Media Tracker Embarrasses itself with Clueless Attack on DPW's Graeme Zielinski

Thank you Media Trackers, for another jaw dropping post. In their quest to twist reality around just enough to fit down their Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole, they sometimes miss badly. Here’s a screen capture of their latest mind numbing folly:

Collin Roth sums up his partisan attack this way, missing his own acknowledgement that Democrats are "pro-choice," meaning we offer...choice:

So just to be clear, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski claims that he “hates abortion,” despite being the spokesman for a party that represents nearly every pro-choice politician in America and receives millions of dollars in support from Planned Parenthood and EMILY’s List. But the very next day, Zielinski is claiming that Rep. Paul Ryan is a “cafeteria Catholic” whom “practicing Catholics should be angry with” for “wrapping himself in a faith he controverts with his public life.” Perhaps this all makes sense to Zielinski. But he might be the only person.

My own concept of when life begins is at viability. But God is even clearer in Genesis:

Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 

Any questions? Here's my response in their comments section:

Boy, you guys just don't get it. Democrats have been saying over and over the word and concept of "choice."

Is Media Trackers so desperate for "gotchas" that you chanced running this story hoping no one would notice? Looks like (another comment) Edward Perkins bought into hook, line and sinker.

Zielinski is like many Democrats, he believes in choice, not the normal hard line offered by Republicans. He's pointing out the hypocrisy of conservatives edicts. We aren't hard line Catholics, or zealot fundamentalists. Graeme can believe what he likes. Apparently conservatives can't. The churches position on contraception and abortion isn't referenced in the bible. That's why the right wing is so adamant about establishing when life begins, it’s a control/power thing. The authoritarian Catholic Church traditions were developed to control the flock. There's a reason Martin Luther split from the church.

The phony outrage or utter cluelessness of your story here should be an embarrassment. Thanks for the material.

Banks fork over $11.6 billion to Fannie Mae for bad Loans.

You've got to wonder why US banks are still paying massive fines when the cause of the Great Recession can be directly connected to poor people insisting on taking out bad mortgages. Or at least that’s what Republicans keep telling us:

Financial Times: US banks agreed to pay out more than $20bn on Monday in two settlements to resolve claims arising from the mortgage crisis, with compensation for bad loans wiping out most of Bank of America’s earnings for a second successive quarter.

Was it really the fault of poor people buying homes, or…

BofA, the second-biggest US bank by assets, agreed to pay $11.6bn to Fannie Mae, the government-controlled mortgage company, to resolve a protracted legal battle over bad loans.

In a separate settlement, 10 mortgage lenders, including BofA, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup, agreed to pay more than $8.5bn to settle regulators’ allegations that they were guilty of widespread abuse of the foreclosure system that allowed banks to seize homes from defaulting borrowers. The two settlements add to the tens of billions banks have already paid out in fines and compensation for loose lending standards in the run-up to the financial crisis and the lax manner in which they dealt with home repossessions.

What the lame stream media isn't telling you is that poor people intimidated and forced banks to make these bad loans. Poor things.

So what could happen if Republican play games with the debt ceiling?

The simple truth is, the debt ceiling allows the government to pay it's bills on money already spent.

Freeloading Republicans want to stop payment, stiff Uncle Sam and the rest of the world. They've already cost the nation $19 billion in higher borrowing costs, what's a few extra percentage points.

While the Republicans boldly lie about what the debt ceiling means, Ezra Klein cuts through that massive misinformation campaign to explain how bad things could get.

It could fulfill the Republicans dream of breaking the back of government once and for all though:

CNN's Piers Morgan exposes Alex Jones for the Ranting Armed Paranoid he's become. This is your typical whining Second Amendment Gun Owner!!!

Wanna know what kind of person believes 20 bullet riddled children's bodies is the price Americans are willing to pay for our loose Second Amendment rights? Radio bizarro Alex Jones gave America the full Monty when he appeared with Piers Morgan. You'll notice how Jones rapidly skips from one subject to another, a common and confusing scattershot tactic used by the far right. Jones kept repeating, "your not going to get our guns."

After Jones' appearance, Piers and Alan Dershowitz tried to make sense of what just happened:

“I want people to see the likes of Alex Jones,” Morgan said. "... This debate must be heard loud and clear, so that the arguments against gun control are laid bare for what they are, which, in my view, is a dangerous farce."

Note: This mentally unstable gun owner had another problem prior to his tantrum on Morgan's show, from Politico:

The radio host who blew up at Piers Morgan on CNN tonight was detained by Transportation Security Administration officials on his way to the interview. Alex Jones, the creator of the White House petition to deport Piers Morgan, refused to remove his shoes at the Austin-Bergstrom Airport while en route to New York City, according to TSA blogger Bob Burns.

Jones refused to take his shoes off, believing he was being profiled as a known critic of the TSA … He subsequently agreed to take off his shoes … but was arrested after a beep went off from the metal detector. "The officer continued to detain Jones as he talked to other cops. Despite the officer seemingly wanting to take further action, TSA management, presumably aware of the potential scandal that could ensue, said they were happy to let Jones go on his way,"

As the advocates of tort reform and the whiners over frivolous lawsuits, conservative have a different set of rules for themselves:

InfoWars' Paul Joseph Watson writes. "Jones is now considering a civil rights lawsuit against the TSA for discrimination."

GOP's Last Action Hero Schwarzenegger comes out in support of Common sense gun Laws, bad parenting.

It's pretty sad when the guy Republicans were willing to amend the constitution for, so he could be president, Arnold Schwarzenegger, comes out against the current crop of tea party sociopaths.

Newsmax: Arnold Schwarzenegger may be one of the world's biggest action stars but the former governor of California says violence in films is entertainment and should not be linked to tragic events like the Connecticut school shooting in which 20 children died.

The star said in a press conference "(This is) entertainment and the other thing is a tragedy beyond belief. It's really serious and it's the real deal.”

The actor said the tragedy in which a gunman killed 20 children and six staff at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, is about more than just guns. "We have to analyze how we deal with mental illness, how we deal with gun laws, how we deal with parenting," he said. "How can we do better with gun laws?" asked Schwarzenegger. "If there are any loopholes, if there's a problem, let's analyze it.

In terms of parenting, the former politician alluded to the Connecticut killer Adam Lanza's mother, Nancy, who was also shot and killed by her own son on that tragic day. "Does a mother need to collect guns and take her little kids shooting?" he asked. "Everything has to be analyzed; no stone unturned," he added. "I think that's what we owe to our people."

Hey, Sandy Hook wasn't the result of having a gun problem, says Rep. Huelskamp.

I love it when Republicans have to argue like Democrats when it comes to guns:

Talk show host Joe Scarborough and Rep. Tim Huelskamp both shouted over one another after Huelskamp said those arguing for gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings were politicizing the murder of 20 schoolchildren.

There’s really no excuse for tolerating this degree of ruthless cluelessness.

Huelskamp argued there's no evidence tougher gun laws would have prevented what happened in Newtown, Conn., one week ago. "You know what, there's been a lot of misleading statements, including those that are said right here, in saying that somehow if we ban a gun, that somehow criminals won't get it," Huelskamp said. "Let's not build on the tragedy in Connecticut and use that to actually push a political agenda," Huelskamp said.

The amusing aspect of this discussion is how “liberal” Scarborough sounds when the conservative tables are turned, that moment when a fellow Republican finds his own ideology could kill him. By the way, nice argument from Joe:

"What was your feeling after Sept. 11, Congressman? Were there some changes made in this country because of the tragedy of Sept. 11? Was that just using a tragedy, 3,000 deaths, to make Americans safer? Do you dare come on my show and say I am using the slaughter of 20 little 6- and 7-year-old children? I'm using them for political purposes?" Scarborough said.

To show how utterly sociopathic a great many conservatives are, don’t bother trying to imagine them using kids as a battering ram, because reality is even uglier:

Huelskamp said he would refuse to allow Scarborough or anyone else, because they had children, to politicize the shootings. 

