Rep. Fincher Joins TNGOP’s Starving Children Club

[UPDATE]:

It’s not “stealing” when Rep. Fincher does it!

USDA data collected in EWG’s 2013 farm subsidy database update — going live tomorrow –shows that Fincher collected a staggering $3.48 million in “our” money from 1999 to 2012. In 2012 alone, the congressman was cut a government check for a $70,000 direct payment. Direct payments are issued automatically, regardless of need, and go predominantly to the largest, most profitable farm operations in the country.

I am literally at a loss for words. Surely Tennessee’s 8th district deserves better than a heartless bastard who has his hand in the till while telling poor children to go begging at the church door. And you call yourself a Christian with that mouth? No. That’s not Christianity. That is the opposite of Christianity. That is being selfish, greedy, and abusive.

I’m sick of these assholes and their phony faith.

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What is it with Tennessee Republicans and hungry children? First we had Williamson County GOP Chair Kevin Kookogey calling the National School Breakfast program a “perverse handout.” Yes, that’s right, making sure hungry kids start the day off right with some nutrition so they can actually learn something in school is perverse.

Then we had state Sen. Stacey Campfield’s now-infamous “starve the children” bill. And now we have Rep. Stephen Fincher, TN-08, passionately arguing to cut food stamps in the Farm Bill because, Jesus:

Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., then quoted a verse from the 26th chapter of Matthew, saying the “poor will always be with us” in his defense of cuts to the food stamps program. 

Fincher said obligations to take care of the poor should be left to churches, not the government.

Right, that worked so well for hundreds of years when the obligation to care for the poor really was left to the churches. Also, way to cherry-pick the Bible, dude.

But also, Jesus Hates Lazy Poors:

Republican Congressman Stephen Fincher of Tennessee, who supports cuts to the program, had his own Bible verse from the Book of Thessalonians to quote back to Vargas: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat,” he said.

First of all, the idea that the poor don’t work is astonishingly, dumfoundingly stupid. Here’s a guy crafting policy affecting the poor and he knows absolutely nothing about what it’s like to be poor in America. But second of all, since Fincher brought the work topic up, what does he do for a living? When he’s not sucking on the taxpayer teet as a Congressmonster, of course.

Let’s ask the Great Gazoogle:

A seventh generation farmer, Fincher is a managing partner in Fincher Farms, a family business that grows cotton, corn, soybeans, and wheat on more than 2,500 acres in western Tennessee. The company has received $8.9 million in farm subsidies over the past decade, mostly from the cotton program, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.[6][7][8] Fincher received a $13,650 grant to help buy grain hauling and storage equipment from the state Department of Agriculture in 2009 as part of the Tennessee Agricultural Enhancement Program.[9]

Oh! So Stephen Fincher thinks it’s perfectly fine for the taxpayers to send him a handout, but when the poor need help putting food on the table, it’s sorry! Jesus says no!

OMG.

In fact, Fincher — a self-described member of the Tea Party, ‘natch — was the largest recipient of farm subsidies in the U.S. Congress, according to this 2011 report, raking in $3,368,843. This was so horrifying that at one point some pundits thought this might be a problem for him with Tea Party voters.

Guffaw.

Get real. If you’re looking for principles on the right side of the aisle you will continually be disappointed.

Rep. Stephen Fincher, you are a horrible person who uses the Bible to selectively justify your greedy, selfish ways. Woe unto you.

Repent, asshole.

Not Governing As A Political Strategy

Shocker! Meet the new obstruction, same as the old obstruction:

In a letter to members of Congress, which was obtained by NBC News, Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation (which recently found itself in hot water over the racial IQ theories of the co-author of their widely panned immigration reform study, Jason Richwine, who resigned from the think tank last Friday), urged Republicans on Capitol Hill not to govern, and instead, to focus on the would-be “scandals” plaguing the Obama administration.

The letter, which is addressed to House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, trumpets the negative media buzz surrounding the White House, saying that, “for the first time, the activities of the Obama administration are receiving a sustained public vetting. Americans’ outrage over Benghazi is amplified by the Internal Revenue Service’s intimidation of conservative grassroots organizations and a cascade of negative headlines. There is the real sense the Obama administration has been less than forthright with the American people, the press and lawmakers.”

Unfortunately for conservatives, who are still hermetically sealed inside their conservative information bubble, “Americans’ outrage over Benghazi” is completely non-existent, and the IRS scandal is still so new that most Americans aren’t entirely sure what it’s about. This hasn’t stopped Tea Party groups from trying to fire an IRS official who had nothing to do with the scrutiny of 501(c)4s, though. Why? Because she’s in charge of enforcing Obaamcare.

But I digress. Back to our letter:

In light of the white hot media spotlight on the administration, and to deflect attention from the many policy areas where Republicans don’t quite get along, the letter urges: “it is incumbent upon the House of Representatives to conduct oversight hearings on those actions, but it would be imprudent to do anything that shifts the focus from the Obama administration to the ideological differences within the House Republican Conference.”

“To that end, we urge you to avoid bringing any legislation to the House Floor that could expose or highlight major schisms within the conference. Legislation such as the Internet sales tax or the FARRM Act which contains nearly $800 billion in food stamp spending, would give the press a reason to shift their attention away from the failures of the Obama administration to write another ‘circular firing squad’ article.”

It’s always all about the obstruction with these people. God forbid anyone should do their jobs. Nope, political games take priority with conservatives. And hey, that’s no surprise: conservatives don’t know how to govern — and how could they? They don’t believe in it! So when they get in power they use their position to line the pockets of their fat cat friends and play political games. When they’re out of power, they use every trick in the book to keep anyone else from governing.

Republicans are truly horrible people.

How To Tell You’re In The Wrong Church

[UPDATE]:

Shocked finally responds:

On Wednesday, the singer made a statement (e-mailed to news outlets, and me in response to my inquiry): “I do not, nor have I ever, said or believed that God hates homosexuals (or anyone else). I said that some of His followers believe that. … When I said, ‘Twitter that Michelle Shocked says, “God hates faggots,” ‘ I was predicting the absurd way my description of, my apology for, the intolerant would no doubt be misinterpreted. … And to those fans who are disappointed … I’m very sorry: I don’t always express myself as clearly as I should. … And my statement equating repeal of Prop. 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: It was a description of how some folks – not me – feel about gay marriage.”

Shocked said her own sexuality isn’t an issue here. “I’d like to say this was a publicity stunt, but I’m really not that clever, and I’m definitely not that cynical. But I am damn sorry. If I could repeat the evening, I would make a clearer distinction between a set of beliefs I abhor and my human sympathy for the folks who hold them.”

Well, I sure would love to see a YouTube video of that concert. I wasn’t there so it’s hard to say how her comments were construed, but the fact that people left in droves and the club staff had to literally pull the plug and turn off the lights lets me think she was pretty damn clear at the time.

For you folks who say you haven’t heard of her, she was big back in the 90s when the whole singer-songwriter thing exploded. You might have heard this song.

——————————————————

When your church makes you say stupid shit that alienates a huge chunk of your core fans, maybe you’re in the wrong church.

Seriously, WTF Michelle Shocked? While I can’t say I was ever a huge fan — somewhere I’ve got a box with the CD containing “Anchored Down In Anchorage” on it, and that’s about it — for some reason I’d always believed Michelle Shocked was a lesbian. I lumped her in with the rest of the late-90s Lilith Fair era of women’s music — you know, Indigo Girls and all that. I guess I haven’t kept up because according to the New York Times, somewhere along the way Shocked became a born-again Christian of the holy roller, Pentecostal persuasion.

There are two kinds of churches in the world: the kind peddling love and hope, and the kind peddling hate and fear. I’ve always been fiercely allergic to the latter kind. I really don’t understand why someone would attend a church that makes a person feel bad about who they are, who their friends are, fills them with fear, and alienates them from those who support their creative endeavors. I also don’t understand people who pay more attention to a handful of passages from the Old Testament while ignoring 99.9% of the New Testament:

Michelle Shocked cited Old Testament verses condemning homosexuality and told the audience she hoped the courts would uphold Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, according to Yahoo Music. “I live in fear that the world will be destroyed if gays are allowed to marry,” she said. Then she also told the audience to go on Twitter and report that she had said God hates homosexuals, though it is unclear whether that remark was sardonic.

