Goodlatte to furloughed workers: Let them eat BBQ

Bobblehead Bob...
overdosed on tea.

Bob Goodlatte is hosting a BBQ at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds this rainy Sunday afternoon. I thought about going and asking how he could be hosting a social event when so many federal workers are furloughed and when businesses and federal contractors throughout the 6th District are severely impacted. Shouldn't our congressman be in D.C. trying to figure out a way out of this Republican/tea party ignited mess?

But, prudence took over when I re-read the letter I recently received (a friend got an identical one) from him. It doesn't take a genius to understand that our representative lives in Republican La-La Land where all blame is heaped on Senate Democrats and President Obama. Bobblehead Bob failed to address a single point in my original communication to him. Apparently his staffers just scratched through the Boehner & Friends book of "Tea Party Talking Points" and cobbled together a generic letter to send to anyone who asked him to please drop unreasonable demands and end the shutdown while moving away from the brink of default.

Looking at the invitation I realized today is not a BBQ for constituents where our congressman would listen to all points of view. Nope, not even close - this is a campaign event (the RSVP goes to his campaign) that he'll use to pick pockets of adoring lemmings for his next election (once again breaking his term limit promise). Our congressman won't do any listening this afternoon. Instead, he'll be railing against our President and against any Democrat he can find while taking irresponsible positions to make sure he doesn't get challenged from the right. I could show up but my words would fall on deaf ears and I'd risk being run out on a rail.

Better to stay home and check out what prudent steps to take as Congress Attacks America. Then maybe I'll call some family and friends who are among the groups taking the brunt of this GOP shutdown and offer some empathy or maybe a meal. Then I'll do a little reading, maybe to reassure myself that, in spite of the group gathered at the fairgrounds, Americans as a whole are pretty much a practical, common sense people. Three-quarters of us know the current impasse is driven by Republicans. As one of the pollsters in the recent NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll noted,“These numbers lead to one inescapable conclusion: The Republicans are not tone deaf; they are stone deaf.”

American disconnect

Republicans are masters at spinning false facts into tea party "realities" that are deadlocking our government and undermining our nation.

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

With sincere apologies to Jimmy Buffett. Check out Jimmy performing Volcano in Jacksonville, January 2012.

Now I don't know

I don't know

I don't know where I'm a gonna go
When the tea party blow

Let me say now, I don't know

I don't know

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When the capitol blow

Ground she's movin' under me

Tidal waves out on the sea

Sulfur smoke up in the sky

Pretty soon we learn to die

Let me hear ya now, I don't know

I don't know

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When the U.S.A. blow

Now my girl quickly say to me

Mon you better watch your feet

Tea party bull shit come down soft and hot

You better pray for truth now or pray for truth not

Let me say now, I don't know

I don't know

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When the tea party blow

"Mr. Utley"

No time to count what I'm worth
'
Cause I just left the planet Earth

Where I go, I hope there's rum

Not to worry, Mon soon come

Now I don't know

I don't know

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When the GOP blow

One more now, I don't know

(Ah, he don't know)

I don't know

(He don't know, mon)

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When the U.S.A. blow

But I don't want to land on no Speaker Boehner

Don't want to land near Ted Cruz

(No no no)

Don't want to land on no Bobblehead Bob

Don't want to see my country go low

(No no no)

Don't want to land in a closed National Park

Or anywhere in TexAss

(No no no)

Don't want to land in no Houston airport

Or the racist territory

(No no no)

Don't want to land in no Fox News swill

Don't want to land in the NRA

(No no no)

Don't want to land on no Bob Goodlatté

I got nothing more to say

I don't know

I don't know

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When our economy blow

Just a one more, I don't know

(He don't know)

I don't know

(I don't know, man)

I don't know where I'm a gonna go

When our beloved country blow

when I blow, (hey)

when I blow (hey)

When I blow it smells
 BAD!!!

First Cracks in the VA GOP

Watch out for shards if
you drink the tea.

Republican heads are exploding over the news that Boyd Marcus, a widely respected GOP strategist, has endorsed Terry McAuliffe for governor. Marcus, who has worked for the likes of Eric Cantor, Jim Gilmore, and Bill Bolling told the Associated Press, “I was looking at the candidates, and I saw Terry McAuliffe as the guy who will work with everybody to get things done.”

