Archive for Republicans can’t help themselves

VIDEO– GOP Sen. John Cornyn’s idea of immigration reform: Disney World and exploitation of immigrant deaths

donald duck disney three cabelleros

Aww, look at that. See how pensive and deep and somber Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) is in the video?  He gets that way around graves of undocumented immigrants marked with bouquets of pretty flowers. What a guy. He sure cares. So-o-o much. So very much.

Why, he feels so sad and compassionate that he’s blocking immigration reform! As Think Progress notes, that would be the same reform that would “effectively prevent more senseless border deaths from occurring. Migrants often have to rely on smugglers who leave them to die in the desert.”

It must just be his quirky little way of helping to reinvent the GOP in order to prove their Very Serious Outreach Effort (scroll).

but wait there's more smaller

If you think that video is bad, wait until you hear this, as reported by Think Progress. Cornyn actually compared U.S. border security to– wait for it– Disney World:

CORNYN: My conversations with Senator Rubio, he happened to share with me that Disney World uses a biometric system to ensure people do not commit ticket fraud. If they are that easy, affordable and good enough for the Magic Kingdom, they ought to be good enough for the United States. Senator Sessions’ amendment would guarantee they would not be eligible for lawful citizenship until there is a biometric entry/exit system.

No he’s not kidding.

Follow the link for a lot more.

donald duck sombrero

Just when you think it can’t get crazier, former GOP Rep. Joe Walsh could replace former Illinois GOP chairman

joe walsh former congressman, deadbeat dad

A few days ago we posted about the Illinois GOP chair resigning, citing support for marriage equality as a reason. That Illinois GOP chairman was Pat Brady, who left partly because he’d been butting heads with several members of the state GOP over his support for marriage equality, and also because his wife has cancer.

That left an opening that would provide an opportunity for the Republican Party to demonstrate that they’re Very Serious about their Very Serious Outreach Effort (scroll), right?

Wrong.

Via the Chicago Sun Times‘s piece titled, “Ron Gidwitz blows up, blasts GOP conservative bloc for ‘destroying any chance … party has in 2014′”:

Brady had called on female leadership to revive embattled Illinois Republicans, but so far just one woman made the cut of contenders lining up to take the helm.

Someone who did make the list was Tea Party ex-Congressman Joe Walsh [...]

The list may grow before Friday’s deadline… 30 people were nominated and the nominations included other women — but numerous nominees said they were not interested.

Yes, “Tell your employees to vote Republican or they could be out of a job Deadbeat Dad, hostile, lowlife, bullying loudmouth who thought nothing of insulting veteran Duckworth with his now infamous, “Female, wounded veteran … ehhh” remarks. The same one who said, “Go get a job. Go get a job Sandra Fluke.” Joe Walsh. That Joe Walsh.

extreme makeover my ass

Simi Valley tea party councilman called out for posting decapitation video and misogynistic content on Facebook

Simi councilman Mike Judge

Over the past year, Mike Judge, a Simi Valley, California councilman, has posted links on his Facebook page to some offensive and racy websites. Very un-Simi-like of him. I taught in the Simi Valley school district for well over a decade, and it is a very conservative bedroom community. In fact, Simi and the porn industry have publicly clashed for some time now, including over the requirement that porn actors use condoms.

Did I mention that Mike Judge is an outspoken tea partier?

The pages he “liked” included “Fap Fap Fap” and “Big Fake Titties, Guns and other Manly Shit That Will Piss Your Girlfriend Off” (a page which, incidentally, has called Senator Feinstein a “moldy old c***”).

Judge’s own Facebook page is not set to private, so anyone can see what his, erm, preferences are.

Awhile back, the Simi Valley Acorn, a local paper out here in Ventura County, called him out because a minor stumbled across his Facebook page. He promised he would be “more careful” in the future.

Of course he would, because tea party members are fine, upstanding, honest, patriotic, family values citizens. And what did this fine, upstanding, honest, patriotic, family values tea partier do? Why he proceeded to post a video of a woman being beheaded with a pocketknife by drug cartel executioners.

The video came from BestGore.com, a torture and mutilation site that is also extremely anti-Semitic (they named Adolf Hitler as the greatest man of the 20th century). People are now want Judge to resign. Can’t for the life of me imagine why.

Via the Los Angeles Times:

But on Tuesday the Ventura County Democratic Party called for the Simi Valley Republican councilman’s resignation and censure after Judge linked to a graphic video of a woman being decapitated with a pocket knife. David Atkins, chair of the county Democratic Party, said the video appeared to depict a Mexican cartel murder.

