Ron Paul is met with boo's at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference for calling Republicans 'hypocrites' and saying the President is not a 'socialist'

US Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.) was met with both disapproval and applause on Saturday during the Southern Republican Leadership Conference for describing Republicans as hypocritical when they call for a return to Constitutional values while supporting un-declared foreign wars.

Paul said that Republicans and liberals both like to spend. But Republicans spend money on different things. They like embassies, and they like occupation. They like the empire. They like to be in 135 countries and 700 bases.

Don’t you think it’s rather conservative to say, ‘Oh it’s good to follow the Constitution? Oh, except for war. Let the President go to war anytime they want.’ We can do better with peace than with war.

While most of the other speakers at the event used plenty of right-wing rhetoric for easy applause, Washington Post reporter David Weigel reported that the Congressman stuck to the outrage over American foreign policy that has defined his platform.

"The reason why the American people have awoken is because the country is broke and the people in Washington won't admit it." Paul also added that President Obama is not a 'socialist', as he has been labeled by the Tea Baggers and the Fox News wing-nuts.

“He’s a corporatist, the president takes care of corporations and corporations take over and run the country.” Paul said instead.

Most political commentators believe Paul is vying with Mitt Romney for the top slot of the straw poll of this weekend's conference.

Watch portions of Rep. Paul’s speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfNpRoCbY5E&feature=player_embedded

Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal (R) complains the ‘Party of No’ label is hurtful, then calls the GOP 'the Party of Hell No'

Louisiana Gov. Piyush Jindal (R) complained that characterizations of the Republican caucus as the ‘Party of No’ are hurtful in his speech at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference on Friday.

The Louisiana Governor said, “Speaker Pelosi likes to call the Republicans the ‘Party of No.’ Some of us, we don’t like the way that sounds. It hurts our feelings. Speaker Newt Gingrich said yesterday the Republicans need to be the ‘Party of Yes,’ and he is right.”

Yet after just claiming that the Republicans are the party of ‘yes’ , Jindal then exclaimed that the GOP isn’t just the “party of No,” but instead “the party of Hell No when it comes to this health care!”

Jindal, who was widely ridiculed for delivering a clumsy response to President Obama’s address before Congress in 2009, had other awkward moments at the conference on Friday as well. At one point, Jindal told the audience, “we do have ideas; some of those ideas are even good ideas.” It appears that Piyush ‘Bobby' Jindal is tacitly conceding that the GOP also spawns many bad ideas.

Jindal isn’t the only winger offering bewildering talking points. Speaking at a rally with her dimwitted duo partner Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) earlier this week, Sarah Palin offered up similar bewildering thoughts on the Republican Party. Former less than one-term Gov. Palin called the “Party of No” label a “mistaken concept” right before saying there is nothing wrong with being the Party of No in the face of Obama’s agenda.

Koch Industries, who made millions building oil refineries for the communists during Stalin era, is chief funder of climate science deniers

Koch Industries, the second-largest privately-held company in the United States which operates crude oil refineries and pipelines across North America is one of the chief funders of climate science denial and clean energy opposition, spending over $48.5 million since 1997 to fund the climate denial machine according to a Greenpeace report recently released. 

The Greenpeace report exposes how Koch Industries and its industry front groups spent far more than ExxonMobil in recent years on industry front groups opposed to clean energy and climate policies.

The company’s founder, Fred Koch, who earned $ millions building oil refineries for the communists in the former Soviet Union during Joseph Stalin’s reign, also co-founded the extreme right-wing group The John Birch Society.

During the 2008 elections, Koch Industries contributed over $1.8 million, 88% to Republican candidates. Koch’s political action committee (PAC) also spent more than $2.5 million on contributions to federal candidates for that period, more than any other oil-and-gas sector PAC.

One of the industry front groups Koch Industries has bankrolled is Americans for Prosperity.  AFP, known primarily for its role in organizing the tea party movement in the U.S., brought widely known climate denier Lord Monckton to the Copenhagen climate summit as its guest speaker where he compared college students advocating for a clean energy future to “Hitler Youth and The Nazis”.

While attending a GOP fundraiser in Wisconsin Monckton described President Barack Obama as a monster, and said the stimulus package had been written by Communists to funnel money to extreme left wing Marxist organizations. It’s astounding that he would reference communists given that his principle sponsor Koch Industries made millions working for Stalin. 

The Greenpeace report also notes Koch’s role in funding the Institute for Energy Research, which was behind a Danish study that attacked the viability of wind power.  In addition to the AFP and the IER Koch also funds’ the Heritage Foundation another right-wing foundation opposed to clean energy and climate policies.

President Obama quickly dismisses former less than one-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's naiveté on nuclear arms issues

President Barack Obama dismissed former less than one-term Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin who naively equated his nuclear arms policy with playground bullying. During an interview today on "Good Morning America" on ABC Host George Stephanopoulos asked specifically whether or not he had a response to Palin, one of his potential 2012 opponents, Obama said he had none.

"I really have no response," he said. "Because last I checked, Sarah Palin's not much of an expert on nuclear issues."

