Joe Needs to Go

[white cloud]

Post them up or we will have this "jerkin" office forever. He is out of touch and not supporting the small people. What going to happen when this shit blows up on our front door like the Bay of Campeche did in 79.


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/how-joe-barton-managed-to-have-a-worse-day-than-tony-hayward.php?ref=tn

An oil BP bunk muffin as his first job
http://joebarton.house.gov/Back.aspx?Page=Biography

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oil-barton-20100619,0,5554560.story

[onestepforward]

1. It appears that Joe is now in hiding...

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/7061365.html

Seems Barton has taken cover after BP 'shakedown' remark


WASHINGTON — The day after Rep. Joe Barton became a household name - and a source of ridicule for late-night comics - by first apologizing to BP and then retracting his apology, the Texas Republican appeared to go underground.

A phone message said his Washington office was closed, although press secretary Sean Brown eventually e-mailed that aides were, in fact, at work, but that there would be no further comment.

snip-

:rofl:

[sonias]

2. Cowards never can stand the heat

They are the first to cut and run.... underground, away from the press and their constituents. Cut and run away Joe! :rofl:

Fine by us if he does decide to resign!

[txlibdem]

53. You called it

Barton is a coward but we do not want him to resign. We want him to stay in the race and lose to his Democratic opponent.

[sonias]

3. New DNC ad and Joe is the star

Joe Barton is the gift that keeps on giving to ...us Democrats. We finally have a face to put on republican arrogance and corporate cronyism and it belongs to Joe Barton!

You Tube DNC Ad - Stop Apologizing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LmwbRjezh4

Way to go Joe! Finally we find a good use for you!

:kick:

[white cloud]

4. Papantonio: Republicans & Limbaugh Love BP

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpcZj3hLHIE&feature=related

[white cloud]

5. From startelegram

http://startelegram.typepad.com/politex/


The newest web sensation: Joe Barton
Joe Barton's political capital took a bit of a hit yesterday.

On the other hand, the Arlington Republican's web presence had a fantastic 24 hours.

Barton's apology to BP CEO Tony Hayward caught fire online almost immediately Thursday, nearly all of it mocking Barton's comments.

People on Twitter began jokingly tweeting absurd apologies with the accompanying hashtag, #joebartonapologies.

That quickly led to the creation of a fake Twitter feed, @SorryJoeBarton.

A sample tweet: "Joran van der Sloot: I am sincerely sorry if you are experiencing any discomfort in Peru."

And there's also an entire website working with the same joke: joebartonwouldliketoapologize.com.

Barton was also quickly the feature of T-shirts and bumper stickers.
Some sample slogans: "Plug the leak with Joe Barton" and "Barton me, I'm Sorry."

One outlier (unless it's sarcastic): Barton 2012.

Democrats have naturally piled on. They have a Facebook ad, an online petition and appear to be advertising to those who search for "Joe Barton" on Google.

On the plus side for Barton, his official Twitter feed apparently received a slight bump in followers yesterday.

-Aman Batheja



Read more: http://startelegram.typepad.com/politex/#ixzz0rK1pYGcw

[sonias]

9. Papantonio is a good lawyer

I hope his suits for his clients on the Gulf are hugely successful. They need a good lawyer.

[sonias]

6. Barton's Blunder

Slate 6/17/10
Barton's Blunder

When a player scores on his team in soccer, it's called an own goal. In politics, it may be known for a while as a Joe Barton. He's the Texas Republican House member who started Thursday apologizing to the CEO of BP and ended the day apologizing for his apology—twice. Barton made the retractions after "consulting" with Republican leaders, in the hopes of limiting the damage to his party, keeping his committee assignment, and diminishing the political opportunity for Democrats.

