Tater Tot

From THINK PROGRESS:

Late last week, the Ben Quayle for Congress campaign released a new YouTube video featuring the young Republican blasting the government for supposedly “loading massive debt on the backs of Americans so the politicians can keep spending money on their agenda.”

The video begins with Quayle saying that, while “numbers can be boring, every American can and must understand the numbers I’m about to describe.” He warns that “America is today spending well over 14.5 trillion dollars a year”:

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Crime of Opportunity

From THINK PROGRESS:

Arizona politicians who support the state’s new immigration law have spent the past few months justifying the passage of SB-1070 by pointing to the high levels of crime that undocumented immigrants have brought to their state. However, over the past few weeks, the media has countered their claims of kidnappings and beheadings with reports that the border is “safer than ever” and “one of America’s safest places.” Today, when pressed by guest anchor Harry Smith on CBS’ Face the Nation, SB-1070 supporter Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) called the reports a “gross generalization”:

SMITH: One of the things that’s come to light over the past last couple weeks is that in some of these border towns that were thought to be susceptible to lawbreaking of illegal immigrants. Crime is actually down. Crime in Phoenix for instance is down significantly over the past couple of years.

KYL: Well, that’s a gross generalization. Property crimes are up, certain violent crimes on certain parts of the citizenry are up. Phoenix is a very large source of kidnapping. It’s called the kidnapping capital of the United States…So there’s a great deal of violence and crime associated with illegal immigrants.

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Guns ‘n Poses

From Rough Sketch at The Washington Post:

Arizona voters who don’t pull the lever for Republican congressional candidate Pamela Gorman have this to consider: She just might shoot them.

Gorman, in a new ad, fires a machine gun and pistols scores of times as a goofy sounding announcer calls this year “our best shot at changing Congress. ‘Course that all depends on the caliber of our candidates.”

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Goodbye 2009!

To the tune of My Favorite Things (music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II):

Birthers and Deathers, and all kinds of crazy,
A Twitterer quits, ’cause she’s just too damned lazy,
Rescuing banks ’cause they’re too big to fail,
Tales about the Appalachian trail.

♫

Gohmert Pile (of Poop)

From POLITICO:

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.), who is about as conservative on homeland security as anybody living above ground, was on FOX last night riffing about the potential motivations of New Yorkers who actually want terrorists tried on their home soil.

He went on to provide a helpful list of potential weak spots that a well-informed terrorist — say someone who watched Louie Gohmert on FOX — might target during the trials.

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The Tea Gets Iced

Congressman Lloyd Doggett, Democrat of Texas:

To help cover huge medical bills in Bastrop, Texas, they hold a Main Street pancake supper, an American Legion auction. Essential health care shouldn’t depend on the kindness of strangers, the goodness of neighbors, and certainly not the just say “No” of Republicans or the weak tea parties brewed up by the insurance lobby.

Now, belatedly, they offer a scheme as skimpy as a hospital gown. They do nothing to help seniors. Their proposal is inefficient, ineffective, and wasteful. Masquerading as reform, their bill authorizes insurers to continue denying coverage for pre-existing health conditions, such as acne or a C-section. Republican obstructionism has, itself, become a giant pre-existing condition to any meaningful change.

This is a typical old time Republican medicine show–do a little for 5% of the uninsured, do nothing for the other 95% and leave the portion of American families uninsured largely unchanged. The only thing they propose more of is more insurance policy loopholes. Freedom? The only freedom they offer is the freedom to go broke from medical debts – the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

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(left to right: John Rent-a-Baby Shadegg, Joseph My-Ass-Is-Teabagger-Grass Cao, Michele Batshit I-Got-Lei’ed Bachmann, Eric The Token Cantor, John Boohoo Boehner)

If Sue ever said anything intelligent, it would be a Myrickle.

From THE HILL:

Republican members of the Congressional Anti-Terrorism Caucus said the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have tried to plant “spies” within key national-security committees in order to shape legislative policy.

Reps. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.), John Shadegg (R-Ariz.), Paul Broun (R-Ga.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), citing the book Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America, called for the House sergeant at arms to investigate whether CAIR had been successful in placing interns on key panels. The lawmakers are specifically focused on the House Homeland Security Committee, Intelligence Committee and Judiciary Committee.

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Is there a doctor in the House? Yeah, 14 of ’em!

From the Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — In the struggle to overhaul the nation’s health care system, 16 physicians have ended up in ringside seats — as members of the House and Senate.

But they have taken different lessons from their experiences in medicine, and they do not agree on what a bill should look like.

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