Obama unveiled his new strategy ahead of signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev during a summit these past two days in the Czech Republic. World leaders will also gather in Washington next week for a summit on nuclear security.

The president said that he wouldn't rely on the GOP for advice when he has access to top military and civilian officials.

"What I would say to them is that if the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff are comfortable with it, I'm probably going to take my advice from them and not from Sarah Palin," President Obama said. 

Watch the GMA interview here: 
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/obama-treaty-impede-missile-defense-10326749

Former president Bush knew most Gitmo detainees were innocent

Former US president George W. Bush and his top aides were accused Friday of covering up that many Guantanamo Bay detainees were innocent, amid fears releasing them could harm the 'war on terror’, by Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Bush's first secretary of state, Colin Powell.

Wilkerson alleged former vice president Dick Cheney and defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew that most detainees held at the US detention camp in 2002 were innocent but believed it was politically impossible to release them.

 Wilkerson said prisoners were often rounded up by Afghan and Pakistani forces in return for cash, with little or no evidence as to why. He alleged Cheney "had absolutely no concern that the vast majority of Guantanamo detainees were innocent; If hundreds of innocent individuals had to suffer in order to detain a handful of hardcore terrorists, so be it".

"I learned that it was his view that it was not just vice president Cheney and secretary Rumsfeld, but also president Bush who was involved in all of the Guantanamo decision-making."

183 detainees remain at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba, including dozens already cleared for release. Most have been held without charge or trial.

Mother of man arrested for threatening US House Speaker blames Fox News

In an interview on a California ABC News affiliate, the mother of a man arrested for threatening House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) blamed Fox News for exacerbating her son's mental illness, saying it encouraged his behavior.

"Greg frequently gets in with a group of people that have really radical ideas and that are not consistent with myself or the rest of the family, which gets him into problems," the 83-year-old mother of the accused man, Eleanor Giusti, said. "I say Fox News, or all of those that are really radical, and he, that's where he comes from."

Gregory Giusti was arrested Wednesday after threatening the US House Speaker over recently passed healthcare reform legislation. 

Republican National committee Chair hatched scheme evading campaign finance rules to pump up fundraising totals

Accounts of financial deception at the Republican National Committee stretch from a scandal involving $2,000 spent at a bondage strip club to a possible illegal fundraising ploy to circumvent federal restrictions on campaign finance.

Back in 2009 RNC Chairman Michael Steele contrived a scheme with the Michigan Republican Party to quickly turn more than half a million dollars from Michigan donors intended for the RNC back over to the state party. This apparently a ruse devised to artificially increase the RNC's fundraising totals for 2009, according to a report from the Daily Caller.

Documentation by the Federal Election Commission verifies the donations to the RNC, as well as the money that came right back to the Michigan Republican Party.

A former official with the RNC said the motivation for such a deal was probably to allow individuals to donate more than the $10,000 federal limit, because Michigan state law allows unlimited campaign contributions for individuals.

Chief Republican strategist calls for RNC chairman's resignation

In late November, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele tossed his communications director overboard, and brought on divisive GOP strategist Alex Castellanos to help shape the party's message. On Tuesday Castellanos not only announced that he’s leaving the RNC, he suggested Steele should step down also.

"Chairman Steele, I think, has lost the support of two important constituencies in the Republican Party," he said, referring to the Congressional leadership, "and a lot of our major donors; the donors who provide the money, the lifeblood, the oxygen, the Republican Party needs to succeed on its mission to take back control of the House.”

"Perhaps a change in leadership here would thaw that and allow that support to flow," Castellanos said.

Castellanos' announcement came on the heels of news that a leading New Hampshire Republican member decided to resign from the national RNC, in part to protest the party's recent problems.

These departures follow Monday's staff shake-up, with RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay being shown the door, and strategist Curt Anderson also leaving. By all accounts, morale at the RNC is low, and "staffers at all levels of the RNC are eyeing the exits."

Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, the dimwitted duo, to appear at a Minneapolis fundraiser

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be at the Minneapolis Convention Center today to campaign for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann.

 University of Minnesota political science professor Kathryn Pearson says while Palin's appearance may help Bachmann raise money for her upcoming reelection campaign, it won't give her what she needs most to hang on to her congressional seat, which are votes.

The dimwitted duo will appear later at a $500-a-plate dinner fundraiser in Minneapolis. People who donate $10,000 get to take a picture with the two.

Minnesota Democrats boast sizable majorities in the State Legislature and hope to land the governor’s office this fall to cement an advantage in redrawing Minnesota political maps. Bachmann’s district, a mix of suburbs, rural areas and the central Minnesota city of St. Cloud, is a tempting target for Democrats if Minnesota loses one of its eight US House seats.

Because of their wing-nut rhetoric, Repubs now concerned their constituents won't fill out Census

The Republicans are starting to realize that their inflammatory rhetoric has consequences that they did not initially anticipate. They are now very concerned that their constituents are not filling out the US Census forms. 

