Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Headlines - Tuesday March 30

 
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There really isn't a Tea Party. The so called "Tea Party" is just an attempt to rebrand the Republican Party as if changing the name will make people forget the Bush years. These people were all Bush/Cheney supporters who couldn't care less about fiscal responsibility when they were in power. Now they are Republicans who are too ashamed to admit it.

I don't blame them. If I were a Republican I would be too ashamed to admit it too. But Republicans can't seek  obsolution from past sins by changing their name. We won the 2006 and 2008 elections and with a record of accomplishment we are poised for another big win this year. We already took back America. This year might end up being the end of the line for the Republican Party.

Marc Perkel 

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GOP logo 1_314ac.jpg
 
The (Anti-)Intellectual Elites at the GOP are busy stuffing unemployed Teabaggers' dollars into the leather harnesses of lesbian S&M strippers -- and using what's left to stay at extravagantly elitist Blue State hotels.
 
Family values! 
 
 
 
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Miss Ladyfingers USA is being sued by the Christian publicity firm that guided her to wingnut stardom. Carrie not only hates the gays, she hates paying her bills.
The group -- A. Larry Ross Communications -- claims Prejean contacted them back in April, 2009 and logged "hundreds of hours" helping Prejean spread her "biblically correct" message. But according to the lawsuit, filed earlier this month in Texas, Prejean's actions were the opposite of Christian -- because she never paid the $64,857 bill.
According to the PR firm's website, they assist "Christian-focused organizations, associations, ministries and churches in telling their stories through the Christian and secular media in the context of traditional news values." They also claim to specialize in "crisis communications." We all know what THAT means.
 
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Study: Just 13% of Voters Are Tea Baggers – And Their Anti- Establishment Rage Fails to Connect with 72% of Americans
art-obamcare-poster

News coverage of tea baggers' protest rallies has given them the appearance of a groundswell movement sweeping the nation. Pundits regularly cite them as dominant players in the coming elections. Recently, the Republican establishment has started courting them. Last week, addressing a crowd of John McCain supporters in Arizona, Sarah Palin said, "Everyone here today supporting John McCain, we are all part of that Tea Party movement." Former Vice Pres. Dan Quayle recently described them as Pres. Richard Nixon's "Silent Majority" who were "silent no more." Not surprisingly, all the attention has given tea baggers an inflated sense of their importance which they project by routinely exaggerating the crowd sizes at their rallies. 

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2010/03/29/study-just-13-of-voters-are-tea-baggers/

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"These people could be anybody. I wouldn't put it past the Democrats to plant somebody there. They're trying to label the tea party, but I've never seen any racial slurs." - Dale Robertson, self-proclaimed founder of the Tea Party, quoted by the Washington Times.

The only problem? The
Washington Independent caught Robertson at a Tea Party rally last month holding a sign with a racial slur.
 
teapartypic
 
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Day of the Grasshopper Looms - Western Farmers, Ranchers Worry an Expected Infestation Could Ravage Crops, Cattle
 
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Backstage VIP pass at the club

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               The RNC is burning through money faster than Heath Ledger's Joker.  
 
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Shorter Ross Douthat on the Vatican's latest sex scandal

…And uppity bitches deserve to be hit.

In reality, the scandal implicates left and right alike. The permissive sexual culture that prevailed everywhere, seminaries included, during the silly season of the '70s deserves a share of the blame, as does that era's overemphasis on therapy.

Is anyone else seeing parallels with his argument and the way the GOPers are saying that the Dims are to blame for the violence and death threats that they have been getting since the HCR bill passed? 

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Chomsky: Obama is 'delivering, but for financial institutions'

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Health insurance CEO's conspire to blame Democrats for increasing premiums

ronwilliams

Since passage of the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies have begun laying the groundwork to blame Democrats for the increased health care costs that they plan to impose on consumers. Last Tuesday, CIGNA CEO David Cordani told Neil Cavuto that health care premiums will continue to increase despite the new health care law. And in an interview with Charlie Rose, Aetna CEO Ron Williams said that his company also plans to jack up rates:

ROSE: Will insurance premiums go up?

WILLIAMS: The answer is yes, and some of the things that will drive those premiums are significant additional taxes the industry will ultimately have to pay in the first year.

Williams is lying. In fact, the health care law does not tax insurance issuers until 2014. Moreover, as Igor Volsky writes, insurers are disingenuously trying to point the fingers at hospitals and doctors to avoid a conversation about their own failed efforts to control costs while raking in profits.

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Gee thanks. What about the rest of us?

Pentagon pushes for a strong consumer agency to protect troops from abusive financial practices.

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Yes it is, Kathryn:

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We have a weiner! "The Republican National Committee gave nearly $2,000 to a Southern California GOP contributor for meal expenses at Voyeur West Hollywood, a lesbian-themed California nightclub that features topless dancers wearing horse-bits and other bondage gear, according to newly filed disclosure records." This guy, Erik Brown, CEO of DYNAMIC MARKETING INC. has a great Facebook page, though. More here.

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4,386 soldiers killed in Iraq; 1,030 in Afghanistan.

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Video: Al Franken to Jason Mattera: "You have to shut up right now."