The Noah Diaries 2011 (8): Who is the most unprincipled GOP presidential contender?

Guvs do Big Oil's dirty work, a "human-decency gene"?, asleep at the air controller's station, shoot them immigrunts!, and more


Show of hands, how many people think Newt believed his March 8 position on Libya? Okay, then how many people think he believed his March 23 position? Hmm, we don't appear to have any hands raised -- seems about right, wouldn't you think? (See 3/23.)

by Noah

3/17/11 -- Republican governors do Big Oil's dirty work

I'm reminded of the postwar dismantling of Los Angeles's state-of-the-art public transportation system. How did that happen? Big Oil made a lot of "campaign contributions" to the city government. Why? To make people drive their cars to and from anyplace they wanted to go in greater L.A. Why? To sell more gas!


Moving to the present day, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker rejected an $810 million federal grant for a high-speed rail line between Milwaukee and Madison. He also sent back money for state wind turbines.

In Nevada, Gov. Brian Sandoval also sent back his wind turbine money. Construction workers were counting on the jobs involved in building the turbines. Steelworkers would have also had more work, but Republicans would rather we just bought steel from the Chinese anyway. Meanwhile, John Baehner cries, "Where are the jobs?"

In Ohio, Gov. John Kasich turned down nearly $400 million from the Department of Transportation for a high-speed rail line between Cleveland and Cincinnati.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott rejected $2.4 billion in DoT funds for a rail line between Tampa and Orlando.

Meanwhile, last month the new teabag-controlled Congress cut out funding for solar and wind energy development programs. Must be that "vision thing" that the Bushes often refer to.


3/17/11 -- Republicans lack the human-decency gene

How else can one explain the cuts that cut 700,000 jobs and literally take food from the mouths of mothers and children, all while raising taxes on the elderly and the poor so they can give money to corporations who will kick money back to their campaigns. Can you say "banana republic"?

Republicans also aim to cut public safety/public preparedness money ("Rep. Peter DeFazio says 'people will die' from GOP cuts to NOAA, disaster response programs"). Tornado warnings? Tsunami warnings? Volcano eruptions? How about after the fact? FEMA equipment? Hey, if a nuke plant starts melting down, just let it! Survival of the fittest! Funny how they like that part of Darwinism but not the evolution part! The Republican attack on things like tornado warnings is more intriguing when one considers that the same tech gear is used to analyze global-warming data. Suppression of information? No funding for upkeep of satellites?

Buy the info from their Chinese friends?


3/17/11 -- Quote of the Year nominee: Say, how about "shooting these immigrating feral hogs"?

"It looks like to me if shooting these immigrating feral hogs works, maybe we have found a solution to our illegal immigration problem."

-- Rep. Virgil Peck (R-KS)

Then there's this:

"Illegal immigration exposes our citizens to increased criminal activity."

-- Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA)

I could have sworn it was politicians that did that, Paul -- not only with their personal behavior but with policies that leave people with the choice of steal or die.


3/18/11 -- Would you like arsenic with that?

I'm so sick of these ads for iced tea that now includes alcohol ("and tastes just like tea!") or other drinks that include vast quantities of extra, extra caffeine. Why don't they just put cocaine back in cola? Sooner or later, I expect to see an ad for, perhaps, orange juice: "Now with arsenic! For a youthful glow! Stops aging!"


3/20/11 -- Republican 2012 campaign slogan (if they could get away with it)

"It's the WHITE House, stupid!"


3/23/11 -- Who is the most unprincipled GOP presidential contender?

This could go to lots of utter goofballs who are running in the Repug primaries, but really, if you're talking about a lack of principles, one name immediately comes to mind: Newt Gingrich. Here's what Newtie said on March 7th about what he would do regarding Libya:

Exercise a no-fly zone this evening, communicate to the Libyan military that Khadafy was gone and that the sooner they switch sides, the more likely they were to survive, provide help to the rebels to replace him.

Here's Gingrich today:

I would not have intervened. . . . I would not have used American and European forces.

It gets pretty stupefying, but --

Sarah Palin is not to be outdone! She says we shouldn't be out and about nation building. Does that mean she thinks we should get out of Iraq and never should have gone? Way to go, Sarah!


3/24/11 -- Safety? Cutbacks?