It was supposed to be BP's sorry day. First its chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, apologized for calling the residents of the Gulf "small people." Then its CEO, Tony Hayward, was scheduled for a day of saying sorry during a hearing on Capitol Hill devoted to the string of BP failures that led to the ongoing disaster. When the hearing started, though, Barton was steaming. As the top Republican on the committee, he told Hayward that he was "ashamed" that the White House had pushed the company into creating a $20 billion fund to cover claims associated with the spill. It was a "shakedown" said Barton, a "tragedy of the first proportion"—which is something, considering how grim the tragedies are that get a first-proportion ranking.

For those who have been looking for acts of determination, resolution, and core conviction on the public stage, here was a good example of the form. There were audible gasps in the room. They may have been from Republicans. With public disapproval of BP at 80 percent, and nearly daily disclosures of its mishandling of the Deepwater operation, the company is a pariah. How toxic is BP? To deliver a knockout blow to the climate change legislation the president supports, Senate Republicans have been saying that BP backs it.

A score for the other team will forever be known as a "Joe Barton"! :spray: :rofl:

:kick:

[white cloud]

7. A score for the other team

LOL
Has the dick chaney old pr man hired on at BP as the PR man for BP?
I can't remember his name?

[sonias]

8. Scooter?

Do you mean Scooter Libby?

Not sure what old Scooter is up to - laying low after that conviction. Trying to stay out of jail.

[mbperrin]

10. How dumb can you be and still elected to Congress?

No definitive answer yet, but I think we're approaching a bottom.







Surely.

[sonias]

11. For Texas - I wish

But frankly the crop of Texas Republicans at the State Legislature makes the Texas Congressional delegation look like "elites". And those are the people that will run for Congress next - you know it.

And if Perry gets re-elected one more time that will just prove we have not hit rock bottom in Texas voter stupidity.

So I am so hopeful that we will get through this season and come out winning. Please, please, please let it be so.

[white cloud]

12. Joe Petro is a rabid dog and we need him gone ASAP

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8598424


http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/06/20/democrats.barton...

A top Democrat kept up the Joe Barton drumbeat Sunday, saying the Republican legislator's defense of BP last week was an example of GOP ideology that favors big business.

(snip)
"In case you forgot what Republican governance is like, Joe Barton reminded you," Emanuel said, calling Barton's comments a "philosophy" that considered BP the "aggrieved party" instead of the oil giant responsible for the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

[sonias]

13. Oh it would be so sweet if Smokey Joe became a casualty of the spill

BP might just hire him after all - since he's their kind of slime.

Lets keep him front and center - the BP poster boy who supposedly works for the American people. Yeah right!

[sonias]

14. Look he's strirring another hornet's nest

AAS 6/20/10
U.S. Rep. Barton still hopes for BCS' downfall
He maintains that Big 12's near-demise a good sign of playoff system ahead.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — One of the most powerful advocates of a college football playoff system believes the Big 12's brush with death might eventually help doom the BCS.

It's not going to happen right away, said Texas Rep. Joe Barton. But the promise of renewed television riches that persuaded the Big 12's major football members to reject overtures from the Pac-10 has shone the spotlight on the huge financial jackpot awaiting a playoff.

"The reason the Big 12 stayed together is the commissioner was able to put together a deal that enabled Texas and Texas A&M to go from about $8 million-$12 million a year to around $20 million a year" apiece, the Republican said. "I don't really have a dog in the hunt as to how the conferences ought to be aligned. But I do think this moves us toward a playoff because we now know where the money is."

You know if crazy Joe Barton doesn't really have a dog in the fight, he should keep his big trap shut. But no he can't help himself. Keep it up Joe, you are making yourself so popular to Texans.

:rofl:

[white cloud]

15. Barton Apology to BP Turns Oil Spill Into Political Football

Rep. Joe Barton's apology to BP Chief Tony Hayward for what he called a White House "shakedown" for demanding a $20 billion fund for damage claims has turned into a political football that Democrats are hoping to exploit.

