Past Lessons Remembered

“…we know without a doubt that Republican ideas of more freedom and less taxes — while sounding good and repeated by any and all candidates – are in fact, worth no more than the paper that they are written on.”

These are words written by 13 life-long members of the Maine Republican Party… officials within the party… as they resigned that membership and walked away from the former Grand Old Party.

In the letter (full text below) dated August 18, 2013, the former Republicans outline many of the same grievances expressed over the past several years by this writer. The defectors feel that the party of their fathers has lost sight of the goal; that there is an element within the modern GOP that has forsaken the true meaning of conservatism and steered the party into the netherworld of bigotry, divisiveness, social engineering, irrational spending and blatant unconstitutional actions. 

That last sentence at one time described Southern Democrats… The Party of Jackson... but those roles reversed shortly after Jack and Bobby Kennedy went to Washington.

The campaign for the Presidency in the waning years of the Eisenhower Administration illustrated all to well a schism within the Democrat Party… with much of the divisive rhetoric emanating from Southern Democrats. Jack Kennedy was Catholic, and there had never been a Catholic elected to high office. The last one to try was Al Smith in 1928. Fear mongers mindlessly and endlessly promoting the trope that the Pope would be running the White House if Smith won proved effective. Southern Democrats sat out the election and Smith was crushed… Hoover took the White House and the nation sunk into the Great Depression. The only winner in that election was bigotry.

32 years later another Catholic found himself fighting the very battles that sunk Al Smith. The dirty tricks weren’t as effective this time and Mr. Kennedy went on to win the Presidency in the closest election in history. Mr. Kennedy won 49.7% of the popular vote to Nixon's 49.5% with Kennedy polling only about 100,000 more votes than Nixon out of over 68 million votes cast. Nixon won more states than Kennedy but the Electoral College awarded the election to Kennedy by a 303-219 margin. The only southern states not called for Nixon were Mississippi and Florida. Anti-Catholic bigotry is blamed for a million and a half lost votes.

Three assassinations, two paradigm changing bills, an impeachment leading to the only resignation of a sitting president and a whole bunch of cross burnings later finds the freedom loving folks of the U.S.A. still fighting the battles of social injustice and fiscal conservatism. The political party names and the memes spouted haven’t changed, but the demographic certainly has. The once fiscally conservative GOP still proudly wears the mantle of conservatism, but has forgotten what that word really means. Many of those calling themselves Democrat still shout for social justice, but their actions seem more inclined toward social control.

Where once the southern bigots were the tail wagging the Democrat’s dog, following a decade of country-shaking events they abandoned the Democrats for the GOP. The Party of Eisenhower became infested with the parasites of the Party of George Gordon and John Clinton Porter.

Those of us in the middle… moderates yearning for a day when the search for social consciousness, constitutional justice and conservative fiscal policy can be balanced by compromise… find ourselves politically homeless.

Of the two available options, some choose simply to check None of the Above, but is that a logical option? The pragmatist’s answer is a resounding NO! Opting out and wasting a vote may make a valiant statement, but it solves no problem. The only real solution is to hold nose, vote for a candidate with whom one cannot 100% agree because that candidate represents a less oppressive path, and then work from within to weed out blind partisanship and taking a stand against hatred, bigotry and divisiveness.

The promise of Eisenhower conservatism has been lost in the swill of religio-political rhetoric, as the modern GOP has become the spend-spend-spend party of no compromise tirelessly struggling to elevate the almighty corporation to the tyrannical level we see today. Damn near every major Republican effort since the McCarthy/Nixon era has concentrated on things and people of which we should be afraid, why we should hate certain elements within our own house, constantly starting wars justifying the need to give more money to the defense industry corporatists.

Every Republican Administration from Reagan through George W. Bush has dramatically increased the war budget, increased the deficit and pushed the country into further debtor status, yet the echo machine perpetuates the myth that the Democrats are the party of tax & spend and the meme that the deficits created by their own party are actually the responsibility for the Democrats. Facts prove this to be a lie, but corporate puppets never let facts get in the way of a good myth while blinder-wearing sheep wag tail and follow.

Last month a Pew study found 54% of self-identified Republicans believed that the GOP should “move in a more conservative direction” and 35% feel that Republicans compromise “too much” with Democrats. Less than half of GOP voters, 40%, say they feel the GOP should become more moderate and 27% felt their party hadn’t compromised with Democrats enough.

The reason we are seeing high profile defections from the GOP is represented by that poll. No reasonable human can fail to notice the blinders of a demographic a third of which believes Republicans compromise “too much”.

Further evidence of the blindness endemic in the GOP herd was evidenced in the results of a Public Policy Poll of Louisiana residents in which a greater number of respondents blamed Barak Obama for the poor response to the hurricane Katrina disaster than blamed George W. Bush.

The full text of the letter referenced above follows. Emphasis I've added it to illustrate where I find agreement. My more liberal friends will likely take issue with the fact that I agree with them on the gun legislation and that the FDA sometimes oversteps, but if so you need to understand that being a moderate means supporting our Constitution, regardless of emotion. 

August 18, 2013

To Maine State GOP Secretary Chuck Mahaleris:

There are times in your life when you must choose between two paths.

The first path, if taken, would require us to remain within the Republican Party despite the fact that we know without a doubt that Republican ideas of more freedom and less taxes — while sounding good and repeated by any and all candidates – are in fact, worth no more than the paper that they are written on.

