Nutjobs Continue to Rule GOP

The U.S. failed to ratify the UN Disabilities Act (based on the American Disabilities Act signed by Bush the father in 1990). Conservative home schoolers (you know, the crazies who withdraw their children from real schools that teach science and civics) are deathly afraid the UN treaty would require them to make their homes wheelchair accessible! They also fear black helicopters and UN erosion of American sovereignty. As a result of a massive call-in campaign by home schoolers, and the predispositions of their numbskull representatives, the treaty failed to get the required votes to be be ratified by the U.S.

Just how backward can the GOP get??? We'll have to wait and see.

http://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/...s/?ref=opinion

http://thehill.com/video/senate/2712...ap-in-the-face

Noam Chomsky, from 2011, on the state of American politics. Particularly the outlandish nature of the Republican Party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtRTcBLXhAM

Covert Operations

The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama.

by Jane Mayer August 30, 2010

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2...0fa_fact_mayer

I posted that story more than a year ago here. The poisonous influence of the Koch brothers on US politics is a long and well established fact.

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Originally Posted by Prospero

I posted that story more than a year ago here. The poisonous influence of the Koch brothers on US politics is a long and well established fact.

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Fair enough. But are the Koch brothers "nutjobs" or, more likely, a sinister force using their money and influence to get the credulous and hopeless on the right of American politics to swamp reason in the GoP through the medium of the Tea Party? If so, the evidence of last month suggests that they need to find a new way of using their money if they want to succeed.

Sheldon Adelson: ‘I’m Basically a Social Liberal’

By Alicia Mundy

http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/im...1204222640.jpgIsaac Brekken for The Wall Street Journal

Sheldon Adelson with his wife, Miriam Adelson, at his office at the Venetian on Monday, Nov. 19, 2012 in Las Vegas.

In a three-hour interview with The Wall Street Journal, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson excoriated President Barack Obama, Democrats and unions, as one would expect of a top donor to conservatives and Republican causes in the 2012 election.
But the billionaire, sitting with his wife Miriam, an Israel-born physician, shared political beliefs that may leave some surprised.
“Look, I’m basically a social liberal, I know nobody will believe that,” Mr. Adelson said, as Dr. Adelson nodded.
“Number one, I’m supporting stem-cell research,” he said, pointing to a chart of the new Adelson medical research foundation that is funding some stem-cell based science.
“I’m pro choice,” he said. Republicans are pro-life, but he and his wife are not pro-life in politics, he said.
“You can take your own religious beliefs …and live your life with your own beliefs. But to make it a portion of the government’s policies?” He shook his head.
“Abortion shouldn’t be brought up as a political issue,” he said.
Mr. Adelson continued on his list of liberal leanings.
On immigration: “I’m pro-Dream Act, I’m pro the Dream Act. My parents were immigrants to this country,” he said. “What are we going to do ? Listen, I’m sure a lot of my parents generation …..snuck onto the ship and they came into the country.
“So – people will do anything to leave massacres and to leave the economic conditions – they can’t put food on their own table.
“There has been in our history a lot of illegal immigration. Do I approve of it? No, but it’s here.
“It would be inhumane to send those people back , to send 12 million people out of this country to disrupt a whole potpourri of family issues” over what happens to the children.
“I mean it’s all ridiculous. So we’ve got to find a way, find a route for those people to get legal citizenship,” he said.
Finally, he said casually: “And by the way I’m in favor of a socialized-like health care.”
Asked he was sure he was in the right party, he and his wife laughed.
“Look, nobody agrees with 100 % of their planks” in the GOP platform, he and Dr. Adelson both said.
His interest in health care comes from his wife, and Israel’s national medical-care system, he said, as well as his Judaism.
“I think that to take care of everybody is part of Tikkun Olam” the Hebrew motto meaning “repair the world,” he said. “And to deprive somebody for money of heath care or [medical] testing is bordering on criminal.”
But he said, “I’m against this Obamacare because it’s making the [medical] decisions based upon money.” If one goes to Israel, he said, one chooses among four or five HMO’s. “You go in there you get all your health care from cradle to grave.”
“When I learned about that [Israeli] system, to my own surprise I said, ‘Oh, I’m in favor of socialized medicine’– which is such a bad word here,” he said.
Why does he favor it? “Because everybody pays” into the system, and the doctors don’t deny the elderly health treatments like hip surgery just because they are old, he said.
He added that he used to be a Democrat—like most Jewish Americans, he noted –until he attended the 1988 Democratic convention. He said he was appalled at the self-interested politicians he says were all over the place.
He then went to the 1992 Republican convention in Houston — where, he said, people were less concerned in what they were going to get from the presidential election, and more focused on helping the country.

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Originally Posted by robertlouis

Fair enough. But are the Koch brothers "nutjobs" or, more likely, a sinister force using their money and influence to get the credulous and hopeless on the right of American politics to swamp reason in the GoP through the medium of the Tea Party? If so, the evidence of last month suggests that they need to find a new way of using their money if they want to succeed.

