CHASING WINDMILLS

LINDSEY GRAHAM, BENGHAZI YOU SAY?

On Monday we wrote about Lindsey Graham wanting to hold presidential nominees hostage - until he vetted the Benghazi issue just one more time. And now the rest of the story:

Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday made clear that President Obama’s nominees to become the Chair of the Federal Reserve and Secretary of Homeland Security would be his latest hostages in his ongoing quest to unearth the “truth” about Benghazi.

Since the attack last year that ended in the death of four American citizens in Benghazi, Libya, Graham has been a stalwart crusader on the hunt to expose the supposed White House cover-up that he knows exists. On Monday, he indicated that a new push would be coming, warning on Fox News, “I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to the Congress.”

Graham followed through on Wednesday, announcing at a news conference that he would be placing a hold on Janet Yellen’s nomination to become the new Federal Reserve Chair and Jeh Johnson’s to replace Janet Napolitano at DHS. “That is the only leverage we have,” he told the assembled reporters. Yellen’s nomination is also being threatened by Sen. Rand Paul over different demands.

“Before you can close the books on Benghazi, I think Congress needs to look over the administration’s shoulder,” Graham told CNN on Thursday, “it’s called oversight.” Graham insisted that he’s “not asking for too much” in holding up the nominations. “Is it really too much for me to want to talk to the people who were in Benghazi independent of the administration?” he asked rhetorically, refusing to answer critiques asking if his Tea Party challengers had anything to do with the singular focus on the issue.

The facts are: As Media Matters points out, the crux of Graham’s demands have already been met. Two “key witnesses in last year’s terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, were summoned to Capitol Hill this month and grilled for hours in separate legal depositions,” the Los Angeles Times reported just days ago. The Department of Justice, however, has urged House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa to keep the interviews under wraps to prevent them from corrupting ongoing prosecution efforts.

This is not a new modus operandi for Graham, as he has opted to use these same tactic in the past, and like most hostage taking scenarios, the results have not always come out in Dear Lindsey's favor. When he got his wish to have the names revealed of who deleted references to al Qaeda from then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice’s talking points in the days after the attack, the released emails showed clearly that the CIA itself was the one who did so, not the White House, thus debunking the right-wing myth that the changes were political. Likewise, when Graham demanded that then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Panetta took the opportunity to chide the SASC’s Republicans for treating the military like a 911 service and debunk many of the rumors about available military assistance at the time of the attack.

Remember when readers, remember when 13 Benghazi's occurred on George W. Bush's watch without a peep from Lindsey Graham or the GOP? For the record, here are Bush's 13 Benghazi's:

January 22, 2002. Calcutta, India. Gunmen associated with Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami attack the U.S. Consulate. Five people are killed.

June 14, 2002. Karachi, Pakistan. Suicide bomber connected with al Qaeda attacks the U.S. Consulate, killing 12 and injuring 51.

October 12, 2002. Denpasar, Indonesia. U.S. diplomatic offices bombed as part of a string of "Bali Bombings." No fatalities.

February 28, 2003. Islamabad, Pakistan. Several gunmen fire upon the U.S. Embassy. Two people are killed.

May 12, 2003. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Armed al Qaeda terrorists storm the diplomatic compound, killing 36 people including nine Americans. The assailants committed suicide by detonating a truck bomb.

July 30, 2004. Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A suicide bomber from the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan attacks the U.S. Embassy, killing two people.

December 6, 2004. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Al Qaeda terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate and occupy the perimeter wall. Nine people are killed.

March 2, 2006. Karachi, Pakistan again. Suicide bomber attacks the U.S. Consulate killing four people, including U.S. diplomat David Foy who was directly targeted by the attackers. (I wonder if Lindsey Graham or Fox News would even recognize the name "David Foy." This is the third Karachi terrorist attack in four years on what's considered American soil.)

September 12, 2006. Damascus, Syria. Four armed gunmen shouting "Allahu akbar" storm the U.S. Embassy using grenades, automatic weapons, a car bomb and a truck bomb. Four people are killed, 13 are wounded.

January 12, 2007. Athens, Greece. Members of a Greek terrorist group called the Revolutionary Struggle fire a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. Embassy. No fatalities.

March 18, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Members of the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic Jihad of Yemen fire a mortar at the U.S. Embassy. The shot misses the embassy, but hits nearby school killing two.

July 9, 2008. Istanbul, Turkey. Four armed terrorists attack the U.S. Consulate. Six people are killed.

September 17, 2008. Sana'a, Yemen. Terrorists dressed as military officials attack the U.S. Embassy with an arsenal of weapons including RPGs and detonate two car bombs. Sixteen people are killed, including an American student and her husband (they had been married for three weeks when the attack occurred). This is the second attack on this embassy in seven months.

Even if Lindsey and his band of banshees never arrive at their goal, they have in their possession a cudgel formed of horseshit - a means of flogging the dead horse yet again.

Very seldom do these teahadists discuss the truth or history- not to mention dubiously sourced chunks of "truth" proffered by radio and cable news conspiracy theorists who, if nothing else, are masters at telling angry tea baggers precisely what they want to hear: that this Muslim Koran thumping president is the main source of failure for the Benghazi incident. And so they'll keep repeating "Benghazi-Gate, Benghazi-Gate, Benghazi-Gate!" without any regard for history or reality. All to well we have come to know nothing else from the American Taliban - which is to forget all history prior to 2009. When in doubt, at all costs, invoke "Bushensia"!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

VIRGINIA [MIDDLE PENINSULA] TIN FOIL HAT SOCIETY......."UNITED NATIONS MIND CONTROL PLOTS"

PAGE ONE

Make no bones about it readers, the tea party lunatics are no more rampant and ignorant than in my own back yard. [Virginia Middle Peninsula]

Climate deniers should be insulted, mocked, and humiliated often. When future history books are written, when lives and property are truly in danger- these people will be first in the long list of history to blame for the lack of preparation regarding climate change.

The tin foil hat society tends to be at odds with the reality-based community when it comes to climate science. This topic comes up from frequently here in rural, Eastern shore Virginia, and it’s always disconcerting. There’s a political dispute underway about an issue with unrivaled consequences – the climate crisis has the capacity to change conditions on the planet to the detriment of humanity. One side of this political argument is relying on evidence and science to draw attention to a potentially catastrophic problem in the hopes of coming up with a solution.

The other side of the argument includes a variety of prominent voices who've come to believe that the entirety of climate science is a hoax perpetrated by secret communists who hate free enterprise. Other conservatives don’t go quite this far, but nevertheless say the problem, if it exists, can’t or shouldn't be addressed.

The Globe doesn't have time to wait for the benighted ignorant to catch up - for those who are wrong, and for those who embrace dangerous pseudo-science. With so much on the line and at stake, waiting for the willful ignorance of the tin foil hate society seems deeply irresponsible.

MADDOW ON SCIENCE DENIERS




PAGE TWO
Bad time to be a Virginia Tea Bagger




PAGE THREE

Maddow Breaking Down The Virginia 2013 Election



Virginia Democrats, get out and vote, lets make this a slam dunk and get a Democrat clean sweep for this elections cycle. This is the time as we sit center stage - to tell the National Tin Foil Hat Society, not on our watch!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

DOES IT MATTER WHO'S DRIVING THE CAR?