Much of the audience walked out after her remarks. The club’s manager tried to end the show, but she continued playing until staff members pulled the plug and turned off the stage lights.

The thing is, gays are already allowed to marry in about a dozen countries around the world, and in portions of half a dozen others. Yet we’ve continued to dodge asteroids, while Harold Camping’s end-times predictions have been one huge failure after another. Meanwhile, we continue on in our foolish, carbon-chugging, earth-polluting ways. It seems pretty obvious that if the earth is destroyed, it won’t be the fault of gays.

I do think the Bible is full of lots of eternal truths, one of them being, “Ye shall know them by their fruits.” Right now, Shocked is sowing a very bitter harvest. There’s anger and cancelled gigs and people walking out of shows because she’s repeating what her church told her. The good news is, there are plenty of churches out there of the “love and hope” persuasion, that don’t make you feel bad for who you are or who your friends are or the things you’ve done or believed.

There will inevitably be those tempted to compare this incident to the Dixie Chicks’ infamous public flogging after Natalie Maines said she was against the Iraq War and ashamed President Bush was from Texas. There are similarities, but they’re thin. For one thing, the Dixie Chicks were at the peak of a red-hot career — they had the number one single on the charts, fer crissakes — when they were attacked by their own very clubby industry. The Dixie Chicks’ words were greeted with cheers at the time; only later was a controversy manufactured by the suits on Music Row and at corporate radio.

Someday we’ll find out the full story behind what was an organized, industry-directed campaign ginning up outrage for fun and profit. Few people remember this today, but at the time the ‘Chicks had just emerged victorious in a major, very public battle with their powerful record company, Sony. From the memory hole:

The war with Sony started in 2001, after the group’s first two albums, Wide Open Spaces and Fly, sold more than 10 million copies apiece. In an interview with Dan Rather that aired on CBS, the Chicks announced that by their math, Sony had made $200 million off them but that individually they had yet to gross seven figures. Then, in a move that sent shock waves through Nashville (admittedly it’s a town that’s easily shocked), the Chicks served Sony with papers claiming that because of the company’s alleged accounting misdeeds, they were declaring themselves free agents. “We all know there are some major problems in the music industry,” says Maguire. “Every new act signs a bad deal. But we never dreamed that the s_____ deal we signed wouldn’t even be honored.”

Sony sued the group for breach of contract; the Chicks countersued, alleging “systematic thievery.” As the charges escalated, the Chicks found themselves Nashville pariahs. For country acts, the relationship between label and band has historically been in loco parentis; bands presumed the label always knew best. “Everyone in the country industry kept telling us, ‘Keep your mouths shut. Why don’t you appreciate what you have?’” says Maguire.

That’s the context that’s always ignored when people talk about how the Nashville music industry turned on its own stars. Despite all of this, they still had a Number One radio single and a Number One album. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the whole Iraq War fauxtroversy popped up on their first post-Sony endeavor. It was a way of teaching the Chicks a lesson by a hubris-filled entertainment industry. That this lesson veered way out of control and ended up ultimately hurting the industry itself is just par for the course.

All of this is water under the bridge, and it’s a little off topic, but I figured some wingnut is going to go all “liberals-are-hypocrites” on this story, so I thought I’d get ahead of the game.

Anyway, Michelle Shocked is entitled to her opinion, as misguided as it may be, but her fans don’t have to subject themselves to it. And I don’t see any coordinated, industry-generated campaign to ruin her career as happened with the Dixie Chicks. I see an artist engaging in some very public self-sabotage for reasons I can’t begin to fathom but are probably rooted in the very toxic, negative messaging she’s been getting every Sunday.

Vast Right-Wing Cesspool

If you haven’t read The Trials Of Nadia Naffe, then stop what you’re doing and go read it, now. It’s a long, in-depth piece that outlines in agonizing detail the collusion between the Republican Party, Fox News, conservative Sugar Daddies, and James O’Keefe’s smear operations.

