Thursday, December 30, 2010
MAD AS HELL: Last Chance Before the Tea Party Starts for Real!
So let's make with the bubbly already; 2011's going to be just too weird.
Posted by Cheri DelBrocco on Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 8:35 PM
Now that the agenda in Washington for the next two years will be driven by the far right wing of the Republican party, you might think economic issues have trumped cultural issues in the public mind. After all, this is the bunch who have taken over the House based on promises to slash the federal debt and shrink government.
This “movement” has never really had anything to do with making serious fiscal policy change — no, the Master Thespians of the right wing are simply tools who were bought and paid for by the billionaire Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks for the explicit purpose of Bringing the Crazy and distracting us yet again with—you guessed it—a culture war!
When Congress convenes in a few days, the John Boehner-led House Republican majority has laid out an agenda to do exactly what Republicans have always done(and will always do) — throw a good, old-fashioned culture war with aggressive, over-the-top rhetoric so people will be too distracted and divided to notice that the plan is the same one its always been — of cutting taxes for their donors, thus creating deficits that require spending cuts or bankruptcy.
In the last few days, House Republican leaders have actually unveiled major changes to House procedural rules that are clearly designed to pave the way for more deficit-increasing tax cuts in the next two years. That’s right! The Republicans are planning to put us further into debt so that the corporations and billionaires who bankroll their campaigns will get even bigger tax breaks!
The Tea-publican game plan will go like this: While John Boehner, Mitch McConnel, and other GOP professionals are making sweeping and symbolic but completely inconsequential points about fiscal responsibility, Michelle Bachmann, Rand Paul and the Tea Party will use proposals on moral and social issues to divide, distract, and divert by convincing some Americans that they are real Americans and that other Americans are their enemies.
There will be railing against environmental programs because these are supported by elitists who believe in “unproven” science like climate change and evolution. Proposals for defunding National Public Radio with its Prius-driving, latte-drinking liberal listeners will be made. National art endowments will need to be cut because of their offensive, blasphemous, anti-Christian exhibits. And of course what culture war would be complete without fighting about abortion? Prepare to see one bill after another come to the floor to revise the Obama healthcare plan so that it bans access to contraception, family planning, and reproductive rights to as many women as possible in the name of “defending life”.
Like a scene in Groundhog Day, the GOP will keep giving us their failed trickle-down economics while the birthers, death-panelists and the “Obama is a Muslim/Hitler/Socialist/Fill in the Blank”crowd have a field day calling for government shutdown based on sanctimony and vilification of their imagined enemies. They will finally have the chance to fight the war they have really wanted for two years — the one that will help them make good on their claim of taking the country back—- all the way back to the days of Herbert Hoover.
Happy Fresh Hell New Year!
Comments (33)
Showing 1-33 of 33
I can't wait to hear the excuses... I mean rebuttal, complete with a list felonious fallacies and unconstitutional contrivances.
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It's so clear that you do not have a friggin clue what the tea party is or is not about as you spew the predictable far left talking points. I am curious if you were as outraged about the national debt during the past two years while Obama/Pelosi/Reid were quadrupling it. As much as you may despise America, which seems to be a great deal, you should be grateful that you can mislead the mindless with a criminal offering such as this and still walk about a free woman.
This Cheri Delbracco opinion article is a near perfect illustration of why the tea partiers exist...quite contrary to the author's own theory of a Koch, Murdoch, Armey sponsered culture war. I agree with KateTN - Cheri and her ilk obviously aren't paying attention and haven't figured anything out as to why our country is suffering Happy Fresh Hell New Year and/or what needs to change.
Johnny Boy will have Dr TP over for a little Stoli and some hot tub fun and there will be ice in that tea before you can say Sarah Palin. The Tan Man and Senator Cadaver are smooth operators. You'll see.
Attention irrational, illogical, irrelevant Teabaggers, if what Cheri says is not true, then you should have no problem with providing the evidence, instead of spouting off more of your nonsense, again.
Here's one irony the Teabaggers cannot ignore or defend. The U.S. Government just financed another EIGHT-HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS so the wealthy could enjoy more tax cuts and then send that money overseas to create jobs in third world countries.
