DOWNLOADS: (398)

PLAYS: (4389)

Embed

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his audience through the good, the bad and the crazy that was the NRA's 2013 National Convention over the weekend. After pointing out that it looked a whole lot like a recycled CPAC convention with the same lineup of guests complaining about the same set of grievances, Stewart noted that they did eventually get around to the fearmongering and guns.

After showing some of Wayne LaPierre's "simple message" about how the only one that can stop a "bad guy with a gun" is a "good guy with a gun," Stewart pointed out that the message wasn't quite so simple at the convention this year, since the lot of them didn't seem to know just who the bad guys or good guys are, or what the definition of democracy and tyranny are for that matter.

As Steve Benen did such a wonderful job of explaining in his post this Monday, Republicans continually claim to be the anti-tax party, but that label should come with an asterisk, because they really don't mind raising taxes on the poor. Those moochers had better get "some skin in the game" or else.

Case in point, one Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.) who apparently decided that Mitt Romney didn't piss off quite enough Americans during the last election with his 47 percent remarks.

When Republicans endorse tax increases:

But as those who watch Republican politics closely know, the anti-tax rule needs an asterisk. The party hates tax increases with every fiber of its being, unless you're poor. Luke Johnson flagged this quote from Rep. Rob Woodall (R-Ga.).

"You know, folks mock Mitt Romney for what he said, but he's right. Forty-seven percent of American citizens pay zero in income taxes. It's just true," Woodall said, according to remarks recorded by Georgia Fair Share. [...]

"In fact, the bottom 30% of American citizens profit from the tax code because they're getting refundable tax credits back," Woodall says in the video. "I don't care if you're paying a dollar. You need to believe that you are involved in the process, and you need to have skin in the game."

There are a couple of relevant angles to this. First, Romney's "47 percent" thesis wasn't just the percentage of Americans who don't pay income taxes; it was also about characterizing nearly half the country, including seniors and veterans, as lazy parasites.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (799)

PLAYS: (11240)

Embed

Chris Hayes took a shot at him the night before and this Thursday, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart took his turn skewering Rand Paul for his appearance at Howard University. Paul asked the audience there how his party has managed to go from being one that elected the first twenty African American congressmen to becoming a party that now loses ninety percent of their vote, and Stewart was happy to answer that question for Sen. Paul.

Stewart proceeded to explain for Paul that maybe that pesky Southern Strategy employed by Nixon and St. Ronnie and Bush Sr. -- all the way up to recent times and presidential contender Gov. Rick Perry and his Niggerhead Ranch -- might tend to alienate a voting bloc.

Jon continued by going through baby Paul's train wreck of a speech at Howard which you can read more about here: The history Rand Paul struggles to understand:

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (219)

PLAYS: (2484)

Embed

The Last Word's Lawrence O'Donnell explained that not all Republicans agree with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the others in their party who believe that marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman, such as St. Ronnie, Newt Gingrich and his fellow "serial polygamist" Rush Limbaugh.

O'Donnell also explained why Republicans might be having so much trouble finding a verse from the Bible that they'd be willing to quote on the subject.

DOWNLOADS: (133)

PLAYS: (1099)

Embed

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) and freshman state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione have a plan to create a "Fort Knox of Texas" so that the state can start hoarding gold.

Giovanni has filed a bill to establish a Texas Bullion Depository to store the $1 billion worth of gold bars that are owned by University of Texas Investment Management Co. (UTIMCO), which are currently being housed by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Speaking to conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday, Perry said that lawmakers were in the process of "bringing gold that belongs to the state of Texas back into the state." Beck has been a longtime paid spokesperson for the precious metal seller Goldline, which agreed to refund up to $4.5 million to former customers last year after being sued for marking up gold more than 50 percent.

"If we own it, I will suggest to you that that's not someone else's determination whether we can take possession of it back or not," Perry told Beck.

Former Rep. Ron Paul on Thursday explained to The Texas Tribune that the gold would be safer in the hands of Texans.

