The GOP barely bothers to hide its desire to “refudiate” every civilizing advance of the 20th Century—everything from Medicare to Voting Rights to Civil Rights to Labor laws to universal education to clean air, water and food. But the made up “refudiate” itself has yet to be chiseled into Frank Luntz’ tablets of holy doublespeak. Instead, again and again, the GOP reiterates the same magic mangled words and phrases to spit and polish its deconstructive aims:

Job Killing, adj.: Used to modify anything proposed or enacted by the Democrats, it actually speaks the truth about the GOP’s primary goal: Kill as many jobs as possible, thwart the economic recovery from the 2008 Bush collapse in order to mar President Obama’s reelection hopes in 2012. See public sector layoffs in GOP controlled states like Florida, Wisconsin & Ohio as well as cuts in Washington spending on infrastructure, education and disaster relief. Synonyms: economic terrorism, treason.

Free Market, adj., sometimes n.: Two happy, cuddly words that actually translate to “unchecked corporate looting of the taxpayers’ money.” This phrase cheerleads corporations like Halliburton, Blackwater and perhaps Anthem Blue Cross as they feast on huge pots of public money for services the government should probably supply itself. The phrase also awards license to corporations to pollute, exploit, discriminate and serve up defective products without fear of oversight or repercussion.

Privatize, v.: Corporate looting of the public treasury, the political version of Willie Sutton’s, I rob banks because “that’s where the money is.” See Free Market. See also Paul Ryan’s Vouchercare aka Medikill. Synonym: Throw Grandma To the Wolves and then Under the Bus.

Patriot, n.: Almost always a white American who hates all Americans of a different race and probably, when pressed, pretty much every other white American too. Mostly patriots hate the idea of a black president, and they adopt this pose of bravado in an effort to deny that reality. Patriots generally believe foremost in the 2nd Amendment uber alles and/or a Jesus who doesn’t tolerate universal health care, unemployment benefits, the interstate highway system or a black man in the White House. Ironic synonym: Confederate Flag bearer.

The American People, n.: Intoned repeatedly and with reverence to demonstrate that GOP leadership is absolutely committed to exercising the will of the common American billionaire. Synonyms: corporate lobbyists, enormous campaign donors, Koch brothers. Antonym: the actual American People.

Uncertainty, n.: Multipurpose excuse for all things, it implies that no matter what we do, everything will suck as long as there is a Democrat in power anywhere on the planet. Can be used to justify implementation of the Chamber of Commerce’s wettest dream: tax cuts for the wealthy, tax subsidies for the biggest richest oil companies, the repeal of any and all corporate regulations, and even in defense of something called tort reform. Synonym: The rich don’t have every damn red cent quite yet.

Constitution, n.: Some document easily conflated with the Declaration of Independence or Paul Revere’s Bell Ringing that was written by wealthy white men to protect the rights of wealthy white corporations. Some contemporary Constitutionalists, like the Old Testament/New Testament folk before them, believe that the original has been superceded by a superior document published in 1957 by Ayn Rand.

Demagoguery, n.: A big word that resides in few American’s vocabularies but sounds like a really bad thing no matter what it means. Translation: Hey you mean, socialist, Death Panelly, Muslim Democrats, quit telling the truth about how we are trying to destroy the humanizing social fabric of this country. Again see Paul Ryan’s Vochercare aka Medikill.

Doing “The People’s” Business, v.: Abortion bills, more abortion bills, bills decrying the evils of Big Bird and pap smears, more abortion bills and of course killing that Medicare thing that no “real American” likes anyway. See 112th Congress, January 2011 to June 2011.

DownWithTyranny!:: Modoc County - A Lesson In Republican Extremism and Their Cult of Freeloading

Informed Comment: Dear Rev. Graham: Obama was not born a Muslim and neither is anyone else

Mugsy`s Rap Sheet: Katrina devastation five years later, shows the folly of relying on Corporate America for recovery

Taylor Marsh: 2012: Room for growing as an Independent

Oliver Willis: Blanche Drowns

Mercury Rising: Democrats beating Republicans in the cash race

We've been saying all along that if the Republicans take back the House in 2010, then crazy Michele Bachmann will lead the subpoena parade against the Obama White House to uncover ACORN's secret meetings with Obama where they plotted to steal the 2008 election. And she'll look to find every paperclip and rubber band that went unaccounted for and then call for impeachment proceedings. Well, now it seems that the Toyota corporate hack, Darrell Issa from the great state of California wants to take a similar position, only he'll shield Big Business and try to uncover other super secrets Obama is hiding. You may have forgotten that Issa receives plenty of "car bucks" from the auto industry and about his starring role when Toyota had a few brake issues:

The National Auto Dealers Association was one of Issa's biggest contributors when he first ran for his seat, and the auto industry as a whole is listed as one of his biggest donors.

You can expect Issa to try and uncover why Obama went to a baseball game when he pledged to plug that BP oil leak. You know, stupid stuff that bloggers like Gateway Pundit are concerned with.

Greg Sargent is on the job and acts like a real journalist:

The quote is buried in a Politico article about a recent speech Issa gave, in which he revealed he's planning to hire reams of subpoena-wielding investigators as chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee if Republicans take back the House:

At a recent speech to Pennsylvania Republicans here, he boasted about what would happen if the GOP wins 39 seats, and he gets the power to subpoena.

"That will make all the difference in the world," he told 400 applauding party members during a dinner at the chocolate-themed Hershey Lodge. "I won't use it to have corporate America live in fear that we're going to subpoena everything. I will use it to get the very information that today the White House is either shredding or not producing."

While that quote stops short of a full-fledged promise to never probe anything corporate America does, it's nonetheless an extraordinary statement: It sounds like a pledge to go easier on big corporations.

He's sending out his coded messages to Big Business that's slightly different than the Southern Strategy, which capitalizes on the racism in people. It appeals to the "free marketeers," the true religion of the conservative movement. He's telling them to fund all Republican races so he can be another Gingrich and protect their interests. Oh and remember, Barton's use of the word "shakedown" was no accident.

Digby always spots the unspottable:

Issa's making a big move to become a national GOP leader. And he's doing it by promising to let loose the hounds of hell on the White House if he gets his grubby hands on subpoena power. OK fine, GOP SOP, to be expected. But this is a new twist. He's openly promising to go easy on corporations at the same time.

Issa is an interesting character. He reminds me a lot of Newtie, without all the cheap imitation professorial posing. At heart he's an opportunistic backstabber with a boatload of ambition and a malfunctioning filter. He's basically a McCarthyite, just like Gingrich

Remember his protection of Blackwater? The free marketeers wanted to privatize everything including a militia force capable of securing their vision of "freedom" so real armies need not get involved. And they succeeded. Do you think he'd lead a hearing to hold Erik Prince accountable for anything? Issa's lackey responded to Sargent's post by trying to deny what Issa said in his speech.

Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella emails that Issa "never said he wouldn't subpoena corporations." "For anyone to try and push a narrative that Issa, as a Chairman, wouldn't pursue legitimate investigations that involve any company defies an already established record," Bardella says.
---
All that Issa was talking about was not using his authority to go on fishing expeditions targeting corporate America as was the case under Waxman. Just look at Issa's record so far. He has been very aggressive investigating cases where there is evidence of something to investigate."

Right. Nice try, you hack. Issa and his pals will bow down to the alter of Big Business and we know it. If there's a hint of corruption, he would ignore it. He'll act like Don Quixote looking for windmills.

People are going off a cliff and we're not really doing anything about it. That's not great public policy. - Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project

This "99ers" unemployment crisis is a giant iceberg lurking under the political water line, and the Democrats in Congress don't seem to understand they're dancing on the Titanic. Since Wall Street is happy, and corporate America is happy, they assume everything's fine.

Many Americans still think the last extension vote was intended to add additional benefits, and thus aren't swamping their representatives with calls and emails, so our political leaders happily doze at the wheel, assuming everything's fine.

It isn't. You know when they'll figure it out? The day after the November midterms. Well, don't say I didn't warn you.

In the meantime, if you're one of the lucky duckies whose unemployment ran out, please take part in today's Mayday SOS and fax or email your resume to your Congressional representatives:

Karl Schafer says he has tried for hundreds of jobs since he was laid off from a truck factory more than two years ago. Still waiting to get hired, the 52-year-old Ohio man has suffered the indignity of applying for food stamps and asking his elderly mother for help.

Weary of her own job search, former customer service representative Wagma Omar, 40, of Mission Viejo is thinking about applying for a dangerous civilian job in Afghanistan.

And in California's wine country, Kay Stephens, 56, is frantically looking to cut her living expenses so her unemployment doesn't become a burden to her 30-year-old daughter.

Schafer, Omar and Stephens are among the increasing number of unemployed Americans whose burdens just got heavier: They've exhausted their 99 weeks of jobless benefits and must now figure out how to get by on ever more meager resources.

In California, state officials estimate there are nearly 100,000 people who are still looking for work but can no longer draw an unemployment check. Federal labor officials could not provide a number nationally, but private-sector experts say it could easily top 1 million.

What is certain is that, as the jobless rate remains stubbornly high, more Americans will have to face the challenge of making ends meet without a monthly check.

"People are going off a cliff and we're not really doing anything about it," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "That's not great public policy."

Once unemployment benefits run out, people are eligible for general relief — but that pays a maximum of $221 a month in Los Angeles County, compared with as much as nearly $2,000 a month for unemployment. Only workers with dependent children are eligible for welfare.

Worried that they could lose their homes and get put out on the street, thousands of "99ers," as they call themselves, are banding together to agitate for another extension. On Friday they're kicking off a "Mayday SOS" campaign, faxing and e-mailing Congress their resumes, along with pleas for more benefits.

[...] People who know they'll keep receiving benefits "don't rush to find new employment," said Alan Reynolds, a senior fellow at the conservative Cato Institute. Data show that the long-term unemployed often find a job just as their benefits run out, he said.

Talk about "receiving benefits"! All this Cato fellow has to do is keep parroting the conservative dogma, and he's set for life.

And really, isn't that how it should be?

What a sweetheart of a human being this guy is. Not only did he buy himself the chief justice of his state Supreme Court, he's a poster boy for corporate America who squeezes every last dime out of the workers - even if it kills them:

As more details continue to surface about the checkered safety record of the Massey Energy coal mine where 25 workers perished Monday, the lavish lifestyle and allegedly cavalier attitude of the company's controversial chief executive, as described in lawsuits and corporate documents, are now coming under intensifying scrutiny.

One miner who worked in Massey mines most of his 25-year career said working for CEO Don Blankenship was "like living under a hammer. It's all about the bottom line, we all know that." The miner, who would only agree to speak with an ABC News reporter if his name was not used, said Blankenship believes in "stretching the men to the limit … they want every ounce out of the men that they can get."

The public record describing Blankenship's bottom-line approach is long, much of it laid out in a series of investor lawsuits filed against Blankenship and his company, and in SEC documents submitted by a Wall Street investment house that made a failed bid to take control of Massey Energy four years ago. In these records, Blankenship was repeatedly criticized for both his approach to safety, and for what one investor called his "extravagant" package of pay and perks.

In just one year – 2005 -- Blankenship was paid $33.7 million in compensation, according to a 2008 lawsuit. He flies to resorts on a company-owned Challenger 601 luxury jet. And he lives in a house owned by Massey Energy that by contract becomes his property if he leaves.

[...] The safety complaints were also the subject of increasing unease from investors, who worried Blankenship's management style was putting the future of Massey Energy at risk. In June 2007, two board members resigned from Massey's board of directors. Daniel S. Loeb and Todd Q. Swanson submitted a resignation letter saying they were stepping down in part because of Blankenship's "poor risk management" and the company's "confrontational handling" of regulatory matters.

The Colbert Report last night featured one of the most subversive and brutally honest half-hours of television in recent memory. It's a sad commentary that it takes a comedy program to provide more news and information on one of the most critical subjects in American politics that anywhere else in our broken media and political landscape, but I'll take this argument wherever I can get it.

Colbert spent two full segments of his show focusing on the Citizens United Supreme Court case, which could - and probably will - lead to deregulating the entire campaign finance process, allowing corporations to give unlimited money to any candidate of their choosing. This severe step backwards with enormous implications has been barely discussed in any traditional media setting, but Colbert went after it vigorously, discussing the consequences and even the flawed legal rationale, a true third rail of American politics, corporate personhood.

Colbert explained that the 1886 case (Santa Clara v. Southern Pacific Railroad) that conferred 14th Amendment equal protection rights onto corporations wasn't even in the original ruling. But when the Chief Justice made an off-hand comment that the Court wouldn't hear an argument on whether the 14th Amendment applied to these corporations (saying, "We are all of the opinion that it does"), the court reporter wrote it into the ruling opinion, and the precedent has held ever since. And that reporter of the Supreme Court didn't only have ties to the railroad barons, he used to run one.

These are subjects you just never hear about in the American media, precisely because the American media is owned by giant multinational corporations, who benefit from the corporate personhood rule and would stand to benefit more from deregulating elections so they could use their "speech" to buy candidates and fund their own with unlimited resources. And despite being on a Viacom-owned network, Colbert says, skewering the immorality and psychopathology of the corporation, "Corporations are legally people... they do everything people do, except breathe, die, and go to jail for dumping 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the Hudson River."

There's some backstory to that remark. Colbert actually worked with Robert Smigel on the "TV Funhouse" bits from Saturday Night Live (he's one-half of the Ambiguously Gay Duo), including the infamous episode from March 1998, Conspiracy Theory Rock. Here are some of the actual lyrics (remember this aired, albeit one time, on NBC, whose parent company is General Electric):

It's a media-opoly

A media-opoly.

