Cantor Concedes Flawed Republican Tax Cut Policy

For decades now, the Republican party has adhered to the notion that tax cuts reduce the deficit. The thinking goes that if the government taxes the very rich less, they'll spend more and it'll "trickle down" to the rest of us. Once the money drips down, deficits are reduced because the spending habits of the wealthy boost the economy. However, as we have seen the national debt explode since Reagan enacted this insane ideology, Republicans have unsuccessfully made their case in the real world. Today, G.O.P. Minority Whip Eric Cantor admitted it on live television....even if it came out unwittingly.

Sanford May Be Toast??

Well it has certainly been a crazy day down in South Carolina. The pundits are going overboard in talking about this scandalous subject. GoOPer Ron Christie think Sanford may be toast for having an extramarital affair with an Argentine woman for several years but I think we all know that Sanford is beyond toast, he's completely and utterly finished in politics.



Forget the Presidential run in 2012, he should be brought up on impeachment charges for leaving his state unattended with no one in charge lest an emergency come up. Not only did he disgrace himself and his family, he put all of South Carolina at risk.

Bloomberg's Fiscal Hypocrisy

When Mayor Bloomberg was making his case for extending term limits to the city council, his public relations front centered around the false premise that because he was rich, he could also manage the city's finances in tough times. Since the bill was pushed through so quickly by his allies in the city council, no one had enough time to properly review (or even let the people decide if they wanted to relinquish the term limit law they had voted on twice) if what he was saying even made sense. Now with the details of the budget and the view of NYC's fiscal future become a bit more clear, we see that the Mayor was a big part of the problem in getting us where we are today.

From The NY Times:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is sounding the alarm over New York City’s pension system these days, calling it “out of control.”

Costs have ballooned, he says, threatening to bankrupt the city. Municipal unions and lawmakers in Albany created the crisis, he suggests, and left the city holding the bag.

But interviews and budget records show that the Bloomberg administration itself is responsible for much of the growth in city pension costs over the last eight years, and has repeatedly missed opportunities to rein in the spending.

Since Mr. Bloomberg took office, city contributions to the pension system have jumped nearly five-fold to $6.3 billion, from $1.4 billion, and they now account for one out of every 10 dollars in the city’s budget.

Now don't get me wrong, I love that workers got raises. Yet the role of the Mayor is to have the right leadership to help city workers without over-taxing the city's ability to stay afloat. The worst thing about it though, is that Bloomberg claims to be something he's not. If he were to say something closer to the truth (that he was looking for the support of municipal workers at the expense of the city's financial health) then perhaps we could look at this through a different lens. Bloomberg however wants to be everything to everyone so that he can hold onto power for another four years, and that is something every voter should be well aware of when going to the polls in the fall.

Move Over Media Matters, Here Comes Fox News

Whenever I need a laugh, or a reason to throw something at the television/computer monitor (take your pick) I catch a video clip from Fox News. Their latest talking point goes after ABC for committing the unspeakable crime of giving President Obama a platform to talk to the nation about his health care plan. I know, I know, I'm just as outraged as you.

DN Op-Ed Scolds Albany For Trash-Talking The M.T.A.

Last night the Assembly and Senate officially passed the M.T.A. "bailout" bill after the leadership was assured of its' passage the night before. Democrats were delighted and Republicans acted angrily but both sides decried the M.T.A. for running a "less than clean" operation. Malcolm Smith repeatedly smacked them around with charges of pay to play, inappropriate perks and the infamous yet discredited theory that they ran with two books. Well, Bill Hammond at the Daily news has a few words for the legislators in Albany. The whole article is a thing of beauty, but here are a few of my favorite parts.

From The NY Daily News:

Just look at the recklessly irresponsible way the Assembly and the Senate - justly tagged as the most dysfunctional in the country - handled the MTA bailout.

It was almost a year ago that the MTA first raised an alarm about its looming fiscal crisis, due largely to economic forces out of its control.

It was 154 days ago that a blue-ribbon panel headed by former MTA chief Richard Ravitch delivered a solid rescue plan.

