Blue Eyed Blog
Posts tagged teaparty
Thank you Rachel!
Mar 3rd
I cannot even begin to count the ways I love this segment. All you Tea Partiers please watch this. Watch it carefully. See if you agree or disagree that maybe, just maybe we should tax the rich rather than the poor.
Do you (and by ‘you’ I mean those of you in the top 0.1% of earners who earn, on average, $6,000,000/year) really need $6 Million dollars a year? Really? Would $3 Million cover it? If not, why not? What is it that you need so much of?
What about those making, say, $100 Million a year? Wouldn’t $50 Million cover it? And I know that, if you have over a $1 Billion dollars to your name, it is not physically possible to spend it all in your lifetime. So what are you doing with it? And why are you hoarding it? And why on earth are you asking the middle class and the actual workers of America — the ones that made you all that money — to shoulder the tax burden for you?
Especially the Koch brothers. Multi-Billionaires. Trying desperately to grab more and more and more and more and make those in the middle class pay for it. You couldn’t spend all that money if you tried. Not even Charlie Sheen, at 10 times his current crack and hooker rate, could even make a perceptible dent in it.
So let’s be fair here. Let’s return to fairness being a principle of this country. Let’s have each person pay according to their ability to pay. Which means that you rich people, who can afford to pay, bloody well should pay. And before wingnuttia starts squawking about “penalizing” success. It isn’t “penalizing” anything. There is no more penalty for being successful than there is for not being successful. Everyone pays their fair share. And 30% of $150,000 hurst a lot more than 37% of $6,000,000. That top tax bracket should be closer to 50%, if not 75%.
The Incompetence of TeaParty Judge
Feb 24th
So not only is the Teaparty judge Vinson an activist judge — something I thought the teaparty and the right hated with a passion — but, apparently, he’s also incompetent. And suffers from delusions of adequacy, to say nothing of delusions of grandeur.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit released an order today reminding Vinson who is in charge:
A district court has a ministerial duty to forward to the proper court of appeals any notice of appeal that is filed. District courts cannot dismiss an appeal based on a perceived defect.
In light of these well-established principles, Respondents, including the District Judge, are directed to file a response to the petition for writ of mandamus within 14 days of the date of this order.
It is, to say the least, unusual for a court of appeals to order a trial judge to explain why he failed to follow the law in handling a routine matter. While it is likely that Smith’s appeal will ultimately be dismissed by the Eleventh Circuit, Vinson’s inability to complete an easy and purely ministerial task raises questions about his competence.
(Via Wonk Room » Did The Eleventh Circuit Just Fire A Warning Shot Over Tea Party Judge Vinson’s Bow?.)
Note to Judge Vinson: You are a District Court Judge. You are most assuredly not an Appellate Judge. So stop trying to act like one. And while you’re at it, stop being an activist judge too.
WI Gov. Scott Walker Pulls a Hosni
Feb 17th
One has to wonder if Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had any idea how many hornets he was messin’ with when he stirred this nest up?
30,000 plus folks surround the State Capital building, many slept inside again last night. The Capital Police are refusing to remove them. Some of the officers are joining in with the protestors. Yet the national media has virtually ignored the story!
All 14 Democratic Senators have just left the state to prevent being forcibly returned to the Senate floor. Quorum is 20 in the WI Senate. There are just 19 Republicans, so the vote to strip collective bargaining from all WI public employees cannot be held without at least one of the 14 Democrats on the Senate floor.
http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/UPDATE_Budget_Repair_Bill_Passes_Committee.html
An interesting quote from an email I received about this story:
Yesterday the police were present and amiable, but mostly seemed concerned with doing their duty of maintaining public safety. Today they joined with the firemen–who you may recall are also spared the draconian measures in store for nearly all other public employees under Scott Walker’s budget repair bill–and actively protested against the measure.
But what I found even more impressive is that the officers in uniform–the ones on active duty–were also chanting and waving their fists right along with the rest of us!
So there’s Governor Walker’s Hosni-moment. Even those charged with maintaining order are against him. One can only think that, should he follow through on his threat to call out the Wisconsin National Guard, it would end similarly.
How long before the protestors stop calling for the shredding of this Bill and start calling for the outright resignation of Governor Muba … I mean Governor Walker.
Here’s Your Tea Party
Feb 3rd
Well, that took longer than expected, actually.
It’s only been a month since the new Tea Party lawmakers took office, but the entirely predictable results of their ascension are already coming in. The Republican Party’s newest class of “mavericks” have again stormed into office intent on proving their theory that government is inherently evil by screwing up everything in sight.
(Via 12 Examples of Stunning Hypocrisy from Tea Party Republicans In One Short Month | | AlterNet.)
Though, to be fair, some of them started the shenanigans well before they were either elected or sworn in.
But the coveted “Hypocritical Idiot of the Decade” award still goes to Andy Harris (R-Idiotville) for this one (which I did write about at the time)
Republican Andy Harris, an anesthesiologist who defeated freshman Democrat Frank Kratovil on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, reacted incredulously when informed that federal law mandated that his government-subsidized health care policy would take effect on Feb. 1 – 28 days after his Jan. 3rd swearing-in.
“He stood up and asked the two ladies who were answering questions why it had to take so long, what he would do without 28 days of health care,” said a congressional staffer who saw the exchange. The benefits session, held behind closed doors, drew about 250 freshman members, staffers and family members to the Capitol Visitors Center auditorium late Monday morning,”.
That’s right, he ran on a platform of “repealing Obamacare” (something which, I will point out, is entirely a fiction. There is no such thing as Obamacare) and then stands up and whines about not getting his Government-run and taxpayer-subsidized healthcare for 28 days.
Side Note: Rep. Harris is obviously so under informed that he doesn’t even know about COBRA which he could use to fill his horrifying 28-day gap in coverage. Also notice that COBRA stands for the “Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. That’s right, the whole thing was passed by (the horror!) the Reconciliation process. You remember that, right? Wingnuttia screached that such a thing was “unprecedented” (here, here and, amazingly, in this quote: “So, using reconciliation to avoid a supermajority on health care reform would simply be unprecedented.” by James Joyner) and “unconstitutional.” Shows how much they know about … well, pretty much anything. No one complains about COBRA being unconstitutional or a “government take-over of healthcare.” It wasn’t. Neither is this.
I sort of thought the Teaparty members of congress might wait at least a few months to a year before punking the gullible saps that voted for them but apparently their impatience and hypocrisy were simply too much to bear. To quote the movie Tombstone “It appears my hypocrisy knows no bounds.” Indeed, teaparty. Your hypocrisy appears to be boundless.
