Thursday, October 31, 2013

Rand Paul Confused about Plagiarism

photo 51963886-0e65-48aa-aa45-89eb164c7822.jpg

Previous Related Post:
Rand Paul's Gattaca Moment

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pointed out the similarities between Rand Paul’s talk in Virginia about Gattaca and that futuristic film’s Wikipedia entry.
. . . A revision history of the Gattaca Wikipedia page showed Paul had to have copied the speech since no changes were made after Paul’s speech.
A June 12, 2013 speech on immigration discussed the movie Stand and Deliver.
. . . the Wikipedia article on the film with red lines over the text...appears verbatim in Paul’s speech.
~ Andrew Kaczynski on Buzzfeed

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, we, we borrowed the plot lines from ‘Gattaca,’ a movie, and I gave credit to the people who wrote the movie. I think they’re arguing about whether things are properly footnoted. And there are technicalities to this. But nothing I said was not given attribution to where it came from.
~ Senator Rand Paul R-Kentucky, via Politico

The rest of it's making a mountain out of a molehill from people I think basically who are political enemies and have an ax to grind. This is really about information and attacks coming from haters. The person who's leading this attack -- she's been spreading hate on me for about three years now.
~ Senator Rand Paul referring to Rachel Maddow, who first brought the plagiarism to light on her show

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nobody is accusing you of pretending that you wrote ‘Gattaca’ or that you wrote ‘Stand and Deliver,’ that is not what this about. This is not about you explaining a plot line. This is about you lifting other peoples’ words verbatim and pretending that they are your own. This is something that high school students know not to do. And you are presenting yourself as potential candidate for president.
~ Rachel Maddow on MSNBC via Politico

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Rand Paul's Gattaca Moment


photo gattacasedvd.jpg

Rachel Maddow, host of an MSNBC talk show and bane of Rand Paul’s existence, accused the Kentucky Senator of stealing lines from his speech at Liberty University on Monday from a Wikipedia entry about the 1997 movie Gattaca.
. . . In all, Maddow accused Paul of quoting almost word-for-word four passages in the Wikipedia entry explaining the science fiction movie.
~ Kentucky Courier Journal

Gattaca Wikipedia Page Here



. . . it’s ridiculous enough that the Kentucky Senator used a 16-year-old science fiction film’s plot as some lame attempt to stir up fear while giving a speech. Then he just compounds his absurdity by plagiarizing the movie’s Wikipedia page.
~ Forward Progressives

Paul: “In the movie Gattaca, in the ‘not to distant future,’ eugenics is common and DNA plays a primary role in determining your social class.”
Wikipedia: “In ‘the not-too-distant future’, liberal eugenics is common and DNA plays the primary role in determining social class.

Paul: “Due to frequent screenings, Vincent faces genetic discrimination and prejudice. The only way to achieve his dream of being an astronaut, is he has to become what’s called a ‘borrowed ladder.’”
Wikipedia: "Due to frequent screening, Vincent faces genetic discrimination and prejudice. The only way he can achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut is to become a ‘borrowed ladder.’”

Paul: “He assumes the identity of a Jerome Morrow, a world class swimming star with a genetic profile said to be ‘secondary to none,’ but he’s been paralyzed in a car accident.”
Wikipedia: “He assumes the identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow, a former swimming star with a genetic profile “second to none”, who had been injured in a car accident, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.”

Paul: “Jerome buys his identity, uses his DNA — his blood, his hair, his tissue his urine — to pass the screenings.”
Wikipedia: “Vincent ‘buys’ Jerome’s identity and uses his ‘valid’ DNA in blood, hair, tissue, and urine samples to pass screening.”




















