximately 3:30 p.m. CST today.

Gustavo Rodríguez Vázquez I believe that Governments are merely tax collectors to fleece the citizen who is the only added value generated through their work. This situation creates more poverty and unemployment and governments only offer greater tax burden to try to reduce what in reality is a systemic crash. Each day there will be more Andrew Joseph Stack willing to fly an airplane or more Santiago Mainar (a Spain (Europe) hero) willing to end Government pressure with a shotgun.
2 hours ago · Report

Hilary Fox DIE GOVERNMENT SCUM. THE IRS IS POND SCUM. COLLECTING INCOME TAX IS ILLEGAL.
7 hours ago · Report

Mauricio Fernandez i believe that our fellow hero is the first of many occurenses yet to come. until then, i salute you Mr. Stack, someone who died for what he believed in; a true american
Yesterday at 10:05pm · Report

Ann Willette Andrew Joseph Stack has brought to the forefront the issues surrounding millions of US citizens who have been inflicted by the injustices of the IRS and the US government and I applaud his action to bring this plight to the attention of the nation. It is sad he took with him a civilian, whose son says his father would have helped. There is no help from an IRS employee - they are bound to uphold the law as enacted by Congress. There are people trying to feed their families after being garnished by the IRS - at the tune of $154 per week. An impossibility by any standard. But, if you aren't born in this country and you manage to get here, you are entitled to "rights" that the US population does not have, but who must pay taxes for. For his courage, I applaud Andrew Joseph Stack.
Yesterday at 7:59pm · Report

Michael Joseph Serafin God Bless Mr. Stack. This Goverment Has Lost Touch With The People That Elected Them!
Yesterday at 6:18pm · Report

Sayyid Zakaria He was a great man. He was Hero. No one should pay more than 5% in tax. the govn. use tax money for stupid war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yesterday at 5:54pm · Report

Jeffrey Swihart Joseph Andrew Stack. Everyone wants to paint this guy as a kook, you guys should know better than to jump to conclusions. He had a family, a home, a plane. Kook's dont have those things. I read his paper (manifesto), nothing commy there. Just a man who had taken all he could take. I under stand that thinking. I'm not saying he didn't go off the deep end, he did. But out of the blue? just because? Every time somthing like this happens they want to cry CRAZY.... Every single time?, I don't think so. I'm quickly approching the edge my self. I know what that feels like. Afraid, desperite, alone, betrayed, angry.
Yesterday at 2:34pm · Report

Kelly Mcbride Today I heard a stroy about a man who bulldozed his home instead of letting the bank foreclose on it. But our tax dollars will be used to bail out the bank and all will be fine...except for the poor taxpayer that now has no home. http://www.myfoxla.com/dpps/news/dpgoh-man-bulldozes-home-to-send-bank-message-fc-20100222_6196364
Yesterday at 12:06pm · Share · Report

Joe Dzurinda Last week when it happened I said Joseph Stack was a hero. That day should be a holiday. Unlike his daugher I have no remorse for the person he took with him. As far as I'm concerned IRS employees are not human beings. In my opinion Joseph missed 199.
Yesterday at 11:28am · Report
Mauricio Fernandez likes this.

Gustavo Rodríguez Vázquez In Spain (Europe) we have our own Andrew Joseph Stack, his name is Santiago Mainar and fight for the rights of the citizens and his inalienable sphere of individual freedom.
Yesterday at 3:56am · Report

Kelly Mcbride Let's see how long this one lasts. By the way, freedom of speech is one of those rights that the administration has been ignoring of late. The right of the people to peaceably assemble is limited even in cyberspace. C'mon Americans, don't let it go on any longer. I don't suggest violence, just a firm discipline of the wayward children we call our government.
Sun at 10:58pm · Report

Update: as of approximately 10 a.m. CST Wednesday, Fans of Andrew Joseph Stack on Facebook is history. I hope Jeffrey Swihart and others like him get the help they need.

Sandy Levinson: "The stench of fascism"

The New York Times reports that Glenn Beck, in his closing speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, described "progressivism" as a cancer, "the disease in America." Let there be no doubt that this is nothing more than the stench of fascism, which relies on treating one's political opponents as what Carl Schmitt, the great (I use that word advisedly) Weimar political theorist (who ended up supporting Hitler's takeover in 1933), termed "enemies" who were viewed ultimately as subhuman (as "cancers" are), ulutimately fit to be eradicated "by any means necessary." Forget Newt Gingrich, who also spoke, and who, by contemporary standards, is almost a reasonable elder statesman of the GOP, actually willing to work, on occasion, with Hillary Clinton. The voice of way too much of contemporary "conservatism" (the scare quotes are also deliberate, because it is an insult to "conservatives" to say that they are necessarily fascists) is fascistic.