It was based on months of research and had the hearty endorsement of a rainbow of civic groups.

The MTA clearly warned of fare hikes and service cuts in December, held public hearings in January and February, and approved the details in March.

No one can claim to be caught by surprise.

You can't argue with that, this was a long time coming. And about Smith bashing the M.T.A.? Well....

But compared to the Legislature, the MTA is a model of open, clean government.

At least it has financial books it shares with the public - on a monthly basis. They're on the MTA's Web site, available to any lawmaker who actually cares to know the facts.

And those books are double-checked by an independent auditor, the state controller, the public authority budget office, a citizens advisory panel and any number of private watchdogs. The MTA also has an inspector general responsible for keeping things honest.

The Legislature, by contrast, shares its books with no one, is audited by no one and - despite a dozen criminal indictments of members in recent years - operates without a serious ethics cop on the beat.

Smith has no right to talk when the Senate he runs is more corrupt than the M.T.A. could ever be. There are several criminals in his midst, yet does nothing about it. And don't tell me that stripping one from chairing a Committee is a real consequence. That guy is looking at serious jail time if his alleged domestic abuse charges yield a guilty verdict. Then there's Espada, who's all kinds of crooked. Espada's friends, Diaz and Kruger are no angels either and the list goes on from there. But is there any accountability for anything?

All I hear is crickets, and a whole lot of hypocrisy.

Eric Cantor's Hypocritical Tracks

Eric Cantor has been one of a few younger GOP officials that have been trying to assert themselves into a leadership role for the faltering Republican party. If tales of hypocrisy were the main criteria to be a leader, Cantor would certainly be on or near the top of the list. He may not be a secessionist who turns around the next week clamoring for specific kinds of federal assistance, but this is too good not to mention.

From The Huffington Post:

While the stimulus was being debated in January, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor called a group of reporters into his office to outline the GOP's objections. As we filed in, we walked past a giant poster ridiculing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) for allegedly pushing for high-speed rail connecting Disneyland and Las Vegas.

On NBC's "Meet the Press," Cantor called that project an example of "waste and pork-barrel spending."

Yet one man's pork is another man's prudent investment in transit -- and sometimes the same man's.

Asked about high-speed rail at a recent local event in Virginia, Cantor was all thumbs up. "If there is one thing that I think all of us here on both sides of the political aisle from all parts of the region agree with, it's that we need to do all we can to promote jobs here in the Richmond area," Cantor said of the high-speed rail.

Even though the Disneyland to Vegas high speed rail story was a complete fabrication, Cantor went with it anyway. After being thoroughly disproved the Congressman continued to repeat the lie for the sake of cheap political points among his base. Now that the bill has passed and his vote was recorded as a no, he is trying to claim credit and hype the stimulus money that is coming Virginia's way. It really is amazing to watch Cantor tout the jobs Obama and Democrats in Congress helped create, fighting off people like him to make it happen.

"Do as I say, not as I do," seems to be this politician's creed.

GOP Filibuster Hypocrisy Alert

You gotta love the outright brazenness of the Republican party these days. It was bad enough when they were in power, but now as an increasingly irrelevant minority their demands know no bounds. Their latest temper tantrum is over judicial nominees and they want Barack Obama to know about it. According to a letter signed by all 41 in the GOP caucus, they have committed to using the filibuster if they do not get to "consult" the President about who gets nominated for such positions as Supreme Court justice. Of course, just a few years ago they were threatening to do away with the filibuster altogether.

From The Washington Times:

It also required that some senators go back on their previous positions, but Republicans said it’s more important that Democrats, not Republicans, be consistent.

“We’re not asking Leahy to follow the Hatch position; we’re asking Leahy to follow the Leahy rule,” said a senior Republican Senate official involved with judicial nominations. “Senator Hatch isn’t chairman now, and he wasn’t chairman for the last couple Congresses.”

Clearly, the "P" in GOP does not stand for "principles." I can't wait for next year and their caucus loses another few members. Then they can threaten to filibuster all they want, it won't amount to a hill of beans. Then again, they'll probably complain and demand the Majority Leader lower the filibuster bar to thirty-five or thirty senators.