"If you think gold is a hedge, or a protection, you always want it as close to the individual and the entity as possible," Paul said. "Texas is better served if it knows exactly where the gold is rather than depending on the security of the Federal Reserve."

For his part, Capriglione said that he had gotten the idea while attending a tea party rally with Perry in Tarrant County earlier this year.

"Something on the scorecards of a lot of these businesses in deciding whether they want to come to Texas is stability and gold as being one of those items," Capriglione insisted. "I think it's been in his consciousness for a while in trying to get some sort of depository in the state of Texas."

"We don't want just the certificates. We want our gold. And if you're the state of Texas, you should be able to get your gold."

Tangent Capital Partners senior managing director Jim Rickards speculated to Yahoo Finance on Thursday that creating a "Fort Knox of Texas" could be a step in Texas creating its own currency and eventually moving to secede.

Continue reading »

DOWNLOADS: (122)

PLAYS: (354)

Embed

From this Thursday's opening day of the Conservative Political Action Conference 2013, Texas Gov. Goodhair apparently decided that the "stupid party" could use a little more help with that Hispanic outreach program of theirs: Rick Perry: Immigrant Release Is A ‘Federally Sponsored Jailbreak’:

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington on Thursday, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry decried immigration authorities for releasing several hundred detainees in response to sequester cuts.

President Obama's handling of the sequster "would be laughable if he hadn't taken it one step too far, dangerously releasing criminals onto our streets to make a political point," he said. "When you have a federally sponsored jailbreak, --and dont get confused that's exactly what this is, a federally sponsored jailbreak -- you cross the line from politics as spin to polics as craven form of cynicism where everything goes."

White House officials say the decision was made by ICE independently. Many detainees are not held on criminal grounds and Immigration officials say they only released low risk individuals, not anyone who was required to be held for serious charges.

DOWNLOADS: (317)

PLAYS: (3176)

Embed

For anyone who didn't think Gov. Rick Perry was a big enough wingnut to suit the state of Texas, there's an even nuttier one waiting to take his place -- secessionist Larry Kilgore. The Daily Show's Jessica interviewed Kilgore and his sidekick, Lynn Troxel, and it was a surreal enough segment that it could have been something you'd find over at The Onion.

Sadly, this guy is actually talking about running for office in Texas: With Stickers, a Petition and Even a Middle Name, Secession Fever Hits Texas:

Secession fever has struck parts of Texas, which Mitt Romney won by nearly 1.3 million votes.

Sales of bumper stickers reading “Secede” — one for $2, or three for $5 — have increased at TexasSecede.com. In East Texas, a Republican official sent out an e-mail newsletter saying it was time for Texas and Vermont to each “go her own way in peace” and sign a free-trade agreement among the states.

A petition calling for secession that was filed by a Texas man on a White House Web site has received tens of thousands of signatures, and the Obama administration must now issue a response. And Larry Scott Kilgore, a perennial Republican candidate from Arlington, a Dallas suburb, announced that he was running for governor in 2014 and would legally change his name to Larry Secede Kilgore, with Secede in capital letters. As his Web page, secedekilgore.com, puts it: “Secession! All other issues can be dealt with later.”

In Texas, talk of secession in recent years has steadily shifted to the center from the fringe right. It has emerged as an echo of the state Republican leadership’s anti-Washington, pro-Texas-sovereignty mantra on a variety of issues, including health care and environmental regulations. For some Texans, the renewed interest in the subject serves simply as comic relief after a crushing election defeat.

But for other proponents of secession and its sister ideology, Texas nationalism — a focus of the Texas Nationalist Movement and other groups that want the state to become an independent nation, as it was in the 1830s and 1840s — it is a far more serious matter. Read on...

DOWNLOADS: (189)

PLAYS: (1119)

Embed

After giving his viewers a little reminder of what the Republicans sounded like during the 2012 Republican presidential primary race and their blatant race baiting and fearmongering over "illegal immigrants" Jon Stewart took Sen. John McCain and his buddies to task for their "craven political calculation" to try to "squeeze out enough votes" to make states like Nevada competitive again with their flip-flop on passing some sort of immigration reform.

