Bumped and promoted. Originally posted 2010-03-20 09:38:16 -0400. CTMan makes a good point. -- GH

President Alf Landon?

"This is the largest tax bill in history," the Republican leader fumed. The reform "is unjust, unworkable, stupidly drafted and wastefully financed."

And that wasn't all. This "cruel hoax," he said, this "folly" of "bungling and waste," compared poorly to the "much less expensive" and "practical measures" favored by the Republicans.

"We must repeal," the GOP leader argued. "The Republican Party is pledged to do this."

That was Republican presidential nominee Alf Landon in a September 1936 campaign speech. He based his bid for the White House on repealing Social Security.

Unless you have some kind of alternate universe revisionist history to go by, expect this kind of campaign lunacy to go over just as well in the next election cycle.

Well? I had thought my final update on Pentagon shooter, John Patrick Bedell, would actually be the final update. Last time I had little trouble finding the "Patriot" background of the right wing Greg Girard after he flew his plane into a government building because we had his hometown to work with out og the GOOGLE gates. But with Bedell there were just way too many to sort through just on his name. More information, like Bedell's "9-11 truther" conspiracy beliefs, started to surface after they released the fact that he was from California and had traveled across country to unleash his violent ending at the Pentagon. But now TPM has turned up some recordings from John Patrick Bedell and it is pretty clear which side of the political spectrum his particular brand of crazy has been incubated in:

"Communist and socialist governments that abolished or disregarded private property," said Bedell in the recording, "created poverty, oppression and murder on a truly enormous scale." But, he continued, "Even in the United States, however, there has been a continual erosion of protection of private property justified by the belief that government is an efficient instrument for the positive direction of society."

Bedell added: "Governments lack the profit and loss incentives that individuals and private organizations must use..."

Let's just stop it right there for a second... Where have we heard talk like that before? If you are thinking the Tea Parties and Patriot movements as well as being encouraged and spewed by GOP leadership and activists... Then you would be 100% correct.

Bedell continues on below the fold:

Yes, it fits onto a bumper sticker:

And it's pointedly accurate...the last thing the GOP would ever want to see.

Hat-tip dmhlt 66 of DailyKos, from the diary by ericlewis0.

Hat-tip Lady SaraBeth of DelphiForums for calling this out.

Hypocrisy and domestic terrorism are key elements of today's GOP. Called out on the floor of the Senate by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Sunday, the GOP remained true to form anyway with a hypocritical "prayer" request that prayed for at least one Democratic senator to be incapacitated so as not to make the final roll call on the healthcare bill.

An article by Dana Millbank in the Washington Post this morning provides the quotes below. First up, Senator Whitehouse:

__________

"Too many colleagues are embarked on a desperate, no-holds-barred mission of propaganda, obstruction and fear," he said. "History cautions us of the excesses to which these malignant, vindictive passions can ultimately lead. Tumbrils have rolled through taunting crowds. Broken glass has sparkled in darkened streets. Strange fruit has hung from southern trees." Assuming the role of Old Testament prophet, Whitehouse promised a "day of judgment" and a "day of reckoning" for Republicans.
__________

In his piece, Millbank refers to the words of Senator Whitehouse as extreme, but -- truth be told -- the description of the behavior and tactics of the GOP's antics since they lost control of Congress and the White House are dead-on accurate. As to whether they receive any sort of true accountability and "day of reckoning" for their actions, that remains to be seen.

Millbank's article was focused on the rather obscene actions of Tom Coburn, Senator from Oklahoma (R-terrorist), who got up on the Senate floor to propose the following:

__________

"What the American people ought to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight," he said. "That's what they ought to pray."
__________

That's not the wish nor comportment of any true citizen or statesman: that's the wholly inappropriate wish of harm to a member of the American government, and a wish for the interference with the continued operation of government, specifically for the sole purpose of advancing a self-serving political agenda that is contrary to the continued success of our nation. Coburn had made an equally malignant remark earlier on Saturday, when he stated the following:

__________

"The crisis of confidence in this country is now at an apex that has not seen in over 150 years, and that lack of confidence undermines the ability of legitimate governance," he said. "There's a lot of people out there today who...will say, 'I give up on my government,' and rightly so."
__________

This "crisis of confidence" is one being sparked and fanned into a flame by actions of Coburn and his colleagues, precisely as decried by Senator Whitehouse on Sunday. They are not the actions of a patriotic party, or a party of "family values" or "Christian" morality: these actions and statements, particularly when taken collectively, are the words and actions of a party with an agenda of domestic terrorism and sedition, acting with malicious intent while attempting to hide behind the mechanics and machinery of government.

The Republican Party "leadership" has become a cancer in the heart of American government -- a malignancy that threatens the growth and health of the nation, and one that must be removed or sent into remission if our nation is to have any chance of recovering from the damage that these very people and their party of "No" are responsible for.

As for whether Coburn's "prayer" worked? Back to Millbank's article:

__________

Coburn was wearing blue jeans, an argyle sweater and a tweed jacket with elbow patches when he walked back into the chamber a few minutes before 1 a.m. He watched without expression when Byrd was wheeled in, dabbing his eyes and nose with tissues, his complexion pale. When his name was called, Byrd shot his right index finger into the air as he shouted "aye," then pumped his left fist in defiance.
__________

If only the good senator could've rolled his wheelchair over Coburn's foot in the process.

Via Idahostatesman.com:

Blake Hall, a leading figure in Idaho and national politics for 25 years, was fired Monday as a deputy prosecuting attorney in eastern Idaho and has resigned from the Republican National Committee.

Hall, a former member of the state Board of Education, pleaded guilty Friday to stalking a former girlfriend and is serving a 15-day jail sentence. He also was sentenced to a year of supervised probation. A six-month jail sentence was suspended

...snip...