Beck and his ilk feel free to call on Democrats to denounce anyone who strays from a quite narrow "political correctness." Jessie Jackson is still being criticized, after his many apologies, for his "hymietown" remark of 1984. God help us if Barack Obama were ever discovered to have written a term paper at Occidental in which he argued that there might be something to be said for "socialism." But Republicans say nothing. They are truly "useful idiots," who are counting on their ability to rein in Glenn Beck (and Sarah Palin) before they destroy the country. It is past time for Republicans to be called on whether or not they tolerate millions of their fellow citizens being called "cancers" and "diseases." We are indeed in a true moment of cultural and political warfare, in which Glenn Beck has made very clear that he has no regard whatsoever for the most basic notions of civility (which begin by granting the possibility that one's opponents simply disagree rather than are "cancers" to be ripped out of the body politic).

What "Beckism" presages is more terrorist violence like that conducted in Austin, Texas, where a demented citizen flew into an IRS building and killed a true American "hero" a/k/a known as a public servant who had dedicated his life to tax collection. One might remember that Justice Holmes called taxes "the price we pay for civilization." Part of our move toward fascism is to view as "heroes" only those who carry guns and are prepared to risk their lives while preparing to inflict fatal violence on others. We must recognize that all public servants are, in their own ways, "heroes." The Republican Party for the past generation has systematically viewed all public servants, save for the military, as chumps, who if they had any real talent, would be working in the private sector (perhaps in Goldman Sachs, etc.). I truly fear for our country.

Lightly edited by Φ

Source: http://balkin.blogspot.com/2010/02/stench-of-fascism.html

Ban on flying airplanes into buildings reconsidered

Steve King: Congressman, propagandist, terrorist sympathizer

As you are probably already aware, a man recently flew a small airplane into an office building in Austin, Texas, with the intention of attacking Internal Revenue Service offices there. Stack and an I.R.S. employee died.

You might think that Republicans and conservatives—you know, the law-and-order crowd—would have a problem with this sort of terroristic behavior. After all, what really is the difference between Stack and, say, Timothy McVeigh, that prick who destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, besides knowledge of an example set by 19 other pricks on 9/11?

But you would be wrong.

Stack's daughter, Samantha Bell, has called Stack a hero. According to the Associated Press, Bell "called her father a hero for his anti-government views but said his actions, which killed an IRS employee, were 'inappropriate.'"

And even Steve King, Republican member of the House of Representatives, has expressed sympathy for Stack. You might remember King as one of the pricks who publicly and conspicuously carried large stacks of paper around with them in protest of Democratic health reform legislation last year. According to King,

I think if we’d abolished the IRS back when I first advocated it, he wouldn’t have a target for his airplane. And I’m still for abolishing the IRS, I’ve been for it for thirty years and I’m for a national sales tax. [...] It’s sad the incident in Texas happened, but by the same token, it’s an agency that is unnecessary and when the day comes when that is over and we abolish the IRS, it’s going to be a happy day for America.

Stack even has his own fan page on Facebook. Scott Langert is the creator of the page. You can contact him to let him know what you think of his activities on Facebook.

I seem to remember Ari Fleischer telling me to watch what I say and do. I guess that applies only when Republicans are in power.

Update: Clyburn Denounces King For Making Excuses For IRS Attack (VIDEO)

Pull the Reconciliation Trigger

In this interesting column, Robert Reich argues that Democrats ought to use the reconciliation process to pass health care reform in the Senate. This would allow them to pass the legislation with only 51 votes instead of the 60 that would be needed to jump procedural hurdles that Republicans have threatened.

It's worth reading. Here, for example, are some facts Reich mentions that you might not be aware of:

George W. Bush used reconciliation to enact his giant tax cut bill in 2003 (he garnered only 50 votes for it in the Senate, forcing Vice President Cheney to cast the deciding vote). Six years before that, Bill Clinton rounded up 51 votes to enact the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the largest expansion of taxpayer-funded health insurance coverage for children in the U.S. since Medicaid began in the 1960s. Through reconciliation, we also got Medicare Advantage. Also through reconciliation came the COBRA act, which gives Americans a bit of healthcare protection after they lose a job ("reconciliaton is the "R" in the COBRA acronym.) These were all big, important pieces of legislation, and all were enacted by 51 votes in the Senate.