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ted Cruz Hunts the Presidency in Iowa

photo 0877eaf44da57f5eccd1945583b40fe0.jpg



On the hunt itself, at which several reporters trailed Cruz with cameras, he seemed only to chat with his fellow hunters briefly and in hushed tones, at one point discussing a former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as "a principled conservative." Cruz and King discussed loyalty in electoral politics as they pushed through the underbrush, both agreeing that "you never forget who was in the first foxhole with you."
. . . Cruz used his own shotgun -- flown up from Texas as checked baggage on his United flight. He hit two pheasants himself and cheered others along the way.
"Someone make a pillow!" Cruz said when one bird fell from the sky in a hail of feathers. "Or just turn it straight into McNuggets."
~ NBC News

Chris Matthews on Hardball, Oct. 28, 2013
The Wacko-Birds go pheasant hunting. Let's play Hardball.
Halloween is about pretend goblins - we can laugh at what we're afraid of. Death, zombies, ghosts, monsters. Tea Partiers. But Ted Cruz is for real and he's not just a nightmare and he was out there this weekend in the broad scary daylight of Iowa. . . . Senator Cruz is the right wing zealot of the season. His shutdown killed public confidence in government, and his attacks relentless and righteous have stirred resistance to the President's health care program. His tactics of shutdowns and threats to default have hurt economic growth even as he campaigns on a promise of, guess what? Economic growth. He reminds me of the kid who kills his parents then begs the judge's mercy on the ground that he's an orphan. A perfect candidate for Halloween Week.

From Buzzfeed
Friday night at the Iowa Events Center, conservative Christian activist Steve Scheffler came to the podium to give thanks to God for the Tea Party savior — and plead for more principled conservative leaders like him willing to “be crucified for their belief system.”
The ballroom full of amens that followed went a long way toward explaining why Cruz — fresh off a failed crusade to dismantle Obamacare that resulted in a 16-day government shutdown and a political disaster for his party — has been greeted with such adoration by Tea Party crowds in recent days.
. . . “Every time one of these guys attacks him, it’s good for him,” said one Iowa Republican operative. “He’s like a superhero. The more bullets that get shot at him, the bigger and stronger he gets.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Monkey Court Shenanigans

photo 02faded1-d34c-44ae-aad5-cc9b574b7c0f.jpg

From Politico
Rep. Frank Pallone got heated during Thursday’s House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on the troubled launch of the HealthCare.gov website and called the meeting a “monkey court.”

“No, I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever this thing is!” Pallone said. “Do whatever you want, I’m not yielding!”




















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Friday, October 25, 2013

Liberal Media Freak-Out Over ACA Website - with Krystal Ball and #EzraKleinMusic

photo KrystalClear4.png












Cycle Host Krystal Ball on MSNBC - My Transcript
If you've been watching our show, you know that I'm pretty angry about the failures of the effort to begin the health-care program. Washington Post's Matt Miller even told me to 'chill out.' I'm sorry, I can't. I won't chill out. See, here's the problem.
Republicans, of course, have been lying to Americans about the Affordable Care Act, telling them it’s a train wreck, saying this president is a bystander to his own presidency, arguing that the federal government is incompetent and can’t work.
Now they’ve got all kinds of evidence to back up their malicious and destructive claims.
So that's one piece of why, sorry Matt, I can't chill.
But what I'm really angry about here is the fact that for millions, the success of this law is literally a matter of life or death. As outraged as we are when Republicans try to sabotage it, we should be outraged when our own side makes its success materially less likely.
Yes, before you send your tweets, I know that the website is not the entirety of the Affordable Care Act.
But to say it's just a website is just a huge understatement.
This is the first direct experience that millions of Americans will have with Obamacare. This is the critical entry point to President [Barack] Obama’s signature achievement; an achievement that we’ve marched for, and rallied for, and fought Supreme Court cases and elections over.

photo KrystalClear3.png

I just do not understand how something so mission-critical could have turned out so poorly.
Now look, I'm not trying to engage in hyperbole here. The Affordable Care Act can still work beautifully but we've sure taken a giant risk. An unnecessary risk with such a dismal failure of a roll-out, and there's really no excuse. After all, we are the Party who are supposed to know how to do good government. And to all those states like Texas that we wanted to convince to go forward with the Medicaid Expansion piece, well, good-luck with that now!
Frankly, I'm a little disappointed in my left-leaning friends for not being more honest here. Look, we are not propagandists. We're not like them. We don't insulate ourselves into our own little media bubble, impervious to the reality around us. We are the ones who are supposed to tell it straight even when it's not convenient.
. . . We are not the ones giving comfort to the GOP propagandists. The failing website, which is keeping people from signing up for health care, is what has given them comfort.
. . . It seems to me that everyone who believes in this law, who believes in universal healthcare, everyone who believes in the promise of the Federal Government to do big things ought to be outraged at this manifest incompetence. Just because it's our team who messed things up doesn't mean they should get a pass.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