Republicans were deeply embarrassed by Barton's apology to BP during a House hearing Thursday, demanding that the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee retract his mea culpa or lose his seniority. Barton returned to the committee room and did just that.


Just hold your nose.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/20/barton-apology-bp-turns-oil-spill-political-football/#content

[sonias]

19. He's made the front page of Huffington Post - Vultures are circling

Huffington Post 6/21/10
VULTURES CIRCLING OVER BARTON
Top Republican On Energy Panel May Be Pushed Out Over BP Apology

Joe Barton's fate rests with the voters, though they don't have to wait until November to weigh in. Republican leadership aides say that Barton's ability to remain the senior-ranking Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee depends on what GOP members hear from constituents back in their districts about Barton's apology to BP on Thursday, according to House Republican leadership aides.

Those members will report back Tuesday evening, when the House returns to business.

(snip)

As Barton makes his case to GOP leadership, it doesn't help that he ran against Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) for the top spot following the 2006 Democratic takeover.

Barton's tenuous hold on his seniority has set off a round of jockeying for his position. The Republican next in line, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), is pro-choice and more moderate than most of his colleagues. Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) is further down the line, but making a move for the spot, said GOP aides. (Neither Upton nor Shimkus returned calls for comment.)

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

[MajorChode]

16. Actually the GOP needs him gone ASAP

Democrats can simply use him as a poster child for what's completely fucked up about the GOP. He's the best kind of useful idiot.

[kjackson227]

17. "...Texas voter stupidity". Never a truer statement than this. ~SIGH~

[white cloud]

18. Heat turned up on Barton; call for him to quit energy panel post comes from GOP

DMN can't believe they are turning on Joe?


By MELANIE MASON / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]
WASHINGTON – Democrats sought to make Rep. Joe Barton the face of Republican policies on Friday after his apology to oil giant BP , and another GOP colleague called for the Arlington lawmaker to give up his top post on the House energy committee.

"There's no other way to say it ... Joe's comments were stupid and extremely insensitive," Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Ala., said in a written statement Friday. "I hope Joe Barton will think more of those citizens along our Gulf Coast who are struggling with this unprecedented disaster than of his own desire to retain" the committee position.

The backlash from his own party underscores the potential political damage of Barton's apology, both to himself and the GOP. Barton is a longtime stalwart of Republican energy policy.

Democrats, looking to counter weeks of bad publicity from the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico and regain an edge as the fall battle for control of Congress approaches, quickly rolled out television ads drawing attention to Barton's comments.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/state/stories/DN-barton_19tex.ART.State.Edition1.29496ee.html

[sonias]

20. "longtime stalwart of Republican energy policy"

More like he's stalled any national energy policy that would have moved us to more independence from foreign oil. There is no fossil fuel Joe Barton doesn't love. He's swimming in oil.

If we end up getting Joe given the ax on this committee, it will be wonderful for the potential of renewable energy getting a fair shake.

[white cloud]

21. In kowtowing to BP, Rep. Barton isn't alone

As slick attacks on President Obama's oil spill leadership spread across conservative media -- and mainstream Washington, D.C. pundits display their disconnect with America -- a defining question gets overlooked.

Do our elected officials' sympathies lie with what BP's chairman called the "small people," those with livelihoods put at jeopardy, or with Big Oil?

snip>>>>>



Joe Barton is not alone in tossing bouquets and sympathy toward the corporation responsible for the worse pollution disaster in American history. Other examples:

--BP "shouldn't have to be fleeced," in the words of Rep. Michelle Bachmann, R-Minnesota, who described as "a redistribution of wealth fund" the $20 billion escrow account set up to pay cleanup costs and claims.

--"We can't afford to demonize" BP, Sarah Palin declared on television last week as she upbraided President Obama for taking so long to meet with BP's chief executive Tony Hayward. (Hayward has been exiled back to England.)

