It’s undemocratic of me to wish this would actually happen, right?
Rick Santorum: “I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money.”
Everyone is going after Ron Paul for his racist newsletters and remarks, but we can’t forget that stigmatizing POC is standard operating procedure for Republicans.
At a New Year’s campaign stop in Sioux City, Iowa, Rick Santorum outlined his vision for the country—one that focuses on cutting government aid to the needy at a time when poverty rates are rising.
Even more troubling, Santorum seems to hold Reagan-era ideas about poverty that explicitly racialize it and, more subtly, link Blackness to shiftlessness, indecency, and immorality:
“Having that strong foundation of the faith and family allows America to be in a position where we can be more free,” Santorum says. “We can be free because we are good decent moral people.”
For Santorum that means cutting government regulation. Making Americans less dependent on government aid. Fewer people getting food stamps, Medicaid and other forms of federal assistance — especially one group.
“I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” Santorum begins. “I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money and provide for themselves and their families.”
Santorum did not elaborate on why he singled out blacks who rely on federal assistance. The voters here didn’t seem to care.
This is the Reagan lie about the welfare queen all over again, disguised as compassionate conservatism. Santorum doesn’t care about making poor people’s lives or Black people’s lives better. Like all Republicans, Rick Santorum just wants to cut federal spending so he can lower taxes for corporations and the wealthy.
Rick Santorum: fully living up to his name
(Source: NPR)
A very interesting list that discusses some recent-ish trends in religion— from Judaism to Latino Catholicism to the ‘new nihilism’—that haven’t been widely covered in the press. I’m particularly irked by #6 Upside-down Ideas about Religious Liberty:
The dramatic new push for religious liberty exemptions for faith-connected providers of taxpayer-supported health services underscores the radical way in which understandings of religious liberty have changed in recent years. It’s not that the push for exemptions hasn’t made the news; it’s that no one is writing (at least in the MSM) about the radical nature of the shift. In the past, the social service arms of religious bodies understood that if they wanted public money they would need to honor public law regarding the disposition of the money: i.e., provide the full range of mandated services on a universal basis. We used to say to objectors, “If you don’t like the mandate, don’t take the money.”
Apparently such a commonsensical response is now insufficiently deferential to religion. More and more people seem willing to say that if a Catholic health care provider doesn’t “believe” in providing reproductive health care to women, that private belief can trump public law. This is a particularly thorny problem because of the many regional health care system mergers involving Catholic partners: there are now many places in the country where, if a dominant provider that toes the bishops’ line won’t provide the service, area women will be out of luck and deprived of benefits they are entitled to receive by law.
See also the refusal of religious pharmacists to fill orders for Plan B, the repeated attempts by fundamentalists to force public schools to teach creationism, and the mandate of abstinence-only sex. ed. by politicians and school boards (despite the fact that it’s led to dire results). Absurdly deferential treatment of religious folks (Christian ones, at least) is becoming the new normal in this country (here’s one example from this past year). I fully blame the GOP for courting evangelicals in the ’90s and fostering an atmosphere in which the views of far-right Christians have become privileged over everyone else’s.
This state of affairs completely undermines what the Founders intended with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. Freedom to practice your religion without state interference does NOT mean that government must therefore privilege your rights over everyone else’s. If a Catholic hospital is funded with taxpayer money, then they can’t use religious reasons to restrict the use of that money, i.e. not provide reproductive healthcare.
9-year-old Ari Garnick asked some of the GOP candidates the question, “if you could be any superhero, who would it be and why?
The geek in me thinks the answers are interesting and possibly revealing. I knew Mitt Romney would pick Superman: a patriotic, unambiguously (for the most part) good guy and a totally safe and boring pick (much like Romney himself)….no wonder three other candidates also picked Superman.
Also, I’m completely unsurprised that Ron Paul was kind of jerky to a kid.
(via)
That top image is the White House’s official Christmas card, featuring pet dog, Bo, relaxing in front of a fire place.
The bottom image is Fox’s official Christmas card, featuring two cartoon foxes roasting an NBC peacock over an open flame.