ALL MEN PANEL DECIDING WOMEN'S RIGHT'S

A federal judge has sided with reproductive rights advocates to declare one of Texas’ new abortion restrictions unconstitutional, ensuring that one of the provisions in a sweeping new anti-choice law will not take effect this week.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel heard the case last week and had promised to issue a ruling before the bill, HB 2, was scheduled to take go into place on Tuesday. Texas’ GOP-led legislature enacted HB 2 over the summer, after the dramatic debate over the proposed restrictions was elevated to the national stage. All eyes were on Texas after state Sen. Wendy Davis  filibustered the bill for 11 hours straight during a special legislative session in June. Less than 24 hours after Davis successfully blocked the bill, however, Gov. Rick Perry called yet another special session to force the legislation through.

In September, more than a dozen women’s health providers sued the state to block several of HB 2′s provisions from taking effect. Their challenge specifically concerned the provisions requiring abortion clinics to obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals — a medically unnecessary requirement that ultimately forces clinics to close when they’re unable to comply — and requiring doctors to use an outdated protocol to administer the abortion pill. They pointed out that the combination of those two restrictions would have “catastrophic” effects on abortion access in the state.

In his opinion, Yeakel noted that the “admitting-privileges provision is without a rational basis and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.” Similar logic has led several federal judges to block identical provisions in other states. Yeakel did not completely strike down the provision related to medication-induced abortions, determining that women whose lives are at risk should be able to follow the off-label procedure for taking the abortion pill.

Federal District Court Judge - Texas Abortion Law is Unconstitutional

The ruling also does not affect several of the other provisions in Texas’ omnibus law, such as the requirement that abortion clinics need to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers — which won’t take effect until 2014 — or the ban that outlaws abortion procedures after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Women’s health advocates have estimated that taken together, the harsh new regulations could force the vast majority of the state’s clinics to close, leaving more than 22,000 Texas women without any safe options for terminating a pregnancy. They warn that the law will force more low-income women to cross the border into Mexico to obtain illegal and unsafe abortion-inducing drugs. Striking the admitting privileges provision will help somewhat improve this situation, but abortion rights activists have already vowed to keep fighting the rest of HB 2.

I am a firm believer in striking down all the anti-abortion rhetoric and laws, if it's not your abortion, it's none of your business, and it should never ever be regulated by a group of old pasty white men. In the retro world of the archaic GOP, women still take a back seat when it comes to controlling their own bodies. Without any safety precautions its a dangerous ride indeed. Does it matter who's at the wheel driving the car? You can bet your sweet ass is does.

Life decisions, if there not your own - mind your own fracking business - for the bible thumping Christian; Judge not lest ye be judged - and let him, who is without sin cast the first stone [Matt. 7:1 Do not judge, or you too will be judged."] If it is truly wrong to abort - then let the all powerful OZ will take care of it!

YES WE ARE BACK TO BENGHAZI....... AGAIN

LINDSEY "BENGHAZI" GRAHAM

Are you looking for a fun drinking game to play? If so, turn on Fox News and take a drink of your favorite alcohol beverage every time you hear Benghazi mentioned. More than likely you will be drunk in less than fifteen minutes.

Amid the sense of gridlock that has become the norm in the U.S. Senate, Sen. Lindsey Graham is now threatening to block every single nomination from the Obama administration until he gets what he wants on Benghazi — again.

On Sunday evening, CBS’ 60 Minutes aired a new report on the attack in Benghazi, Libya that took place last year, examining the nature of the attack, which analysts are now calling pre-planned. This differs greatly from the early days and weeks after the attack, when members of the administration were still attempting to find out what went wrong and what led to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

In that light, and still on the hunt for a White House cover-up, Graham was on Fox News on Monday, advocating for yet another look into the tragedy, echoing the demands of the most conspiracy-minded members of the House of Representatives:

GRAHAM: So I am calling for a joint select committee. But for God’s sake, let the House have a select committee where you get three or four committees together to look at this situation as one unit rather than stove piping. And where are the survivors? 14 months later, Steve, the survivors, the people who survived the attack in Benghazi, have not been made available to the U.S. congress for oversight purposes. I’m going to block every appointment in the United States Senate until the survivors are being made available to the Congress. I’m tired of hearing from people on TV and reading about stuff in books.

“We need to get to the bottom of this and to my house colleagues, Darrell Issa has done great job,” Graham continued in his Fox interview, referring to the many House Oversight Committee hearings that Rep. Darrell Issa has held related to the attack. Issa himself, however, has admitted that he did not learn much in his last major round of public hearings.

In demanding that a special committee be convened in the House to take over the Benghazi investigation, Graham is aligning himself with many of the more conservative members of the House Republican caucus and against Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Rep. Frank Wolff has been rallying conservatives to press Boehner for a special committee for months now, aligning himself with outside groups who have attempted — and failed — to show that public opinion is on their side. Despite their past failures, Graham’s decision to join their ranks will surely help him fend off the Tea Party challenger he’s facing ahead of the 2014 midterm elections.

This is not the first time at all that Graham has threatened to take hostages in the Senate to get his way, nor even the first time his demands have related to Benghazi. Graham issued a warning about no nominations proceeding unless the Port of Charleston received the $50,000 needed to be deepened back in 2011. In Dec. 2012, Graham threatened to allow the U.S. to go over the so-called “fiscal cliff” unless the Social Security age was raised.

On Benghazi itself, Graham has had his exact demands change along with his targets. CIA Director John Brennan was threatened not to be confirmed unless Graham was able to learn precisely who changed the infamous “talking points” that now-National Security Adviser Susan Rice delivered the week after the attack. He also swore to not allow a vote on Chuck Hagel’s nomination as Secretary of Defense unless his predecessor Leon Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Both of those demands were met, showing that the CIA itself was the one who deleted references to Al Qaeda from Rice’s talking points and allowing Panetta to chide the SASC’s Republicans for treating the military like a 911 service.

Graham’s threat comes just as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid prepares a new wave of Obama administration nominees to be brought before the Senate. Even before the threat to hold all of these nominees was issued, Senate Democrats have been mulling the so-called “nuclear option” of allowing for votes to proceed with a majority 51 votes, ending the threat of the filibuster on certain types of votes.

Ironically enough, Graham recently chastised his colleagues for blocking an up or down vote on the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, calling it the “wrong” thing to do.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

LIVING WAGE YOU SAY?

McDonald's Not MY Kinda Place




Bill Maher ended his show Friday night going after GOP opposition to the minimum wage, calling them out for opposing something that would make people less dependent on government handouts. He targeted McDonald's in particular, saying “until Ronald McDonald starts paying his employees a living wage, he has to wipe that fucking smile off his face.”

On the charge minimum wages cut into profits, Maher mockingly explained, “Paying workers is one of those unfortunate expenses of running a business, like taxes or making a product.”

He asked, “When did the American dream become a pathway to indentured servitude?” and made the argument that the GOP can have a “smaller government with less handouts” or a low minimum wage, but they can’t have both.

