Zero for Heroes

From the New York DAILY NEWS:

WASHINGTON – Congress turned thumbs down on the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act on Thursday night, raising doubts it will ever pass.

Most Republicans refused to back the measure, calling it a “slush fund,” and saying it was another example of Democratic overreach and an “insatiable” appetite for taxpayers’ money.

The bill would spend $3.2 billion on health care over the next 10 years for people sickened from their exposure to the toxic smoke and debris of the shattered World Trade Center.

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Trouble Brewing in Teabaggerland!

From Hot Dish Politics at the Star Tribune:

In Missouri, it’s Rep. Michele Bachmann vs. Joe the Plumber and the Tea Party.

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Colorado: The Bucktennial State?

From CQ POLITICS:

DENVER — Even after they became fodder on the campaign trail, Ken Buck refused to ditch his cowboy boots as he traveled across Colorado last week.

Buck clearly enjoys the tough guy image his footwear signifies, but the boots may also be a symbol of his wild ride in trying to harness the power of the tea party in the Republican Senate primary.

Buck owes his rise in the race largely to the tea party movement, yet this week the Weld County district attorney is having to explain his comment that he wants the “dumbasses at the tea party to stop asking questions about birth certificates while I’m on the camera.”

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Rocky Mountain Low

From THINK PROGRESS:

Last week, former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) gave Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott McInnis and Dan Maes an ultimatum: drop out of the race and make room for him under the Republican Party ticket, or face his third party candidacy. It turns out Tancredo is following through on his threat. The Denver Post broke the news earlier today that Tancredo will seek the nomination of the Constitution Party once he files some papers and registers as a member. However, Tancredo is running into some heavy opposition from his own right-wing base.

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The Know-Nothing No-Everything Party

From POST POLITICS at The Washington Post:

In February, when unpredictable Sen. Jim Bunning single-handedly stalled extensions of unemployment benefits for several days, his Republican colleagues quickly abandoned him, worried that the GOP would be cast as the party against helping people who are out of work.

Last month, as jobless benefits were again to set to expire, Bunning (Ky.) still objected to funding them in a way that would increase the deficit. But this time, nearly every Republican in the Senate joined him, leading to a month-long impasse in which more than 2 million people briefly lost their benefits. When the extension finally passed last week, only two Republicans backed the $34 billion unemployment measure, compared with 21 who had voted with Democrats in March.

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(l to r: Michele Bathshit Bachmann, Mitch Yertle McConnell, Kay I-Lost-to-Gov-Little-Ricky-Goodhair Bailey Hutchison, Lindsey Lindseypoo Graham, Virginia So-Not-A Foxx, Marsha! Marsha! Marsha! Blackburn, Tom Acts-of-God Cole, and Jim Beanball Bunning

With Justice For None

From CROOKS & LIARS:

From the moment he entered the White House, President Obama’s attitude towards the crime, corruption and politicization of the Bush Justice Department has been to “look forward and not backwards.” As we’ve seen for the third time in just the last several days, that’s working out just fine for the Bush lawyers.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Nora Dannehy [assigned by Gonzales’ successor Michael Mukasey]  announced she would bring no charges against Alberto Gonzales, Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Monica Goodling or any of the key players behind the purge of 9 U.S. attorneys.

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The Vast Rightwing Idiocy

From MEDIA MATTERS:

Right-wing media continue to attack Sherrod, defend Breitbart even after full video is released

Huddy: Sherrod’s “incriminating” “present tense” statements still “raise questions” about whether Sherrod should be federally employed. On the July 22 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends, guest co-host Juliet Huddy called the Sherrod incident a “very strange story” and claimed:

HUDDY: If you go on to listen to the tape, there are things that I think are incriminating for her that I do think raise a lot of questions about whether or not she should be in the position that she held in the first place. She refers to, you know, his people, I think, that was [inaudible] — his own kind. If a white public service — as Bill O’Reilly said yesterday — servant said, you know, we sent him to his kind, meaning we sent — we sent a white farmer to a white lawyer — that’s what she said she did, his kind. If it was flipped around — would be raising hell, trust me.

…snip…

[In a July 22 tweet, RedState editor-in-chief and CNN contributor Erick] Erickson: “No, I do not think Andrew Breitbart needs to apologize.”

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Beat the Press!

From the LAS VEGAS SUN:

SPARKS — After more than a month dodging the press, Republican Senate nominee Sharron Angle on Wednesday invited reporters to an event intended to amplify her campaign message that lower taxes and less regulation are the only ways to spur economic recovery.

It was the first time since her primary victory that she had agreed to mingle with the media. Political observers speculated it might signal a shift in Angle’s post-primary strategy of using the media solely as fundraising mechanisms.

Alas, Angle’s more media-friendly moment was over almost as soon as it began.

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