Reality- If Not Stranger, at Least Worse than Fiction
Once again, the "real" news outdoes the wingnuts in demonstrating what a screwed up country we live in:
First, Mark "hiking the trail" Sanford- remember him?
"The South Carolina governor announced shortly after federal lawmakers approved the $787 billion Recovery Act that he would not take most of his state's allocated stimulus funds...Sanford — among a handful of other Republican governors — maintained his vocal opposition to the Recovery Act, stressing it would saddle his state with crippling debt once the money spigot dried up...
Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) is requesting his state's share of an education grant authorized as part of last year's stimulus -- a $787-billion pot of money"
Well, as I heard somewhere recently, consistency is the hobgoblin of Democrats.
And remember "Climategate," the crime of the century?
"An academic board of inquiry has largely cleared a noted Pennsylvania State University climatologist of scientific misconduct...The scientist, Dr. Michael E. Mann, has been at the center of a dispute arising from the unauthorized release of more than 1,000 e-mail messages from the servers of the University of East Anglia in England...Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, a skeptic of climate change called for an independent investigation."
Right wingers are already out there screaming away that the fix is in. In the wingnut blogs I read, I've seen about a trillion and a half posts proclaiming that an e-mail sent by Dr. Mann fifteen years ago or so, completely destroyed the value of the couple of thousand peer-reviewed scientific papers supporting the notion of global warming.
I guess it's tough to back out now, fellows. Better to just keep on lying your asses off.
And in case you have forgotten which party really places country first and which doesn't, this lovely story about that great defender of America, Senator Richard Shelby. Oh yes, that would be Republican Senator Richard Shelby, of course:
"Sen. Richard Shelby's (R-AL) office has confirmed to TPMDC the reports that Shelby has placed a hold on President Obama's nominees over a pair of government programs set to be based in Alabama...Among his concerns" are the progress on multi-billion dollar defense contract that would see planes built in Mobile, AL"
This would involve taking the contract away from an American company, Boeing, which won it through a competitive bidding process, and giving it to a foreign company, which will presumably manufacture large parts of it outside the U. S. In other words, taking jobs from Americans and giving them to non-Americans. Oh, and did I mention that Shelby has received large amounts of campaign money from subsidiaries of that foreign company?
And to accomplish that end, Shelby has put a stop to confirmation of all of Obama's appointees, including key appointments at the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
A blanket hold like this has, as far as anyone has been able to discover, only happened once in the history of our country, that time by Larry Craig. And I suspect that was just until Larry could get back from the rest room.
Next, how about this news:
"Washington Post: "The 600 delegates at the National Tea Party Convention feel taxed to death, ignored by their elected representatives and the media, and appalled at the federal government's spending -- and there are millions of Americans just like them."
Really? Millions more? Then how come they could only get 600 people to show up for their big convention? With all of the free publicity they have gotten from the right wing blogosphere and Fox news, I could get more people than that to show up for a free screening of Howard the Duck.
When is someone with a real voice going to point out what a sham this whole teabag nonsense has been, right from the very beginning? What, never? That's what I thought.
And finally this tidbit from the New York Times:
"A Look at America’s New Hope: The Afghan Tribes"
A couple of days ago, when I made fun of the Republicans for enlisting rodents to spread the anti-global warming message, I thought our country couldn't sink any lower. I guess I was wrong.
First, Mark "hiking the trail" Sanford- remember him?
"The South Carolina governor announced shortly after federal lawmakers approved the $787 billion Recovery Act that he would not take most of his state's allocated stimulus funds...Sanford — among a handful of other Republican governors — maintained his vocal opposition to the Recovery Act, stressing it would saddle his state with crippling debt once the money spigot dried up...
Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.) is requesting his state's share of an education grant authorized as part of last year's stimulus -- a $787-billion pot of money"
Well, as I heard somewhere recently, consistency is the hobgoblin of Democrats.
And remember "Climategate," the crime of the century?
"An academic board of inquiry has largely cleared a noted Pennsylvania State University climatologist of scientific misconduct...The scientist, Dr. Michael E. Mann, has been at the center of a dispute arising from the unauthorized release of more than 1,000 e-mail messages from the servers of the University of East Anglia in England...Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, a skeptic of climate change called for an independent investigation."
Right wingers are already out there screaming away that the fix is in. In the wingnut blogs I read, I've seen about a trillion and a half posts proclaiming that an e-mail sent by Dr. Mann fifteen years ago or so, completely destroyed the value of the couple of thousand peer-reviewed scientific papers supporting the notion of global warming.
I guess it's tough to back out now, fellows. Better to just keep on lying your asses off.
And in case you have forgotten which party really places country first and which doesn't, this lovely story about that great defender of America, Senator Richard Shelby. Oh yes, that would be Republican Senator Richard Shelby, of course:
"Sen. Richard Shelby's (R-AL) office has confirmed to TPMDC the reports that Shelby has placed a hold on President Obama's nominees over a pair of government programs set to be based in Alabama...Among his concerns" are the progress on multi-billion dollar defense contract that would see planes built in Mobile, AL"
This would involve taking the contract away from an American company, Boeing, which won it through a competitive bidding process, and giving it to a foreign company, which will presumably manufacture large parts of it outside the U. S. In other words, taking jobs from Americans and giving them to non-Americans. Oh, and did I mention that Shelby has received large amounts of campaign money from subsidiaries of that foreign company?
And to accomplish that end, Shelby has put a stop to confirmation of all of Obama's appointees, including key appointments at the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security.
A blanket hold like this has, as far as anyone has been able to discover, only happened once in the history of our country, that time by Larry Craig. And I suspect that was just until Larry could get back from the rest room.
Next, how about this news:
"Washington Post: "The 600 delegates at the National Tea Party Convention feel taxed to death, ignored by their elected representatives and the media, and appalled at the federal government's spending -- and there are millions of Americans just like them."
Really? Millions more? Then how come they could only get 600 people to show up for their big convention? With all of the free publicity they have gotten from the right wing blogosphere and Fox news, I could get more people than that to show up for a free screening of Howard the Duck.
When is someone with a real voice going to point out what a sham this whole teabag nonsense has been, right from the very beginning? What, never? That's what I thought.
And finally this tidbit from the New York Times:
"A Look at America’s New Hope: The Afghan Tribes"
A couple of days ago, when I made fun of the Republicans for enlisting rodents to spread the anti-global warming message, I thought our country couldn't sink any lower. I guess I was wrong.
Comments
This guy Richard Shelby: why is he not the target of some kind of censure process for conflict of interest? Why is he not being stood down or suspended from Congressional duties?
I don't get it. If a politician did that here, he or she would be smashed into the fifth dimension. There'd be royal commission, or senate inquiry, or parliamentary review, and/or a federal police investigation... something.
It's because he is a Republican. Yes, what he is doing is a mixture of corruption and betrayal of our country, but somewhere along the way, it was decided that it's okay if you are a Republican.
Once Ronald Reagan saw to it that the press in this country could fall into the hands of right wing rich people, he made it essentially impossible for enough Americans to know what was going on to see to it that it was stopped. The Republicans learned their lesson from Nixon, which was not to act honorably, but to see to it that they couldn't be held accountable for the far worse behavior they have engaged in since then.
Nothing, apparently, because Republicans have been doing things far worse than this for thirty years now, without any serious consequences. Once Reagan got away with open treason in the Iran-Contra affair, what would stop the Republicans from doing anything, no matter how abominable?