Republican Hypocrisy category archive
Republican Family Values, the Gift that Keeps on Giving (Updated) 0
Back when I wrote case studies for training courses, I could never have come up with something like this.
If would have been too bizarre, even for an audience of hardened railroaders.
Addendum:
“I think the destructive, distracting, and vicious nature of the news media makes it harder to govern this country,” Gingrich responded. “I am frankly astounded that CNN would take trash like that and use it to open a presidential debate. . . . This story is false.”
For all I know, the ex’s charges may be false.
Newt the Gingrinch doesn’t seem to have cared about getting his wives’ permission for affairs.
“My Theocracy Is Better than Your Theocracy” 0
Little Ricky: Absolutely no self-awareness whatsoever..
Virginia Republicans Rally To Protect Their Own 0
In Republican World, election rules one-way things: they exist to keep Democrats from the polls.
Republicans would hold themselves exempt.
“Hundreds of thousands of Virginians who ought to be able to have their choice among the full field of presidential primary contenders now only have a choice among two,” he said. “Virginia owes her citizens a better process.”
Meanwhile, in a visit to History Land, Shawn Day of my local rag reminds us that even Fred Thompson (remember Fred Thompson?) qualified for the Virginia ballot eight years ago. Furthermore, the Republican Party repeatedly reminded the candidates of the rules:
Only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney met that threshold. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul submitted slightly fewer than 15,000, and party staffers validated at least 10,000.
“RPV officials encouraged candidates repeatedly, through both counsel and field staff, to submit 15,000 or more signatures in an abundance of caution, so that they would meet the legal requirements,” the party said in a statement about the petition certification process.
“Candidates were officially informed of the 15,000 rule in October 2011, well in advance of the Dec. 22 submission deadline. The rule was no surprise to any candidate – and indeed, no candidate or campaign offered any complaints until after the Dec. 23 validation process had concluded.”
I cannot judge whether the Virginia primary requirements are “onerous” or not.
I can judge that the antics of the Republican Party to avoid its own rules set new standards in cynicism and venality.
Voter Fraud Fraud Fraudster 0
The failure of most Republican presidential wanna-bes to qualify for the Virginia Republican primary has been much in the news.
Now some political bigwigs want to retroactively change the rules because, apparently, rules are for other persons. But that’s not where I was headed . . . .
Buried in a long story about a retroactively-change-the-rules trial balloon is this tidbit.
If one uses the same reasoning that Republicans applied to ACORN’s occasional submission of invalid voter registration forms (and, remember, ACORN tried to flag forms it suspected of being improper), this means that Newt the Gingrinch is guilty of election fraud and must be destroyed as ACORN was destroyed
But that would require applying a single standard, wouldn’t it? We can’t have that, now, can we?
In Wingnut World, rules are for other persons (I guess that turned out to be where I was headed after all).
States Rights*: Conviction of Convenience 0
It’s most curious how Republicans are agin’ that intrudin’ fedrul guvmint right up until they are for it.
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*”States rights” decoded: Let my segregation aloooooonnnnneeeee.
Beyond the Paul 0
It is gratifying to see the Southern strategy come back to bite a Republican in the rear end.
One more time: A Libertarian is a Republican who’s ashamed to admit it.
The Odious Southern Strategy Rides Again Still
0
Chanceydevega marshals the evidence.
I’ve said in these pages many times, “I’m a Southern Boy, I know the code.”
And I do.
But seeing this stuff pulled together in a succinct list brings even me to pause.
Here’s a nugget. Click to read the rest:
While folks . . . should in fact be focused on the Republican Party’s masterful use of a politics of white racial resentment, nativism, and disdain for the Other. Context matters. Consider the circus that is the Republican Party’s presidential primary field for the election year 2012, and the policies they have endorsed.
1. Electric fences and moats to kill illegal immigrants;
2. Suggesting that black people are lazy, and their children should serve as janitors in order to develop a work ethic;
3. Wallowed in the filth of Birtherism, and indulged in rank, open bigotry against the country’s first black President;
4. Suggested that Muslim Americans should be profiled (perhaps they should carry special cards? or wear a mark on their clothing?) because of their religion and a propensity to commit “terrorism”;
5. Include a candidate who leisured at a family retreat named “Niggerhead” and grew up in sundown town*;
6. Are beholded (sic) to the Tea Party, a faction and AstroTurf group which can trace its origins back to the white supremacist, white nationalist, John Birch Society (the former is also a group whose racist tendencies have been well-documented).
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*For those who do not know the term, “Sundown town” defined.
The Phony War on Christmas 0
There is a real war on Christmas.
It’s waged by persons notable for publicly, perpetually, loudly patting themselves on the back for how Christian and holy they are.
