Rep. Peter King thinks Republicans in the House could have bargained for much more than they're getting in a pending Senate deal, if only the House had kept the government open in September and focused on negotiation over the federal debt limit. "Instead we look like the crazies," King, a Republican from Long Island, told me this afternoon from Washington. "Shutting down the government, throwing barricades against the White House, and having Ted Cruz reading Dr. Seuss, this is like the theater of the absurd. Except that it's serious."

~snip~

For that King blames Cruz, the freshman senator from Texas, who King believes Republicans need to target, starting now.

"I don't mean this in an egotistical way, I'm the only one who's been going after Cruz by name," King told me. "And there's a purpose for that, because this is going to come back again in two or three months, whether it's January 15 or February 7 or whatever, there's going to be a threat of another shutdown.

"And he's going to be coming back, rewriting history, saying, 'We were on the verge of victory back in October, and we could have won if we'd just stayed in there another week.' And he's going to have phone calls being made, and he's going to have town hall meetings. And he's going to have all those support groups out there, threatening to downgrade people on their scorecards and all that stuff."

To King, the fault doesn't lie broadly with Congress, but falls squarely on Cruz and his 30 or 40 "acolytes," who put pressure on other Republicans. "I think it's important for people in the Republican Party around the country not to just come in at the end and say, 'Congress was dysfunctional,' or 'Congress screwed up.' That's too easy to do," King said. "Say who it was. Because it wasn't Congress. It was one person who was able to steamroll Congress and unless we target him for what he is, he's going to do it again. So I'm hoping other Republicans will join me and start going after this guy, and say we're not going to let it happen again."

~snip~

by Dean Obeidallah Oct 14, 2013

Was Rand Paul’s most recent, big set-piece speech about A. The government shutdown; B. The debt limit; or C. The dreaded Obamacare? Nope, it was none of them. Instead, Paul spent his 19-minute speech at the Value Voters summit on Friday talking about Muslims.

~snip~

( ... ) Paul opened his speech with an attention grabbing line: “From Boston to Zanzibar, there is a worldwide war on Christianity.”

Now, I thought he would be talking the typical fare: “war on Christmas,” Obama wants you to take birth control, gay people have the audacity to want to get married, etc.

But nope. Paul quickly made it clear that the war on Christians is being waged by Muslims. ( ... )

~snip~

Now in fairness, Paul did use about a minute of his speech to acknowledge that many Muslims are peaceful. He even stated that he hoped that the faith could one day return to a time where Muslims valued, “the scientific method over fanaticism.”

But then Paul’s rhetoric truly became alarming. He warned the audience that while we wait for Muslims to return to being peaceful: “Christians should be prepared for war…” He did also add that they should, “pray for peace,” but that seemed secondary to his literal call to arms.

Paul’s speech is likely a mirror image of one that would be given by an al Qaeda recruiter. ( ...)

Let’s be brutally honest: If Rand Paul had given a 19 minute speech listing every bad act committed by Jews anywhere in the world under the guise of “warning” people about Jews, he would rightfully be dubbed an Anti-Semite. Or if Paul had given a similar speech setting forth a litany of crimes committed by African-Americans in the US as defining that race, he would be deemed a racist.

But when a speech is given like this about Muslims- it’s somehow seen as simply being “politically incorrect.” No, it's not. It’s hate-just as if it would be if it was directed at Jews, Blacks, gays or any minority group.

~snip~

The political agenda put forth by a local organizer in Washington DC was not in alignment with our message. We feel disheartened that some would seek to hijack the narrative for political gain. The core principle is about all Americans honoring Veterans in a peaceful and apolitical manner. Feel free to check out the 60+ rallies of the Million Vet March across the nation at our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Million-Vet-March-on-the-Memorials/539097822833735.

~snip~

For some, it is hard to separate the politics from the issue at hand. Some will blame the President, some will blame the Congress. Make no mistake about it Americans. We, as Americans, voted everyone of our elected officials into office. We are ALL responsible for this mess. It is up to us, as Americans to correct this mess. We all have opinions, but we need to drop them and get to the business of fixing what is wrong with our government, not what is wrong with America. America is a great nation with people from all over the world and to blame one party, faction or group over another is counter productive to democracy in a Constitutional republic.

Why were Veterans prevented from visiting their memorials and monuments dedicated in their honor? We don't know. We would really like to know the justification for why this was done. However, to us, it is one issue. Monuments, Memorials and Parks dedicated to honor the sacrifices of our American Veterans and their brothers and sisters-in-arms know NO politics.

~snip~

It is our official position that the purpose of this march and the accompanying rallies is focused on the re-opening of the Veterans memorials and keeping them open. While we understand that a Constitutional republic requires the equilibrium of checks and balances to maintain the democratic process, the memorials, monuments and parks built in honor of Veterans should NEVER be closed, blocked or restricted from use. We take the official position that no government office holder shall have ability to abridge the freedom of access to these hallowed grounds.

We have, as a group, been prevented from certain groups that have piggy-backed off our grassroots efforts, to effectively create a comprehensive media message campaign. We made the mistake of trying to partner with some Washington insiders that thwarted many of our genuine concerns for keeping this apolitical and grassroots. While we support many of those groups common causes for Veterans, we do not support the manner in which they go about it. We chose instead to not incite or create panic.

