Czars

Republican Introduces Resolution To Honor Anti-Government Teabaggers

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From the department of You Can't Make This Sh*t Up:

Republican Rep. Tom Price, of Georgia, has introduced a House resolution that would, if passed, express the legislative body's "gratitude and appreciation" to Tea Party members who marched on Washington on Sept. 12 to "show their love of liberty and their grievance with recent government actions."

The proposed resolution is co-signed by more than 70 members of the House.

The proposed resolution would single for praise the "hundreds of thousands of American patriots, who refuse to sit idly by as the Federal Government advances skyrocketing deficits, taxpayer-funded bailouts, pork-barrel projects, burdensome taxes, unaccountable policy czars, command-and-control energy policy, and a government takeover of health care, came to Washington, D.C, to show their disapproval ..."

So let me get this straight...Price wants to pass a resolution that would praise anti-government, right wing extremists who want to overthrow their president? Really? If one single Democrat votes for this garbage, you can be sure we will call them out and ridicule them mercilessly.

Just to be clear, there weren't hundreds of thousands of people at that joke of a march on September 12th. And this was not an anti-tax march, this was a well funded hate-fest that was organized by Fox News and Glenn Beck.

You can read Price's entire resolution here. For added entertainment, click through to the original article and check out some of the comments. Didn't they learn anything from our Jon Perr's 10 Lessons for Teabaggers?



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Why doesn't Lou Dobbs just move on over to Fox and get it over with? Dobbs does his best to emulate Glenn Beck and attacks another White House "czar" for quoting Mao-tse Tung, taking Anita Dunn's words out of context just as Beck did.

DOBBS: Well, another high-ranking White House appointee extolling the virtues of Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung. When White House manufacturing czar Ron Bloom was an executive at the United Steelworkers Union, he addressed a 2008 forum on the union role in bankruptcy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP-FROM YOUTUBE 2008)

RON BLOOM, UNITED STEEL WORKERS: Generally speaking, we get the joke. We know that the free market is nonsense. We know that the whole point is to game the system, to beat the market or at least find someone who will pay you a lot of money because they're convinced that there is a free lunch. We know this is largely about power. That it's an adults' only, no limit game. We kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun, and we get it that if you want a friend, you should get a dog.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOBBS: White House Communication Director Anita Dunn last June also cited Mao as one of the great political philosophers in her life. Mao was the leader of communist China from his founding to his death in 1976. His policies and purges believed to have caused the deaths of tens of millions of people, as many as 100 million.

Well to hear more of my thoughts on all the president's czars and their fascination with Mao Tse-Tung, please join me on the radio Monday through Friday for "The Lou Dobbs Show" 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. each afternoon on WOR 710 radio here in New York City. Go to loudobbs.com to get the local listings for "The Lou Dobbs Show", subscribe to our daily Podcast. Check out our store. Follow me on Twitter at loudobbsnews on Twitter.com.


Open Thread

czars rupert and beck 2_6104a.jpg

Beware those unelected, power-crazy Czars. Larger version here.

In related news, an Australian news executive has publicly called out Murdoch's News Corporation as a "diminishing empire." (h/t Ken W.)

Open thread below....


The Return of McCarthyism

h/t ThoughtProfiles's:

A juxtaposition of the past and current use of McCarthyism.

A must watch. They did an excellent job with this mash up. Maybe someone could get George Will to watch it.


Countdown's Worst Person--Lou Dobbs and Obama's Czars

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Countdown's Worst Persons segment with winner Lou Dobbs. Runners up Glenn Beck, John Boehner and Eric Cantor.


Tea Party - CZARS - Obama's CZARS = Hitler's SS_dd4cb.jpg

One of the more laughable right wing attack lines against President Obama has been the number of "Czars" he has appointed. Of course, we know that former President Bush had more czars than Obama, but why would Fox News report that? During his health care reform speech last week, the president said "If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out"

Release the hounds, the pushback has begun:

Last week, when the President addressed the Joint Session of Congress in a speech on health reform, he referred to some of the untruths – okay, lies – that have been spread about the plan and sent a clear message to those who seek to undermine his agenda and his presidency with these tactics: "We will call you out." So consider this one of those calls.

Over the past several weeks, we've seen with increasing frequency and volume issues raised around the use of "czars" by this Administration. Although some Members have asked serious questions around the makeup of the White House staff, the bulk of the noise you hear began first with partisan commentators, suggesting that this is somehow a new and sinister development that threatens our democracy. This is, of course, ridiculous. Just to be clear, the job title "czar" doesn’t exist in the Obama Administration. Many of the officials cited by conservative commentators have been confirmed by the Senate. Many hold policy jobs that have existed in previous Administrations. And some hold jobs that involved coordinating the work of agencies on President Obama’s key policy priorities: health insurance reform, energy and green jobs, and building a new foundation for long-lasting economic growth

But of course, it’s really the hypocrisy here that is noteworthy. Just earlier today, Darrell Issa, a Republican from California and one of the leaders in calling for an investigation into the Obama Administration’s use of "czars", had to admit to Fox News that he had never raised any objections to the Bush Administration’s use of "czars". Many of these members who now decry the practice have called on Presidents in the past to appoint "czars" to coordinate activities within the government to address immediate challenges. What is clear is that all of this energy going into these attacks could be used to have a constructive conversation about bringing this country together to address our challenges moving forward – and it doesn’t take a "czar" to bring that about! Just some folks willing to act in good faith. Read on...

This is a blogger with a spine. The blog post was written by Anita Dunn, and she goes on to nail numerous right wing politicians and pundits, calling them out on the nutbaggery. It's worth clicking through to the original to read it all.


The Rachel Maddow Show: Czar Struck

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Rachel takes on the screechers at Fox News' hypocritical freak out over Obama's "czars".

MADDOW: Do you remember Gilda Radner‘s brilliant “Saturday Night Live” character, Emily Litella? Our culture‘s best-ever human demonstration of the art of misunderstanding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILDA RADNER, COMEDIENNE: What‘s all this stuff I keep hearing about violins and television? Now, why don‘t parents want their children to see violins on television? Why, I thought the Leonard Bernstein concert was just lovely.

Now, if they only sold violins after 10:00 at night, the little babies would all be asleep and they wouldn‘t learn any music appreciation. They‘ll end up wanting to play guitar and bongo drums and go to Africa and join these rock ‘n roll outfits. And they won‘t drink milk. I say there should be more violins on television and less game shows. It‘s terrible the things - what, what?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Ms. Litella - Ms. Litella, that was violence on television, not violins. Violence.

RADNER: Oh, well, that‘s different.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Yes.

RADNER: Never mind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MADDOW: Emily Litella railed against violins on television, against the endangered feces acts, against the eagle rights amendment. She thought we shouldn‘t worry so much about youth in Asia. Then all her skits ended with “never mind.”

Of all the millions of reasons to miss the great Gilda Radner, the most recent is that that character, Emily Litella, may be really the best way we have to understand the current right-wing connection about czars in government.

Continue reading »


Glenn Beck: Obama's Czars Are Our New Robot Overlords?

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Glenn Beck is insane or trying to prove he is. Anyone else think he's just trying to get fired after watching this?