Today Rep Steve Stockman R-TX tweeted: "I'm voting NO on the $1 TRILLION spending bill" – he missed the vote
— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) January 15, 2014
Here’s another one: Darryl Issa’s House Oversight Committee has been investigating Healthcare.gov’s security for months, because someone wrote a memo warning someone else about a vulnerability in code that wouldn’t go live until this Spring. Meanwhile, three Senate committees have convened hearings about the actual data breach at Target that has leaked information on 110 million real Americans. There’s no word on whether Issa is going to drop the healthcare investigation, or his other imaginary lover, Benghazi, to look into something that affects a real human being.
Big R
There is a house in New Orleans….
MomSense
It is infuriating how much time we have to spend on Republican BS! When historians (assuming there are any humans alive well into the future) look back on us they are going to wonder WTF was wrong with us.
Ash Can
When you started to talk about Darryl Issa and his investigation into Healthcare.gov’s security, I thought you were going to mention him leaving papers with confidential information related to the ACA laying around unsecured, in the open, in unlocked rooms open to the public.
gene108
Sadly, whatever actually happened in Benghazi that led to the death of Ambassador Stevens does not matter for the Right. Benghazi is just another hill to die upon in the ever expanding vortex of Democratic corruption and especially President Obama, who is viewed by many on the Right as the most corrupt President in American history.
Alex S.
I may be wrong but this generation of wingnuts strikes me at especially incompetent. The Gingrich House was more effective at sabotage.
Big R
@gene108: So, the odd thing about “Barack Obama = most corrupt President ever” meme is that it is a classic example of the environmental fallacy. There are African-American politicians, particularly local ones, who are incredibly corrupt.* The thing I notice about corruption among AA politicians is that it appears to take the form of the same bullshit we saw in Tammany Hall and other machines up to the time of Harry Truman (or maybe even later). So while white politicians have moved on to the direct grift and the tax-exempt grift, it appears that African-American politicians have moved into the patronage grift to fill that void. The problem, and the reason that corrupt AA politicians appear worse than white ones, is the direct pipeline between the public fisc and the grifting. But just because your scam is one degree removed from the budget doesn’t make it any less a scam.
So then you have Barack Obama, who is not only the cleanest President I’ve seen in my lifetime (which is an admittedly low bar, as I was born in Reagantime), but is also one of the most skilled politicians I’ve ever seen, and the wingers go nuts. They know that there are AA politicians who win election and re-election through corrupt means.* And so they assume that any successful AA politician must be corrupt. The environmental fallacy, ladies and gentlemen – reasoning from your conclusions about the population to any individual thereof. It’s the same as saying, “Because the average age of John Cole and Sarah, Plain and Tall is 75, they both must be 75 years old.”
* – This is not to suggest that white politicians AREN’T corrupt, nor that all African-American politicians are corrupt, nor that race doesn’t play an enormous role in the media coverage of corruption and graft.
Belafon
@gene108: If Obama had any fewer scandals there would be the scandal about him walking on water.
Big R
@Big R: The above may set off a flame war. If it does, I’m sorry, and I meant none of it – and certainly not the part that offended YOU.
Cervantes
@Alex S.: That’s partly because the Republicans had the Senate as well from ’95 through the end of Clinton’s presidency.
Say “Thank you” to Harry Reid if you would.
Glocksman
@Alex S.:
That’s because a lot of the 1994 Repub freshmen felt that they owed their seats to Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America’, along with all of the campaign cash Newt’s various PAC’s funneled their way.
Today’s teatards don’t have a single leader, though assholes like Ted ‘Cruz to the Future’ would like to believe otherwise.
Of course it didn’t take Newt too long to let his hubris lead to his downfall, either.