photo EzraMorningJoe.png

Washington Post Pundit Ezra Klein on MSNBC's Morning Joe
Watch Video Here
These aren’t glitches, the website, to a first approximation, simply isn’t working. When the Obama Administration calls them 'glitches' I think they are underplaying the problem.
. . . There’s a real management failure here. It isn’t that nobody knew. A lot of reporters, health care reporters, people who were engaged with HHS and CMS, folks like me and a lot of my colleagues, were going to them and saying, ‘We’re hearing bad things out of your testing. We’re hearing you’re not being able to transmit your data the way you need to transmit it.’ Senior White House staff said, ‘No, we’ve been watching this, we’re talking to people, it’s all fine, bugs are getting fixed.’ Somewhere along the management chain the news, the actual truth of what was going on—because it was not unknown—got lost, got spun, got hidden, got obscured, and they know that.
. . . There were things they could have done, and they were not given the information by their own bureaucracy to do it. That is a management failure on them.











~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

photo musical_notes.gif photo musical_notes.gif photo musical_notes.gif













photo musical_notes.gif photo musical_notes.gif photo musical_notes.gif


















~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Joan Walsh on Salon
As predictably as night follows day, on Monday the media establishment pivoted away from obsessing about GOP extremism and the party’s alleged “civil war” to the “train wreck” that is, allegedly, the Affordable Care Act.
And liberals helped lead the pivot.
Don’t get me wrong: The problems with Healthcare.gov are real, and disturbing, and must be fixed asap....But excuse me if I believe the president knows that without my telling him.
. . . when liberals rush conscientiously to do that, they only encourage the completely unbalanced and unhinged coverage of whatever the problem may be.



















All In With Chris Hayes Transcript, Oct. 23, 2013
Watch Video Here
EZRA KLEIN: -- And, they are getting your eligibility information through that computer system. That isn`t working. So, those things don`t work. No. Obamacare doesn`t work. And, that`s why this is a really big deal. And, we are reporting it at Wonk Blog and by the way, we are doing the same thing during the shutdown as a very big deal.

CHRIS HAYES: Do you think part of -- so, what`s your response to that?

JOAN WALSH: No. It`s more than just a website. But, I think that -- you know the affordable care act is already helping people. Millions of kids are still on their parents` policies. Millions of us, myself, included, are getting preventive care that we used to have to pay money for without a copay.

Millions are getting help through Medicaid and millions more would be helped through Medicaid except for republican governors. So, there are a  lot of great things going on. And, there also a lot of people frustrated but hanging in there because they desperately need health insurance.

So, they`re going to get it. It may be a complete disaster down the road. But we are not there yet. And, I guess, Ezra, what I would say to you is you are a wonderful reporter. I read you every day. I probably read close to every word you write.

(To Klein) But, it was your tone and I think what people trust about you is your sobriety. People think you`re a liberal, that`s because reality has a well known liberal bias. But, you know, you do your job and I appreciate that. I just felt like, you know, live blogging your attempt to reach somebody on the phone and complaining about the lack of hold music kind of crossed over.

KLEIN: No.
WALSH: This is a little bit.

KLEIN: But, this is really important, right? Because -- I hope that I got a reputation from the readership of being sober about these things. I think it`s really important to keep your head about you when these things are going on. When I called the system, it`s because president was saying call the system that day. And, the system dropped the call twice because it was so overwhelmed.

 I am trying through this reportage to convince people to persuade them something has really gone wrong here. Now -- You know, Chris, I don`t think there is anybody that wasn`t literally writing the law that wrote much more about this law in the construction phase in its legislative phase and through Wonkblog and its implementation phase and we have a Wonkblog.

I mean, we have been sort of covering this all every step of the way. And, so the reason we are covering this with the aggression that we are is that something real is going on here. We never said the law is doomed, but I think what we kind of found in our reporting, they think if this is fixed by thanksgiving, it`s probably pretty much OK.

