Tag Archives: Darrell Issa

The Week in Crazy … and a Reminder for 2014 Voters


This is a repost from June 2013 …

10 Crazy Things the Right Did … This Week

By  ThinkProgress War Room

Another week of the insane, inane, and outright offensive. Here’s your top ten:

  1. House Republicans pass plan to deport DREAMers. Just as the Senate is about to consider a bipartisan immigration reform plan, House Republicans, led by virulently anti-immigrant Rep. Steve King (R-IA), passed a mean-spirited plan to deport DREAMers. Boos filled the chamber as the vote was gaveled.
  2. GOP Senator says we can’t pass immigration reform because of government spying programs. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) used the revelations regarding the NSA’s spying programs as his latest excuse for not passing immigration reform.
  3. Republican-appointed federal judge says blacks and Hispanics are “predisposed to crime.” Judge Edith Jones, a member of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, a circuit overseeing a large number of death penalty cases, made her outrageous comments about minorities during a speech earlier this year. The judge, who has a long history of troubling behavior, added that the death penalty is a public service because it’s the only way an inmate can “make peace with God.”
  4. Congressman loses it on the House floor. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK) lost it during a rant on the House floor during which he accused the president of “dishonesty, incompetence, vengefulness and lack of moral compass [that] lead many to suggest that he is not fit to lead.”
  5. Senator suggests porn is to blame for military sexual assaults. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), most recently known for being the chief opponent of immigration reform, suggested that porn is responsible for the epidemic of sexual assault plaguing the military.
  6. Republican governor schedules costly special election to lower Democratic turnout during the general election. Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) is far head in the polls in his bid for re-election, yet he appears to have scheduled a special election to fill the seat of recently deceased Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to keep Democratic turnout low the day he and Republican state legislators will be on the ballot. The election will cost $12 MILLION or more and is taking place less than a month before the November general election.
  7. Fox Business refuses to run an ad critical of Fox contributors. After a spate of male Fox contributors made disparaging and sexist comments about female breadwinners, the group UltraViolet sought to run an ad on Fox Business critical of their comments. The network refused to air it.
  8. Anti-Obamacare states pass up billions in funds meant to help the poor get health insurance. The red states that are refusing to expand Medicaid under Obamacare are set to lose out on $8 BILLION in funding, which will cause them to leave an additional 3.6 MILLION Americans uninsured simply out of spite.
  9. Wall Street Journal editorial board member says bike share is a “totalitarian” plot. Dorothy Rabinowitz assailed the newly unveiled bike share plan being rolled out in New York City. She complained that the city’s best neighborhoods were being “begrimed” by the bikes put in place by “totalitarian” Mayor Michael Bloomberg. She also described the “bike lobby” as an “all-powerful enterprise.”
  10. Congressional inquisitor-in-chief goes overboard on CNN. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been endlessly pursuing conspiracy theories and alleged Obama administration scandals for years, but he went more overboard than usual this week. During an appearance on CNN, Issa called White House Press Secretary Jay Carney “a paid liar.” Issa’s fellow Republicans reportedly told him to cool it following the incident.

BONUS: A Texas jury acquitted a man for the murder of a woman he hired as an escort, after his lawyers claimed he was authorized to use deadly force because she refused sex.

Missing: Women …americanprogressaction.org


“Where are the women?” With those four words, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) made the most poignant statement of the week about the House GOP’s attitude towards women. The simple answer to Maloney’s question is that women are being callously left out and left behind by the right wing.

According to a recent Democracy Corps survey, there’s been a net 18-point swing away from Mitt Romney in favor President Obama among unmarried women in the past few months. Why? Because women have been watching and listening to conservatives. Here’s a sampling of what we heard just this past week:

GOP Chairman Darrell Issa defending the exclusion of a woman from his all-male panel on contraception: She’s not “appropriate and qualified.” [Read more

Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld explaining why “liberals” support contraception coverage: “It’s more about getting rid of the poor.” [Read more]

Right-wing billionaire Foster Friess delivering his contraception advice on MSNBC: “You know, back in my days, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly.” [Read more]

Virginia Republican Delegate Todd Gilbert rationalizing a state-sponsored bill mandating vaginal probes: A woman already consented to being “vaginally penetrated when they got pregnant.” [Read more]

Fox News’ Liz Trotta justifies why some women are assaulted in the military: “Now what did they expect?” [Read more]

Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association on women in combat: “Women are not wired, either by evolution or by God…to be in those positions.” [Read more]

Rick Santorum explaining his concerns about women in combat: “People naturally may do things that may not be in the interests of the mission because of other types of emotions that are involved.” [Read more]

At least they’re being honest about what they feel.

–Faiz
Editor-in-Chief, ThinkProgress.org

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a message from Nancy Pelosi – Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home today !


We almost couldn’t believe it. Today, at a House Oversight Committee hearing, House Republicans convened a panel on denying access to birth control converge with five men and no women. As my colleague Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney asked, where are the women?

Join me in our call to Speaker Boehner, Eric Cantor, Chairman Issa and all House Republicans to demand that women be brought to the table when discussing women’s health issues. Help us gather 50,000 signatures before Congress heads home tomorrow.

Sign the petition >>

Thank you for standing up for what’s right and joining our fight.

Best,
Nancy Pelosi

Issa walks back comment calling Obama ‘corrupt’ (via Anderson Cooper 360)


Jillian Harding CNN Washington (CNN) – Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California), the next chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is walking back remarks he made on conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh‘s show last month in which he called President Obama “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” In an interview with CNN lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room, Issa initially said, ‘It was a campaign … Read More

via Anderson Cooper 360

Meet Darryl Issa


Video is from 4/2008

Olbermann names Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., today’s ‘worst person in the world’ for his statements refusing 9/11 sicker workers aid and belittling the 9/11 attacks despite his constant terror-mongering–

“It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue from the materials used to build this building,” Issa said.

GOP Rep. opposes sick Sept. 11 worker fund

WASHINGTON, April 2 (UPI) — A California congressman said Wednesday he has reservations about a proposed new fund for rescuers sickened by the 2001 terror attacks, not supporting victims.

At a hearing in Washington Tuesday, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., balked at the idea of a new compensation fund for emergency responders who fell ill after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, the New York Daily News reported.

Issa insisted the airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center towers in New York were not weapons. He suggested the cause of illness for the responders was simply debris from the collapse of the towers.

“It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue from the materials used to build this building,” Issa said.

Rep Darrell Issa (R-Cal) gets chided for his continued wingnut use of “Democrat Party” to refer to the Democratic Party. Barney Frank (D-Mass) came to his defense by calling the opposition the “Republicanistical” party. Serious times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR7MphuhEwc