Meanwhile, Over At John Boehner's House...

House Republicans have been busy being fitted for foam Lady Liberty headwear and parlor hats made of dangling teabags. And now they have introduced hundreds of silly amendments to their own H.R. 1, the Continuing Resolution to fund the government for the next seven months. Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky and her staff saved you and me a lot of time by leafing through the House GOP's cynical hit list, coming up with these 10 truly stupid amendments proposed by actual Republican House members, all of whom purportedly claim to be actual adults. She calls it the 'So Be It' Awards:

HT: HuffPo:

1. Amendment Nos. 150 / 151 -- Rep. Neugebauer (R-TX): The amendment would prohibit funds made available in this Act from being used for repair, alteration, or improvement of the Executive Residence at the White House and the Executive Office of the President.

2. Amendment No. 8 -- Rep. Stearns (R-FL): The amendment would restrict funds made available in this Act from being used for the design, renovation, construction, or rental of any headquarters for the United Nations in any location in the United States.

3. Amendment No. 34 -- Rep. Garret (R-NJ): The amendment reduces funding for the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities, National Endowment for the Arts, Grants and Administration by $145 million eliminating funding for the account.

4. Amendment No. 271 -- Rep. King (R-IA): The amendment would reduce funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Disease Control, Research, and Training by $750,000,000. (Amendment Nos. 550 / 551 -- Rep. King (R-IA) do the same.)

5. Amendment No. 420 -- Rep. Issa (R-CA): The amendment would prohibit the funds made available by this Act from being used by the Department of Health and Human Services to study condom use skills in adult males.

6. Amendment No. 405 -- Rep. Thompson (R-PA): The amendment would amend the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to provide that payments made for standard power wheelchairs furnished in 2011 are subject to a 1 percent reduction in the covered item update made under the Social Security Act.

7. Amendment No. 422 -- Rep. Issa (R-CA): The amendment would prohibit the funds made available by this Act from being used by the National Science Foundation to study whether video games improve mental health for the elderly.

8. Amendment No. 346 -- Rep. Pearce (R-NM): The amendment would prohibit any funds made available under the Act to be used to provide trade adjustment assistance to wild blueberry producers.

9. Amendment No. 483 -- Rep. Fortenberry (R-NE): The amendment would prohibit funds made available by this Act to be used for or in sterilization campaigns.

10. Amendment No. 92 -- Rep. Heller (R-NV): The amendment would prohibit any funds made available in this Act from being used to designate monuments under the "Antiquities Act of 1906" (16 U.S.C. 431, et seq.). (Amendment No. 203 -- Rep. Labrador (R-ID) does the same thing.)

And a special mention goes to Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA): The Flintstone Car and Candlelight Award for his series of amendments to prohibit funding for an expansive list of energy innovations and clean technologies, including Water Power (Amendment No. 318), Wind Energy (Amendment No. 320), Vehicle Technologies (Amendment No. 316), Solar Energy (Amendment No. 314), Industrial Technologies (Amendment No. 312), Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies (Amendment No. 309), Geothermal (Amendment No. 307), Building Technologies (Amendment No. 302) and Biomass and Biorefining Systems (Amendment No. 300).

The last time I checked, John Boehner said his House members' focus was on "jobs, jobs, jobs." It seems to me they are spending most of their time reigniting the culture war and wasting time on idiotic amendments, as Rep. Schakowsky pointed out above.

Earlier this week, Boehner shrugged off concerns over job losses that would surely result from the $61 billion his chamber wants to slash from government programs.

"So be it," the Bronze One replied.

This is your country.

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Where Does A GOP Ad Man Find His Ideas?

From the DailyBeast.com:

And Republicans say Democrats are the ones who condescend to working-class people: A National Republican Senatorial Committee ad showing actors in flannel shirts and trucker caps in a diner complaining about West Virginia Democratic candidate Joe Manchin was actually shot in Philadelphia with actors. “We are going for a ‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look,” read the NRSC’s casting call for the ad. “These characters are from West Virginia so think coal miner/trucker looks.” The call’s clothing suggestions include, work boots, flannel or denim shirts, “Dickie’s type jacket with T-shirt underneath,” down-filled vest, “John Deer [sic] hats (not brand new, preferably beat up),” “trucker hats (not brand new, preferably beat up).”