Tea Party blames Sandy Hook Shooting on radical union teachers and liberals who destroyed family and coddled shooter!!!

How much longer are conservatives going to put up with this bat crazy crap from the teatards for the Sandy Hook massacre? There’s something deeply wrong with these people, from Right Wing Watch:

Tea Party Nation head Judson Phillips sent out an email to members yesterday featuring an article by TPN member Timothy Birdnow attacking teachers over the school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. He said that parents must “take away the power of the radicals in the classrooms” and lawmakers must introduce right to work laws to cripple teachers’ unions. He says liberals “destroyed the family” and encouraged the shooter to be “coddled all his life, given free rein to indulge his senses but not to face the responsibilities that freedom necessitates… He lived in a world of the Progressives making, not in reality.” Birdnow even suggests that President Obama will use the shooting to “to advance the cause of disarming the American People” and argue that people like George Zimmerman (!) should be guarding schools.

And what does “freedom and liberty” look like under Tea Party Republicans? Anything but…

1. Back Right to Work legislation for the public sector. Teacher’s unions have helped cement much of this in place. As long as we have group think in the classrooms we will never see the end of this.

2. Engage in more frank discussion of race and culture. For far too long we have tiptoed around these issues, fearful of being branded a racist. If black thugs kidnap and rape a woman, ask if there is something in the black culture that fostered that.

3. Work to devolve power back to the parents, the local officials, and the communities. A society that is top-down will inevitably lead to alienation of the sort we have seen here. He lived in a world of the Progressives making, not in reality.

4. Individuals - especially immature individuals - need to be taught how to live, how to think, how to believe. Man’s animal passions must be placed in check and his rational faculties engaged. His moral compass must be set. Liberalism sought to destroy all the controls.

5. Restrict the sex in movies, television, on the internet. There is a reason why young people commit these sorts of crimes, and sex plays no small part. Their passions are eternally inflamed, and they wander the Earth with no outlet for their overstimulated glands.

6. Support the creation of local organizations to act as “neighborhood watch” for schools.

Now Dumb Ron Johnson wants Democrats to make Draconian Cuts for Him and his Freeloading Republican Teabillies.

It’s enough to make anyone with half a brain to stop and say, oh no, Dumb Ron Johnson said what?

Check out the lunacy of Johnson’s statement, and the 2 charts below showing the reasons we have a deficit. It oddly doesn't have anything to do Social Security and Medicare. So why is Johnson and his fellow Dickensian losers insisting on going after seniors? Mount Pleasant Patch:

Although I strongly prefer extension of current tax rates for all Americans, I supported the compromise bill that protects 99% of Wisconsinites from an income tax increase, The revenue raised by this legislation will equal approximately 7% of projected deficits.

Here’s where these “courageous” “leaders” pass the buck on making draconian spending cuts to Social Security and Medicare. 

"It is now time for President Obama and his Democrat colleagues to show the American public their plan to close the other 93% of the deficit…"

Wait a minute, I thought Republicans were the ones with the long list of cuts? Hey Ron Johnson, show us your leadership, and planned cuts with justifications. Johnson repeated his demand, insisting the Democrats make the draconian Republicans cuts for them. Courage, leadership?

"Now it is time for President Obama and Democrats in the Senate to show the American people their plans to save Social Security and Medicare, and to address the remaining 95% of our annual deficit…"

Never one to do their own work and take the heat for their proposed cuts, Johnson made the point perfectly clear again:

"Where is their spending reduction plan?"  

And just to make things worse, Johnson has every intention of ruining the full faith and credit of the U.S., resulting in higher interest rates paid by taxpayers. Is this guy dumb or what?

"This U.S. Senator will not vote to increase the debt unless serious spending reductions are part of the package." 

Walker cuts State Revenues by over $500 million in 3 years, Businesses almost exempt from Taxes in 10 years. More cuts on the way...

In the next three years, the Walker Authority and majority Republicans will have cut state revenues by over $500 million. That might be just enough to wipe out all future "surpluses."

