Crazy In NC: Tea Baggin' Brannon Edition

This Week In The Laboratories Of Democracy - Esquire

"...Of all the tea partiers running for Senate in 2014, Greg Brannon, a GOP primary candidate hoping to topple vulnerable North Carolina Democrat Kay Hagan, is one of the most extreme. He opposes publiceducation, claiming it "does nothing but dehumanize" students. He doesn't believe that states have to follow Supreme Court decisions. He contends bipartisan compromises in Washington "enslave" Americans. He hails the the late Sen. Jesse Helms—who died in 2008 without ever renouncing his support for racial segregation—as a "modern hero." He claims that "all ten of [Karl] Marx's planks of Communism"—including the abolition of private property—"are law in our land today." In October, Brannon cosponsored and spoke at a rally supporting nullification— the notion that states can invalidate federal laws at will—that was cosponsored by the League of the South, a secessionist group seeking "a free and independent Southern republic." And Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has endorsed him..."

Crazier As Genius

Comment Of The Day: Palin As Quayle Edition

Palin Compares Federal Debt To Slavery - Dimwits We Have Heard On High - Esquire
Ed Tracey · Top Commenter · Pace University

And also Charlie: she "went there" in a taped tribute for Billy Graham's 95th birthday salute. She allowed that "My mom was raised Catholic, and she … was yearning for something more .... she became a Christian, led the rest of the family to Christ". I thought that was a thing of the past; with the entente between the evangelical fundies and the Bill Donoghues .... apparently not.

The UnDoing Of Democracy

'Dollarocracy': How Special Interests Undermine Our Democracy | Money & Politics, What Matters Today | BillMoyers.com:

...The United States has experienced fundamental changes that are dramatically detrimental to democracy. Voters’ ability to define political discourse has been so diminished that even decisive election results like Barack Obama’s in 2012 have little impact. That’s because powerful interests — freed to, in effect, buy elections, unhindered by downsized and diffused media that must rely on revenue from campaign ads — now set the rules of engagement. Those interests so dominate politics that the squabbling of Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, is a sideshow to the great theater of plutocracy and plunder. This is not democracy. This is dollarocracy...

Tea Learning

Four years later, the Tea Party has learned nothing - Salon.com:

The Tea Party is no longer a brand-new movement in American politics. So, more than four years in, what do they appear to have learned? How about: nothing. And they seem to want it that way...

The Nut Didn't Fall Far From The Cruz Tree

Ted Cruz's Dad Declares God Is Pro Death Penalty:

Evangelical pastor Rafael Cruz, father of shutdown dramatist Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), served up a stemwinder this week, laying out God’s positions on the death penalty, guns in schools, gay marriage, communism and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), all in an impassioned 45 minutes...

Will Benghazi Retraction Be Rather-Level?

CBS’ erroneous Benghazi debacle explodes - Salon.com:

...We initially covered the questions about the 60 Minutes report last week, after Media Matters for America’s David Brock, author of the book, The Benghazi Hoax, penned a letter to CBS demanding a retraction of the story and a full investigation into what appeared to be a fabricated story by Davies.

Brock cited CBS’ response to questions about 60 Minutes‘ 2004 story on questions about George W. Bush’s Air National Guard service (which turned out to be true, though the provenance of one of the documents used in the report was never able to be verified as authentic.) Following that report by Dan Rather, CBS quickly launched a full investigation into the matter. “Similar standards must be applied in this case,” Brock said in his letter last week to CBS News chairman Jeff Fager and its president David Rhodes...

Lying Benghazi Liars Lying Lies Exposed

CBS Admits Error in Benghazi '60 Minutes' Story - ABC News:

CBS News said Friday that it was misled by a "60 Minutes" source who claimed he was on the on the scene of a 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya when it now turns out there are serious doubts about whether he was...

Cruz Doesn't Want President In Texas

Cruz To Obama: Don't Promote Obamacare In Texas:

Cruz added, “President Obama should take his broken promises tour elsewhere so Texans can continue focusing on the solutions that have allowed our state to become and remain the nation’s economic and job creation powerhouse."

In a kinder, gentler time, one NC bigot opined:

...In 1994, Helms created a sensation when he told broadcasters Rowland Evans and Robert Novak that Clinton was "not up" to the tasks of being commander-in-chief, and suggested two days later, on the anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination, that Clinton "better not show up around here [Fort Bragg] without a bodyguard".^[233] Helms said Clinton was so unpopular and said he had not meant it as a threat...

