GOP Sides With Wall Street

Is the GOP not worried about being the "party of no" and the "Wall Street Party?"

"Senate Republicans, united in opposition to the Democrats’ legislation to tighten regulation of the financial system, voted on Monday to block the bill from reaching the floor for debate. As both sides dug in, the battle has huge ramifications for the economy and for their political prospects in this year’s midterm elections."

Arizona Law Changes Dem Agenda

The horrible racist law coming out of Arizona has upended the dem senate agenda and now appears to be causing dems to rethink their agenda. Now, instead of taking on energy, Harry Reid seems determined to take on immigration.

This might be a move by Harry Reid because of his horrible polling showing him trailing his repub opponent.

I am not sure if that is Reid's agenda but this is a HUGE hot button issue and has to be done perfectly. If not, the American people will only become more angry and the government. Tread lightly Mr. Reid

Republicans Hurt By Their Own Propaganda

It seems Michelle Bachmann's idea for repubs to not fill out their census form is backfiring bigtime.

"In Texas, some of the counties with the lowest census return rates are among the state’s most Republican"

So, let me get this correct. GOP big mouths preach about big government in your life. They then advocate for the illegal act of NOT filling out the census form and are then screwed by its affects. Now that there is such a low showing, the possibility of losing house members in GOP areas increases.

The other coin to this is the GOP is supposed to be fiscal conservative. The problem is that since there is such a low number of census forms coming back that the government then has to PAY people to go door to door to get the numbers.

"It costs taxpayers $25 per person to send a census taker door-to-door to collect the same information if they didn’t mail it back."

25$ bucks per person per house. Do the math on that one GOP. Their insane talking points are costing them seats and money. The GOP is a joke.

Quote Of The Day

Got this over at politicalwire. I nearly cried I lauged so hard. Emphasis mine.

"Democrats tend to have more problems with harassment, staffers and underage girls while Republicans tend to have more problems with prostitutes, hypocrisy and underage boys. "

For the party that legislates against homosexuality, I do find ironic that their problems lie with their own desires. Makes you wonder if they were able to express their feelings, would the repubs have the problems they do? This kind of goes along with the catholic church's own problems with their priests. If priests were able to marry, would the church be having all of these problems?

Obama Has Wind At His Back

Good article in Politico (which is hard these days. The site definitely seems a little hell bent on tripping Obama up.)

What I have been touting for a while now is the lack of leadership coming out of the white house. It seems he must have read my blog b/c now we can see, since January, an Obama most willing to lead the pack.

"Democrats believe the Obama of the past week is what Americans want. They particularly think it could convince skeptical independents that Democrats can govern and that Obama is steadfast leader they hoped for. They’re also confident moving into the debate on regulating Wall Street because they believe it unites them and divides Republicans."

It is true. People want a leader. The good thing about Obama is that he's smart too. He just needs to show his passion for this country and people will follow.

There was one quote that burns me a little and it comes from a former Bush speech writer.

"He (Obama) had a powerful and effective week in rallying his base, which is useful, but he still faces the fundamental problems that his first year decline led to, which is he’s polarizing, he failed to get any Republican support and he’s lost independents.”

I find it hilarious to hear that Obama is polarizing. While the guy quoted above has an agenda, this viewpoint is not uncommon.

To the contrary, Obama has been willing to work with repubs. The fundemental problem is that repubs want their bill (and only their bill) to be passed and anything short of that causes them to vote no. (They also made a calculation long ago to oppose health care. No matter what came out of committe, they were hell bent on voting no.) So when I see a quote like the one above I really have to ask whether this guy is in touch with reality.

With the political winds at Obama's back, he should swing for the fences. Anything less would be a waste.

Dems Hit Their Stride, GOP Totally Lost Theirs

Dems are quickly shifting their attention to the Wall Street Reform. A bill dems now totally own because again, the GOP did not participate in making the bill. But it is going to be much harder for GOP to filibuster a bill that most everyone wants. After passage, the dems will then move onto immigration. The dems have definitely hit their stride when they needed to.

GOP, however, is totally flailing around not knowing what to do. Now that they have lost out on taking partial ownership of a popular bill, Wall Street reform, they are totally screwing unemployed people over with this:

"Coburn is blocking unanimous consent on extension of unemployment benefits, just as Bunning did a few weeks ago. Only this time, Coburn's not alone -- the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other members of the Republican caucus have joined with Coburn, promising to block billions in unemployment benefits just as the Senate is set to leave on a two-week recess."

Who is giving the GOP advice right now? They are trying to stand up for financial responsibility on the backs of unemployed, under insured, down on their luck Americans. What are they thinking? Its almost as if when they didn't get their way on Health Care they are going to burn the place down. I remember a six year old at the school playground. When playing basketball and he was losing he would start pouting and eventually say "I am taking my ball and going home." Sometimes, I feel the GOP never matured out of this stage.