As we all know, tax cuts don't pay for themselves. Here's a look at all the new and previously put off tax cuts, delayed from 2007-2009 because of the Great Recession, given the green light by the worst managers of taxpayer money. From the Wisconsin Budget Project:

Remember, the Doyle tax cuts could have been delayed or repealed, no one forced the Republicans to drain state revenues by including them. More to the point, blaming the Democrats for tax cuts made before anyone knew there would be a recession and the following weak economic recovery would be another convenient lie. 

Since more tax cuts are on the way, Walker's budget goals are similar to the Bush tax strategy; revenue surpluses must be returned to taxpayers instead of paying down the long term structural debt not included in the state's "balanced budget." We're about to repeat the Bush years under the name of Walker. 

Here's the lowdown:

The tax changes are diverse, but the new Budget Project analysis indicates that they share one thing in common: They were phased-in or delayed in such a way that much of the cost to the state treasury would not come due until the 2013-15 budget, thereby necessitating spending cuts or offsetting tax increases in the next budget.

The incremental cost of the increased tax cuts taking effect in January will total about $528 million over a three-year period from fiscal year 2013 through fiscal year 2015 (measured relative to FY 2012 revenue.)

And corporate welfare?

One example is a new income tax cut for businesses based on income derived from manufacturing or agricultural property. That cut is phased in over four years, starting in 2013. When the credit is fully phased in, businesses will pay an estimated $129 million less in income tax each year, and it will almost completely exempt many manufacturers from Wisconsin income tax. The cumulative ten-year cost of the credit is about $874 million.

Wow, and how will that be made up? I'll bet that even under ten years of Republican rule, we'll still be "spending too much." This is a form of TABOR; the ratcheting down of what we knew as government services.

Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp okay with school shootings and clamping down on mental illness. What a genius.

Democrat in name only, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D sounded just like our down the rabbit hole Republicans, when she said “everything has to be on the table,” while taking everything else off the table regarding gun control:

ABC News: On “This Week”  (Heitkamp said) that while all options should be on the table to address gun violence, President Obama’s reported plans to curve shootings are ”way in extreme.”  

This is why we have a tea party, and why Democrats continue to inadvertently advance conservatism, which actually brings to the party’s outrageously destructive agenda some credibility.

“I think you need to put everything on the table, but what I hear from the administration — and if the Washington Post is to be believed — that’s way — way in extreme of what I think is necessary or even should be talked about.  And it’s not gonna pass,” said Heitkamp, a member of the National Rifle Association. Heitkamp stressed the importance of addressing mental health as part of the effort to curve violent shootings. And so we need to have a broad discussion before we start talking about gun control.”

So smaller magazines, gun show checks and instituting a newly defined “assault rifle” ban is not on the table? This is "extreme?" Has she gone mad? She's an example of the kind of mental illness Heitkamp is talking about.

So pulverizing the tiny bodies of dead children with 8 to 10 rounds each isn't enough for Heitkamp? I hope public opinion, and most likely her own conservative voters who support common sense regulations, give her an earful.  

Walker: "We're not going to do things that...bring 80,000 to 100,000 people to the Capitol." Wishful thinking?

Early and often. That's the media plan to remind us that Gov. Scott Walker is a moderate nice guy. His focus, not the legislatures, is jobs...again. How'd that go the first time?

State Journal in the tank for Walker! 

Poor Scott, he's still going to have to go along with the radical right wing legislatures bills on voter ID, vouchers, allocating electoral college votes, reckless mining changes, reckless wolf hunting changes, ban wind energy, abortion changes, dissolving the GAB and instituting a partisan elections board to suppress and intimidate voters.

WSJ: Walker now says building certainty and avoiding divisiveness is such a priority that he will push GOP lawmakers not to bring up certain bills important to conservatives, including some he may support, such as those to end same-day voter registration, restrict immigration, implement so-called "right-to-work," and overhaul the state Government Accountability Board.

