IOKIYAR

The GOP’s Twisted Priorities

Posted on by Democrashield

The Daily Caller has a jaw-dropping exclusive about how the RNC is spending its money:

According to two knowledgeable sources, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele once raised the possibility of using party money to buy a private jet for his travel.

[…]

Steele’s spokesman, Doug Heye, did not deny that such discussions took place, responding that the RNC never had a “plan” to buy a plane. “I don’t know what somebody might have discussed or might not have discussed.”

While Steele has not purchased a plane, he continues to charter them. According to federal disclosure records, the RNC spent $17,514 on private aircraft in the month of February alone (as well as $12,691 on limousines during the same period). There are no readily identifiable private plane expenses for Democratic National Committee chairman Tim Kaine in the DNC’s last three months of filings.

[…]

Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.

[All emphasis mine]

Private planes, fancy hotels, expensive Hawaii junkets, lesbian bondage cubs…does that sound like the kind of folks you want running the country?

Health care reform may not be perfect, but I’d take the folks who gave us that over the folks who spend other people’s money to go to kinky sex clubs any day.

Also…

Posted on by Democrashield

Adding to what  I wrote earlier today, can we please stop treating reconciliation like some kind of unprecedented democracy-ending apocalypse?

The Republicans used reconciliation 7 times between 1995 and 2007–the latest time they used it was to pass a health care reform bill.  At no point was the GOP’s use of reconciliation ever portrayed in any way as scandalous or controversial.

Nor should it have been, since reconciliation is part of the Senate rules–it’s a perfectly legitimate procedure that has been around for decades. If the GOP opposed reconciliation then they should have tried to change the standing rules of the Senate when the 111th Congress began.

There’s something inherently dishonest and shameful about complaining when someone else uses a rule that you had taken advantage of and that you let stand without objection.

The GOP’s sudden opposition to reconciliation is dishonest and hypocritical, and nobody should talk about the reconciliation process without bringing that fact up.

Another Day, Another RNC Fail: RNC To Hold Fundraiser At Blackwater Compound

Posted on by Democrashield

That’s the same Blackwater which has been accused of murder, illegal weapons smuggling, bribery, fraud (including using taxpayer money to buy strippers and prostitutes) and stealing weapons from the US military, among many other serious crimes.

You know that if the DNC held a fundraiser at, say, an ACORN office then heads would roll, careers would end and the right-wing media would launch a massive weeks-long national outcry.

And yet, almost nobody in the media is making a fuss over the RNC getting into bed with Blackwater.

And to think, ACORN was only accused of was giving bad tax advice.

Double standards much?

GOP To Unemployed: ‘Tough Sh*t’

Posted on by Democrashield

So says GOP Sen. Jim Bunning, who is blocking an extension of unemployment benefits that would serve to benefit 1.2 million Americans:

Jim Bunning, a Republican from Kentucky, is single-handedly blocking Senate action needed to prevent an estimated 1.2 million American workers from prematurely losing their unemployment benefits next month.

As Democratic senators asked again and again for unanimous consent for a vote on a 30-day extension Thursday night, Bunning refused to go along.

And when Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) begged him to drop his objection, Politico reports, Bunning replied: “Tough shit.”

Not only did Bunning kneecap America’s unemployed, he then had the gall to complain that his obstructionism caused him to miss–wait for it–a basketball game:

And at one point during the debate, which dragged on till nearly midnight, Bunning complained of missing a basketball game.

“I have missed the Kentucky-South Carolina game that started at 9:00,” he said, “and it’s the only redeeming chance we had to beat South Carolina since they’re the only team that has beat Kentucky this year.

That’s the GOP for you–they got theirs, so they don’t care about anyone else.

Jim Bunning has a massive, taxpayer-funded salary, so he cares more about his basketball game than the 10.7% of Kentuckians who are unemployed.

Unemployed? Tough. Uninsured? Tough. Sorry, Republicans have basketball games to go to, they don’t have time for you and your problems.

But there is hope–Jim Bunning’s retiring. And, this year, we have a chance to replace him with someone who really cares about the people–Dr. Dan Mongiardo.

Michael Steele Demonstrates Republican Priorities

Posted on by Democrashield

The RNC Chair is living the high life using other people’s money:

Republican National Chairman Michael Steele is spending twice as much as his recent predecessors on private planes and paying more for limousines, catering and flowers – expenses that are infuriating the party’s major donors who say Republicans need every penny they can get for the fight to win back Congress.