Hypocritical Money Quote Of The Day, Brought To You By JP Morgan Chase

This is one of those moments where you laugh out loud or start ripping your hair out. When it comes to money management and Wall Street, chances are someone talking about it these days is setting up a joke, not for actually trusting your money to the crooks that dwell below Chambers St. So when JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon opened his mouth to lend his "expertise" concerning Obama's homeowner plan, I wasn't sure whether to chuckle at the joke or kick him in the face for his sincerity.

From The Huffington Post:

"I don't think just because someone's underwater they say I don't have to stay there. But they're supposed to pay the mortgage, and we should teach the American people, you're supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them. Because you have a mortgage doesn't mean you should run away as it goes down."

Click here for the video.

Oh yeah, this is the same guy that took $25 billion in TARP money for his company that had mismanaged their own funds and helped contribute to the economic meltdown we've been experiencing. Dimon is in charge of a failed lending enterprise that made risky bets with no regard to their fiscal solvency and that of their many clients. He is one of the absolute last people to talk about fiscal discipline of any sort.

The Palin Family "Abstinence" Hypocrisy Is America's Problem

When Sarah Palin stepped out onto the national stage, she brought her big family with her too, so that America would love her even more, or something like that. Unfortunately, the story about her pregnant teenage daughter surfaced shortly after and hypocrisy meters were screaming off the charts. Palin's views were of a typical wingnut Republican (abstinence education only, nothing about birth control) but the reality in her own home was quite a different story. Well now her daughter Bristol got herself on the teevee, and well, like, oh my god, guess what she said.

From ThinkProgress:

In 2006, as a gubernatorial candidate, Sarah Palin filled out a questionnaire emphasizing her support for abstinence education. She wrote that “the explicit sex-ed programs will not find my support.” Alaska does not require sex ed to be taught in schools; Anchorage schools teach “Abstinence Plus,” which emphasizes abstaining from sex.

Palin’s views came under fire when it was revealed that her then-17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant. In her first public interview, Bristol told Fox News’ chief Palin cheerleader Greta Van Susteren last night that abstinence is “not realistic at all”:

VAN SUSTEREN: I don’t want to pry to personally, but I mean, actually, contraception is an issue here. Is that something that you were just lazy about or not interested, or do you have a philosophical or religious opposition to it or…

BRISTOL: No. I don’t want to get into detail about that. But I think abstinence is, like — like, the — I don’t know how to put it — like, the main — everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it’s not realistic at all.

When Van Susteren asked Gov. Palin about abstinence, she seemed similarly dismissive of her former views, admitting, “It sounds naive.” Bristol added, “I just — I hope that people learn from my story and just, like, I don’t know, prevent teen pregnancy, I guess.”

I guess? To paraphrase a quote from a great President, is our children learning anything at all?

Thank god that the adults are back in control of the government and are directing spending towards sex ed and not merely abstinence. The ways of the GOP puritanical purity patrol have shown themselves to be a complete failure, and not just in the Palin house. Schools across the country that have only taught abstinence are doing our nation's children a serious disservice, and that willful ignorance of a real problem will be put to an end by President Obama.

Paterson Tries To Appease Staff With Raises, Screws The Rest Of Us Though

Governor Paterson is experiencing some rough times these days. That massive budget deficit we have is causing him significant difficulty in deciding what to do about it, but unfortunately it seems if there's a bad choice to make, he'll go with it. Take for instance this latest mistake of giving raises to his top staffers, presumably to keep them from leaving their jobs. Now that's great for those few who work in the Governor's office, but what about the 130,000 state employees he told would have their wages frozen?

From The NY Post:

ALBANY - Gov. Paterson has secretly granted raises of as much as 46 percent to more than a dozen staffers at a time when he has asked 130,000 state workers to give up 3 percent pay hikes because of the state's fiscal crisis, The Post has learned.

The startling pay hikes, costing about $250,000 annually, were granted after the governor's "emergency" declaration in August of a looming fiscal crisis that required the state to cut spending and impose a "hard" hiring freeze.