The con is set. And that's just part of what's coming in the next two years, not including the way he's turned neighbor against neighbor in this state with what he described as his "divide and conquer" strategy. And that's not really that "polarizing" is it? I wish I were making this stuff up.

Sadly, reporter Mary Spicuzza wrote this piece of propagandist tripe lifted from the Walker campaigns media friendly talking points. Is it she doesn't know that Walker hasn't stopped campaigning for either reelection or a presidential run since taking office?  Can you say "Judith Miller."

"We're not going to do things that are going to bring 80,000 or 100,000 people into the Capitol," Walker told the State Journal in a recent interview. "It's just not going to happen again."

The governor said he has talked to small business owners throughout the state who say "right now, more than anything, they want certainty" so they can try to create jobs.

After two years of Walker handouts, businesses still don’t have “certainty?” Can’t we stop the charade? 

"He's doing his best to impersonate a moderate now," said incoming Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson, D-Milwaukee.

If only the media hadn't told everyone who had guns…

…except in this case, it’s a store:

WSJ: Firearms were stolen during a break-in at the Fleet Farm in Beaver Dam early Saturday.

Guns were supposed to be a deterrent.

The funniest meme so far is that gun owners don’t want people to know they have gun because robbers will then know what houses to rob...to get guns. What happened to the fear of being shot?

Gun nuts now have a massive credibility problem, and we have to keep reminding the media of that.

Note: Aren't most firearms at Farm & Fleet air guns (pellet and BB)? 

Democrats must "provide for the general Welfare."

This should be the Democrat's constitutional centerpiece, our badge of honor, leaving the lunacy of the Second Amendment to tea party Republicans:

To make his point Nichols wrote in the Nation:

One of his few clearly defined responsibilities, one of the few clearly defined responsibilities of any House member, is “to provide for the general Welfare.” They swear an oath to do so. And, barely hours into the new Congress, Ryan and his compatriots rejected that oath and a fundamental premise of the Constitution it supports.

Sly coming Back!!!?

If you go to Sly's Office, everything is gone, except for this:

The Republican Political Protection Racket shields Ryan, Duffy, Sensenbrenner and Petri on Sandy Relief No Vote.

The Wisconsin State Journal thought the House's Sandy relief vote was important enough to headline in this mornings paper, but with one difference; they didn't care to mention the no votes from Paul Ryan, James Sensenbrenner, Sean Duffy and Tom Petri.

Not one mention. Not one Ryan quote. Nothing. Looks like Wisconsin State Journal readers might not find out about who in the Republican Party turned their backs on Hurricane Sandy victims. Big surprise?

Why the hesitation? Well, the rotting soulless scoundrels listed above wanted offsetting cuts to Medicare and Social Security to pay for EMERGENCY aide to Sandy victims. Another words, "Need help? What can you do for me?" 

To demonstrate how truly stupid conservatives are about the National Flood Insurance Program, or helping disaster hit Americans in general, read the following clueless statement:

AP: The Club For Growth, a conservative group, urged lawmakers to oppose the flood insurance bill. "Congress should not allow the federal government to be involved in the flood insurance industry in the first place, let alone expand the national flood insurance program's authority," the group said in a statement.

The Club would like the private sector, the free market, to deal with flood insurance? Looks like the Club For Growth has their head up their ass again, forgetting why NFIP exists. Hint, it wasn't because Democrats wanted to tax, spend and get government to do everything:

Congress created the FEMA-run program in 1968 because few private insurers cover flood damage.

The private sector likes to run like hell when something gets too expensive. Suddenly, government is good. The insurance industry has the same deal going for nuclear power plant coverage, where taxpayers pick up the bill when things get too expensive...when it hurts corporate bottom lines.

Big bad old government has their backs. They don’t sound grateful either. 

Walker Increased General Fund Deficit, Long Term Debt Increased more than Supposed "Surplus."

The Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for FY2012 is out and guess what? Using the same standard applied to former governor Jim Doyle, Scott Walker’s running a bigger deficit at the same time he’s giving away the farm to big business.