Comrade Misfit
Issa is doing just what he said he’d do in 2010: Investigate anything and everything until he comes up with an impeachable offense. The fact that all he’s been doing since then has been digging in a manure pile hasn’t deterred him from his belief that if he digs long enough, he’ll find a unicorn.
debbie
Unfortunately, I had to go to The Blaze to get a list of who voted for and against the budget. Surprisingly, Darrell Issa voted for it, even though it includes cuts to security budgets for embassies. Whore.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/01/15/house-passes-1-1t-omnibus-spending-bill/
MikeJ
The lesson here is that if you know of any security problems that can be solved before anybody is affected, keep your mouth shut lest ye be dragged in to testify.
gene108
@Belafon:
He also has one disciplined as hell administration that leaks next to nothing to the press, for which the press hates him.
So the press is left to turn anything not going perfectly – Fast and Furious, Benghazi, etc. – into a Watergate level scandal and cover-up.
@Alex S.: and @Cervantes:
The Dems held the Senate at least through 1996. The Senate did not flip the same year as the House.
Anyway, I think the big difference between now and 20 years ago is the Internet. When the right-wing media pushes a meme and the MSM jumps all over it, it is easier for President Obama to get real time information to tell the White House Press Corp they are full of shit than what President Clinton was able to do against the constant lying done about his every action.
President Clinton did not delay traffic for hours at LAX, like the media claimed because he got a hair cut from a Beverly Hills hair stylist. Since the right-wing media had put the meme out, the White House Press Corp jumped on it as the story of the day, back in May 1993 without bothering to check FAA records to see, if flights were actually delayed.
With the internet, I’m pretty sure the White House Press Secretary can pretty easily get a hold of the LAX departure records for any given day, should President Obama keep Air Force One on the tarmac a bit longer than needed for any reason, to counter the meme spread by the right-wing media that flights were delayed by hours and hours.
@MomSense:
It depends on which side wins. If the right-wingers win out, they’ll be writing about how terrible our lives were because of Social Security, unemployment insurance, etc.
If the right-wingers lose, than I can see your point.
rikyrah
@Big R:
Nearly all corrupt AA politicians wind up going to jail for what comes out to pennies on the dollar.
They are getting paid salaries with benefits..
and lose it all for pennies on the dollar.
There are no Black Duke Cunninghams.
If you are gonna lose a government jobs with benefits, it has to be at least for millions like Cunningham.
danielx
The richest man in the House has no interest in anything affecting real human beings.
Not difficult to see why Republicans – and many Democrats for that matter – have so little interest or concern over issues affecting the poor and the middle class. It’s not like they know anybody besides their office staffs with net work of less than high six figures. Maybe if they spent less time on the phone asking for more money and more time out in their districts talking to the people affected by their votes in the House…oh, right.
gene108
@Alex S.: and @Cervantes:
The Dems held the Senate at least through 1996. The Senate did not flip the same year as the House.
Anyway, I think the big difference between now and 20 years ago is the Internet. When the right-wing media pushes a meme and the MSM jumps all over it, it is easier for President Obama to get real time information to tell the White House Press Corp they are full of shit than what President Clinton was able to do against the constant lying done about his every action.
President Clinton did not delay traffic for hours at LAX, like the media claimed because he got a hair cut from a Beverly Hills hair stylist. Since the right-wing media had put the meme out, the White House Press Corp jumped on it as the story of the day, back in May 1993 without bothering to check FAA records to see, if flights were actually delayed.
With the internet, I’m pretty sure the White House Press Secretary can pretty easily get a hold of the LAX departure records for any given day, should President Obama keep Air Force One on the tarmac a bit longer than needed for any reason, to counter the meme spread by the right-wing media that flights were delayed by hours and hours.
Frankensteinbeck
@MomSense:
They will say it is racism. Whether or not you believe it is racism, all a historian is going to see is that American politics blew up when the first black president was elected. They’ll look back at the backlash every time blacks broke any barrier, and the connection will seem simple, obvious, and unavoidable in a history book.
Ash Can
@debbie:
Feature, not bug:
1. Cut funding for embassy security
2. Embassy in People’s Glorious Democratic Republic of Kaboom gets blown to hell and back
3. Profit!!
gene108
Please help. I have a comment in moderation and it is just too AWESOME to not share with the rest of you.
Big R
@rikyrah: Damn straight. If you’re going to put your integrity on the market (nearly said “put yourself on the auction block” then realized Holy Shit, Unfortunate Implications), make the bastards PAY.
kdaug
@Big R: Funny you should mention it.
