Tea Party Continues To Show It Doesn’t Truly Care About Government Waste

Or more importantly, climate change.

I read a piece over at Climate Progress entitled, “Ohio Tea Party survey to candidates: “The regulation of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere should be left to God and not government and I oppose all measures of Cap and Trade as well as the teaching of global warming theory in our schools.”

It was somewhat unsurprising to read that Ohio Teabaggers are sending out emails to candidates’ campaigns asking that they respond to 15 questions so the Teabaggers can judge their worthiness of support.  All of them are batty to one degree or another.  One of the questions reads:

2. The regulation of Carbon Dioxide in our atmosphere should be left to God and not government and I oppose all measures of Cap and Trade as well as the teaching of global warming theory in our schools.

and asks for “respondents to give one of the following answers: A = Agree; D = Disagree; U = Undecided; A* = Pro-life with exceptions of Rape or Incest, * = Added comments; NR = No Response”.

This question fails on so many levels, it’s hard to know where to begin or end.  “God” isn’t emitting carbon dioxide into the Earth’s climate system at levels unseen for millenia, people are.  Therefore, citing “God” as the responsible authority to regulate atmospheric CO2 is silly.  Opposing teaching of global warming in schools because they think it’s “only a theory” is similarly absurd.  Why don’t they also demand that gravity be withheld from school curricula, since it’s also “only a theory”.

Cheney’s Daughter Is A Serious Foreign Policy Expert?

The Cons live in a very strange world.  It’s a world in which the “free-market” supposedly fixes everything by itself and so is pursued with religious vigor that would make Orthodox followers scratch their heads.  It’s a world in which every dark-skinned person in a viable, current threat to the safety and security of the Cons’ gated communities, except for the ones that are rich (see: Saudi Arabian royalty, etc).  It’s a world in which the term climate-change is a far-left conspiracy theory that has somehow grabbed power in nearly every country’s government, that nearly every scientist is somehow a part of and that nearly every media outlet is somehow a part of to boot.  It doesn’t have to make sense to the rest of us – the Cons excel at cognitive dissonance.

In this fantasy land, the daughter of the last Vice-President Puppet-Master is somehow considered to be a leader in developing Con opposition to President Obama’s foreign policy initiatives.  Never mind that saying the President’s foreign policies weren’t in America’s interests got you labeled “traitor” and “terrist-lover” by the same Cons just one short year ago.  The difference was the “President” was a Con, so his directives comes down from up-high, don’tcha know?  Now that the President is a half-black man, all that is out the window.  Nothing President Obama can or will do will ever be good enough for these rigid ideologues.

Gun Dealers Break Laws; Conservatives Don’t Care

I always wondered how airtight the federal law to require a background check be done on potential gun purchasers were.  I wasn’t sure private gun sellers would actually, you know, follow the law.  More on that in a sec.  Well, it turns out, a majority of private gun sellers in an investigation didn’t follow the law!  The law is quite simple, you see.  If a private seller “knows” or “has reason to believe” the buyer is a criminal, it is illegal to sell the gun to them.  So let’s set up a crazy hypothetical situation: imagine if a potential gun buyer told a private gun seller that they wouldn’t pass a background check.  According to the law, what do you suppose the seller is supposed to do?  Not sell them the freaking gun!!!!!

Now, I didn’t suppose that a majority of private gun sellers would break the law, knowingly or otherwise, but reality has a mean way of breaking you down.  A full 63% of private sellers at gun shows tested were all too willing to sell to buyers who admitted up front that they would fail the background test.  When conservatives talk about “American values”, it would be nice if they would occasionally include following laws.  But as has become all too clear, conservatives don’t think laws actually apply to them.  They’re special!  Laws are for dirty liberals, not country-loving patriots, dont’cha know?  The video at this link demonstrates how many true patriots this country really has.  Watch it in all it’s glory.

A quick question: how many convicted felons have acquired guns this way?  How much extra crime has been committed in this country thanks to law-breaking gun “rights”-as-a-religion fanatics?

On a related note, pay attention to the sellers.  Do you detect a pattern?  Aside from the fact that too many of them laugh when they’re told the buyer wouldn’t pass a background check, that is.

Oh, the 2nd part of the lede?  That’s an acknowledgment to the diarist’s point that conservatives hosed their shorts getting ACORN’s funding revoked.  Where are they on real, excessive law breaking?  Looking for their next mythical liberal conspiracy to break up, probably.

Unprincipled Whiners

No matter what the issue, Cons have demonstrated that their only party platform is whatever anti-Obama happens to be.  In a growing number of cases, this holds true … until the Cons end up working for the opposite of what they initially “stood for”.  Confused yet?  Don’t be – let’s look at the latest example.  The Cons were entirely against the stimulus funding late last year and early this year.  They issued their typical free-market-religious talking points that made no sense and patted themselves on the back for opposing anything that President Obama wanted done.

Now, a different story emerges.  The same Cons who voted against the stimulus are now begging for some of those stimulus dollars to be doled out to NASA instead of other places.  Now, don’t get me wrong.  They certainly haven’t had an epiphany about the role that science should play in our society.  No, we’re still a looooong way from that.  Like everything else, this beg-session is all about politics.  In this case, they can bring home some federal money (since they refuse to pay for things themselves, socialists that they are) and pat each other on the back about that.

The best part?  They continue to slam the stimulus funding while begging for it to be redirected toward NASA.  Two opposing viewpoints in the same request!  How uniquely conservative of them.

It would make more sense for these clowns to request an increase in NASA’s operating budget for FY10 or FY11, if they’re really so concerned about the space program.  But that won’t happen.  They’re anti-public-investment, anti-health care reform, pro-rich tax cuts and pro-occupation.  You see, Trillions of future taxpayer dollars can be spent occupying Iraq and Afghanistan.  Billions and billions of taxpayer dollars can be redistributed from the middle class to the rich.  But health care reform and stimulus?  Not a chance!  Unless they can get something out of it politically.  That’s immoral.

Random Pieces 7/31/08

I love “regular guy” John McCain. See, he hasn’t shown up to do his job as a Senator since April 9th, 2008. No committee hearings, no votes. No work at all. Ah, what a life! For the perpetually curious, how much salary has Sen. McCain received in that time period? $51,345.08. Just to put that in context, how much is the median household yearly income in America? $48,201.00. Yes, that’s correct: in just under four months’ time, John McCain has taken home more money than the median household does in an entire year. That’s how much of a regular guy John McCain is. It’s also another example of how Republicans throw away taxpayer money that could go to someone who actually wanted to do their job.

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I eagerly await the day when the “land of the free” includes the freedom to enjoy cannabis. Tax and regulate it, just like alcohol and cigarettes.

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States looking to save money in their budgets should be looking to energy efficiency instead of approving any new coal, natural gas, or nuclear power plants.

California has cut annual peak demand by 12 GW — and total demand by about 40,000 GWh — over the past three decades. The cost of efficiency programs has averaged 2-3¢ per kW — which is about one fifth the cost of electricity generated from new nuclear, coal and natural gas-fired plants. And, of course, energy efficiency does not require new power lines and does not generate greenhouse gas emissions or long-lived radioactive waste.

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Memo to Congressional Democrats: when you quit capitulating to Mr. 23% on everything, maybe he’ll start taking you seriously. So the fake cowboy unveiled an overhaul of intelligence powers without consulting you first? Too bad. If only you had figured out how to exercise the oversight you’re obligated to do by that quaint antique, the Constitution, I might find some sympathy for you. I just don’t see the point in complaining about being hit by the stick that you chose to hand to the bully.

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