Wednesday Mashup (9/21/11)

It now looks inevitable that the state of Georgia will murder Troy Davis in about an hour. With that in mind, here is a post from Daily Kos diarist SwedishJewfish and an Op-Ed from today’s New York Times.

A pox now and forever on all of those who aided and abetted this atrocity.

The typical posting material at this site really isn’t worth spit compared to what I just noted, but I’ll continue to post anyway since there is still work to do.

As noted here…

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that his committee plans to investigate government loan programs to private corporations in light of allegations of improper dealings between the White House and failed energy company Solyndra and wireless start-up LightSquared.

"I want to see when the president and his cronies are picking winners and losers… it wasn't because there were large contributions given to them," the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said Tuesday morning on C-SPAN.

…

Republicans have also charged that the White House pressured an Air Force general to revise testimony before a closed congressional hearing to aid LightSquared, a wireless start-up company.

In a way, I have to admit that I’m actually surprised that it took Issa this long to launch an utterly pointless investigation into an alleged Obama Administration “scandal.”

I posted earlier about Solyndra here (third bullet), but as far as LightSquared is concerned, Media Matters tells us the following here (I’ll come back to them some more later)…

Fox & Friends is promoting accusations that the White House "pressured" Air Force Gen. William Shelton "to change his testimony" over a plan allegedly favored by the White House (concerning LightSquared). But congressional testimony is routinely reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) "to ensure that the [Department of Defense], and ultimately the entire Administration, speak with one voice," and Shelton's spokesperson has "denied there was any improper influence."

Of course, if Issa is actually serious about looking into a scandal, he could look into this, or this (and I guess you can file this item from a few months ago under “physician, heal thyself”).

Update 9/22/11: It figures.

Update 9/24/11: Uh, yep.

Continuing, I give you what passes for news at the wingnut sites (here)…

An organization affiliated with the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) received a new cash infusion from U.S. taxpayers in early September, amounting to $350,000.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the Affordable Housing Centers of America (AHCOA) $350,000 in early September. This newly discovered funding is in addition to the $300,000 AHCOA secured in August, as The Daily Caller reported last week.

The new grant was part of a $10 million HUD funding package announced on September 2. Unlike the $300,000 from early August, HUD specifically awarded this $350,000 to AHCOA Pennsylvania, a local affiliate of the national group based in Chicago.

Oh, and this little tidbit is thrown in at the very end…

The (Government Accounting Office) argument is that since AHCOA changed its name and cut off official financial ties with ACORN, it is legally permissible to award taxpayer money to the group.

As Media Matters tells us here (among other things, in a related “story” about supposed mismanagement by AHCOA), ACORN no longer exists.

…

OWWWWW!!! TEH STUPID!!! IT BURNS US!!!

Further, I give you the following…

I want to pass along this urgent message from our Chairman, Senator Mike Gronstal. A critical special election could erase the 1-seat Democratic majority in the Iowa Senate, which is right now the only thing protecting that state from the wave of Tea Party-fueled extremism that's wreaking havoc in other states.

Please see Senator Gronstal's message below, and then please consider making a donation to the Iowa Senate Democrats here.

Thank you,
-John

John Winston
National Political Director
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

…

September 19, 2011

Dear Friend,

Late last week, a member of the Iowa Senate Democrats retired early and there will be a special election in Linn County on November 8th of this year which will decide whether Democrats keep the Majority in the Iowa State Senate.

Please click here.

In 2010, Republicans took the Governor's mansion and the Majority in the Iowa House. Democrats still have the Majority in the Iowa Senate, but only by 1 seat. If this Special Election in Linn County is won by Republicans, Democrats will lose control of the Iowa Senate and the entire government of Iowa will be steered by the right-wing agenda of Tea Party Republicans.

Please click here.

Here's just a sample of the legislative agenda Republicans had in 2011 that they will roll out again in 2012:

• SF 111: Would disqualify more than 26,000 Iowa children from receiving quality, affordable health care through HAWK-I, and shifting the burden onto the already strained budget of Iowa middle class families.

• HF 45: Would eliminate Iowa's voluntary preschool program--a direct assault on middle class families who need access to affordable, quality early childhood education.

• HF 525: Would eliminate collective bargaining rights for public employees--which is an assault on all Iowa workers (not just public workers)--because the effort is designed to chip away at the basic employment rights of every Iowan.

Democrats in the Iowa Senate did our best to stop this outrageous agenda--and we succeeded in protecting middle-class Iowa families from becoming the victims of right-wing legislation.

But the results of this Special Election on November 8th will decide if we are able to keep holding the majority--and keep holding the line against this onslaught of extremist ideas. If Republicans succeed in this special election in Linn County, every one of these outrageous initiatives (and more!) will become the law of the land in Iowa.

Please click here.

Any contribution is appreciated. You can also mail a check to:

Iowa Senate Majority Fund
5661 Fleur Drive
Des Moines, IA 50321

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Mike Gronstal, Iowa Senate Majority Leader

There’s no letup in the battle, people, I know. It is what it is.

Finally, Media Matters has some sad news for us – it looks like Former Laura Bush Employee Andrew Malcolm is actually going to be leaving the L.A. Times (awwwww), which immediately makes that paper a more reputable publication (here).

Not to worry, though – he’s taking his case of Obama Derangement Syndrome over to Investor’s Business Daily, where he no doubt will be welcomed with open arms.

But before he departs his current gig, he gave us this recently…

Barack Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009. That was 972 days ago this morning, almost to the hour when he finally offered his newest full-blown deficit reduction plan. (See full Obama text below.)

Putting aside the inherent stupidity in a sentence where Malcolm is implying that Obama hasn’t offered a deficit reduction plan for 972 days but then says Obama is offering his newest plan (as if Malcolm is contradicting his own statement by implying that, yes, Obama did indeed offer such a plan previously), the following should be noted once more from Media Matters here (dated last July)…

Right-wing media have repeatedly claimed that President Obama had "no plan" about how to lower the nation's deficit and reach a compromise to resolve the default crisis. But Obama had reportedly agreed to specific reforms and spending cuts, including to entitlement programs, in talks with Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) before Boehner walked away from those negotiations.

Have fun trying to link to Drudge from a lower point of online prominence than the one you’re about to give up, you noxious partisan hack.