The McAuliffe campaign's announcement included a quote from Marcus that further elaborated on his difficult decision to reject the extremism of Ken Cuccinelli, “I’ve never before supported any Democrat, but this election Terry is the clear choice for mainstream conservatives.”

In the wake of the announcement, Marcus sold his interest in the GOP-based PR firm Marcus & Allen thereby cutting ties with his old Republican buddies. GOP chairman, Pat Mullins, and other party leaders expressed anger and dismay as they resorted to familiar, but tired, tactics of character attacks and name calling.

Boyd Marcus hasn't changed his philosophy about government. Rather the Virginia Republican Party, under control of tea party whackos, has abandoned mainstream and responsible conservatives. Marcus may be the biggest name to jump from the sinking (and stinking) ship, but he won't be the last. Because of issues affecting the Commonwealth's economy - transportation for example - some GOP-leaning business leaders have already moved towards McAuliffe. Over the next couple of months, motivated by Marcus's lead and by the extreme and the divisive Cuccinelli agenda, we can expect to see more Republicans endorsing Terry McAuliffe as the best candidate for Virginia's future.

What if you throw a party and nobody comes?

Photo: Mike Tripp/The News Leader

Americans for Prosperity and the Shenandoah Valley Tea Party threw a rally on a beautiful October Saturday at the Wharf in Staunton. But, what if you throw a tea party, call and invite everybody you know, and still nobody comes? What an embarrassment! A party crashed by apathy! A party crashed by empty seats representing those who refuse to associate with their message of racism and hate.

With empty seats and hollow rhetoric the organizers lamely blamed "Dancing with the Stars," "TV," and "too many other events going on..." for the poorly attended rally. Yesterday reminded me of an Americans for Prosperity bus tour in late June that drew virtually nonexistent crowds and petered out before the day was done.

The irony of the backdrop - the shell of a old building for lease - captures completely the crumbling and desolate movement that was the Tea Party.

Coverage of the "rally that wasn't" at The News Leader.

Affordable Care Act - the more you know

With the recent Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act and all the hysteria among my neighbors and friends ginned up by local and national media, it was good to read a commonsense and nonpolitical article addressing some of the pros and cons. Consumer advocate Stacy Johnson addressed a reader's question about the penalty and coverage and then went on to note some of the law's provisions.

While being upset by all the hype about the penalty, most people I know are supportive of well-known provisions of the law - for example, allowing children to stay on the parents' policy until age 26 and forbidding the big insurance companies from cherry-picking by denying or dumping people with preexisting conditions. As more of the law's provisions become known, this bird predicts the law will gain even more support.

Stacy's MoneyTalksNews post included information about a provision of the Affordable Care Act that I've found very few people knew about, but when informed, they think is a great idea - insurance companies are required to spend 80-85% of gross income on health care for customers and not on bureaucracy, CEO pay, or stockholder dividends. Failing to meet this requirement, means the company will have to send rebates to policyholders. The Kaiser Family Foundation estimates the rebates to businesses and consumers could be as much as $1.3 billion in 2012 alone.

Anytime you are discussing the big health insurance companies, cynicism rolls through the brain like sweat off the brow during the recent heatwave - creative accounting and smoke and mirrors may yet undo these good intentions of the law. But, the fact that this "anti-greed" provision is even in the law more than implies that federal inspectors will be keeping at least a cursory eye on the company books.

When I brought this to the attention of an anti-Obama skeptic the clucking stopped for a least a moment. Seems even Tea Partiers and Occupy folks can find common ground when it comes to excessive CEO salaries and greed! While I don't think the Affordable Care Act is perfect and will need modifications especially during the first years of implementation, I do think there is far more good than most Americans now realize - the more you know.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Coarse Cracked Corn has reported on it before... the tea party is fueled by the money and organizations who are the very antithesis of all the good common folks, angry and frustrated by the Bush recession, who turn out for their rallies and pump money in their coffers. The unseen elites of the tea party are largely funded by billionaires far right wing David and Charles Koch who love flying well below the national media radar. They have radar for something beyond celebrity scandal?

Now a new report, Tea Party Nationalism, documents how opportunist racist, white nationalist, and militias groups are working to control the supply of tea. Guess they don't care for black tea? This isn't to say that all tea party types are racist, in fact, the more formalized parts of the movement have made specific statements repudiating the racist signs and comments that sometimes spew forth at rallies. Individuals with clear ties to racist and xenophobic organizations/websites have been booted out. But, it is accurate to say that some hate groups see the Tea Party as a vehicle for a larger audience and greater credibility.

Equally subversive since the local Chamber of Commerce is seen as non-partisan in most communities, is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's behind-the-scenes role in the Tea Party and the barrage of conservative ads attacking progressive candidates, 99.9% Democrats. Now the U.S. Chamber is made up of big business, big banks, big drug companies... the very groups that most in this populist revolt disdain. As Dana Milbank states in a Tea Party of populist posers:

There is genuine populist anger out there. But the angry have been deceived and exploited by posers who belong to the same class of "elites" and "insiders" that the Tea Party movement supposedly deplores. Americans who want to stick it to the man are instead sending money to the man. 

It is likely the Tea Party will enjoy electoral success this November. They won't have the numbers to run government, but they will probably run the Republican Party driving out the last few moderates as the GOP tilts farther right. Is that possible? When the reverse Robin Hood agenda of the Tea Party elites becomes clear, these good everyday populist folks will indeed have been fooled again. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Puppet masters of the tea party

Many of its organizers like to say the tea party is a "grassroots" organization. Maybe there is a bit of popular uprising involved, but there is plenty of Koch fertilizer feeding the roots... just like there is every time a Democrat is in the White House. These billionaire brothers are waging war against President Obama, Social Security, the environment, and anything (and anybody) they see as progressive. Read more about David and Charles Koch and how they pull the puppet strings of the tea party, of "think tanks" who don't really think but push an agenda, and of bought and paid for politicians and pundits in a fascinating exposé, Covert Operations, in The New Yorker.

Weak Tea

The tea party types... well, let's just say they must like it weak. Weak arguments + weak facts + weak reality = weak tea. For all their mindless rhetoric, Americans are actually paying less taxes this year. Cumulatively, some $173 billion less in federal taxes (state taxes went up by $28.6 billion). True, if the debt continues to increase we'll have to cut spending and/or raise taxes... probably some combination of the two. But, for these economic times the combination of tax cuts and spending in the stimulus was the right prescription... although more infrastructure spending putting people to work would have improved the dosage.

Tea party folks have only a weak grasp of reality - for example, they conveniently forget about the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan. To date the wars have cost $983,268,475,000 and counting as I type... up, up, and away. The teabaggers seemingly have no problem with that. That figure doesn't include the costs of keeping troops in Europe, or Japan, or Korea a half century after those conflicts ended. How long will we have troops in Iraq? Afghanistan? Beyond that, defense accounts for over 20% of the federal budget.

About 45% of the federal budget goes to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Now, a fair number of the teabaggers I saw on TV are probably collecting at least two of those three. Do they want to give up their benefits? Or have them reduced? Doubtful... after all, they paid in and expect what they were promised. We do have to make adjustments... for example raising the SS age and the amount of income on which the payroll tax is collected. Even so, their protests are hypocritical. Nothing more, nothing less. Like most Americans, they like government spending when it benefits them and hate it when it benefits you.

If the tea parties are nonpartisan, how come most speakers and many organizers are Republican (not to mention some being racist or threatening violence)? Me thinks they doth protest too much. If ya gotta keep saying you are nonpartisan or bipartisan... you probably aren't.

Well, I've been very busy in the yard and garden, with family things, and counting Americans. No time for tea parties. But, I do enjoy and must have my morning coffee.

Tea Party Terrorists

The actual, real, documented acts of violence by the tea party folks are a long long ways from patriotism... they are acts of domestic terrorism. Eric Cantor, John McCain, John Bainor and other Repugs are tiptoeing around condemnation of vandalism/violence and encouragement of broken glass and cut gas lines... not quite telling the wingnuts to stop while saying words like "target" and "reload" are appropriate in this heated political environment.

I ran into a tea party type at a local grocery this week. She was in her 70s and her car sported a variety of flags like "Don't Tread on Me" and bumper stickers calling President Barack Obama a "socialist." She pulled in close so I asked her why she had all those flags and stickers. Her answer - "healthcare reform is socialism, a government takeover." I asked if she was on Medicare and happy with it. "Yeah," she said, "and they're trying to take it away." Huh?? She said "it was time to eliminate Obama and those damn Democrats who support him..." Now I don't know what she meant by "eliminate" but it sounds like PalinSpeak. Hunt 'em from helicopters??