The second path leads to a principled preservation of our individual integrity, helping out our fellow citizens at the local level, and doing our level best for our Creator, our families, and our friends.

We have therefore chosen to follow the path of the latter.

Effective immediately, we the undersigned are unenrolling from the Maine Republican Party. Furthermore, those of us who hold official Party positions, be they at the Republican National, State, County or even Town Committees, hereby resign. Our reasons for doing so are as follows:

The RNC:

At the RNC, we have fought the good fight and kept the faith with regards to the rules. The Resolution that was passed in January 2013 by the Maine Republican State Committee put the RNC on notice that the grassroots were listening (and watching), leading to the rules battles which have taken place consistently since the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa. The duplicity and lack of political courage which has been on display in this matter has sealed the fate of this Party.

Furthermore, it has become clear to us now that the RNC has no intention of reforming and would rather fly under invalid rules than to right the wrongs of Tampa. We therefore cannot, in good faith, support or defend the actions of the RNC. To violate our consciences and support those actions would make us part of the problem – especially after we clearly provided and handed the RNC the solution which was flatly rejected. The RNC now owns their demise.

Congressional Republicans:

In the House of Representatives, the cowardly leadership of John Boehner reached a new low in December 2012 when he purged the most fiscally conservative GOP members from leadership positions, citing their “unwillingness to be team players.” Political punishment such as this from Speaker Boehner has garnered justifiable rage from conservative groups, and from us, as we expected better.

Furthermore, the House Republican leadership’s utter disdain for the United States Constitution, specifically the 4th Amendment, was on full display as they worked overtime to kill the Amash Amendment which would have gone a long way toward constraining the NSA to the boundaries of the Constitution and seriously curbed their ability to conduct mass surveillance of Americans. Be it known that we cannot and will not support nor defend these actions.

In the United States Senate, we see Republicans all too willing to pass unconstitutional bills related to subjects such as the Internet Sales Tax and Immigration. Whether through arrogance or ignorance, they fail to understand the simple fact any revenue generating legislation must originate in the House of Representatives.

Additionally, the Senate Republicans continue to support undeclared wars, meet in secret and supply arms to our “terrorist enemies” who we vowed to destroy after 911, and then tell us they love our troops – so long as it’s our kids and not theirs who have to go fight.

Lastly, all too many Senate Republicans are more than willing to pass new “feel good” gun control legislation that would do nothing to stop another Sandy Hook massacre, all the while restricting 2nd Amendment rights of law abiding American citizens. We cannot support nor defend these actions in good faith.

Maine Republican Legislators:

In Maine, the Republican legislators in the House and Senate failed to sustain the Governor’s veto on one of the most important pieces of legislation of the 126th. Maine Republicans were justifiably outraged, especially at those legislators who campaigned on lower taxes.

We have been told that many donors have refused to donate one more cent to the MEGOP due to this budget debacle, but nevertheless we are expected to ignore these facts and get out there and raise funds for the party. This we cannot do in good faith; the Republican Party has lost its way and the donors know it.

The LePage Administration:

Not to be outdone by the legislators, this Administration’s support for Common Core Education Standards, the Internet Sales Tax, the atypical meddling in the business of the Maine State Committee, as well as the vetoes of the Drone and Cell Phone bills left many of us incredulous.

However, the straw that broke the camel’s back for many of us was the veto of LD 1282 (the “Raw Milk Bill”) and those who voted to sustain it: a sad day indeed for the small farmers of Maine. We want our God-given rights to buy, sell and consume what we want protected by the law – not restricted by FDA or USDA directives. These actions we cannot explain nor defend in good faith – the Republican Party has lost it’s way.

Therefore, for the above-stated reasons, we can no longer allow ourselves to be called nor enrolled as Republicans; we can no longer associate ourselves with a political party that goes out of its way to continually restrict our freedoms and liberties as well as reaching deeper and deeper into our wallets.

We instead choose the path that focuses on ways to help our fellow Mainers outside of party politics.

Some of us may be town officers or board members. Some of us may leave all options on the table with regards to running for higher office as Independents.

Some of us may be small farmers and gardeners who desire to help feed their communities.

Others may simply want to just get part of their life back, catching up and spending more time with friends and neighbors.

Sincerely,

Republican National Committee Member:Mark Willis, Washington County

Maine Republican State Committee Members:Thomas Barry, Androscoggin County

Ann-Marie Grenier, Cumberland County

Gregory Hodge, Lincoln County

Olga LaPlante, Cumberland County

Russell Montgomery, Knox County

Violet Willis, Washington County

Maine Registered Republicans:

Sam Canders, Penobscot County

Bryan Daugherty, Penobscot County

Maria Hodge, Penobscot County

Randall J. Grenier, Cumberland County

L. Scott D’Amboise, Androscoggin County

Debbie D’Amboise, Androscoggin County

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The root of all political evil, or Why Conservatives Really Aren't

“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

Although it is universally attributed to John Kenneth Galbraith, other than from Richard Parker’s biography of the great economist and political philosopher, I've been unable to find this quote in context.

Galbraith died in 2006 without having the opportunity to comment further on the continued regression of the once Grand Old Party, but it appears that even some within the Republican inner circle are ready to speak up about the extreme turn that “conservatism” has taken. To understand just how far to the extreme the GOP has traveled one merely has to gaze back a few decades to the pre WW-II, Great Depression days.