If we are going to cut the deficit, making the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes is the first place we should start. The second place that needs cut back is the TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR war mongering budget.
I don't think so. Much as I have no use for populist movements, of which the Tea Partys are front and center of now, I don't think the fiscal conseratism that holds the GOP majority together is going to be derailed by the social conservative garbage most Americans oppose anytime soon. And when they push too far right on social issues they'll be gone. And the writer's boogey men of McConnell and Armey know this, as they are NOT favorites of the social right.
The fiscal conservatives have some appeal, at least in theory, although their appeals to get back to what the Founding Fathers wanted ring hollow when the Founding Fathers pretty much would have abhorred modern standing armies and foreign entanglements and nation-building overseas. However, the social conservatives in this country have always been anti-freedom, abhorrent, and repulsive, going back to Jim Crow and beyond. The social conservatives have no redeeming qualities.
Nice rant, Cheri.
Anyone's who's bitching about the national debt needs to explain how the unfunded tax cuts are going to reduce it.
Anyone?
Packrat, you need to wake up! Who cares how unfunded tax cuts are going to reduce the deficit! MY taxes will be less and that's all i care about! I'm a patriotic American who believes in LESS government! Those tax cuts mean less gov't...less social security, less medicare, less unemployment benefits, less military (maybe), less plowed roads, less bridge repairs, less of everything that helps the middle class and poor! I am a Christian who believes in LESS gov't, so who cares about the deficit. THAT is the REAL issue! Christian and RIGHT. I'm RIGHT! To Hell with the rest of you and the sooner the better!
How can any "party" that fields candidates for public office like Sharon Angle, Christine O'Donnell, Carl Palladino, or yes, Charlotte Bergmann, expect to be taken seriously by the vast majority of American voters? These people were an embarrassment to the electoral process. Basil Marceaux would have made a better candidate than many of the ones the TP fielded. At least he was no one's puppet.
It is a tribute to Mencken's observation about the difficulty of underestimating the intelligence of the American public that any of the TP's candidates managed to be elected.
The part that gets me about it is that the so called TP candidates are derided by the neo-cons. But due to the popularity of the 'take back Washington" and "get guvmint spending reigned in" the TP candidates strike a chord with an electorate that feel screwed over and get elected (or win the primary). Now the neo-con driven Republican party comes a courting (yes the same ones that earlier were making fun of the TP people) and voila! these "rugged individualist, maverick, rogue, fiscally conservative, let's not muddy the water with social issues" Tea Party Republicans are doing the neo-con's bidding which is diametrically opposed to why they were elected in the first place. Ergo no change, but some how it's still the other party's fault.
Tom T - thanks for illustrating the hyperbolic stupidity and amazing ignorance of the Tea Party, you couldn't possibly have done a better job of exposing the Tea Party as a group of uninformed mouth breathers and liars. Your quote:
"I am curious if you were as outraged about the national debt during the past two years while Obama/Pelosi/Reid were quadrupling it. "
The GND was roughly $11 Trillion in January of 2008. It's roughly $14 Trillion now.
Only Tea Partiers believe that 4 x 11 = 14.
When the Tea Part masters basic multiplication, the rest of us will consider taking you seriously. In the meantime, you people just look like paid shills, bald-face liars and ignoramuses.
Disprove my numbers if you can, Tom T.
Please let me respond to Tape Operator...not in behalf of TomT, but as a previous poster who (like TomT) commented critically about Cheri's rant. Let's say for example that our government is increasing the deficit (what you spend minus what you take in) by $1 trillion or so per year and the accumulated total deficit is $10 or 11 trillion.
Then, in a stretch of a year the government decides to increase the annual spending to an amount that adds $4 trillion per year to the total debt. That is a "quadruplication" Tape Operator...or close to it. I don't know if TomT's numbers are what are correct, but I did understand what he was saying and the point he was making.
Now...as to Tape Operator's comments, the totally unenlightening mathematics, and sanctimonious challenge to TomT...all I take away from that rant is an apparent penchant to attach labels, call names, and spout some hokey mathematics that are most definitely incorrect. In other words, Tape Operator...say something useful. I wonder what label they would put on you?