--President Obama "is directly engaged in extorting money" from BP, ex-House Speaker (and possible presidential candidate) Newt Gingrich charged, appearing on Fox News' "Hannity."

--Back when he was a law professor, Barack Obama taught his law students "how to use the Constitution to shake down corporations through race and grievance lawsuits," Rush Limbaugh charged. "That's what he taught students at the University of Chicago . . . much like he is doing to BP."

--The BP escrow account is an example of "Chicago-style shakedown politics" by President Obama, Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, charged in a statement.

After Republican House leaders beat his brains in, Barton apologized for his apology. Interestingly, however, House Republican leader John Boehner declared about 10 days ago that government and BP should share burdens of spill response, before hastily clarifying that cleaning up is the company's responsibility.


http://www.seattlepi.com/connelly/422014_JOEL21.html?source=mypi

[sonias]

22. Barton and MMS

I should have guessed that Smokey Joe was in bed with the MMS. From you article link above:

By contrast, Joe Barton is responsible for legislative language that forced the Minerals Management Service (MMS) to speed up approval of drilling rigs. MMS was already more a lapdog than a watchdog.

The lethal disasters of 2010 -- the Tesoro refinery explosion in Anacortes, the West Virginia mine blast, the Deepwater Horizon fiasco -- demonstrate the need for rigorous regulation, and a necessary role for government.

Even as beaches and birds are fouled along the Gulf, however, blood runs thick among friends of BP. "They need their capital to drill wells: They need their capital to produce income," Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, former Washington, D.C., lobbyist, said in criticizing the escrow fund.

Barton was once a Senate candidate in Texas, promising to be a voice for "the good people who work hard and carry the load." On Thursday, however, Barton said he "doesn't want to live in a country" that would shake down a beleaguered corporation to create a "slush fund."

Go ahead Joe, leave the country. :kick:

[white cloud]

23. Even Hitler hates Joe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT5_RJVcoAk

[sonias]

24. I love those Hilter parodies

Watch it quick because it will disappear soon. The company that owns the movie rights doesn't have a sense of humor.:(

My favorite line from the Joe Barton apology one (about 1:55 in)

They have their heads so far up the oil company's asses, that they learn special ways to hold a knife and fork

:spray: :rofl:

good one! :toast:

[white cloud]

25. David Cozad, 'That Guy Running Against Joe Barton,' Given Unlikely Opportunity By Republican's Apolo

By David Cozad's own admission, hardly anyone knew his name before last week. And that's still mostly true, though it may not matter. For all practical purposes, he is That Guy Running Against Joe Barton.

Read the whole story: Texas Tribune





http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/22/david-cozad-that-guy-runn_n_621035.html

[white cloud]

26. Report: Joe Barton To Be 'Special Guest' At FL GOPer's Fundraiser

hE IS GOING TO BE REAL POPULAR IN mIAMI.

Most Republicans have been doing backflips to distance themselves from Joe Barton, who apologized to BP last week for the $20 billion escrow fund set up to make BP pay for Gulf Coast oil spill damages.

But Barton reportedly still has at least one friend left: Florida Republican Cliff Stearns is having a fundraiser next week, and according to the Miami Herald, Barton is his "special guest."

The Herald reports that Barton (R-TX) will appear at a fundraiser next Wednesday for Stearns, who represents Florida's 6th district.

Stearns himself has said that "BP acted recklessly and should be held fully accountable. Not just for the environmental damage, but there may be criminal action here as well." He has also called for the chair of BP's U.S. operations, Lamar McKay, to resign.
>>>>>>



http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/joe-barton-to-be-special-guest-at-fl-gopers-fundraiser.php#more

[white cloud]

27. THEY APOLOGIZ0E RIGHT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gP3OG8oPmE&feature=player_embedded

[sonias]

28. Poll: Texans say Joe Barton was wrong

Politico 6/24/10
Poll: Texans say Joe Barton was wrong

A wide majority of Texans think Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) was wrong to apologize to BP, according to a new Public Policy Polling survey.