Yet Sarah Palin, speaking on Fox News & Commentary, thinks the White House card is “odd” and that it lacks the depiction of “American foundational values” like “family, faith and freedom.”
My Christmas wish is for these people to be visited by three ghosts who will show them that their mindless nitpicking, pointless obstructionism, and useless partisanship are killing this country.
Wooooww…..
A Fair and Balanced Christmas Carol
Jerry Falwell was dead to begin with. Dead as a doornail. His death was noted by Fox News, and the Fox News name was as good as any other news organization, as was well known.
Oh, but what a nasty piece of work was Fox News! a lying, manipulating, partisan, propagandizing, intolerant snotwaffle. The brainchild of Rupert Murdoch, it was as loathsome as a spider and as hateful as the heart of Pat Robertson.
Once upon a time - on Christmas, of all the days of the year - old Fox News was sitting in its headquarters, watching his minions writing stories of the War on Christmas, while National Geographic huddled in the corner, broadcasting a wildlife documentary.
“Hello, uncle!” cried Glee, Fox’s liberal quasi-offspring. He had just come back from his Christmas special, and between his merrymaking and gay shipping, color had sprung even stronger into his cheeks.
“Bah,” said Fox News. “Humbug!”
“Christmas a humbug? You don’t mean that, I’m sure.”
“Bah, ‘Merry Christmas’! We all know that there’s a war on Christmas, and our Christian nation, and anyone who says ‘Merry Christmas’ is simply pandering to further their profits! Out upon ‘Happy Holidays’ and ‘Merry Christmas’ alike! Keep your commercialized atheist propaganda, and let me keep Christmas in my own way.”
“Keep it? But you do nothing but complain about the war on it!”
“Let me complain, then!”
And with that, Scrooge shooed out the poor Glee, National Geographic, and the starving woman on his doorstep, who was begging for money to pay for kindergarten, muttering about class warfare. He stopped to see a young boy with a sign calling for increased regulation of industry to prevent global warming, and he scoffed. “Bah! Humbug!” he said to himself. “It’s all a conspiracy on the part of the scientists, anyway, this ‘global warming.’ It’s certainly cold enough.”
When he returned home, he thought he saw Jerry Falwell’s face in his knocker - it was quite a large knocker - but dismissed it. But as the clock struck one, he was visited by a strange spirit.
“Spirit!” cried Fox News, “Who are you, or were you?”
“In life, I was the Reverend Jerry Falwell.”
“Why do you trouble me?” asked the much-frightened Fox News.
“You see these chains?” asked Falwell, gesturing to those that festooned him like so many garlands. “I forged them with every word of hatred I spoke, every racist comment, every sexist and heterosexist notion I propogated. Your chain is longer, yes, and heavier. I am doomed to walk the Earth, carrying my burden, but you may yet be saved.”
“What must I do?” asked Fox News.
“You will be haunted by three spirits: nitpicking, obstructionism, and partisanship! Expect the first ghost when the bell tolls one!”
And with that, he vanished.
Fox News thought that perhaps he had but dreamt it, but sure enough, he awoke to Jon Stewart hovering over his bed.
“What the-!”
“I am the Ghost of Mindless Nitpicking!”
“Whose nitpicking?”
“Yours, obviously.”
Fox News could remember no time at all when he had nitpicked, and if he had, it was certainly not mindless, and he said as much to the spirit, who looked at him with a calculated look of disdain.
“Come with me!” shouted Stewart, and pulled Fox News through his screens until he arrived at the set of Fox & Friends. “Do you remember this place?”
“Remember it? Of course!”
“And do you remember this?” And at once the set was filled with people, all mocking Chaz Bono while completely ignoring Nancy Grace’s nipple slip.
Fox News felt a certain twinge where his heart would be, if he was a person and not an anthropomorphized news organization. “Well…”
And Jon led him through his memories, showing him every incident of completely missing the point, or taking outrage at things that were not themselves outrageous - chastising President Obama for inviting the rapper Common to the White House, despite hosting Ted Nugent (who threatened the president) on their show, for example. And then Fox News found himself back in his own studio, with his own bed.
