Tag Archives: republicans

Riding the Reverse Racism Unicorn


mmaSome other things I’ve read this week: Felix Salmon’s explanation of why he’s joining Fusion, an interview with David Leonhardt about The Upshot, and updates about detained Vice reporter Simon Ostrovsky. Also, congratulations to Digby for a well-deserved award.

John Whitehouse
Twitter: @existentialfish

Riding The Reverse Racism Unicorn

Kelly HumeThis week, the Roberts court attacked another race-conscious law. Conservatives responded by attacking established civil rights laws as a form of “reverse racism.” Meagan Hatcher-Mays explains how they are defending the systematic favoring of wealthy whites in the admissions process: http://mm4a.org/1hkWji1
Related: Five things you need to know about the Court’s affirmative action decision: http://mm4a.org/Qw32vp The right is also pushing lies about President Obama’s proposed clemency program:http://mm4a.org/1lCMEY8

The Racist Tirade Of A Conservative Media Hero

Hannity, BundyThe right-wing media spent a long time promoting Cliven Bundy’s dispute with the federal government, even though Bundy was completely in the wrong. Will anything change now that Bundy has made virulently racist statements? http://mm4a.org/1ropemt
Related: This vile rhetoric is strikingly similar to remarks from conservatives from Rush Limbaugh to the WSJ editorial board: http://mm4a.org/1f7jTQz

 

FEATURED VIDEO

StewartJon Stewart blasted Sean Hannity’s transparently hypocritical support of scofflaw Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy: http://mm4a.org/QufpZ0

“NEAR WORTHLESS” OBAMACARE REPLACEMENT

Ben CarsonFox’s Ben Carson has a plan to replace Obamacare. Experts told Media Matters‘ investigative reporter Joe Strupp that it would be a disaster for everyone but the very rich: http://mm4a.org/1i8UuFI

IMAGE OF THE WEEK

Ruffalo
Mark Ruffalo Speaks Out On The Right To Choose

 

HHS awards $83.4 million to train new primary care providers


Dept. of Health & Human Services

HHS awards $83.4 million to train new primary care providers

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell today announced $83.4 million in Affordable Care Act funding to support primary care residency programs in 60 Teaching Health Centers across the nation. The funding will help train more than 550 residents during the 2014-2015 academic year, increasing the number of residents trained in the previous academic year by more than 200 and helping to increase access to health care in communities across the country.Read more about today’s announcement.

6 Right-Wing Lunacies This Week: I’m Not A Scientist But I’m Going to Wage War On Science Anyway


AlterNet / By Janet Allon

“Carbon dioxide is good for plants, why do we have to limit it?”

1. Gavin McInnes: White liberals love Neil deGrasse Tyson so much he could defecate on them.

Gavin McInnes, ousted founder of Vice, now noted for racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments, obviously has all the right credentials to be invited onto Fox for some sober commentary about important things.

Just kidding. He was invited on the show to spew hateful and vile things and that’s just what he did. In a segment devoted to picking apart an interview with “Cosmos” host Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chris Hayes, McGinnes did not disappoint.

While talking to Hayes, Tyson had the audacity to make a joke, about his “greatest fear” being that intelligent life would steer clear of making contact with Earth because of the signals we unwittingly put out into space — including past TV and radio programs.

Pretty funny, right? Maybe a little science nerdy, but he is a scientist after all.

“I hate this guy,” McInnes blurted out. “I remember hearing Chris Hardwick on a podcast talk about Neil deGrasse Tyson and he was just salivating. White liberal nerds love this guy so much, he could defecate on them like Martin Bashir’s fantasies and they would dance in the streets.”

Little surprise he then segued from not very veiled racism to out-and-out racism saying that Tyson deserved whatever racial profiling he got when he was young because he “looked the part.”

“He talks about things like, ‘when I was young in New York I would get racially profiled when I’d go into stores,’” McInnes said. “Back then he looked like he was in the Warriors. He had a huge afro and a cutoff shirt and New York was a war zone. Sorry, you fit the profile.”

Meaning of course, being black.

2. Virtually every Republican after new EPA rules came out: I’m not a scientist but… here’s a bunch of idiotic stuff I learned in grade school.