Ironic History Of Health Care Law

This is just bitter sweet. It turns out the current law, signed by Obama, was originally a republican plan. (Read the article. It is a good one.)

"Substantial numbers of Republicans had always favored reform, even archconservatives: 20 years ago, the Heritage Foundation's Stuart Butler came up with a plan to provide universal coverage, paying for it by replacing the tax-exempt status of employer-provided health benefits with a system of progressive tax credits. In 1993 the Republicans, led by Senators John Chafee and Bob Dole, who never forgot that his life was saved by government health care, offered an alternative that many, including me, thought was better than the Clinton Administration's proposal. It became the basis for the universal health plan passed in Massachusetts by Governor Mitt Romney. Massachusetts, in turn, became the basis for the federal plans offered in the 2008 campaign by Hillary Clinton and later adopted by President Obama."

They are so politically motivated, repubs will vote against their own ideas. Sad People.

Dems The Target Of Hate After Passing Health Care

Well, this should come as no surprise but yet I am surprised. It seems that angry right wingers, in their frustration with the health care bill passing, have turned to vandalism. Not only have they been smashing in windows of dem offices, there's this:

"Federal and local authorities are investigating a severed gas line at the home of U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello’s brother, discovered the day after Tea Party activists posted the address online so opponents could 'drop by' and 'express their thanks' for Perriello’s vote in favor of health care reform."

Why does this surprise me? I still cannot fathom how giving people access health insurance causes such hate. The GOP has a real problem on their hand and it is starting to boil over.

Update: Now death threats.

And This

And This

How The GOP Can Lose Politically On Repeal

Good quote find on how the GOP might not want to tout the "repeal" message too much.

"If the Republicans now keep health care in the spotlight by trying to repeal it, they will be the ones independents voters see as having skewed priorities and they may start to pay the price. Yes, repeal will play well with the base. But focusing on that has a high potential to turn off independent swing voters who have been leaning toward the GOP but are sick of the health care debate and want Washington to be more focused on something else."

So this says what the Dems have to do. keep a jobs bill in the spotlight.

Repubs Upset for Biden Taking Iraq War Credit

It would be a real kick in the repub teeth if the Dems get credit for this.

"But as vice president, Biden is taking credit for success in Iraq. 'I am very optimistic about Iraq,' he said. 'I mean, this could be one of the great achievements of this administration.'"

It would be a major coup to have the Obama admin taking credit for the successes of the Iraq war. We all know Bush mismanaged both wars and to give his admin some credit, the current successes in Iraq were started under the Bush but it is Obama's admin that is managing it now and if repubs want to whine about it, let them. There is plenty of cheese to go round. I would recommend a nice gouda.

DailyKos Poll Shows Craziness of Republican Base

DailyKos had a recent study done to see how crazy the repub base is. It comes back pretty shocking. Here are some highlights:

Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?

Yes 63
No 21
Not Sure 16

Do you believe Sarah Palin is more qualified to be President than Barack Obama?

Yes 53
No 14
Not Sure 33

Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates White people?

Yes 31
No 36
Not Sure 33

Should gay couples receive any state or federal benefits?

Yes 11
No 68
Not Sure 21

Check it out. There are some other really disturbing part and Kos kind of has a point about all of this.

"Ultimately, these results explain why it is impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country. Their base are conspiracy mongers who don't believe Obama was born in the United States, that he is the second coming of Lenin, and that he is racist against white people."

This is why dems should not try and negotiate with repubs. They are useless.

GOP Senators Mad That They Voted For Rape

It seems that the GOP is going after Al Franken because he wrote a bill that would have stopped federal funds from going to companies that prevent employees from suing their employers for work related sexual crimes.

Backstory: "In 2005, Jamie Leigh Jones was gang-raped by her co-workers while she was working for Halliburton/KBR in Baghdad. She was detained in a shipping container for at least 24 hours without food, water, or a bed, and 'warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.'"

A no brainer type of amendment. Well, not for the GOP. Several repubs voted against it. It spawned many stories and videos about how the GOP was for rape. The GOP senators then get angry at Al Franken for introducing such a "partisan" amendment.

At the end of the day, these morons voted for against a good bill. They deserve everything they get.

Scozzafava Is Out

Interesting twist in the NY-23 special election. Dede Scozzafava, the moderate republican, is withdrawing from the race with less than a week to go. So much for moderate republicans.

What does this mean for the conservative and the dem? Most likely the repub voters will go for the crazy candidate. Then, I think the dem will lose and the ultra-conservatives in the party will use this as a rallying cry for other extremely right people to come forward pulling the repub party farther to the right.

This is a major problem because without moderates in the republican party, they will continue to isolate themselves to the south or odd districts in the through out the country but never building a national movement. We just had 8 years of fanaticism and Americans are just too moderate for more helpings of crazy right now.