Some things you'd rather not know. Imagine if you had been on a flight to Reagan National Airport in DC on 3/22 and you knew that there was only one flight controller in the tower at the airport and that he was sound asleep!



3/24/11- Common-sense solutions?

We gave $9 trillion to the banksters when it would have only taken $1.4 trillion to pay off every mortgage in the U.S. It's all in how you look at it, I guess.


3/25/11 -- Thought for the day: The Donald reborn as a birther

So now Trump has gone all birther! Talk about pandering to loons! Just what we need: a guy who has been in bankruptcy three times and can't even properly pander.

Mr. Ultimate Comb-over says Obama had a "very strange birth." What I hear is "it's different with black people." To Republicans everything has to be "different" about Obama, or "outsider," or as Bill-O says, "not a traditional guy." Newt the crackerjackass's "Kenyan world view." So-called "Christian" Huckabee's "Grew up in Kenya" and Mau-Mau references…. Hmmm. What are these pathetic 19th-century throwbacks trying to code out to us all?

I'm beginning to have more respect for Grand Wizards. At least they just come out and say it. Oh, the impotence of Republicans! They so-o-o want to stand on the mountaintops and scream out the N-word with a megaphone! Meanwhile, I demand to know why Trump is wearing a Tribble on his head!

Check out this Star Trek Replica Plush with Sound Brown Tribble.

3/27/11 -- How the media takes care of its advertisers

Tonight's 60 Minutes featured a piece by Lesley Stahl on corporations establishing phony headquarters overseas, in places like the tiny Swiss town of Zug (pop. 26,000, number of companies in area: "30,000 and growing at an average rate of 800 a year") and Dublin.

Following the corporate media's typical right-wing talking point, Stahl presented the standard Republican propaganda that puts the blame squarely on the 35 percent tax rate instead of the fact that U.S. corporations are allowed to establish headquarters overseas in the first place. The theme was "Oh, those poor abused corporations." Sickening.

What about GE making a $5 billion profit and winding up with a whopping tax credit? Or Citibank paying zero? Or Exxon/Mobile getting a welfare subsidy of our tax dollars? (See Forbes's "What The Top U.S. Companies Pay In Taxes.") The idea that corporations don't actually pay taxes at a 35 percent rate was glossed over, while good little propagandist Stahl harped on the 35 percent rate, how the 35% rate was way too high blah-blah-blah, so much higher than the rest of the world blah-blah-blah. It was almost like Michele Bachmann had suddenly gotten a job at CBS.


3/28/11 -- First the Republicans spread lies about 16,000 IRS agents having to be hired at taxpayer expense to go after people who had not signed up for health care insurance . . .

To their little minds that was bad, bad, bad. But, if a woman is raped, the Repug Party wants to sic the IRS on them! This is not only strikingly inconsistent, it is, typically, evil and sadistic. Repugs have no problem talking about fascism when it comes to their political opponents, but they have no problems proposing it when it comes to women. Their H.R. 3, the Stop Taxpayer-Funded Abortions Act, would do just that. Frat boys that they are, their bill basically would say to rape victims, "Prove it!" It's bad enough when a woman has to go through the court system for such things, but sending government agents to their door is way beyond the pale.

Repugs will say it's about the taxpayer dollar. Well, if it truly was, then how come they have no problem spending taxpayer dollars on sending an agent right to your door? In fact, they'll have to hire more IRS agents. How many? 16,000? This would be a great question to ask of Michele Bachmann, since she has made a career of repeating the "16,000 agent" lie.

§

History in the making:
Selections from THE NOAH DIARIES 2011

Yesterday: (7) "It's important to remember, no one was hurt at Three Mile Island" (Lamar Alexander). Plus: "America is not broke" (Michael Moore), real death panels, did she deserve to be beaten?, rehabbing the Bush name, and more (3/7-14/11)
Tomorrow: (9) Why do Republicans love the idea of royalty and all its trappings? Plus: Mob mentality, dumb in Dixie, water! water!, AP punked, Jesse Ventura makes sense!, Repugs & government, and more (4/3-15/11)

FOR A COMPLETE LISTING OF THE SERIES, CLICK HERE

And don't forget 2010's Year in Review series and 2009's "12 Days of Christmas Scorn"!

#