And Maher doesn't even eat fast food anyway. He said, “If I want to talk into the face of some red-nosed clown, I’ll debate John Bohener.”


BILL MAHER 

McDonalds is my kind of place! Hamburgers in your face! French fries up your nose! Pickles between your toes! And don't forget those luscious shakes! Made from polluted lakes! McDonald's is my kind of plaaaace!

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

NORTH CAROLINA GOP, RACISTS MUCH? "IF THE HAT FITS, WEAR IT"!

NORTH CAROLINA GOP RACISTS DON YELTON

PAGE ONE:

Apparently ex-GOP county chair Don Yelton never took a course in crisis management; nor does he think he’s in the midst of a GOP cataclysmic crisis after deriding “lazy blacks” on The Daily Show Wednesday evening and subsequently resigning from his post. While continuing to defend himself from accusations of racism, Yelton has dug in even deeper, using the “n-word” repeatedly to make his point.

In an interview with The Wrap, Yelton once again stood by his controversial remarks, pointing the finger at reverse-racism.

“When a n—– can use the word n—– and it not be considered racist, that’s the utmost racism in the world, and it’s hypocrisy,” he told The Wrap.

MADDOWS DISCUSSES NORTH CAROLINA RACISTS

JON STEWART AND THE GOP RACISTS




According to Yelton, not only is the Republican Party “gutless” for forcing him out of his position, but they missed a perfect opportunity to use his comments as proof they are tolerant of many views.

“They can turn it into a positive if they want to,” he told The Wrap. “The party does not try to control the speech of individuals. That’s the point they could have made. You have to let people have an opinion.”

Instead, he lamented how the party chose to accept “this comedy show” as “the truth” and “come down with an iron fist.” 

“There’s no political party that’s going to tell me what to say as long as I have breath in my body,” he concluded.

Yelton, meanwhile, feels no remorse since resigning, naturally, and claims that the comments of his that aired were actually tame compared to some of the others he made during the sit-down that were edited out.

Reports the Mountain Xpress:

Despite the controversy, Yelton tells Xpress: “The comments that were made, that I said, I stand behind them. I believe them.” 

The short interview clips were edited together from a much longer two-hour sit-down, says Yelton. But he says he was pleased overall with the parts that were included. In fact, he notes that some of the comments he made that weren't included might’ve even been more controversial. “To tell you the truth, there were a lot of things I said that they could’ve made sound worse than what they put up.”

Well there you go!

Lets be clear readers, the republican party did not distance themselves from this guy until after he/they got caught. Does anyone in their right mind believe that Yelton, a "party leader" became a racist just in time for an interview with The Daily Show? Yelton was in a party leadership position because the people who put him there had no problems with his bigotry - that is until he made the critical error of telling the truth about his party in public.

PAGE TWO:

Alan Grayson, with his email to the masses, which compared the Tea Party to the KKK, while upsetting to the racists, it is a fair analogy of the tin foil hat society, as Grayson said. "if the hat fits wear it".

Megan Kelly and Allen West [no relationship to this blogger] Defending the Racists



Grayson's full statement below.

Regarding the image that the campaign circulated, the Tea Party has engaged in relentless racist attacks against our African-American President. For example, when the President visited my home of Orlando, Tea Party protesters shouted “Kenyan Go Home.” Other examples include Tea Party chants of “Bye Bye, Blackbird,” and Tea Party posters saying “Obama’s Plan: White Slavery,” “Imam Obama Wants to Ban Pork” and “The Zoo Has An African Lion, and the White House Has a Lyin’ African,” as well as this repulsive one, depicting the President of the United States as an African witch doctor with bananas in his hair:

Tea Party members also have persisted in falsely characterizing the President as Kenyan and Moslem, despite all evidence, in order to disparage him. Members of the Tea Party have circulated countless altered pictures depicting President Obama and the First Lady as monkeys. Tea Party members also called my fellow Member of Congress, civil rights hero John Lewis, a “n***ger,” and Rep. Barney Frank a “faggot.” More generally, the leader of the Texas Tea Party displayed a poster saying “Congress=Slave Owner, Taxpayer=Niggar [sic].” Tea Party Members of Congress have referred to Hispanics as “wetbacks,” and having “cantaloupe-sized calves” from picking fruit. Tea Party candidates, including my opponent in the last election, have endorsed forcing Hispanics to speak English. One could go on and on, because there is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation. If the hood fits, wear it.

Grayson's comparison is not novel. Professors Matt Barretto and Christopher Parker, in their book "Tea Party, Change They Can't Believe In," published by Princeton University Press, make a similar case. "The authors argue that this isn't the first time a segment of American society has perceived the American way of life as under siege," the book's blurb reads. "In fact, movements of this kind often appear when some individuals believe that 'American' values are under threat by rapid social changes. Drawing connections between the Tea Party and right-wing reactionary movements of the past, including the Know-Nothing Party, the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920's, and the John Birch Society, Parker and Barreto develop a framework that transcends the Tea Party to shed light on its current and future consequences.

Regarding Allen West - when one of the most foul-mouthed ex-congressman is upset by someone else's "inflammatory" remarks - its truly a moment saturated in irony.

I keep harping back to the quote, "if that hat fits, wear it"!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

GOP MONKEY COURT

GOP MONKEY COURT 

“I will not yield to this monkey court or whatever it is,” Pallone said in response to Republican interruptions. “Why are we going down this path?” he asked. “Because you are trying to scare people so they don’t apply and so therefore the legislation gets delayed or the Affordable Care Act gets defunded or it’s repealed. That’s all it is, hoping people won’t apply.”

MONKEY COURT




Rather than focusing on the real problems plaguing HealthCare.gov, House Republicans sought to portray the website as an insecure portal that will endanger the privacy of American’s medical information during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing focusing on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. The accusations led one Democratic lawmaker to label the hearing “a monkey court.”

In heated exchanges, Reps. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Joe Barton (R-TX) pressed the contractors responsible for writing the code behind HealthCare.gov about why some of their employees had access to “the database servers storing the enrolling information,” and questioned source code informing users that they “have no reasonable expectation of privacy regarding any communication or data transiting stored on this information system.”

“How in the world can this be HIPAA compliant when HIPAA is designed to protect the patient’s privacy and this explicitly says in order to continue you have to accept this condition that you have no privacy — no reasonable expectation of privacy?” Barton asked Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI, one of the firms that wrote the website. He was referring to The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, the law that guarantees “federal protections for individually identifiable health information held by covered entities and their business associates and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information.”

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) pushed back against the implications, arguing that “HIPAA only applies when there’s health information is being provided,” not the biographical enrollment information that’s being entered by programmers. “HIPAA doesn’t apply. There is no health information in the process. You’re asked about your address, your date of birth. you are not asked health information,” he said.

As Washington & Lee Law Professor Timothy S. Jost explained in an email, “HIPAA only applies to health care providers, clearinghouses (and this is a narrowly defined term) health plans, and their business associates.” “Even so, access is available to data without consent for health care operations, which this would be.” Deven McGraw, of the Health Privacy Project at the Center for Democracy & Technology, agreed, adding, “It does not violate HIPAA – it’s not even covered by HIPAA.”