Most recently, donors grumbled when Steele hired renowned chef Wolfgang Puck’s local crew to cater the RNC’s Christmas party inside the trendy Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, and then moved its annual winter meeting from Washington to Hawaii.

[…]

A POLITICO analysis of expenses found that compared with 2005, the last comparable year preceding a midterm election, the committee’s payments for charter flights doubled; the number of sedan contractors tripled, and meal expenses jumped from $306,000 to $599,000.

“Michael Steele is an imperial chairman,” said one longtime Republican fundraiser. “He flies in private aircraft. He drives in private cars. He has private consultants that are paid ridiculous retainers. He fancies himself a presidential candidate and wants all of the trappings and gets them by using other people’s money.”

[…]

When Steele took over the chairmanship last winter, he inherited a $23 million surplus. Since then, the former Maryland lieutenant governor has raised $10 million less than the party collected in 2005 and has spent $10 million more. By the end of 2009, the committee’s surplus had shrunk to $8.4 million, according to campaign finance reports.

[Emphasis mine]

The RNC tries to justify this mess by saying that, since there isn’t a Republican in the White House, Steele has to travel a lot more to fundraise than some of his predecessors.

But, again, Steele is spending more and raising less–it certainly doesn’t look like the exorbitant travel, lodging, food and floral (really?) expenditures are profitable investments.

Personally, if I were a Republican donor, I’d be angry that my hard-earned money was going to pamper the RNC Chairman rather than win elections.  Without enough funding, the pool of potential GOP pickups will shrink–and for what? Fancy food, private jets and all of the pretty flowers Michael Steele desires.

(Not to mention the hypocrisy of complaining about Democratic spending policies when the Chair of the GOP is using other people’s money to keep himself knee-deep in Hawaiian junkets and gourmet food. At least we’re creating jobs and improving health care.)

Should The Filibuster Be Eliminated?

Posted on by Democrashield

Definitely not.

But should the Senate rules be changed in order to end the Republican minority’s rampant filibuster abuse?

Definitely, yes.

Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the Senate is the world’s most deliberative body for a reason–unlike the House, the Senate has significant protections for the rights of the minority. And I do believe that the minority should have those rights and should be able to prevent the Senate from becoming majoritarian.

So while I do support the filibuster, the current Republican majority has utterly and completely abused it. They’ve made the country almost ungovernable by requiring an unrealistic 60-vote supermajority to pass  every piece of worthwhile legislation.

Even though the Democrats do have a 60-member caucus, the GOP’s constant filibustering means that Democrats can’t afford to lose a single member on any important bill. And considering how geographically and ideologically diverse the Democratic caucus is, it’s nearly impossible to hold them all together for nearly every vote.

And what the Republicans are doing is unprecedented–they’ve repeatedly set and broken records for filibustering. Just look at the huge spike in filibustering during the 110th Congress, when the GOP became the minority:

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The Right Gives Up On Consistency

Posted on by Democrashield

Remember how Republicans complained that the health care reform bill was too long?

Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) griped that it was “longer than War and Peace.”

House Minority Leader John Boehnert (R-OH) said “[a]ll you need to know is there are 1,990 pages. That should tell you everything.”

In an op-ed on the bill, Boehnert decried “[m]assive bills unveiled in the dark of night and rushed to a vote before anyone in America could possibly know the details.”

Well, now Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) is complaining that the health care reform bill isn’t long enough:

And we talk about 2,074 pages, which seem like a lot, and it would be for a normal bill that you could debate in a limited period of time, which is what we’re being asked to do. But 2,074 pages isn’t nearly enough to cover health care for America. So why is it only 2,074 pages?

So, which is it? Is the health care reform bill too long, or not long enough? And why did the GOP change their tune?

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GOP Wants To Put Health Care Amendments Behind Closed Doors

Posted on by Democrashield

Earlier, the RNC put out a video hitting Democrats for crafting health care reform ‘behind closed doors.’

House Minority Leader John Boehner also portrayed health care proceedings as being ‘behind closed doors.’