Liberals, progressives and Democrats aren't surprised by this latest bit of reality, but for conservative talkers and paranoid Walker thugs it means nothing. Many Republican voters will probably never read or hear about this story. From the Daily Kos:

-Doyle, January 17th 2006: "Our budget is balanced".
-Walker, January 19th 2006: "Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) shows a $2.12 billion general fund deficit"

-Walker, October 16th, 2012: "Our budget is balanced".
-Walker's Department of Administration, December 14th, 2012: Generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) show a $2.21 billion general fund deficit.

And wouldn't you know it, that surplus we keep hearing so much about…borrowed!!!

On page 21 we get the truth about where Scott Walker's cash surplus came from:

The State's total long-term debt obligations (bonds and notes payable) increased by $567.6 million during the current fiscal year which represents the net difference between new issuances, payments and refundings of outstanding debt.

i.e. Walker bought his cash surplus headlines with our money - in fact without his profligate borrowing a, er, Budget Repair Bill would have been required.  In particular, the "debt restructuring" of Act 13 and Act 32 (the latter is the 2011-13 Budget) is costing us $149,174,160 in interest payments.

A Graphic Look at the Fiscal Cliff Deal!

From Ezra Klein:

Noonan on Obama: "He likes Cliffs...maybe it makes him feel his mastery..."

The two items I focus on most here at Democurmudgeon is the over-the-top authoritarian nature of the Republicans Party, and the psychological defense mechanism, projection.

So imagine my glee when I ran across this article by Paul Waldman, a contributing editor for the American Prospect, titled "Conservative Projection Takes a New Angle."

A special thank you goes out to Peggy Noonan, who's sleep inducing dramatic pouting is the very definition of projection:

Noonan asks: 

“Here's my conjecture: In part it's because he seems to like the tension. He likes cliffs, which is why it's always a cliff with him and never a deal. He likes the high-stakes, tottering air of crisis. Maybe it makes him feel his mastery and reminds him how cool he is, unrattled while he rattles others.

He is a uniquely polarizing figure. A moderate U.S. senator said the other day: "One thing not said enough is he is the most divisive president in modern history. He doesn't just divide the Congress, he divides the country." 

Ah yes, we keep having these fiscal crises because Obama "likes cliffs." Don't you remember when he convinced conservative Republicans to hold the national economy hostage over the debt ceiling in 2011? And you do know that he's forcing them to do the same thing in a couple of months, right? They don't want to, but he's making them. Those congressional Republicans are desperate to compromise with him, but he just won't accept all their generous offers! And he sure is "polarizing." After all, if a majority of Republicans have consistently believed that Obama is lying about being born in Hawaii and is a foreigner, and if his opponents regularly charge that when he adopts Republican ideas on things like health care it's because he is a socialist motivated by a hatred of America, then there's really only one person to blame. And when a member of the Republican Senate leadership writes, "It may be necessary to partially shut down the government in order to secure the long-term fiscal well being of our country," that just shows how much Obama loves creating these crises! And what do you know, in that op-ed, Senator John Cornyn makes the same argument, that in all of the crises of the last couple of years, "the White House has purposefully slow-walked the process in a shameless attempt to score cheap political points."

Mark my words, over the next couple of months we're going to be hearing this a lot: Republicans will argue that these crises are all Obama's fault not so much because his ideas are substantively wrong (they'll mention that too, of course), but because he just wants it that way. And because he's so mean.

Wisconsin Republicans threw Sandy Victims under Bus, deny Disaster Relief. Will somebody put Mother Nature on a Budget!

Next time Wisconsin needs help after devastating tornado's, droughts, flooding etc, don't expect any help from these elected political ghouls for help:

Middle Class Obama Tax Cuts don't Pay for Themselves? Now they tell us.

If the GOP is setting up any future debate over spending cuts, they're either about to do the dumbest thing possible, or they're as wily as a fox. I'm thinking their dumb as rocks, and Rachel Maddow proves that while spelling it out below so even teabillies can understand it:



The best graph this year, so far, pointing out who gave us our debt: