Daily Dope--Sean Hannity: "If You Look Up The Dictionary Definition Of Socialism, This Is It."

Sean Hannity is running out of material.

Bill Quigley is the Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights, and he points out 9 myths about socialism in the U.S.:

The fact is that the US is not really all that generous to our working and poor people compared to other countries.

Consider the US in comparison to the rest of the 30 countries that join the US in making up the OECD -- the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. These 30 countries include Canada and most comparable European countries but also include some struggling countries like Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Slovak Republic, and Turkey.

Myth #1. The US government is involved in class warfare attacking the rich to lift up the poor.
There is a class war going on all right. But it is the rich against the rest of us and the rich are winning. The gap between the rich and everyone else is wider in the US than any of the 30 other countries surveyed. In fact, the top 10% in the US have a higher annual income than any other country. And the poorest 10% in the US are below the average of the other OECD countries. The rich in the U.S. have been rapidly leaving the middle class and poor behind since the 1980s.
Myth #2. The US already has the greatest health care system in the world.
Infant mortality in the US is 4th worst among OECD countries -- better only than Mexico, Turkey and the Slovak Republic.
Myth #3. There is less poverty in the US than anywhere.
Child poverty in the US, at over 20% or one out of every five kids, is double the average of the 30 OECD countries.
Myth #4. The US is generous in its treatment of families with children.
The US ranks in the bottom half of countries in terms of financial benefits for families with children. Over half of the 30 OECD countries pay families with children cash benefits regardless of the income of the family. Some among those countries (e.g. Austria, France and Germany) pay additional benefits if the family is low-income, or one of the parents is unemployed.
Myth #5. The US is very supportive of its workers.
The US gives no paid leave for working mothers having children. Every single one of the other 30 OECD countries has some form of paid leave. The US ranks dead last in this. Over two thirds of the countries give some form of paid paternity leave. The US also gives no paid leave for fathers.
In fact, it is only workers in the US who have no guaranteed days of paid leave at all. Korea is the next lowest to the US and it has a minimum of 8 paid annual days of leave. Most of the other 30 countries require a minimum of 20 days of annual paid leave for their workers.
Myth #6. Poor people have more chance of becoming rich in the US than anywhere else.
Social mobility (how children move up or down the economic ladder in comparison with their parents) in earnings, wages and education tends to be easier in Australia, Canada and Nordic countries like Denmark, Norway, and Finland, than in the US. That means more of the rich stay rich and more of the poor stay poor here in the US.
Myth #7. The US spends generously on public education.
In terms of spending for public education, the US is just about average among the 30 countries of the OECD. Educational achievement of US children, however, is 7th worst in the OECD. On public spending for childcare and early education, the US is in the bottom third.
Myth #8. The US government is redistributing income from the rich to the poor.
There is little redistribution of income by government in the U.S. in part because spending on social benefits like unemployment and family benefits is so low. Of the 30 countries in the OECD, only in Korea is the impact of governmental spending lower.
Myth #9. The US generously gives foreign aid to countries across the world.
The US gives the smallest percentage of aid of any of the developed countries in the OECD. In 2007 the US was tied for last with Greece. In 2008, we were tied for last with Japan.
Despite the opinions of right wing folks, the facts say the US is not on the path towards socialism.
But if socialism means the US would go down the path of being more generous with our babies, our children, our working families, our pregnant mothers, and our sisters and brothers across the world, I think we could all appreciate it.

Sean Hannity. Same dope who thinks Sarah Palin is smarter than the president.

So much inanity, so little time...

(H/T: HuffPo.)

Texas Gov. Rick Perry: Hell-Bent On Crazy.

That's the banner headline from the predictably hyperventilating teabag alert mechanism known as the Drudge Report, followed by the French-cuff cowboy himself on his homefield--Fox News:

Creeping Socialism Permeates U.S.; Americans Say, "Hey--Thanks!"

FOX News: Unintentional Comedy Central.

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Renaming GOP Policy.

The Republican National Committee is as aimlessly desperate as the party's leadership itself.

From Greg Sargent on The Plumline:

It isn’t easy being Michael Steele these days.

A number of conservative members of the Republican National Committee are pressing the committee — and by extension, Steele — to officially adopt the position that the Democratic Party is socialist.

Over a dozen members of the conservative wing of the RNC have submitted a new resolution, to be eventually voted on by the entire RNC, that would call on the Democratic party to rename itself the “Democrat Socialist Party.” If the RNC adopts this resolution, the RNC’s official view would become that Democrats are socialists. From the resolution:

RESOLVED, that we the members of the Republican National Committee call on the Democratic Party to be truthful and honest with the American people by acknowledging that they have evolved from a party of tax and spend to a party of tax and nationalize and, therefore, should agree to rename themselves the Democrat Socialist Party.

I just reached RNC vice chairman James Bopp, a leading supporter of the resolution, and he confirmed that adopting it would mean the RNC officially designates Dems socialists. “We would be describing the Democrat Party this way if we adopt this resolution,” Bopp said.

This is politically dicey for Steele. In the past he’s refrained from calling Dems and Obama socialists, instead preferring the term “collectivists.”

But in a bit of a potential bombshell, Bobb claimed to me that Steele has privately told him “on several occasions that he agrees with the substance” of the resolution designating Dems socialists.

Jesus Christ, these Republicans are like whiny, snot-nosed kids. Their refusal in recent years to refer to the Democratic Party by its official name and as the Democrat Party instead is childish, "Freedom" Fries, schoolyard stuff.  Now these vacant dolts want to make their name-calling official policy?

The Plumline has updated what's quoted above, claiming that while Steele, too, believes that Democrats are a bunch of subversive socialists, he isn't ready to make that official policy.  

After all, that might confuse their actual official policy, which is to listen to Rush Limbaugh and nod in obedient agreement.

Spencer's List.

Here is Republican Alabama Representative Spencer Bachus from The Birmingham News:

"Some of the men and women I work with in Congress are socialists."

Asked to clarify his comments after the breakfast speech at the Trussville Civic Center, Bachus said 17 members of the U.S. House are socialists.

Alas, our intrepid Captain America failed to identify the Socialist Seventeen.

Meanwhile--unlike the unhinged fringe right-wing--most Americans don't seem to be gnashing their teeth over socialism, according to a Rasmussen poll:

Only 53% of American adults believe capitalism is better than socialism.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 20% disagree and say socialism is better. Twenty-seven percent (27%) are not sure which is better.

Adults under 30 are essentially evenly divided: 37% prefer capitalism, 33% socialism, and 30% are undecided. Thirty-somethings are a bit more supportive of the free-enterprise approach with 49% for capitalism and 26% for socialism. Adults over 40 strongly favor capitalism, and just 13% of those older Americans believe socialism is better.

Investors by a 5-to-1 margin choose capitalism. As for those who do not invest, 40% say capitalism is better while 25% prefer socialism.

There is a partisan gap as well. Republicans - by an 11-to-1 margin - favor capitalism. Democrats are much more closely divided: Just 39% say capitalism is better while 30% prefer socialism. As for those not affiliated with either major political party, 48% say capitalism is best, and 21% opt for socialism.

There is an unsubstantiated report that Glenn Beck was last seen curled up in the fetal position in a FOX men's room bawling hysterically after reading the poll.