~snip~

XXXX 10 days just think We vets thank you it was an opportunity to help and support other vets as well. I was disappointed when Ms. Palin and Mr. Cruz walked up to us to say hello but then walked down to the center to try to use us for they're own purpose so I left to visit the viet nam memorial ty Brats

Supporters, We Came To You A Week Ago

October 11, 2013 by 1mvetmarch | 5 Comments


Supporters,

We came to you a week ago with a pure mission. We opened a Facebook Page and asked you to gather at the World War II Memorial in Washington DC this Sunday to peacefully object to our government closing the monuments to our Veterans.

We have been overwhelmed by your support. Our group – all either military brats, veterans or spouses of veterans – are amazed at how our numbers have climbed daily!

Our simple message – that our National Monuments and parks should always be open for Veterans, regardless of the political climate – resonated and we were encouraged to inspire others to hold gatherings at National Monuments throughout the country.

Unfortunately, an idea that started as an unbiased show of support for Veterans has now turned into something political activists are exploiting.

Building off the success we have obtained through community organization and event support, several political groups are piggy-backing off our momentum and have interjected hatred, racism and even the possibility of violence into our efforts. We have also had extremists post threats on the page.

And while we appreciate these third party sites pointing to our event page, we can’t condone their messages and believe their motives to be out of sync with ours.

We want to make it clear: Any messages you read on any website at other than our own (http://1mvetmarch.wordpress.com/) or within our Facebook page are not associated with our group or our vision for this event. WE ARE NOT ACCEPTING DONATIONS.

~snip~

Cruz, Lee, Palin join memorial protest

~snip~

Cruz told the crowd that President Obama is using military veterans as “pawns” to draw support for his argument in the budget impasse, which has resulted in the two-week closure of the federal government and the memorial.

~snip~

Palin similarly placed blame for the closure of the World War II Memorial on President Obama.

“Our veterans have allowed us to be here today standing up for our First Amendment rights so that we can express their optimism,” she said. “(Obama) could be here today standing up and saying, ‘Yes, we can tear down these barricades.'”

The presence of a Confederate flag at the protest, which later moved to the White House, sparked an uproar on Twitter.

Joan Walsh ✔ @joanwalsh

I know, I'm always bringing race into everything, but I didn't bring the Confederate flag to the White House:

11:15 AM - 13 Oct 2013

Jeffrey Goldberg ✔ @JeffreyGoldberg

In many parts of America, waving a Confederate flag outside the home of a black family would be considered a very hostile act.

11:48 AM - 13 Oct 2013

~snip~

As if the Republican party didn’t have enough troubles, Sarah Palin has now emerged as the new face of the GOP government shutdown.

Yes, there really is a God.

Palin joined GOP Tea Party Senator, and shutdown leader, Ted Cruz and other Tea Party supporters of the GOP’s shutdown of the federal government in a “million vet march” to protest the fact that the government has actually been shut down.

Point of fact: Neither Palin nor Cruz have actually served in the military, and both support the GOP government shutdown which closed the WWII memorial. But don’t let that get in the way of a good visual.

~snip~



~snip~

Published on Oct 13, 2013
A crowd converged on the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, pushing through barriers Sunday morning to protest the memorial's closing under the government shutdown. (Oct. 13)

Cruz said that President Obama was using veterans as political pawns in the shutdown. Lee shouted, "The sons and daughters of the United States of America are meant to live in liberty."

Rage of the Privileged

September 26, 2013

Mark Thoma has an excellent column at the Fiscal Times linking the fight over the debt ceiling to the larger issue of extreme inequality. (...) I’d like, however, to suggest that the reality is even worse than Thoma suggests.

Here’s how Thoma puts it:



So he links the debt ceiling fight to the influence of the wealthy, who want to dismantle the welfare state because it’s nothing to them, and they want lower taxes. (...)

~snip~

How, then, are things even worse than he says? Because many of the rich are selective in their opposition to government helping the unlucky. They’re against stuff like food stamps and unemployment benefits; but bailing out Wall Street? Yay!

Seriously. Charlie Munger says that we should “thank God” for the bailouts, but that ordinary people fallen on hard times should “suck it in and cope.” AIG’s CEO — the CEO of a bailed out firm! — says that complaints about bonuses to executives at such firms are just as bad as lynchings (I am not making this up.)

The point is that the superrich have not gone Galt on us — not really, even if they imagine they have. It’s much closer to pure class warfare, a defense of the right of the privileged to keep and extend their privileges. It’s not Ayn Rand, it’s Ancien Régime.

Head of Barilla pasta company: Gays can eat someone else’s pasta

Guido Barilla, president of the family-owned Barilla pasta company, said in a radio interview on Wednesday that his company only supports “the traditional family” and that LGBT people “can go eat someone else’s pasta.” According to John Aravosis at Americablog, Barilla has since backtracked on his remarks somewhat, but many LGBT people around the world are reacting angrily to the slam by the head of the massive, global brand.

“We won’t include gays in our ads, because we like the traditional family,” Barilla told an interviewer. “If gays don’t like it, they can always eat another brand of pasta. Everyone is free to do what they want, provided it doesn’t bother anyone else.”

Barilla said today that he meant no ill will toward LGBT people with his remarks, saying in a statement, “With reference to statements made yesterday, I apologize if my words have generated controversy or misunderstanding, or if they have hurt the sensibilities of some people. In the interview I simply wanted to highlight the central role of the woman in the family.”

~snip~