Jost adds that “even if the rule applies to the information and to the exchange, sharing information with a contractor would be a routine operation, and HIPAA allows disclosure of information without consent for operations. Surely a health plan that contracted with a company to build its software would not be violating HIPAA as long as the computer company also observed HIPAA protections. The exchange is subject to the Privacy Act, but the

It should be noted that all of the contractors at the hearing indicated that they had received HIPAA training and were HIPAA compliant.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

REMEMBER WHEN......

BUSH'S BITTER PILL WAS TOUGH TO SWALLOW

........Millions of Americans tried to enroll in health care benefits during the first days of a new government health care program. They were to rely on indispensable government website that had been touted and “pitched as a high-tech way” to sort through available coverage options. They’re encountering countless glitches and technical errors: the website freezes, displays incorrect plan information and sends insurers erroneous reports.

Administration officials — clearly caught off guard by the surge of technical difficulties — respond to “tens of thousands of complaints” from angry beneficiaries and promise to “fix every problem as quickly possible.”

Doesn't this sounds like the familiar story of the last few days of the Obama administration’s roll-out of the exchanges? But, actually, the above quotes, and the scenarios, are taken from the Bush administration’s efforts to implement the Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2005 and 2006.

Not only was Bush’s roll-out “anything but smooth,” but administration officials had “some trouble getting the [online] tool up and running” and had to delay its debut for weeks. What’s more, computer glitches caused low-income beneficiaries to go without needed medications and sent pharmacies the wrong drug information. Before it was all resolved, Dr. Mark McClellan, Bush’s head of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), appeared at hearings before the House Committee On Energy And Commerce, laying out the flaws in the law’s implementation and detailing how the administration would address them.

As the House Energy and Commerce Committee holds its first hearing on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act this morning, it’s worth noting that some of the very same Teahadists who are lashing out against Obamacare - arguing that the botched roll-out is proof that the government cannot implement effectively and should repeal the law entirely - gave the Bush administration a free get out trouble pass and urged Americans not to pre-judge such a complicated process. At least four of these Teahadists are still on the committee had argued that early implementation hurdles should not taint the entirety of reform:

REP. JOE BARTON (R-TX): “This is a huge undertaking and there are going to be glitches. My goal is the same as yours: Get rid of the glitches. The committee will work closely with yourself and Dr. Mark McClellan at CMS to get problems noticed and solved.” [Barton Statement via Archive.org, 2/15/2006] 

REP. TIM MURPHY (R-PA): “Any time something is new, there is going to be some glitches. All of us, when our children were new, well, we knew as parents we didn’t exactly know everything we were doing and we had a foul-up or two, but we persevered and our children turned out well. No matter what one does in life, when it is something new in learning the ropes of it, it is going to take a little adjustment.” [Murphy Floor Speech via Congressional Record, 4/6/2006] 

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS (R-TX): “We can’t undo the past, but certainly they can make the argument that we are having this hearing a month late and perhaps we are, but the reality is the prescription drug benefit is 40 years late and seniors who signed up for Medicare those first days back in 1965 when they were 65 years of age are now 106 years of age waiting for that prescription drug benefit, so I hope it doesn't take us that long to get this right and I don’t believe that it will. And I do believe that fundamentally it is a good plan.” [“Medicare Part D: Implementation of the New Drug Benefit,” 3/1/2006] 

REP. PHIL GINGREY (R-GA): “I delivered 5,200 babies, but this may be the best delivery that I have ever been a part of, Mr. Speaker, and that is delivering, as I say, on a promise made by former Congresses and other Presidents over the 45-year history of the Medicare program, which was introduced in 1965 with no prescription drug benefit. And what we have done here is add part D, the ‘D’ for ‘drug’ or, if you want, the ‘delivery’ that we have finally provided to our American seniors.” [Gingrey Floor Speech via Congressional Record, 4/6/06]

Ultimately, the Bush administration fixed the law’s technical glitches, but more than half of the beneficiaries who ended up signing up for insurance didn’t do so until after the first of the year. Significantly, they signed up for coverage despite the Bush administration’s well-publicized initial glitches in extending coverage to low-income beneficiaries. Whereas only 21 percent of seniors had a favorable impression of the law and 66 percent didn't know what was in it in April of 2005, by November of 2006, “half of the seniors polled said the program was working well or that just minor changes were needed.”


Often is the case - that RWNJ's fail to recognize that American history existed prior to 2009.

The party who; wanted to stop the ACA in its tracks, lie about it, derail it, and defund it, are now frothing at the mouth and outraged at the ACA computer issues . Please make up my mind teabaggers, are you for it or against it?

I am reminded of the old adage in politics that says, "it is easier to throw a hand grenade than catch one". The ever so sad corollary says, "you can raise more money by throwing mud than fixing problems".

Right wing shill heads will implode, how dare anybody bash the "Welfare for Big Pharma Act," and compare it to the ACA? Its always acceptable if a "conservative" fucks up, but it's either a felony or a firing if someone else did.

It never ceases to amaze this blogger, the hypocrisy of the Right Wing Nut Job.

RELATED:

Despite bungling Bush's Medicare drug rollout, GOP still attacks Obamacare 'navigators'

How Democrats Saved Bush's Medicare Drug Program

Drug Addled

Bush Defends Medicare Drug Plan

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

GOP SCRAPS THE BOTTOM OF THE BARRELL SEEKING OBAMACARE WEBSITE ADVICE

HOUSE GOP SEEKING ADVICE FROM JOHN MCAFEE - YES THAT JOHN MCAFEE

Is this fact or fiction? Is this a Saturday Night Live Skit?

Absolutely not! Seeing that Aaron Hernandez and George Zimmerman were both unavailable, according to emails obtained by CNBC, House Committee on Energy and Commerce reportedly wanted to speak with John McAfee, the technology pioneer who last year fled a murder investigation in Belize, as part of their investigation into the flawed Obamacare website. That's right, GOP logic, why not use a crack-head LSD dropping murder suspect to oversee the national healthcare website system woes.

You just can't make this up!

The Hill reports:

Sean Hayes, who serves as counsel for the committee, apparently reached out to Francois Garcia, an attorney for McAfee last week. 

“Given the failures of Healthcare.gov, and Mr. McAfee’s expertise, I was hoping he might be able to discuss his views with staff on the hill,” Hayes wrote, according to the CNBC emails. “It would be an informal discussion: we would take notes but these would not be for attribution, it would mainly guide our oversight and review of the program.” 

Hayes said the panel would ask McAfee about potential vulnerabilities in the website that could lead to the compromise of personal information or identity theft.
The committee aide later wrote McAfee to say that an in-person meeting was too logistically difficult, although he left open the possibility of a phone consultation.
Soliciting McAfee to testify could raise eyebrows after the tech pioneer — who made millions off his eponymous anti-virus software

McAfee was wanted by Belize police as a person of interest in the slaying of fellow American Gregory Viant Faull. 52 year-old Faull was on the Caribbean island where both men lived. McAfee went on the run. After a bizarre turn of events, he fled his Belize compound, crossing into Guatemala illegally and then sought refuge in the United States.