He dozed for a moment, dreaming of Sarah Palin and guns, when he was awoken by laughter. Tiptoeing to his sitting room, he saw Stephen Colbert, sitting in a heap of money and books.
“Come in, and know me better, man!” said Stephen Colbert. “I am the Ghost of Pointless Obstructionism!”
“I see,” said Fox News. “Your predecessor showed me some things that I feel already at work, and so I hope to benefit from your example.”
And so the second spirit showed him the lies that Fox News told: how he silenced opposition to President Bush and the Iraq War with cries of treason; how he allowed pundits to shout over and intimidate guests, or outright lie about history; and how he allowed for politicians to lie by giving them a platform. And then he led him to National Geographic, with all his animal children. Except for one: Polar Bear.
Polar Bear floundered on his iceberg, hunted for food in a vastly shrinking territory, and often seemed in danger of drowning.
“Spirit,” said Fox News, with an interest he had never felt before, “tell me if Polar Bear will live.”
“I see a world with nothing but pizzly bears, and a vast ocean without Artic ice. If these shadows remained unaltered, the bear will go extinct.”
“Oh, no!” cried Fox News. “Say he will be spared!”
“Are you not unconcerned by ‘global warming,’ which, according to the now-debunked Climategate, is but a scientific conspiracy?”
Fox News was silent. And in the silence, Stephen Colbert faded away.
The clock struck again, and before Fox News stood a hooded figure. “Who are you?” asked Fox News.
The spirit was silent, and only pointed to the scene it had set. It led him to a television set. And before him, there was Chaos: theocracy, racism, dead women in back-alley abortion clinics, widespread poverty, and violence. But as he watched, he saw more: a small colony in Canada, populated by escaped Democratic expatriots.
Fox News was horrified. “Spirit! Say these things will not pass! Say that Americans will not defect to Canada!”
The spirit was silent. “Oh, spirit!” said Fox News, clutching its robes, “I will reform! I will truly be fair and balanced, and be less racist, sexist, and homophobic; I will allow each side their say, and refuse to be a mouthpiece for the Republican Party!”
And the spirit faded away, leaving Fox News alone in his room.
And Fox News was better than his word, which up to that point had been much in question. He donated regularly to Planned Parenthood and to the World Wildlife Fund, and campaigned on behalf of progressive legislation. And Polar Bear, who did not go extinct, lived on to become a mascot for the company, besides the titular Fox.
THE END
It’s a Christmas miracle!
That top image is the White House’s official Christmas card, featuring pet dog, Bo, relaxing in front of a fire place.
The bottom image is Fox’s official Christmas card, featuring two cartoon foxes roasting an NBC peacock over an open flame.
Yet Sarah Palin, speaking on Fox News & Commentary, thinks the White House card is “odd” and that it lacks the depiction of “American foundational values” like “family, faith and freedom.”
My Christmas wish is for these people to be visited by three ghosts who will show them that their mindless nitpicking, pointless obstructionism, and useless partisanship are killing this country.
(Source: Mother Jones)
The real ‘welfare queens’
An important point:
If someone who works is still eligible for food stamps and government assistance – it’s really the employer who is federally subsidized. These “job creators” are taking advantage of government programs so they won’t have to cut into their profit margins to pay living wages.
By the numbers:
Republicans are willing to raise taxes on more than 100 million households
… to spare 345,000 millionaires from a tiny surtax.
Something doesn’t add up.
GOP now viewed negatively in districts represented by members of the Tea Party caucus.
I guess that whole, “let’s use our control of the legislative branch to fuck with the president, immigrants, and women rather than addressing the recession” strategy isn’t working.
The thing is, such obvious inconsistencies could be avoided if contemporary GOP candidates remembered that their party has a history of supporting local-level government (vs. federal government) instead of being about minimizing ALL government at every level.
A pro-state/local government stance is not only consistent with Republicanism and actually defensible, but could attract support from more liberal voters too. Local government can be more flexible and responsive to local circumstances and constituencies and voters can feel like they have a better shot at influencing policy at the state and local level. So you can make pragmatic and democratic arguments in favor of subsidiarity that would allow you, a current/former governor, to tout your achievements without seeming like a hypocritical ass.
(via tehblackbirdflies)