Hello Delaware! "Kids Are Not Dogs In Heat."

Grrrgghh! Ruff!!!

Toeing The Tea Party Line

To a Republican, mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery.

H/T: HuffPo.

The GOP Is A One-Hit Wonder And It's "Dixie."

Ya don't say!

From MSNBC:

The GOP has a HUGE generic-ballot edge in the South (52%-31%), but it doesn’t lead anywhere else. In the Northeast, Dems have a 55%-30% edge; in the Midwest, they lead 49%-38%; and in the West, it’s 44%-43%. Yet do keep this caveat in mind: Many of the congressional districts Republicans are targeting outside of the South resemble some of those Southern districts they’re hoping to win back in November -- where you have whiter and older voters. Think Stephanie Herseth's seat in South Dakota; Tim Walz' seat in Minnesota; Leonard Boswell's seat in Iowa; and Ike Skelton's in Missouri.

More about the GOP Confederacy and other mid-term madness here.

Right-Wing Excess Lives In Texas.

Glenn Beckian history...

From the New York Times:

After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.
The vote was 10 to 5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it.
In recent years, board members have been locked in an ideological battle between a bloc of conservatives who question Darwin’s theory of evolution and believe the Founding Fathers were guided by Christian principles, and a handful of Democrats and moderate Republicans who have fought to preserve the teaching of Darwinism and the separation of church and state.
“We are adding balance,” said Dr. Don McLeroy, the leader of the conservative faction on the board, after the vote. “History has already been skewed. Academia is skewed too far to the left.”
Efforts by Hispanic board members to include more Latino figures as role models for the state’s large Hispanic population were consistently defeated, prompting one member, Mary Helen Berlanga, to storm out of a meeting late Thursday night, saying, “They can just pretend this is a white America and Hispanics don’t exist.”
“They are going overboard, they are not experts, they are not historians,” she said. “They are rewriting history, not only of Texas but of the United States and the world.”
“I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state,” said David Bradley, a conservative from Beaumont who works in real estate. “I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.”
They also included a plank to ensure that students learn about “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schlafly, the Contract With America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority and the National Rifle Association.”
Dr. McLeroy, a dentist by training, pushed through a change to the teaching of the civil rights movement to ensure that students study the violent philosophy of the Black Panthers in addition to the nonviolent approach of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also made sure that textbooks would mention the votes in Congress on civil rights legislation, which Republicans supported.
Cynthia Dunbar, a lawyer from Richmond who is a strict constitutionalist and thinks the nation was founded on Christian beliefs, managed to cut Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions in the late 18th century and 19th century, replacing him with St. Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and William Blackstone. (Jefferson is not well liked among conservatives on the board because he coined the term “separation between church and state.”)

JackRabbit Café was unable to confirm a rumor that Texas conservatives attempted to place Ronald Reagan at the Last Supper, penning the first draft of the Declaration of Independence while Nancy stared, dreamlike, busily powdering her crazy man's wig.

Tim James: C'mon, Alabama! We Can Out-Crazy Arizona Any Dang Day!

Tim James' campaign video -- Language @ Yahoo! Video

A card-carryin' member of the GOP Confederacy wants to be 'Bama's guvner, y'all.

Southern Man.

Yee-haw.

From the Washington Post:

Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) has quietly declared April 2010 Confederate History Month, bringing back a designation in Virginia that his two Democratic predecessors -- Mark Warner and Tim Kaine -- refused to do.
Republican governors George Allen and Jim Gilmore issued similar proclamations. But in 2002, Warner broke with their action, calling such proclamations, a "lightning rod" that does not help bridge divisions between whites and blacks in Virginia.
This year's proclamation was requested by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. A representative of the group said the group has known since it interviewed McDonnell when he was running for attorney general in 2005 that he was likely to respond differently than Warner or Kaine.

The (GOP) Confederacy lives on and on and on...

Teabag Nation.