One raise was approved as recently as last month - when Paterson claimed the budget deficit had reached an unprecedented $15.5 billion.

That would be another blow to the Governor's claims to wanting shared sacrifice in these tenuous times. Seeing stories like that do not make me feel so bad to hear about Paterson being chanted at and having buttons for a fair tax all around him. He had a few supporters in the room where the conference for the Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators was being held, but many of them wanted to see Paterson stand behind their issues by reducing the spending cuts (especially with a few billion more than expected from the stimulus bill) and instituting additional taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers so that "shared sacrifice" could actually be called a legitimate slogan when all is said and done.

Sen. Grassley Loves Him Some "Porkulus"

Senator Grassley probably thought he was being witty when he labeled parts of the stimulus bill as "porkulus." Though as most politicians like Grassley, he forgets that the Internet has a funny way of recounting the Senator's own pork-barrel spending and Jon Stewart had no problem in pointing that out.

Boehner On National Debt, He's One To Talk

I seriously wonder how Rep. Boehner manages to keep a straight face on when he talks about the worrisome rising national debt. While Bush nearly doubled the total, he said nothing. Now that Barack Obama is actually trying to save the economy by spending dollars on infrastructure, the Republican all of a sudden cares about deficit spending.



That goes for Mitch McConnell's feigned sincerity on the issue as well.

Bruno's Reformation? Hell Will Freeze Over First

Joe Bruno may not be one of the three men in the proverbial room anymore, but that doesn't mean he's stopped adhering to a similar way of doing business. While he is busy paying in and out of state lawyers to keep the FBI off his trail, seventy-nine year old Joe is working hard to lobby for his friends. That isn't too surprising, but what the company in question is hawking is quite hilarious.

From The NY Times:

Over the nearly 14 years he served as Senate majority leader, Mr. Bruno became to some critics one of the symbols of Albany’s secrecy, inefficiency and profligacy. Now, as the chief executive of CMA Consulting Services, an information technology and software firm based just outside Albany, Mr. Bruno is preaching the virtues of smaller, leaner, more accountable government. (The aforementioned Web site, by the way, is called Project Sunlight.)

Where Mr. Bruno once steered hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development money to his suburban Albany district, he now pitches municipal agencies on how to save money by switching to paperless payroll systems.

The man who went to court rather than reveal details of the Senate’s pork-barrel spending now speaks proudly of his company’s role in designing a program for the state comptroller that allows reporters or the public to examine any contract between a state agency and a vendor.

The Times does a good job of fleshing out the irony in the interview and as you read it, you can tell Bruno could care less how people feel about what he's doing and how he goes about it. In a nutshell, the lobbying he's doing now comes naturally to him and whether he's selling this technology or pork bellies, it really doesn't matter. The response to his critics really says it all.

“Bruno wasn’t some rank-and-file legislator,” said Blair Horner, the legislative director for the New York Public Interest Research Group. “The bottom-line corporate reason is, they’re hoping that he will fatten the bottom line, that his personal relationships will help them to keep and expand the amount of government contract work.”

Indeed, some do not buy Mr. Bruno’s new enthusiasm for transparent government or his claims that it is consistent with policies he advocated as senator.

Mr. Bruno, for example, was the first Senate leader to require the release of every internal expenditure made by the Senate.

But those reports are published only every six months, in a book format that makes it extremely difficult to examine the spending in any systematic way. (Asked about it, Mr. Bruno joked, “You noticed that, huh?”)

Yeah Mr. Bruno, we've noticed, but unfortunately for those that truly believe in good government, it is nearly too late to hold him accountable for all of his secretive actions. Now the focus has to be on the here and now, and hopefully the time of Joe Bruno will come to an end shortly after the man himself leaves Albany.

In Less Than A Minute, Palin Labels Elitists And Decries Labels

All the while, John McCain just sits there with his hands folded and watches his shot at becoming President get further and further away:

You're A Socialist Too Sarah

John McCain and Sarah Palin are throwing the kitchen sink and then some with the hope of knocking Barack Obama and Joe Biden from their lead over them. Bill Ayers and ACORN hasn't seemed to work, so now they're going with "Nah, nah, nah, nah, you're a socialist!" The problem with that is, with their standards, Sarah Palin is a socialist too.

