The 111^th Congress has ended “the most productive post-election period we’ve had in decades,” according to Beelzebub, aka President Barack Obama. Not since Johnson’s “Great Society” have we seen such change. Despite a civil war of rabid rhetoric and a 13 percent approval rating, massive reform was still delivered: Health insurance for 32 million Americans, re-regulating Wall Street while stabilizing an international economy in freefall, “Cash for Clunkers” and the resurrection of General Motors, repeal of untenable and inane policies (“Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” from the Clinton-era and a Bush-era “barring the recommendation of new wilderness areas”) as well as strict limitations on credit card cannibals. Oh, tens of thousands of our soldiers are no longer targets in Iraq, and light is in sight in the sewer that is Afghanistan. You’re welcome, Republicans, more of your messes cleaned up by Democrats – Don’t repeat the same mistakes.

But of course they will.

“I think it was a disaster,” said a Republican senator of the 111^th Congress, on the condition of anonymity of course. Sneering and stonewalling is what Republicans will be remembered for while blocking more than 50 federal judges and filibustering health care for sick 9/11 first-responders. Voters rewarded them for their fine lack of work with a majority in the House of Representatives. They’re now controlling redistricting with new census numbers showing gains in the conservative South and West, while Blue areas like Rust Belt Michigan, New York and Ohio all lost population and soon representation.

One of the beneficiaries of the Republican’s pet policy of continuing Bush-era tax cuts is in deep doo-doo. August Busch IV, who took control of his family’s Anheuser-Busch beer empire in 2006, then immediately lost it for $52 billion to InBev (making himself tens of millions, and the family holding 4 percent of a sinking stock) is in yet another fix. Last week, 27-year-old Adrienne Nicole Martin was found dead in Busch’s home in Missouri, much like another woman who died when Busch crashed his sports car in the 1980s and he fled the scene (no charges were pursued), akin to being acquitted after a 1985 car chase when Busch was accused of trying to run over two police officers. Anyways, back to Busch’s latest “Oops!” that he’ll surely get away with: “It's a tragic death of a ... very nice young lady,” offered Art Margulis, Busch’s lawyer. Um, OK, he must be innocent, again, like O.J.

On the subject of innocence, right-wing evangelical Pat Robertson dared to question the criminalization of marijuana and mandatory sentences this month, saying, “We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana and the next thing they know they’ve got 10 years.” Even more astonishing is Robertson pointing God’s finger at Republicans in his 700 Club broadcast, “Lock 'em up, you know. That’s the way these guys ran, and they got elected. But that wasn't the answer.”

Don’t look to the Founding Fathers or Lincoln for answers, either, especially when quoted by the right-wing media. For once, blame the non-liberal and oh-so blue-collar media (wife-beaters with notepads vs. hipsters and iPads) for spreading fabrications daily. We all know about Obama being a Muslim woman without a birth certificate, but take a gander at Washington Times columnist and unapologetic neoconservative Frank Gaffney, supposedly quoting Abraham Lincoln:

“Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged.” Carried by hundreds of syndicates and websites, this quote was actually a fake, and created by J. Michael Waller in 2003 in his article “Democrats Usher in An Age of Treason.”

Add to that “The Ten Cannots” attributed to Lincoln (“You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong…” etc.) yet really written by conservative minister William J.H. Boetcker in 1916. The quote was long ago debunked, yet is still cited by rabid Republicans ad nauseum, famously by Ronald Reagan, then Rush Limbaugh and Tea Party “leaders” today.

Mired in falsehoods, surrounded by freelance hacks with debunked tax theories, the Party of Lincoln is lost. Let’s hope oil companies, brewing conglomerates, pharmaceutical and insurance monopolies are pleased with the upcoming 112^th Congress. You get what you pay for, and our new Congress went cheap.

Written by :

Eric Flowers

 

Comments (3)

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written by Lee Ann , December 29, 2010

So much of what is happening with the far right right now reminds me of 1930 in another country. We aren't villifying Jews but Muslims, Mexicans and people who are too poor to pay for health care and those who won't survive without Social Security that they paid into for all these years. And they do it all while appealing to very people they will destroy with a promise of a prosperous economy while they pocket all the money and destroy the middle class

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written by BR , December 31, 2010

OK, I see Brad Lockwood's name on the by-line at the top and Eric Flowers as the "Written By" at the bottom. So which one of you really wrote this POS piece anyway?

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written by BR , January 01, 2011

So lets take these BO accolades one at a time:
1. "Health insurance for 32 million Americans" - most Americans want this repealed or cut back; it will be defunded in Congress; this is why 60+ Dems lost their seats; and oh BTW all the companies you thought would now be providing insurance or better coverage are all getting waivers. McDonalds, BK, major retailers, etc. all of them have waivers. What an embarassment for BO.
2. "re-regulating Wall Street" - where were you libs when W tried to reign in Fannie and Freddie from the likes of Bawney Fwank and Chris Dodd. Those corrupt agencies were at ground zero of this debacle with BF and CD their chief benefactors. It was their regulations that brought on this housing bubble in the first place. Even Bawny admitted as much during his re-election campaign.
3. "stabilizing an international economy in freefall" - Oh now its not only OUR economy but the INTERNATIONAL economy that BO supposedly saved. Psst, Europe is still free falling; China, India, Australia, Brazil which account for 95% of the economies outside the US and Europe never were falling. Get real.
4. "Cash for Clunkers" - all this did was get 95% of the cars with Obama stickers off the road.
5. Repeal of DADT - If Obama is Jesus, then Clinton was your god. A total repudiation of der Schlickmeister by his flock.
6. Iraq - Thank goodness BO has maintained W's policies there.
7. Afghanistan - "light is in sight"; are you kidding? really you have no clue.
8. Gitmo - BO closed Gitmo; no wait a second, it's still there;
9. Rendition - BO stopped rendition; nope that's still happening.
10. Warrantless wire taps - guess again; still there;
11. Civilian courts for terrorists - BO .... no didn't do that either.
12. Card check, the carbon tax, green house gas exchanges; all of these were signature elements of his campaign and where are they now (and where are they going.....nowhere thank goodness).

It took America less than two years to get over the manic nature of BO's campaign and election and it has now discovered that beyond the prepared speeches and the teleprompter there is but an empty suit.