Palin just needs a little stimulus to get in gear

[Sarah Palin working on her plan to become governor of Alaska - Time photo]

And that little stimulus is probably 2012!

Remember now, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, has been bitching about the federal stimulus package since it was first announced. She wasn't going to take it, she said, in concert with several other rightwingnut GOP governors.

Amazingly, most of these rightwingnut GOP governors have learned through a process of self-discovery that they are against big government spending, deficits and red ink. How this happened exactly, we're not sure. It's possible they used taxpayer money to fly to Tibet and mediate with the Lama, or may Peru where they meditated with the llamas.

Obviously, they have not always been against big government spending, etc., as they gave Chimpy everything he asked for during his eight years in office. But lately they've got religion and that's why they don't like the stimulus bill and why they won't take any of this wasteful largess for their states!


But...but, it appears that these rightwingnut GOP governors have had another revelation. Even Mark Sanford down in South Carolina is making noises like he'll accept the money - even though he really doesn't want to. Heh. Heh. (The SOB knows if he doesn't he'll be lucky to be elected chairman of the capitol john in the next cycle!)

And Palin, too, is prancing about perkily suggesting that she might be open to accepting some of the money. I think she's finding it difficult to all of a sudden be against federal gifts to Alaska when she's spent her entire political life digging in the federal money pot.

In addition, Palin has, so far as I know, uttered not one complaint over the past several years about borrowing money to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, while she's been yelping lately about how the stimulus "enslaves our nation to other countries," she's never said a word about the fact that we're financing our war efforts on borrowed money from other countries - almost $1 trillion so far.

So, she has to be careful. She's a hypocrite for sure. But she can't overplay her hand or she'll end her career fishing off the back end of hubby's boat.


According to the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's "House leaders are moving toward accepting all the federal stimulus money, and lawmakers think Gov. Sarah Palin is becoming more open to the cash."

You betcha! She's got 2012 in sight. If she rejects the stimulus money, which includes a big chunk for education, it is likely that may doom her chances to get the Repugnican nomination as it will show her to be the uncaring, ideological wacko that she really is.

Furthermore, after careful reflection on the career of Sarah Palin and her character (or lack thereof), it seems clear that she intended from the get-go to accept the stimulus money. She had a plan--Sarah always has a plan; and that plan always has to do with ensuring that Sarah wins whatever game she's playing at the moment.

It goes like this: Make a lot of noise about how bad the stimulus is and how she is in favor of small-government and low taxes and low spending and blah, blah, blah. That will get her in good with the rightwingnuts and fruitcakes who are her base. Then, at the last minute, decide with a huge sigh, to accept the stimulus because she just doesn't have any choice; she's under so much pressure, she had to do it. Then explain, finally, that she's realized the stimulus might be good for Alaska, even, (weep here) if it is harmful for the country as a whole.

Tada!

Repug chicanery re: stimulus and regulations

They always try to figure out a way to turn any particular situation to their own benefit. Repugs excel at conning the people while entrenching their power.

Trish, writing at Pensito Review, refers to an article in a northeast Florida paper, Folio Weekly, which describes the Repugnican playbook as its taking shape in Florida. She notes that:

"Republicans intend to use stimulating the economy as an excuse to gut regulations. And loosening regulations, if anyone remembers, is at the heart of the economic problem."


What is happening in Florida is also happening in other states and in Washington, D.C. But here's what Anne Schindler has to say in Folio weekly:

"While lawmakers desperately plug budget holes and draft legislation aimed at restarting Florida's failing economy, development lobbyists are descending on Tallahassee...[Their] argument is simple, if a bit non-linear: Though regulations have nothing to do with the collapsing real estate market, developers want to ease regulations in order to kickstart business.

"...Lobbyists working for Associated Industries...[are] disdtributing a booklet titled 'Economic Stimulus Package 2.0,' which calls for 'reductions in regulatory red tape as a way to stimulate business activity.' What kind of 'red tape' do they want to hack through?"

