Find the stupid person using a teleprompter:
Give up already? Ok, I’ll give you a hint. It’s the negro.
Wingnuts
Today is Ronald Reagan’s 99th birthday. We thought it might be a good thing to take a look the real Ronald Reagan, rather than the pantomime Reagan always being trotted out by conservatives. Here then is Bill Moyers excellent 1987 film on Reagan’s illegal terrorist war against the people of Nicaragua. Reagan funded his war by secret illicit arms sales to Ayatollah Khomeini’s Iran, all, absurdly, in the name of fighting Communism. In doing so he violated the law and acted in direct opposition to the will of Congress, subverting the constitution and creating a shadow government. And he is held up as a hero by so-called conservatives for it. We think that conservatives have a little difficulty distinguishing right from wrong & the good guys from the bad guys.
After you’ve had a chance to view the video, you may want to follow-up by reading about the connection between Reagan’s Contras and the crack cocaine crisis in the United States in the early 1980s.
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- Image via Wikipedia
- Image via Wikipedia
For the last few months, Peter Roskam, together with Mark Kirk and other Republicans in Congress, has been engaged in a smear campaign against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). Roskam’s baseless attacks, focused on SEIU/ACORN participation in the upcoming census, are part of a long-time Republican strategy to seek political advantage by disenfranchising poor and minority voters and attempting to underrepresent them in census counts. The GOP has engaged in such tactics because its legislative program, which has worked against the interests of low-income and minority voters, has left the party unable to attract voters from these groups by legitimate means. By engaging in this behavior, Roskam has not only unfairly disparaged two fine organizations but has abused and debased the office that has been entrusted to him. He owes an apology to all concerned, including all voters in the 6th Congressional District.
On Tuesday this week, the non-partisan Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report, requested by Representative John Conyers of Michigan, that found no evidence that ACORN had broken any laws over the past 5 years, that no voters improperly registered by ACORN had attempted to cast ballots in an election, and that ACORN had used funds received from the federal government for housing programs in accordance with funding guidelines.
A previous investigation, by former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, also found no evidence of illegal activity by employees depicted in widely-publicized highly-edited videos produced by a conservative film maker as part of an effort to discredit ACORN. CRS found that, in fact, the film maker may have violated state laws.
Using a news conference and media appearances, Peter Roskam, has attempted to perpetuate the myth of a criminal conspiracy on the behalf of ACORN without offering any real evidence and has tried to spread that taint to SEIU with no basis whatsover. Here you can hear him at work on WLS-AM’s vile Don Wade & Roma Show:
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Roskam’s conduct is reprehensible and unbecoming a member of Congress.
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The St. Petersburg Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning website, PolitiFact, this past Friday named Sarah Palin “death panel” allegation as the “Lie of the Year“. Palin’s lie was selected by the site’s editors after a poll of 5,000 readers demonstrated overwhelming support for the choice.
PolitiFact here recounts the lie which earned the site’s coveted “Pants on Fire” designation back when it was originally promulgated:
The former governor of Alaska had been out of the headlines since she announced her resignation on July 3; the Facebook message instantly brought her back to the political stage.
“As more Americans delve into the disturbing details of the nationalized health care plan that the current administration is rushing through Congress, our collective jaw is dropping, and we’re saying not just no, but hell no!” Palin wrote.
“The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.”
The claim that House legislation contained anything resembling a “death panel” is demonstrably false. It did cause much needless anxiety, particularly among senior citizens, including my own parents, and seriously compromised the quality of the national discussion on healthcare reform.
Palin never renounced her lie. Instead she defended it, as in an interview with the National Review in November:
“To me, while reading that section of the bill, it became so evident that there would be a panel of bureaucrats who would decide on levels of health care, decide on those who are worthy or not worthy of receiving some government-controlled coverage,” she said. “Since health care would have to be rationed if it were promised to everyone, it would therefore lead to harm for many individuals not able to receive the government care. That leads, of course, to death.”
“The term I used to describe the panel making these decisions should not be taken literally,” said Palin. The phrase is “a lot like when President Reagan used to refer to the Soviet Union as the ‘evil empire.’ He got his point across. He got people thinking and researching what he was talking about. It was quite effective. Same thing with the ‘death panels.’ I would characterize them like that again, in a heartbeat.”
Whenever the ex-governor of Alaska distinguishes herself in this way, it warms our heart to step back and listen to noted Palinite and 6th District Congressman Peter Roskam’s reflection on Sarah Palin’s “centeredness”:
So much for Congressman Roskam’s judgement.
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Had fun this first morning of my vacation playing with the GOP’s nifty new link-shortener. Here is a picture of RubberStampRoskam.com all conservatized. Don’t stare at the red bar too long because it contains subliminal messaging that will melt liberal brains.
You can make just about anything more conservative using this ingenious new tool. What will Michael Steele think of next?
In the wake of Peter Roskam and Mark Kirk’s union-bashing dog and pony show yesterday, the vile Illinois Review’s Fran Eaton has taken things a step further, compiling a list of evil-doers within the Republican ranks who have accepted donations from SEIU., which she brands a “criminal organization”.
Frannie dear, we know you are upset about how the last election came out and all, but while organizing workers, advocating for a livable wage, supporting a public option in healthcare reform, and giving a voice to the poor are all capital crimes in your dark utopia, here on planet America, they are part of what we know as Democracy.
For SEIU to be a “criminal organization”, it would have to have committed a whole slew of criminal acts. Please identify them. (No, supporting Barack Obama doesn’t count).