From Crooks and Liars:

McCain's last ditch effort is too say that Obama is a socialist. Wallace called him out on it.

WALLACE: But, Senator, you voted for the $700 billion bailout that's being used partially to nationalize American banks. Isn't that socialism?

As we know Conservatism has ran up the largest debt this country has ever known, started two wars and destroyed Wall Street under the compassionate one, but be afraid of Obama.I saw Sarah Palin saying the same thing.

On Sunday, she went a step further.

“Barack Obama calls it spreading the wealth,” she said. “Joe Biden calls higher taxes patriotic. But Joe the plumber and Ed the dairy man, I believe that they think that it sounds more like socialism. Friends, now is no time to experiment with socialism.”

Didn't she redistribute the wealth in Alaska? You know, take the oil profits, impose a tax and kick it back to Alaskans?

Nevermind those pesky facts, it wouldn't be a good ol' fashioned GOP attack if it didn't reek of hypocrisy. You know, kinda like the whining Rick Davis has done about the $150 million that Obama raised last month. Expect plenty more of this crap over the next two weeks, that is for sure.

Bloomberg's Term Limit Hypocrisy, False Pretenses For Running And Other Shenanigans

Mayor Bloomberg is certainly a very busy man and as we can see, quite the crafty politician. The Independent Mayor started the week off with a fundraiser for Republican Congressman Chris Shays and then jetted over to California to see Arnold. While there, he addressed the a voter referenda on how people get elected....in California. In a blatantly hypocritical move, he endorsed Californians will to let the people decide while styming democracy here in New York.

Back on the homestead, good government groups are going up against the billionaire Mayor with avengence. Yesterday a Freedom of Information request was filed by NYPIRG and Common Cause to see what the Mayor did not know and when did he not know it. Or in a nutshell, seeing when Bloomberg started stirring up the term limit waters in order to disprove his central argument for re-election, namely that because he can fiscally manage his own money that he should be given the right to do it for NYC until 2013.

And then to wrap it up yesterday, none other than Hillary Clinton voiced her strong opinion against the Mayor. She thinks that the Mayor's move is 'disturbing' to say the least and that she'll be keeping a close eye on how the situation develops. Obviously she has heard a lot from New York residents that do not trust the Council to do the right thing and as the Times suspects, two of them are probably close Clinton allies Rep. Anthony Weiner and Councilman Bill de Blasio.

As for today, the Council is holding its public forum here at City Hall this afternoon, going straight through until tomorrow. The forum gives each side to show their strength and allow for New Yorkers to make the Council know where the people stand on this important issue.

McCain Goes Hypocritical And Out Of Context In One Fell Swoop

John McCain has been losing ground to Barack Obama all week and now his attacks on the Democratic nominee are going downhill in a hurry. McCain said he didn't know much about the economy, so he decided to prove it today by calling Obama's plan "just plain dumb." Of course, stupidity, greed and Republican policies that include deregulation got us into this mess, but there is no mention of that from Mr. Straight Talk.

From RawStory:

The Republican said his Democratic rival had failed to do anything to avert the crisis with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, two giant organizations which guarantee billions of dollars in mortgages which were taken over by the government on September 7.

"He didn't lift a hand to avert this crisis," McCain said, accusing Obama of remaining silent in Congress as the mortgage crisis was building.

McCain also pounced on a comment by Obama's vice presidential running mate Senator Joseph Biden that it would be "patriotic" for wealthy Americans to pay higher taxes at a time of economic need.

"Raising taxes in a tough economy isn't patriotic," McCain said. "It's not a badge of honor, it's just plain dumb."

McCain also omits the fact that he had no clue that the economic crisis was coming while Obama has been talking about the economic problems of ordinary people since he started campaigning. The crisis on Wall Street didn't come out of nowhere, it was precipitated by millions of Americans being taken advantage of by the financial sector and they simply left too many people stranded and the whole thing came crashing down on them.

