On the other hand, progressive blogger and activist, Markos Moulitsas, of DailyKos fame, is an actual veteran who has more credibility, speaking out against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This clip demonstrates that Tancredo is still a coward. Instead of fighting back and discussing the issues, he tucks his tail between his legs and runs away. Again.

This is yet another reason why Republicans are not to be listened to on foreign policy issues. They talk a mess of shit but can’t back it up. And when they try to back it up, they make a worse mess that they can’t clean up.

This man is one of the most vile and disgusting pieces of human flesh to walk the earth.  He crusaded as a Defender of Marriage, all the while he was philandering with a woman for the past several years.  He forced his wife to put up an all-quiet-on-the-home front for the past several months while they were separated, and he made his staff actively lie for him to cover up a trip to Argentina in order to continue to carry on this affair.

But, he’s just the latest in a long line of hypocritical Republican politicians:

Senator David “impulse control” Vitter, Republican from Louisiana, yet another marriage and family values champion who was caught up in the “D.C. Madam” sting, who apparently likes to dress in diapers.  Nice legs, dude.

Smell My Finger, Dude!

Senator John Ensign (R-NV), another champion of marriage and family values, had a long time affair with one of his staffers, who’s salary was doubled and who’s teenaged son was put on the Republican Party’s payrool as a “research policy expert.”

Larry "Wide Stance" Craig

And who could forget Senator Larry Craig, Republican from Idaho, who’s “I’m not gay” stance in the Minnesota airport’s bathroom stall nabbed him in a public sex sting.

And the list goes on and on and on.

Why anyone at all takes the Republican Party seriously in relation to morality or family values is beyond me.  I would feel sorry for them, but their shameless hypocrisy takes them beyond compassion into schaudenfreude, and that’s a place they all richly deserve.

The problem with these so-called Tea Parties is that they are fundamentally wrong on their issues. There isn’t a tax increase for 90 percent of the people, and the increase for the richest Americans is still lower than it was under Reagan.

Clearly, the Republican Party is in a state of disarray, and you would be, too, if you had just lost two major election cycles. But their same tired, xenophobic, anti-labor, anti-tax, drown-the-government-in-a-bathtub rhetoric just doesn’t resonate with the average American anymore. We have seen what Republicans in power do, and it’s ugly and hateful and works against the best interests of the country as a whole.

There’s a reason why people trust President Obama in such high numbers: he clearly thinks about the issues before he says any random thing to pop into his head.

The plan:

1. Makes a $634 billion down payment on fixing health care that will go a long way toward paying for a more efficient, more affordable health care system that covers every single American.³
2. Reduces taxes for 95% of working Americans. And if your family makes less than $250,000, your taxes won’t go up one dime.⁴
3. Invests more than $100 billion in clean energy technology, creating millions of green jobs that can never be outsourced.⁵
4. Brings our troops home from Iraq on a firm timetable, finally bringing the war to a close—and freeing up almost ten billion dollars a month for domestic priorities.⁶
5. Reverses growing income inequality. The plan lets the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire and focuses on strengthening the middle class.⁷
6. Closes multi-billion-dollar tax loopholes for big oil companies. ⁸
7. Increases grants to help families pay for college—the largest increase ever.⁹
8. Halves the deficit by 2013. President Obama inherited a legacy of huge deficits and an economy in shambles, but his plan brings the deficit under control as soon as the economy begins to recover.¹⁰
9. Dramatically increases funding for the SEC and the CFTC—the agencies that police Wall Street.¹¹
10. Tells it straight. For years, budgets have used accounting tricks to hide the real costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush tax cuts, and too many other programs. Obama’s budget gets rid of the smokescreens and lays out what America’s priorities are, what they cost, and how we’re going to pay for them.¹²

This is the change we voted for. President Obama has done his part, now we need to do ours.

Can you pass this on to your personal network and then click here to let us know how many people you told, so we can track our impact together:

http://pol.moveon.org/budget10/?id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=1

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Tanya, Peter, Justin and the rest of the team

P.S. Turns out there are way more than 10 amazing things in Obama’s budget and we couldn’t resist sharing just a few more.

1. Stops unnecessary government subsidies to big banks, health insurance companies and big agribusinesses.^13,14,15
2. Expands access to early childhood education and improves schools by investing in programs that make sure every child has a qualified, strong teacher.¹⁶
3. Negotiates for better prescription drug prices using Medicaid’s tremendous bargaining power.¹⁷
4. Expands access to family planning for low-income women.¹⁸
5. Caps the pollution that causes global warming, and makes polluters pay to support clean energy innovation.¹⁹

Sources:

1. “Climate of Change,” The New York Times, February 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/opinion/27krugman.html?em

2. “Obama Calls His Budget Sweeping, Needed Change,” The New York Times, February 28, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51201&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=2

3. “Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51202&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=3

4. “Obama Expects Fight Over $3.55 Trillion Budget Plan,” Bloomberg News, February 28, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51203&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=4

5. “Energy Budget Is Sunlight After Eight Years of Darkness,” Center for American Progress, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51204&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=5

6. “The Economic Cost of War in Iraq and Afghanistan,” The New York Times, March 1, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/01/weekinreview/01glanz.html

7. “Tax Cuts,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-tax.html

8. “Energy Budget Is Sunlight After Eight Years of Darkness,” Center for American Progress, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51204&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=6

9. “Student Loans,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-edu.html

10. “Obama unveils budget blueprint,” CNN, February 26, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/26/budget/

11. “Obama budget would boost SEC, CFTC, FBI,” Reuters, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51205&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=7

12. “Obama’s budget,” Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51206&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=8

13. “Student Loans,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-edu.html

14. “Health Insurance Stocks Dive on Medicare Advantage Cuts,” The Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51207&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=9

15. “Agriculture,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/washington/27web-agri.html

16. “Investing Wisely in Our Children,” Center for American Progress, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51208&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=10

17. “Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51202&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=11

18. “Obama Offers Broad Plan to Revamp Health Care,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51202&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=12

19. “Setting ‘Green’ Goals,” The New York Times, February 26, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51209&id=15687-495491-ShbEoZx&t=13

The mayor of a California city says he will resign after being criticized for sharing an e-mail picture depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons under the title “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose issued a statement Thursday saying he is sorry and will step down as mayor at Monday’s City Council meeting.

via Mayor to quit over Obama watermelon e-mail – Race & ethnicity- msnbc.com.

And good riddance!

After President Obama’s Address to Congress, the Republican Party’s response was delivered from Louisiana Governor, Bobby Jindal.  I am loving that Sarah Palin, Michael Steele and Bobby Jindal are the new faces of the Republicans – they are the new Three Stooges!

I wonder if he even bothered to watch the President’s speech? I wonder what planet he’s living on? He’s got an interesting personal story, but his ideas? Just more of the same failed Republican policies that got us into this ridiculous mess to begin with – tax cuts for the rich, abandoning public education. Really, Bobby Jindal? Is that the best the Republicans can do in this time of economic crisis?

Tax cuts will increase the debt but not have an appreciable effect on the economy, except to encourage more borrowing – people will pay off old debts but not buy new stuff. Recent history has shown this to be the case. And while paying off debt is good, it won’t create any jobs right now, which we need.

And charter schools and vouchers? There’s plenty of indication that charter schools do not improve education over traditional public schools – they are essentially a wash.

And getting rid of corruption and increase transparency in Washington, DC?  No one has seen the text of the stimulus package?  I guess he hasn’t seen http://recovery.gov/ yet,  or the other websites the Obama Administration has published to enable the public to see how the money is being spent.

It’s no wonder that the Republican Party is becoming more and more irrelevant, and no longer a national party, but a regional party of the South.  If this is the best they can do, then I say let them fade more and more into obscurity.

But what I want to know is which of the Three Stooges is Jindal?  Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp, Curly Joe?

Just as Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is pushing an energy plan that fronts her as presidential material for 2012, two of her top aides– Communications Director and Press Secretary, Bill McAllister, and Palin’s Anchorage office director, Kris Perry–are being hit with new ethics charges, to be filed with the state Attorney General on Monday.

