Tag Archives: tea party

The Scooter Chair gravy train has left the station

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Question for the teapartiers: is government the problem or the solution here?

The Atlantic Wire: Approximately 150 federal and state law enforcement agents launched a massive raid on one of the biggest perpetrators of government fraud in America: The Scooter Store. Yes, that’s right. The nation’s largest provider of single-person electric vehicles and power chairs is the target of a federal investigation, probably because many of the people who ride around their “personal mobility devices” don’t actually need them. [...]

Doctors and former employees told CBS that the company would harass physicians with non-stop phone calls and offices drop-ins in order to wear them down. The company even has a special department devoted to getting chairs for patients who had already been ruled ineligible by Medicare. No doubt the pressure comes because their ads guarantee that the chair will be free if they can’t get you qualified. The Scooter Store is so good at getting the chairs that a government audit found that they had overbilled Medicare by over $100 million between 2009-2012. It’s no wonder their ads brag that ”No other company will work harder to make you mobile.”

Heh. That reminds me of a day in 2008:

“Scanning the thousands of hopped-up faces in the crowd, I am immediately struck by two things. One is that there isn’t a single black person here. The other is the truly awesome quantity of medical hardware: Seemingly every third person in the place is sucking oxygen from a tank or propping their giant atrophied glutes on motorized wheelchair-scooters. As Palin launches into her Ronald Reagan impression — “Government’s not the solution! Government’s the problem!” — the person sitting next to me leans over and explains.

“The scooters are because of Medicare,” he whispers helpfully. “They have these commercials down here: ‘You won’t even have to pay for your scooter! Medicare will pay!’ Practically everyone in Kentucky has one.”

A hall full of elderly white people in Medicare-paid scooters, railing against government spending and imagining themselves revolutionaries as they cheer on the vice-presidential puppet hand-picked by the GOP establishment. If there exists a better snapshot of everything the Tea Party represents, I can’t imagine it.”

– Matt Taibbi Among the Tea Partiers

LOL Todd Akin

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via: rabbleprochoice

Petition: Remove Todd Akin from the SCIENCE and Technology Committee!

Petition: Remove Todd Akin from the SCIENCE and Technology Committee!

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Believing in magic and pseudo-science from another century shouldn’t be GOP prerequisites for the House Science and Technology Committee.

Sign your name to call on Speaker John Boehner to remove Rep. Todd Akin from the House Science and Technology Committee.

Republican Congressman Todd Akin told a Missouri news station:

“First of all, from what I understand from doctors [pregnancy from rape] is really rare… If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.”

Someone who believes nonsense like this has no part overseeing science policy.

Tell Speaker Boehner to immediately remove Rep. Akin from the House Science and Technology Committee.

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Something else the female body can do, Mr. Akin

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con-tem-plate: Tweet of the day.

A song for Rep. Todd Akin

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via: pricklylegs

No joke

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Todd Akin is member of U.S. Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

Because who knows more about science and technology that the guy who believes women’s bodies are magical and have biological defenses to spontaneously miscarry a pregnancy by rape if they didn’t like it (when it’s a ‘legitimate’ rape)?


image: lolpervs 

Todd Akin now claims he “misspoke” when he described “legitimate rape”

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“In reviewing my off-the-cuff remarks, it’s clear that I misspoke in this interview and it does not reflect the deep empathy I hold for the thousands of women who are raped and abused every year.” — Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), in a statement late Sunday, after saying in an interview earlier that victims of “legitimate rape” have biological defenses that fend off a pregnancy and therefore do not need legal abortion rights.

Clearly he did not “misspeak.” Read his statement: Akin has no alternative explanation for what he meant to say, obviously. Watch the video – his meaning was very clear.


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image: miss-mimikry 

GOP War on Women: legitimate rape and forcible rape

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via: christopherstreet

“Comments by Representative Todd Akin, a Republican running against Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, are drawing condemnation after he asserted that victims of “a legitimate rape” have biological mechanisms to prevent pregnancy.

“If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” Mr. Akin told KTVI-TV of St. Louis in an interview that was broadcast on Sunday.

The comments drew a sharp rebuke on Sunday from Senator McCaskill, who is in a tough fight against the Republican candidate.

“It is beyond comprehension that someone can be so ignorant about the emotional and physical trauma brought on by rape,” the senator said in a statement. “The ideas that Todd Akin has expressed about the serious crime of rape and the impact on its victims are offensive.”” — The New York Times, “Candidate’s Comments on Rape Draw Criticism.”

Watch:


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image: demnewswire

Rep. Todd Akin Now Claims That He Misspoke When He Claimed That Women Who Have Been “Legitimately Raped” Don’t Get Pregnant: Akin has released a statement saying that he “misspoke,” although he does not clarify what he was trying to say.