The whole media is controlled by a few corporations

thanks to deregulation by the FCC.

You mean Disney, Fox, WestingHouse, and good ol GE?

They own networks from CBS to CNBC.

They can use them to say whatever they please,

and put down the opinions of any one who disagrees.

Or stuff about PCB's.

What are PCB's?

They come from power plants built by WestingHouse and GE.

They can give you lots of cancer that can hurt your body,

but on network TV, you rarely hear anything bad about the nuclear industry [...]

But the bigshots don't care.

They're all sitting pretty.

Thanks to corporate welfare.

What's that now?

They get billions in subsidies

from the government.

It's supposed to create jobs,

but that's not how it's spent.

They pulled this cartoon from the rerun broadcasts and it never aired again.

Colbert didn't just provide this lesson in corporate control of government in his "The Word" segment, but then had Jeffrey Toobin on to explain how the expected Supreme Court ruling would impact elections:

COLBERT: If this goes through, if they decide in favor of the corporations here, what's going to happen to elections?

TOOBIN: Well, they will be essentially deregulated. Corporations will be allowed to give money, corporations will be allowed to broadcast programs that are in favor of one side or another, it'll basically be no more rules about what corporations can do in political campaigns.

COLBERT: Now when I ran for President in 2008, as the Hail to the Cheese Doritos Stephen Colbert campaign for President, I was told that I actually couldn't do that, that I was breaking federal election law by being sponsored by that corporation. But if this goes through, if this court case, if they win, does that mean that I retroactively won the election?

TOOBIN: I don't think it means that.

COLBERT: But could you do that? Could I actually just wear a NASCAR suit and just have logos all over me and run for President as the sort of Gatorade Thirst for Justice campaign for President?

TOOBIN: You definitely could. No question.

Continue reading »

abu muqawama: From the Dept. of People Who Need to Go Away

American Street: One of the biggest enemies our troops face in Iraq seems to be our own military contractors.

State of the Day: J. Sidney McCain lll says America's neighborhoods are like Baghdad

Consortiumblog: Bush, Columbia, and Narco-politics

Slate: Corporate America's long-term investments in the federal judiciary are yielding impressive returns.

Halfway There: Praise the Lord...and pass the ammunition

The War on Christmas is one profitable venture.

The American Family Assn., a conservative activist group, has rung up more than $550,000 in sales of buttons and magnets stamped with the slogan "Merry Christmas: It's Worth Saying."

Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit law firm affiliated with the religious right, has taken in more than $300,000 with its Help Save Christmas Action Packs. The kits include two buttons, two bumper stickers and "The Memo that Saved Christmas," a guide to defending overt religious expression, such as a Nativity scene in a public school classroom...read on

In years gone by---it used to be that many people felt the Holidays were being exploited for profit by corporate America. Not any more. To see these buffoons abuse it is pretty sickening. Dan Radmacher takes aim at Bill O'Reilly:

All this "War on Christmas" nonsense was manufactured in 2004 by that sanctimonious hypocrite Bill O'Reilly to bump up ratings -- and maybe distract attention from that whole unfortunate sexual harassment/phone sex episode...read on

(sorry the C&L was down for a while)
A LIBERAL DOSE: Iraqi PM--"Al Zarqawi killed; hope for GOP campaign"

Fafblog! after the end of the world

The Opinion Mill: Today, the average conservative commentator comes across as a kissin' cousin to the inbred mountain men in Deliverance, yelling "Squeal like a pig!" as they bend Ned Beatty over a log.

The Mahablog: Compared to Vietnam, Iraq War photography is nearly devoid of dead American bodies. Lots of dead Iraqis, though.

Yep, another Goddamned blog: Nowhere in Eric Boehlert’s book can one find a liberal political agenda. Lapdogs is concerned with one agenda: Truth and fairness in journalism.

Sooner Thought: Why I left Oklahoma politics

Jim Hightower: Corporate America is shipping our manufacturing, high-tech, andprofessional-service jobs off to Lowwagehellistan – but at least they can't send our fast-food jobs away, right?

For several days in April, this address, www.walmart-foundation.org , hosted a parody of the Wal-Mart Foundation's website. I created a derivative work by changing all of the text and several of the images from the original site. The goal was to make the parody look like it could be a real site from a company like Wal-Mart. However, the text was so ridiculous that anyone who read it would realize that it was absurd. If anyone believed it to be a real Wal-Mart website, that is only a testament to the degree of absurdity that exists within corporate America today....

...The United States still recognizes the right of free speech, so Wal-Mart couldn't attack me for my criticism. Instead, Wal-Mart's high-powered attorneys went after me for copyright violation, threatening the host of my website with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)....read on