Stewart brought on his correspondent Al Madrigal for his input as to whether the Republicans are going to be successful in their endeavor and Madrigal wasn't too optimistic, given that they appear to be holding their noses while doing what's obviously just politically expedient rather than something they actually support and due to the length of time that "Latinos hold grudges" and who are not going to forget any time soon the way they've been treated by Republicans.

When Stewart asked if there was another demographic they might have any more luck with in the future, like African Americans or women, Madrigal's fellow correspondent Jessica Williams interrupted the segment and put in her two cents about the fact that Republicans aren't going to have any luck there either, especially after remarks like those from "legitimate rape" Todd Akin and the House Republicans deciding to hold their annual retreat -- where they were supposed to be focusing on minority outreach -- at a former slave plantation.

DOWNLOADS: (105)

PLAYS: (139)

Embed

It's so brave of her to come out and say this now that she's leaving the Senate, isn't it? Texas Senator Embraces Federal Gun Control, Limits On Large Magazines:

Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a strong ally of the National Rifle Association and its legislative priorities, told CBS’s Face The Nation on Sunday that she could support tighter regulations of high-capacity magazines in the aftermath of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. [...]

The NRA has taken any discussion of gun control off the table, arguing that government should instead station armed security guards in schools, limit cultural violence, repair the mental health system, and get tough on crime. Though group endorsed Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) in his gubernatorial primary against Hutchision in 2010, the Texas chapter of the organization gave her an A+ rating, noting that it is the policy of the group to endorse incumbents.

Of course Bob Schieffer didn't ask her why it took her until now to soften some of her views on any new regulations. I'm pretty sure we wouldn't be hearing this out of her if she was planning on running for office again.

SCHIEFFER: I think we reestablished communications with Texas. Senator Hutchison, you were talking about you do suggest, at least schools being able to put police in schools if they think it's needed, but how about some of these other things? What about this idea of a ban on assault weapons? What about, as Senator Warner is talking about, restricting the sales of these magazines that have 30 rounds in a clip? How do you feel about that?

HUTCHISON: You know, I think we ought to be looking at where the real danger is, like those large clips, I think that does need to be looked at. We do have a ban on assault weapons, as was stated earlier. But it's the semiautomatics, and those large magazines that can be fired off very quickly. You do have to pull the trigger each time, but it's -- it's very quick. I think we should be looking at those mega- opportunities as one of the things that might be looked at. And we need to talk to real hunters who say what is a sporting rifle capability that continues the sport? We need to talk to people in all areas. But, Bob, what hasn't been mentioned, you know, in this conversation, is also the violence in our society. What children and kids are seeing even on P.G. movies and these video games like Black Ops 2 and those kinds of things. I mean, really, we have a more violent society in general, and I think a lot of it has to be looked at in that framework.

DOWNLOADS: (95)

PLAYS: (290)

Embed

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) says that schools in his state will be safer when school districts are given the ability to allow staff to carry guns.

Speaking to a cheering crowd of Northeast Tarrant County Tea Party members on Monday, the Texas governor called last week's shootings at an elementary school in Connecticut an evil act but insisted that new gun laws were not the answer.

"We have to do everything we can to make sure those types of evils are restricted the best they can be," he explained. "One thing I hope I don't see is knee-jerk reaction from Washington, where they come in and think they know the answers."

"In the state of Texas, if you go through the process, have been trained, and you are a handgun-licensed individual, you should be able to carry a gun anywhere in the state."

Perry is just the latest Texan to declare that more firearms in the classroom will help solve the problem of mass school shootings.

Austin-area gun store own Crockett Keller on Monday told KRLD that he was offering teachers a discount on training for conceal-carry permits.

And Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) asserted on Sunday that the children in Connecticut would have been safer if the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary had been armed with an M4 carbine, a a military-issued assault rifle designed for urban warfare.