When I saw Rachel Maddow starting her show last night, I was wondering why McAffee was the 'keynote" speaker if you will for the show, how does this paranoid schizophrenic tie into current news. Well, as masterful as she is, Maddow tells the story on how low the GOP will go, right wing fringe meets paranoid schizophrenic.

Video courtesy of MSNBC

McAfee told CNBC that he did not think it was at all odd that lawmakers would ask him for help with the website.

"I promise you this cannot be fixed without at least scrapping the front-end processing, which is more than half of the systems," he insisted. "Seriously, if it were me and I were running this and I had been asleep in a hospital for two years and woke up to this mess, I would say OK, throw it out and start over. But start over in the right way."

MCAFFE TELLS ALL [Caution Language]




Quoting Fox News, reported at the time when McAfee was wanted by police:

John McAfee, the estranged founder of the antivirus firm that bears his name, is wanted by the Belize police in connection with a murder, FoxNews.com has confirmed. 

McAfee, whose very name is synonymous with security, is a prime suspect in the murder of American expatriate Gregory Faull, a well-liked builder from Florida who was shot Saturday night at his home in San Pedro Town on the island of Ambergris Caye, according to a series of exposes on tech blog Gizmodo. Vienne Robinson, assistant superintendent of the San Pedro police department in Belize, told FoxNews.com that police are actively searching for McAfee. 

McAfee’s life has turned in recent years from cyber security to drugs, guns, prostitution and violence, explained Jeff Wise, a freelance reporter who broke the story for Gizmodo.

“He will tell you he moved to Belize for the good life, for the country, to rescue the Belizean people from poverty,” Wise told FoxNews.com. In reality, McAfee became embroiled in bath salts and the quest for the ultimate high, he said. 

Wise visited McAfee in the Western Caribbean nation twice, once in 2010 and again this past April. 

“It really scared the hell out of me,” Wise said. He wasn’t alone. A woman who went to visit McAfee to co-develop an herbal medicine ended up running from the country in terror, “fleeing for her life,” Wise said. 

Although a one-time drug user, the computer expert had cleaned up his act. …
“McAfee had been a hard-core drug addict in his 30s and 40s. He had a heart attack right around the time he sold his company for $100 million,” Wise told FoxNews.com. He moved to Belize and apparently pursued several lines of business, from creating a new form of herbal medicine to helping save the country from poverty. 

He also became deeply involved with bath salts, Wise said, a dangerous drug notorious for its psychotic effects. 

“Around the time his herbal drug plan collapsed, he started to get really heavily into this kind of synthetic, hallucinogenic hyper-aphrodisiac,” Wise told FoxNews.com. “Everyone was scared of McAfee. He was walking around the beach carrying a gun.”

Why post Fox's McAfee story you ask, because I want my readers to see how Fox puts the lipstick on this pig.

Is this the "family values that the GOP is always speaking of? Maybe the GOP could see if they could resurrect Jeffery Dahmer from the dead to oversee the USDA. Hey, Sarah Palin, any comments about House Republicans "palling around" with murder suspects?

Ethics, who the hell needs ethics?

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

"NEVER TRUST A LIBERAL OVER THREE", HANNITY'S DEN OF DISHONESTY

ANN COULTER BOASTING OF GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN SUCCESS

In hindsight, hate hag Ann Coulter believes the government shutdown turned out very well and that the tin foil hat society played it beautifully, telling Sean Hannity she’s “proud” of teahadists like Ted Cruz who took a stand on Obamacare. They both agreed that “everything run by the government will get more expensive and worse over time,” though Coulter slightly disagreed with Hannity about tactics going forward.

Coulter blasted the health care law, suggesting it was some diabolical plan - “designed to fail so they can move it to a single-payer system,” and said that now it’s very clear how effective the shutdown was. The hate hag said that the, “The shutdown was so magnificent, run beautifully, I’m so proud of these Republicans.”

Hannity admitted he was bothered by Republicans like John McCain who sold out the rest of their party instead of holding the ranks. Coultergeist even lamented how some of “our media” was too busy going after Cruz, and argued the liberal media wouldn't be this critical if a House Democratic majority attempted what the Republicans did.

COULTERGEIST ON HANNITY




Its amazing how many bullshit mountain hate hags there are, from Coulter to Malkin, from Loesch to Palin - the one trait that these women all exhibit is the lack of integrity to tell the truth.

Keep in mind readers, Ann Coulter once paid for a tutor to teach her creationism - you know, the theory that says evolution is wrong and that the earth is only thousands of years old. Let me say this again: Coulter paid for someone to educate her about a subject that 99% of scientists disagree with. Herein lies the problem, facts and science colliding with the deniers of facts and science.

FACT: Single Payer: Is more efficient, cost less , has less waste, has less fraud and less middle men taking profit and more quality care being delivered. Of course the tin foil hat society doesn't like centralized government, which is why Obamacare's expansion of state medicaid services is a good alternative. Single payer healthcare is ideal - that is if the focus is truly about keeping people healthy, and not about the almighty dollar.

Let's face it readers, if you're a liberal, you want Ann Coulter at the helm of the mother ship, because with scholars like her, we know the GOP is in good hands - a recipe for disaster she is - for her brand.

Coulter's version of "beautiful", is like winning for Charlie Sheen; in the aftermath of the GOP 24 billion dollar domestic terrorist plot, where eight in ten Americans say that they disapproved of the shutdown - would only Coulter suggest that this was a successful strategic plan.

Coulter again nails the synopsis of the event - that the government shutdown went perfectly - yes, if you ignore the fact or realization that none of the GOP's key terror demands were met when the shutdown ended, and that the tin foil hat societies poll numbers tanked severely as a result, and that millions of Americans needlessly suffered due to lost income and lack of essential government services during the stunt, and that the national economy took a hit. Yes, other than that, the Teahadists schematic to shutdown the country was indeed a thing of beauty.

Dishonest and delusional hate hags like Coulter, often find a safe haven in Hannity's den of dishonesty.

By the way, who did Hannity have on after Coulter? Why, it's Dick Cheney of course, the heartless hubris pimp who is now touring and pushing his latest book on his self professed and alleged heart. Quite the stable of lying bloodsuckers in Sean's bullpen these days.

Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, and Dick Cheney,  you are all today's worst persons in the world.

NFTOS

Editor-In Chief

Roger West

CRUZ IS READY FOR ROUND TWO

On Sunday, This Week’s Jonathan Karl asked Sen. Ted Cruz (RWNJ) a direct question about upcoming budget negotiations, saying, “Will you rule out pushing to the brink of another shutdown by saying you would block funding for the government unless Obamacare is defunded? Will you do that again?”

Cruz didn't reject the idea that he would cause another shutdown, saying, “I would do anything and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare. What I will do is continue standing the American people, because it isn't working, it’s costing people jobs, and it’s taking away their health care.”

Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (RWNJ) were originally responsible for getting 14 of their colleagues to sign on to demanding the defunding of Obamacare in return for keeping the government open and, later, raising the debt ceiling. While some conservatives are still with Cruz in continuing to push for fights over defunding the law, other Republicans are calling for the party to move on. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called it “a losing strategy.”

