Tag: Republican Bamboozlement

Pulling Back the Curtain on GOP Intransigence

Filed in National by on October 7, 2013 56 Comments
Pulling Back the Curtain on GOP Intransigence

The NYT Sunday provides great reporting on how the GOP developed a detailed plan to invoke this budget crisis just so they could derail Obamacare.  Starting with a letter that called for keeping the sequester cuts AND for defunding Obamacare, the GOP has had a scorched earth plan in place to try to get their way for most of this year:

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Republicans Are No Longer the Party of Business

Filed in National by on October 4, 2013 2 Comments
Republicans Are No Longer the Party of Business

That is the remarkable title from an article in BloomburgBusinessweek:

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Welcome to the GOP Government Shutdown

Filed in National by on October 1, 2013 1 Comment
Welcome to the GOP Government Shutdown

As of today, the great government of the United States is shut down, but guess what? You can buy health insurance on the exchanges today, because it is the law today. This bit of stupidity is courtesy of the teajhadis in the House. The NYDN gives this just the right cover today:

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GOP Bamboozlement on SNAP Benefits

Filed in Delaware, National by on August 1, 2013 16 Comments
GOP Bamboozlement on SNAP Benefits

SNAP benefits have been in the news over the past few weeks as Congress tries to pass a Farm Bill. The Senate passed a bill that made some cuts to the SNAP program, while the House separated SNAP from the Farm Bill and proceeded to cut SNAP so that 5 million people would no longer be eligible for food support. The GOP ( including the locals who don’t have much to say other than to repeat the talking points sent to them each day, and the media, unfortunately) are pushing messaging that tries to link the SNAP program with economic recovery. This messaging ignores some key points….

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Vance Phillips Pleads the Fifth

Filed in Delaware by on July 17, 2013 5 Comments
Vance Phillips Pleads the Fifth

At least that is what is being reported in the Cape Gazette today. You’ll remember that Phillips is being accused of sexually assaulting a campaign staffer in 2011 — repeatedly. So much for looking forward to Phillips telling his side of the story — as his legal team claimed he was eager to do.

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The Whitesplaining Rand Paul

Filed in National by on April 11, 2013 1 Comment

So Rand Paul went to Howard University yesterday to speak to the student body in what was billed as an outreach to minority and young voters. The GOP has gotten alot of press since November making it very plain that the structural problem with their party is its lack of appeal to minority and young voters. Rand Paul apparently sees himself as helping to fix this problem — first by actually going to the audience the GOP needs to start engaging, and then relying on the media to brand this as a libertarian outreach. The latter is important because it makes Paul look like a leader in a rebranding effort — making the GOP more libertarian — while still pursuing the same GOP goals on behalf of corporations and rich people. And trying to call those goals “freedom” and “opportunity”.

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Imagine if Head of MSNBC Had Done This

Filed in National by on December 4, 2012 14 Comments

Bob Woodward reported in the Washington Post yesterday that Roger Ailes had approached General David Petraeus with some political career advice:

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In Which We Find John Stapleford Blaming Black and Brown People for Big Government

Filed in National by on November 28, 2012 10 Comments

That was the nicest title I could come up with after reading this new bit of stupidity from John Stapleford of the brain dead CRI. Titled What role does government aid play in elections?, we find Stapleford trying to gin up some numerical proof for Mitt Romney’s claim that Obama won because he gave out gifts to key voter groups. And as usual for Stapleford, he produces a ton of numbers that aren’t sourced anywhere, counting on readers not to notice and counting on readers to not ask questions about the numbers he provides. In other words, it is the usual CRI bullshit. And I want to know how he gets paid for this. Seriously. And explain to me how it is that wingnut welfare — which Stapleford is clearly a beneficiary of — isn’t it’s own gift to the angry white people being paid to push this bullshit to people who really need better information than this. Because I’d bet ALOT OF MONEY that the number of wingnut welfare recipients that voted for Mitt Romney approaches 100%.

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Paul Ryan Using the Poor as a Prop

Filed in National by on October 15, 2012 5 Comments

It never ceases to amaze me that these people just don’t get it. In an effort to humanize Ryan, the Romney campaign had Ryan and his family stop at a soup kitchen in Youngstown, Ohio last week. There was no advance notice to the venue ( Mahoning County St. Vincent De Paul Society), no asking of permission, no coordination of schedules — Ryan and his family and entourage just showed up

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Sher Valenzuela In the Disinformation Bubble

Filed in Delaware by on October 15, 2012 15 Comments

This post is to rescue this great comment from today’s Open Thread:

Sher Valenzuela blamed George Soros for releasing the information about her company, First State Manufacturing, and the millions in government loans and grants that it takes, when she was on Delaware 105.9 this morning with Gaffney. [more…]

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The Price of Lying

Filed in National by on October 12, 2012 6 Comments

One of the longstanding themes of this blog is the astonishing mendacity of the Republican Party, how out of balance that mendacity is within the current political discourse (I mean, damn, we expect politicians to lie, but these guys never stop) and the media’s complicity in laundering those lies. This cycle, there has been some effort to point out the lies, misstatements and inconsistencies — at least in reporting on the results of factchecking organizations or giving your own factcheckers a highlighted role in a reporting package. Lies aren’t often named as such — you get lots of euphemisms, especially from the fact checking organizations who don’t want to be seen using the apparently more emotionally charged word — lie. I wondered if the cumulative effects of the factchecking, a tough primary which featured Republicans calling each other liars, Democratic efforts to sow doubts and Rmoney’s persistently low ratings for honesty were starting to take a toll when I saw this piece from TPM on Tuesday

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More Delaware GOP FAIL

Filed in National by on October 3, 2012 10 Comments

The hapless Delaware GOP has decided to show the world just how toothless they currently are by deciding to try to gin up some pressure on Governor Jack Markell to not take a job that he doesn’t have an offer for yet. Seriously — this is what they want to talk about *today*. Remember, Politico posted up their highly speculative article, guessing that Gov. Markell would be selected for Secretary of Education in President Obama’s second term on September 14 (and Delaware Dem wrote about it the same day). 19 days later, GOP Chair Siglar and Gov. candidate Jeff Cragg are haplessly demanding that Governor Markell pledge to serve out his full term. More weak sauce from the Delaware GOP.

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Go to the UD Sustainable Coastal Community Initiative Meeting in Lewes

Filed in Delaware by on September 26, 2012 5 Comments

The Sustainable Coastal Community Initiative is meant to be a project where the University of Delaware offers its expertise to help the state’s coastal region to identify its long-term challenges and to work with those communities to develop preferred solutions. The website link here will give you lots more information. There was a community meeting on this project in late August where the 9-12 Patriots unsheathed their tin foil to disrupt this meeting. There is another meeting tonight, and another expectation that these people will show up to disrupt it again.

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