Republicans Give Big Oil Billions To Export Domestic Oil

By: Rmuse in Politicus

Only a person who has been comatose over the past couple of decades is unaware that there are no lengths too far for Republicans to go to provide profits for the oil industry at the expense of the American people; both economically and health-wise. It is just what they exist to do and they are at it again. Republicans are wont to claim that America’s energy independence is their primary concern to prevent providing the Middle East with oil profits from American consumers, but they are a day away from making America much less energy independent and the oil industry billions more in profits. 

Republican Hatred Goes Mainstream

Eight years ago we had this...



Now we have this...

How The Republican Budget Screws The Middle Class

Ken O’Brien

“The simplest way to understand these budgets is surely to suppose that they are intended to do what they would, in fact, actually do: make the rich richer and ordinary families poorer,” wrote Paul Krugman, The New York Times ‘columnist and Noble Prize-winning economist. “We’re looking at an enormous, destructive con job, and you should be very, very angry.” 

The GOP-controlled House and Senate budgets drastically cut spending on education, retirement, environment, road and bridges, climate change, immigration, job creation, Obamacare, food stamps, and other social welfare programs. At the same time it gives the Pentagon a blank check, and includes tax cuts for the rich and corporations while raising taxes for lower-income Americans. That’s the analysis by the National Priorities Project (NPP), not just Krugman, and they make an even more disturbing point. 

Racism, Misogyny and Privilege: The Basis Of Modern “Conservatism”

Ken O’Brien

The Dow Industrial Average is approaching 18,000. Job growth in November hit a fifteen year high. Unemployment is below 6%. Gasoline prices are approaching $2.50 per gallon. And we are finally making progress in achieving universal health care – first proposed by Harry Truman over 60 years ago.

By any objective measure the Obama Administration has been a success.

This is especially true by comparison to our sister economies of Western Europe, which have consistently teetered on the brink of resurgent recession. 

Obamacare Already Benefitting The Economy

Ken O’Brien

Republicans have been proven completely wrong as the Affordable Care Act helped both personal income and spending increase in January.

On March 3^rd The Wall Street Journal reported in an article titled” Obamacare Effects Account for Most of Income, Spending Increases”:

The Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s signature health law, is already boosting household income and spending.

The Commerce Department reported Monday that consumer spending rose a better-than-expected 0.4% and personal incomes climbed 0.3% in January. The new health-care law accounted for a big chunk of the increase on both                                                                      fronts.

Mass. GOP Swings Further Right

Ken O’Brien

On Tuesday night the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, by a vote of 52 to 16, adopted a new state party platform.

The new section on Values has sparked controversy among members who object to what they perceive as a shift to the right that is incompatible with the realities of Massachusetts voter preferences. 

Feel The Chill?

Ken O’Brien

The Philadelphia Enquirer reported earlier this year, “Republicans such as U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.), former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), and Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation, as well as commentators like Pat Buchanan, have expressed preference for charity over government to solve various societal ills such as hunger. Many say private giving, not government largesse, kept America going through the decades.”

GOP Has Mastered Devolution

From PoliticusUSA

Pew Research just released a poll on Monday showing the American public’s views towards evolution. The poll showed that 60% of Americans agree with the statement that humans and other living things have evolved over time. Meanwhile, 33% stated that humans have existed in their present form since the beginning of time. This is pretty much on par with the results of this same poll four years ago.

However, where the gaps have started to widen more is when we look at political affiliation and religion. In 2009, 64% of Democrats believed in evolution while a majority, 54%, of Republicans also believed in the theory. Fast forward to today and 67% of Democrats believe in the theory of evolution while only 43% of Republicans feel that humans evolved from lower life forms. That is a remarkable 24-point gap between the two political parties. Independents saw virtually no change, as 67% believed in 2009 and 65% believe now. 

27 GOP Senators Vote To Disapprove Of Themselves

From AlterNet

About time these clowns disapproved of themselves for their heartless policies and shameless tactics. But, no, no. No such attack of conscience has hit the Republicans in Congress. What took place last week in the Senate may have set a new low on the moron scale—and these days, that is really saying something. All 27 Republican senators who voted recently to raise the debt ceiling, pay the nation’s bills, and reopen the government (and arguably do their jobs), voted in favor of a symbolic “resolution to disapprove” of that vote. All of them.

It Sure Ain't Your Father's Republican Party

Ken O'Brien

The Alternative Minimum Tax - Red vs. Blue

Ken O’Brien

NEWS UPDATES Dec. 7 -
Tax filing delay looms if no fix for minimum tax: IRS
IRS Chief Warns Again About AMT Hit

If you aren't familiar with the alternative minimum tax - commonly known by its initials, AMT – you might want to get acquainted with it. Congress created the AMT back in 1969 to make sure that certain high-income citizens couldn't skip out on paying taxes altogether by gaming the system. So under the present regime, you pay either your regular taxes or the AMT (which is essentially a flat rate that eliminates most deductions), whichever is higher. A definite hassle (because you have to calculate your taxes twice), but at least it sounds fair, right? 

Is There A Difference Between Rice Whines?

Ken O’Brien

“In parliamentary systems it is not uncommon to turn a political nomination -- or even a relatively insignificant bill -- into a way of expressing a lack of confidence in the government or in a major policy. In the United States that is far less common, but … [Republican Senators]  have done precisely that over the nomination of … Rice as secretary of state.”

“They have used it as a vehicle to stake out their opposition to the [initial reporting on Benghazi]. They are likely to pay a heavy political price. In this country, it is customary to allow the president to choose his own Cabinet so long as the nominee is minimally qualified. Rice is superbly qualified, and everyone concedes that.”

I know, I know – typical Liberal knee-jerk response to Republican criticism of Susan Rice’s potential nomination for Secretary of State.

However, in all candor, I’ve cheated. I altered the quote. 

New Poll: How Long Before Republicans Try To Impeach Obama?

Ken O’Brien

Having spent the day combing the Conservative blogs and watching Faux News, I think they will honor tradition.

That is the tradition that they began with the last two term Democratic President, Bill Clinton.

Thus, as a public service, and to save the right wingnuts the burden of broaching the subject, The O’Zone is launching a survey. 

Don’t Buy Netanyahu’s Iran Scare

Ken O’Brien

Benjamin Netanyahu

Yesterday afternoon I wrote the following as a comment in regard to another post:

Netanyahu’s warhawk blustering is understandable to anyone who follows Israeli internal politics. Following the erosion of his coalition government he rushed through a series of austerity measures that, as Agency France Press reported in August, caused “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's popularity [to] [plummet] to its lowest point since his election in 2009 after he pushed through a series of tough austerity measures, a poll showed yesterday.

Platform Posturing

Ken O’Brien

When your opponent is shooting himself in the foot, you don’t help him.

That was exactly my reaction when I heard about all this right wing high-fiving about the Democratic Convention changing the language in their platform.

Overnight the Republican smear machine launched a campaign about the absence of the word “God” and the reference to Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel from their platform. 

Repeating It Doesn’t Make It True

Ken O’Brien

“The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results."

Repetition of an untruth is the surest way to guarantee that it becomes an accepted fact.

Take for instance the above quotation.

Just about any of you who are familiar with it have seen it with the attribution “- Albert Einstein”.

Just yesterday the quote appeared as a question on “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”.

Unfortunately, there is absolutely no record that Einstein ever said it. 

Whither Grover Norquist?

Ken O’Brien

Lawrence O’Donnell likes to refer to him as the “most powerful man in America who holds no elective office.”

He is Grover Norquist, founder and President of Americans for Tax Reform. He is most notable for the pledge his organization requires to support candidates for U.S. Congressional office. The pledge requires that the signatories promise to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates." 

More Republican Disinformation On Obamacare?

Ken O’Brien

The latest Republican talking point on Obamacare since the Supreme Court decision upholding the individual mandate has begun to emerge.

The latest use of it to come to my attention was this morning on the MSNBC program The Daily Rundown with Chuck Todd. On the program Senator John Cornyn (R – Texas) spoke of the 22 other taxes in Obamacare in addition to the individual mandate.

Now, frankly, I didn’t know of these 22 other taxes. I knew there were a couple, very few that affected any significant number of people. The experience here in Massachusetts has already shown that the tax penalty for lack of insurance will affect only one percent of the population.

Republicans: Size Doesn’t Matter

Ken O’Brien

Way back in my high school days I participated actively in debating.

One of the fundamental components at the start of a debate was for the first speaker to define the key terms of the debate. Unless challenged, this guaranteed that all participants were talking about the same thing.

Unfortunately that practice doesn’t apply to political campaigning. 

The Anti - Americanism of the Right

Ken O’Brien

“We the People of the United States…”

Those are the first seven words of the Constitution of the United States.

From its very birth the United States was a collective enterprise.

It was not an exercise that celebrated the individual. It was an affirmation that free people who shared ideals and dreams of a common future could work together for their realization.