While the shutdown cost the economy $24 billion and brinkmanship over the debt ceiling could still lead to another downgrade of U.S. credit, Republicans have little to show for it.

NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

Randolph And Mortimer Duke On Steroids

RANDOLPH AD MORTIMER DUKE OF STEROIDS [KOCH WHORES]

Conservative advocates funded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch have launched a massive campaign pressuring states to deny health care coverage to lower income Americans through the Medicaid expansion contained in the Affordable Care Act.

The effort, orchestrated by the group Americans for Prosperity, is targeting lawmakers in Virginia tasked with deciding whether the state should accept federal dollars to provide insurance to individuals and families below 133 percent of the federal poverty line ($31,321 in income for a family of four). Volunteers with the organization are distributing flyers through door-to-door canvassing, attending committee hearings, and according to one lawmakers who has become a target of the campaign, intimidating constituents.

As many as 400,000 Virginians could qualify for coverage if the state expands the Medicaid program, but AFP is warning Virginians that the system “will cost Virginia taxpayers billions,” require “future tax hikes and budget cuts to vital services like schools, police and fire departments,” undermine the “doctor-patient relationship,” increase wait times and even endanger lives. “Medicaid patients are almost twice as likely to die during surgery than individuals with private insurance,” the group writes on its website.

Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government will pick up 100 percent of the cost of growing the program from 2014 to 2016 and states would contribute 10 percent thereafter. Analysis from the Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis in Richmond finds that “net savings from Medicaid expansion would average about $135 million per year in the upcoming budget cycle” since expanding Medicaid “would allow the state to use federal funds instead of state dollars for these programs that already provide care to the uninsured in Virginia.”

Seventy-six percent of Virginia doctors treat new Medicaid patients, and the “share of doctors accepting new Medicaid patients is nearly the same as the share who are accepting new patients with private insurance or Medicare,” the Institute reports. While Medicaid beneficiaries tend to be less healthy than the general uninsured population, people who do enroll in the program “are 25 percent more likely to report that their health is ‘good’ or ‘excellent.’”

The GOP’s refusal to fully implement the Affordable Care Act will leave more than half of the nation’s uninsured working poor, approximately 8 million people, without access to health insurance. The 26 GOP-controlled states not participating in the law’s Medicaid expansion are home to a disproportionate share of low-income Americans who aren't poor enough to qualify for the existing Medicaid program and make too much to be eligible for subsidies in the ACA’s insurance marketplaces.

Americans for Prosperity has spent millions “in states around the country, including Arkansas, Florida, Ohio, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania, to run the kind of aggressive campaign that it is now waging here in Virginia, where much will depend on the governor’s race,” the New York Times notes. Democrat Terry McAuliffe favors expansion, while his Republican opponent, Ken Cuccinelli, does not. The Virginia panel weighing in on the matter will decide the question after the Nov. 5 election.

Randolph and Mortimer Duke had nothing on the Koch brothers.

There is a genetic fault within them that has erased any possibility for compassion or even just thinking about other people. They are totally focused on their self-interests.

What else can be the reason for their behavior, why else do they spend millions just to inflict strife on other people? Clearly this has little affect the Koch whores directly, but there seems to be a sadistic bent to them. There are two other brothers in Koch tree as well, and there have been internecine fighting between them -- they all seem to carry the same traits, greedy diabolical asshats.

The Koch brothers care about a lot of things. But the welfare of the poor isn't among them. Using their money to alter the political landscape is foremost on the list. To the extent that they are remembered if at all, these Koch whores will go down as two of the sadists troglodytes that America has ever produced... all those hundreds of millions of dollars spent for no other purpose other than to hurt people and make their lives more difficult... what a sad, pathetic, tragic waste of both money and human flesh.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

SILVER BULLET SOLUTION FOR BATTLING HOMOSEXUALITY

Rick Scarborough Vision America Gospel of Hate

Christian conservative activist Rick Scarborough seems to have finally found the silver-bullet solution for battling homosexuality in America: Sue the gay away! During an interview with fellow traveler Peter LaBarbera, Scarborough suggested the possibility of suing homosexuality in the same way lawyers took up a case against large tobacco companies.

“The whole issue of a class action lawsuit, you and I have talked about this a little bit,” the Tea Party Unity committee member reminded his colleague. “Obviously, statistically now even the Centers for Disease Control verifies that homosexuality much more likely leads to AIDS than smoking leads to cancer. And yet the entire nation has rejected smoking, billions of dollars are put into a trust fund to help cancer victims and the tobacco industry was held accountable for that.”

LaBarbera, the president of Americans for Truth, agreed. “I think that’s great. I would love to see it.” He added that perhaps if anti-gay groups can win such a lawsuit against homosexuality, the money could be put into PSAs depicting the alleged pitfalls of homosexual behavior.

“We always wanted to see one of the kid in high school who was counseled by the official school counselor to just be gay, then he comes down with HIV,” LaBarbera asserted. “But we never really got the client for that.”

LaBarbera also lamented the lack of stories about “ex-gays” on Fox News. “We need to work on our conservative, alternate media and say, ‘look, don’t do the pro-gay thing, why don’t you rather step out and support these ex-gays?’ We should encourage Fox News to tell their stories,” he said. “Fox is now telling the stories of black conservatives because the other media is not doing that, we should all get on Fox and say, ‘come on, tell these stories, these wonderful stories of happy men and women who have left the homosexual lifestyle.’”

Let's also sue abstinence-only education, since sex without protection is far more likely to lead to the spread of STDs than sex with protection.

Do they realize that homosexuality is not a corporation? I'm assuming not, since they seem dumber than a box of rocks. Maybe we can begin a class action lawsuit against tea party assholes!

Congratulations Rick Scarborough, you are today's asshat of the day!

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

FREEDOMWORKS

TEA PARTY ONE STEAMING PILE

FreedomWorks, the Tin Foil Hat Society group that pushed Congressional Republicans to shut down the government and to risk a default on the national debt in order to push a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, railed against Wednesday’s bipartisan deal to reopen the federal government and protect the full faith and credit of the United States. But a review of their campaign spending since 2009 finds that more of their political activity benefited Senators and Representatives who voted for the agreement than those who voted against it.

Of the more than $2.8 million in PAC contributions and independent expenditures made to support current members of Congress by FreedomWorks and its FreedomWorks for America superpac, over $1.5 million aided Republicans who voted for the deal the group so vehemently opposed, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Less than $1.3 million went to support candidates who backed the FreedomWorks position.

FreedomWorks joined with the Club for Growth, Phyllis Schlafly and her Eagle Forum, Heritage Action for America, Citizens United, and an array of other Tin Foil Hat and far-right groups to oppose the deal agreed to by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). In a joint letter, they called the “Washington deal” an unmistakable “vote to move forward with Obamacare.” In a separate statement, FreedomWorks CEO Matt Kibbe warned that his group would count a vote for this “sellout bargain” against legislators on its annual legislative score card.