The “I’m not a scientist, but” statement of faux humility was the most popular refrain this week in Republican circles, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and press conferences. It was almost always followed by either second-grade level science like, “but carbon dioxide is good for plants, why do we have to limit it?” Or some other nonsensical argument against the new, much needed regulations.

There is, of course, only one retort to, “I’m not a scientist, but ….”

It’s, “That’s right, so shut up and listen to what actual scientists have been saying about this for, like, ever.”

We know, we know. We live in dreamland.

The stupid reactions to Obama’s announced coal restrictions ran the gamut.

You can read about them here.  And here. But if we had to pick a favorite, just on the grounds of moronic immaturity, the prize has to go to this pathetic imbecile:

“Thanks to the Obama administration’s EPA and the new regulations released today, America is poised to become the ‘no pee’ section of the global swimming pool,” said Marita Noon, executive director of some bogus right-wing group called Citizens Alliance for Responsible Energy. “Just because we declare that we won’t pee in the pool, won’t stop the others.… We’ll be stuck in our little no-pee section with a crippled economy while the rest of the world will be frolicking in unfettered growth.”

Well now, that is a terrific way of deciding on matters of vital national (and international) interest. C’mon everybody, let’s keep peeing in the pool, until, well, the pool is entirely urine, and no longer any water whatsoever. Or, they catch us, whatever comes last.

3. Glenn Beck: God speaks to me about destroying people’s political careers.

Hoo boy, Glenn Beck piled crazy on top of crazy this week reaching new paroxysms of crazy. First he told listeners to the Blaze that God told him to destroy Van Jones’ White House career. Holy moly. Yahweh himself. “I don’t know how we figured out Van Jones,” Beck said. “I really don’t know how we figured out Van Jones,” he said. “That was really — that was not from man.”

Cue spooky music.

“Because I didn’t even know who he was, and there was two conversations happening in my office. I have two producers talking about Van Jones, and they were getting ready to talk to me about something, and I was talking to another two producers. And as I’m listening and I’m engaged in that, I just hear the name ‘Van Jones,’ and I said to those producers, ‘Stop.’ I turn around and said, ‘What was the name you just said?’ They said, Van Jones.”

Okay, so hearing voices. Makes sense.

4. Brian Kilmeade: Bowe Bergdahl’s father’s beard strikes me as Taliban-ish.

A precondition to being a buffoon is blindness to your own buffoonery, and hypocrisy. And nothing beats the hypocrisy of the Republican response to the release of the American soldier Bowe Bergdahl. Initial cheers and tweets were immediately taken down and the distorted memory of Ronald Reagan as master-hostage-negotiator-with-terrorists has been resurrected. Iran/contra player Oliver North is making the rounds on conservative media, as if anything the convicted perjurer had to say was in the least bit relevant.

But the commentary on the release of Bergdahl from his Taliban captors reached its nadir when the right-wing commentariat decided to make the soldier’s father’s beard an issue. Brian Kilmeade told Fox & Friends that the beard, which Bergdahl’s father had been growing as a symbol of his son’s captivity, made the soldier’s father look like he was in the Taliban.

“I mean, he says he was growing his beard because his son was in captivity,” Kilmeade blathered. “Well, your son’s out now. So if you really don’t — no longer look like a member of the Taliban, you don’t have to look like a member of the Taliban. Are you out of razors?”

So, here’s the deal with long beards. They are copacetic with Fox & Friends as long as you say racist and homophobic things and declare Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, a la Phil Robertson and the Duck Dynasty clan. Otherwise, they’re a no-go. Especially if you speak a word of Arabic. Then you’re obviously in cahoots with suspiciously clean-shaven Obama for the Muslim takeover of America.

5. Ben Carson: Obamacare is worse than 9/11.

It’s hard to top calling Obamacare worse than slavery for crazy and offensive comparison. But neuroscientist-turned-right-wing crackpot Ben Carson has a restless mind. During an interview with the Daily Beast this week, Carson defended his position that Obamacare was sooooooo bad, it was worse than 9/11.

Carson pointed out that he thinks “9/11 is an isolated incident,” and of course, Obamacare is this ongoing catastrophe where millions of previously uninsured people now have access to healthcare.

When his questioner asked repeatedly what had done more harm to America, Obamacare or Osama bin Laden, Carson lost his cool.

Carson: “Will you listen? You have to take a long-term look at something that fundamentally changes the power structure of America. You have to be someone who reads. Who is well read.”