Hmmmm... So now Phil Ochs is a Tea Partier? Or just another part of the neocon conspiracy with a time machine?
Tom T, you are so correct in your comments.
I am so sick of these people with their stupid remarks about the Tea Party. I am in the Tea Party movement, and have been since it began. We know what we are all about and those on the left pretend to know.
We intended to clean house in this past mid-term election and that is just what we did. This was the largest power shift in 70 years and we are not done yet.
Boehner has already sold their asses down the river. The GOP used the TP to win, and now it's all over but the crying. Did the Tan Man use the TP dolts? "Hell yes I did!" Enjoy your delusions of grandeur, suckas!
RioBlanco - you're talking about "for example" and "let's say that...", which is fine if you want to talk hypothetical stuff.
I'm talking about the historical record of fact. Facts, as in I am using the REAL numbers from the REAL historical record. WHO's using "hokey mathematics" when my numbers are based on REAL and ACTUAL facts and YOUR numbers are hypothetical?
As for what label "they" would put on me, "somebody who knows what the fuck they are talking about" would be the correct label, unless "they" are just more assholes who spout gibberish and hypothetical bullshit INSTEAD OF THE REAL HISTORICAL NUMBERS ON RECORD.
Go ahead, back a person's words who YOU ADMIT you haven't verified for correctness.
...just don't act surprised later when I rant, attach labels and call you names.
MY MATH IS CORRECT AND BASED ON FACT. YOURS IS SPECULATIVE AND BASED ON NOTHING.
And the rest of you. I don't say it if I haven't verified it. Kill yourself if my intensity bothers you - I've heard and eviscerated your bad math argument before, again and again and again.
Convince me that Obama "quadrupled" the debt using the numbers from the historical record or GTFO.
...and don't give me that 20 year CBO projection crap, according to that, Bush added $12 Trillion not $5 Trillion to the GND, and as much as I hate tu quoque fallacy, I don't want to hear about Obama's projection for 2020 unless you're ready to own up to Bush's projection for 2020.
I know about compound interest, save it.
RioBlanco,
LOL, I know, I know - I hear it all the time, I'm trying to mellow out this year, before I give myself an aneurysm.
But let's go to the historical record of fact, and you might get an idea of why I brought a cannon to the fistfight:
Tom T asserts that Obama "quadrupled" the national debt in his first two years. Again, when Obama took office, the Gross National Debt (or as you call it, "the accumulated total deficit" - that's a bad way to say it, since "deficit" IMPLICITLY means "budget overrun for any ONE fiscal year", but I understand what you meant) was roughly $11 Trillion dollars. At the moment, the Gross National Debt is nearing $14 Trillion dollars.
14 - 11 = 3, OK? Can we agree that the difference between 14 and 11 is 3? I sincerely hope so. If you agree with that, then you should agree that the following statement is true:
During the Obama tenure, the Gross National Debt has been increased by 3 Trillion Dollars.
At this point, you should see why I take issue with Tom T claiming that "Obama and Pelosi quadrupled the national debt". If Tom T meant something OTHER THAN "Gross National Debt" with this statement, he's more than welcome to chime in and correct my assumption that "national debt" was intended to mean "Gross National Debt".
So let's drill down a little bit more now. The 2009 Budget was created the George W. Bush administration and it was submitted to Congress in October of 2008. I don't raise GW's name with the intention of maligning him or "blaming" him, I'm simply stating the truth of the matter: the 2009 Budget was created by the Bush administration and the projected deficit was roughly $660 Billion.
Let's fast forward to the end of 2009: the 2009 deficit was $1.4 Trillion. Take a moment to look it up if you don't recognize that number from last year - it was the largest deficit on record, historically - I don't dispute that.
So, if the Bush Administration created the 2009 budget with a projected deficit of $660 Billion, what happened?
Can we agree that 6 and one-half plus 7 and change is roughly 14? Again, I'm hoping so. The second stimulus bill was just under $700 Billion, right? Take a moment to check if you need to.
