Promising ‘Well-Informed Truth,’ Steve King Says Obama Not Helping LA On Oil Spill Because Jindal Is A Republican
This week on a local Iowa radio show, Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said the Obama administration has not responded adequately to BP’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But according to King, it wasn’t because there was confusion and disarray within the administration. Rather, the problem is that President Obama has it out for Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal because Jindal is a Republican:
CALLER: You know it’s absolutely despicable the way our president is acting on this oil slick. And it boils down that the governor is a Republican and Obama is a Democrat and he’s not gonna help in any way to make him, to help Louisiana. … So as far as I’m concerned the blood is on his hands. [...]
KING: I appreciate Larry’s statement and I agree with his analysis of it. As I watch the reluctance on the part of the White House to cooperate with Bobby Jindal. I’d like to think it’s being done out of policy perspective, but there is a political component. And to delay these skimmers all this time, and to refuse to wave the Jones Act, well essentially they passed that hot potato around, and nobody asked for it.
Not only is it absurd to suggest that the President is purposely refusing to give federal assistance to a state in an economic and environmental crisis because that state’s governor is of the opposite political party, but also, King’s accusation is based on a falsehood. In fact, Obama did not “refuse to wave the Jones Act,” as McClatchy reported this week:
Maritime law experts, government officials and independent researchers say that the claim is false. The Jones Act isn’t an impediment at all, they say, and it hasn’t blocked anything. “Totally not true,” said Mark Ruge, counsel to the Maritime Cabotage Task Force, a coalition of U.S. shipbuilders, operators and labor unions. “It is simply an urban myth that the Jones Act is the problem.”
Indeed, FactCheck.org has also weighed in, noting that “the Jones Act has yet to be an issue in the response efforts. … Reports claiming that the federal government has refused help are not only incorrect — foreign assistance has been utilized — but are also misleading.”
Earlier in the interview, King complained about the “professional hyperventilators out there that are monitoring everything that I and others say” and said, “My approach is to just go forward, make sure that what I say is based on solid, well informed, broad, in-depth truth.” “I just try to give well-grounded, well-informed truth,” King reiterated. It doesn’t seem like he’s off to a good start. (HT: Iowa Independent)
King regularly expresses contempt for honest hard working Americans like the Coast Guard and Gulf Coast workers that rely on the sea to make a living. As to why Congress critter King hates America only he knows. Not to mention that while the story about George Washington and the cherry tree is a myth, it is a lesson within a parable. One in which real patriots put the truth before their wacky right-wing agenda. King must have decided to ignore that lesson about the truth and decided honor does not matter.
NV-Sen: Sharron Angle hits a grand slam for right-wing extremism
I just finished watching Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle's interview with Nevada political journalist Jon Ralston on his Face To Face television show and I'm still collecting my jaw from the floor.Angle should learn to read than learn some history, "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."
It was one of the most stunning displays of right-wing lunacy that I have ever seen in my entire life from a Republican candidate for Federal office (at least outside of the south).
Here's a highlight reel, followed by a point-by-point summary of Angle's lunatic claims.
In order, Angle:
1. Angle called for the privatization of Social Security and Medicare. (I didn't include this in the highlight reel as the section was too long to condense. Watch it here.)
2. Angle said she opposed extending jobless benefits because they've "spoiled our citizenry" and kept people out of the workforce.
3. Angle mistakenly endorsed Harry Reid's job's bill, having clearly never heard of it before.
4. Angle said "people are afraid of their government" and that "of course" they "need to" arm themselves to protect liberties from government tyranny.
5. Angle said the constitution does not create a separation of church and state.
6. Angle said she opposes abortion in all cases, including rape and incest. Inexplicably, she said the only reason she wants to make it illegal is that Roe v. Wade made it legal. (I guess she meant that if it was already illegal she wouldn't want to make it illegal again, because it would already be illegal?)
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
Rand Paul Campaign: No, He Doesn't Support An Underground Electric Fence On Border
Despite what his campaign website says -- and his past public statements -- Kentucky Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul does not want to install an underground electric fence on the border. That's according to Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton, who told Greg Sargent today that no matter what Paul may have said before, this is the deal: He supports an electronic fence on the border. Just not underground.Why was Paul for an underground fence before he was against? Does he have something against Mexican earthworms. Paul is polling well in Kentucky, thus this loon might be a senator soon.
...But as our Jillian Rayfield reported back in May, Paul himself talked about the underground nature of the fence he envisions in an interview with Russian TV.
"Paul also said he's discussed instituting an 'underground electrical fence' on the border to keep out unwanted elements," Jill reported, "though he emphasized that he's "not opposed to letting people come in and work and labor in our country."