Idaho Falls police reported that witnesses said Hall disposed of used condoms on the lawn of the woman's house. Nineteen condoms were turned over to police, collected on 10 different dates, according to a police report. Both Hall and his lawyer acknowledged the condoms belonged to him, according to a police report.

...snip...

Hall's tenure with the Republican National Committee also dates to the 1980s. Until his resignation, he was the second-most-senior member of the RNC.

Not even gonna make a joke here about this one because stalking is always a serious issue.

The yahoos have fired on Fort Sumter, and the civil war has begun.

Back in the old days it was enough for Republicans to attack centrist Democrats like Clinton, so that no Blue Dog could command the political center and marginalize the GOP. But now the GOP wingnuts are going much further, purging their own ranks like the Khmer Rouge did, and the KGB, and the Jacobins of the French Revolution. In their zeal to win the civil war within the GOP, they even attack perfectly conservative Republicans who make the mistake of incurring their wrath. This political pressure could end up pushing BOTH political parties to the right.

Months ago the Republicans promised their own health plan, and then didn’t deliver. Now they are finally delivering – but the plan they’re unveiling is actually a plan to obstruct the deliberation process.

Boehner is starting to dribble out a teeny health plan, which he wouldn’t be doing unless there was a serious danger (to the Republicans) that the Democratic plan would pass. This is after Kyl was dangling in front of the Democrats the promise of a compromise on the opt-in plan. So clearly they know Obama wants a bipartisan bill if possible, and they will try to drag things out and confuse people with a dozen dangle-the-football-in-front-of-Charlie-Brown “compromises” that sound good in Fox sound bites but are really bad policy.

This is a reminder of what the former Administration said -- just look around and see where that got us, and the size of the mess it created for the current Administration, for the nation and for the world:

Isn't it time for a little accountability, some legal investigation and some accountability?

Don't you think so?

Weiner Calls on GOP Opponents of the Public Option to Give Up Their Medicare

Indies/Unaffiliateds, people like myself, are becoming the force to reckon with in politics. And it is clear that the majority of us break to the left in our support. I am thinking a 42 percent number is only a slight outlier? But in the general ballpark.

This is a trend I have talked about for a while.

Yes. The Republican party is dying and, yes, the Democratic party is making some gains but, HUGE BUT HERE, indy/unaffiliated will probably keep outpacing them both in growth, IMHO.

The wingnuts have set up an online “overthrow Obama” game. According to the backstory, Obama takes over in a coup (which we call an “election” in the real world), kills Glenn Beck, and puts all the other rightwing pundits in concentration camps – Rush, Sean, Billo etc. A revolution ensues, the military refuses to fight to defend Obama, and Sarah Palin takes command of the revolutionaries. The game encourages the players to “invade” and “conquer” their neighbors (presumably the nasty little brown ones).

http://crooksandliars.com/node/32078

So now mass insanity is now a web game like Sudoku or crosswords.

Fun fun fun for the whole family!

Obama nailed the GOP pretty solidly here:

It's good advice: Grab a mop, GOP.

To continue CTMan's video ridicule of the rabid Right's latest lunacies, here's a Rachel Maddow clip on "Czars" in the Obama -- and previous -- Administrations:

Enjoy, and spread around.
Hat-tip SaraBeth of DelphiForums.

Hat-tip LordRag of DelphiForums.

From Crooks and Liars, the Reich Wing has finally crossed the line:

That's no longer free speech -- that's incitement to commit murder. I'll bet it also violates multiple instances of the USA PATRIOT Act and a slew of DHS, FBI, Secret Service and other assorted federal and state rules, regulations and laws.

The GOP has a responsibility to rein in the hysteria, and they are instead choosing to bolster select elements while denying any responsiblity. To me, their failure is more than criminal. It's more than a mere oversight.

It's blatant complicity.

The Republican leadership has failed to speak up, to speak out and to quell these lunatics. They refuse to accept their responsibility as leaders. The men and women of today's Republican party are arrogant, self-centered cowards; unAmerican, unChristian, myopic and self-centered hypocrites of the most heinous nature. They were elected by the people in order to represent the public good and act to preserve not only public welfare but also to represent the best of their districts in the halls of government. They are supposed to act with relative selflessness, with integrity and conforming to the rules of decorum. They should be expected to pursue the concept of due diligence in all the ways that they represent their constituents, and the way they contribute to a stronger nation.

They are willfully and maliciously abdicating their roles and responsibilities. They are actively working against the security of the nation, interfering with and endangering the proper operation of government and aiding and abetting those who would do damage to our nation and duly elected leadership.

The GOP -- as a whole -- must now choose: stand up and take responsibility. Take action to defuse the chaos you've been feeding. Do it now, before the whole thing explodes in the collective faces of everyone in the nation -- before some lunatic sets off the spark that acts as the first and last sign of your criminal, treasonous activity.

Stand up now and put out the smoldering fires you've been feeding, before it's too late.

This is a hell of your own making, and only you can save yourself from the inevitable damnation it will bring...and the innocent blood that you'll be responsible for spilling.

"What sluggards, what cowards have I brought up in my court, who care nothing for their allegiance to their lord. Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?"



        -- The Murder of Thomas Becket, 1170,

            Eyewitness to History.com

See also: Inappropriate Political Discourse: The Blood of Patriots and Tyrants

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

As I sat back last night and watched president Obama speak before the joint session of congress, I was delighted to be able to say to myself, now that's the man I voted for. He spoke with eloquence, he addressed every relevant issue, and he was inspirational - but most importantly, he spoke with the kind of strength that the American people expect of their leaders.