West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
Someone ought to ask the chairman of the West Virginia Republican Party if his organization has ever denied an expense reimbursement request for meals at a venue featuring exotic dancers.
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Via BarbinMD - RNC Denies Steele Expensed Trip to X-Rated Club
Pelosi, in an e-mail from spokesman Nadeam Elshami, pointed out Thursday that the legislation gave 282,000 of Minority Whip Eric Cantor's constituents tax cuts, in addition to providing tax breaks to Republican Reps. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Scott Garrett of New Jersey and Tom Rooney of Florida.
and:
Pelosi on Wednesday pointed out that Republicans have been to "ribbon cuttings" related to stimulus projects.
As this site and others have pointed out, Capito has tried to take credit for projects funded by the same recovery act that she opposed in lockstep with the House GOP.
If I was Rep. Alan Mollohan hearing the GOP noise machine winding up, I'd be thinking: "Oh, please don't remind anyone of all those appropriations I've brought home to West Virginia."
"Drown me! Roast me! Hang me! Do whatever you please," said Brer Rabbit. "Only please, Brer Fox, please don't throw me into the briar patch."
Too many conservative senators like Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are to blame for the GOP's downfall, one of their retiring Republican colleagues complained Monday.
"We got too many Jim DeMints and Tom Coburns," Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) told the Columbus Dispatch. "It's the southerners."
Voinovich, a native Clevelander who retires after the 2010 election, continued after the southern elements of the GOP.
"They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr,'" he said. "People hear them and say, 'These people, they're southerners. The party's being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?'"
West Virginia occupies a distinct geographic (and cultural) location in the United States:
The Census Bureau considers West Virginia part of the South because most of the state is south of the Mason-Dixon Line. The northern panhandle, however, extends adjacent to Pennsylvania and Ohio with the West Virginia cities of Wheeling and Weirton being just across the border from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, while Bluefield is less than seventy miles from North Carolina and Harper's Ferry is considered to be a part of the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. The unique position of West Virginia means that it is often included in a wide variety of geographical regions, including the Southeastern United States and even the Northeastern United States.
Someone really should ask Rep. Capito if she agrees with her esteemed colleague Sen. Voinovich:
Who does Capito blame for the GOP downfall, "the southerners" or someone else?
To be fair, there's no need to oversimplify the situation, she doesn't have to choose just one or the other.
Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV-02) inadvertently admitted her constituents like the health care reform priorities of President Obama and the Democratic Congress. That's the only conclusion that makes sense from her most recent newsletter.
You see, early last week Rep. Capito sent out an email blasts with a poll asking about health care reform. It wasn't quite a push poll, but it was difficult to answer for advocates of a public option (or, even better, single payer).
All this left us wondering, what would Rep. Capito have to say about the results of that survey?
Capito's Statement
The July 24, 2009 E-News Update opens with these lines:
After last week's newsletter I was very pleased to hear from so many West Virginians with their thoughts about the healthcare debate.
It's clear from last week's survey and from my emails that West Virginia families share a desire for meaningful healthcare reform, but they also want to make sure we make the right decisions and act in a bipartisan manner.
(Emphasis mine.) Yes, indeed, West Virginians ("families" and everyone) want meaningful healthcare reform. And, of course we all want the "right decisions" (duh!). Guess what? Only one party is offering that. The Republicans in Congress have no plan.
Rep. Capito didn't ask a single question in her poll about a Republican plan (that doesn't exist) and she didn't ask a single question about bipartisianship. Of course, no one beside out-of-touch Beltway wags says things like "I only want health care reform if lots of Republicans and lots of Democrats vote for it."
When Rep. Capito says "It's clear ... that West Virginia families ... want to make sure we ... act in a bipartisan manner" she's inadvertently admitting a uncomfortable truth for the GOP.
West Virginians want Republicans to get out of the way and join the majority of Democrats in support of President Obama's health care priorities. That's "the right decision" in a "bipartisan manner" "for meaningful healthcare reform."
Plagiarize: transitive verb: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source
intransitive verb: to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source
UPDATED. Roman Stauffer proves to be a genuine fake.
Fraud The plagiarist knows that he/she is not the true author of the work, yet the plagiarist willfully and deliberately puts his/her name on the work (thereby concealing the true author's name)...
CheckForPlagiarism.net
Funny how Bobby Jindal's been labeled a major conservative Republican intellectual and then laid that big, rotten egg which heavy hitters in the conservative punditocracy denounce as intellectually bankrupt.