And if you read the same kinds of things Carson does —and believe them—you too can come up with crazily ridiculous comparisons.

6. Elisabeth Hasselbeck cheers on homophobic baker.

Haters gonna hate. Sometimes haters gonna pretend their hating is love. And so the right-wing has taken up the cause of the oh-so principled Colorado baker who courageously refused to sell cakes to same-sex couples. Well, now Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips has been ordered by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to stop discriminating against people whose sexual preferences are different from his.

Fox Newsian Elisabeth Hasselbeck thinks that freedom is under assault here. Religious freedom, that is. Religious freedom to discriminate against others, as long as that religion is Christian.

“Keep going strong there,” she told the brave baker.

But the brave baker has taken his baking toys and is going home. He won’t bake if it must be for the kind of people he does not wish to eat his cake.

Strike another blow for freedom!

h/t: rawstory

the Senate ~~ CONGRESS 7/9 ~~ the House


2ebe4-gulfwindsunset

The Senate stands adjourned until 10:00am on Wednesday, July 9, 2014.

 

Following any leader remarks, there will be a period of morning business until 12:00 noon, with senators permitted to speak therein for up to 10 minutes with the time equally divided and controlled between the two Leaders, or their designees.

 

At 12:00 noon, the Senate will turn to Executive Session and proceed to a series of votes on confirmation of the following nominations:

 

Executive Calendar #906, Julian, Castro, of Texas, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (roll call vote);

Executive Calendar #797, Darci L. Vetter, of Nebraska, to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative, with the rank of Ambassador (voice vote); and

Executive Calendar ##904 William D. Adams, of Maine to be Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities for a term of four years (voice vote).

 

Following morning business, the Senate will resume consideration of the motion to proceed to S.2363, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act, and proceed to an immediate vote on the motion to proceed.

 

At 12:00 noon, we expect a roll call vote on confirmation of the Castro nomination and voice votes on confirmation of the Vetter and Adams nominations and on the motion to proceed to the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act.

The Senate has reached an agreement that at 12:00 pm, tomorrow, Wednesday, July 9, 2014, the Senate will proceed to Executive Session and consider Calendar #’S.906 (Castro), 797 (Vetter), 904 (Adams). There be 2 minutes for debate equally divided in the usual form on each nomination. Upon the use or yielding back of time the Senate proceed to vote, without intervening action or debate, on the nominations in the order listed. All roll call votes after the first will be 10 minutes in length. We expect a roll call vote on confirmation of the Castro nomination and voice votes on the Vetter and Adams nominations.

 

12:00 noon: at least 1 roll call vote

  • Executive Calendar #906, Julian, Castro, of Texas, to be Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (roll call vote expected)
  • Executive Calendar #797, Darci L. Vetter, of Nebraska, to be Chief Agricultural Negotiator, Office of the United States Trade Representative, with the rank of Ambassador (voice vote expected)
  • Executive Calendar ##904 William D. Adams, of Maine to be Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities for a term of four years (voice vote expected)
  • Motion to proceed to S.2363, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act (voice vote expected)

WRAP UP

No Roll Call Votes

Legislative items

Cal. # 440, S.Res.447, a resolution recognizing the threats to freedom of the press and expression around the world and reaffirming freedom of the press as a priority in the efforts of the United States Government to promote democracy and good governance, with committee-reported amendments to the resolution and preamble

No Additional Executive items

 

====================================================

Last Floor Action:
5:03:09 P.M. -H.R. 4923
On agreeing to the McAllister amendment (A006) Roll Call 371 – Recorded vote pending.

Last Floor Action:7/8
9:03:43 P.M. – The House adjourned.

The next meeting is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on July 9, 2014.

======================================================================

New Home = New Coverage


Dept. of Health & Human Services

Have you moved recently? Even though open enrollment is over, you may still have options to get health coverage for 2014 through a Special Enrollment Period. Certain life events, like changing your place of residence, make you eligible to enroll in the Health Insurance Marketplace.

Take this short survey – and you’ll be a few clicks away from seeing if you can get 2014 health coverage.

Have a friend or family member who has moved, gotten married, or had a baby? Those are just some of the qualifying life events that make them eligible to enroll. Make sure they know – take a minute to share this message with them:

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New Address, New Coverage. HealthCare.gov.