One biggie is the impact fees developers feel are so onerous. That, of course, means the "burdens of infrastructure needed for new development" would be switched from the developers to the taxpayers.


The real problem has nothing to do with regulations. That's what so depressing. The Repugnicans and their corporate friends just don't give a damn about our country or its future.

Or, as Trish says, "Greed is not hindered by details like the truth. It's up to us to remain vigilant and on-message and make sure their attempts fail."

You can real her article here.

Jindal jerking Louisiana along

Since it appears the Repugnicans in Congress don't want to play with the adults when it comes to stimulus bills and other attempts to right the wrongs of the hellish Bush administration, it has been my feeling right along that the states they represent no longer be allowed to drink at the federal trough.

If they want to go it alone and if they believe federal money is tainted and if they are so ideologically opposed to "big" government, then they should not get any of the money, and their share should go to those states whose representatives in Congress voted for the bill.

Jindal, the extremist, right-wingnut governor of Louisiana, has the right idea. Even though, according to Think Progress, Louisiana "faces a possible $2 billion budget shortfall next year, and the state is being hit hard by unemployment," the guv of Louisiana said "he may turn down the roughly $3.8 billion for the state in the economy recovery package, which is expected to create 50,000 new jobs."


That's wonderful. More for the rest of us. Even our Florida Governor Crist, no Democrat he, has supported the stimulus package and can't wait to get his hands on that money to begin helping the people of Florida.

But then there are other politicos who actually voted against the bill in Congress who are also drooling from the mouth at the possibilities made possible for their states by the economic recovery package. (Sen. Lindsey Graham, for one.)

They should get no money!


Jindal, who is said to be smart as a whip, may stupidly refuse the money, but then if it's all about "truth" and God and ideology, that's the non-hypocritical thing to do.

Jindal represents the Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay type of Repugs: they believe it is much better to hold to your principles - even if your principles have no practical application in these times - than to give in and obtain ways and means to assist your constituents get out of their economic nightmares.

Of course, a few more Repugs like Jindal (who is said to be thinking about a run at the presidency) would likely mean a quicker demise of the Republican Party.

Republicans, the stimulus & Charlie Crist

If you are a Republican member of Congress with a conscience, you've got a long, hard road these days. Every Republican in Congress has been greatly pressured to vote against the stimulus package with the threat of retribution against those who dare disobey the Republican leadership.

With a couple of exceptions, most every Repug fell in line.


These nogoodnik Repugnicans are not just pressuring members of Congress. They're pressuring every Republican in the country to get on their negative, debilitating bandwagon.

For example, Charlie Crist, governor of Florida, has been a strong supporter of the stimulus bill. Crist knows Florida and the residents of Florida need help. Crist wants every dime he can get out of the stimulus bill to shore up Florida's faltering economy, educational system, and healthcare related services.

While I have strong disagreements with Crist on a number of issues, in this case I applaud his vision and his fortitude. Fortitude because the national Repugs are all over his case, claiming that he's hurting the party and, more damaging to Crist personally, he's hurting his chances at future political success.

Alex Castellanos whined, "I don't think he's helped any national Republican ambitions he may have by stepping up to the plate and batting for the other team...."

Batting for the other team? What the hell is wrong with these Republican assholes? I thought that when it came to the welfare of the country we were supposed to be on the same team? This is not a game! The country is going down the proverbial tubes and these worthless Republicans are talking about the disaster as if it were a game!

Castellanos went on: "There's a difference between working in a bipartisan way for the common good and switching sides and putting on the other team's jersey. At the one moment when we've finally found our voice and remember who we are as Republicans, Charlie Crist forgets. It's stunning."

No, it isn't. What's stunning is the depths of degradation to which the Republican Party has sunk! Castellanos and others of his ilk know nothing of "working in a bipartisan way for the common good." All they know is how to disrupt and deny and lie and cheat.

And then, to threaten the governor of Florida with future punishment for not being a member of the "team"?