As did Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

And yet, this doesn’t surprise me:

On the Senate floor yesterday, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made a request on behalf of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) that senators proposing amendments to the health care bill place the text of their amendments online. Immediately following Reid’s request, Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) took to the floor to object to the transparency proposal.

[Emphasis mine]

So, whenever Republicans try to accuse Democrats of putting health care reform ‘behind closed doors,’ remind them whose party tried to make the process more transparent and whose party objected to that.

Strange Bedfellows: Cato Puts Obama’s Spending In Perspective

Posted on by Democrashield

From my libertarian friends over at Cato:

I’m a big fan of criticizing Obama’s profligacy, but it is inaccurate and/or dishonest to blame him for Bush’s mistakes. At the risk of repeating my earlier post, the 2009 fiscal year began on October 1, 2008, and the vast majority of the spending for that year was the result of Bush Administration policies. Yes, Obama did add to the waste with the so-called stimulus, the omnibus appropriation, the CHIP bill, and the cash-for-clunkers nonsense, but as the chart illustrates, these boondoggles only amounted to just a tiny percentage of the FY2009 total — about $140 billion out of a $3.5 trillion budget.

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Barack Obama: Positively Reaganesque

Posted on by Democrashield

At least in regards to approval ratings:

As Political Wire notes:

Putting news of President Obama’s approval rate dipping below 50% in perspective, USA Today runs an excellent interactive chart plotting presidential approval rates since 1945.

When comparing various presidents to each other, as of right now, President Obama most closely tracks Ronald Reagan.

[Emphasis mine]

Just something to keep in mind whenever conservatives start crowing about President Obama’s approval ratings.

Should Conservatives Hate Reagan?

Posted on by Democrashield

All of the right-wing attacks on President Obama’s spending make me wonder–why don’t conservatives hate Ronald Reagan?

Reagan’s recession lasted 16 months (July 1981 until November 1982); our most recent recession lasted 21 months (December 2007 until September 2009).

During Reagan’s recession, unemployment peaked at 10.8%; during the recent recession unemployment peaked at 10.2% (but since unemployment is a lagging indicator it’s still expected to rise).

During Reagan’s recession, unemployment rose 3.6%; during the recent recession, unemployment rose 5.3%.

And Reagan’s recession did not come with a massive financial meltdown that necessitated a huge bailout in order to stave off total financial collapse.

So, by most worthwhile measures, our recent recession was both worse and longer than the Reagan recession.

With that in mind, remember that conservatives are attacking the Obama administration’s spending (even though a major cause of our deficits, the $700 bn bank bailout, was enacted under Bush) and are criticizing President Obama for allegedly doubling the debt.

But, over the course of his Presidency, Ronald Reagan tripled the debt:

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And Justice For All: Why The KSM Trial Isn’t Unprecedented (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

Zacharias Moussaoui is a die-hard, well-trained Al-Qaeda militant. He was slated to be the 20th 9/11 hijacker and was only prevented from taking part in the mass murder of 3,000 innocent people by a chance arrest on immigration charges in August, 2001.

In the wake of 9/11, Moussaoui was charged, tried, found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole by a federal court. Today–and for the rest of his life–Moussaoui resides in the supermax prison facility in Florence, Colorado.

The truth is, a lot of terrorists–domestic and international–have been successfully tried in the United States.  Currently, 355 terrorists reside within the American prison system.

And yet, neither Moussaoui’s trial nor any of the other terror trials caused very much controversy, certainly not as much as the impending trial of 9/11 pl0tter Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

The only major difference between the two trials appears to be who was inhabiting the White House at the time.

The Bush administration put one dangerous 9/11 plotter on trial and caused nearly no outcry from the right; the Obama administration puts another dangerous 9/11 plotter on trial and the right is causing an uproar.

Sadly, I guess even terrorism isn’t off-limits when there are political points to be scored.

But the Moussaoui trial taught us that a dangerous Al-Qaeda terrorist and 9/11 plotter can successfully be put on trial. As the AP wrote:

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President Obama’s Bow & Right-Wing Fauxtrage (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–conservatives really are just looking for any excuse to attack President Obama. Sometimes, the extent to which they’re willing to deny reality is simply stunning.

As part of his ongoing trip to Asia, President Obama met with Japan’s Emperor Akihito. When greeting Akihito, as a gesture of politeness, Obama gave him a bow and a handshake.