From Sam Stein of the Huffington Post:

Abusive, derogatory and even racist behavior directed at House Democrats by Tea Party protesters on Saturday left several lawmakers in shock.
Preceding the president's speech to a gathering of House Democrats, thousands of protesters descended around the Capitol to protest the passage of health care reform. The gathering quickly turned into abusive heckling, as members of Congress passing through Longworth House office building were subjected to epithets and even mild physical abuse.
A staffer for Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters that Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) had been spat on by a protestor. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a hero of the civil rights movement, was called a 'ni--er.' And Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) was called a "faggot," as protestors shouted at him with deliberately lisp-y screams. Frank, approached in the halls after the president's speech, shrugged off the incident.
But Clyburn was downright incredulous, saying he had not witnessed such treatment since he was leading civil rights protests in South Carolina in the 1960s.
"It was absolutely shocking to me," Clyburn said, in response to a question from the Huffington Post. "Last Monday, this past Monday, I stayed home to meet on the campus of Claflin University where fifty years ago as of last Monday... I led the first demonstrations in South Carolina, the sit ins... And quite frankly I heard some things today I have not heard since that day. I heard people saying things that I have not heard since March 15, 1960 when I was marching to try and get off the back of the bus."
"It doesn't make me nervous as all," the congressman said, when asked how the mob-like atmosphere made him feel. "In fact, as I said to one heckler, I am the hardest person in the world to intimidate, so they better go somewhere else."

Think of this the next time a Republican tries to tell you the teabagger movement is patriotic. At its roots, it's just an unhooded Klan.

Jim DeMint Still Can't Tell The Difference Between "Climate" And "Weather."

Here's a crib note, jackass. Write it on your f#cki#g hand.

Sen. Jim DeMint Is Hazardous To Your Health.

More fallout from the GOP Confederacy's obstructionist ways, as reported in McClatchy Newspapers:

An attempt to blow up a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day would be all-consuming for the administrator of the Transportation Security Administration — if there were one.

The post remains vacant because Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has held up President Barack Obama's nominee in opposition to the prospect of TSA workers joining a labor union.

As al Qaida claimed responsibility Monday for the thwarted attack and President Barack Obama made a public statement about it, Democrats urged DeMint to drop his objection and allow quick confirmation of nominee Erroll Southers, a counterterrorism expert, when the Senate reconvenes in three weeks.

Southers, a former FBI special agent, is the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department assistant chief for homeland security and intelligence. He also is the associate director of the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, and he served as a deputy director of homeland security for California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Two Senate committees have given Southers their bipartisan blessing. An acting administrator is in place pending his confirmation.

Marshall McClain, the president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association, said that the Senate should have acted sooner to confirm Southers.

"Friday's terrorist attack on U.S. aviation makes it all the more imperative that there be no further delays in filling this crucial position," he said.

DeMint said in a statement that the attempted attack "is a perfect example of why the Obama administration should not unionize the TSA." He wants Southers to clarify his stand on unionizing the TSA, a shift that Democrats support.

Without collective bargaining, DeMint said, the TSA has "flexibility to make real-time decisions that allowed it to quickly improve security measures in response to this attempted attack."

If organized labor got involved, DeMint said, union bosses would have the power "to veto or delay future security improvements at our airports."

He urged Obama to "re-think" supporting unionizing the TSA "and put the interests of American travelers ahead of organized labor."

DeMint also wants a Senate floor debate and roll call votes, not confirmation by consent as the Democrats sought.

The union-hating, teabagging South Carolina senator also hoped healthcare reform would be President Obama's "Waterloo," claiming it would "break him." DeMint is a corporate lackey and fervently anti-worker, telling National Public Radio's Fresh Air last year that he favored auto company bankruptcy, claiming, "What I want to do is make sure we have jobs for these workers and we have first-class American automobile companies -- and we're not going to do it with the barnacles of unionism wrapped around their necks."

What he really meant was that he wanted to save the auto company executives' jobs, as bankruptcy would have killed all obligations to honor union contracts. And now his anti-labor zealotry is holding up the confirmation of the head of the TSA.

Which side is it, again, that is toying with its country's safety?

Palin Supporters: Um, Er, D'oh!

Republican National Committee: Same Old Song & Dance.