No Tea GOP

Business interests line up against Tea Party candidate in Alabama - chicagotribune.com:

A tight primary election in an Alabama Republican stronghold has pitted a business-backed former state senator against a Tea Party movement favorite in a race highlighting tensions between the party's pragmatic and ideological wings over the recent government shutdown...

Voter Suppression, Texas Style

Former House Speaker denied voter ID card in Texas after voting since 1944 | FreakOutNation:

Former House Speaker Jim Wright was denied a voter ID card Saturday at a Texas Department of Public Safety office and says, “Nobody was ugly to us, but they insisted that they wouldn’t give me an ID.” Wright has voted in every election since 1944.

About ten days ago, a Texas district judge was almost barred from the polls. She has voted for the past 49 years without issue until now, courtesy of the state’s new voter ID law...

Klan Tea

Alan Grayson compares Tea Party to KKK: ‘If the hood fits, wear it’ | The Raw Story:

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is not backing down about a flippant remark comparing Tea Party Republicans to the Ku Klux Klan into a fundraising message despite criticism from at least one opponent.

“Members of the Tea Party have engaged in relentless racist attacks against our African-American President,” Grayson said in a statement to WKMG-TV published on Tuesday. “There is overwhelming evidence that the Tea Party is the home of bigotry and discrimination in America today, just as the KKK was for an earlier generation. If the hood fits, wear it...”

Local Pol Goes Honky On Daily Show

"Daily Show" Sparks Local Controversy - WLOS News13 - Top Stories:

It's the interview heard around the state and the nation. Don Yelton, a Buncombe County GOP activist was interviewed by a reporter from The Daily Show about North Carolina's new voting law several weeks ago. The episode aired Wednesday night on Comedy Central...

And the poor guy has been asked to resign his GOPer position. Go to the link to jump to the Daily Show clip.

Sowin' 'n Reapin'

The Coultergeist Eats Her Own

How Bad Is It? Even Ann Coulter Has Turned On Conservatives - The Daily Beast:

...That said, Coulter’s scatter-shot attack was telling, as was Hannity’s half-hearted pushback. A master of exploiting the political zeitgeist, Coulter understands that smacking fellow Republicans is the hot trend, and she is too savvy a (cough) huckster to miss such an opportunity. But, as the chaos spirals, Republicans seem to be having an ever-harder time figuring out where it is they want to point fingers or lob bombs. Everyone in the party is fed up with everyone else, and no one seems to have any idea how to stop the madness. Even folks like Coulter and Hannity, who have done so much to create the contemporary climate of over-the-top GOP crazy, can’t agree on how to deal with what they have created. How do you get Frankenstein’s monster back under control when no one can even agree on who the monster is?

That said, you have to give Coulter props for knowing how to hawk a book.

Is The Straight Talk Express Rolling Again?

John McCain With the Straight Talk To Fox News: Republicans Shut Down Government (Video):

John McCain got all “mavericky” when he went against Fox News protocol by appropriately blaming Republicans for the government shutdown, appearing to catch Fox News blonde bimbo host Martha MacCallum off-guard...

A Warning To Big Business

Terrified Tea Party reviving slaveholder ideology: notorious sociologist talks to Salon - Salon.com:

...Business is acting like an interest group, a series of interest groups. I read a comparison between the attempt of American business leaders to use the Tea Party and the way the big German cartel owners thought they could use the Nazi movement. There are a lot of strains between interest groups, electoral politics, and movement politics...

Just ask the Krupps how that worked out.

Tea Bagging In Fantasy Land

Polls Show the GOP Is Now Losing Their Faithful - The Daily Beast:

As poll after poll after poll shows Americans angry with the GOP over the government shutdown, Tea Party Republicans are still trying to spin this disaster as a win for the GOP. This epic denial brings back memories of Election 2012, when Republicans believed right up to the last minute that the reelection of Barack Obama was a scientific impossibility...

Hypocrite Of The Day (At Least)

Former Tea Party Candidate Against Government Healthcare Has 10 Kids on Medicaid (Video):

A former Republican anti-government Tea Party candidate for Congress from Idaho who opposes Obamacare because the “government should not be involved in health care” apparently excludes his Medicare-receiving kids from that sentiment....

GOP Concrete Cracking

Congressional Republicans rush to develop plan to reopen government - The Washington Post:

... Before Carney spoke, Obama telephoned Boehner and the two men agreed to keep talking, aides said. Afterward, GOP senators marched into Boehner’s office and counseled him to adopt an approach they had presented to Obama earlier in the day, during their own meeting at the White House.

With Republicans getting battered in public opinion polls over the shutdown, Senate GOP leaders urged Boehner to join them in supporting a single, big-bang measure that would open the government and raise the debt limit in one fell swoop...