I knew there was a reason Republicans love the Russian dictator president so much.
With Vladimir Putin back in the news so prominently, now may be a good time to look back at a photo that got some attention in 2009: a photo of Ronald Reagan in Russia, a photo taken by the man who currently fills the same official role for President Obama, and a photo that appears to feature Putin himself dressed up like a tourist.
Pete Souza is the White House photographer for President Obama, but he also worked in the same capacity under Reagan, and he snapped that photo in 1988 of Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev greeting tourists. And Souza claimed back in 2009 (and said this information was confirmed to him) that the man on the very left, the tourist-y looking fellow with the camera around his neck, is in fact Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB agent at the time and was undercover.
Moscow officials, however, very much doubt it’s actually Putin, though it does look quite like the Russian leader…
A United States Senator, along with all the members of his party and the millions of Americans they represent, got his most basic freedom of speech taken away yesterday in a hearing of the House Oversight Committee , chaired by Republican Darrell Issa.
Issa, trying to give Fox News some material for their brainless base and an apparent effort to prop up his Mister Macho credentials, called the hearing to once again question an IRS official on the non-story, Republican manufactured scandal concerning the 501c4.
Although multiple hearings and millions of tax dollars have already been wasted on this non-story, Republicans need to keep this so-called tax scandal alive until the November elections, so the IRS official was called to do what she’s done in the past, invoke her Fifth Amendment rights under the Constitution.
Issa called the witness – Lois Lerner – and shot off ten questions at her already knowing what her answer would be. He then tried to end the proceedings without accepting questions or any input whatsoever from the other members of the committee. But Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), would have none of it and insisted on taking part in the hearing. What nerve! Didn’t he know this hearing was just a charade for Fox News?
“Can I ask a question?” Mr Cummings is heard saying.
“This hearing is adjourned,” Issa shot back, and stood up to walk away.
Still insisting on doing his job and taking part in the hearing, Rep Cummings continued talking, but the Republican dictator Chairman would have non of it and proceeded to turn off Mr Cummings’ microphone.
Cummings exploded. “If you will sit down and allow me to ask a question,” Cummings insisted. “I am a member of a Congress of the United States of America!”
“I am tired of this,” Cummings continued. “You cannot just have a one-sided investigation. There is absolutely something wrong with that, and it is absolutely un-American.”
“We had a hearing. It was adjourned,” Issa said. “I gave you an opportunity to ask your questions. You had no questions.”
“I do have questions,” Cummings replied. “Chairman, what are you hiding?”
Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said Wednesday that he will need to “pull out all the stops” to get enough GOP support for a 6-month extension to unemployment benefits that could come up for a vote next week.
“I have to pull out all the stops to try to pick up another Republican vote, it’s not Democrats I have to worry about,” he said. “It’s getting the Republicans to allow these millions of people who are desperate long-term unemployed a shot in the arm.”
Mr. Reid said the weather, which cancelled two days of votes in the Senate this week, has made it difficult to fit everything on to the schedule, but that he plans to make a decision on when to bring up the unemployment insurance vote soon.
Of course this is not Breaking News, we’ve seen stuff like this happening all the time with these Republicans! Republicans have gunned for our veterans and anyone who does not have a LLC following their name. This week however, they blocked a veterans health bill because they claimed the needed a way to pay for it.
This latest Republican action against the veterans got Jon Stewart steamed… and confused!
Stewart pointed out many of these senators didn’t have a problem voting for Iraq War authorizations that cost quite a bit of money, but what really set him off was senators trying to attach an Iran sanctions amendment to the bill, with one complaining it’s the only way to get what they want. Stewart mockingly said, “You’re right, you’re the victim here, you’ve been denied something you need by an impersonal bureaucracy.”
He concluded by saying that on the “shame-ometer,” “I think these senators may have just tweeted out a picture of their enormous balls. Now can we kick them out?!”
On his program, the ultra conservative Bryan Fischer made the statement that pleading the Fifth is an admission of guilt.
Fischer was of course talking about Lois Lerner, the former IRS official who took part in the implementation of a strategy to determine legitimate 501c4 applicants. Republicans decided to embark on a witch hunt, blaming the IRS for what they called, “targeting Teaparty groups applying for the tax status.
According to Fischer;
“By citing the Fifth Amendment, she is admitting that she’s guilty … What is Lois Lerner admitting when she invokes the Fifth?
She is admitting that if she speaks the truth she will be a witness against herself, her testimony would be condemning, her testimony would be damning, her testimony would make her guilty under the law. So I believe Lois Lerner, when she invokes the Fifth in a situation like this, she’s admitting her guilt and the guilt of the IRS”:
I wonder what Fischer has to say about Bridge-Gate, and all the Fifths being cited there? If you think Fischer would say Christie or members of his administration are admitting guilt or a cover up, think again. It is now common knowledge that the rules that govern Democrats do not apply to Republicans.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer received kudos from many of her fellow Republicans for vetoing a controversial bill that would have allowed businesses to refuse service to gays and lesbians based on religious beliefs.
But Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann is not one of those Republicans. The founder of the House Tea Party Caucus told ABC News-Yahoo News that she was “sorry” Brewer struck down Senate Bill 1062.
“I believe that tolerance is a two-way street, and we need to respect everyone’s rights, including the rights of people who have sincerely held religious beliefs,” Bachmann told ABC’s Jeff Zeleny in the interview.
Bachmann went on to say there is a “terrible intolerance afoot in the United States” that is directed at people who have strongly held religious beliefs.
Mitt Romney and John McCain, the GOP’s two most recent presidential nominees, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, the state’s Chamber of Commerce and the host committee for the 2015 Super Bowl were among those urging Brewer to veto Senate Bill 1062. She did so on Feb. 26, saying the measure was broadly worded and could have “unintended and negative consequences.”
This law is helping Americans and the economy in more ways than one, so Republicans are determined, now more than ever, to repeal the darn thing before its positive effects are felt by all.
A new report by The Cimmerce Deoartment is sayint that The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Barack Obama’s signature health law, is already boosting household income and spending.
The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumer spending rose a better-than-expected 0.4% and personal incomes climbed 0.3% in January. The new health-care law accounted for a big chunk of the increase on both fronts.
On the incomes side, the law’s expanded coverage boosted Medicaid benefits by an estimated $19.2 billion, according to Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis. The ACA also offered several refundable tax credits, including health insurance premium subsidies, which added up to $14.7 billion.
Taken together, the Obamacare provisions are responsible for about three-quarters of January’s overall rise in Americans’ incomes.
The Fort Worth state senator formally clinched her party’s nomination Tuesday night. She headlines a Democratic ticket that in November will seek the party’s first statewide victory since 1994, which was also Richards’ last year in office.
Neither Davis nor her Republican opponent, Attorney General Greg Abbott, faced a competitive primary. Gov. Rick Perry is not seeking re-election after a record 14 years in office.
The 50-year-old Davis became a national Democratic star last summer with a nearly 13-hour filibuster over new abortion restrictions. Her fundraising outpaced Abbott in the last half of 2013 but she’s still considered a heavy underdog.
Political unknown Reynaldo Madrigal was the only other Democrat on the ballot.
Another head scratcher. These are the people in today’s Republican party.
So if rapers are the ones Representative Lawrence and advocates for, why would non rapers vote for this man. Why would anyone vote Republican anyway?
Democrats called for state Rep. Lawrence Lockman’s resignation after blogger Mike Tipping chronicled Lockman’s public stateme resignation nts since the 1980s in a blog post Tuesday.
Among other declarations and protestations concerning the IRS, HIV/AIDS and homosexuality, Lockman, then president of the Pro-Life Education Association, said in a letter sent in 1990 that he didn’t see why rape shouldn’t be acceptable if abortion is legal.
“If a woman has [the right to an abortion], why shouldn’t a man be free to use his superior strength to force himself on a woman?” Lockman wrote. “At least the rapist’s pursuit of sexual freedom doesn’t [in most cases] result in anyone’s death.”
Lockman released a statement Wednesday in which he said he regrets his comments.
After going on CNN and proclaiming that the world “roll its eyes” when President Obama talks, Republican elected official Lindsey Graham jumped to the twitter machine today to try and hit the president some more. The method he used however, shows that nothing is off limits with these Republicans.
Tiday, Lindsey Graham somehow managed to tie the killing of four brave Americans in Libya to Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.
Not even the deaths of these four Americans in Benghazi could withstand being dragged into a foreign conflict by these Republicans, if it means they get the opportunity to talk bad about the president and his administration.
I never thought it possible, but this is a new low. And for a Republican party that dwells in the dungeon of morality, this new low speaks volumes.
May the fallen Americans I in Benghazi rest in peace.
It’s amazing how quickly Republicans pranced on President Obama to cast blame on him for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. From Lindsey Graham, to John McCain to Rudolph Guiliana, they are all having a field day, criticizing Mr. Obama as a weak, spineless, Muslim infidel who is the reason why the world is apparently walking all over this nation. But Rachel Maddow asked a question on her show last night. Where were all these Republicans when Putin did his last invasion?
Bush was in power, remember?
In 2008, Putin invaded Georgia and a war began. The man in the White House at that time was George W. Bush and the noise machine we’re hearing now fom the right was apparently broken, as the present warmongers were mysteriously silent and even supportive of Bush just 7 years ago.
For those who might not have heard, the movie ’12 years a slave’ won Best Picture at last night’s Oscars.
And now, a word from our local racist.
Rush Limbaugh.
“All good comedy must be rooted in truth. There’s no way that movie was not going to win! If it was the only thing that movie won, it was going to win best picture. There was no way. It didn’t matter if it was good or bad — I haven’t seen it — it was going to win.”
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