Politics Plus

At different times, different people have had different ideas of freedom.  The Pilgrims objected to having the dogma of the Church of England imposed on them.  They came to the new world for the freedom to impose their own dogma on others.  Even at the founding of our nation freedom meant totally different things to the plantation owner and the slave.  Roosevelt defined four freedoms: of speech, of worship, from want and from fear.  Today’s Republicans offer some strange freedoms: for blacks and others, freedom from voting; for the poor and sick, freedom from life; and for women, freedom from self-determination and reproductive rights.  They also offer a Republican freedom for the hungry, as Paul Krugman elucidates.

The word “freedom” looms large in modern conservative rhetoric. Lobbying groups are given names like FreedomWorks [Koch suckers delinked]; health reform is denounced not just for its cost but as an assault on, yes, freedom. Oh, and remember when we were supposed to refer to pommes frites as “freedom fries”?

The right’s definition of freedom, however, isn’t one that, say, F.D.R. would recognize. In particular, the third of his famous Four Freedoms — freedom from want — seems to have been turned on its head. Conservatives seem, in particular, to believe that freedom’s just another word for not enough to eat.

Hence the war on food stamps, which House Republicans have just voted to cut sharply even while voting to increase farm subsidies.

In a way, you can see why the food stamp program — or, to use its proper name, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) — has become a target. Conservatives are deeply committed to the view that the size of government has exploded under President Obama but face the awkward fact that public employment is down sharply, while overall spending has been falling fast as a share of G.D.P. SNAP, however, really has grown a lot, with enrollment rising from 26 million Americans in 2007 to almost 48 million now.

Conservatives look at this and see what, to their great disappointment, they can’t find elsewhere in the data: runaway, explosive growth in a government program. The rest of us, however, see a safety-net program doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: help more people in a time of widespread economic distress… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <NY Times>

Photo credit: Pinterest

Krugman goes on to explain how the increase in SNAP utilization is not because of runaway spending, as Republican’s claim, but because of runaway need, due to the Republican Recession.  He provides a detailed explanation of the program and how it benefits all Americans, not just recipients.  I urge you to click through and read the rest.  Finally I agree with him that the reason Republicans have done this is only because they are mean-spirited class-warriors.

Each time another mass shooting happens, people wring their hands and try yo understand why it happened.  That is certainly true of the Navy Yard Shooting.  One man, however stands alone in saying he knows exactly why it happened.  According to Wayne LaPierre, there were not enough good guys with guns at the naval base.

Wayne LaPierre, Vice President of the National Rifle Association, blamed this week’s shooting at the Navy Yard on a shortage of firearms. Speaking with David Gregory on Meet the Press, LaPierre charged that the base was “completely unprotected” when Aaron Alexis entered, and called for even more armed guards than were already on duty.

Gregory questioned this logic, pointing out that this attack occurred at a military facility with a heavier armed guard presence than most other places…

…In reality, police were on the scene within two to three minutes of the shooting, and security guards had already gone after the gunman… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

Here’s the video:

This Republican is way off the deep in. When the man who lives with his nose up Karl Rove’s butt argues with a righty, that’s a lock!

The problems are, of course, are that there are insufficient efforts to identify those too mentally disturbed to own a gun, such as the shooter, LaPierre, and Rand Paul, and that anyone who may not legally own a gun can buy one at a gun show or in a private sale with no background check. LaPierre and his Republican lackeys are fighting to make it legal for people who should not own a gun to do so and to make buying a gun easy for people who may not possess one by law. They are doing this not to protect anyone’s legitimate rights, but to keep gun manufacturers rolling in blood money.

Here is the twenty-eighth article in our Republicans on Parade series, featuring individuals who personify what the Republican Party has become. Today’s honoree is US Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), infamous for hatred of LGBT folks.  He is honored for an assortment of hateful TEAbuggery, plus one HUGE lie!

You really have to marvel at Republican members of Congress who believe that the message of the 2012 election, in which the candidate who campaigned for Obamacare soundly defeated the candidate who campaigned to repeal Obamacare, was that most Americans want to repeal Obamacare by any means possible.

Following an election in which Democrats won the popular vote for the House of Representatives, a mere 36 percent of Americans [Republican propagandists delinked] favor repealing the Affordable Care Act and just 28 percent of voters say they’d be more likely to support a congressman who is willing to shut down the government in order to prevent the law from being funded.

That brings us to Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), who in an interview with talk show host Steve Deace today followed his attacks on food stamp recipients by spewing the patently absurd GOP talking points that it is actually President Obama — not the Republicans — who want to shut down the government.

Then, Huelskamp asserted that voters will side with the GOP because a whopping “90 percent” of Americans oppose the reform law’s provision that “every single person under Obamacare” will pay a $1 abortion surcharge…

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

Photo credit: Policymic

Here’s the audio: BARF BAG ALERT!

Of course he was lying in normal Republican fashion. There is no such thing as an abortion surcharge in ObamaCare.  On the other hand, there is no such thing as a death surcharge in RepubliCare.  If you aren’t rich enough to pay for care, your death is absolutely free.  Uh-Oh!  I hope I haven’t given them an idea!