The Velvet StraitJacket

There are 3 stories  that give you an insightful look at what is in store for the country if the GOP takes over the majority in the House and/or the Senate in November.

First, Rep John Boehner is for sale. Yes, I know this is not news. I know that after activists judges on the Supreme Court ruled companies are really human and as human deserve to buy their own candidates, Rep Boehner ran up to Wall Street to sell himself to the highest bidder. I know that last week Boehner ran to a business lobbyist meeting and sold himself to them also. If there is any question as to whether he did sell himself you only have to look at his immediate actions afterward to verify the sale. Days after his Wall Street client paid for his services, he came out against any Wall Street reform. After cleaning up and immediately following his rendezvous with the business lobby he announced that we should just end all new regulation for awhile because business just can’t make it if they have to follow any new regulation. If the federal government would just let them do what they want,dump where they want, feed us whatever they want,make cars as safe as they want,hire the ages they want and pay them what they want… business could turn this country around. You only have to look at their record with regulation to get a good laugh out of that plan. Seriously, they don’t follow safety regulation when they can be fined , but will follow them if we’d just give them a break for a little while?

The point is, we know Bohener is for sale, but today we know just what he is selling.

According to materials distributed by Boehner’s camp and obtained by POLITICO, lobbyists and other major donors across the country who give the maximum or help raise $100,000 will get meetings with Boehner, calls from senior aides with updates on the campaign and “VIP access to all events, including roundtables, briefings, breakout discussions and interactive panel discussions.”

That’s right, if you’re a lobbyists and you want a seat at policy roundtable discussions, if you want VIP treatment from the Republican party members up to and including the (prospective)Speaker of the House, if you want to be a part of the briefings… all you have to do is buy it.

Huh, I guess for the right price, everything is for sale. I just didn’t think the Republicans would be so brazen with their prostitution and selling of not just their bodies, but the rest of ours.

Of course there are many people who would say that nothing bad can come of this, there wouldn’t be any abuse and lobbyists wouldn’t get anything detrimental to the country out of these ‘arrangements’. These people say, just trust in the Republicans, they have learned their lessons. Well, to them I give the second out of three stories.

Since 2008, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby has steered more than $250 million in earmarks to beneficiaries whose lobbyists used to work in his Senate office — including millions for Alabama universities represented by a former top staffer.

In a mix of revolving-door and campaign finance politics, the same organizations that have enjoyed Shelby’s earmarks have seen their lobbyists and employees contribute nearly $1 million to Shelby’s campaign and political action committee since 1999, according to federal records.

That’s right, when lobbyist paid for this Republican senator they got $250 million in return.

It’s not that these are all bad earmarks…

The University of Alabama System, which has received $175 million in Shelby earmarks since 2008, the first year lawmakers had to publicly declare their sponsorship of pet projects. The earmarks have included $30 million for a state-of-the-art science center, $10.5 million for Gulf of Mexico weather research and $10.2 million for facilities and equipment at the Tuscaloosa campus.

I’m sure these and many others are very worthy for Shelby’s state. The problem is, with Boehner going from state to state collecting money from lobbyist so he can show them a good “VIP” time, the potential for him to pull a “Shelby” is extremely probable. When you add in Boehners actions after his other meetings with lobbyists, this kind of Shelby type abuse is pretty much a certainty.

I have always said “Pork is in the eye of the beholder” and it’s true. I live on the Space Coast, so any ‘pork’ that keeps NASA’s doors open is good for my area so I’m ok with making a farmer in Iowa pay $0.12 additional tax to make that happen. That farmer of course does not like that additional money coming from his pockets at all, and when he decries this pork as bad… he has many on his side screaming the same thing. Well, they only scream about the horrors of pork spending when it doesn’t benefit them, if it was a $0.12 tax increase on Floridians going towards research on how to grow corn in 30 days or less for 1/2 the cost, these farmers would be happy as pigs in mud for that money. So you see, “Pork” is in the eye of the beholder. So what’s the problem with Boehner selling himself and Shelby kicking back to the people who bought him?

RNC fails to report $7M in debt to FEC

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the part I am interested in is this

Mr. Pullen’s amended financial reports to the FEC show that the RNC engaged in deficit spending of $2.2 million in April and $3.7 million in May, spending more on raising money and on operating costs than it gathered in donations.

It’s not just that the Republican National Committee is hiding the loss of money, it’s that even though they profess to be ‘fiscal and ‘conservative”, even though they are going to run as being the ones we should trust with our economy, even after 8 years of Bush’s economic catastrophe, these people still deficit spent themselves into a $7 million hole in 2 months and then tried to hide their spending!