Here’s a sample:

The idea for the next Project Veritas mission originated with John Fund, a Fox News contributor and author of the 2008 book Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy. In January 2010, Fund emailed the Republican National Lawyers Association and other hard-right affiliates about an incriminating tip he received about the Massachusetts Service Employees International Union (SEIU) — Greater Boston’s brotherhood of janitors, health-care workers, and other mostly low wage earners. Fund’s “normally reliable” source, he wrote in an email that has since been made public, claimed the SEIU planned to help Democrats steal the special Senate election between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley. According to Fund, the union would accomplish this by chartering buses in the liberal and minority-rich neighborhoods of Roxbury, Mattapan, Roslindale, and Jamaica Plain. “If you’re black or brown,” he wrote, “they’ll rope you in and take you to the polls. Registration can be worked out.”

Shuttling voters to polls is perfectly legal, of course — but pretty soon emails were flying between members of O’Keefe’s associates, rife with speculation that the SEIU would try more nefarious ploys, like paying for votes and helping people to vote twice.

Such hypothetical shenanigans sounded like surefire fodder to Steve Friess, son of investment billionaire and Rick Santorum bankroller Foster Friess. The elder Friess is perhaps most famous for telling MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell that, back in his day, “gals” “used Bayer Aspirin for contraception.” To plug conservative causes, Freiss has a whole foundation that’s run by his son Steve, who relished the prospect of causing “image problems for SEIU.” With their support in place, O’Keefe jumped on board, and he brought Naffe along with him. Not only did she have her star turn in the Waters series to recommend her, but she also matched the request from Freiss for “black/Latina conservatives [who] could be wired for video, and get picked up on one of these busses.” Less than a week later, Naffe flew into Logan airport. Her first task was to snoop on an election-eve rally for Coakley at a Dorchester union hall.

John Fund? Foster Friess? Foster Friess’ son? It’s always the same characters in right-wing land, isn’t it? (By the way, that attempted SEIU sting was a big bust. The suspected fraud never existed and Brown won the election.)

Also, I don’t understand why Nadia Naffe never questioned the fact that these Project Veritas “stings” almost exclusively targeted minorities, the poor, and those serving them. Maxine Waters? Shirley Sherrod? ACORN?

I mean, I understand the Planned Parenthoood sting: conservatives hate abortion, and PP is identified with abortion, that makes sense. But ACORN? From the article:

His big score came in the fall of 2009 — O’Keefe’s decisive blow against ACORN, which at the time was among the nation’s leading advocates for poor and disadvantaged people. ACORN had also been historically integral in getting out the minority vote; after the rise of Obama, this made them the object of widespread conservative consternation.

That’s it? ACORN got out the minority vote? That what put them on O’Keefe’s hit list? Umm … isn’t that a little … racist? That strikes me as an idea rooted in a campaign office or party headquarters, not some young activist trying to make his name with a “gotcha” video attacking a notable liberal figurehead. Who had even heard of ACORN before this?

I’ve always been suspicious about why ACORN was even targeted in the first place. Who sent O’Keefe their way, anyway? Aren’t right-wingers always saying that non-profit groups like, well, ACORN should deal with the poor and disadvantaged? Not nasty old big gummint?

By the way, I meant to put this in my Good News Friday post, but last week it was announced that James O’Keefe will pay $100,000 to one of his ACORN victims, Juan Carlos Vera. O’Keefe’s accomplice, Hannah Giles, already paid Vera $50,000 last year.

I’m sure Foster Friess or PayPal cofounder/Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who gave $30,000 to make the ACORN videos in the first place, won’t mind chipping in. Because a community organization helping poor and disadvantaged people is just the most awful threat to democracy ever.

/sarcasm

Anyway, go read the article. It’s an eye-opener.

IOKIYAR, Nudie Pitchers Edition

Since we’re picking on The Daily Failure today, I’ve just got this one extra thing to add:

It’s Okay If You’re A Republican!

Yes, Tucker Carlson, do tell me how Ashley Judd’s film nudity disqualifies her from the U.S. Senate. I’m all ears.

I really hope she runs, I do. The way Republicans are going apeshit over even the suggestion tells me she scares the bejeezus out of them.