Now, people talk about reconciliation as if it is some sort of nuclear option. It's not. Reich deals with other arguments against using reconciliation. The only remaining argument, I think, would be that Democrats simply don't have the guts to make health care reform happen.

Just do it.

The health care summit may be useful as political theater, but we're not likely to accomplish anything there. Just today, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor called the White House health care reform bill a "non-starter," and that bill doesn't even have a public option in it. The Party of No will never say yes.

Just Freaking do it.

Update: Reid: GOP Should 'Stop Crying About Reconciliation'

George Will's mental breakdown continues

George Will continues to wallow in the partisan mud.

Check out this segment of the roundtable discussion on ABC's This Week today. Will was asked to comment on film of Sen. Evan Bayh's announcement that he would not run again for this Senate seat. Here's a partial transcript:

Bayh: There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress. Too much narrow ideology, and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the peoples' business is not getting done.

Moran: Is he right, George?

Will: Well, it's hard to take a lecture on bipartisanship from a man who voted against the confirmation of chief justice Roberts, the confirmation of Justice Alito, the confirmation of Attorney General Ashcroft, the confirmation of Condoleeza Rice, the Secretary of State. Far from being a rebel against his party's lockstep movement, Mr. Bayh voted for the Detroit bailout, for the stimulus, for the public option in the health care bill. I don't know quite what his complaint is.

Will's response to Bayh's criticism of the Senate is to claim that Bayh is just as partisan as anyone else he might be criticizing. That is, in answer to Moran's question whether Bayh's claims about the Senate are correct, Will attacks Bayh—not what Bayh said, but Bayh himself. Now, I loathe hypocrisy as much as the next person, but this is a freaking fallacy, plain and simple. They call it an ad hominem, or attack against the person, in rudimentary critical thinking textbooks. Rather than address the truth or falsity of Bayh's criticism, Will simply attacks Bayh. Even if Bayh is guilty of the very partisanship he decries, his diagnosis of the gridlock in Washington may be entirely correct.

So what explains Will's intellectual lapse? Well, what choice does he have? Bayh is right; it is abundantly clear that Republicans are to blame for the gridlock; Will is allied with the Republican Party. So the only thing he can do is distract you by bringing up something completely irrelevant.

Hey, George: that shit belongs on Fox. Stop ruining my Sunday morning show, all right?

Q: Bush deficit bad, Obama deficit good? A: Elder column terrible.

The self-proclaimed Sage of South Central needs to matriculate.

Or he could control his urge to lie by omission.

In "Bush deficit bad, Obama deficit good?" Larry Elder accuses New York Times columnist Paul Krugman of hypocrisy. That is, an hypocrisy that I'm confident exists only in Elder's simple-minded conservative fantasyland.

The World Nut Daily columnist claims that it is hypocritical of Krugman, a Nobel prize-winning economist, to attack the Bush II deficits and yet defend the Obama deficits:

Questions: Didn't Krugman, less than six years ago, call the deficit "enormous"? Wouldn't he, therefore, consider a $1.5 trillion deficit at 10 percent of GDP mega-normous? Didn't he describe the economy with 5.5 percent unemployment as "weak"? Isn't the current economy, at 9.7 percent unemployment, even weaker? If the 2004 deficit was "comparable to the worst we've ever seen in this country," wouldn't today's much bigger deficit cause even more heartburn?

Nope. Now a huge deficit is actually a good thing: "The point is that running big deficits in the face of the worst economic slump since the 1930s is actually the right thing to do. If anything, deficits should be bigger than they are because the government should be doing more than it is to create jobs." The deficit "should be bigger"?!

Therein lies the answer to your questions, O Sagely One. No one, except those with a partisan axe to grind, will claim that the economic troubles during the first Bush II administration were anywhere near as serious as our current economic crisis. This is obviously a relevant difference.

