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Sunday, August 31, 2014
Saturday, August 30, 2014
Seriously? "Tan-suit-gate."
The things Republicans criticize President Obama about lately are even more absurd than usual.
Some wonderful day in the future, perhaps presidents will be judged by the content of their character--not by the color of their suit.
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Friday, August 29, 2014
Republicans would rather fund the government with an ice bucket challenge than by paying their fair share of taxes.
Here's the new form of Republican "trickle-down" economics: funding the government with an ice bucket challenge. Considering Republicans cut funding for ALS research (the original ice bucket cause), this satire isn't much of a stretch. Of course, Republicans would dump the ice water on the middle-class instead of each other.
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Thursday, August 28, 2014
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Monday, August 25, 2014
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Saturday, August 23, 2014
Friday, August 22, 2014
Thursday, August 21, 2014
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Friday, August 15, 2014
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
The Absurd Republican Lawsuit Against President Obama
When I first heard that
Congressional Republicans were planning to sue President Obama, I immediately
checked to see if the information came from a satire outlet. The current crop
of reality-impaired Republicans has given The
Onion plenty of material since President Obama's election. Suing the
president would be as mind numbing as claiming Obama inherited a successful
Iraq War from President Bush.
The proposed Republican
lawsuit, unfortunately, was not satire. In an all-too-real July 7 editorial on
the CNN website, Speaker of the House John Boehner rambled about how President
Obama has "consistently
overstepped his authority under the Constitution." A reasonable person might expect examples of presidential
overreach, but Boehner's editorial was about as specific as a toddler's
explanation of where babies come from.
Carl Sagan of Cosmos fame was fond of saying, "extraordinary
claims require extraordinary evidence." Speaker Boehner clearly does not
subscribe to Sagan's theory. Of the 553 words in his editorial, not a single syllable
indicated a specific case of the President exceeding his authority.
Republicans have been trying
to label President Obama a dictator for years. The usual right-wing fringers on
talk radio, the fever swamps of the Internet, and Fox News have ranted about
how the president is a ruthless tyrant for the grave sins of trying to help
people get health insurance or protect children from gun violence. But
Republican luminaries such as Paul Ryan and John McCain repeated these
accusations, bringing the fringe to the mainstream.
The weeks following
Boehner's CNN editorial saw the proposed Republican lawsuit praised by conservative
media outlets that promoted the Obama-as-tyrant narrative. Right-wingers connected
any news event with Obama's fictionalized dictatorial tendencies. That
passenger jet shot down over Ukraine? Obama did that to distract from the
investigations of his many unconstitutional abuses—obviously.
Responsible members of the
media, on the other hand, rightly pointed out Boehner's vagueries. So in a July
27 editorial in USA Today, Boehner
finally revealed the specifics of President Obama's alleged crimes against the
nation. After telling three outright lies about the president's actions relating
to the environment, POW Bowe Bergdahl, and welfare, Boehner claimed that he
must sue the president because he had delayed one provision of Obamacare, the
mandate that companies with more than fifty employees provide health insurance
for their full-time workers. Here's a fun fact: Republicans in the House had
voted just last year that the president should delay that same employer
mandate.
Let's be clear: Republicans planned
to sue the president for doing what they wanted him to do—awfully nice for a
dictator. House Republicans then passed a resolution for their lawsuit on July
30, interrupting their plans to jet off on yet another of their vacations away
from the burdensome task of ignoring the nation's real problems. Almost
immediately afterward, Republicans shredded the fabric of reality by
criticizing the president for not taking executive action to address the border
crisis that they have failed to address.
I'm not an attorney, but I
can read. The legal analysis I've read shows that the Republican lawsuit is
completely without merit for at least two basic reasons. First, the courts have
given presidents plenty of latitude to enforce laws as they see fit. Obama's
delay of the employer mandate falls comfortably within that standard. Second, House
Republicans must prove the president's actions have caused them damage. The
president has lately been pointing out Republican incompetence, but
Republicans' own actions have far more frequently brought that condemnation upon
themselves.
Is this silly lawsuit a prelude
to or substitute for the lunacy of impeachment? Despite their recent denials,
many Republicans have brought up impeachment practically since Obama's first election.
Now that Democrats have been calling them out on their impeachment rants,
Republicans have taken offense and tried to deny their previous statements.
Fortunately, inventions such as sound and video recording technology have captured
their impeachment fantasies for rebroadcast on magical television and computer
devices. Perhaps Republicans will also sue the inventors of these technologies
that highlight their dishonesty.
Will the absurd Republican lawsuit
even be filed? Probably. Republicans are fond of carrying on narratives that
have long since been disproven. They keep trying to repeal Obamacare even
though it has helped insure millions of Americans. And after every
investigation has shown no wrongdoing in the Benghazi tragedy, the GOP is
gearing up for yet another set of hearings to rehash their baseless attacks.
As my friend Naomi Minogue
of Liberal Fix Radio says, Republicans keep throwing spaghetti at the walls. None
of it ever sticks, but that never stops them from throwing more spaghetti. Naomi's
analogy for today’s Republican Party is fitting: tantrum-throwing children
flinging half-baked pasta around the Capitol Building.
Aren't Republicans supposed
to be against frivolous lawsuits? Didn't they trumpet tort reform as a cure-all
during the health care debates? How much will this lawsuit cost American
taxpayers? What actual issues will Republicans continue to ignore as they
pursue their witch-hunts? Will the lawsuit further damage Congress's
single-digit approval rating? What should we call this Congress when it has
done far less that the historically inept Republicans that President Truman
dubbed the "Do-Nothing Congress"?
Most important, will
Americans reward Republicans for their insulting and embarrassing lawsuit at
the voting booth in November? If so, maybe it's time to sue Republican voters
for civic negligence.
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Monday, August 11, 2014
Sunday, August 10, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Friday, August 8, 2014
Thursday, August 7, 2014
Wednesday, August 6, 2014
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Monday, August 4, 2014
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Saturday, August 2, 2014
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