Well-known Alaskan political watchdog Andree McLeod–a registered Republican who was once a close political associate of Palin’s and who has worked at a variety of jobs in Alaskan government–said that she is filing the complaint because “employees working for Palin conducted partisan political activities while on the clock and on the public’s dime.”

In August of last year, before Palin was nominated as John McCain’s GOP running mate, McLeod filed ethics charges against the Palin administration over the hiring of Palin political crony Tom Lamal. She also has a legal case pending against Palin in which she is trying to make public more than 1,000 state emails that were copied to the governor’s husband, Todd. In October, an Anchorage judge ordered Palin and others in her office to “retrieve and preserve” any emails from private accounts that concern state business that were copied to the so-called “First Dude.”

via Geoffrey Dunn: Palin Agonistes: Governor’s Aides Charged with New Ethics Violations.

To paraphrase John McCain, “Run, Baby, Run!”  I so hope she decides to run in 2012 to put the GOP out of our misery once and for all.

Not that I don’t think that race or other defining characteristic isn’t important,  but rather that Dr. King’s dream will have finally been acheived, and the content of the character will trump the color of the skin.  And yes, I do think to a certain degree that happened here with President Obama.  But the second African-American President shouldn’t be a big deal, y’know?

What else?

Hmm… President Obama is already off to a very good start with the executive orders he has already signed to close the prison at Guantanamo and elsewhere, to prohibit the use of torture, to re-fund reproductive planning that includes a comprehensive group of tools including abstinence and abortion, ethics rules, presidential records.

But the economic recovery plan has way too many tax cuts, and not enough in infrastructure building.  If President Obama did tell Republicans “I Won,” at that meeting on Thursday, then what the hell is he doing with all these ridiculous tax cuts?  As we know, tax cuts don’t work, especially during a serious recession.  People are not guaranteed to spend the tax money, and people in the lowest tax brackets don’t pay taxes anyway, so a tax cut to people who don’t already pay taxes is kind of useless.  Not only that, but we are burdening future generations with debt to pay back for these tax cuts.

Infrastructure, on the other hand, is investment in our future.  Roads, bridges, public transit, schools, colleges, and other public works are real things that benefit real people.  If we have to take on more debt, then let us take on more debt that actually helps improve the economy and the efficiency and safety of our current infrastructure.  We don’t need tax cuts right now – we need jobs and building stuff.

Take Action

Contact your representative and senators and tell them you want more infrastructure investment and fewer tax cuts in this recovery stimulus package.

From the AKI

On Sunday, al-Zaydi threw his first shoe at Bush as he yelled “This is a gift from the Iraqis. This is the farewell kiss, you dog,”

As he threw his second shoe, he said: “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.” As Bush avoided the shoes, al-Zaydi was quickly wrestled to the ground by security guards.

Al-Zaydi was being held on Monday by Iraqi police and was reportedly interrogated about whether he was paid to throw his shoes at Bush. He was also being tested for alcohol and drug use.

In the Arab world, throwing your shoes or exposing the soles of your shoes is one of the worst signs of disrespect.

In a separate incident in the Iraqi city of Najaf, protesters threw their shoes at an American patrol as it passed by.

Where once we were the shining city on the hill to so much of the world, now we are dogs who get shoes thrown at them.   Heckuva job, Georgie.

“I was angry,” Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Tuesday. “In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”

Wurzelbacher said some of McCain’s answers stunned him, but he didn’t say exactly what set him off, hinting that would be in his book, which is due this month.

Now really, Sam, you’re angry because your man John supported a bailout?  Poor you, so much suffering.

Of course, the bailout is one of the worst ideas to hit Congress in a long time, as it’s just the Bush Administration stealing more of the country’s treasury and giving it to his and Paulson’s friends in the banking industry.  And Pelosi just went right along with it.  And Obama, for that matter.

Just because we got the president we wanted this go-round, doesn’t mean we can relax our vigilance.  It’s when we stop paying attention that the politicians steal us blind.  We have to keep watching – they are our servants, and we have to let them know it.