Republican Warren G. Harding assumed the office of President in 1921. Four years later saw the ascendancy of another Republican, Calvin Coolidge, followed in March of 1929 by yet another one-term Republican, Herbert Hoover. This period of time ushered in a brief period of laissez-faire economic policy and Poor Hoover was the sucker unlucky enough to occupy the White House on October 29, 1929… Black Tuesday. The Great Depression fell squarely in Herbert Hoover’s lap and led to the rise of the Rooseveltian Democrats and several years of liberal, humanistic leadership in the White House.

The post WW-II Republicans of the 50s took the lessons learned by the failure of free market right-wingers and managed a rebound from two decades of futility. Roosevelt’s New Deal and successful management of the war had done much to strengthen public resolve against the Republicans, but still the GOP continued to hammer the Democrats with charges of socialism and too extreme liberalism.

Sound familiar?

But the Republicans of the 50s were a far cry from the modern extremists seen on Sunday television railing against gays, women, and “entitlements”. As strange as it may seem, there were GOP politicians in those days more interested in the survival and success of a country and her people than the enrichment of a plutocracy. Those Republicans were statesmen with the memory of Hoover still fresh in their minds.

From the 1956 Republican Party platform we find a strange dichotomy of ideas when compared to modern conservatives:

“Our Government was created by the people for all the people, and it must serve no less a purpose.

The Republican Party was formed 100 years ago to preserve the Nation's devotion to these ideals.

On its Centennial, the Republican Party again calls to the minds of all Americans the great truth first spoken by Abraham Lincoln:

‘The legitimate object of Government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves in their separate and individual capacities. But in all that people can individually do as well for themselves, Government ought not to interfere.’

Our great President Dwight D. Eisenhower has counseled us further:

‘In all those things which deal with people, be liberal, be human. In all those things which deal with people's money, or their economy, or their form of government, be conservative.’

While jealously guarding the free institutions and preserving the principles upon which our Republic was founded and has flourished, the purpose of the Republican Party is to establish and maintain a peaceful world and build at home a dynamic prosperity in which every citizen fairly shares.”

The document continues:

“We are proud of and shall continue our far-reaching and sound advances in matters of basic human needs—expansion of social security—broadened coverage in unemployment insurance —improved housing—and better health protection for all our people. We are determined that our government remain warmly responsive to the urgent social and economic problems of our people.

To these beliefs we commit ourselves as we present this record and declare our goals for the future.”

This a far cry from the Ryans and the Rands and the Goodhairs of the modern GOP. One of the most strident conservatives of the post-Eisenhower era was former AZ Senator Barry Goldwater. In a September 16, 1981 speech from the floor of the Senate Sen. Goldwater placed the blame for the rising extremism within his party squarely where it belongs, and he names a particular group that should be held responsible for the mess we now see in Washington, D.C. and statehouses across the nation:

“On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being.

But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both.

I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?

And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."

The Republicans at present are facing a similar challenge as the Republicans did toward the end of the 50s. Sen. Goldwater efficiently identified the threat and the modern GOP is perhaps finally recognizing their failure. The Republicans of the 50s were able to wield Truman’s failure to institute more progressive policies and leverage Eisenhower's war record into a win for reasonable conservatism.

At the end of Eisenhower’s eight years Democrats demonstrated that liberals like John Kennedy could lead as ably as a reasonable conservative and did a good job of painting “Tricky Dick” Nixon with the stain of McCarthyism.

But the level-headedness wasn't to last. With the Kennedy assassination and the moves toward racial equality by the LBJ Administration, followed by the defection of the old, Confederate south, Nixon managed to finally gain the White House and the modern age of Republican dirty tricks became enshrined. Nixon and the Republicans of the 70s gladly welcomed the fleeing religionist racists that were once the Democrat base in the south, and over the subsequent four decades the GOP has allowed the bigots to entrench.

The Democrats, in their success, are again fracturing. We are seeing much the same divisions between the far left liberals and moderates in the party that enabled the rational Republicans of the 50s to gain power. The ball is again in the red end of the court. Between now and when this president’s term runs out in 2016 the GOP can choose to push back on the racists… the bigots… and the religionists.

It will take work and determination, but if the reasonable wind of the GOP can shed the “GOPer” cloak, rational conservatism can again rise and once again hold the mantle of the Grand Old Party of Lincoln.

The tail is wagging the dog, conservatives. You have the opportunity. If you want a change it’s up to you to clean your own house.

###

... and speaking of right-wing extremest nuts in the Republican Party...

###

It pays to be skeptical

For a day or two I've been listening to and reading as much as I can find on the recovery progress in the eastern states so badly hurt by Hurricane Sandy. A recurrent theme coming from Faux news and several of the more bitter right wingnut bloggers has been the story of non-union Alabama electrical crews being turned back and not allowed to work in union New Jersey. There was so much of this noise out there I figured it had to have some truth, so I started working on a blog post chapping union asses. I support unions, but more than unions I support common sense.

They almost had me. I almost swallowed it and posted that blog, but something told me to keep looking. I'm glad I did... because as it turns out it is just more of the same old extremist Republican bullshit. This is just one link for one story out of several dozen that have come out refuting the allegation. More Republican dirty tricks. More bullshit from the right. 