“I started watching 10, 15 seconds of it before I clicked away. I’d seen enough,” he said. “When a councilman is a public figure and he starts sharing disturbing content like that from a website that’s basically torture porn … that’s a problem because people follow what he ‘likes.’ ” [...]

Atkins said the beheading video, which has been removed from Judge’s Facebook page, came from a website that features violent deaths, including executions, suicides and gruesome car wrecks.

But fine, upstanding, honest, patriotic, family values Councilman Judge then said, hey, this was all part of his police work, even though the crime wasn’t committed in the United States, and he never asked for help identifying the perpetrators when he posted it.

L.A. Times:

The nearly 23-year veteran of the LAPD said he didn’t go “trolling” for the pages, but that he “liked” them after male friends whom he described as being in the “alpha category” shared them with him.

Apprently Judge is also a fine, upstanding, honest, patriotic, family values, “alpha category” guy.

Here is The Acorn’s story describing how he was “called out not for his political views or votes but for his online profile—specifically, the types of pages he “likes” on Facebook, some of which contain scantily clad women in suggestive poses.”

According to The Acorn, an anonymous emailer who identified herself as “Simi Mother” had notified the local media, the city manager and city attorney, and the City Council—but not Judge, who is serving as mayor pro tem. She said, among other things, “He’s brought his private bedroom behavior to our bedroom community.” Per The Acorn:

[She] called out seven pages in particular, via screen shots of those pages attached to the email: Fap Fap Fap, Tactical Girls, Hot Chicks With Abs, Models Universe, Hot Mirror Shots and The Cougar Club. The other page name is not suitable for print; the page posts revealing photos of women, focusing on two body parts in particular.

The Acorn reached Judge, who said, sure, he “liked” the pages but sees them differently than “Simi Mother,” saying,

“There’s no porn on my Facebook. I know what pornography is, and I don’t consider any of that pornography… I have a lot of friends in the military, a lot of friends in law enforcement, so I get a lot of these things. Some people might find them distasteful, some might find them funny, that’s the way it is. I also post a lot of puppy pictures.

Awww, puppy pictures! See? He’s not so bad after all.

He also said that the woman complaining was out to get him. He has “unliked” several pages.

Republican War on Women? Naaah. Family values? Yeah, right. Pro-Life? I retort, you deride.

Another day, another GOP hypocrite.

reinvention my ass

Illinois GOP chair resigns, citing support for marriage equality as a reason

gay rights liza minelli sign

Those Republican scamps, swearingtogod that they’re totally into that Big Outreach Effort (scroll) of theirs, while shunning anyone who they think is “different” from them when they think we’re not looking.

The Republican Party chair in Illinois, Pat Brady has resigned, partly because he’s been butting heads with several members of the state GOP over his support for marriage equality. The other reason he gave was the old, “I want to spend more time with my family” routine. However, in this case, both reasons are valid; Republicans are small-minded, and his wife has cancer.

(CNN) – “There were several reasons,” why he decided to step down, Brady said in a telephone interview with CNN. “I’ve been going at it hard for six years, I need to focus on my family, and obviously I had lost the support of the state Central Committee because of my position on gay marriage.” [...]

Brady’s public support of same-sex marriage angered social conservatives because it went against the state GOP platform on the issue.

That would be the same GOP platform that represents their sincere, heartfelt, big tent reachy-outiness. The one that discriminates against gays. And women. And anyone else who isn’t Christian and/or white.

So Republicans, how’s that rebranding thing workin’ for ya?

reinvention my ass

Reince Priebus sums up what is wrong with the GOP in one sentence: “It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.”

reinvention my ass

It’s been some twenty-four hours!

First we had comedian and performance artist WI Gov. Scott Walker saying that Republicans are “the ones who care for the everyday people.”

Now, at the Patriot Center in Rothschild for the state party’s annual convention, we have RNC Chair Reince Priebus insisting:

“It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it.”

While Walker is in a state of denial, Priebus is in a state of delusion. Okay, they’re both delusional, that much nobody can deny.

Per the Green Bay Press Gazette, Reince has confirmed that the Party of Reinvention is really the Party of Hype. Of Marketing. Of B.S.

Mostly of B.S.

Priebus is actually saying, out loud and in public, that it’s not the substance, it’s not the failed policies, it’s not the divisiveness, it’s not the bigotry, it’s not the racism, it’s not the obstruction, it’s not the disregard for people who look or act differently from you… no, it’s the way you disguise those Neanderthal positions in order to pull one over on voters just long enough to win a few elections.