So, bringing it home, the Obama Administration DOUBLED the projected deficit for the year 2009, and the amount that was added is readily explained by taking the stimulus spending into account.
These are facts, facts on record, facts that anyone can verify for themselves with Google and a calculator.
I'm no slavish Obama supporter, nor am I a Liberal. Generally I find that I want to rip the arms off of Conservatives specifically so that I have something to beat Liberals over the head with. And don't even ask me about Libertarians, they're even worse than Liberals, and only nominally better than Conservatives (just as dumb, not nearly as likely to wrap the cross in the flag and beat people over the head with it) have proven themselves to be.
I know why Tom T says such dumb things: he's repeating Fox News. I watch Fox News a lot, and my house-mates will tell you that they are awfully tired of hearing me scream at the Television. Hannity is Tom T's source of information, the phrase that Tom T uses is one that I've heard Hannity say innumerable times. It's either a lie or evidence of Hannity's ignorance - either way, repeating it is evidence that the average Fox News viewer doesn't have access to true facts and a calculator.
Here's an example: "Obama spent more in one year than Bush did in eight." is a frequent charge that comes from the Conservative quarter, and again, the source is Fox News. Leaving out the fact that PRESIDENTS DON'T SPEND MONEY, CONGRESS DOES, let's find the truth in that statement and compare it with what Conservatives say. The truth of the matter is:
Obama spent more in one year than Bush did IN ANY SINGLE ONE OF his eight years.
That's the fair and balanced charge, I won't dispute that FACT. Going back to Bush, the Gross National Debt was something like $5.727 Trillion when he took office. On the day that Obama took office, it was either at or damned close to $11 Trillion.
10 minus 6 is 4, OK? So, the low-ball estimate on the amount that was added to the Gross National Debt is something like $4 Trillion. Simple math shows that something like $3 Trillion has been added to the Gross National Debt SO FAR during the Obama administration, again, disproving this frequently stated lie that emanates from the right.
Outside of mentioning the economic collapse, the necessity of TARP, the subsequent stimulus package and a series of smaller "stimulus packages" that have happened during the Obama administration, I AM NOT TRYING TO JUSTIFY the numbers in the Obama column. I'm just trying to bring the ACTUAL TRUE numbers to light in a room darkened by the shadow of Tom T's (and your) attempts at further obfuscating the matter.
Dig into it. The truth might not set you free, but it will keep me off of your back.
Tape Operator
My compliments on your excellent effort to explain why you think and say what you do with such intensity! I understand what you've said and why you've said it much better now. I will say that when I came to the part "drill down a little bit more" I immediately had thoughts of the dental office . (I wonder if the dentist will let me cup his testicles in my hand while he drills?)
And you absolutely did not waste your effort T.O. I especially liked the part where you pointed a finger at the U.S. Congress for their role in bringing us to Cheri's Fresh Hell New Year. Can we agree that the Congress has effectively cut our throats over the past 15 years or so? Perhaps it is possible that the Tea Party phenomena may be a grass roots kneejerk reaction to this congressional and state-government inspired blood letting (I hesitate to call it "suicide" but sometimes it sure feels that way).
In any event, can we agree that things just cannot continue as they have in the past? I have no quarrel at all with the way you have laid out your numbers. You've done so this time without attempting the usual blatant political justification and derogatory labeling. Notwithstanding that, I still think you tried to make a mockery of the point that TomT was expressing. Your intensity was showing! And if TomT was simply parroting Hannity, then shame on him.
Bottom line is that the Congress-people of all political colors who participated in getting us to Fresh Hell Year have got to go into retirement (as do the individual state government folks who fell into the cesspool with Congress)....and that, my friend, is what I think the Tea Party movement is all about. I get riled myself when folks like Cheri (and perhaps you) spew out theories otherwise....such as elite-sponsored culture war and/or anti-liberal/socialist sentiments in the driver's seat. Is it fear?
Even so, I am not blind - our friend mad_merc has contributed some astute observations that I found cogent and interesting on the subject of political motives. I wish there was a "Like" button here. I don't particularly want to hog the blog real estate here so I will simply say to mad_merc "we are reading".
Again, I credit you with saying something useful and thought-provoking this time around.