You almost got me this time. Crying wolf next time won't buy you as much real estate. 

###

Voter fraud virtually non-existent

Natasha Khan and Corbin Carson, writing in the August 11 Washington Post:

A new nationwide analysis of more than 2,000 cases of alleged election fraud over the past dozen years shows that in-person voter impersonation on Election Day, which has prompted 37 state legislatures to enact or consider tougher voter ID laws, was virtually nonexistent.  

The analysis of 2,068 reported fraud cases by News21, a Carnegie-Knight investigative reporting project, found 10 cases of alleged in-person voter impersonation since 2000. With 146 million registered voters in the United States, those represent about one for every 15 million prospective voters.

Therefore, as Libby Spencer points out in a Detroit News opinion piece, with no evidence to support the need, voter ID laws are legislation in search of a cause... laws in search of a crime. There are age-old reasons for such laws; voter disenfranchisement and election theft.

Indeed, these new voter ID laws could prevent five million legitimate American voters from casting a ballot, as is their Constitutional right. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that many of these disenfranchised voters are likely to vote Democratic. 

Oh wait, it’s not a coincidence at all. The authors of these laws have admitted in court they have absolutely no evidence of voter fraud and in an unguarded moment, one state Representative in Pennsylvania admitted voter ID laws were specifically enacted to help the Republicans cheat to win...

Pennsylvania so values the right to vote that it inducts citizens who have voted in 50 sequential elections into a voter Hall of Fame. There are 5,923 Pennsylvania citizens who have been inducted that remain alive and are registered to vote, but now the Republican legislature in that state has enacted voter ID laws that could prevent perhaps 23% of these from voting in the 2012 elections.

"These are 1,384 individuals who have not missed a general election since at least 1961 -- but who may very well be prevented from voting for the first time this year -- if they are unaware of the new Voter ID Law, or unable to obtain the proper ID in time for the election,"

We are witnessing again today the very thing that has gone on in this country since our Founding; one or multiple classes will be denied the right to vote based upon some fiction. In the beginning days of this country only landed white men had the right to vote; women, slaves and the indentured purportedly did not have the mental capacity to understand politics, were disallowed and this disenfranchisement was codified in law.

Four score and seven years later we saw an end to slavery, but blacks were still denied the right to vote. It took another century before the right was extended to African American men, and shortly afterwards the women's suffrage movement succeeded in gaining the votie for what was thought to be the last of the disenfranchised classes. All American adults were finally free to go to the polls and cast a ballot.

But it didn't last even until the ink on the VRA had a chance to dry. State laws started popping up enacting poll taxes, literacy tests and a litany of other creative means to reinstitute what the VRA and CRA had made illegal.

Those were Democrats doing that in the 1960's, in 2012 it is the Republicans trying to steal elections by some eerily familiar means. 22 states, all with Republican majorities in the statehouse, have enacted some form of voter ID law. Some states went beyond simple ID requirements, enacting laws placing onerous burdens on voter registration drives, redrawing precinct lines that divided communities, even purges of the voter roles to exclude individuals who could not be counted as reliably Republican.

Thanks to extended early voting hours Democrats took Ohio in 2008, so following the 2010 takeover by Republicans, that party responded by curtailing the early voting period for 2012, shortening it from 35 to just 11 days and eliminating voting on the Sunday before the election. That Sunday is the day when African-American churches historically rally their congregants to go to the polls.

Activists gathered enough signatures to block those restrictions by forcing a referendum on Election Day, so Republicans repealed their own bill, but continued a ban on early voting three days before Election Day. In 2008 93,000 Ohioans voted in those last three days. The legislature magnanimously granted an exception for active duty members of the military, who coincidentally tend to lean Republican.

Ohio was one of five states since 2010 limiting early voting days, but Ohio Republicans are not stopping there. They are further tilting the playing field by expanding early voting hours in counties with reliable Republican populations and cutting back those hours in counties that leaned to the left in 2008 and 2010.

In the cities of Cleveland, Columbus, Akron and Toledo, early voting hours will be allowed only from 8 am until 5 pm Monday thru Friday beginning on October 1. The right-leaning counties still get the hours going into the nights and can vote seven days a week. Ohio Republican election commissioners have systematically blocked Democratic efforts to expand early voting hours in the counties with heavy African American populations. In counties where the board of elections are split equally between Democratic and Republican members, the Secretary of State, Republican Jon Husted, has stepped in to break the tie.

They've been called for this obvious attempt at voter suppression and sudddenly Husted is backpedaling.
Similar schemes have been tried in other Republican states with the voter ID scheme being the most popular, but it all boils down to a single concept... voter suppression.

I have to ask, if the Republican way is so great and Republican ideas so bright... why must they resort to dirty tricks to steal elections?

###

Is there a war on job growth?

Welcome to the modern Republican Party.

From the moment Barack Hussein Obama was declared the winner of the 2008 Presidential elections, the GOP has been on the move. Who could forget Mitch McConnell’s reaction to Obama’s success and the petulant assertion that the Republican’s “top priority” over the next four years was about making Obama a “one term President.”

Three years have gone by since McConnell uttered those words and the "Party of No" has held true to the course. GOP actions (and inaction) had until recently stalled the economic recovery. A successful campaign of distortion turned everything bad in the world into Obama’s fault.