From the New York Times comes further proof that the Republican Party is so far off the deep end that it's scraping bottom:

The battle among Republicans over what the party should stand for — and how much it should accommodate dissenting views on important issues — is probably going to move from the states to the Republican National Committee when it holds its winter meeting this January in Honolulu.

Republican leaders are circulating a resolution listing 10 positions Republican candidates should support to demonstrate that they “espouse conservative principles and public policies” that are in opposition to “Obama’s socialist agenda.” According to the resolution, any Republican candidate who broke with the party on three or more of these issues– in votes cast, public statements made or answering a questionnaire – would be penalized by being denied party funds or the party endorsement

The proposed resolution was signed by 10 Republican national committee members and was distributed on Monday morning. They are asking for the resolution to be debated when Republicans gather for their winter meeting.

The resolution invokes Ronald Reagan, and noted that Mr. Reagan had said the Republican Party should be devoted to conservative principles but also be open to diverse views. President Reagan believed, the resolution notes, “that someone who agreed with him 8 out of 10 times was his friend, not his opponent.”

Hence the provision calling for cutting off Republicans who agree with the party on seven of 10 items. The resolution demands that Republicans support “smaller government, smaller national deficits and lower taxes,” denial of government funding for abortion, and “victory in Iraq and Afghanistan.” It calls on candidates to oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants and repealing of the Defense of Marriage Act.

Invoking Ronald Reagan is still considered a winning formula for the GOP. Why not go really old school, and throw in Herbert Hoover, too?

Michele Bachmann's America.

Signs of the teabag times.

2 For 1: Today's Wingnut Roundup.

Ya Don't Say!

Columnist Maureen Dowd in the New York Times:

The normally nonchalant Barack Obama looked nonplussed, as Nancy Pelosi glowered behind.

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men’s club — Joe Wilson yelled “You lie!” at a president who didn’t.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring “You lie!” bumper stickers and T-shirts.

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina’s state Capitol and denounced as a “smear” the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the ’48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.

The rest of Dowd's belated eye-opening is here.

Catherine Crabill Is Just Another Nutty GOP Confederate.

I saw this video today on HuffPo.

Crabill is a Virginia Republican running for a seat in that state's House of Delegates. As you can see from the image at the top of this post, she believes the Founding Fathers were "right-wing extremists" (a shot at the infamous DHS report, no doubt), and the video captures her making a veiled threat of armed insurrection.

Maybe she's the id to Sarah Palin's ego...

(h/t: Sigmund Freud.)

Georgia Representative Paul Broun Is Hazardous To Your Health.

Those are the ratings given to hard-right, self-professed "Christian" Paul Broun, a U.S. Representative from Georgia from various health care groups in 2007 and 2008, according to VoteSmart.Org.

Perhaps that helps explain his bottomless stupidity regarding health care reform:

Rep. Broun, are you familiar with UNICEF?

Do some goddamn research:

His Sanity Has Gone South.

GOP Confederate Alert!

From Newser.com:

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint apparently thinks Barack Obama is a lot like Hitler. “Where we are, we’re about where Germany was before World War II where they became a social democracy,” he said at a National Press Club event last night to promote his new book, Saving Freedom. “You still had votes but the votes were just power grabs like you see in Iran, and other places in South America, like Chavez is running down in Venezuela.”

DeMint said he’d met an Iranian immigrant who was terrified by Obama’s government spending spree, and warned his audience to listen, reports the Washington Independent. “They understand socialism. They understand tyrants. When our immigrants get here, they’re worried, because they see it happening here.” He said in his mind it was the “eleventh hour” for freedom in America, though he ruled out an actual violent revolution.

I'm not surprised by the rantings of this unreconstructed redneck, but I am surprised that he's actually conversed with an immigrant.

Read A Newspaper Once In A While, Will Ya?

From the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

When U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner told a newscaster Sunday that not a single stimulus-funded road contract in his home state of Ohio had been let, he was wrong.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has OK'd 52 stimulus-funded road and bridge projects at a cost of nearly $84 million.

Boehner told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace that in "Ohio, the infrastructure dollars that were sent there months ago," as part of the economic recovery package, "there hasn't been a contract let, to my knowledge."

Read this.