Mel Martinez, supposedly a friend of Crist, but a right wingnut Cuban who's still fighting Castro, and Communism and, oh yeah, socialism, too, criticized the Florida governor by implying he doesn't know what he's doing or what he's talking about.


None of this is surprising, of course. The Republican Party in this country, if it ever had any values, lost them long ago. The Republican Party is, above all, about power -- gaining it and keeping it. The Republican Party, at this moment, has shown the people of the United States, they don't give a damn about the mess they created.

Crist, at least, seems to care a little.

Republicans are strange, eerie hypocrites

[Mica on left; Young on right]


Every GOP member of the House of Representatives voted against the stimulus package today! Every single, damn one of them!

Meaning, of course, that they believe playing politics is more important than the well-being of the people they are supposed to represent!

Eric Cantor, the nogoodnik from Virginia, spoke for them all when he said: "This bill is loaded with wasteful deficit spending on the majority's favorite government programs."

But the strange, eerie part of it all, is that after the bill was passed:

1) Florida Repug, John Mica, "gushed," in a press release, "I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future." Well, maybe, the bill was loaded with one of Mica's "favorite government programs."

2) Don Young, Repug from Alaska, crowed that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners..." The bill must have had at least one of Young's "favorite government programs."


It is very much godly behavior, of course, according to Repugnican doctrine, to vote against a bill even though you are very much in favor of pieces of it. That's the way it always is with Republicans: they want what they want and the hell with everyone else. And if the Dems aren't going to give them everything they want, they're going to take their marbles and go home.

Of course, most of them lost all of their marbles a long time ago!


All of this comes via McClatchy and you can read the entire McClatchy article here.

"Centrists" in Congress. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

This from the Rude Pundit at walled-in-pond.

Repugnican "class warfare."

The so-called "centrists" had no problem supporting:

1. AIG bailout - c. $85 million
2. Citibank bailout - c. $45 billion
3. Bank of America bailout - c. $45 billion (with guarantees on $118 billion in loans)
4. Bush overpayment of $78 billion for bailed-out bank assests.

The so-called "centrists" couldn't find it in their heart to support the following stimulus bill items:

1. Head Start - $1 billion
2. Funds to cover state education shortfalls - $24.8 billion
3. Additional funding for state education - $15 billion
4. Child Development Block Grants - $2 billion
5. Programs in the Violence Against Woman Act - $150 million


Hypocrisy really "R" Repugnicans.


Walled-in-Pond has more here.

Vote "No"? Yes, you get no money

Not long ago, I suggested that the states represented by House and Senate members who vote[d] "No" on the stimulus package be denied any funds from that stimulus package.

BuzzFlash has suggested the same thing. Chad, writing at BuzzFlash yesterday, made some interesting observations related to the continuing, nauseating mantra bleated by Repugnican Congresspeople about "big" government, "socialism," "pork," blah, blah, blah.

Turns out that "the states that voted for John McCain [in other words, the "red" states] in 2008 by and large get way more money in federal outlays than they pay in taxes."

What?

Yup. With one exception. New Mexico a blue state in 2008 won the prize for the most federal money. But the states ranked 2-9 were all red, red, red, in 2008: Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia, North Dakota, Alabama, South Dakota, and Kentucky.

Heh. Heh.

Chad sums up the situation this way: "The states that voted for Barack Obama clearly have been neglected when it comes to federal funds vs. taxes sent to Washington. This stimulus package can do a lot toward making those numbers a bit more balanced. And the ones who are already getting the money are standing in the way."

Repugnicans: ideological hypocrites of the lowest order!

Joe the economical plumber

This is the stuff of fiction. Bad fiction.

Leaders of the Repugnican Party, bereft of even one, single, simple, sensible idea to help pull our economy out of the Bush dumpster (tax cuts for the rich don't count), have resorted to their usual ploy of manipulating the media to get across their irrational and generally harmful talking points.

What the hell am I talking about?

Joe the plumber. That guy who just happened to accost Obama at a campaign stop; the guy who, with the help of Repugnican nogoodniks has managed to make a career out of being a bumbling nobody; the guy who isn't really what he says he is or what he pretends to be.

According to Faiz Shakir at Think Progress, "House GOP congressional aides decided to invite [Sam aka Joe] Wurzelbacher to a meeting on the stimulus in hopes that it will attract some media attention." Evidently Sam aka Joe told Punxsutawney Phil he didn't much like Obama's stimulus package. Punxsutawney Phil asked him why. Sam aka Joe said plumbers didn't need no Viagra.

Things must be pretty bad for the Repugnicans when even our kiss-ass media aren't taking them seriously.

Steve Benen said, "This is what it's come to for Republican staffers in Congress. In the midst of an economic crisis, after balking at a stimulus package, the GOP is turning to an unlicensed plumber/campaign prop to discuss legislative strategy on economic policy."

He's right, except that I don't think even Republicans are stupid enough to believe that Joe/Sam knows a damn thing about anything, especially economic policy. They are simply hauling his unlicensed ass in front of the cameras to get people to NOTICE them. Few people these days care what Republicans think about anything, and rightfully so, as the pain so many millions of us are suffering is due to the Republicans.

I haven't heard what Wurzelbacher had to say, but I'll bet he doesn't know an economic package from a UPS package.

Palin plugging for Alaska

[Photo from US News]

So what's new? In Wasilla, she got about $30 mil in those dastardly earmarks. Trouble is no one really wanted them and now the town has got a huge debt to pay off.

But in spite of all her blathering about Alaska providing vital resources for the United States, she's still looking to Washington to bail her out.

This morning, in Juneau, she took a few questions from reporters. One reporter asked her if she planned to go to D.C. this coming weekend.

Palin said:

"Yeah, I'm going to meet with those who are making decisions for Alaska in the stimulus package, including senators Feinstein and (I'll) be having dinner with Mitch McConnell and others, having dinner with them and meeting with John Katz in our D.C. office on what it is that we can support in the stimulus package.

"Advocating tough too for an exemption that Alaska needs in terms of timelines for some of these shovel ready projects. Congress is saying the projects involved in the infrastructure aspect of the stimulus package have to be shovel ready, have to get them out the door, whether it be 90 days of 120 days. Well, we're Alaska and we need an exemption there so that we're not left out in the cold in terms of some of the projects that will take a northern climate a longer period of time to make sure that we our projects ready to go."


If you read that very slowly, you can probably get the gist of what she is saying.

But...the Republicans in Congress are opposing the stimulus package and now have come up with their own measure which is merely a replay of Repugnican stupidity, consisting primarily of more tax cuts with no provision for the debt said cuts would incur. Same old, same old!

Maybe one way to bring these Repugnican nogoodniks in line is to cut out from the stimulus package goodies from those states ruled by Republican governors. Why should they reap the benefits when all they can do is say "We can't! We won't! We wanta do it our way! Our way or the highway!"

I know, I know. That wouldn't be fair to the "real" people in those states. Still...

But didn't these clowns lose the last couple of elections, big time?

Now, the stimulus package is not thought of as containing "earmarks," but it might be considered as one great big earmark. And notice Palin is prancing right off to D.C. to make sure she gets her share of what the big, bad (read "socialist") government is going to hand out.

Not only so, but this self-styled, independent, pit bull governor who stresses the great independence of her state, right off the bat wants exemptions or Alaska might not be able to meet the standards and would be left "out in the cold."


Don't you get a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach that this woman had a shot at becoming the vice president of the United States?

Obama says listening to Limbaugh means nothing gets done

Obama to Republicans: "I won."

He could have, and should have, added: "Get over it. Get in line. Your policies, built on the rusting ruins of conservatism and Christian fundamentalism, are in shreds. We're giving the government back to ALL the people."

According to Charles Hurt at the New York Post, Obama also "warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today [Jan. 23] that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

"'You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,' he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package."

Sometimes you have to take Republicans by the hand and gently show them the path to the future.


Hurt's entire article is here.