Sixty-five percent of the 500 Texans polled think BP did not deserve an apology for how the White House has treated the company. Only 18 percent sided with Barton in defending the energy giant.

Both Democrats and independents polled found Barton’s comments highly objectionable, but even a majority of Republicans thought he was wrong.

Fifty-six percent of the Republicans surveyed said BP does not deserve an apology, while 65 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of independents said the same.

(snip)

Forty-two percent of Texans wanted to see Barton step down from his post as ranking Republican, compared with 31 percent who thought he should stay.

Oh boy Smokey Joe is still getting kicked around for this. Oh please, please let him keep apologizing to BP and remain the GOP poster boy for the fall. Hell he's getting more un-popular than even Tony Hayward.

In the history books, we'll have Joe Barton be the cause of the Gulf oil spill. For he so angered God that God acted to strike Joe down and it rained oil for 100 nights and 100 days.

[white cloud]

29. Pokin Joe again

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N862Pmi5CV4&feature=player_embedded

[sonias]

30. Pelican Scrubbing! business is booming

Great parody! The Twitter line yesterday:

http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR

We're #1! We're #1! We're #1! In your face IXTOC! Biggest Gulf of Mexico spill EVAHHHHH!

Yesterday of course was the day that the Deep Horizon spill became the largest oil spill in the Gulf - ever. :(

BP spill hits a somber record as Gulf's biggest

[white cloud]

31. Meet Joe's friends and associates

Congressman Joe Barton, the top Republican on the committee overseeing the oil spill and its aftermath, delivered a personal apology to BP, saying the $20 billion fund that President Obama directed BP to establish to provide relief to the victims of the oil disaster was a "tragedy in the first proportion."

more here
http://www.bprepublicans.com/page/content/bprepublicans


Looks like they forgot Federal Judge Martin Feldman.
http://www.bloomlegal.com/blog/2010/07/10/louisiana-judge%E2%80%99s-investments-under-scrutiny/

[onestepforward]

32. Cool website!

They need to also show how much they get from the oil companies too! :)

[white cloud]

33. Take a look at

these pictures


http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/07/you-are-not-authorized-to-see-these.html

[sonias]

35. That is just too depressing to look at it

Makes me sick. Unbelievable amount of damage to the coast and all life forms. I don't think we will ever fully recover.

:cry:

[sonias]

34. BP Republicans!

Oily Joe BP dollars. They're never too oily for Joe.

His friends are the kookiest of the Rs. No surprise they are all BP apologists.

And that Judge had no business making that ruling. He should have recused himself for conflict of interest. That would assume he had any ethics, of course. :(

[white cloud]

36. GREASEY JOE

http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/06/17/martin.barton.shakedown/index.html?hpt=T1



http://bx.businessweek.com/oil-and-gas/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ihavenet.com%2Fpolitics%2FMeet-Joe-Barton-Republican-BP-Apologist-Big-Oil-Advocate-LPJ.html



http://www.democraticpartyofgeorgia.org/taxonomy/term/171

[sonias]

37. Barton and Boehner

They're the new "Dewey, Cheatem & Howe" crew.


I liked the DNC ad from your link above.
YouTube DNC ad


Barton and Boehner paid mercenaries for Bio Oil and Wall Street! :puke:

[white cloud]

38. Joe Barton and Lockerbie bomber

Wonder how Texas Congressman Joe Barton or Texas libertarian Rand Paul will spin this. Jed Lewinson at Daily Kos: "TWI:

An executive from BP will be asked to testify at a July 29 hearing on the release of Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, who was convicted of organizing the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
BP's role in lobbying for the release of the Lockerbie bomber has been public knowledge in the U.K. since last September, though it is just now becoming widely known inside the U.S.