As for being dumb and raising taxes, the only people that sounds dumb to are the ones that do not want to give up their multi-million dollar incomes. Obama wants to raise taxes on those making $250,000 a year or more, while cutting taxes for people that make less. What the greedy bastards on Wall Street and in the Republican caucus took from the middle-class, he wants to give it back. That isn't dumb, it makes perfect sense. In fact, go ahead and see what your taxes will look like if you go with Obama or McCain, chances are Obama is going to save you money and will try to restore the broken system in the process.

Sarah Palin Is No Advocate For The Disabled

Sarah Palin may take really good care of her newborn baby Trig, who was born with Down Syndrome. Though for her to use Trig as a way to claim she'll fight for the disabled and special needs children is a travesty. If she was what she claimed she was, her policy decisions would reflect it, but they don't. Every year thousands of special needs kids are treated to the Special Olympics, where they can be athletes and heroes in their own right. For Sarah Palin however, that is just another wasteful government program.

From ThinkProgress:

Campaigning in Colorado today, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) promised renewed attention to kids with special needs. She declared, “Ever since I took the chief executive’s job up North I pushed for more funding for students with special needs,” and cited her own family’s experience with the issue.

It’s a stretch to say she “pushed” for any policy improvements. Though Palin did sign a law increasing special education funding in Alaska, “she had no role whatsoever” in its development, according to the bill’s author, Rep. Mike Hawker (R). Moreover, as governor, Palin vetoed $275,000 in Special Olympics Alaska funds (Page 100, SB 221 with vetoes), slashing the organization’s operating budget in half.

Compassionate conservatism at its finest! I guess when you are a slick, wealthy politician like Palin you can afford to take care of Trig in the manner that is best for him, but for all those that she "advocates" for, you're on your own. Or maybe what she meant is that she'd pray for the families that have an additional economic burden with their kids that need special attention. Sarah, I'm not a religious guy by any means, but I do know that "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20) and you do not even have to believe in God to follow that one.

Samantha Bee Exposes Republican Hypocrisy Over "Choice"

There are plenty of reasons Samantha Bee is a part of the Best F*cking News Team, here's one of them:

Four Nights Of RNC Trickery And Delusion Are Over

Last night John McCain gave a forty-five minute speech and said absolute nothing. In fact, all of the speakers at the Republican convention said nothing. Sure, words came out of their mouths and people heard them, but still, they said nothing. While the Democratic party showed emotion, compassion and the substance of their platform, all we heard this week was more of the same. The same emphasis on fear, the same emphasis on hate, the same overwhelming hypocrisy of the GOP and the same lies that they told four years ago and eight years ago.

I could delve into specifics from McCain's speech last night and write volumes on them. The topics are diverse, such as lying about Palin's record, his time as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, the fact that he has helped lead the herd of special interests and employs lobbyists on his campaign and the fear campaign he especially has going on Barack Obama. The way he talked the corrupt nature of Washington, I could have sworn there was a mirror in those teleprompters and he was just talking to himself.

So yeah, there's plenty of hypocrisy in what he says, but for a while he was dubbed the Straight Talk Express and the media thought he was a nice, honest guy. Now he is hidden away and won't even allow the media to interview his new VP nominee. Frankly, she is a political prop and a gimmick that gave his campaign some life-blood, but that only applies to his base and is exactly why he won't let the rest of us see the real Palin in action. Her scripted speech was full of lies and childish attacks, which is great at the RNC but does no one any good if godforbid she got to live at the Naval Observatory next year.

I will admit though, they did put on a good show. Even Romney's use of red meat on Wednesday night and Giuliani's background of New York was good messaging to the Republican horde. Yet that is exactly what all of that was, a show. They are good at tricks and deluding their followers. The line about reforming Washington sums it all up. They have been running Washington for several years now and have created one of the greatest messes our country has ever seen. We are in more debt, our troops dying in unnecessary wars, the Constitution in tatters and the rich get richer while the rest of us get screwed. For the last four nights Republicans have offered change, their way. In two months time, we are going to get change but instead of it being a political gimmick, President Obama will make it real.