But, these are not small problems. And, they`re not at the moment by the way OK problems. These are not things that the Obama administration should be given a pass on. Not least because they didn`t know they were happening. And, so one thing that I think is important about our role in the kind of informational ecosystem is something that went wrong for the
Obama Administration is they didn`t know. There was a breakdown between their bureaucracy and them.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Media False Equivalence Fails During Shutdown

photo lk052312dAPR-500.jpg

The American people think they're a bunch of kids playing in a sand box and neither side is covering itself in glory. I must say this whole business of "I won't negotiate with a gun to your head" is - actually, I'd rather negotiate with a gun to my head than to have somebody shoot me, and I think that's where they could end up if they don't sit down and talk. So both sides really do need it.
~ Cokie Roberts on ABC This Week, via Sam Seder on YouTube

Let's parse what Cokie Roberts said . . . who is the "they" in that analogy? Who is the "they?" It's the Republican Party. She has conceded they are holding a weapon to the head. And who is the person who has the gun to their head? It's not President Obama in this scenario. It's not the Democrats. The Democrats don't lose particularly if the Republicans refuse to stop the government shutdown. They don't lose particularly if the debt ceiling is not raised. It's the American people who lose! They are the ones with a gun to their head! Not the Democrats, not the President.
Under her analogy, the people with the gun to their heads is the American public. And they're not in a position to negotiate with the Republicans. If this is just about winning for Cokie Roberts, then the Democrats and the White House have absolutely no incentive to do this. Because if the Republicans "shoot" the American people in the head, I imagine to the extent that there are benefits, it's going to acrue to the Democrats. Because Americans don't like to be shot in the head. It hurts when you get shot in the head.
. . . We should all remember Green Eggs and Ham (read by Ted Cruz during his filibuster). Maybe if you get shot in the head, you'll like it!
~ Sam Seder, Majority Report



Legendary journalist Carl Bernstein on MSNBC's Morning Joe
This is about the Republican Party and what it's going to be. Is it going to conduct a fact-based, philosophical argument in our political system or is it going to be a nihilistic, hateful, asymmetrical in terms of facts and the truth part of the party, as in Joe McCarthy.
This is about media as well. These poll numbers are about a totally different media culture than we've had in the past.
. . . we need to start covering this story not 50/50 — this much on this side, that on the other — we need to cover it factually. Because there are facts here that will show what this event is about. And where, in fact, is this anger, hatred of Obama coming from? What is the root of this?
. . . It's about truth. It's about fact. It's about a wing in [the GOP] that has no interest in truth or governing or fact and it's bringing the country down. It might not bring the party down. Like McCarthy, it might work. That's the terrible thing.



From Eric Boehlert on Media Matters
CNN often rallied around the GOP talking point that Obama ought to "negotiate" with Republicans because give-and-take is what politics (and compromise) is all about. "Why won't the president come to the negotiating table?" Candy Crowley wondered, while CNN's Carol Costello asked "Why doesn't the president pick up the phone and call John Boehner?"
On the surface that sounds like a reasonable question, and no doubt it represented the centrist position CNN felt comfortable championing, as it hyped its watchdog role of holding both parties accountable. But the query only worked if CNN anchors and reporters completely disregarded the facts of the unfolding shutdown and flushed all the context down the memory hole.
. . . Viewed in full context, the Republican demand was utterly extremist and without precedent in modern Congressional history. Too often though, CNN ignored that defining fact. Instead, CNN offered up a more simplistic, blame-both-sides version where Obama starred as an obstinate protagonist who arrogantly refused to deal with his Republican counterparts.

. . . journalists have been suckered into embracing "balance" and "neutrality" at all costs, and the consequences of their choice in an era of political extremism will only get worse and worse.
. . . Blaming everyone — Congress, both sides, Washington — is simply the path of least resistance for today's political reporters. It's a way of avoiding conflict rather than taking the risk that the public — or their editors — will accuse them of being unprofessionally partisan.
. . . So, no, the shutdown is not generalized dysfunction or gridlock or stalemate. It is aberrational behavior by a political party that is willing to take extreme and potentially damaging action to get its way. And by not calling it what it is, the political press is enabling it.
~ Dan Froomkin on Al-Jazeera