Wow.

So as they claim to be “reaching out” to minorities, especially Latinos and younger voters, they’ll mute those slurs (“illegals” and “wetbacks” to name a couple) but continue to reject marriage equality, civil rights, women’s rights, reproductive rights, equal rights, and acceptance of anyone who doesn’t fit their corporate, conservative mold. They’ll still push for privatizing the entire damned country, make it tougher to get an education, and deny access to health care and other assistance to those in need:

Republican leaders told Wisconsinites on Saturday that while they’re working to reshape the party’s image, they will stay true to conservative values such as slashing tax rates and keeping government small. [...]

Priebus told reporters Saturday the Republican National Committee is training its politicians to use a softer tone when addressing constituents and steer away from saying “biologically stupid things.” He also revealed that the RNC is employing hundreds of Republican workers in a multibillion-dollar operation in neighborhoods across the country to begin courting voters for the next national election.

It’s not what you say; it’s how you say it,” Priebus said… “Our principles aren’t rusty ideas in some old book; they’re fresh, revolutionary ideas.

Well, actually yes, your principles are very rusty, decrepit in fact. And if you believe that denying basic rights and services to so many while embracing only “certain” Americans is acceptable, then that’s neither “fresh” nor “revolutionary.” To the contrary, that’s self-serving and vile.

The GOP also thinks that using Twitter more effectively to put out their hypocritical message will make a difference. If their message is anything like what has just been described, it will, indeed, make a difference: They’ll fail harder.

Laugh line o’ the day– WI Gov. Scott Walker: Republicans are “the ones who care for the everyday people”

laughing ha ha

Hey, did you guys hear the one about Republicans reinventing themselves? Oh em gee, it’s hilarious. They actually think they’re pulling a fast one on Americans by claiming to reach out to voters who flat out rejected them in 2012. The punch line is, they think saying they’re doing that is the same as– wait for it– actually doing it!

now that's funny laugh

Clearly, they’ve been failing miserably at this sham of a “makeover.” Just follow that link above to see the myriad ways they’ve made fools of themselves. It’s as funny as it is pathetic.

It just got even funnier.

WisPolitics has this Moment of Levity from Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker from his speech to the 2013 state GOP convention:

We’re the ones who care for the everyday people of this state and this country, and it’s about time we stood up and told people about it.” [...]

Walker said that principle was at the heart of his decision to push for more educational opportunities, be it in traditional public schools or charter schools, and to turn down federal money to expand the Medicaid program. [...]

Walker mocked claims from critics that the change was a sign he hates poor people.

walker world

Oh me oh my, where to begin?

  • “We’re the ones who care for the everyday people of this state and this country.” That must be why you were nearly kicked out of office. And why your “screw the 47%” presidential candidate lost in a landslide.
  • Turn down federal money to expand the Medicaid program.” Nothing says “caring for everyday people” like taking away their lifeline.
  • Walker mocked claims from critics that the change was a sign he hates poor people.” Did it ever occur to him that they say that because he hates poor people? See: “Turn down federal money to expand Medicaid.”

On second thought, this wasn’t very funny after all. More like infuriatingly, hypocritically tone deaf.

outreach my ass reach out inclusive

Conservative backlash against Sen. Marco Rubio: “Rubio’s folly” on magazine cover

rubio national review cover Rubio's folly

Uh-oh, Marco! The anti-immigrant right is on your case! But keep trying to appeal to those non-existent Republican Latino voters, and keep smiling for the camera as you engage in more GOP infighting.

So yes, now Rubio’s in the all too familiar conservative dog house. Here he is trying to reinvent his apparently non-reinventable party by pushing for comprehensive immigration reform, and what does he get for it? A kvetchy National Review magazine cover and claims that he supports “amnesty.” Isn’t that just like the reachy-outy right?

That’ll teach him for hanging out with occasionally reasonable politicians and trying to occasionally fake-be reasonable himself.

Bad press, schmad press, you know what they say: All publicity is good publicity.

(CNN) – When the cover was posted online, commentators noted the publication had edited out the people standing behind the three senators at the press conference, including conservative anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist.

National Review isn’t the first magazine to use Rubio on its cover with a provocative headline. TIME labeled the junior senator from Florida the “Republican savior” on its cover in February.

Oh, how the mighty savior has fallen.

By the way, Republicans, how’s that rebranding thing workin’ for ya?

extreme makeover my ass