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The likes of David Koch -- and Charles -- are simply serving their own interests. I mean, David Koch, like Sheldon Adelson, is a social liberal. David Koch supports gay marriage.
I mean, Adelson and David Koch simply want policies like free trade etc, etc. to further their own interests and their financial wealth.
It's not some sort of, well, evil undertaking, as it were.
And, too, they enjoy the game, as it were, of corporate-state-capitalism.

David Koch breaks from GOP on gay marriage, taxes, defense cuts

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80483.html

Pusuing business success is not, in itself, "an evil undertaking" but the dirty tricks of the Koch brothers, their funding of lunatic right wingers and their general tampering and distortion of political processes for their own ends - including the desire to block initiatives to control climate change, to attack any organisation by workers and to try to block any legislation which might inhibit the worst excesses of capitalism are surely enough to make them truly evil and a blight on the face of the US body politic.

Interesting how many leading GOP folks or supporters are suddenly mutating from their core beliefs. Koch now supports gay marriage, the high priest of the evangelical movement Pat Robertson suddenly says he no longer accepts young earth creationism, Adelson describing himself as a social liberal and Fox News put new rules in place before Rove can appear on their channel.

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Originally Posted by Prospero

Pusuing business success is not, in itself, "an evil undertaking" but the dirty tricks of the Koch brothers, their funding of lunatic right wingers and their general tampering and distortion of political processes for their own ends - including the desire to block initiatives to control climate change, to attack any organisation by workers and to try to block any legislation which might inhibit the worst excesses of capitalism are surely enough to make them truly evil and a blight on the face of the US body politic.

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"... are surely enough to make them truly evil."

Is Capitalism Always Good for Democracy? - Robert Reich

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCMIgzSWkeU

oh, and leftist shitbags are not nuts?

Pull my finger.

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Originally Posted by beandip

oh, and leftist shitbags are not nuts?

Pull my finger.

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Thank you for that carefully thought out contribution.

Meanwhile.....

beadip - a thinker for our times

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Originally Posted by beandip

oh, and leftist shitbags are not nuts?

Pull my finger.

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This is, perhaps, a bit off-topic, but the other day I was considering the "both sides equally bad" argument, and the Hastert Rule occurred to me.

For those who may be unfamiliar, Dennis Hastert was Speaker of the House from 1999-2007, until Republican lost the majority and Hastert was succeeded by Nancy Pelosi. In 2004, Hastert instituted a policy that became known as the Hastert Rule. As Speaker, Hastert would not allow any legislation to come to the House floor for a vote unless it could be assured a majority vote of the Republican majority, a majority of the majority. Boehner maintains the Hastert Rule.

In other words, the Republican-controlled House will not allow a vote on any legislation that cannot be passed exclusively with Republican votes. So if Majority Whip McCarthy can only come up with 217 Republican votes on a bill, even if a single Democratic House member agrees to vote yes to put the bill over the top, the Speaker will not allow that bill to come up for a vote. It has to be 218 Republican votes, or none. If Minority Whip Hoyer miraculously pulls together the entire Democratic caucus, all 201 members, plus 17 Republican moderates, that bill, with support of a numerical majority of the House of Representatives, will not be brought to the floor by the Speaker. A vote will not be allowed.

No such policy exists on the Democratic side of the aisle.

So Beandip, would you say that the Hastert Rule encourages or discourages partisanship?

Explains why Congress can't even pass a napkin, let alone a bill.

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Originally Posted by trish

Explains why Congress can't even pass a napkin, let alone a bill.

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We need a more Ukrainian-like parliamentary system -- :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD0XZlxKuig

Kiev: Fighting in the parliament

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFwdIO-ej8

Two party fraud. But hey, it's 2012 "we voted out the hate"


Hahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha

Keep dreamin'

Pelosi "we have to pass it before we read it'?

Yup....Jenius with a J right there...LOL.

and...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNZczIgVXjg

must be the second coming of Einstein there....

How will the GOP Re-invent Itself for 2016? - YouTube

Both sides of the isle are run fucking morons backed by deep pocket special interests. Stop trying to claim one side to be holier than thou.

There's only one side that's against teaching evolution and climate science. Only one side that wants to force women to have transvaginal ultrasound probes if they seek an abortion, only one party that thinks some sort of Middle Eastern god defined marriage for everyone. Only one party that voted against extending aid to New Jersey when it was struck by one of the worst hurricanes in a decade. Just look at the clowns that ran in the presidential primary. You guys are NUTS!

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Originally Posted by trish

There's only one side that's against teaching evolution and climate science. Only one side that wants to force women to have transvaginal ultrasound probes if they seek an abortion, only one party that thinks some sort of Middle Eastern god defined marriage for everyone. Only one party that voted against extending aid to New Jersey when it was struck by one of the worst hurricanes in a decade. Just look at the clowns that ran in the presidential primary. You guys are NUTS!

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Succinctly put... it could have been a much longer litany

Ok, so you just proved that your a left wing hack and any civil discussion will go haywire. I don't trust either side despite their intentions.

