Dontcha Just LOVE it??

Choice Republican Comments on the BP Oil Spill

You have to wonder where the Republican Party funds theses clowns.

Rand Paul, Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Kentucky, referring to Obama’s tough talk about BP: "This sort of, you know 'I'll put my boot heel on the throat of BP,' I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business."

Michelle Bachman, the absolutely loony Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, who constantly rails and wails about the horrors of socialism in the U.S., suggested that the government should “commandeer” privately owned boats to “deal with that oil plume as it was coming up to the water.” Huh??

Sara Palin, half-term Republican governor of Alaska and John McCain’s running mate tweeted the following:

Extreme Greenies:see now why we push"drill,baby,drill"of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?"

Actually, Sara, when you were shrieking “Drill, baby, drill” during the campaign, you included off-shore drilling. Remember? No, of course you don’t.

Haley Barbour, Republican governor of Mississippi, has said numerous times that the media is over-reacting the the oil spill and has said that it "isn't anything like Exxon Valdez." He’s right about that, of course. This one is many times worse.

But Rep. Joe Barton, Republican from Texas, takes the cake. At a congressional hearing, this bozo actually apologized to BP’s CEO Tony Hayward:

"I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown, in this case a $20 billion shakedown. … I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown. So I apologize."

You think these characters are off-base and off-the-wall? What about the people who vote for them?

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Where Do The Republicans Find These Loonies?

The Republicans in Nevada have picked a lolo* named Sharron Angle as their nominee to oppose Harry Reid in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Harry Reid is hardly Mr. Excitement, but this lady is a serious nut case. Want an example? Here's what she said during a recent radio interview:

"If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I'll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out."

The Second Amendment, of course, refers to the right of citizens to bear arms.

This woman also wants to privatize Social Security and Medicare ... positions which she says are non-negotiable.

What to know what's really scary? She's actually leading Harry Reid in polls by something like 10 percentage points.

* lolo = crazy
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There Must Be Something in the Water.

What is it with South Carolina anyway?

Republican Governor Mark Sanford said he was hiking the Appalachian Trail when, in fact, he was shacked up with his mistress in Argentina.

Then there was Congressman Joe Wilson, also a Republican, who shouted out "You lie!" at President Obama during the State of the Union speech.

The latest disgrace comes from this good il' boy, South Carolina State Senator Jake Knotts. (Yes, he, too, is a Republican.) In speaking of gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, who is an ethnic Indian (that is, Indian as opposed to Native American), Knotts made this sickening comment:

“We already got one raghead in the White House, we don’t need a raghead in the governor’s mansion."

Nikki Haley is, by the way, a Republican.

Not everyone in South Carolina a bigot. Knotts remark has prompted someone to run against him in the upcoming Republican primary.

The Right Way … and the Really Wrong Way

I was just going over my notes from a recent train trip and came across an out-of-context scribble on one of the pages:

“Blog: Elected judges = crazy!”

I jotted that note just after the train passed a big billboard somewhere along the way … a county sheriff was campaigning for an elected position as a judge. The campaign theme was “He’ll Lock ‘Em Up!!” The more the merrier, I guess.

Unfortunately, the deciding factor in that race will have little to do with which bozo is qualified … where he went to law school and how much legal experience he has (if any). It will pretty much come down to which candidate raises the most money. And doesn’t that raise some interesting issues! Now you’ve got politician-judges who owe favors to people who helped them get elected.


We’ve got our fair share of political weirdness here in Hawaii, but this is one area where we got it right. We have a nine-member Judicial Selection Commission and only four of the nine can be lawyers. When there’s a vacancy, the Commission submits a list of approved candidates to the governor – not more than six names – who must make the appointment from that short-list.

In all my years in Hawaii, I can’t remember one time when there’s been a serious question of incompetence or scandal or conflict in our judiciary. There can be flaws in any system, and I’m sure ours isn’t perfect … but it sure as hell is better than having judges run for the office.
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