Namely David Brooks. (Yep, best use of "nihilistic" since De Beauvoir launched it at Arthur Koestler in the Deaux Magots that night back in '51 when...)
Channeling Brooks, what the GOP's Mahatma of the Bayou should have done was erect at least a respectable edifice for neo-Reaganism.
In other words, point out that while Reagan had tamed the bureaucratic beast in the 1980s, responsible conservatism--as a living, breathing body of thought--acknowledges a role for government intervention in the economy, especially when that means either saving capitalism itself or outfitting the free market with crutches when it stumbles and breaks a leg...or two. And also point out that, in times of trouble, Mother Mary's governmental safety net is needed for cushioning the truly needy's fall, which is something vouchsafed by none other than Reagan himself even in the early '80s (he endured a nasty recession, too) when his preaching from the "government's the problem not the solution" gospel was at its most influential.
So, having made a case for smart government in dire times, Jindal then should have attacked the stim as disfiguringly flawed even by the standards of liberal economic (Keynesian) orthodoxy--not enough emphasis on private sector job creation (infrastructure, including maybe even something visionary like rebuilding the nation's energy grid) with too much emphasis on creating government jobs...yada yada yada. (Well, he tried to do that with his weak little volcano monitoring jab, but it connected with nothing but air.)
Had he begun to articulate what the right's intellectual chattering class instantly would have rose-petaled as neo-Reaganism, Jindal today would be the intellectual doyenne of an American conservatism which is desperately seeking Susan the mom w/kids and bills to pay, as well as philosophical rejuvenation and day-to-day tactical guidance.
Instead, he's the "GOP's formerly Great non-Caucasian Hope, one who succeeded at nothing other than parodying the high Reagan style
Yes, he told people-are-good/government-is-bad homilies, but with none of The Gipper's flair or finesse, and although, in an apparent homage to the Gipper and some of his more colorful "anecdotes" about Cadillac-driving welfare queens, Jindal did manage to just make shit up, the Mahatma of the Bayou is paying a heavy price for getting caught in a web of homespun lies.
Sorry, Booby. The Gip was Teflon. You ain't.
So, is it really so impossible today to make a case for limited government economic intervention as a general American conservative rule? To depart from free-market orthodoxy just enough to assert potentially massive short-term government intervention in unusual or emergency circumstances even when that intervention would invoke private-sector rehabilitation as a first principle and guiding doctrine?
Looking at Jindall's dilemma from another angle, the answer appears to be, "Yes," because, had Tiny Bubbles done a Brooksian/neo-Reagan song and dance, he'd have risked expulsion from the current Cantor/Boehner High Church for straying way too far from the tax-breaks-as-universal-panacea fold.
And that would have exposed the GOP, which increasingly these days looks like a wandering in some Robert Taftian Twilight Zone wilderness, and shown the extent to which President Obama has decisively shifted the center of debate in this country to the left.
I kept dozing off during McCain's speech. But I really wanted to check out the whole convention. Then I turned the sound off and flipped on the "hearing impaired" titles, I found that I could actually stay awake.
After watching that way awhile I realized that with the right laugh track, their entire doo-dah looked a lot like something from my distant TV past...
One of the things we do at West Virginia Blue is both highlight why there should be fewer Republicans in office and why there should be more Democrats in office. For example, in WV-02 we talk quite often what makes Anne Barth a great candidate just as we frequently point out how ineffective Bush-McCain Republican Shelley Moore Capito has been.
What continues to amaze me is how the right-wing blogs in W.Va. have too much of one thing--criticizing Democrats--with next to nothing of the other--talking up Republicans.
What is the thrill of her touch? What makes her supporters hearts go flip flip? Even if they're not lovin' her all the time, can any right-wing blogger provide the positive pitch for Shelley Moore Capito?
If right-wing bloggers were effective in pushing their message, they could tell us why Shelley Moore Capito deserves yet another term. I've been watching closely and I still can't figure it out.
Maybe if Republicans spent a little less time trying to scare the bejeebers out of everyone, they'd have time to extol the virtues of Capito and McCain. Or, could it be there's just no virtues to extol?
The campaign disclosure bill is the hot issue during this summer's Special Session. The legislation was drafted in response to a recent US District Court ruling throwing out part of the 2005 campaign finance law. The law required independent groups to disclose funding sources when campaigning with television, print and radio. In the lawsuit, the Virginia based and conservative leaning Center for Individual Freedom sued the state, claiming the law violated First Amendment rights. In response, US District Judge Faber issued a preliminary injunction allowing issue-only advertisements. The ruling also stated that donor names were not required for campaigning that involved telephone banks, fliers, faxes, mass mailings, and other print media.