Do you see the hypocrisy and misinformation in her comments? Can you hear idiots like Glen Beck echoing in her shallow brain? Or maybe the hate spread for months by local yokel politicians. It is time for Repugs to move beyond hate and into real policy. Into solving problems instead of creating divisions. I ain't holding my breath.

In league with liars

It isn't just Senate Republicans who are engaging in a systematic campaign of lies and fear mongering about healthcare... various front groups are right there spreading much of the same garbage in TV ads in local markets. One of those front groups, the League of American Voters (are they deliberately trying to confuse us by sounding like the very responsible League of Women Voters?), is running an ad attacking Rep. Tom Perriello (VA-05). With their nice name, it sounds like we are all members and Dick Morris, their main ad writer, is speaking for all of us. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the name is a lie, how can we believe anything else they say?

According to SourceWatch, the League of American Voters essentially consists of Morris and one other staff member. They share an address with another ultra conservative front group, Americans for Tax Reform, and have overlap with organizers of Tea Parties. In other words, the league does not represent you and me - it really represents Morris (who is trying to sell his book), big pharma, health insurance companies, and right wing crackpots.

FactCheck.org says the league's ads are filled with buzzwords like "rationing" and "tax surcharge" and include a number of misleading claims - incorrectly stating future costs and asserting there will be a tax increase without saying that very few people make enough to pay it. The ads are running nationwide against Democrats in targeted districts like VA-05, which is represented by a courageous freshman incumbent.

Educate yourself. Tell your friends about the lies in the ads. Tell NBC29 they are airing garbage. And even if you don't live in VA-05, make a donation to Tom Perriello's campaign.

Cheat notes

I taught school for 30 years and caught plenty of cheaters. Some were creative and innovative (almost wanted to reward their smarts), others crude and juvenile. Sarah Palin's crib notes fall in the latter category. Most 17 year old Virginia rednecks could do better. Tea party wingnuts should swiftly change to coffee.

Happy New Year

Everybody has their lists of this and that... best of, worst of, favorite this or worst that. So, what the Hell, I might as well do the same thing. So, here goes and who really cares....

Most significant day of the year (also the decade and since January 1, 1863) - the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States of America.

Best album/CD of the year - Bruce Springsteen's Working on a Dream.

Most encouraging economic sign of the year - investments are up over 20% from the crappy Bush economy. I hope the improvements on Wall St. soon find their way to Main St.

Best beer (if price is no object) - Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

Pet peeve #1 - Staunton's systematic plan to write speeding tickets... unlike most cities that step speed limits down, entering Staunton means going from 55 to 35, right now!

Biggest Shenandoah Valley political surprise - Delegate Chris Saxman announces he won't seek reelection.

Biggest Virginia political disappointment - Creigh Deeds would have made a great governor.

Best beer (when money is tight) - Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Best friend - My wife.

Best four-legged friend - Tucker. Heaven goes by favor; if it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in. ~Mark Twain

Pet Peeve #2 - Giving money to a charity only to be besieged within days by calls and emails wanting more.

Must see TV - Toss up between The Daily Show and Colbert Report. I DVR and watch 'em both.

Best VA sports news - the firing of Al Groh and hiring of Mike London.

And in national sports - the Green Bay Packers are back in the playoffs.

Pet peeve #3 - drivers on cell phones.

Biggest national political disappointment - Republicans.

Best Christmas gift - a turntable. Burn the old vinyl to CD's.

Biggest misrepresentation of American history - Tea Parties.

Feel free to add your own bests, worsts, ugliest, favorites.... in a comment. You could even say this is the best (or worst) blog! Whatever. Happy New Year. May 2010 be great!

Follow the money

Who is putting up the big bucks to kill healthcare reform? Who are their allies? Some names won't surprise you. Other names might be new to you. When Rep. Goodlatte holds his town hall meeting on Sept. 5, you can bet Dick Armey, Glenn Beck, Americans for Prosperity, Joe Wierzbicki, and friends will be lurking in the shadows whispering "death panels," "Hitler," and "socialism."

Click here for a large version of the flow chart "Who's Paying to Kill Health Reform?"