My in-laws all live in Kentucky and I asked my mother-in-law if she thought Judd had a chance. She said yes, because Judd is more associated with Kentucky Wildcats basketball than Hollywood. And people in Kentucky take their college basketball very, very seriously. I’m not sure how you can go from years of cheering your team’s most renowned superfan to seeing her as the devil incarnate without something else to bridge the gap. And “Hollywood” ain’t gonna cut it, not when Republicans have lionized Ronald Reagan, Clint Eastwood, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Hell, they even sent Gopher from the Love Boat to Congress. If Republicans can make the leap from the screen to Washington, D.C., so can Democrats.

How Kentuckians Know Ashley Judd

Suckit, Republicans. Ashley Judd is smart, articulate, educated, and she scares the shit out of you. Bwaahaaa.

Payback, Republican Style?

Oh my God, how did I not know that the WWE had created a villainous Tea Party wrestling character, with an evil manager sidekick? To wit:

Appearing on Monday Night Raw last week, Swagger and Colter were booed by the crowd as they overzealously talked about the Constitution, the scourge of illegal immigration, and “true patriotism.” Other promotional videos of the two show them talking about freeloading immigrants and welfare recipients in front of the Gadsden flag, which has become symbolic of the Tea Party movement.

Swagger is set to battle for the “World Heavyweight Championship” (or whatever it’s called) against Mexican wrestler Alberto Del Rio — clearly a play on the stereotypical tension between anti-immigration types and Mexicans.

Further hyping the “Tea Party” gimmick, during one match ringside commentators Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler continually referred to Colter as Swagger’s “nutjob” manager, and said that the pair had received “fan mail” from controversial conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Alex Jones.

Conservative blog Twitchy hit back at the WWE with a clever swipe at pro-”wrestling” itself: “WWE’s racist Tea Party villain as realistic as pro wrestling.”

Oooh yes, clever indeed. Nobody ever made that joke before!

Trying to think of why WWE would make fun of the Tea Party. I wonder if it has anything to do with Linda McMahon’s failed run for Connecticut Senate? McMahon, whose husband owns and operates WWE, lost handily to Democrat Chris Murphy. But I had thought McMahon was the Tea Party candidate?

Odd, but there’s no fuck you like a Republican fuck you.

I Don’t Think Religious Freedom Means What You Think It Means

Do you want to know what’s funniest about the brand-new Tennessee Religious Freedom Caucus? Not the fact that we have one — after all, Tennessee is the state where people have actually filed lawsuits to stop construction of a mosque, and where a Nashville mosque has been vandalized not once but twice. So you can see how religious liberty is still an issue here.

Nope, it’s the people who are in the Religious Freedom Caucus.

From the state House we have Representatives Charles Curtiss, D-Sparta; Rick Womick, R-Rockvale; Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville; Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma; Mark White, R-Memphis; Joe Pitts, D-Clarksville; Harold Love, D-Nashville; John DeBerry, D-Memphis and Jimmy Matlock, R-Lenoir City.

On the state Senate side we have Senators Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown; Dolores Gresham, R-Somerville; John Stevens, R-Huntingdon; Mae Beavers, R-Mt. Juliet; Charlotte Burks, D-Monterey and Reginald Tate, D-Memphis.

Let’s look at a few of these folks, shall we:

• Rick Womick, of course, was last in the national news for wanting to bar Muslims from serving in the U.S. military, saying they should just “go back where they came from.”

• Judd Matheny was one of the geniuses behind Tennessee’s infamous anti-Sharia law bill two years ago.

• Jimmy Matlock last embarrassed himself by getting foamy-mouthed when the president of the Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition dared wish him a “happy holiday,” not happy Christmas:

Apparently, Rep. Matlock doesn’t appreciate other groups usurping his Christmas, “…this is not a holiday season, it is a Christmas season. We celebrate Christmas, not the holidays. This is a Christian Nation!”

When Dr. Richmond explained that it was the first full day of Hanukkah, Matlock retorted, “This is a Christian Nation! We celebrate the Christmas season, not the holiday season. And I don’t want to hear anything about transvestites. That is against all that I believe.”

Sigh. And I didn’t even get into Bill Dunn’s whole “Monkey Bill” nonsense.