Cue the right-wingers, screaming that the President’s polite greeting of a foreign leader was a gesture of weakness (or something like that). Conservatives, puffing out their chests and wrapping their flags more tightly about their shoulders, defiantly declared that “Americans do not bow” and attacked the President’s “subservient” pose.

Here’s a reality check:

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RNC: Abortions For Me But Not For Thee (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

Surprise surprise, more Republican hypocrisy:

Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.

Informed of the coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho told POLITICO that the policy pre-dates the tenure of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

“The current policy has been in effect since 1991, and we are taking steps to address the issue,” Gitcho said.

[…]

According to several Cigna employees, the insurer offers its customers the opportunity to opt out of abortion coverage — and the RNC did not choose to opt out.

[Emphasis mine]

There is no way this is just an oversight–the RNC’s health plan has been unchanged for 18 years, and at any point during that time they simply could have opted-out of abortion coverage.

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You Say ACORN, I Say Blackwater

Posted on by Democrashield

“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

As I’m sure you all know, the right has been bending over backwards trying to use the recent ACORN scandal to attack the Obama administration, Congressional Democrats and nearly every progressive organization under the sun.

If you’ll ask them, conservatives will say they want to root out government corruption and protect taxpayer dollars.  But the GOP has deep connections to taxpayer-funded companies who are far worse–and guilty of far more serious crimes–then ACORN ever was.

Want to see which party has far more troubling connections? Let’s compare ACORN with GOP-connected military contractor Blackwater Worldwide:

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Rep. Grayson Was Right (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

The right-wing outrage machine is up! in! arms! again, this time because Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson (FL) had the temerity to point out that the GOP’s plan for health care reform is, basically, ‘drop dead.’

For Republicans in Congress, who benefit from taxpayer-funded health care (or, as they would call it, “socialized medicine”), the fight over health care reform might seem like a game. But remember, 45,000 Americans die each year because they lack adequate health care; lives are literally on the line here.

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18 Hours (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

18 hours is how long it will take President Obama to fly to Copenhagen, convince the International Olympic Committee to allow the United States to host the 2016 Olympics and fly back to Washington.

The New York Times breaks it down:

Obama would need to carve out about 18 hours for the trip. Nonstop flights between Washington and Copenhagen take about eight hours each way. Travel time between the Copenhagen airport and downtown is about 20 minutes. Obama would need about an hour to schmooze with I.O.C. members — or speak during Chicago’s presentation. (Each bid city has 70 minutes to make its case.)

Despite the incredibly short duration of this trip, conservatives are (as always) up! in! arms! that President Obama is doing this.

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BizCzar

Posted on by Democrashield

Let’s talk about the latest source of disingenuous, manufactured right-wing outrage– ‘czars.’

I have a number of thoughts about the practice of appointing ‘czars,’ as well as theright-wing nontroversy suddenly surrounding them:

There is no such thing as a ‘czar’

I know, I know, it seems like a ridiculous thing to say in a post about ‘czars,’ but bear with me here.

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The Angry Right

Posted on by Democrashield

Let’s take a step back from the debate over health care reform.

Take a look at the unhinged hate and vitriol coming from the right-wing anti-reformers.  It’s all so utterly disproportionate to what the White House is trying to accomplish–you’d think that Obama was launching an expensive, unnecessary war that ended up costing thousands of American lives.

Or that he was using the fear terrorism to railroad constitution-stomping legislation through Congress.

Or that he was running an illegal surveillance program to spy on American citizens within the United States.

Or that he authorized the use of torture against prisoners of war.

Or that he went on vacation while a natural disaster destroyed a major American city.

When all of those actual atrocities were going on, the right had nothing to say.  But now that we’re trying to reform health care–to help treat the sick, for the love of God–now they’re up in arms?

I mean, just take a look:

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“Too Much, Too Fast, Too Soon” (UPDATED)

Posted on by Democrashield

UNINSURED

This is too much, too fast, too soon.

Those words–spoken at a speech earlier today by RNC Chairman Michael Steele–make up the GOP’s shiny new talking point on health care reform.

According to conservatives, health care reform is moving through Congress too quickly; therefore, we should slow down the already snail-like pace of Congress.

Hypocrisy, thy name is GOP.  See, back in 2001–when they were in charge–Republicans had no problem rushing legislation through Congress.

More below the fold…

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