Many policy makers felt it absolutely necessary that something be done to fill the hole in election law created by the ruling. The Governor's call for a special session to freeze the gas tax increase, transfer the teacher retirement fund and allocate supplemental budget funds to various programs offered the perfect opportunity to address this issue before the upcoming general election.
When drafting the campaign disclosure bill had to take into consideration the courts ruling which indicated that there was no legislative evidence as to why print speech should be disclosed during elections. To respond to this, House Democrats retooled this section of the code and inserted legislative findings about why such media is effective and why it should be made public.
The final draft of the bill basically stated that those publishing certain print media, including that advocating for or against a candidate or print media that ties a candidate to an issue in some capacity, must disclose both their name and the amount of money they spent with the Secretary of State's Office- the SOS will then make this information available to the public.
After successfully passing the House Judiciary Committee, the bill was delayed on the floor by Republicans who felt they needed more time to flesh out the issue. In order to delay the vote, GOPers voted down the Democrats attempt to suspend House Rules, which is the usual course of action on Special Session legislation. This move required the bill to be read on three separate days as opposed to just the one day.
The Charleston Gazette and others criticized the GOP for this move but I felt it was fair given the level of debate surrounding the legislation. Too often the legislative branch pushes through bills without scrutinizing the content, ie the USA PATRIOT Act at the Federal level. Once all was said and done, everyone had a chance to look at the bill, draft amendments and craft their argument for or against.
However, the Republican desire to kill the legislation was a poorly masked attempt to make it a viable campaign tactic to assassinate the characters of those running for office from the murky shadows with undeclared amounts of money. The Republican claim that this legislation infringes upon free speech and is therefore unconstitutional is absurd. The Bill of Rights protects our speech but does not protect corporations spending millions of dollars to alter the outcomes of elections. Truth be told, when corporate special interests and millionaire robber barons flood the election with their gobs of money they drown out the speech of average folks. It is absolutely essential that a democracy allow the voices of all to be heard and not just those with the money to overwhelm the media market.
In fact, many of those same House Republicans claiming that this legislation was about protecting the sanctity of the constitution supported an amendment by Delegate Cowles that would have exempted three specific groups (the NRA, Right to Life, and WV Farmers) from confines of the bill- a move that would have flew blatantly in the face of the equal protection clause of the US Constitution. Hypocrisy compounded by poor arguments and questionable motives are the true reason why the Republican Party is a joke in the state of West Virginia.
So if you are against your elections being bought by unnamed corporate stooges with out of state dollars then let the GOP know with your vote this fall. Vote Blue!
Fox News calls 'Obama Baby Mama' graphic poor judgment
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US cable network Fox News found itself in hot water this week after referring to Barack Obama's wife as "Obama's Baby Mama" and asking if a gesture the Obamas exchanged was a "terrorist fist jab."
A graphic with the words "Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama's Baby Mama!" displayed Wednesday during a Fox interview about whether Michelle Obama has been unfairly targeted by critics sparked outrage from political commentators and set the blogosphere humming.
"Where do you even start when criticizing Fox's slur? Do you try to explain that 'baby mama' is slang for the unmarried mother of a man's child, and not his wife, or even a girlfriend?" Joan Walsh wrote on Salon.com, which spotted the graphic.
A top Fox official said use of the graphic showed poor judgment.
..."Poor judgment"?!? After Hannity and O'Reilley ran those Rev. Wright sound bites 24/7 fro the last month, I'd say that's an understatement.
My original graphic below the fold puts it a bit more in perspective...
March 6, 2003 - The President's Task Force to Improve Health Care Delivery for Our Nation's Veterans" revealed that "there is persistent concern about the inability of the VA to provide care to enrolled veterans." Bush's own Task Force put him on notice that "the Federal Government has been more ambitious in authorizing veteran access to health care than it has been in providing the funding necessary to match declared intentions."
March 21, 2003 - 2:57 am EST. - as the first reports of American troops invading Iraq under George W. Bush hit the airwaves around the world, Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV02) and other Republicans in the House majority voted along party lines to slash veterans' health care in compliance with President Bush's proposal [H Con. Res 95, Vote #82 3/21/03 On Agreeing to the Resolution (215- 212)]
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