Seems some folks have confused “religious freedom” with “promote Christianity.” Shocked, I know.

Stay Thirsty, My Friends

You Will See This Screenshot For The Rest Of Your Life

In the interest of full disclosure, I cribbed that headline from the comments section of Balloon Juice. But seriously, Marco Rubio what the hell was that about last night? Even before he ducked out of the frame, goggle-eyed, for a gulp of water, Rubio was itchy, twitchy, scratching his face, wiping his brow. When he finally settled down and stopped distracting me from what he was saying, the content of his speech was boilerplate GOP — nothing we haven’t heard from Paul Ryan or even, for that matter, Mitt Romney. It certainly was not a “rebuttal” to anything President Obama said last night.

I think I pretty much nailed it yesterday when I predicted the Republican rebuttal would be the SOS — same old stuff. What I wasn’t prepared for was the whining about how mean President Obama and the Democrats have been to Republicans. You guys really want to be the party of thin-skinned babies? Especially after the truly horrid things your side has said about the country’s first African-American president? That may work with the base but not with anyone else.

The tone was just way, way off. “The president is such a big fat meanie! He says we hate Medicare, but we don’t hate Medicare! My dad depended on Medicare! We just hate Medicare for people who are age 50 and under.” Yeah, that would be me, buddy. From my cold, dead hands. And how is this different from what Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney campaigned on?

Rubio might have a compelling immigrants’ story, except there’s a little problem with some serial exaggerations of said family tale — the same issues which kept him off the Romney ticket in the first place. He resonated the most when he said, “I still live in the same working-class neighborhood I grew up in,” and, “my neighbors aren’t millionaires.” But I heard that and thought, dude, you’re just begging someone to go online and actually find the Rubio house and post pictures of it — something relatively easy to do because the place is for sale, for $675,000. Oops.

While the Rubios may not be in the market for a car elevator, it’s not exactly the image he portrayed last night of retirees dependent on Social Security and workers struggling to get by. Also, this is just one of two homes he owns in Florida, as HuffPo points out. I don’t begrudge Rubio his nice home, hey I have a nice home, too. But I don’t pretend I live in a neighborhood full of immigrants fresh off the boat working as day laborers and dishwashers, trying to climb their way up the ladder. I know that’s not what Rubio said but it’s what he alluded to. And by the way, those are the people who really need an increase in the minimum wage and a chance to organize into a labor union, instead of getting fired for taking a single sick day. I don’t think your “government is the problem not the solution” message resonates with them. But whatever.

Oh, I could go on. But really, this is the guy Time magazine called “The Republican Savior”? Yeah, don’t think so.

Stay thirsty, Republicans.

The Obligatory SOTU Post

Also at First Draft.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn: Worst Person In The World

Hello people of Middle Tennessee! What horrible thing did Marsha Blackburn do today? Actually, it’s two horrible things. First, she voted “No” on Superstorm Sandy relief. Yes, that’s right, you’d think after the 2010 floods that decimated Nashville (including parts of her own district) she’d have learned a thing or two about why people need this legislation. It

[...] allows FEMA to temporarily increase the National Flood Insurance program’s borrowing limit by $9.7 billion….

FEMA, shmeema! Who needs it! Well, actually, Tennessee needed it, and Blackburn had no problem accepting federal aid when her state got flooded. But the Club For Growth says no, and they seem to be calling the shots here. Other Club For Growth lapdogs from the Tennessee delegation include Scott DesJarlais, Jimmy Duncan, Stephen Fincher and Phil Roe. Why? Because they’re assholes. Also, free market and gummint bad and blahbeddy blah. Hypocrites.

However, Blackburn did put forth a bill to defund Planned Parenthood today.

Yes, you read that right. Apparently not offering aid to families who lost everything in Superstorm Sandy while defunding a provider of healthcare to low-income women is the new “pro-life” position.

Marsha Blackburn, I hearby declare you a horrible human being.

[UPDATE]:

Looks like all the Tennessee Sandy “nays” who were in office in May 2010 begged for FEMA aid for their own districts.

What horrible, wretched people. Federal disaster relief for me but not for thee? Of course not. Sickening.