by David Safier Raul Grijalva was one of nine of legislators who allowed themselves to be arrested at today's immigration rally (official name: “Camino Americano” [“American Road”]). Another was John Lewis, who said, “I’ve been arrested a few times, and I don’t mind getting arrested again for something that is right and fair and just." … Read more
by David Safier
There's what happens and what the media says happens. Sometimes they're pretty close to the same, other times, not so much. The most important thing to watch in the reporting of the shutdown isn't the purely factual reporting. That's reasonably straightforward. It's whether coverage follows the false equivalency viewpoint — a pox on all their houses for the shutdown, no matter who bears the brunt of the blame — or points out that the Republican party, led by its far right wing, has created the messwe're in.
My verdict based on coverage I'm seeing in the Star and a few other papers: false equivalency is still rearing its ugly head, but lots of the commentary, especially editorials, is getting it right.
The AP story the Star put on its front page is pure false equivalency. It actually lets the Republicans draw first blood, saying in the second paragraph, "Republicans said it was [Obama's] fault, not theirs, and embarked on a strategy — opposed by Democrats — of voting on bills to reopen individual agencies or programs."
But then you turn to the editorial, which tells the story correctly.
[T]here are times, as we have reached now, when a small number of elected officials — this time a fundamentalist subset of the Republican Party — can monkey-wrench the legislative process and hold the country hostage to their unreasonable demands.
The bottom line, to our mind, is one of practicality: One cannot reason with bullies. Any attempt to do so presupposes a position of good faith that we have yet to see in the tea-party Republicans who are putting their beliefs and political aspirations above the law of the land.
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A new
CNN poll finds Congress’ approval rating is now all of … 10
percent. Perhaps the reason is things like this:
I received an end of third quarter fund raising email captioned "On The Brink" from Congressman Ron Barber this morning (after the midnight September 30 deadline) in which the congressman's pitch to contribute to his campaign read as follows:
That's what the Tea Party extremists who are threatening to shut down our government have on their agenda—targeting me for defeat because I won’t give in to their
demands.If you are as outraged as I am with these extremists and their irresponsible political games that threaten our economic recovery then please stand with me now.
This poorly timed fund raising email came after Congressman Barber voted last night — twice! — to stand with the "Tea Party extremists who are threatening to shut down our government have on their agenda." "I won't give in to their demands"? You most certainly did, congressman. Imagine the choice language I used when I opened your email.
In an act of political cowardice, you voted for the second attempt by the Tea-Publican economic terrorists yesterday to delay the individual mandate of "ObamaCare" for a year — so that the GOP can run on "repeal ObamaCare" for the third election in a row — which also included a GOP spending plan that would cut support for victims of domestic violence:
Republican members of the House tossed
in an amendment to the spending bill that would not only delay
implementation of the new health law known as Obamacare but also allow
certain employers and insurers to opt out of specific provisions of the law based on moral or religious grounds.
Specifically, the continuing resolution says:
“Section
2713(a)(4) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-13(a)(4))
shall not be effective for any period before January 1, 2015, with
respect to the requirement for specific coverage for any sponsor of a
group health plan (or, in the case of student health plans, the
institution of higher education offering such plans), health insurance
issuer, or individual opposing such requirement for coverage based on
religious or moral objections.
By Tom Prezelski Re-posted from Rum, Romanism and Rebellion I was going to write a snarky piece which said that Senator John McCain's takedown of Ted Cruz, while effective, was nowhere nearly as awesome as what his predecessor, Senator Henry Fountain Ashurst, did to Huey Long in 1935, but my brother beat me to it … Read more
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
A new New York Times/CBS News poll today finds that:
* Eighty percent of Americans, including 83 percent of independents and 75 percent of Republicans, say threatening a government shutdown is not an acceptable way to negotiate.
* Americans say overwhelmingly that Republicans are not trying to work with Obama by 70-23. By contrast, 51 percent say Obama is trying to work with Republicans.
Which is to say that the Tea-Publican economic terrorism act of taking America hostage to extort concessions from the Democrats to defund "ObamaCare" and to give them a grab bag of their wish list items in exchange for not destroying the American economy is opposed by 80 percent of Americans, who don’t see this as a fundamentally acceptable way of governing.
And yet . . . this morning Sen. Jeff Flake issued a ransom note to the American people in the The Arizona Republic(an). Delay 'Obamacare' to kill it:
[This] is why we have introduced legislation that would delay all
Obamacare provisions and taxes for one year. H.R. 2809 and S. 1490 seek
to postpone all provisions of the Affordable Care Act taking effect on
Jan. 1, 2014 or later by one year from the date of enactment.
Delaying Obamacare is a necessary step in our efforts to get this law
off the books and replace it with real health-care solutions that work
for American families and businesses. It builds on efforts already taken
by the House and Senate to delay both the individual and employer
mandates. In fairness to American taxpayers, the best thing we can do
right now is to implement a one-year delay so we can continue to chip
away at this disastrous law.