As a matter of journalism, any story that presents the disagreements as a "standoff," a "showdown," a "failure of leadership," a sign of "partisan gridlock," or any of the other usual terms for political disagreement, represents a failure of journalism*** and an inability to see or describe what is going on....
. . . This isn't "gridlock." It is a ferocious struggle within one party, between its traditionalists and its radical factions, with results that unfortunately can harm all the rest of us -- and, should there be a debt default, could harm the rest of the world too.
~ James Fallows, The Atlantic

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Republicans Still Harping on Obamacare, Attack Secretary Sebelius

photo BW_SsJvCcAAhblb.jpg





President Obama’s ideas are deeply flawed and the implementation of this law has been a national embarrassment. Let me be plain, the law that carries the president’s name is the hallmark of a reckless federal bureaucracy that has lost its way.
~ Viginia Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli

From the Washington Post
Ted Cruz, remarks to reporters, Oct. 16, 2013
“The deal that has been cut provides no relief to the millions of Americans who are hurting because of Obamacare…. People all over this country are losing their health insurance. Fifteen thousand UPS employees got a notification in the mail that they were losing spousal coverage, that their husbands and wives were all losing the health insurance that they wanted and they liked. That is happening all over the country.”
. . . In the specific example cited by Cruz of UPS — “15,000 UPS employees got a notification in the mail that they were losing spousal coverage” — he left out a crucial detail: The company’s policy change affects spouses who would qualify for health coverage at their own company — affecting approximately one in five workers, according to a company memo. Spouses who don’t have coverage or are not employed would still continue on the company plan.

























What you will see is that a lot of the insurance companies will begin to fold. People will have fewer and fewer options. Ultimately we will have a single-payer system if we don’t stop this from happening, and that will give the government the kind of control that it needs.
~ Fox News Pundit Ben Carson

Men like Mitch McConnell, John Cornyn, Eric Cantor, Kevin McCarthy, and others have preached a great sermon against Obamacare, but now conservatives who supported them see that these men have refused to actually practice what they’ve been preaching. They’ve refused to stand and fight with the rest of us.
The fight was always about Obamacare. Today we know we must keep fighting and fight harder against even our own supposed side. But we always knew the fight would force the charlatans of the GOP out of the shadows into disinfecting sunlight. It has happened as I wrote it would almost a month ago.
Now conservatives can keep advancing. They should not be disheartened.
~ GOP Pundit Erick Erickson on Red State

Salon Fact-Checks Sean Hannity on Fox
I happened to turn on the Hannity show on Fox News last Friday evening. “Average Americans are feeling the pain of Obamacare and the healthcare overhaul train wreck,” Hannity announced, “and six of them are here tonight to tell us their stories.” Three married couples were neatly arranged in his studio, the wives seated and the men standing behind them, like game show contestants.
As Hannity called on each of them, the guests recounted their “Obamacare” horror stories: canceled policies, premium hikes, restrictions on the freedom to see a doctor of their choice, financial burdens upon their small businesses and so on.
. . . I don’t doubt that these six individuals believe that Obamacare is a disaster; but none of them had even visited the insurance exchange. And some of them appear to have taken actions ... based on a general pessimistic belief about Obamacare. He’s certainly entitled to do so, but Hannity is not entitled to point to (this) behavior as an “Obamacare train wreck story” and maintain any credibility that he might have as a journalist.

From Politico
Republicans now have to get it through their heads that the law isn’t going away. As one Senate Republican aide put it Thursday, “We’re past that existential question.”
Democrats say they’ll always be able to remind Americans of the massively unpopular shutdown whenever Republicans try too hard to fight the law.
“Republicans thought that this was a winning issue for them and would trump public outcry over the budget and the debt ceiling … Republicans were dead wrong,” said Matt Canter of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “The shutdown showed that voters don’t want to continue refighting the partisan battles around the health care law.”
And top GOP strategists say the party has to try harder to rally around an alternative, which they haven’t been able to do so far.
Oh, and maybe don’t shut the government down again.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thursday, October 17, 2013

GOP Shutdown Ends - with a Weird Twist

photo washington-freemason_big.jpg

Previous Related Posts:
Beleaguered Boehner Agrees to Senate Deal

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~





From ABC News
A House stenographer was pulled out of the House chamber while shouting into the microphone during Wednesday’s vote on a compromise bill to end the government shutdown and raise the debt limit.

