Politics Plus

There’s never a shortage of nut cases at extremist Republican fundraising galas like the American Spectator event, headlined by Michelle Bachmann, who helps put the insane in InsaniTEA.  That’s probably a good thing, because it helps identify the attendees as the extremist ideologues they are.  On the other hand, there should be an absence of Supreme Court Justices at such venues.  Sadly, that is not the case.

…It’s not the first time Alito has attended the Spectator dinner. In 2008, Alito headlined the Spectator’s annual gala, helping to raise tens of thousands of dollars for the political magazine. According to Jay Homnick, a conservative who attended the 2008 Spectator gala, Alito spent much of his speech ripping then Vice President-elect Joe Biden as a serial plagiarizer.

As Alito entered the event last night, I approached the Justice and asked him why he thought it appropriate to attend a highly political fundraiser with the chairman of the Republican Party, given Alito’s position on the court. Alito appeared baffled, and replied, “it’s not important that I’m here.” “But,” I said, “you also helped headline this same event two years ago, obviously helping to raise political money as the keynote.” Alito replied curtly, “it’s not important,” before walking away from me.

After the gala, I again tried to approach Justice Alito — this time, with a video camera in hand — to ask him about the ethical issues raised by his right-wing political fundraising. Before I could come close to him, his security guards threatened me with arrest. Watch it:

Apparently, Alito is a regular [wingers delinked] benefactor for highly political conservative fundraisers. Last year, he headlined [wingers delinked] the fundraising dinner for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) — the same corporate front that funded the rise of Republican dirty trickster James O’Keefe and anti-masturbation activist Christine O’Donnell. According to the sponsorship levels for the event, Alito helped ISI raise $70,000 or more… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Think Progress>

It’s a sad say in US politics when a Supreme Court Justices like Scalito and Teabag Thomas feel free to flaunt their Republican activism equally on the bench and in their personal lives.  If only Harry Reid had not been too busy humping Republican legs to filibuster his nomination.  Scalito should be impeached, but that cannot happen before 2013.

Obama will return to the US with no free trade agreement with Korea.  Apparently, Korea objected to opening their markets to US goods, a stark departure from the Republican deal, negotiated by the Bush Regime, but rejected by Congress.

Negotiations over a U.S.-Korea free-trade agreement broke down on Thursday after four days of discussions, a setback for the leaders of the two nations and a blow to efforts to rekindle broader world trade talks…

…South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and President Obama began their scheduled meeting around noon Thursday in Seoul without a deal in hand. A White House official familiar with the talks said the discussions foundered over long-standing disagreements over U.S. access to the Korean auto and beef markets.

The meeting between the two heads of state ended without an accord. At a news conference afterward with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Obama said, “We believe that such an agreement, if done right, could be a win-win for our people.”

“We have asked out teams to work tirelessly in the next days and weeks to get an agreement, and we are confident we will do so,” Obama said.

The failure to produce a signed agreement at the summit is significant. Obama had set a personal goal of completing the Korea deal during the meeting of the Group of 20 world leaders, and Lee had cast the agreement as way to deepen the strategic and political ties between the two nations, as well as the economic ones… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Washington Post>

I do not see this as a failure on Obama’s part.  I support free trade with the caveat that it must also be fair trade, not just vehicles to export US jobs to enrich greedy corporations, the hallmark of trade deals under both Clinton and Bush.  One cannot blame Korea for trying to get what everyone else has gotten, thus giving themselves a level playing field with China and Japan.  To Obama’s credit, he said no.  That’s the first step in negotiating honest bargains, fair to both American workers.

Michelle Bachmann saw the Teabaggers as her path to power, but it appears that she is going to be disappointed.  What she and the Teabaggers are about to discover, now that Republicans have won the House, that they have placed themselves right under the elephant’s tail, and they are about to learn the consequences of that position.

When Rep. Mike Pence announced that he was stepping down from his position as head of the House Republican Conference, the Family Research Council immediately issued a statement [Theocons delinked]saying that choosing his replacement would be the "first major test for the new Republican majority."

