The "Obama vs. Hitler" Pop Quiz for Wingnuts

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Thursday August 20, 2009 · 4:33 PM PDT

2009/08/20 · 16:33

One of the more disgusting aspects of the right-wing protests at health-care town halls has been equating President Obama to Adolf Hitler. Why do these people act like that? I can think of several possibilities. First, they know that bringing Hitler into the discussion is extremely provocative, and thus likely to get them on TV. Our media are pathetic enough to give them the attention they're looking for. Second, their debating skills are so poor that this is the best argument they can come up with. It's a lot easier to give the Nazi salute than reverse-engineer cost projections.

Then again, it's just possible that years of exposure to the right-wing noise machine have about made these people utterly ignorant about history. So, as a public service to the wingnuts lurking on dKos, I've come up with a ten-point quiz on the difference between Obama and Hitler. Fear not, I've made it extremely easy: multiple choice questions with only two possible answers and no trick questions.

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Tuesday August 18, 2009 · 5:13 PM PDT

2009/08/18 · 17:13

Cross-posted at BloggingForMichigan.com

In Michigan, the Republican-controlled State Senate has two major functions: (1) obstruct everything proposed by our governor and the Democratic-controlled State House; and (2) test-drive every right-wing hobby horse that arrives in Lansing.

The latest such hobby horse is the Tenth Amendment, a favorite of the "Don't Tread on Me" crowd that voted for Ron Paul and shows up at anti-government tea parties.

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on two resolutions: Senate Resolution No. 17 and Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4, both of which affirm Michigan's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution.

These resolutions read like something that came out of a fantasy camp for lawyers.

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Monday August 17, 2009 · 4:46 PM PDT

2009/08/17 · 16:46

Cross-posted at BloggingForMichigan.com

You've got to hand it to Thaddeus McCotter. Not only is he a member of the House GOP leadership--head of the Policy Committee, to be exact--but he's firmly established himself as the Walter Mitty of that body.

Last year at this time, you might remember the "speak-in" he organized in the House chamber. That was a make-believe House session--albeit with real, but very right-wing members--he called after the real House adjourned for the summer. McCotter was upset that the House hadn't passed an energy bill: the GOP energy bill, also known as the Drill, Baby, Drill Act of 2008.

Not satisfied with starting a repertory company, McCotter recently tried his hand at writing rock songs.

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Friday July 03, 2009 · 11:26 AM PDT

2009/07/03 · 11:26

Last Friday, the House passed the American Clean Energy and Security Act, which addresses the problem of global warming by, among other things, establishing a cap-and-trade system aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Predictably, the right wing is in full cry, making all kinds of apocalyptic predictions about what this legislation will do. The Environmental Defense Action Fund has compiled The Ten Most Outrageous Claims about it. True to form, my representative Thaddeus McCotter (MI-11) made the list with his claim that the legislation would reduce us to "hunters and gatherers." I kid you not.

However, McCotter and his drill-here-drill-now Republican buddies suspects are pikers compared to the number-one global warming denier on Capitol Hill: James Inhofe of Oklahoma. Six years ago, Inhofe took to the Senate floor and delivered a two-hour-long, 10,000-plus-word screed entitled "The Science of Climate Change". It still holds the undisputed record for mistruths, scientific cherry-picking, and fallacious parades of horribles.

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Wednesday February 25, 2009 · 8:50 AM PST

2009/02/25 · 08:50

Cross-posted to BloggingForMichigan.com

Ann Arbor, Michigan's Thomas More Law Center has been on a roll these past few months. Last December, it sued the U.S. Treasury Department, arguing that the government was promoting radical Islam by paying federal bailout money to the insurer AIG. Now it has joined forces with Michael Savage to stop Congress from re-instituting the Fairness Doctrine, which existed between 1949 and 1987.

What is the Fairness Doctrine, you ask? Steve Rendall of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting explains that it has two basic elements:

It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented.

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Monday February 23, 2009 · 6:55 AM PST

2009/02/23 · 06:55

Cross-posted at BloggingForMichigan.com

Republicans love to rail about "activist judges" who "legislate from the bench." But some of the nation's worst judicial activism has been practiced by right-wing ideologues on the Michigan Supreme Court.

John Engler, a conservative Republican who never met a corporation he didn't like, was governor of Michigan from 1991 until 2003. One of his many dubious contributions to the state was stacking the appellate courts with right-wing judges. He was so successful in fact that after he left office, the National Association of Manufacturers hired him to vet judges that were acceptable to both the business community and the Religious Right.

Engler's handiwork is most evident on the state's highest court. From 2000 until the end of 2008, the "Gang of Four"--a four-member, hard-line conservative bloc–-remade Michigan law in their image and likeness.

How much damage did the Gang of Four do? Find out below the fold...

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Monday February 16, 2009 · 3:50 PM PST

2009/02/16 · 15:50

Cross-posted at BloggingForMichigan.com.

Last November, the Michigan Democratic Party pulled off a five-star upset special when Judge Diane Hathaway defeated Chief Justice Cliff Taylor. Hathaway beat long odds because in Michigan, justices of the high court are elected on a non-partisan ticket and incumbents are designated as such on the ballot.