The 2010 mid-term elections resulted in a new GOP controlled House and a greatly diminished Senate majority for the Democrats, severely compromising the ability of Congress to move any progressive legislation. The drag on economic recovery would continue.

Truth has always been a bit of a stranger in American politics, but the modern GOP has taken this truism to even greater horizons. The misinformation and dirty tricks machine was successful prior to the mid-term elections.

The oft-repeated mantra was that the bad economy was an entirely Obama creation. Questions were raised about the President’s right to hold office, his patriotism, even his religious faith. GOP resistance was framed as a patriotic mission denying an evil President the pleasure of destroying America.

Following the mid-terms, flaunting their new Congressional prowess, GOPers continued to block efforts to rebuild the economy. But these efforts have ceased working, mainly because some of the programs and policies put in pace prior to the mid-terms were actually resulting in modest job creation. In spite of the best Republican efforts the economy was improving. A GOP change in tactics became necessary.

The new complaint eminating from the GOP is the administration’s “economy busting” “crony capitalism,” and “job killing” green energy agenda. After some great successes in casting the now bankrupt Solyndra as epitomic of President Obama’s energy policies, Republicans now are lambasting what they have dubbed “Obamacars.”

Congressional Republicans and FOX News talking heads targeted the Chevy Volt, made by an auto maker saved from bankruptcy by Obama administration policies. The claim was that the vehicle is a fire hazard and economic boondogle.

Unhappy with these characterizations, the electric car industry is fighting back. Bob Lutz, a UC Berkeley business school graduate who championed the Volt when he was vice chairman at GM, wrote in his blog…

“…the loony right has its jaws sunk into the Volt with all the stupid determination of a terrier who has locked his teeth into the mailman’s butt. And with the same result: painful, but without any useful purpose.”

The same “loony right” has also targeted Tesla Motors, claiming that grants issued to the upstart electric car manufacturer amount to crony capitalism. Tesla received a $465 million Department of Energy loan but has since dropped pursuit of any further federal loans. They are instead raising private cash. The car maker plans in July to start deliveries of its $50,000 S car, claiming it is on its way to the mass car market.

Ricardo Reyes, a spokesman for Tesla, very gently told the GOP exactly what they are full off...

“We applied during the Bush administration, and we were approved under the Obama administration, so as far as we’re concerned, we at least had a bipartisan relationship for the loan...

We got one of first loans and we used it to build the car that is now going into production in a U.S.-based facility…

I’d like to think we’re pretty much a case study on what the loan program was designed to do.”

It is unfortunate that much of this tactic has been successful... and that jobs have been lost because of it. The GOP managed to taint the renewable energy loan program in spite of the fact that this particular program was started by the Bush administration as an effort to wean America off of imported oil. Now, due to character assassination by the right wing, the formerly bipartisan effort is in jeopardy.

GOP tricksters have pulled the wool over an under-informed electorate, but the efforts likely will not kill the electric car. This Republican led campaign of misinformation has General Motors pissed, and theyre doing something about it. GM Chief Executive Officer Dan Akerson has complained about the political atmosphere that surrounds the Volt.

“Sometimes I feel bad for President Obama,” he said this month after an appearance at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. “This car was designed and committed to well before he was president, and it’s called the ‘Obamacar.’ It’s not the Obama car. I’m proud and I’m pleased that he thinks highly of it, but it’s all on us. It’s not a political issue.”

The automaker accused Republicans and the right-wing media of hyping claims that the car caught fire during testing.  1,300 jobs were lost at the Volt plant due to GOPer posturing and mischaracterizations, even though there has never been a fire except in one in a controlled testing environment. A battered test vehicle burned hours after a crash test, blamed on test workers neglecting to properly secure the wrecked vehicle.

On March 1 GM opened an unprecedented campaign to re-introduce the Volt in California, the biggest U.S. auto market. Sales are expected to be brisk and the company hopes to re-start manufacturing once inventory levels drop. In spite of the GOP, people will be going back to work.

For the GOP it has never been about job creation, the economy, helping the environment, creating stability in the financial markets, making sure Wall Street never again melts down, jobs, budgets, controlling the debt, or paying off our deficits – that was just smoke and mirrors.

For Republicans it is all about ensuring Obama is a one term President... economy be damned.

###

Lies and the lying liars who tell them

It was just over a month ago when Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn blocked a transportation bill. He said that the government is spending ten percent of federal transportation aid dollars on projects he deems wasteful. Coburn’s aim was to force changes that would allow the states to use their full allotment on roads and bridges and tunnels, and not be forced by regulation to set aside monies for enhancement programs.

As examples of waste, Coburn cited some previous projects he claims were funded only because of the federal enhancement requirement, such as a giant roadside coffee pot and constructing tunnels for turtle.

The onerous “transportation enhancement” is a new GOP meme and cause célèbre. Their rhetoric has been repeated insistently by from the Senate floor, in public appearances and in news releases. The requirement causes states to dedicate a portion of their federal highway aid allotment on enhancement programs that include everything from landscaping to sidewalks, and according to Republicans has paid for the coffee pot and for turtle tunnels.

The only problem is that this isn’t true. As politicians tend to do when making a case, the GOP lawmakers have exaggerated and misrepresented the projects that benefitted from the requirement.