Growing Number Of Conservatives Call On Akin To Withdraw After ‘Legitimate Rape’ Comments: Given his long history of political extremism, Akin’s views have long been out of step with the American political mainstream.

via: red3blog –

Image 1: “Todd Akin has been a great asset to the House Budget Committee. His principled approach to fiscal responsibility is exactly the kind of leadership America needs and I appreciate his hard work. —Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) [source]

Image 2: “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” –Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo) | GOP Candidate for Senate [source]

Image 3: “Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan disagree with Mr. Akin’s statement.” —Romney Campaign Statement [source]

(Except that time Akin and Ryan introduced a bill that defined “forcible rape”.) [source]


image: questionall 

Let’s be sure to show up this November to vote the stupid OUT. 


image: kileyrae

The Tea Party is driving the GOP train, and they want Mitt Romney to know it

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A vote for Mitt Romney (really, any Republican at this point) is a vote for a Teaparty sock puppet.

ABC News: The stunning Texas victory of Ted Cruz, a young Tea Party-backed Republican over an establishment candidate vying for a Senate seat, has already so emboldened the insurgent conservative movement that activists are warning Mitt Romney he had better get on board. “These guys [newly elected Tea Party candidates]” are going to force Romney to the right,” said Andrea Shell, a spokeswoman for Tea Party group Freedom Works. “That is our entire mission.” “If we can elect a really conservative House and Senate that will force Romney to go along with our bold conservative agenda,” Shell said. “He’s going to have to really, really go to the right. He’ll be working with guys in the House and Senate. He won’t be able to get away with too many middle of the road policies, especially on things like the deficit.”

Remember what Grover Norquist said:

“We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States.”


via: ihatepeacocks

What’s easier: Understanding the Mitt Romney Olympics period or the Higgs boson?

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“While he was in Utah getting the luge runs in shape, Romney was also still getting a six-figure salary for being a Bain “executive.” Perhaps for Mitt, that was just the going-away equivalent of a monogrammed briefcase. Although it does sort of take the steam out of his principled refusal to accept any money from the Olympics until his turnaround was successfully completed. So to summarize: Romney was at Bain after 1999, but not necessarily in the sense of occupying physical space. He was employed by folks in Utah, but not in the sense of the people who made out his paycheck. If we ever manage to really get our heads around Higgs boson, perhaps we will also be able to understand the Mitt Romney Olympics period.” —
Gail Collins (via azspot)

“Most Americans figure if you are the chairman, CEO and president of a company that you are responsible for what that company does.” — President Obama


image: demnewswire

Integrity and honesty: put up or shut up

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“There is no whining in politics. Stop demanding an apology, release your tax returns.”— GOP strategist John Weaver (via: think4yourself)


image: con-tem-plate

“I brought up a lot of stuff in the debate that doesn’t matter today.” — Texas Gov. Rick Perry, when asked about his consistent calls for Mitt Romney to reveal his income tax records during the Republican debates earlier this year. Perry, who made his remarks during a brief interview after stumping for Romney in Elko, Nevada, was quick to change the subject to Barack Obama’s college records and economic issues.  (via: think4yourself)

Tennessee Tea Party goes Full Metal Orwell

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Rewriting history to suit your personal comfort level is doubleplusgood.

Charles Johnson reports that Teabaggers in Tennessee are demanding that school textbooks leave out America’s history of slavery:

“…a group of Tea Party activists in Tennessee has renewed its push to whitewash school textbooks. The group is seeking to remove references to slavery and mentions of the country’s founders being slave owners.

“According to reports, Hal Rounds, the Fayette County attorney and spokesman for the group, said during a recent news conference that there has been “an awful lot of made-up criticism about, for instance, the founders intruding on the Indians or having slaves or being hypocrites in one way or another.

“[...] The group called for textbook selection criteria to include: “No portrayal of minority experience in the history which actually occurred shall obscure the experience or contributions of the Founding Fathers, or the majority of citizens, including those who reached positions of leadership.”“

Sunday prayers: what were the pseudo-Christian Teagelicals up to this week?

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“Mosques are not churches like we would think of churches. They think of mosques more as a foothold into a society, as a foothold into a community, more in the cultural and in the nationalistic sense. Our churches — we don’t feel that way, they’re places of worship, and mosques are simply not that, and we need to take that into account when approving construction of those.”  – Colorado state Sen. Kevin Grantham (R), quoted by the Colorado Statesman, saying a proposal to ban construction of new mosques should be considered.  (via)

All loving Christians are invited to celebrate the word of God at Rev. William Collier’s annual conference — that is, as long as they are white. [...] The Alabama town’s mayor is renouncing the Reverend, saying that such hate speech is unwelcome in the town. But Collier defended the flyer this week, saying that he isn’t a racist — just that “the white race is God’s chosen people.” (via)

During his Thursday Focal Point radio program, Bryan Fischer equated the healthcare mandate with going to church: “We know that going to church is good for you, it’s good for your health. So we are going to mandate that you go to church for your own health and we are going to tax the atheists who don’t go to church. Now we can’t make you go to church, but we are going to penalize you if you don’t,” Fischer continued. “We are going to assess a tax on every atheist who doesn’t go to church because those atheists are endangering their physical health.” (via)

“I liked the idea of giving parents the option of sending their children to a public school or a Christian school. Unfortunately it will not be limited to the Founders’ religion. We need to insure that it does not open the door to fund radical Islam schools.” – Louisiana state Rep. Valarie Hodges (R), quoted by the Livingston Parish News, upon learning that the recently passed voucher program can go to Muslim schools as well as Christian schools.  (via)

‘Merica, amen.