Joan Walsh’ recent comments regarding the Sarah Palin/Dr. Laura story reminded me of some other recent crazy talk.  The Editor-in-Chief of Salon went off on Glenn Beck for comparing the Obama administration to The Planet of the Apes.  Walsh, in her infinite wisdom, spotted something that nobody with cognitive reasoning skills could see, the racist message behind Beck’s comparison. 

She sarcastically laments:

“Nope. No racism there. Beck didn’t mean anything by the reference to “apes.” Don’t be oversensitive. How could Glenn Beck know that you can find “Planet of the Apes: A four year Obama survival guide” on the white supremacist site Stormfront.org? Or countless Google images and blog posts comparing Michelle Obama to the character “Dr. Zira”? Or the fact that, frankly, you can’t swing a cat on the Internet without coming across some comparison of Obama’s political rise to the apes’ ascendance in, yes, “Planet of the Apes” (but some of them are careful to state upfront that race has nothing to do with the comparison!)”

I might be a cracker, but I damn sure ain’t easy.

This was cross-posted at The Mental Recession

In a single weekend, Representative Scott Murphy affirmed his status as a rookie politician, succumbed to the bully tactics prevalent in the Obama administration, and subverted the will of his constituents – by saying ‘yes’ to a healthcare overhaul at which the American people have clearly shouted ‘No!’

In a recent interview with the Times Union, Murphy explained his change of heart, calling the final healthcare package “much more fiscally conservative.”

Associating conservatism with a bill that will hijack roughly 1/6^th of the entire U.S. economy can only be explained by political naivety, and a reliance on the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) fuzzy math.  The CBO report essentially utilizes mathematical wizardry to surmise that the reform legislation will reduce the deficit by $138 billion.  This conclusion is provably false.

First, the budget office is required to take the written word in the bill at face value.  For example, the bill includes an assumed cut in Medicare spending in the amount of $463 billion, a wholly impossible feat for a program already hemorrhaging red ink.  Because this amount is written as a factor in the bill, it is assumed to be true for the sake of the CBO report.  This is the equivalent of setting up a personal budget, and including a winning lottery ticket into the bottom line – yes it puts that Florida vacation within reach but no, it’s not going to happen.  The CBO report itself has also emphasized that their findings are merely preliminary and do not reflect the bill that will pass.

Second, the former director of the CBO has himself revealed a peek at the shell game being played by his former office and the current administration:

“In reality, if you strip out all the gimmicks and budgetary games and rework the calculus, a wholly different picture emerges:  The healthcare reform legislation would raise, not lower, federal deficits, by $562 billion.”

Additionally, Murphy praises the new bill for shifting “the balance of power from insurance companies to patients,” repeating the Democrat talking points that paint insurance companies as some sort of evil empire.  There is of course, no truth to the assumption of overwhelming power and profitability for the insurance industry.  In fact, health insurers ranked 35^th in profitability, earning a mere 2.2 cents for every dollar of gross sales.  George Will recently simplified the reality, stating that “confiscate(ing) all the profits of all the health insurance companies, with these profits you could finance our healthcare for 48 hours.  What you do for the next 363 days I don’t know.”

So how is it that Scott Murphy fell victim to ‘gimmicks and budgetary games?’  Inexperience for sure, but there is more at play here and it involves the current Chicago-style politics being played in Washington.

The entire healthcare reform process has been littered with shady deals, bribery, and strong-armed tactics.  This past weekend has been no different, with Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, on the hunt for members of the Democratic Party concerned with Medicare.  Murphy himself had hailed the new bill as a “much more aggressive approach” to slashing Medicare waste – but only after the New York Daily News had reported that he was quickly collared on the House floor by Pelosi.  The discussion?  As one source stated:

“She doesn’t have to threaten anyone…  Nancy helps you understand there might be a problem later on with a bill that you want.”

In other words, vote ‘yes’ or else. 

The news isn’t all dismal though, as Murphy clearly has the support of Citizen Action (CA).  Pleased with the cave-in, Chris Scoville of CA said, “We are so glad to see him come around and do the fiscally responsible thing…  the majority of his district will be very pleased.”

Not exactly the kind of endorsement a responsible politician would hope for.  Citizen Action has worked in tandem with the Working Families Party (WFP) – the same party along with Democrats embroiled in a massive voter fraud case in upstate New York – and the uber corrupt ACORN outfit. 

Will, as Scoville asserts, a majority of his district be very pleased?  Will they stand behind a man who would so easily succumb to threats from the administration, organizations like MoveOn.org, and powerful Union bosses such as those in SEIU?