This as a direct result of all the lies, vitriol, and conspiratorial talk concerning the census they crammed down the throats of FOX viewers last year.

Republican leaders now fear that congressional redistricting driven by an undercounted 2010 census will not bode well for them. It hasn’t helped that Rep. Bachmann (R-Min) has been weaving conspiracies and fanning the flames by associating the US census with the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Watch a Fox News report of Rep. Bachmann share her borderline seditious views on the Census here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APnfPnqwv9c&feature=player_embedded

Nevada newspaper reports that Sen. Ensign (R-Nev.) is likely to be indicted

In an April 4^th article Political reporter John Ralston of the Las Vegas Sun disclosed that Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign is likely to be indicted for a $96,000 payment he made to the husband of the aide with whom he had an affair.

Mr. Ralston reports that prosecutors looking into the scandal surrounding Ensign's affair with former aide Cynthia Hampton are focusing on the payment made by Ensign's parents to the Hamptons, that detractors said was used to pay off the husband, Doug Hampton.

Ralston notes that two former federal prosecutors have said there is enough evidence to indict Ensign, based on what both the senator has said and what Mr. Hampton has said under the federal standard of probable cause.

"If Ensign gets indicted, he will become a national and state nightmare for the GOP," Ralston reports. "National Democrats will brandish him as a symbol of corruption.  

Back in June 2009 Senator Ensign confirmed reports of his having an affair with Cynthia Hampton between December 2007 and August 2008. It later emerged that Ensign's parents had given $96,000 to the Hamptons, a move that was widely interpreted as an attempt to try to hush up Mr. Hampton.

Last week KLAS, a local Nevada television news station reported that the Department of Justice had expanded its investigation of Ensign's activities, issuing subpoenas to six Nevada companies that had contact with Ensign.

Republican National Committee Chief Of Staff resigns in wake of bondage nightclub spending scandal

Republican National Committee Chief Of Staff Ken McKay has resigned in the wake of a spending scandal that has rocked the RNC, several media outlets reported on Monday.

An RNC spokesman said that the staff shift was "about ensuring that we have the tight financial controls in place and to ensure that every nickel we spend is done with the goal of winning in November."

Deputy Chief of Staff Mike Leavitt is expected to replace McKay.

McKay had been drafted into damage control at the RNC in the wake of reports that the committee spent thousands of dollars at a bondage-themed nightclub in Los Angeles. 

RNC Chairman Michael Steele brought McKay on as the committee's chief of staff last March.

McCain hypocritically says he never considered himself a 'Maverick'

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who is doing and saying all he can to fight off primary Tea Bagger challenger J.D. Hayworth who claims McCain is too moderate, has in an interview with Newsweek gone back on his most famous nickname.


I never considered myself a maverick," McCain said. "I consider myself a person who serves the people of Arizona to the best of his abilities."

But there are those who remember the 2008 presidential campaign, when McCain, his running mate Sarah Palin and his entire campaign constantly referred to him as a "maverick."

McCain has also been hypocritically walking back many other positions that he held when he ran for president in 2008; such as his support for the Wall Street bailout TARP, gays openly serving in the military, campaign finance reform, and support for lenient immigration policies.

Watch a 2008 McCain ad referring to him as ‘Maverick’: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylJkmMR8Fek&feature=player_embedded

Tea Baggers asked to live up to their hype and pledge not to take socialist Medicare and Social Security benefits, their responses are not pretty

Thom Hartmann, a radio host who can be heard daily on Air America and on XM and Sirius Satellite radio, asked on one of his recent programs if all Tea Baggers should be required to sign an "I won't take Social Security and Medicare pledge"; given that many polls have shown that they have a deep rooted disdain for these two programs. 

One of his listeners took him up on it and tried to get some of them to sign the pledge at one of their rallies and the results weren't pretty.

Watch here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10RDIgt7LAA&feature=player_embedded#

Republican will filibuster next Supreme Court nominee if they stand up ‘for the little guy’

A top Republican in the Senate is planning a strategy of opposing President Barack Obama's potential nominee should there be a vacancy on the Supreme Court in the future.

Jon Kyl (R-Az) told Fox News' Chris Wallace that Republicans are prepared to fight a nominee who might stick up for the little guy, a position he called "overly ideological."

Kyl had condemned the use of the filibuster when Republicans were in the majority. "It's never been the case until the last two years that a minority could dictate to the majority what they could do," Kyl said in 2005.

Republicans are within their rights to to use the filibuster to block a judicial nominee, according to Senator Kyl.

Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa) thinks there's a better chance for consensus next year and worries that a nomination fight this year would mean gridlock in the partisan Senate.

"I think we need someone who will step into Justice Stevens' shoes, who will be very tough on the issues of executive power," Specter said. "A federal court this past week declared the warrantless wiretapping unconstitutional. I think we need the kind of balance that Justice Stevens has provided to offset the majority on the court which is in favor of executive power."

"I am a little troubled by what Arlen said," Kyl responded. "Don't have somebody coming in with preconceived attitudes. I'm going to be tough on the executives or I'm going to be for the little guy, we've had too much of that."