RedState stuck on spin cycle

It is good once in a while to remind ourselves how wild the spin from the right can be.

Erick Erickson at RedState has found a way to blame Democrats for Sen. Bunning's obstruction of a measure to extend unemployment benefits, Medicare payments, and highway programs. No, I am not making this up:

What Bunning is doing is merely objecting to a unanimous consent request. The Democrats could very easily vote on the pending matter instead of trying to get 100% of the vote.

And isn’t it funny. The Democrats are trying to get 100 votes in the Senate to agree to extend unemployment benefits while also complaining that they have to get 60 votes to pass health care.

Erickson is so committed to this spin that he's asking, "Why does Harry Reid hate the unemployed?"

If "Democrats could very easily vote on the pending matter," then why would Bunning go to the trouble of objecting to the request? What would be the point?

According to Andrew Taylor of the Associated Press,

Democrats want to pass the measure with the unanimous permission of all senators, a common tactic to speed non-controversial measures through the notoriously balky Senate. Otherwise it could take almost a week to slog through the procedural steps required to take up the measure and defeat Bunning's filibuster.

Blaming Harry Reid for this situation is like blaming the rape victim for dressing provocatively. Bunning must take responsibility for his own actions. Conservatives might not agree with that, of course. For eight years, they crafted spin for a president and a party that was incapable of accepting responsibility for anything.

That was pretty pathetic, RedState. I feel a bit sorry for those of you who work such long hours defending Bunning and all the rest of the clowns on the right. Well, now that I think about it, I don't.

Keep brewing that coffee. You're going to need it.

To hell with due process, let's kill some people!

According to Nick Wing of The Huffington Post,

Keep American Safe, the brainchild of Liz Cheney released a new video Tuesday challenging the loyalties of Justice Department lawyers who "represented or advocated for terrorist detainees" during the Bush administration. . . .

"Holder has hired lawyers who used to represent terrorists to work in President Obama's Justice Department, and he won't tell the American people who they are," Keep America Safe spokesman Michael Goldfarb told Politico's Ben Smith. "These lawyers did far more than represent criminals. They have propagandized on behalf of our enemies, engaging in a worldwide smear campaign against the CIA, the U.S. military and the United States itself while we are at war" (emphasis mine).

Read the entire story.

Since when did representing alleged criminals become a bad thing?

Oh, that's right. . . . When Bush II and the Republican-led Congress passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Here's my question: how can Liz Cheney question the loyalties of Justice Department lawyers when it is Cheney herself that either doesn't understand the Constitution or doesn't care what it says?

Hey, Liz: if anyone is the traitor, it is you. That you would subvert the rule of law to keep your father, a war criminal, from being prosecuted is contemptible.

Republicans take their ball and go home

WASHINGTON — The filibuster – tool of obstruction in the U.S. Senate – is alternately blamed and praised for wilting President Barack Obama's ambitious agenda. Some even say it's made the nation ungovernable.

Maybe, maybe not. Obama's term still has three years to run.

More certain, however: Opposition Republicans are using the delaying tactic at a record-setting pace.

Read the full Associated Press Story.

The "Mike" Johanns-bot executes most recent programming

The "Mike" Johanns-bot as seen in 2008 before its most recent software upgrade.
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewhite/3005624472/

Below is an article by Don Walton of the Lincoln Journal-Star about Sen. "Mike" Johanns-bot's comments on the use of reconciliation to pass health care reform in the Senate.

You might remember the Johanns-bot's gig with the previous administration as Android Secretary of Agriculture. Nebraskans overwhelmingly elected it to serve in the United States Senate, which is pretty generous, considering the incredible mess it and the rest of the Bush administration made of the country. When you consider how red the Cornhusker state is, though, it makes perfect sense.

Anyway, the Johanns-bot has been recently reprogrammed, and it is now mindlessly executing its new programming as it interacts with the news media. I'll reproduce Walton's story here together with my comments.

Sen. Mike Johanns said Thursday the best conclusion to President Barack Obama's health care reform summit would have been a pledge not to seek Senate approval using the so-called reconciliation process.

That procedure would allow enactment by a Senate majority of 51 votes, bypassing the need to acquire 60 votes to break a Republican filibuster.

Comprehensive health care reform "should not be rammed through" by using a process that was designed to control spending, Johanns said.

It appears that certain facts have not been downloaded to the Johanns-bot. Reconciliation has been used 22 times since 1980. Republicans have themselves used reconciliation, and the Android senator belongs to the Republican Party. In addition, Republicans have made the use of reconciliation necessary, since they refuse to vote for any health care reform supported by Democrats and have threatened use of the filibuster. In fact, it may be safely said that Republicans are abusing the filibuster, so the Johanns-bot's insistence on the rules of the Senate in the present case is quite amusing. Apparently, the Johanns-bot's database does not include these important facts.

Reconciliation "bypasses thoughtful consideration of legislation," he said.

"Let's just take reconciliation off the table," the Republican senator said, and seek bipartisan agreement through discussion and debate.

"Nothing would clear the air more," Johanns said during a telephone conference call from Washington as the health care reform conference was winding down.

Again, the Johanns-bot is mindlessly executing its programming by repeating Republican talking points. Both houses of Congress have been working on health care reform for a year, so it is rather implausible to claim that the resulting legislation has not been thoughtfully considered. Clearly, the Johanns-bot is either incapable of rudimentary logic (as is many of his Republican colleagues) or it is simply malfunctioning. Further, it has been programmed to recognize a Democratic victory as a threat to the Republican Party to which it owes everything, including its many software upgrades. And Democrats could score a victory by passing health care reform through reconciliation. The Johanns-bot promises bipartisan agreement if reconciliation off the table, but it is programmed to avoid bipartisan activity at all costs.

Obama told congressional leaders at the summit he believes the public isn't too interested in Senate procedures.

"I think most Americans think that a majority vote makes sense," he said.

Johanns said he was "very disappointed" that Obama shaped Thursday's discussion around a modified version of the Democratic bill approved by the Senate in December.

That proposal has been "overwhelmingly rejected" by the American people, he said.

Here again the operation of the Johanns-bot is predicable and reliable, in spite of potential problems with its central processing unit. It has been programmed to state that Democratic health care bills have been overwhelmingly rejected by the American people even though that contradicts the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll which also indicates that most Americans support many of the features of the bill.

"My hope is all of us can start with a notion that we need to write down on a sheet of paper what we want to achieve," Johanns said.

And that could be "the starting point," he said.

Unfortunately, the Johanns-bot has not downloaded all those health care bills that have been written down on paper. Perhaps it had been deactivated for repairs at some time last year; that would explain why it apparently missed the starting point about a year ago. Whatever the reason for its tenuous grip on reality, the Johanns-bot's programmers are strongly motivated to send it out into the world in its present state: if the Johanns-bot, the McConnell-bot, the Cantor-bot, the Boehner-bot, and others can convince Democrats to scrap a year's worth of hard work and start over, they could delay the passage of health care reform for who knows how much longer.

Source: http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_2a665362-2257-11df-a0d1-001cc4c002e0.html

"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?