RioBlanco,
Thank you, and yes, we CAN agree that Congress has spent the last 15 years (at least!) cutting our collective throats. I do also agree that things cannot go on as they have. As a former Wall Street nobody, I have to point at least two fingers in that direction, feel free to take a wild guess as to which two, LOL.
I didn't get all into it here for the sake of brevity, believe or not, but the real source of my gripes is the repeal of the glass-steagall act / adoption of the graham-leech-bliley act. Some other day, I'll surely find motivation to go into eye-glazing detail on that topic as well, but I'm sure that I've made enough of a splash for a single 24-hour period.
Thanks for reading without much prejudice, as I admittedly did come in a bit hot - I have this same discussion quite frequently, it's my chosen battle, and I have it going in lots of different places on the here on net. I actually used to have a quite thorough "bad actors list", but it's been lost to me - another story for later. Point being, the phrase "quadrupled the national debt" is red flag being waved in front of an angry bull in terms of "getting Tape Op wound up" - but there's no way for anyone here to have known that, and I admit that it's not exactly fair for me to engage in so many ad hominem attacks right off the bat, I know, I know, I'm a work in progress.
And I do agree with you about people of all parties need to come together, as well as people like myself who have chosen to not identify with any of the parties. I like to think of myself as practicing the political equivalent of agnosticism - the proper term might be "cynic" - as such, I've developed my own view of the Tea Party.
The Tea Party is a multifaceted beast. Elements of it are exactly as you describe, an "elite-sponsored culture war", but that's too simplistic an explanation - that's the blind guy with his hand on the elephant's trunk - he IS right, but his description is not complete.
For every multimillionaire who's manipulating the Tea Party to their own ends, there are hundreds of thousands of people who honestly think that the Tea Party represents their interests and who are acting out of honest concern. It happens to be my opinion that the majority of them are being manipulated, but I don't think that their intent is actually to ruin the country for the rest of us, I honestly believe that they have been not only misinformed, but mis-educated.
For every hundred thousand of those, there (reasonably) are some hundreds or thousands who are simply flipping out because the president is black.
For each hundred or thousand of those, there are a dozen white nationalists with Gadsen flag t-shirts walking around at Tea Party events asking people questions like "does it upset you that your chances of being promoted are limited by quota-based practices with regard to race?" - and I can give you the links to their sites and forums, as I lurk but do not post.
It IS fear that causes people to deride the Tea Party in some cases, but it's an honest fear of the majority falling prey to the machinations of the extreme minority due to the actions and voices of the few. In other cases, people watch Fox News, scream "you lie" at the television, Google up proof that Fox News has lied and add an item to the list of "Things that are going to make me call you an idiot online".
The specter of people on medicare screaming "keep the government away from my health care" is pretty much the classic example of people who are honestly and earnestly fighting against their own best interests as a side effect of ignorance, OR it's the rallying cry of the morally bankrupt who have theirs and want to make sure that no one else gets any, especially if it might affect what they have, but in either case, it's hard to understand their perception of how things actually work.
If there is no socialized health care (public option), people who have no health care and no money ultimately drive costs up for everyone, which is effectively a public option that has no price cap - I can't understand why people would argue AGAINST limiting the cost to the majority of dealing with the problems of the minority, but the Tea Party seems to be diametrically opposed to anything that smacks of "welfare" or "socialism" - even when the result is an out-of-control cost spiral for all of us.
...but we'll dig deeper into this stuff in another article or later in this thread, I'm fading and babbling at this point. I really just meant to thank you for your fair response to my paean to the Gross National Debt and the Budget Deficit.
Happy New Year, and good day.
Can you write my future comments in regards to the TP and healthcare reform for me? You and I have either met and discussed these items or maybe you're using something akin to the Vulcan mind meld to steal my thoughts. Either way, excellent summary. Now where is that damn like button?
mad_merc,
Good to meet you as well, Happy New Year, and thanks so much for the compliment!
I think that a lot of us are reaching these same conclusions, as we look at (and into) the Tea Party and the causes that they take up, but I seem to have gotten very lucky in the area of being able to precisely express my ideas - when I'm not on the warpath, at least. I can't promise to ghost-write anyone's comments, though - I'm ranting in way too many places at once these days, LOL.
