Replies to post #60596 on Discover GOP Opprobrium

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If conservative leaders no longer even try to offer serious solutions to national problems, nobody should underestimate their capacity or their will to mobilize angry Americans. Behind the April 15 "tea parties" rallying against President Barack Obama's economic program - promoted as a new phenomenon by Fox News Channel and right-wing bloggers - stands a phalanx of Republicans whose ideology is all too familiar.

At the apex of the tea-party movement, aside from such Fox revolutionaries as Rupert Murdoch, there is a well-funded organization known as FreedomWorks, headed by a former politician named Dick Armey. His past career should be instructive to any starry-eyed citizens who believe that they have at last found the true right-wing revolutionary path.

Back when the Republicans first gained control of Congress more than a decade ago, Mr. Armey, a former economics professor at a small Texas college, was hailed as the author of the Contract with America and led the Republicans as House Majority Leader until his retirement. Having risen to power on the strength of a "tax revolt" against President Bill Clinton's first budget, which raised rates on the wealthiest Americans to trim the enormous deficit he had inherited from the first Bush administration. That summer Mr. Armey warned of an economic apocalypse - and his party won the midterm election before his predictions could be proved utterly wrong.

As anyone with a functioning memory should know, the Republicans under the leadership of Mr. Armey and his cronies Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay proceeded to rack up excesses in spending and boodling that made the old Democratic Congressional leaders look quite stingy. When he was asked once why he and his G.O.P. comrades were chomping so much more federal pork than the Democrats ever did, he replied bluntly: "To the victors go the spoils."

Like so many supposed populists in Washington, Mr. Armey packed his own golden parachute when he left Congress. At the same time that he took over the leadership of the "grassroots" group that eventually became FreedomWorks, he also joined a major corporate lobbying firm. The website of DLA Piper, one of the capital's biggest bipartisan law and lobbying outfits, boasts of Mr. Armey's influence among his colleagues. As it happens, he specializes in homeland security, a major growth industry with billions wasted annually on corporate boondoggles. After all, his final legislative masterwork was to chair the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, and he was the prime sponsor of the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security. Of course, he isn't listed as lobbyist, but instead is called a "senior policy advisor."

As for FreedomWorks, which has claimed a national membership of some 700,000 conservative activists, its operations have long smelled of Astro-turf, or artificial grassroots. Most of the money that funded Mr. Armey's activism in the past was provided by tobacco, pharmaceutical and banking interests - and there is no reason to think that has changed.

Nor is the ideological bent of the tea party's host in any sense new. When last heard from in 2005, Mr. Armey was busily conjuring phony grassroots support for Social Security privatization. That effort led to a notorious episode involving a FreedomWorks employee who showed up at the Bush White House, where she was introduced as a "single mom from Iowa" endorsing the president's private-accounts scheme.

Buzzing beneath the furious rants of the tea-party protests, it is not hard to hear the same old right-wing rhetoric about taxes and deficits and the same old schemes to cut the taxes for the wealthiest citizens, deregulate the economy and despoil the environment. The difference between the heyday of Mr. Armey and now is that we have suffered the results of those policies in practice and reject them. The appeal of the Republican Party and conservatism as a movement are lower than ever.

Months of furious propaganda on talk radio and Fox News has achieved nothing so far, according to nearly every survey. Barack Obama's approval ratings remain close to 66 percent, with most Americans trusting him and believing that the country is on the path to renewal. This president has long benefited from ineffectual and discredited adversaries - and Mr. Armey is no exception.

[teapeebubbles]

The Bush Six....

Big doings in Spain, where apparently they're more concerned with human rights violations than we are. The headline: Spanish prosecutors have decided to seek indictments against Alberto Gonzales, John Yoo, David Addington, Jay Bybee, William J. Haynes II and Douglas J. Feith on charges that they conspired to introduce a regime of torture that resulted in the torture of five Spaniards held at Gitmo:

The case arises in the context of a pending proceeding before the court involving terrorism charges against five Spaniards formerly held at Guantánamo. A group of human-rights lawyers originally filed a criminal complaint asking the court to look at the possibility of charges against the six American lawyers. Baltasar Garzón Real, the investigating judge, accepted the complaint and referred it to Spanish prosecutors for a view as to whether they would accept the case and press it forward. “The evidence provided was more than sufficient to justify a more comprehensive investigation,” one of the lawyers associated with the prosecution stated.

Meanwhile, the Spanish have looked to the US to police its own:

The Spanish prosecutors briefed the American diplomats on the status of the case, how it arose, the nature of the allegations raised against the former U.S. government officials. The Americans “were basically there just to collect information,” the source stated.The Spanish prosecutors advised the Americans that they would suspend their investigation if at any point the United States were to undertake an investigation of its own into these matters. They pressed to know whether any such investigation was pending. These inquiries met with no answer from the U.S. side.

Spanish officials are highly conscious of the political context of the case and have measured the Obama administration’s low-key reaction attentively.