If government has any role in managing the economy, it should run surpluses when the economy is growing and deficits when the economy is contracting. This would make it easier for government to stimulate the economy when necessary. Bush II and the Republican Congress chose to run up huge deficits at the wrong time by starting an unnecessary war of choice and making unnecessary cuts in taxes. (It might be argued that the economic effect of the 9/11 attacks required stimulus in the form of tax cuts. But this would not show that Krugman is a hypocrite, again because the threat of the economic impact of the 9/11 attacks was nowhere near the economic threat we faced in 2008.)

It is easy to believe that their real agenda is to force the government to shrink: cutting government services is less unpopular than raising taxes, thanks to the GOP's incessant call to cut taxes in response to virtually every problem. Their current complaints about deficit spending—which many of them failed to make during the previous administration, by the way—represents the next phase of this plan.

I'm not sure that I'm comfortable with the enormous debt we're racking up. But I don't believe that Republicans are being entirely forthcoming about their motivations. And I don't believe that Krugman is being a hypocrite. Rather, the so-called Sage of South Central has, intentionally or otherwise, oversimplified the discussion in order to score political points. This is a common strategy in our civic debate, unfortunately, and our civic debate suffers for it.

Captain America Nails It

According to a Yahoo! News Blog entry, Tea Partiers are taking umbrage to a comic book and have won an apology from Marvel. Brett Michael Dykes describes the content of the comic book in question:

Issue 602 of the comic features Captain America investigating a right-wing anti-government militia group called "the Watchdogs". Hoping to infiltrate the group, Captain America and his African-American sidekick The Falcon observe an anti-tax protest from a rooftop. The protestors depicted are all white and carry signs adorned with slogans almost identical to those seen today in Tea Party rallies like "tea bag libs before they tea bag you" and "stop the socialists."

The Falcon mentions that the gathering appears to be "some kind of anti-tax protest" and notes that "this whole 'hate the government' vibe isn't limited to the Watchdogs." He then tells Captain America that he doesn't think their plan will work because "I don't exactly see a black man from Harlem fitting in with a bunch of angry white folks." Captain America then explains that his plan entails sending The Falcon in among the group posing as an IRS agent under the thinking that a black government official will most certainly spark their anger.

Unfortunately, the Tea Partiers were asking for it.

Tom Tancredo recently spoke at the Tea Party convention in Nashville. And he claimed that Obama was elected because voters did not have to pass a literacy test to vote. Literacy tests were, you'll recall, one tool racists used in the South to violate African Americans' right to vote.

Obviously, we can't assume that Tea Partiers are racist because they invited Tancredo to speak at their little convention.

But I'm not crying into my beer about this kerfuffle either.

"I pledge allegiance to the G.O.P. . . ."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Rachel Maddow calls out Republicans for voting against policies they support simply because President Obama has also expressed support for them. And Maddow has the evidence just in case you need to be convinced. Here's a partial transcript:

Republicans proposed a deficit commission. President Obama endorsed the idea so then Republicans decided they‘re against it.

Republicans proposed pay-as-you-go rules for budgeting. President Obama endorsed the idea. Then Republicans decided they were against it too. Republicans who voted for the bank bailout are now criticizing President Obama for that same bank bailout.

Republicans supported President Bush‘s policy of trying terrorism suspects in U.S. courts. Now that President Obama is implementing that same policy, they decided they‘re against that now, too.

Republicans supported a cap-and-trade policy against global warming. Now that President Obama is trying to pass that same policy, Republicans have decided - say it with me now - they‘re against that, too.

See the pattern here? What Republicans are doing on policy is no longer interesting. It is so thoroughly unrelentingly, consistently predictable that anyone who thinks it‘s an open question as to what Republicans are going to do about the next legislation that‘s proposed just is not paying attention.

Maddow documents at great length Republicans voting against the stimulus and yet defending the use of stimulus money in their home districts as good policy. Lisa Lerer of Politico has also documented this example of Republican hypocrisy.

Why would Republicans do this?

They are loyal to the Republican Party first. Remember McCain's "Country First" campaign slogan? A complete crock.

Maddow's advice to Democrats?

Charging [Republicans] with hypocrisy, appealing to their better, more practical, more what‘s-best-for-the-country patriotic angels is like trying to teach your dog to drive.

It wastes a lot of time. It won‘t work. And ultimately the dog comes out of the exercise less embarrassed for failing than you do for trying. Grow up, Democrats. Face the music. Do it alone. You‘re the majority. Kill the filibuster if they won‘t let you use that majority. The country needs you to.

I couldn't agree more.

Show transcript: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35331019/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/

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