I do sincerely hope that if I do ever say anything useful that others feel free to paraphrase, build on my research, or simply re-purpose my text - it's in the public domain. I try to make as honest statements as I possibly can, and the underlying point of refusing to call myself Liberal or Libertarian (which I am, according to the test online) is that I'm more interested in being "correct" than being "left" - but I should get out of here before I mix any more metaphors, Hahaha.
You amaze me mad_merc! As your avatar suggests: You da bomb!! The Goddess of Nuggets of Suggestion. Vulcan mind-meld indeed!
I've often pondered the underlying cutting edge concepts of Roddenberry's Star Trek myself. Wonder how Kirk, MrSpock, Janeway, Troi, Geordi, Worf, and Guinan et. al. would apply the principles of the body-Federation to our present day earthly lamentations of an american boogeyman in every bush, inter-racial discomfort, bad government, sexual tension, and out-of-control health care? In fact, what was the Federation exactly? Did it even matter? Maybe it was all about the character and principles of the men, women, and machines (Data). I wonder if Q would exploit the Tea Party?
I know...I know...you meant that T.O. had you in the mind-meld.
Speaking of T.O. I have an analogy for the TP tape: Have you ever seen lightning strike a dead tree? Often an ember will take hold...just a near-nothing wisp of smoke at first...but as the ember feeds itself and works around within the structure of the old dead tree (and helped a lot by fresh air)...after awhile; hours, days, weeks even...lo and behold, the old dead tree and its myriad of entangled branches is gone. Free enterprise and freedom of choice works the same way and something that may have been very familiar has to go.
...and just to clarify before anyone plays defense:
My statement about white nationalists in Gadsden flag t-shirts alludes to the fact that these people are camouflaging themselves in order to more closely fit the Libertarian stereotype - I specifically DO NOT mean to suggest that the Gadsden flag has any connection to the white nationalist movement, other than the fact that those people are smart enough to wear it.
RioBlanco,
I'm not 100% certain that I agree with your metaphor, and I'm struggling not to build a whole post out of substituting "hot" for "fresh", but let me extend it briefly, to illustrate my concern:
The "tree" that you refer to doesn't exist in isolation, it's at the edge of the forest, or in the middle of a field, and my concern is that a single lighting strike will result in acres and acres of scorched earth.
I mentioned Glass-Steagall earlier, a piece of legislation that was enacted after the stock market crash that resulted in the great depression with the intent of restricting or regulating the activities of bankers and traders. It worked well enough, arguably, for something like 50 years - not to say that the bankers and traders didn't find ways to fleece and screw the rest of us, but it did limit our exposure to their choices and actions. A sort of "seatbelt" for the body public - a rear-seat passenger in the vehicle of the market economy.
Graham-Leech-Bliley represents a lessening of those regulations, and it amounted to installing both an airbag in the steering column and a beer keg in the front passenger seat, while removing the seatbelts in the back.
You see the result, right? The bankers and traders, feeling empowered by their new air bag, and emboldened as a side-effect of the liquor, chose to race the car at high speed around the bend, and ultimately slammed into a tree - the stock market collapse.
The bankers survived, with injuries (airbags often cause concussion and the like) but the rear seat passengers (the body public) were thrown clear and suffered serious injury or death upon impact with the ground, some bleeding to death within shouting distance of the rescue team that was busily using the "jaws of life" to extricate the driver from the wreckage.
In this context, I see the Tea Party as often being a group of people who are actively working to insure that rear-seat seatbelts remain an entirely optional accessory, complaining on behalf of the driver class with no regard to the fact that they have an extremely low probability of ever getting a chance to take the wheel for themselves.
If I write one more line, my metaphor is going to crack under it's own weight, but I hope that I've gotten my point across.
Tape Operator
I guess I want to be able to pick my mount. Four legs under it perhaps. Wheels without adequate brakes or with nuts behind them are hazardous and life threatening. I want the tree struck by lightning..not my ride. I do admire some of your ranting now.
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