Doug Muzzio, a Baruch College political scientist disagrees.  “If he votes yes,” he said, “a significant portion of his district is going to be angry with him.”  A statement seemingly more in tune with an overwhelmingly disapproving American public.

The real test will naturally come at the polls in November.  Will constituents in Scott Murphy’s district remember this blatant usurping of the people’s will?

Photo Credit:  Roske/AP

-          Rusty Weiss is a political writer for NewsBusters.com, and has appeared in the American Thinker, and the Daily Caller.  He welcomes feedback at rustyweiss@verizon.net.

CNN’s proofreading staff might need an upgrade.

Then again, maybe this is the kind of punishment you face when you’ve sinned against the chosen one, the Messiah…

We’ve seen the likes of Time Magazine, MSNBC, the Washington Post, and Newsweek link the Joe Stack airplane attack to the conservative movement.  But in an interesting twist, a political blogger for The Nation has inexplicably linked Stack to several players at the recent CPAC convention – including Tim Pawlenty, Scott Brown, and most notably Glenn Beck. 

Former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was recently involved in a physical altercation with rapper Sky Blu aboard an Air Canada flight heading from Vancouver to Los Angeles.

While the politician’s spokesman claimed that Romney had been assaulted by a hostile passenger, the rapper (whose real name is Skyler Gordy) claimed he was actually the victim of assault.  Gordy, a member of the group LMFAO said, “He put a condor grip on me – what am I supposed to do?”  His band-mate chimed in with, “that’s like a Vulcan grip.”

While use of the phrases ‘condor grip’ and ‘Vulcan grip’ cast doubt as to the level of street cred Gordy and his cohorts will have intact after this incident, the altercation raises more serious questions: 

Are Mitt Romney’s anger issues similar to what we’re seeing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement?[i]

And

Does the Romney condor grip demonstrate that the Tea Party movement, overwhelmingly white and increasing vocal in its violent dislike of rap music, show that we have not quite attained the level of a post-racial society?[ii]

The answer to both questions is a resounding ‘yes!’

In a recent interview, Mark P. said of Romney, “His airline etiquette seems connected to at least some of the core ideas of the radical right.”

He continued, “In 2008, Kanye West was involved in an altercation at the Los Angeles International Airport.  In addition there were airline scuffles involving rapper DMX in 2004 and 2006.  So rappers are kind of a traditional target of the radical right.”[iii]

A blogger from the Daily Kos explained the Romney/Tea Party connection in the following manner, “After months of threats on the entertainment industry, the Anti-Rap forces known as the teabaggers have struck with their first attack – a really tight squeeze of the arm.”[iv]

Journalist Jonathan C. explained things rather succinctly, “The results that the Tea Party movement envisions include less rap music – and less of LMFAO.” [v]

One thing is certain, anger that propels a 62 year old former governor over a much younger man in a power struggle in the sky, can only be explained by the radical and extremely racist movement that is the teabaggers.

Writer Andrew S. explains that the attack presents a “worrying possibility – that this is populist airline terrorism, whipped up by the GOP and its Fox and talk radio cohorts.”[vi]

But is Mitt Romney, as Andrew suggests, merely the trigger man in a far bigger conspiracy to take out unsuspecting rappers mid-flight?

Perhaps the Democratic Underground states things best, ultimately pointing the blame where it rightfully belongs: 

“We need to absolutely expose Glenn Beck, Michele Bachmann, Michelle Malkin, CNN’s Lou Dobbs, Michael Steele, Rush Limbaugh and the legion of others parroting right-wing lies for trumping up this nonsense and getting people to now commit air assault in a hideous fashion.”[vii]

Indeed, Romney and his many right-wing cohorts need to stop this senseless violence against rap.  When it comes to reclining airline seats, violence and Vulcan grips are never the answer. 

• Every quote contained within this article satirically paraphrases actual examples of the mainstream media trying to connect conservatives and Tea Party followers to heinous acts such as the Austin suicide pilot, the Kentucky census worker suicide, and the Alabama shooting case. Each of these absurd smear attempts is linked below. Note to the mainstream media: This is how absurd you sound when you attempt to smear conservatives with a total disregard for facts, heavily armed with embellishments, and completely devoid of morals.

 Photo Credit:  AP Photo/Cliff Owen

[ii]  Race in America: Does racism explain the ‘tenure shooting’ and Tea Party movement?

[iii]  Matthews’ Southern Poverty Guest Ties Stack To ‘Radical Right’

[iv]  Plane strikes IRS building in Austin

[v]  Race in America: Does racism explain the ‘tenure shooting’ and Tea Party movement?

[vi]  No Suicide

[vii]  Handy Guide to how Republicans and Fox News are responsible for Census worker being hanged