Coburn’s action was the shot across the bow. "We are not pouring asphalt, we are not laying concrete, we are not decreasing congestion, and we are not increasing safety," Coburn complained. He produced a list of 39 projects that he said exemplify extravagance at a time when states don't have enough money to repair structurally deficient bridges.

Coburn’s examples were cherry picked from the more than 25,000 projects that have received money since Congress established the enhancement set-aside nearly two decades ago… like the Lincoln Highway 200-Mile Roadside Museum in south-central Pennsylvania which was described as receiving $300,000 in 2004 for signs, murals, colorful vintage gas pumps painted by local artists and refurbishing of a former roadside snack stand from 1927 that's shaped like a giant coffee pot.

Sen. McCain worked from Coburn's list two weeks ago when he offered an amendment to narrow the types of projects eligible for enhancement funds, stating "Pennsylvania ranks first out of all states for deficient bridges. Yet it seems to be more important to furbish large roadside coffee pots."

But this is where the lie surfaces. There were no transportation funds involved in the coffee pot restoration. The entire $100K for that part of the project was raised locally. Olga Herbert, the executive director for the Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor stated "We did not use any of this $300,000 award for anything to do with the coffee pot," she said. "It's interesting that nobody from Senator Coburn's office called me about this."

Also on Coburn's shame list but not receiving any federal enhancement aid set aside were a lighthouse renovation in Toledo, Ohio, a saddle tree factory in Madison, IN, landscaping for a junkyard in Aiken, SC, and $16.2 million intended to restore the Battleship Texas. DOT turned that application down, but Coburn still pointed his boney, accusing finger.

McCain, however, initially failed to mention a $198,000 grant in 2007 to the National Corvette Museum in Warren County, KY. McCain is a former Corvette owner. Later the Senator said that since a Corvette simulator really didn’t have anything to do with transportation, he ”felt compelled to add this."

Next Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell got into the act, making a statement criticizing President Barack Obama's request for $50 billion for highways, bridges and airport runways as part of his jobs plan. "Don't tell the people of Kentucky they need to finance every turtle tunnel and solar panel company on some bureaucrat's wish list in order to get their bridges fixed." Not to be outdone, the other Senator from Kentucky said "Something is seriously wrong with government when we are forcing state governments to spend 10 percent of their transportation money on turtle tunnels, white squirrel parks, and movie theaters."

The Florida “turtle tunnels” are actually a traffic safety project. Turtles are not the only wildlife using the tunnels. Beavers, otters, alligators and snakes also use the culverts, making driving safer for motorists who were swerving to avoid the critters.

To boot that, it isn’t even the enhancement set asides that funded the project. Florida used economic stimulus funds, yet Coburn's list insists that Florida has spent $3.4 million on the project, implies the money comes from federal highway aid, and that $6 million more will be needed to finish the project.

Wrong again. The project was completed under budget at $3 million in September 2010.

The list of lies goes on. The Grand Old Party that so reveres that great conservative St. Ronnie that they have proposed to have Reagan’s likeness carved onto Mt. Rushmore alongside Washington, Jefferson, Roosvelt and Lincoln now spends more time telling lies, saying NO and labeling as socialist a president with policies more conservative than Reagan.

Go figure… then remember to vote.

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Don't Vote!

This political advertisement is produced by Latinos For Reform. Supposedly this is the first of several to be aired in targeted states urging Latino voters not to vote for Members of Congress that have failed to deliver on their immigration reform promises. The ads, in both English and Spanish, may be found at the group's website.

The chairman of the group is Robert Deposada, former director of Hispanic affairs for the Republican National Committee. Deposada is a known and well liked Hispanic activist, and although he is Republican and has been active mostly on the right, I have never seen him dip to this kind of despicable tactic. It just doesn't fit Deposada's style.

During the 2002-2003 efforts by George W. Bush to nominate Miguel Estrada to a Federal judgeship, Deposada commented, "...to deny Latinos, the nation's largest minority, the opportunity to have one of their own serve on this court in our Nation's capital is unforgivable." I agreed with him then, and to now find him promoting such efforts as these ads is disheartening.

Deposada is participating in exactly the kind of dirty tricks politics he once condemned. Watch the advertisment.

There is no suggestion for whom Latinos should vote; they aren't being told they should vote Republican; they are being urged to abdicate their vote. There have been many efforts through the years to keep minorities away from the polls (threats, intimidation, poll taxes, phoney baloney literacy tests, etc.) so now the right simply tries to talk Latinos into staying home.

Seems kind of cowardly to me, but unfortunately it might work.

UPDATE: The ads are running on Spanish language stations in Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Florida... I should say that they were running in those states. Following an outcry from local Hispanic leaders, a variety of elected office holders, Democrats in general, and even Barak Obama, Univision has pulled the ad. The advertisment stirred much hate and discontent in the Hispanic community, and may even have increased the numbers of likely Hispanic voters.

Is it possible that a Republican dirty trick has backfired?

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Tonight I am the shrill one

Writing this piece is going to be difficult. My position as a moderate has been carefully carved out, but everyone knows I lean slightly left. I’ll defend truth and honor regardless of the offender or the offended. More often than not I stay on the sidelines and let the scenarios play out however they may… unless I perceive something unjust. This time I have been so personally offended that I must speak out, and I regret that it is going to make me sound like a flaming lefty.