Barbara Sehr reflects on it at SeattlePI dot com:
Today, this “greatest story ever told,” has been rewritten as Dickensian satire by professed believers who wear their “religion” on their sleeves like a territorial mark left by an untrained puppy. “If you are without a job, and poor, blame yourself,” they reverberate in their gospel of rugged individualism. If you are a child born into poverty, there should be workhouses to teach you a work ethic that can lead you into a life of million-dollar self-imprisonment from the forces of sensitivity to your fellow humans. “God Bless Us Everyone” becomes “God Save Our Tax-Free Capital Gains at High Interest.”</blockquote>
The Phony War on Christmas, Up Perryscope Dept. 0
The Rick Perry hate machine tried to drum up religious strife this week with a perfectly vile ad. (See a delicious, if somewhat extremely tasteless, response to it here), provoking prodigious punditry. Two columns caught my eye.
At the Chicago Trib, Steve Chapman, who’s normally sane, falls into the trap and tries to gin up justification for saying that President Obama is conducting a war on religion. Here’s a bit:
The first instance arose after passage of his health care overhaul, when the Department of Health and Human Services ordered that all insurance plans cover contraceptives and sterilization for women, with no copayment. The mandate means many Americans would have to be complicit in something their faith forbids.
The reasoning is absurd; it’s a canon-lawyerly smokescreen for advocating that those who oppose contraception should be empowered to impose their beliefs on those who do not. The stated purpose of insurance is to “insure” (after paying for executives’ country club memberships, of course), not to proselytize nor to penalize customers for indulging in legal, victim-less, a generally-accepted behavior.
Mike Littwin, at the Denver Post, gets to heart of the meaning of the Perry ad. Here’s a snippet:
(snip)
If you really want to talk presidential politics and religion, you have to start with Mitt Romney and Mormonism. It was a prominent Perry endorser, Robert Jeffress, who said Mormonism was a “cult.” Perry said he disagreed about the cult thing but that he wouldn’t disown the pastor’s endorsement.
And so here’s the irony: The politician who makes a fake cry about so-called religious intolerance is the one actually encouraging it.
Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes 0
Mitt the Flip has one core principle:
Say what you think they want to hear.
“Two Pieces of (Tax) Hypocrisy” 0
Robert Reich explains “two pieces of hypocrisy” in the Republican position on taxes:
Both Sides Now Mitt 0
Mitt Romney probably has trouble keeping track of where he stands on any given day.
Mitt the Flip Detroit the Bird, Reprise 0
No there, there.
Herman Cain’t 3
Clarence Page sums up the right wing reaction to Herman Cain’s situation, which, roughly summarized, amounts to “You are not allowed to criticize him because he’s black and Republican” (emphasis added):
“In the eyes of the liberal media,” Bozell wrote on the conservative NewsBusters website, “Herman Cain is just another uppity black American who has had the audacity to leave the liberal plantation.”
As an African-American, I find it heartwarming that so many conservatives have become eagle-eyed watchdogs against any hint of racism, even if it only shows itself when liberals are the suspected instigators.
mixed in with elements of this, from a stunning takedown of David Brooks at Balloon Juice:
Afterthought:
I used to do what we called “EEO training” for a previous employer. It could more properly been called, “How to stay out of trouble with the law for supervisors” training.
I was constantly surprised by the number of times we heard, “I didn’t know you shouldn’t do that. I had no idea it could come across like that. Now I understand.”
A lot of the training boiled down to simple politeness, to not saying and doing things you shouldn’t say and do in public.
The law properly gets involved because of the power imbalance at work.
If you go to a bar and someone makes a pass at you or says something disgusting or bigoted or bullying, you can leave without penalty and find another bar. (If that someone tries to prevent you from leaving, it becomes assault and is actionable.)
You can’t leave work without penalty.
You are a duck in a shooting gallery for a harasser; he or she can keep shooting, regardless of how many times he or she misses.
After-Afterthought:
This was not “sensitivity training” in any way.
“Sensitivity training” is, by and large, crap, because it tries to go where it shouldn’t: inside of people to their “attitudes” (whatever they are–my description about your “attitude” is based on my judgment of your behavior).
We didn’t care about attitudes.
We cared about behavior while on duty or on the property. That is the extent of the company’s jurisdiction, barring felonious conduct.
If you get people by the behaviors, their hearts and minds will follow.
Misdirection Play, Race Card Dept. 0
Mike Littwin comments on Herman Cain, the allegations of sexual harassment against him, and the Republican race card:
Usually, the accusation is to call a minority figure a racist for noting that he/she is, well, a minority figure. And so you have Glenn Beck calling Barack Obama a racist. And you have Tom Tancredo calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist. This is the anyone-whoever-mentions-race-must-be-a-racist school of racism.
It’s so old now that it’s almost become old school. It’s usually accompanied by quoting Martin Luther King about the quality of your character vs. color of your skin, as if that’s the only thing he ever said.
The misdirection players are the same bunch that couldn’t stop talking about Monica Lewinsky and little blue dresses.
Give me a break.