The two leading candidates for the position are Rep. Jeb Hensarling and Rep. Michele Bachmann, and while Hensarling appears to be emerging as the front-runner and racking up the support of GOP leaders, it looks like the Religious Right is backing Bachmann [women against women’s rights delinked]:

Concerned Women for America thinks … [t]here are plenty of competent and fearless leaders at the ready who deserve a seat at the table. Rep. Michele Bachmann from Minnesota comes to mind. She has been an outspoken conservative leader of the Tea Party movement from the beginning, and we think she deserves serious consideration for a leadership position.

Conservative women won big this election cycle, and the Tea Party helped to propel them to victory. In fact, women in general swung 14 points for Republicans. It seems time to add a stiletto to the clubby, well-heeled leadership team.

And Richard Viguerie has even unveiled a petition [extremists delinked]asking Reps. Boehner and Cantor to "withdraw your endorsement of Rep. Hensarling for the House Republican Conference and allow Rep. Bachmann (or anyone else who wishes to join the race) a fair and open election process that equally respects the voice of each Republican House member." 

Ostensibly, Viguerie’s petition is just asking for a fair election, but he is making no secret of his support for Bachmann [propaganda delinked]… [emphasis added]

Inserted from <Right Wing Watch>

When Fox Fantasy, the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda, dumps on their own employee, that seals it, as Keith (Welcome Home) Olbermann and Chris Hayes discuss:

Normally, Neocons, Corporocons and Plutocons will goose-step behind the Theocon agenda, but adding the InsaniTEA wing to the picture complicates matters.  Republicans govern exclusively for the benefit of criminal corporations and the richest 1%.  That’s who Republicans represent.  Some Teabagger ideas run contrary to those interests.  Therefore, they will keep the power for themselves.  That’s why Batshit Bachmann and her Teabaggers are under the elephant’s tail, and that’s where they will stay until it’s election season again.

This might be a good day for the devil to check the infernal regions for icicles, because there is actually something about which I agree with Teabaggers.  They don’t like earmarks, while corporate Republicans love them.  Democrats are in the middle, having cut the amount spent on earmarks in half, starting in 2007.  Now you may ask, what’s important about earmarks, given that they are only about 1% of the budget, when there are more important things at stake.  As I see it, anything that ties up Republicans fighting among themselves takes time they could be spending ending trying to end Social Security, end Medicare, end healthcare reform, however paltry and delayed, ship jobs over seas, kill the CFPB, kill the Volker Rule, cut unemployment benefits, cut veterans’ benefits, hold umpteen gazillion hearings, disenfranchise minority voters, promote killing gay Ugandans, establish pseudo-Christian Sharia, start more wars, and transfer wealth from the poor and middle classes to the rich.

Legislators backed by the Tea Party want to ban pork-barrel spending in the Senate against the wishes of their old guard Republican colleagues, reports the Wall Street Journal. [Murdoch delinked] South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint yesterday began mobilizing Senate Republicans against the earmark system, which channels federal funds to legislators’ pet projects. House Republicans back the idea, as does President Barack Obama. But the move hasn’t pleased some Republicans who have spent years securing pork to sate their constituents: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has argued both that earmarks represent a trivial proportion of federal spending and that they provide an essential bulwark against executive power. "Every president would like for us to appropriate all the money and send it to them and let them spend it in any way they want to," Mr. McConnell said Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. "The earmark issue is about discretion—about an argument between the executive branch and the legislative branch over how funds should be spent."… [emphasis original]

Inserted from <Slate Magazine>

This should be particularly interesting, because Senate Minority Leader “Bought Bitch Mitch” McConnell is the current earmark champion.

Sadly, it will probably be a short fight.  Even Rand Paul is showing signs of weakness, saying that he intends to fight for Kentucky’s share of the pork.  He’s just a Republican, after all, and his greed is showing.