LONDON — The oil giant BP faced a new furor on Thursday as it confirmed that it had lobbied the British government to conclude a prisoner-transfer agreement that the Libyan government wanted to secure the release of the only person ever convicted for the 1988 Lockerbie airliner bombing over Scotland, which killed 270 people, most of them Americans ... The admission came after American legislators, grappling with the controversy over the company’s disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill, called for an investigation into BP’s actions in the case of the freed man, Abdel Basset Ali al-
..>>>>>>>>>>

http://www.examiner.com/x-10722-Austin-Science-Policy-Examiner~y2010m7d16-BP-to-testify-on-release-of-Lockerbie-bomber

[white cloud]

39. WISHED I HAD A JOB GOLFING 4 DAY OUT OF THE WEEK

The PFAW Voters Alliance is cosponsoring an effort by our friends at Blue America PAC to beat Republican Leader John Boehner in his own House district. Because Boehner is an unbelievably avid golfer (he golfed 119 times last year—how is that even possible?) we’ll be putting up a billboard near a golf course in Boehner’s district. And we need your help deciding what it will say.

As you cast your vote, keep in mind these fun facts about the out-of-touch, lobbyist-schmoozing, industry-loving aspiring Speaker of the House:

•He said passage of affordable health care for all Americans would be “Armageddon” and would “ruin the country.”
•He dismissed Wall Street’s greedy and disastrous practices as “an ant,” saying regulatory reform would be like killing the ant with a nuclear weapon.
•He suggested that taxpayer dollars should be used to bail out BP.
•He wants a moratorium on new federal regulations of all industries.
On top of all these indicators that Boehner would be simply disastrous in the role of Speaker of the House, if he did achieve that position it would mean several equally extreme right-wing members taking over as chair of key committees – like Joe Barton, who apologized to BP for the government taking actions to hold the company accountable, taking over the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Here are two of the billboards we’ve designed to remind Boehner’s constituents where his--and his party’s--priorities lie:




http://blog.pfaw.org/content/we%E2%80%99re-putting-up-billboard-boehner%E2%80%99s-hometown-what-should-it-say

[white cloud]

40. Barton Campaign Fund Takes Losses on BP, Other Stocks

Rep. Joe Barton lost more than $154,000 on investments of his campaign funds during the last three months, according to a CQ MoneyLine study of campaign finance reports. The Texas Republican’s campaign fund losses are due in part to drops in energy company stocks, including BP.

Turbulence in the financial markets has taken its toll on several House campaigns, which lost in total more than a quarter of a million dollars in campaign funds since March because they invested in the stock market, but Barton’s losses make up the largest chunk of that.

Barton saw his bottom line fall in part because of losses in broad-based funds that invested in companies linked to the recent Gulf Coast oil spill. His campaign reported losing more than $13,000 in the Fidelity Select Energy Service, which lists Halliburton and Transocean Inc. among the fund’s largest four holdings. Transocean is down more than 36 percent for the year, while Halliburton is down nearly 6 percent so far in 2010.

>>>>>>>>



http://www.rollcall.com/news/48421-1.html?type=aggregate_friendly&CMP=OTC-RSS

[sonias]

42. He absolutely has no shame

He owns BP stock and he's sitting there on the Energy Committee defending them pretending to be "unbiased". Conflict of interest shyster. :mad:

I hope he goes broke!

[white cloud]

43. THE CLAIMS PROCESS

THE STORY
http://blog.al.com/jdcrowe/2010/08/claims_agent_doll.html

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/08/on_highway_90_at_every_door_oi.html

http://donovanlawgroup.wordpress.com/2010/07/19/165/

http://donovanlawgroup.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/is-the-bp-oil-spill-victim-compensation-fund-legitimate/

[white cloud]

41. TAKE YOUR PICK ............THERE MORE

http://www.pfaw.org/issues/fighting-the-right/boehner-billboard



http://www.pfaw.org/issues/fighting-the-right/boehner-billboard

[w8liftinglady]