This is what I was listening to
Cervantes
@gene108:
You’re simply mistaken. Republicans took the Senate back in the ’94 elections. They won 8 Senate seats. Dole became majority leader.
MomSense
@Frankensteinbeck:
I agree that it is racism. I remember watching a video (new left media perhaps) where the interviewer asked tea party people at a rally when they wanted to go back to and they all wanted to go back to the mid 50s–before the Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts. The interviewer would then remind them how high taxes were then and got some bewildered responses.
danielx
@rikyrah:
True dat. I once read a story in which the lead character had a company that produced training software and the like. He remarked that it seemed Democratic pols always seemed to get in trouble over money, while Republicans got in trouble over sex. He thought there was a market for training DVDs that would teach Democrats how to steal and Republicans how to fuck. The response, naturally, was that it would be unwise to trust Republicans with that kind of power; when you look at the spawn of Santorum that thought is undoubtedly correct.
Edit: for bonus points, what is the source of this quote?
rikyrah
As a Black person, I say this in all seriousness…
Seeing the lack of scandals in the Obama Administration only makes me appreciate Barack Obama even more. Looking at a picture of him the other day, with all the visible gray hairs on his head, only reinforces the truism that the Presidency ages men. In addition to having to handle the traditional job as President, Barack Obama also is subject to the Black tax. He carries the burden of ‘The First One’. That burden killed Jackie Robinson so young, and while it seems to be the President’s personality is to be so calm, on some level, it has to be getting to him.
Cervantes
@danielx: Doonesbury, during the Carter Administration.
But I believe it was not about politicians per se; it was about union bosses, Len Woodcock in particular. (Carter appointed Woodcock to be our first Ambassador in Beijing.)
Cervantes
@rikyrah: He is an amazing human being, a far better President than we deserve. Indeed, it’s a minor miracle that we got him.
MomSense
@Cervantes:
One of my neighbors was a classmate of RFKs at Harvard and told me that he doesn’t think most Americans appreciate what a good President we have in Barack Obama.
Cervantes
@gene108:
That’s true.
It’s also true, for example, that G. H. W. Bush was not so “out of touch” as to be amazed by an ordinary supermarket scanner. The scanner in question really was a piece of new technology. But “out of touch” was the on-going “narrative” about Bush — and so that’s what the press lazily kept feeding us.
You may have heard of a guy named Bob Somerby. He writes about this stuff. I recommend him.
Roger Moore
Of course not. Issa’s committee is supposed to be involved in oversight of the government, not the private sector. Oversight of the private sector is left to The Invisible Hand.
catclub
@Alex S.: “The Gingrich House was more effective at sabotage. ”
Nope, take a look at the economy in the 1990’s versus today. Today’s saboteurs are professionals.
slippytoad
@Cervantes:
I’m sorry, I was a voter during the first HW Bush Presidency. He was most certainly way way the hell out of touch. The supermarket scanner wasn’t the only clue we had, ya know.
Villago Delenda Est
@Ash Can:
Information security for thee, not for me!
Issa SHOULD be spending his time at another federal installation. Say Leavenworth. And not the Army Command and General Staff College, either.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes:
Somerby is dogshit. He recently proved this with his hectoring of Maddow who, as it turns out, was on to something.
BTW the supermarket scanner was supriseworthy technology only if you never set foot inside a supermarket except for a photo op.
Roger Moore
@Villago Delenda Est:
How about Florence? Or maybe Gitmo?
gvg
Um no, the grocery scanner had been common for awhile when Bush made that comment. I always felt we penalized him for the natural result of the post Kennedy nessesity for Presidents and VP’s to stay locked up safe. Of course he was out of touch. I also thought probably Hillary had to be too because the threats against Clinton were also against her-more so than other first ladies, so she had to have been kept safe which equals out of touch.
I was aware when the Bush comment about scanners was in the news and scanners were almost old news to me then. I did laugh at him too. It was only after thinking about it for awhile that I realized it had to happen. He was VP 8 years then President 4-that’s 12 years in an isolation bubble from doing his own shopping. And it’s got to be even worse for Obama given the nut level.
Cervantes
@slippytoad: I don’t see a contradiction between what you say and the comment of mine to which you’re responding. If you do, that’s OK with me.
Villago Delenda Est
@danielx:
Not to mention the spawn of George H.W. Bush.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore:
It’s too bad Alcatraz has been shut down for decades. That’s the sort of facility you’d want for a guy like Issa.
Villago Delenda Est
@gene108:
It’s “corps” or, more appropriately, “corpse”.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Well, let’s just say that’s not how I read the record.
And as for your ability to read the record:
Really? This is from Snopes:
Clear enough?
Not to worry, Rachel Maddow made the same mistake (January 12, 2012):
OK?
Cervantes
@gvg:
Not what happened. See above.
Villago Delenda Est
@Cervantes:
Sorry, but I don’t buy the Snopes explanation. The sack of patrician shit was amazed, period.
And Somerby utterly lost me when he attacked Joe Wilson (the ambassador). He has become utter dogshit. Fuck him. Repeatedly. With a rusty chainsaw.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes, disregard evidence and keep believing what you want to believe. So many do it, why not you?
I’d say it’s no skin off my back — but I expect you’ll be preparing my tumbrel forthwith!
As for your evaluation of Somerby, I have already commented above.
And in case anyone else is interested: the scanner incident took place not in an ordinary supermarket but at the annual convention of the American Grocers Association in Orlando, Florida, in February, 1992. What Bush saw there were new scanners that could handle weighing, error-correction, signature recognition, and inventory control. Had you been there, you might have been amazed, too.
Cervantes
@Villago Delenda Est: Incidentally, I left you more evidence yesterday for your case against Broder. Not particularly important, I suppose, as he’s already out-run the tumbrels.
slippytoad
@Cervantes:
Well, it’s implied that we were being unfair to poor Ole GHWB because he acted like we were his pet ant farm.
And I just wanted to point out that I was there, and he really did not seem to comprehend that after the recession started, we could have cared less about his potempkin war, and were kind of interested in our own plight at that moment, and he clearly wasn’t.
The selection of GHWB as a Presidential candidate seemed, to me, to inaugurate the Inevitable Republican campaign model, where it’s just assumed one of the guys from the last Admin will be “good enough” to take over. It also began the quite-rapid tearing away of the GOP from the mainstream, as Bush cluelessly jerked around during an economic meltdown. I was an undecided voter before that cycle, but by the end of it I was firmly a Democrat with no intention of ever voting for a GOPer and it was precisely because of how out-of-touch the GOP was (and Bush in particular) that I became that way.
gnomedad
@rikyrah:
And there are wingers who claim the gray hair is faked.
Cervantes
@slippytoad:
Sorry — implied by what?
Yes.
But we did not, and do not, need to rely on lies in order to demonstrate these things.
Nixon was the candidate after Eisenhower. Agnew was all set to be the candidate after Nixon — he was being prepared — but his crimes became just too lurid and obvious to ignore. Ford, of course, was a special case. Reagan was the guy-in-waiting after Ford’s defeat. And then there was Bush 41.
If you’re talking about economics, what began the tearing away from the mainstream was the farce they called “supply side.”
Perfectly rational response.
The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
@Frankensteinbeck: And they will be correct.
slippytoad
@Cervantes:
Not long after the scanner story, I remember seeing a Bill Clinton in an interview where he was asked about the price of basic things like milk and bread. I’m pretty sure that segment killed Bush’s chances dead right there.
I say “implied” because the tone of the Snopes story implies that somehow the perception of Bush as out-of-touch and stuck in the past was unfair, and I do not think it was. He absolutely deserved that reputation, and his path to changing it would have involved very little effort on his part. He was too lazy to do it, though, so he lost the election.
Cervantes
@slippytoad:
He did deserve it, I agree — but not because some lazy “journalists” and “pundits” made up and spread a lie.
And as I showed above, some celebrated “journalists” and “pundits” are still spreading the lie, twenty years later. It’s pathetic.