The woman was Dianne Reidy, an official reporter with the Office of the Clerk, two sources told ABC News.

She was heard shouting “the House is divided,” according to one source. She was pulled off the rostrum by chamber security staff.

“He will not be mocked,” the woman said, according to an audio recording of the incident posted online by Public Radio International reporter Todd Zwillich. “This is not one nation under God. It never was.”

“The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under god! It never was. Had it been, it would not have been! The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons!” she added.

The incident caused a moment of chaos in the chamber as the presiding member, Rep. Ileana Ros Lehtinen, R-Fla., repeatedly banged the gavel, trying to restore order.





(My transcript)

House Stenographer, strolling up to House Microphone and smiling before saying: He will not be mocked. He will not be mocked.

Unknown Staffers: Come on, sweetheart. Come on, sweetheart. - Shhh.

Stenographer: No, don't touch me! He will not be mocked! The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under God, and it never was. Had it been, it would not have been. No!

Unknown Man: Get that officer right here.

Stenographer: The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons. They go against God.

Man's Voice: Come on!

Stenographer: You cannot serve two masters! You cannot serve two masters! Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ! Praise forever!





















Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Beleaguered Boehner Agrees to Senate Deal

photo End.png

Previous Related Post:
Tea Party Pushes U.S. Towards Default Brink

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


























































































Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Tea Party Pushes U.S. Towards Default Brink

photo o-NEW-YORKER-570.jpg

Previous Related Posts:
Confederate Tea Party Storms the Washington Barricades
GOP Sinks to Historic Lows in Polls

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Epic Rant about Ted Cruz On Morning Joe 10-15-2013
Mika Brzezinski: Later this morning Senator Mitch McConnell will present a bipartisan plan to fellow Republicans that could end the shutdown and extend the nation's borrowing limit for at least a couple of months.

Joe Scarborough: Yay! (laughter)

Mika: Haven't we heard this before? . . . The Senate could vote on the bill as soon as tomorrow, however the deal does not include any language to dismantle Obamacare, nor would it include a repeal of the medical device tax - two sticking points for the Tea Party Caucus.

photo SenateProp.png

Mika: Senator Ted Cruz says he is still unsure whether or not he'd block a vote on the bill - come on.

Joe: Lots of Luck, Pal. You go ahead and do that.

Mika: It's unbelievable.

Joe: Just try it, Buddy. Go ahead ... (laughter) Go ahead, Big Shot. You put the full faith and credit of the United States of America on your shoulders. Have fun with that. Good luck. Do it. Do it. I dare you. I'm daring you right now. Go ahead and do it, Hot Shot.

Or are you gonna just sit in the back? And when people are responsible and actually give a damn about this country, and give a damn about the full faith and credit of the United States, and actually care about the people who are working day in and day out hoping to keep their job. You're going to keep posing and hurt those people? I don't really get it -

It's kinda like - it's great for you, I know. I know it's really great for you politically, but it's just like the Veteran's Memorial that you used as a political backdrop. It's a great backdrop until the next day, the Vets who actually organized the rally came out and were really upset that you had used their rally for your own political points.

So you guys go ahead. Just go ahead. Just keep using America as your political backdrop. And hurt all the people you want to hurt. Hurt, by the way, small government conservatives. Republicans. Working class Americans that actually used to support our party, but are now wondering what in the world - keep doing it. And I hope it really helps you out because it's sure not helping the conservative movement. It's not helping the Republican Party, and it's not helping this country, but go ahead, go ahead.