Kibbe added:

Republican leadership has completely lost its way. Not only is this proposal a full surrender- it’s a complete surrender with presents for the Democrats. Apparently Mitch McConnell’s idea of a ‘compromise’ is to increase the debt limit, fully fund a broken health care law, and promise talks of increasing spending down the road. 

The group spent more than $1.2 million to elect Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Flake voted for the compromise — and for the cloture motion to end debate on it — explaining that because it kept the sequester spending cuts in place, the deal was “a win for fiscal conservatives.” In a 2012 campaign ad, FreedomWorks for America called Flake “fiscally responsible.”

Just over $163,000 went to back Colorado Rep. Mike Coffman, who also voted yes. Coffman argued the deal “says we’re done fighting and we’re ready to begin an honest discussion about solutions for reducing the debt.”

Other FreedomWorks-backed Republicans voting with the bipartisan super-majorities included Sens. Richard Burr (NC) and Deb Fischer (NE), as well as Reps. Kevin Cramer (ND), Steve Daines (MT), Cory Garnder (CO), David McKinley (WV) Robert Pittenger (NC), Reid Ribble (WI), Steve Stivers (OH), Scott Tipton (CO), and Todd Young (IN).

Kibbe told CNN on Wednesday that tea baggers who voted for the deal would “absolutely” pay a “political price” for their votes — primary challenges in their next elections.

If we are going to end the conservative's brinkmanship of governing by crisis then we must not only eliminate GOP majorities, but we must also reduce their margins of control as to temper their tempers.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

16 DAYS AND 24 BILLION DOLLARS LATER AND WHAT DOES THE GOP HAVE? EPISTEMIC CLOSURE

GOP DEMANDS VERSUS WHAT THEY GOT

RNC note to self: When trying to milk stall tactics, make sure the cow is present, not the bull.

With the government shutdown at a temporary shutdown itself, Rachel Maddow thought it would be beneficial to show exactly what the Teahadists demands were - the entire time for ending the national crisis. Maddow went through the whole list of everything the domestic terrorists said it wanted in exchange for keeping the government open and concluded that they got precisely nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada. She said even the Democrats got something they wanted out of this, but the American Taliban, the ones who came up with the “ransom note” in the first note, got absolutely none of what they wanted.

Maddow explained how “the domestic terrorists thought for sure the Democrats would cave” on Obamacare, and the fact that they didn’t, threw them for a loop, and so they had “no idea what to do next.”

She went down the list of all their “obtuse specific demands” about Obamacare and a list of other issues, from birth control to Paul Ryan‘s tax code on their “constantly-changing list of demands.” And “of their entire list,” Maddow said, “they are going to get nothing. Nothing.”

She added, “It may be true that nobody won, but someone definitely lost here.”


WHAT DID THE TERRORISTS GET Video Courtesy of MSNBC

Pain for no gain, if these last two weeks have proven anything, it’s that House GOPers haven’t yet mastered the art of using their majority.

The conventional wisdom is that these domestic terrorists learn from this fiasco - learn not put their country through this again. But many of their members say the lesson they learned is that President Barack Obama is not willing to negotiate, and repealing the Obamacare is the objective at all costs. The majority of these RWNJ's are gearing up for another fight in a few weeks. Government funding runs dry again Jan. 15, the debt ceiling will be reached Feb. 7 and a budget conference has to report findings by Dec. 13.

Here’s the list of 18 Senators who voted against reopening the government:

Coburn, Tom - (R – OK)
Cornyn, John - (R – TX)
Crapo, Mike - (R – ID)
Cruz, Ted - (R – TX)
Enzi, Michael B. - (R – WY)
Grassley, Chuck - (R – IA)
Heller, Dean - (R – NV)
Johnson, Ron - (R – WI)
Lee, Mike - (R – UT)
Paul, Rand - (R – KY)
Risch, James E. - (R – ID)
Roberts, Pat - (R – KS)
Rubio, Marco - (R – FL)
Scott, Tim - (R – SC)
Sessions, Jeff - (R – AL)
Shelby, Richard C. - (R – AL)
Toomey, Patrick J. - (R – PA)
Vitter, David - (R – LA)

Here are the 144 House GOP votes to continue the hugely unpopular GOP government shutdown:

ALABAMA
Aderholt, N; Brooks, N; Roby, N; Rogers, N.
ARIZONA
Franks, N; Gosar, N; Salmon, N; Schweikert, N.
CALIFORNIA
Campbell, N; Denham, N; Hunter, N; LaMalfa, N; McClintock, N; Miller, Rohrabacher, N; Royce, N;
COLORADO
Lamborn, N;
FLORIDA
DeSantis, N; Mica, N; Miller, N; Nugent, N; Posey, N; Radel, N; Rooney, N; Ross, N; Southerland, N; Yoho, N; Young, X.
GEORGIA
Republicans — Broun, N; Collins, N; Gingrey, N; Graves, N; Kingston, N; Price, N; Scott, Austin, N; Westmoreland, N; Woodall, N.
IDAHO
Republicans — Labrador, N;
ILLINOIS
Republicans — Hultgren, N;
INDIANA
Bucshon, N; Messer, N; Rokita, N; Stutzman, N; Walorski, N;
IOWA
King, N;
KANSAS
Huelskamp, N; Pompeo, N; Yoder, N.
KENTUCKY
Barr, N; Massie, N;
LOUISIANA
Cassidy, N; Fleming, N; Scalise, N.
MARYLAND
Harris, N.
MICHIGAN
Amash, N; Bentivolio, N; Huizenga, N; Miller, N; Walberg, N.
MINNESOTA
Bachmann, N;
MISSISSIPPI
Nunnelee, N; Palazzo, N.
MISSOURI
Graves, N; Hartzler, N; Long, N; Luetkemeyer, N; Smith, N; Wagner, N.
NEVADA
Amodei, N;
NEW MEXICO
Pearce, N.
NEW YORK
Collins, N; Reed, N.
NORTH CAROLINA
Ellmers, N; Foxx, N; Holding, N; Hudson, N; Jones, N; Meadows, N;
OHIO
Chabot, N; Gibbs, N; Johnson, N; Jordan, N; Latta, N; Renacci, N; Turner, N; Wenstrup, N.
OKLAHOMA
Bridenstine, N; Lankford, N; Lucas, N; Mullin, N.
OREGON
Walden, N.
PENNSYLVANIA
Marino, N; Perry, N; Pitts, N; Rothfus, N;
SOUTH CAROLINA
Duncan, N; Gowdy, N; Mulvaney, N; Rice, N; Sanford, N; Wilson, N.
SOUTH DAKOTA
Republicans — Noem, N.
TENNESSEE
Black, N; Blackburn, N; DesJarlais, N; Duncan, N; Fincher, N; Fleischmann, N; Roe, N.
TEXAS
Barton, N; Brady, N; Burgess, N; Carter, N; Conaway, N; Culberson, N; Farenthold, N; Flores, N; Gohmert, N; Granger, N; Hall, N; Hensarling, N; Johnson, Sam, N; Marchant, N; McCaul, N; Neugebauer, N; Olson, N; Poe, N; Sessions, N; Smith, N; Stockman, N; Thornberry, N; Weber, N; Williams, N.
UTAH
Bishop, N; Chaffetz, N; Stewart, N.
VIRGINIA
Forbes, N; Goodlatte, N; Griffith, N; Hurt, N;
WISCONSIN
Duffy, N; Petri, N; Ryan, N; Sensenbrenner, N.
WYOMING
Lummis, N.