The news has carried stories lately of individuals disrupting town hall meetings at which Democrats are attempting to clarify or push health care reform. The left-leaning media play this as orchestrated by loosely affiliated, well funded, false grassroots (Astroturf) organizations. Right-leaning media are playing it as an exercise in free speech. The truth may be somewhere closer to the middle, but I’m tending toward the theory of purposeful, organized disruption. This would be akin to the civil disobedience demonstrations of the 60’s and 70’s, when the left was trying to end the conflict in Viet Nam. It was wrong then… it is wrong now.

The offense became more personal with a letter to the Op Ed page of this morning’s print edition of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, which I would link to if the Star Telegram’s web page weren’t so screwed up and user unfriendly as to make linking a virtual impossibility.

The letter writer is a frequent contributor to the Startlegram’s Op Ed page, writing many more letters each month than the paper’s policy will allow, I’m certain. He is a winger and a sock puppet who writes for the right. He was a big Bush supporter and a current, active Obama detractor. Today’s letter spent a great deal of time and effort mocking Democrats efforts to bring civility to the town hall meetings. According to the letter writer, any such effort is an affront to free expression. I disagree.

There is no doubt that the rabble rousers at the town hall meetings are attempting to disrupt the democratic process by interfering with a means by which legislators have historically communicated with constituents. These wingers claim that they are concerned with the tyrannical direction being taken by the Obama administration and a liberal congress. They compare this administration with the likes of the Stalinist Soviet Union and/or Nazi Germany. They rail against socialism and an administration making unprecedented power grabs. They claim to be standing up for truth, justice, and the American way.

This is bunk, of course. These self-described defenders of liberty are doing nothing except trampling the process. They are the antithesis of the democracy they claim to defend, thus becoming the evil themselves. Their bias becomes especially evident when viewed in light of their utter silence, or their support, over the eight years of the previous administration’s various unconstitutional actions, and the blatant power grabs of our chief executive at the time.

Revelations of the Bush administration’s illegal actions are still floating to the light, adding much fuel to the fires of outrage. That administration contended that the President had all-encompassing authority to do just about anything he pleased, including warrantless wiretapping and spying on American citizens, accessing confidential, personal financial records and information of individual citizens by threatening American corporations with illegal action if they failed to cooperate, arresting anyone on flimsy evidence, then holding them for years in secret facilities without legal representation or plans for trial, and authorizing torture as a means of interrogation. All of this violated the very heart and soul of our constitution. It violated our own laws, too.

Bush bypassed the legislature, effectively re-writing legislation by the use of signing statements, and then assigned to his own Justice department the powers constitutionally granted only to the Judicial Branch. Many times, even though it was a requirement of law, the Bush administration didn’t even bother with notifying congress of the actions taken. The three balancing branches of the United States government, as envisioned by our founders and codified by our constitution, were effectively eliminated in the administration of President George W. Bush. Bush became an all powerful emperor.

Someone please explain to me why these tea baggers were not offended by that, but now they come as the defenders of liberty, protecting the America they know and love by wrecking civility at public meetings and wearing signs with statements advocating violent overthrow of the elected government. They and their faux defenders try to convince us that their only interest is maintaining the integrity of America.

Bullshit.

These tea baggers and their sponsors were the defenders of the vilest administration the United States has endured in our history as a nation, yet now they want to be seen as defenders of liberty.

These people do not love liberty… or justice… or the American way. They are not patriots. They are zealots. They had a taste of illegitimate power over the past eight years, and they lust for more. Now that a majority of Americans are offended by the abuses of authority over the past eight years, and the balance of power has shifted, they attempt to use bully force to re-grab the reins… and they threaten violent uprising if they do not get their way. They condemn tyranny in others, but completely fail to see the tyranny within their own hearts.

These hypocrites represent a real, moral threat to the democratic republic so painfully won by our founders all those years ago. America is under siege from within by zealous dominionists with a powerful lust for control. They are the American Taliban. We need to recognize them as such.

UPDATE:
One of my favorite blogs has a little bit on this topic that I fould seriously funny, and seriously disturbing at the same time. Helen may have actually put her finger on the real reason for all this teabaggery. Please pop over and read Helen & Margaret, then bookmark the blog. These two old bats never cease to entertain.
~~

The Right gets it Wrong Again

The scandalously left-wing Think Progress reports on the following:

This morning, in an interview with MSNBC morning anchor Meredith Vieira, Newt Gingrich got it wrong again. The following is an exchange regarding a question on the Obama/Chavez meeting, the handshake and smile:

VIEIRA: But do you think he should not be trying to mend relationships with other world leaders?

GINGRICH: How do you mend relationships with somebody who hates your country, who actively calls for the destruction of your country and who wants to undermine you?

VIEIRA: But we certainly have mended relationships with countries that have hated us in the past. Russia comes to mind, China comes to mind.

GINGRICH: But we didn’t rush over, smile, and greet Russian dictators. We understood who they were.

Well, old Newt is a former history professor and should know better, but obviously knowing better and speaking truth don’t connect for Mr. Gingrich.



The Nixon photo dates to 1973. Shrub’s photo with Putin was taken June 16, 2001. In fact, the only American President not photographed grinning with a Ruskie in hand over the past 40 years is Jimmy Carter.

Watch the video here:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

~~

More Republican Swiftboating.... Harold Koh in the Spotlight

The right wing smear machine is in full battle press, as can be seen in the following video. See if you can spot all the weasel words...



Notice there are few outright lies. The smear is by innuendo, which is typical of right wing dirty tricks.

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Here Kitty Kitty

Someone needs to put the cat out. She keeps making messes on the floor.

~~

Book Report

How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
By Allen Raymond
Simon & Schuster, 2008

The 1988 Orange County, California Republicans received high marks for dirty tricks when they placed uniformed guards at polling places. This idea successfully intimidated immigrant voters and diminished the turnout in spite of a huge Democratic get-out-the-vote effort. Blue uniformed and blue-eyed guards were dispatched to polling places with instructions to remind Hispanic-appearing voters that they were being watched. Unpopular GOP assemblyman Curt Pringle won re-election by a hairline margin. A lawsuit was settled by Assemblymen Pringle and John R. Lewis, as well as the Orange County Republican Committee, for the amount of $400K. The GOP admitted no wrongdoing, of course.

This particular intimidation practice has a long history. Author Allen Raymond, in his book How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, tells us that original credit should go to New Jersey Republicans and the RNC. In 1981 they dispatched uniformed and armed guards with black armbands to polling places in largely minority districts. GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Keene won the election by a similarly fine margin. This lawsuit cost them a cool million, but won the Governor’s Mansion for the GOP. Raymond’s tome is rife with similar dirty tricks designed by campaigns to sway voters and win elections by deception – ethics be damned.

The author is a graduate of Georgetown’s Baruch Graduate School of Politics. He relates the central philosophy of the school to be "The candidate who asks, 'Is it fair to get me elected this way?' is a candidate who's never won". Politics at Georgetown is taught as a “blood sport.”

Before reading this book I pictured those who would manipulate elections as some sort of starry-eyed idealists bent on saving the world. This was not the case for the author. Politics was nothing more than a job. He freely admits his greed, stating that he went with the GOP because “That’s where the money was.” It didn’t take long for me to understand I really wouldn’t want this guy over for dinner. His tale is filled with adventures where he derives sadistic pleasure by cutting the legs from under an opponent.

Raymond’s political involvement started with the Steve Forbes presidential campaign of 2000, and ended with his 2005 conviction for conspiracy to commit telephone harassment. Under contract by the GOP, his telemarketers bombarded Manchester, New Hampshire Democratic phone banks with thousands of hang-up calls, jamming the lines just as they were gearing up for an election day get-out-the-vote effort. In that 2002 contest, Republican John Sununu ousted Democratic incumbent Jeanne Shaheen by a razor thin margin.

Raymond tells of starting the web-enabled telemarketing service following the failed Forbes campaign, selling his services to a variety of unsavory characters and utilizing the most underhanded tactics. He describes attempts to anger undecided voters with spoof calls during the Super Bowl supporting the opposition; demographically targeted push polls (which are now illegal); and a variety of other dirty tricks. When contacted by GOP officials offering the Manchester contract, Raymond barely hesitated. The money was too good.

Raymond was convicted and sentenced to five months imprisonment, of which he served three. The person who hired Raymond’s firm and directed the effort, New Jersey GOP executive director Charles McGee received a seven month sentence for his part. Also convicted was James Tobin, Northeast Field Director for the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee). Tobin refused to cooperate with investigators and has since had his conviction overturned on appeal. Raymond feels he was “thrown under the bus” by the GOP. Neither Raymond nor McGee received any support from the GOP. Their effort was labeled “rogue”, while records indicate the RNC footed all legal bills for Tobin (in excess of $1 million), and later Tobin’s wife was employed by the NRSC as a consultant.

Of interest are telephone records for Tobin, indicating several hundred coincidentally timed calls to the White House office of Political Affairs, at the time headed by Kenneth Mehlman. Mehlman later headed the 2004 Bush/Cheney re-election campaign, and still later became Chairman of the RNC. Kind of a neat little package for a conspiracy buff.

Greed and selfishness drip from the pages of the book, all of which tends to color a reader’s perception of the author. In Raymond’s narrative he describes a not-at-all surprising prison conversion to the ministry of truth, but his bitterness is enough to give the GOP cause to deny the claims. The GOP’s denial of support was obviously the prime motivator in Raymond’s sudden change of heart. While the tales may be valid, the messenger’s rap sheet steals his thunder.

The villains in this story run deep and broad, with almost every candidate, and the author, guilty of some deeply unethical behavior. Statements such as, “When I was working, the main thing was to win, not to be moral”, leave the reader questioning the character of all who would run for office or work in a campaign. One is left to remember Raymond conspiring with GOP strategists and gleefully counting coup on the opposition.

Raymond deserves no respect, but is certainly correct about one thing. In closing he identifies with whom the ethical and moral responsibilities must lie – the voter.

An informed electorate may not always spot the shill or the new game, but neither will they be as easily led as the ignorant. Once burned, twice skeptical. We should seek truth – no matter what the popular media blazes across the front page. At the very least, this book should serve to reveal some of the dirty tricks so we might be vigilant.

As the right changes their definition of liberalism, so do the liberals alter the definition of conservatism. Both seem to be running toward the poles, leaving political moderates a large playing field. Hard core partisans on either side will gain no benefit from this book, but skeptics might.

...