This Is Why I Find The New Republican Breed Unbearable

Paul Ryan is slowly but surely becoming the face of the Republican party of future years, the supposedly "serious-thinker" in-chief. And still he says stupid, misleading, and irritating things like this:
"[It] appears that the politics of division are making a big comeback." Of course, he is saying it without a hint of irony. But to Congressman Ryan's credit, it is always hard to see a problem clearly when you're part of it yourself.

For decades, the Republican Party has fostered division in this country with its policies and with its rhetoric. It finds no shortage of socially useful programs to slash or defund, while it opposes any tax increases for those who have more than they could possibly ever need, or spend.

For 2 years Republicans talked about the dangers of death panels coming to American health care if we let "Obamacare" become the law of the land, when in fact death panels are a staple of the American health care system. (Tell Rep. Ryan to read Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, Wendell Potter's account of how the America health insurance sector plays Americans for fools is not. Wendell Potter was a VP at Cigna, he should know. Or suggest that he watches Michael Moore's "Sicko", a portrayal so accurate of the American health care system that even Fox News didn't find anything bad to say about it.)

For years Republicans have said that they would not support any tax hikes. But now their true message is finally surfacing: They don't want to raise taxes on the "job creators" (their wealthy übermasters), but it's okay to raise them on those who cannot afford a tax increase (the poorest in particular). That would be the effect of any flat tax plan, a Republican wet dream, that did not include significant exemptions for those in the lowest income tiers.

Actually, Think Progress has it right, in a post titled Talking About Income Inequality Isn’t Dividing America, Actual Income Inequality Is.

The Return of the SHITTERS

Fox ‘Expert’ Blasts Expanding Access To Birth Control: ‘Are We Going To Do Pedicures And Manicures As Well?’ (via Think Progress)

Need I say more?

Planned Parenthood Defunded in New Hampshire

Another state has joined the long string of states who have decided to defund Planned Parenthood. It's New Hampshire this time. But that is not the news. This is:

Councilor Raymond Wieczorek of Manchester added that he opposed funding for birth control and condoms altogether. "If they want to have a good time, why not let them pay for it?" he told the Concord Monitor last week. [via Huffington Post]

The councilman's comments are insensitive, sexist, and plainly dumb.

"If THEY want to have a good time..."? Let's remind the Councilman that no abortion can follow lesbian intercourse. Once we have established that, let's then remind the councilman that in the type of intercourse he presumably prefers a man (at least) has to be involved. Sure, the councilman could possibly have meant that both the man and the woman who have unprotected sex are equally to blame. Call it a hunch, though: I will venture that when the councilman said "they" he was only thinking of the female half of the couple.

If you are a woman, or if you are a man who has a mother, sister or daughter, know this: defunding Planned Parenthood hits the poor the most, and does not only defund abortion; it also defunds access to cheap contraception, pap smears, STD testing, psychological assistance to women. That's why saying "If they want to have fun..." is not only sexist, it's also dumb. Councilman Wieczorek and the others on the New Hampshire Executive Council who voted to cancel the state's contract with Planned Parenthood did not simply defund "fun", they also defunded health care. Which is par for the course for socially conservative men and women in this country and for the Republicans who choose to put corporate health ahead of human health on a daily basis.

Note to Republican voters: the percentage of Planned Parenthood's work devoted to abortion services is 3%. The other 97% is not. If you agree with the New Hampshire Executive Concil's decision not on fiscal grounds, but on moral grounds, then could you please consider the greater good of the other people you are hurting? Oh, I forgot, you are Republicans. Never mind.

Poor People and Fair Shares

Think Progress reports that Sen. Hatch (R-UT) thinks that the tax system is unfair because it doesn’t tax poor people enough.

Of all the Stupid, Horrible, Idiotic Things That Excrementous Republicans Say (which you can find under the label SHITTERS on this blog) this has to be one of the most horrible and offensive.

Poor people do not pay income tax for a reason: they have no money to pay income tax. In fact, income tax is the one tax they do not pay, but they do pay withholdings on their paycheck for Social Security and Medicare, not to mention sales tax on everything they buy. They may be too poor to buy health insurance but not poor enough to fall under Medicaid. They are paying near $4 a gallon for gas, they pay car registration and other fees as the richest among us, and they eat crap that will kill them more quickly because it's all they can afford.

So, yes, the poor have it made. Let's tax them a bit more, so we can continue subsidies for the oil companies and pass tax breaks for yacht owners. Because, as every good Republican knows, a rising tide lifts all boats, including the yachts owned by minimum wage earners.

Fuck you, Sen. Hatch. I mean it.

So Very Predictable

It is so predictable I hesitate to take credit for it, but what the heck.

Yesterday I wrote: "Fox News will say George W. Bush was right for starting the Iraq War and deserves all the credit for the killing of Bin Laden, in spite of the fact that in a famous press conference then President Bush said, "you know, I don't think about Bin Laden much."