Congratulations, GOP! You're now an international embarrassment, not just a national one.

RELATED:

Petition to arrest House GOP for Sedition

Nothing Ted Cruz Said About the ACA Today Is True

Don't Laugh. Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) Urges GOP To Declare War On Ted Cruz. Stop Laughing.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

De-Americanized world?

GOP SCREWING AMERICA AND THE WORLD

NFTOS shall be going through a system upgrade the next 24 hours. In lieu of a NFTOS blog for Wednesday October 16th,  we have chosen to cross post from Maddowblog Steve Benen:

When there’s a global economic crisis, investors from around the world have spent the last several generations doing one thing: they buy U.S. treasuries. The reasoning, of course, is that there is no safer investment, anywhere on the planet, than the United States of America – which has the strongest and largest economy on the planet, and which always pays its bills.

All of these assumptions, of course, were cultivated over generations, and pre-date the radicalization of the Republican Party.

But what happens when U.S. treasuries are no longer considered safe, Americans can no longer be counted on to pay its bills, and the nation’s most powerful economy chooses to default on purpose? The world starts reevaluating old assumptions, that’s what.

In Britain, Jon Cunliffe, who will become deputy governor of the Bank of England next month, told members of Parliament that banks should be developing contingency plans to deal with an American default if one happens.

And Chinese leaders called on a “befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world.” In a commentary on Sunday, the state-run Chinese news agency Xinhua blamed “cyclical stagnation in Washington” for leaving the dollar-based assets of many nations in jeopardy. It said the “international community is highly agonized.”

I know I've been pushing this thesis in recent weeks, but it’s important to remember the unique role the United States plays in global leadership and the extent to which Republican antics in Congress will change the dynamic that’s been stable for the better part of the last century.

No major western power has defaulted since Hitler’s Germany, so this week may add some history to the potentially catastrophic economic consequences, and the world is watching closely.

Indeed, try to imagine explaining this ongoing crisis to a foreign observer who doesn't fully appreciate the nuances of domestic politics. “Yes, we have the largest economy on the planet. Yes, we want to maintain global credibility. Yes, the process of extending our borrowing authority is incredibly easy and could be completed in about 10 minutes. No, some members of our legislative branch have decided they no longer want the United States to honor its obligations and pay for the things they've already bought.”

I suspect global observers would find this truly inexplicable. As it happens, I’d agree with them.

Ezra Klein added yesterday that to the rest of the world, “the United States looks insane right now.”

They’re dealing with real problems that their political systems are struggling to solve. The United States’ political system is creating fake problems that it may choose to leave unsolved. 

“The United States was the one bright spot in the world recovery,” says OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria. “It was leading the recovery! Leading the creation of jobs! This unfortunate situation with the budget and debt happens at the moment it was looking good.” […] 

At best, the United States is slowing its recovery – and that of the rest of the world. At worst, it’s going to trigger another global crisis. That’s why, Gurria says, his concern isn’t that the United States’ economy is weak, but that its political system is.

It’s heartbreaking that so much of the world is now laughing at us, not because we have a crises we can’t solve, but because members of one party – the one that lost the most recent national elections – insist on manufacturing new crises to advance their unpopular agenda.

To reiterate what we discussed last week, there’s a global competition underway for power and influence in the 21st century. Americans have rivals who are playing for keeps. We can either be at the top of our game or we can watch others catch up.

And it’s against this backdrop that House Speaker John Boehner and his Republican colleagues shut down the government, threaten default, fight tooth and nail to strip Americans of their health care benefits, and keep spending levels so low we’re kicking children out of Head Start centers while our global competitors invest heavily in education.

It’s as if some have a vision in which we no longer lead and we aim for second place on purpose.

Great nations can’t function the way we’re struggling to function now. The United States can either be a 21st-century superpower or it can tolerate Republicans abandoning the governing process and subjecting Americans to a series of self-imposed extortion crises.

It cannot do both.

China is talking about “a de-Americanized world.” It’s time for Republicans to decide whether they intend to help them.




NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West

Most Hated People in U.S. Deciding Fate of World

GOP: Grand Orwellian Party.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (Virginia Teahadist) offered a curious analogy this weekend, comparing the impending default to the American Revolution.

Griffith was asked about the fast-approaching debt ceiling, which if not raised, threatens to drag the U.S. economy back into a recession. He told The Hill on Saturday that he is not concerned with the economic consequences so long as he and his party get their way.

“We have to make a decision that’s right long-term for the United States, and what may be distasteful, unpleasant and not appropriate in the short run may be something that has to be done,” he said after a meeting of the House GOP, joining a long list of Republicans who have dismissed the consequences of blowing through the debt ceiling and causing a default on the nation’s payments.

But he offered a novel explanation for why he believes this kind of economic brinksmanship is necessary: because our founding fathers did it too:

“I will remind you that this group of renegades that decided that they wanted to break from the crown in 1776 did great damage to the economy of the colonies. They created the greatest nation and the best form of government, but they did damage to the economy in the short run.”

Griffith made no mention of the revolutionary war that proceeded the colonies’ act of economic vigilantism.

In recent days, some Republicans have backed away from plans to hold up a budget agreement unless Obamacare is defunded. The move came as business groups and conservative organizations like Heritage Action and the Koch Brothers acknowledged that default would bring about economic catastrophe.

The American Revolution led to establishing a democratic republic, whereas the right-wing nut jobs aspire to establishing a plutocratic fascist state.

Meanwhile, Rule by Law is still fundamental to the American system of government and justice.

Theoretically these terrorists are abdicating their duties as members of the U.S. House of Representatives in favor of undermining the U.S. Government and the welfare of all American citizens. And they are working not with President Obama but rather, they are owing their allegiance to their surrogate leaders—Koch’s, Heritage, ALEC, and so on. They are committing the premeditated crime called sedition.

Repeating from previous writings: Treason is legally defined as citizen's actions that violate allegiance to one's sovereign or state, to help a foreign government overthrow, make war against, or seriously injure the parent nation. These right-wing nut jobs have not attained the status of a "foreign government", so in legal terms, we must accuse them of sedition. Legally, treason and sedition are very close cousins, and anyone could make a strong argument, based on existing sedition laws (Alien Registration Act, 1940) that would land these terrorists fired and better yet, in prison for 20 years.

If Congressional GOPers will honor their oaths and do their jobs, in return, we the people won't demand that they be removed from office, and we won't demand that they and their surrogate leaders be charged and tried for sedition.

Protect our republic, yourself, and all Americans from the politically irrational who enable the extreme minority.

NEW LAW: If your going to run for congress you have to be actually smarter than a fifth grader. This blogger thinks that the tea baggers take civil war and revolutionary reenacting too seriously.

Fear not readers, there is still plenty of time to accomplish nothing today.

NFTOS

Editor-In-Chief

Roger West