One story tells us they are for sale.
One story tells us they will give back in three’s to those who bought them.
One story tell us even in the face of a nationwide economic collapse, they will still spend money from hard working people, even when they don’t have it to spend!

Why are people even thinking about trusting these financially irresponsible, Paris Hilton spending, buffoons again?

When they are bought by the lobbyists they will pay the subject of that lobby back at an exponential rate even if they don’t have the money on hand. There is always some social security to cut, or medicare payment to curb. It’s not that they don’t care about the middle class, but let’s face it, the VIP’s are the one who pay for a privilege and how can an unemployed machinist on Main Street compete with that?

Have you ever wondered what kind of people Republicans are ? I have often wondered what makes them so different from a liberal Democrat.  I have especially wondered how some people, notably  the gays , can fall in line with a party that doesn’t believe they have the right to exist.  To me it’s like a black man joining the KKK, of course the KKK will take his money and take his vote if it furthers their agenda.. but they also want him wiped from existence in their world and would gladly do such a thing if they could.

Those kinds of questions are probably left to a psychiatrist couch. They probably have something to do with a need, going back to high school, to be accepted by what they perceive to be the ‘cool kids’. Why those who are fiscally conservative (and that’s the only reason they are a Republican) can’t just be a Blue-Dog Democrat is beyond me.  So those are questions that just have to remain unanswered.  The one we can now answer  though is more general, more encompassing.

What kind of people are Republicans and what kind of people donate to Republicans?  Well, thanks to the Republican National Committee…we have a list.

stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos

They are people driven by fear, they have extreme negative feelings, hate if you will, against the administration, they are weak and cave into peer pressure, they are brown-nosers who want access, they are ego-driven and most of all they are reactionary.

Ouch. I don’t care who you are, that has to hurt. Then again, most Republicans are probably so ego-driven that they don’t realize that they are in this list, to them this is a list of those ‘other’ Republicans.

I’d ask Mike where he fell in this list that his party has said he is a part of, but he’s so far into the kool-aid that even hearing what his religious leaders really think of him doesn’t matter.  Even  though this is what his own party thinks of him and the other members, he, like the others who are either driven by.. well pick something from  the list.. to turn their backs… Thou shalt have no other God beside the GOP and all.

On a happier note, we know what will be the issues for the coming up elections. Fear and we even know what kind.

stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos

and we got a sneak peek at the signs we can look forward to.

stef's diary :: :: Daily Kos

Fear of Socialism, huh.. that’s original

What’s sad is that there isn’t a single policy issue in the 72 pages of motivational material laid out by the RNC.  But even that is not as sad as not a single Republican noticing that. They are running on hate, peer pressure and reactionary impulses of the easily frightened, what do they need policy for?

The worst part of all is a party that thinks this of it’s members. Why would anyone stand with a group that thinks so little and so negatively of it’s own people?

While others are probably enjoying this issue for their own reasons, I find it insulting and frankly unconscionable, but after seeing everything we have seen since a black man took office.. I can’t deny that in many case the Republicans nailed it. That doesn’t mean I think all of their donors and supporters are like this, not like they obviously do, but you can’t watch Hannity or Beck, listen to Rush or Beck.. support Palin or Bachman and not have a few of those things on the RNC list in your make up. The fact that this kind of ‘Faux news’ and ‘rhetoric’ is so popular only shows the amount of reactionary, ego-driven, easily scared people that have become a part of the Republican party.

One thing is for sure, those must be some damn nice “tchochkes” they give out to donors to make people ignore what their party thinks of them.

**********UPDATE*********

Poltico is reporting that

“Rob Bickhart, the Republican National Committee official behind the embarrassing fundraising presentation reported this week by POLITICO, has been paid at least $370,000 since last June by the RNC in salary and consulting fees

wow..he “makes more than the President of the United States” and as if that wasn’t enough..

Between Bickhart’s salary – he is on pace to earn a little more than $196,000 annually – and his consulting fees – which tallied $240,000 in the second half of last year alone – it appears Bickhart could receive north of $500,000 per year from the RNC

That’s a lot of money given to someone who was only able to come up with a ‘fear’ campaign geared towards the ego-driven, reactionaries.

Here’s a question, I expect Mike and some other Republucans to believe him, but do we really believe that Michael Steele didn’t know how his very own “finance director” was planning to “urge top donors and fundraisers to use “fear” of President Barack Obama to raise cash”? While labeling party-members that way? Isn’t one of Steele’s job fundraiser? If so, would he really not know how the RNC was going to do that?  I don’t know that I buy that.

Not that Steele will lose his job, they need him as the scapegoat if they don’t take back the House and Senate like they have predicted. I do wonder how being labeled these horrible things by their own party will affect fund-raising  and thus their ability to finance the type of  “fear” campaigns they plan on running.

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