This morning Think Progress wrote (emphases added):

Now, Obama has fulfilled his campaign promise to capture the terrorist leader, so did Fox News give credit where is due? This morning, Fox and Friends approvingly played a clip of Bush from shortly after 9/11, saying, “President George W. Bush promised to the nation that Osama bin Laden would be caught any way possible.” “We did finally get him,” host Brian Kilmeade said after the clip.

In what is likely to become a chorus on the right, the conservative Heritage Foundation’s president wrote this morning that “Bin Laden’s elimination vindicates U.S. strategy in the region, started under President George W. Bush.”

In fact, the killing of Bin Laden vindicates nothing because U.S. strategy in the region included a war on a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no threat to the United States. This last statement is in fact indicative of the dishonesty and the bias of The Heritage Foundation, which is consistently on the wrong side of history and supports interests that have nothing in common with those of the overwhelming majority of Americans, which is also why it qualifies for our new SHITTERS (Stupid, Horrible, Idiotic Things That Excrementous Republicans Say) category.

Unemployed = Lazy, Alcoholic, Drug Addict

The entries for the new SHITTERS (Stupid, Horrible, Idiotic Things That Excrementous Republicans Say) category don't stop coming. The latest is from GOP representative Blake Farenthold (R-TX). Via Think Progress.

Drug testing for recipients of various welfare programs, I really think that’s something that needs to be considered. We’ve gotta, you know, nobody wants to starve anybody. Everybody wants to help folks out. But we’ve got a system where you can stay on unemployment for an awfully long time. And I think we need to create a system of decreasing benefits over time to encourage you to get a job. I think anybody who’s had an alcoholic in their life or somebody with a drug problem, realizes that until things get bad enough there’s no incentive to change. I think that we’re so generous in some of our social problems that people are unwilling to get a job outside in the heat. Rather than get 15 dollars to go get roofing they’d rather get 9 or 10 dollars in benefits. I think drug testing is not an unreasonable requirement to get benefits.

Think Progress does an excellent job of breaking down the many ways in which this is an idiotic statement, so I invite you to click the link above to see for yourself.

Douche Tuberville

Another entry for the SHITTERS (Stupid, Horrible, Idiotic Things That Excrementous Republicans Say) label. A conversation between two great American minds: Sean Hannity, host of Hannity on Faux News, and his guest Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech football coach. Via Think Progress.

HANNITY: He (Obama) could just get the birth certificate and it’d all over and I’m just curious why he wouldn’t do that?

TUBERVILLE: We’ve got enough controversy in this country, I don’t know why he wouldn’t just step up and say here it is.

HANNITY: Move on.

TUBERVILLE: Obviously there’s got to be something on there that he doesn’t want anyone to see. I don’t understand it. I’m an American. I don’t understand why we just go through this. I think it just continues to divide the country. [Emphasis added]

I agree, the birth certificate controversy continues to divide the country. It divides it between sensible people with better things to do (like fixing the country after 8 year of reckless Bush policies), and racist, hateful, and IQ-depleted sore losers who will not accord to the president the legitimacy that the record number of votes he earned in 2008 would have accorded to any white Republican.

P.S. I should say that Mr. Tuberville's political affiliation is uknown to me, but I am willing to take a leap of faith and chalk him under "Republican" since this "birtherism" is a predominantly Republican endeavor and because if you, a sport coach, choose to be a guest on Hannity, chances are you are a Republican.

Tom Tancredo: Obama Withheld Birth Certificate To Make Republicans Look "Nuts"

According to former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, President Obama withheld his birth certificate to make the Republican Party look "like nuts".

Tancredo's theory omits one important and self-evident fact: many Republicans in Congress or running for office do not need anyone's help to look nuts. All they have to do is move their lips, and something nuts will naturally flow.

Think of Sarah Palin's saying that she was fit for foreign policy because she can see Russia from her house. That of course is like saying that I am fit to be an astronaut because I can see the moon from my apartment.

Or think of The Donald, the bankruptcy expert who would be president if he can find enough nut-job Republicans to vote for him, who basically said that America needs a man with the balls to call 1 billion plus Chinese "motherfuckers" because of their unfavorable trade policy to America (while neglecting to mention that part of his clothing line is made in... yes, China.)

But if two examples are not enough for you, go to this YouTube gallery of Republican horrors, ten minutes of hard-to-endure, inane, offensive, and bat-shit crazy statements by a variety of Republican characters, including common folk.

Stupid, Horrible, Idiotic Things That Excrementous Republicans Say

I am going to start using a label named Stupid, Horrible, Idiotic, Things That Excrementous Republicans Say, or SHITTERS for short. At any point, you will be able to go to the list of labels on the right side of The Daily Fuel to bring up all the stupid, horrible, idiotic things that excrementous Republicans have said. I promise you it will be a veritable gallery of horrors.

If you would like to contribute a submission to this gallery of horrors, use the comment feature. (Please source your comments.)

We begin with Sally Kern, Oklahoma GOP lawmaker:

We have a high percentage of blacks in prison, and that’s tragic, but are they in prison just because they are black or because they don’t want to study as hard in school? I’ve taught school, and I saw a lot of people of color who didn’t study hard because they said the government would take care of them.” (via Think Progress)