Bush loyalists have already put out the argument that the Spanish investigation is an “intrusion” into American affairs, even though the affairs involve the torture of five Spaniards. This isn't going to sell. More important is the tacit approval from the Obama folks. Their silence allows the Spanish to do the work they themselves should be doing. This is of little consolation to many Americans, but with the issue so politically charged Obama has to give the appearance of indifference. For now. He will not play prosecutor and he will not be an advocate for the defense. But there's no doubt which side has the momentum.

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I have to admit, the greatest thing since Obama took over the presidency is watching Glenn Beck’s quick descent into insanity. It really is epic theater and could easily have been a movie, or a television show. He is completely out of touch with reality – and it’s fucking awesome.

It’s as if the crazy conspiracy guy at the coffee shop got his own show. It may actually end with him pulling a Smith & Wesson out and blowing his brains out on live television. And I am not in any way kidding. That’s how crazy and awesome Glenn Beck has become.

Becks’ ratings have been skyrocketing, much like Mister Rodgers would have if he had begun smearing his trains with feces and ranting about how Mr. Greenjeans was going to put us in camps. A couple of weeks ago, the kids at Morning Joe on MSNBC decided to take a closer look at Glenn and they found a man on the edge of sanity, weeping openly on television.



Jesus, why don’t you lube up America, enter it anally and make sweet ass love to it? Just to be clear, that is not a man doing a show, or a character, that is a guy on the edge of a mental breakdown. Unfortunately, I have no sympathy for this impaired lunatic because he is a right wing fucknut. The crazy thing about the right wing is they already have no grip on reality, whether it be science, economics or foreign affairs, they have nothing to base their horseshit on. But The Beck has brought it to a whole new level.



What could possibly be seen as odd about that picture? It's just a guy sitting next to a close up of his eyes. How incredibly not odd.

The man has taken fear and consumed it. Fear is Glenn Beck’s bitch. And the man we are to fear, this Obama character, is so shockingly less destructive to our civil rights than his predecessor it is astounding. George Bush woke up every morning and tried to figure out a way to make us less safe, while he shit on the flag. Obama has pulled back on so many (certainly not all) of the crazy, rights destroying policies of Bush it is insane. But we are supposed to believe Obama, the guy who did not invade a country for no reason, is the next coming of Hitler. Holy fucking shit.

Glenn is quite concerned about our guns. He believes Obama is going to take our guns away. Now, I’d like to point out that if you believe Obama is going to take your guns away, you should have your guns taken away, because you have the intellectual capacity of a rodent. You are shockingly stupid and beyond pathetic. There is zero evidence this will occur in the future and Obama has emphatically stated he has no intention of doing so. So, stop it, you morons.

Glenn is also horrified by the prospect of socialized medicine. It would obviously ruin our country. It would be like opening up a bunch of USSR sponsored Chuck E. Cheeses. Please pay no attention to the fact that Obama has never proposed socialized medicine, never campaigned for socialized medicine and has even said a single-payer health system will not work. Yes, there are no plans for socialized medicine, only universal healthcare, which is pretty much the opposite of socialized medicine. It means the private sector is, you know, providing health insurance and care and stuff. Nonetheless, because Obama wants to provide fake socialized medicine, he is a Nazi. Because if there is one thing the Nazis were about, it was a national single-payer healthcare system. That’s actually what Nazi stands for: National All Single (cough, cough, what?)



That is fucking insane. He is the lunatic who should be wandering the streets and screaming at trees. He’s pretty much got the same take on every subject. Last week Glenn commented on a New York Times article that stated Obama was going to take on immigration reform. Obviously, everyone, right and left, agrees we need some sort of change when it comes to immigration. Glenn had an awesome take on the news that Obama was planning on dealing with immigration.



“Maybe I’m alone, but I think it would be just faster if they just shot me in the head. You know what I mean? How much more can he disenfranchise all of us?”



True dat. Was he done there? No, next he pretended to pour gas on someone.



Look, there is not much difference between a new immigration policy and shooting Glenn Beck in the head. I actually think it should be the first step taken by the administration. It is amazing that this man is allowed to spew such nonsense on national television. You can do anything you want, as long as it gets ratings, even if it is a man’s mental breakdown.

Ratings are ratings. You actually don’t need a huge number of people to watch your show in cable to be a star and there certainly are a large number of insane right wing lunatics who believe what the Glenn is telling them. They are being stoked and enflamed by his complete and total nonsense. For liberals and Democrats, this couldn’t be a better thing. It’s another big face for the Republicans to wear for the American public. He’s worse than Rush Limbaugh and that is quite an achievement. At least when Clinton was in office, they went after him for stuff that could actually be real. The Whitewater mess, Travel gate, getting blowjobs from interns is all spectacular criticism compared to what lunatics like Glenn Beck are doing now.

And feel free to enjoy some Glenn Beck poetry,, which he recites everyday on his show.




WRONG WITH US

Put these people in jail, put these people in jail,
Put them in jail, what is wrong with us;
We knew this guy was in the country,
He was -- he has been in the country
And extradited before; we have thrown him
Out of the country, then we brought him back, and
Then we threw him out and he came back again;
What the hell is wrong with us, what is wrong with us.

("Glenn Beck," Fox News, March 11, 2009)



Just sit back and enjoy the madness of Glenn Beck, it couldn’t be better advertising for the left.