But if bowing down to a political party helps you sleep at night, so be it. Just don't expect that reciting talking points will make you sound intelligent.

Except that eccentric is a GOP guy and isn't admitting it. I noticed the complaints about the mainstream media and race-baiting in the other thread. Then there were the complaints about the federal reserve needing to be audited. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, then it's a duck. You say both sides are problematic because it's the only way you can sound reasonable.

There are also some arguments that sound so preposterous on their face that you know where they're coming from. For instance, when someone says "race card" or "race-bait" instead of saying they don't think there's adequate evidence to support a charge of racism, it sounds intellectually lazy. But it's little phrases like this that sort of reveal political allegiances to anyone who pays attention. Not too many Democrats are going to hear the subject of race and racism discussed intelligently and say, "what, are you playing the race card?".

The argument about the federal reserve is also an argument we hear from certain segments of the GOP. They care a lot about fiscal responsibility when recommending program cuts. They don't care about fiscal responsibility when discussing military spending. They also care a lot about the budget when discussing social security but again nothing about the budget when discussing capital gains taxes, estate taxes, or marginal tax rates.

But maybe I'm wrong. If you're sort of a political hybrid, tell us which of your views are compatible with those of liberals.

When the FED is buying up bonds like there's a fire sale is going on while running QE with no end in sight thus reducing the purchasing power of the dollar, it doesn't matter what your political affiliation is because history & economic fundamentals easily tell you the upcoming results.

But to respond to you your point about race, I am tired of the racial divide in this nation. We focus too much about race and not enough about facts (and to what point those facts actually prove). None of us should be a victim due to the color of our skin.

Quite frankly, I don't roll with any liberal agenda wholeheartedly. Conversely, I'm not a flag waving, war mongering bible banger either. I may be to the right of you, and to the left of another. I believe in strong state government with limited federal oversight. I'm economically conservative, yet socially liberal. Pick me apart from this response but I assure you that you won't prove much of anything.

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Originally Posted by eccentricBlue

Quite frankly, I don't roll with any liberal agenda wholeheartedly. Pick me apart from this response but I assure you that you won't prove much of anything.

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I don't really know what you mean by agendas to be honest. You say you are socially liberal, but the word agenda is attached to imply that there's an underhanded attempt to do something subversive. When liberals don't want homosexuals to be treated like outcasts, this is called the gay agenda. Wanting to have a graduated tax rate is socialism. Thinking legislation should be passed to ensure women are paid the same as men for equal work is a liberal agenda. So is vigorously enforcing the civil rights act. I think the rhetoric I hear from Republicans about liberal agendas is a sort of watered down extension of McCarthyism.

We also hear this stuff about the mainstream media somehow distorting the news, as though the media is one giant monolith. This was the excuse we heard from Sarah Palin after she was sabotaged by Katie Couric who asked her a few softball questions expecting basic political literacy on her part. I really do wonder about some of the shit I hear from Republicans.

The problem with the media is many different media outlets are usually controlled by one person. We get less and less news and more and more propaganda. Investigative journalism is a thing of the past.

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Originally Posted by eccentricBlue

We focus too much about race and not enough about facts (and to what point those facts actually prove).

I believe in strong state government with limited federal oversight.

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Two people are convicted of murder. One is African-American, the other is Caucasian. The African-American has a statistically significantly greater chance of being executed. Mind you they are both murderers. This is a fact and imo should not be ignored as it indicates at the very least unconscious bias pervading our criminal justice system.

If you believe in strong state government, what did you think about DOMA? To me, the federal government should recognize marriages that are licensed within the respective powers of the states. I'm not trying to be mocking but this is a pretty gay agenda. It also jibes with considerations of federalism, at least with respect to section 3 of DOMA.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/i...nalty-and-race

Edit: I like this amnesty article better than the one I had posted.

Republican Loses Dream Of Banning Sodomy - YouTube

It's the Republican base vs. the Republican Establishment.
So:

Louie Gohmert Calls John McCain Al-Qaeda Supporter for Being Honest:

Louie Gohmert Calls John McCain Al-Qaeda Supporter for Being Honest - YouTube

So much for minority outreach...

Cruz Father: Ted Cruz "Anointed" To "Bring the Spoils of War to the Priests"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNa5w9js48s#t=398

Ted Cruz's father rivals Mel Gibson's daddy for the nuttiest pa in the land. Is there any other nutjob father that rivals these two? We should start a list.

Shockingly Honest Admission By Conservative Talk Show Host - YouTube

One of the owners of the GOP, Sheldon Adelson, worth a paltry 34 billion, wants to nuke Iran.

Nuke Iran! says Major Republican Donor, Sheldon Adelson - YouTube

Not sure how much power Bush has in the GOP today but he must have some sway...

George W. Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christ:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/...ible-institute

I see both so-called political parties as essentially the Republican Party. Both serving the super-rich and the billionaire class.

Thom Hartmann explains Republican's 2 Santa strategy - YouTube

Speaking of (corrupt) nutjobs:

Mitch McConnell Is Kentucky Projected Winner - YouTube