Tea Partiers = Murderers?

"That's a scandal -- those people are guilty of murder in my opinion. Some of those people they persuade are going to end up dying because they don't have health insurance. For people who do that to other people in the name of some obscure political ideology is one of the grossest violations of our humanity I can think of. This absolutely drives me crazy."

—Senator Angus King (Independent, Maine), on the Republicans who urge uninsured Americans not to sign up for Obamacare.

And to think I trusted him...

The Date: November 8, 2012

The Question: whether he would still try to repeal President Obama's health care law.

The Answer: "Well I think the election changes that. It's pretty clear that the President was reelected. Obamacare is the law of the land."

Meet Art Robinson, the Batshit Insane Head of Oregon’s GOP

Art Robinson is the new chair of the Oregon Republican Party. What are his qualifications? Well, he is a climate change denier. And of course, he’s a loose cannon. Hey, I’m just quoting him: “I'm an American. We’re all loose cannons.”

How loose is Art’s cannon? Here he is on nuclear waste:

“All we need do with nuclear waste is dilute it to a low radiation level and sprinkle it over the ocean — or even over America after hormesis is better understood and verified with respect to more diseases.”

On public schools:

“Public education (tax-financed socialism) has become the most widespread and devastating form of child abuse and racism in the United States. Can it be corrected by improving the public schools? No—only by abolishing them.”

When three of his kids went to Oregon State University and failed to get their doctoral work in nuclear engineering (!) approved, it was because “liberal socialist” school “dances to the tune of the Democratic machine.”

That doesn’t even make sense.

You must be wondering the same thing as me: How could Oregon’s Republicans be this desperate? Answer: Hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer. (Check his political contributions here.) And Mercer LOVES Robinson; witness his near million-dollar contribution to the Robinson’s “science foundation” two years ago. (Mercer is currently being sued by his employees, BTW.)

What have we learned? Republicans are batshit crazy—and they have some serious coin backing up their madness. 

Wyoming Republicans: The Most Hypocritical Americans

Republicans love to trumpet how they're all about small government and shrinking budgets. So let's take a look at which states have the highest proportion of government employees. You'll find that in the top left of the chart below.

Hello, Wyoming. And look, there's lots of other Republican controlled states in there too! In fact, when you look at different ways that state governments take up space, you'll notice a preponderance of GOP influence in ALL these categories.

Moral: Those lying motherfuckers!

A shout-out to all the climate change deniers!

Chew on this. Oh, and also? Please reduce foul emissions by keeping your pie-hole shut.

Ted Cruz isn't playing chess with all his marbles.

Yep, that's from the unesteemed senator's twitter feed. Via.

You know, I think he has a point.

"Imagine if you had a Republican president and a Democratic speaker, and the Democratic speaker said, well, we're not going to pass the debt ceiling unless we raise corporate taxes by 40% or unless we pass background checks on guns or whatever other list of agenda items Democrats were interested in. Does anybody actually think that we would be hearing from Republicans that that was acceptable behavior?"

—President Barack Obama

Kevin Drum is the Big Mind of the Day

“The Republican Party is bending its entire will, staking its very soul, fighting to its last breath, in service of a crusade to make sure that the working poor don’t have access to affordable health care. I just thought I’d mention that in plain language, since it seems to get lost in the fog fairly often. But that’s it. That’s what’s happening. They have been driven mad by the thought that rich people will see their taxes go up slightly in order to help non-rich people get decent access to medical care.”

—Kevin Drum, "Friday Cat Blogging"

78% of Americans have their shit together

Or put another way, Gallup finds that 22% of Americans support the Tea Party ... which is an all-time low.

AIG's CEO Robert Benmosche is the Small Mind of the Day

“It’s “sort of like what we did in the Deep South [decades ago]. And I think it was just as bad and just as wrong.”

That’s Robert Benmosche comparing outrage over bonuses promised to AIG’s members to lynchings in the South back in the day.

What do you mean Dr. Seuss wasn't a real doctor?

Sure, right-wingers should read books. But it's just embarrassing when they REVIEW them.

Congratulations, T. Rogers! You have the brainpower of a turnip. Via.

Ron Charles has the Tweet of the Day

"Sen Cruz: 'I'll speak in support of defunding Obamacare until I'm no longer able to stand.' Don't worry: Preexisting conditions are covered!" via.

Steve Schmidt has the Word Choice of the Day

I’ve heard John McCain’s former presidential campaign advisor before, and found him a bit much. But in an interview with Chris Matthews, Steve Schmidt earned some points back by using the word "asininity."

 

“For the last couple of years, we’ve had this wing of the party running roughshod over the rest of the party. Tossing out terms like RINO saying we’re going to purge, you know, the moderates out of the party ... we need Republicans, whether they’re running for president, whether they’re in the leadership of the Congress, to stand up against a lot of this asininity."

Wait, there's more!

“You finally you saw it with Ted Cruz. Maybe he was the one that who’s got a bridge too far. Maybe we’ll start seeing our elected leaders stop being intimidated by this nonsense, have the nerve, have the guts to stand up and … to fight to take conservatism’s good name back from the freak show that’s been running wild for four years and that I have deep regret in my part, certainly, in initiating.”

Hello, Mexico City? Please stop what you're doing.

Via.

One more line from THIS TOWN

"[Mitt] Romney seemed to acquire an instant lightness after his Paul Ryan v.p. selection—like a shy eight-year-old transformed by a new turtle."

—Mark Leibovich

My thoughts on Senator Ted Cruz (Republican, Texas)

Ted Cruz is the kind of guy who can't pull his head out of his ass long enough to take his hands off your throat.

I believe that there are decent politicians in the Republican party.

But they're like kernels of corn in fecal matter. These politicians may have kept their integrity, but they're still surrounded by crap.

Word to your mother

“It’s easier to talk about Obamacare than the major sources of our problems."

—Senator Johnny Isakson (Republican, Georgia)

Georgia: Uninformed, but disapproving.

"Six in 10 Georgians have little understanding of how Obamacare will affect them or their families, but most of them still don’t like it, a new poll conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows."