Bad Deeds for 12-21-2011

 

Boehner’s Office Cuts Off C-SPAN Cameras as Republicans Take Verbal Beating – As Rep. Stenny Hoyer (D-MD) attempted to call for a vote to extend a payroll tax cut to middle class and working Americans, his Republican colleagues adjourned the House and walked out of the chamber. And if that weren’t odd enough, it got even stranger: As Hoyer railed against them for failing to help working Americans, footage from C-SPAN went silent, then cut away.

Moments later, C-SPAN took to the Internet to explain that it wasn’t their doing, but someone working for House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).

The incident occurred mere moments after the House went into session. Hoyer made a motion for a vote on the Senate’s payroll tax cut extension, which would extend the lower rates for another two months, but the Republican presiding over the House did not acknowledge the motion. He instead adjourned the House, then got up and walked out.

“As you walk off the floor, Mr. Speaker, you’re walking away, just as so many Republicans have walked away from taxpayers, the unemployed, and very frankly, as well, from those who will be seeking medical assistance from their doctors, 48 million senior citizens,” Hoyer can be heard saying.

“We regret, Mr. Speaker, that you have walked off the platform without addressing the issue of critical importance to this country, and that is the continuation of the middle class tax cut, the continuation of unemployment benefits for those at risk of losing them, and a continuation of the access to doctors for all those 48 million seniors who rely on them daily for help.”

And that’s when the audio cut out. Seconds later, footage faded to a shot of the capitol from outside.

Moments later, someone at C-SPAN took to Twitter and explained: “C-SPAN has no control over the U.S. House TV cameras – the Speaker of the House does.”

It’s for reasons just like this, one might infer, that Boehner told C-SPAN back in February it would not be allowed control its own cameras.

 

Mitch McConnell Blocks More Than 50 Judicial and Executive Branch Nominees to Protect Big Corporations That Caused Our Economic Crisis – Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Saturday afternoon blocked more than 50 judicial and executive branch nominees, demanding assurances that President Obama not make recess appointments during Christmas break… Republicans are wary of Obama appointing a director to the new agency tasked with implementing Wall Street reform during the congressional recess. With America’s judicial vacancy crisis growing worse by the day, Senator McConnell blocked votes in order to protect the big corporations that caused our economic crisis.

 

John Boehner Goes Back on His Word – Once again, John Boehner is moving the goal posts. After the Senate overwhelmingly (89-10) passed a deal to extend the payroll tax cut, in a deal Boehner himself had previously supported, Boehner suddenly pulled a flip-flop, and announced his House Republican members would vote against it.

This move is extreme, even for Boehner. An overwhelming majority of Senators — including an overwhelming majority of Republicans — voted to support the deal. And for the first time, even Republican Senators are openly speaking out against the intransigence of their House counterparts:

Republican Sen. Scott Brown ripped into House Republicans on Tuesday after Speaker John Boehner vowed that his caucus would reject the short-term payroll tax cut extension that nearly 90 percent of senators voted for over the weekend. “The House Republicans’ plan to scuttle the deal to help middle-class families is irresponsible and wrong,” Brown said in a statement. At least two other Senate Republicans facing reelection in 2012 – Dean Heller of Nevada and Dick Lugar of Indiana – also called on the Republican-controlled House to pass the Senate plan. (source: Politico)

The Republican Party is splitting. More rational Republican members of Congress (what few remain) realize that Boehner’s move could be a disaster for the party. They understand that Boehner and the Republican party will be seen by voters as having been responsible for effectively increasing tax rates for the middle and working class.

If Boehner wants to be so foolish as to walk off this electoral cliff, the President should let him.

Tell President Obama: “Don’t back down to Boehner.”

 

Far-Right Blogger Incites Violence – Mike Vanderboegh is a far-right blogger[and part of the national “bad barrel”]. When Obama’s health care reform bill passed in March 2010, Vanderboegh encouraged readers to throw rocks through the windows of Democratic Party headquarters, writing:

[I]f you wish to send a message that [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and her party cannot fail to hear, break their windows. Break them NOW. Break them and run to break again. Break them under cover of night. Break them in broad daylight. Break them and await arrest in willful, principled civil disobedience. Break them with rocks. Break them with slingshots. Break them with baseball bats. But BREAK them.

A few people heeded his call, smashing the windows of a handful of congressional offices, including the Tucson office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot and seriously wounded last January.

In November, Vanderboegh made national news again, this time for his alleged role in inspiring a domestic terrorism plot. The FBI alleged that a handful of Georgia senior citizens had met at a Waffle House to plot a domestic bioterrorism attack. When they were arrested, word leaked that they’d been inspired by Vanderboegh’s unpublished novel, Absolved, in which underground militia groups plan to assassinate law enforcement and judicial officials to protest gun control and gay marriage. Vanderboegh has called the book “a combination field manual, technical manual, and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry.”

Regards,

Jim