. . . This isn't about conservatism. This is about tactics. What makes me so angry is some Republicans are going to have to step up and they see that 24% conservative approval rating and they know it's going to go lower. They know the Senate's now in jeopardy. They know that the White House could be in jeopardy down the road. ...Independents who broke for Romney last time have even moved away from him (Cruz).
. . . So now a few Republicans are going to save the full faith and credit of the nation either on the day of the Default or a few weeks later, and a few guys are going to sit in the back and throw potshots at them because they know they have to do it. And they don't have the guts to stand up and say 'You know, we're the ones who screwed this up. We're the ones who screwed up the Republican Party's ability to do well during this time.'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

. . . we’re watching now, what might be called the Koch Brothers’ “Samson Option,” pulling down the temple to destroy their enemies even if doing so is also destructive to them and their fortunes.
~ Robert Parry on TruthOut

We face a mutated GOP. Ted Cruz is the leader of the dominant faction in this amalgam of what I call totalitarian Christians (their interpretation of the Bible supersedes the US Constitution), racist white Southerners (whose DNA contains the slavery gene), Ayn Rand dystopian ideologues...and plutocrats.
~ Shockwave on Daily Kos

. . . you know at every stage, my prayer to God is that His will be done. As it will be.
~ Senator Ted Cruz, R-TX, Tea Party architect of the Government Shutdown

What planet are you living on here?!
~ Reporter Chuck Todd on MSNBC's Morning Joe speaking of Senator Ted Cruz

We are now five days away from a very dangerous moment.
The closer we get to the deadline the greater the impact will be for the developing world.
Inaction could result in interest rates rising, confidence falling and growth slowing.
If this (U.S. Default) comes to pass it could be a disastrous event for the developing world and that will in turn greatly hurt the developed economies as well.
~ World Bank President Jim Yong Kim via BBC News

There's an expectation that has to change and that sometimes takes attempting to do things that won't work. It's a tough vote, but the fact is all of us have to realize the reality of the situation, and that is that two months have been blown on the wrong subject.
~ Senator Bob Corker, R-Tennessee

They had the gun to our head because of Obamacare. They gave up on that, so why is the gun to our head still? Now it's like we have the gun to our head and we have to figure out why.
~ Bill Maher, Friday, 10/11/13

We'd better wake up. Defunding Obamacare is not achievable. So let's not delude our supporters by telling them that it is under the present circumstances, because elections have consequences.
~ Senator John McCain on Fox News



. . . there are some tactics that go too far, alienating even voters who are ideologically or politically sympathetic to the GOP. And, unfortunately for Republicans, one of those tactics was extortion. Going into the shutdown, more people opposed Obamacare than supported it. But the idea of shutting down the government or threatening a debt default to undo Obamacare was massively unpopular.
. . . The polls trickle in and they are horrific. The pragmatic wing of the party is completely demoralized. It lashes out more violently than before. The national media both encourages and adds to their derision of conservatives. Suddenly every Republican in town is shopping his own terms of surrender. The biggest challenge for Democrats isn’t getting their way. It’s that there are so many offers, it’s hard to know which one to take. Politico labeled the spectacle a “buyer’s market” for Barack Obama, massively understating the point. It is a buyer’s market in the sense that the day after the Super Bowl is a buyer’s market for pork rinds.
~ Noam Scheiber on New Republic

We gave the Democrats one incredibly early Christmas gift. I’m not going to fault Ted (Cruz). He believes what he was doing was going to be helpful. But at the end of the day, you look and you ask, ‘Are we any close to defunding Obamacare are ridding ourselves of it than we were?’ The answer is no.
~ Conservative Radio Host Mike Huckabee, possible 2016 GOP Primary contender against Cruz

So you have this neighbor who has been making your life hell. First he tied you up with a spurious lawsuit; you’re both suffering from huge legal bills. Then he threatened bodily harm to your family. Now, however, he says he’s willing to compromise: He’ll call off the lawsuit, which is to his advantage as well as yours. But in return you must give him your car. Oh, and he’ll stop threatening your family — but only for a week, after which the threats will resume.
Not much of an offer, is it? But here’s the kicker: Your neighbor’s relatives, who have been egging him on, are furious that he didn’t also demand that you kill your dog.
And now you understand the current state of budget negotiations.
~ Economist Paul Krugman in NYT

Representative Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, on Young Turks via Raw Story
The Young Turks caught up with the Texas Republican on Friday at the Values Voter Summit and asked him if he would vote on any deal to raise the debt ceiling.
“It just depends on what it is,” he replied. “The word ‘deal’ concerns me… if it’s good for America.”
“Would you allow us to default on our debt?” a reporter from The Young Turks wondered.
“No, that would be an impeachable offense by the president,” Gohmert declared.


Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)