44. i hate to show you a paid editorial in one of my papers..

we liberals,democrats and socialists are ruining the country for good tea party people...especially gays and African-Americans..
http://www.elliscountypress.com/news/126/ARTICLE/6882/2010-07-29.html

[white cloud]

45. Barton celebrates Waxahachie clinic, which is expanding with stimulus he opposed

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, August 14, 2010
By MELANIE MASON / The Dallas Morning News
[e-mail]
WASHINGTON – Rep. Joe Barton, who called last year's economic stimulus bill a "boondoggle," attended a groundbreaking this week for an expansion of an Ellis County clinic made possible under the law.

Hope Clinic in Waxahachie received a $250,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services for construction. The building will primarily be used to expand dental services.

"There were two pieces of legislation that helped bring this about," Joseph Gallegos, senior vice president of the National Association of Community Health Centers, said at Wednesday's groundbreaking. "Part of this was economic stimulus funding, and the other was in the Affordable Care Act."

The second is the federal health insurance overhaul, which Barton also opposed.

Barton voted against both the stimulus bill and this spring's health care overhaul legislation.
>>>>>>>>
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/DN-barton_14met.ART.State.Edition1.356650a.html

[white cloud]

46. A Rotten System

Sometimes you’re too close to the problem to see it. Sometimes it seems like things have always been this way and always will be. Sometimes it takes a friend standing outside of a problem to tell you that what you accept as normal is in fact bizarre and deeply dysfunctional.

Take American politics, or more specifically the influence big business exerts on the political process. When BP bosses were being hauled over the coals by a congressional committee for their woeful handling of the oil-spill, Republican congressman Joe Barton officially apologized to the oil company for the way the Obama administration was making them live up to their responsibilities. This was a startling statement, jarringly out of touch with the mood of a public that Mr Barton is sworn to represent. Why did he make it ?

Let me offer a clue. Since Barton came to Congress in 1984 he has received $1.4 million in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry as a whole, $27,350 of it from people and political committees associated with BP. Barton has received $100,000 in contributions from the oil industry this cycle alone. He is just one of the many politicians of both parties seriously compromised by their association with big business. He is a member of a party which consistently represents the interests of corporations over those of the people who elect them
>>>>>>>>
http://gnomefree.com/?p=410

[white cloud]

47. Obama hit the nail on the head

"They do show up at the ribbon-cuttings for the infrastructure projects," President Barack Obama said at a fundraiser this week in Austin. "They will fulminate and say it's going to be Armageddon if we pass all this stuff, but then they're cheesin' and grinnin' right there, got the shovel all ready, sending out the press releases.":mad:

[white cloud]

48. Sec. Chu Explains Plate Tectonics To Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX)

http://www.youtubevideos1.com/sec-chu-explains-plate-tectonics-to-rep-joe-barton-r-tx/

[sonias]

50. That's one of my favorites

Barton actually tweeted that he had stumped Chu. Oily Joe is so stupid he didn't realize that Chu made him look like the fool he is.

Joe's arrogant stupidity here:

twitter.com/RepJoeBarton/status/1587377008
I seemed to have baffled the Energy Sec with basic question - Where does oil come from?

Oily Joe wears his stupidity proudly!

:rofl:

[sonias]

49. Such a hypocrite

Democrats accused Barton of trying to have it both ways.

"Representative Joe Barton joins over half the Republicans in Washington in taking credit for job creation that they fought against," said Jesse Ferguson, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "If Joe Barton had his way, this facility wouldn't be expanding, and they wouldn't be getting ready to provide health care to more Texans."

These Republicans never fail to take credit for things they opposed! :grr:

[white cloud]

51. From BP with Love

http://belowthesaltblog.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/bp%E2%80%99s-gift-of-love-to%C2%A0you/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPtHe4EPHBc&feature=player_embedded

[sonias]

52. Fish Oil Plus!

Yum Yum!

:rofl: