Churls Gone Wild

“Michael Steele you da’ man”
- Rep. Michelle Bachman – R Minn. CPAC 2009

Dr. Jim Bunning – R. Kentucky

“During a wide-ranging 30-minute speech on Saturday at the Hardin County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, Bunning said he supports conservative judges "and that's going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg … has cancer. Bad cancer. The kind that you don't get better from," he told a crowd of about 100 at the old State Theater. Even though she was operated on, usually, nine months is the longest that anybody would live after (being diagnosed) with pancreatic cancer," he said.
- Sen. Jim Bunning as reported in the Louisville, KY Courier-Journal (http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090222/NEWS01/902230303/1008)

In the same article on Sen. Bunning’s apology to Justice Ginsburg, Courier-Journal also reported that the American Cancer Society estimates people like Justice Ginsburg who are treated for Stage I pancreatic cancer have between a 21-37% chance of surviving for 5 years.


Rush Limbaugh’s High Hopes for America

“This notion that I want the president to fail, this shows you the problem we've got. This is nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it? Why in the world would I want what we just described: rampant government growth, wealth that is not being created yet is being spent? What is in this, what is possibly in this that any of us want to succeed?....what is so strange about being honest and saying I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation?"
- Rush Limbaugh delivering the closing remarks at CPAC 2/28/2009

Rush Limbaugh's, who at best can be called a budget deficit “Chicken Hawk”, description of Obama’s economic plan sounds a lot like what Bush did in his eight years in office. As a result of the Bush policies, income stagnated, the surplus vanished, while the government grew at a rate not seen since the great society. Rush had no complaints then, just so long taxes were cut for the wealthiest 2% of Americans.

It is rants like Limbaugh’s that continue to convince the American people that Republicans are more concerned about scoring points than helping people.


Gov. Jindal - Compassionate Conservative

“Our state is facing a serious budget situation and it would be irresponsible to enter into an expansion of benefits right now that would ultimately increase taxes on the very businesses we are working to support during these tough economic times. The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill. We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow government in an unsustainable way."
- Press release from Gov Jindal on 2/20/2009, explaining why he is not accepting stimulus $100 Million to increase unemployment benefits.

Gov. Jindal refused $100 Million that would have helped 25,000 citizens of his state. Louisiana has the third lowest unemployment insurance in the country and these funds would have raised unemployment benefits by $25 a week over the 20 week eligibility period. Federal support would end in 3 years, whereupon the state would be under no obligation to keep the increase in place.

The Governor did not show the same concern when he accepted the highway dollars allocated to his state in the stimulus package.

The Ever Changing World of Lou Dobbs

In a 2/25/2009 press conference the Attorney General, Eric Holder was asked the following question as a follow-up:

Q: "I understand Mexico is interested in the U.S. reviewing the enforcement of its assault weapons regulations. Are you doing something about that?"

Holder: "Well, as President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum."

The next night on CNN, Lou Dobbs and his Lou Dobbs Tonight correspondent Bill Tucker went after Atty Gen. Holder.

Tucker: …"as you well know and we reported here often," [drug cartel members are] "often armed with weapons that were issued by the Mexican military."

Dobbs: "Eric Holder has no empirical basis for anything he's saying. The man is completely at sea on this."

In September of 2008 the ATF issued a fact sheet which said in part: Mexican DTO [drug trafficking organization] infrastructures have become the leading gun trafficking organizations operating in the southwest U.S." (http://www.atf.gov/press/factsheets/0908-factsheet-project-gunrunner.pdf)

In August of 2008, Speaking at the 5th Annual Border Security Conference in El Paso Texas, ATF Acting Director Michael Sullivan said investigators have traced 90 – 95% of illegal guns in Mexico back to the US. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-08-11-mexico-guns_N.htm)

Right on target Lou, right on target.

Abel Maldonado - Budget Cutter

California Republican State Sen. Abel Madonado, was able to get a $1 Million appropriation for new furniture for the State Controller John Chiang (a Democrat) cut from the CA State Budget. Sen. Maldonado has gotten a lot of positive press in conservative circles for this move.

But as the San Francisco Chronicle reported on 2/22/2009, (http://sfchronicle.us/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/02/22/BAK7161NTJ.DTL) the furniture was to be used in the smaller less expensive offices Chiang was moving to. Now with no furniture, Chiang and his staff can’t move in and have to stay in their old offices - costing the state an additional $4.8 Million in rent over the next six years. To make matters worse, the furniture Chiang does have is 20 years old and is not compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act, so legally they can’t use it.

Save a quarter, spend a dollar. Well done.

Churls Gone Wild

Republican Mayor Dean Grose of Los Alamitos will resign as a result of the controversy surrounding an email he forwarded showing a watermelon patch on the White House lawn under the title: "No Easter egg hunt this year." Grose has apologized and promised to resign at the 3/2/2009 City Council meeting.

He said wasn't aware of the racial stereotype that blacks like watermelon. So why did he think it was funny?