Bad as he was, Taylor wasn't the worst member of a court that a University of Chicago study recently ranked as the nation's worst. That distinction belongs to Justice Robert Young.

Last year, Michigan Lawyers Weekly asked lawyers who practiced before the state's high court to name the best justice. Justice Michael Cavanagh led with 45%, followed by Justice Marilyn Kelly at 43%. Justice Young and Chief Justice Taylor tied for last place with 1%.

Now another edition of the Michigan Lawyers Weekly rankings is out.

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Sunday February 15, 2009 · 5:48 PM PST

2009/02/15 · 17:48

Cross-posted on BloggingForMichigan.com

Once upon a time, WJR-AM was the "station of record" in Detroit. Ernie Harwell and Paul Carey brought Tiger baseball into people's homes; the genial J.P. McCarthy interviewed the city's movers and shakers; and the soothing voice of Jay Roberts kept insomniacs and third-shifters company on "Night Flight." Not any more. The station that once called itself "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes" has become a very large cog in the Republican Noise Machine, spewing out 50,000 watts of right-wing bile to a huge swath of the nation's midsection.

Which makes WJR the perfect audience for Thaddeus McCotter, the flannel-mouthed congressman from Detroit's western suburbs. In person, McCotter talks like a constipated Snidely Whiplash and has a skin thinner than the paper our grandparents used to send airmail letters. The man fancies himself a rock musician. That is, when he's not trying to act like the second coming of William F. Buckley. (Aside to McCotter: it's bad form to use a five-dollar word in a $7.50 sentence.)

There's more below the party line...

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Wednesday February 11, 2009 · 1:28 PM PST

2009/02/11 · 13:28

Cross-posted at BloggingForMichigan.com

Did you know that today is White Shirt Day? And do you know its significance in Michigan history?

White Shirt Day was first celebrated on February 11, 1948, as a way of honoring the men and women who participated in the 1936-37 sit-down strike at Fisher Body Plant No. 1 in Flint.

The strike began on December 30, 1936, when the night shift stopped the company from loading dies and shipping them to places where the labor movement wasn't as strong. The fledgling UAW, led by a young organizer by the name of Walter Reuther, urged the workers to sit down inside the plant and lock themselves in to keep GM from outsourcing their jobs. There's a good account of the sit-in and the events that led up to it in the Detroit News Michigan history archive.

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Wednesday January 28, 2009 · 10:46 AM PST

2009/01/28 · 10:46

Michigan, the birthplace of the Republican Party, might be the home of the Republican Party's next chairman. Saul Anuzis, who has been state GOP chairman for four years, is part of the crowded field of mediocrities seeking the national party's top job. The Norris Division was never this bad.

What do we know about Saul Anuzis? Follow the elephant dung to the rest of the story...

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Tuesday January 27, 2009 · 5:38 PM PST

2009/01/27 · 17:38

Should we be surprised by the Republicans' insistence on cutting taxes as a way out of this recession? Hardly. If they were a repertory company, their production would be called A Tax Cut for All Seasons.

Problem is, Republican tax-ax economics is, in the words of author Jonathan Chait, "The Big Con." In fact, that is the title of Chait's book, published in 2007. (Full title: The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics.)

Chait, who describes himself as "quite moderate," nevertheless offers this pointed critique of Republican economics: "American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane." He says that ideas once considered laughable are now accepted as economic gospel by Republicans; and warns that while pundits have repeatedly written off the right wing, it has come back stronger every time.

There's more beneath the bottom line...

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Saturday January 24, 2009 · 5:06 PM PST

2009/01/24 · 17:06

This would be comical if the stakes weren't so high. According to a story in today's Detroit News, General Motors is enforcing every jot and tittle of its franchise agreement against dealers who are trying to survive the auto industry slump by adding non-GM brands to their product line.

The News article points out that the standard GM franchise agreement "prohibits dealers from selling under the same roof any brand other than what is spelled out in their dealer agreement with the automaker." GM argues that the restriction is needed to ensure that dealers focus on GM's brands. It also believes that devoting space to rival brands hurts sales and service.

GM is within its rights in enforcing that clause, of course, but its hard-nosed attitude is yet another example of the company's habit of winning battles and losing wars.

There's more behind the parts counter...

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The "Obama vs. Hitler" Pop Quiz for Wingnuts

MI: GOP State Senators Go on a Frolic and Detour

MI-11: How Not to Write, by Thaddeus McCotter (Summer Semester Edition)

Worst. Rant. Ever. James Inhofe on Global Warming

Strange Bedfellows: Michael Savage and the Catholic Right

Michigan's Right-Wing Activist Judges

Meet Michigan's Worst State Supreme Court Justice

MI-11 Has Its Very Own "Joe the Plumber"

Michigan Autoworkers Celebrate "White Shirt Day"

Is Saul Anuzis the Matt Millen of Republican Politics?

Supply-Side Economics: The Big Con

General Motors: Arrogant to the Bitter End