Monthly Archives: March 2010

Patrick Kennedy leaves note for Ted on gravesite: “Dad, the unfinished business is done.”

If only Ted Kennedy had lived long enough to see the health care bill pass. I doubt he’d have liked much of it but as a stepping stone to making America a better place, he’d have voted for it nonetheless. He’s been on the mind of many in these closing days. Hopefully those hypocrites in the GOP who dared call him friend are choking on the bile their duplicity has churned.

An Absence of Class in the G.O.P. – NYTimes.com

A damning indictment on the racist, bigoted fearmongering that represents today’s Republican Party.

At some point, we have to decide as a country that we just can’t have this: We can’t allow ourselves to remain silent as foaming-at-the-mouth protesters scream the vilest of epithets at members of Congress — epithets that The Times will not allow me to repeat here.

It is 2010, which means it is way past time for decent Americans to rise up against this kind of garbage, to fight it aggressively wherever it appears. And it is time for every American of good will to hold the Republican Party accountable for its role in tolerating, shielding and encouraging foul, mean-spirited and bigoted behavior in its ranks and among its strongest supporters.

For decades the G.O.P. has been the party of fear, ignorance and divisiveness. All you have to do is look around to see what it has done to the country. The greatest economic inequality since the Gilded Age was followed by a near-total collapse of the overall economy. As a country, we have a monumental mess on our hands and still the Republicans have nothing to offer in the way of a remedy except more tax cuts for the rich.

This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry….

The G.O.P. poisons the political atmosphere and then has the gall to complain about an absence of bipartisanship.

The toxic clouds that are the inevitable result of the fear and the bitter conflicts so relentlessly stoked by the Republican Party — think blacks against whites, gays versus straights, and a whole range of folks against immigrants — tend to obscure the tremendous damage that the party’s policies have inflicted on the country. If people are arguing over immigrants or abortion or whether gays should be allowed to marry, they’re not calling the G.O.P. to account for (to take just one example) the horribly destructive policy of cutting taxes while the nation was fighting two wars.

If you’re all fired up about Republican-inspired tales of Democrats planning to send grandma to some death chamber, you’ll never get to the G.O.P.’s war against the right of ordinary workers to organize and negotiate in their own best interests — a war that has diminished living standards for working people for decades.

With a freer hand, the Republicans would have done more damage. George W. Bush tried to undermine Social Security. John McCain was willing to put Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the Oval Office and thought Phil Gramm would have made a crackerjack Treasury secretary. (For those who may not remember, Mr. Gramm was a deregulation zealot who told us during the presidential campaign that we were suffering from a “mental recession.”)

A party that promotes ignorance (“Just say no to global warming”) and provides a safe house for bigotry cannot serve the best interests of our country.

The Great Thing About the Health Care Law That Has Passed? It Will Save Republican Lives, Too (An Open Letter to Republicans from Michael Moore)

Some tongue-in-cheekiness from Michael Moore on the passage of the Health Reform Bill.

Which brings me back to what I fervently believe. At least half of the folks that are gonna benefit from this are the tea bagging racists who have been screaming racial epithets and secession the whole time. I hope they can get their meds past the big ol’ honking hypocrisy pill they’ll have to swallow.

Racism, Homophobia Dominates Tea Party Protest Over Health Care Bill

This is not a spontaneous uprising of disaffected citizens who are angry about bailouts. This is the base of the modern Republican party, same as it ever was.

– Digby on the Tea Party Racist Traitors

I’d love to say I’m surprised but I’ve lived in the South and in the rural Midwest. Racist Republicans are nothing new to me.

However, you used to find that the most vile woman-hating, minority-loathing, gay-bashing language was kept at home. Now it is out in the open. The secessionist bullshit is in the open. The violent revolution is on the table.

Why? Because they lost a couple elections. That’s it. People, in the main, got tired of their lies and bullshit and voted a lot of Republicans out of office. Then, we the people, elected a black man president. And these cretins went insane.

You have a better explanation? Pop me an email, because nothing else looks plausible.

Our nation is progressing. Moving forward. We just now got a health insurance system that is on par with other free nations of the world. They got their’s in the middle of the last century. We’ll get a portion of our’s in four years time. Progress. Kind of.

But this is horrible for the conservatives. Let’s see what passes for compassion with them.

Reverting to time honored racism, calling black Congressmen “nigger“. Spitting on Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver.

Talking Points Memo has a nice roundup on both the racial element, plus the blatant homophobia by calls of “faggot” directed at Rep. Barney Frank.

Once again, so “compassionate” these conservatives.

Here are Reps James Clyburn and Elijah condemning the Rethugs: