Via our comrades at No More Mister Nice Blog, this bit of, well, assholery:
More than 400 amendments were filed Monday night. Among them were a proposal from Rep. Steve Womack, R-Ark., to eliminate funding for the president’s Teleprompter and one from Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, to strip funding for the alteration, repair or improvement of the executive residence of the White House and instead divert that amount to deficit reduction.
Womack told Fox News Tuesday afternoon that he pulled his amendment because he wasn’t able to get an estimate on how much it would save.
“I think we made our point,” Womack said. “We’re asking people to do more with less. And I think the president ought to lead by example. He is already a very gifted speaker. And I think that’s one platform he could do without.”
Oh, he proved a point. Just not the one he thought he was proving.
Benjamin Cisco
Hey Womack,
__
How about you cut your own pay, or the size of your staff? You know, lead by example? Because the one you’re setting now sucks a bag.
dmsilev
OK Congressman, you first. Lets see you personally take a ten percent pay cut, defer indefinitely any access to governmental pension plans, up the copay on your health insurance by 400%, etc.
Or shut up.
Shutting up would be good.
dms
Suffern ACE
In reality, when we get less, we will do less. He can demand more, but more will not be forthcoming. Whether or not the president writes notes on his hands using a ballpoint pen is really besides the point.
asiangrrlMN
Ditto wot Benjamin Cisco and dms said. Put up or shut the fuck up. We’re supposed to take you seriously? Please.
morzer
You know, Womack doesn’t need two legs and two arms, when so many veterans are going without….
dr. bloor
Eye-rolling asshattery to be sure, although I take some comfort knowing that the time they spend engaging in childish nonsense like this is time not spent trying to do real damage.
licensed to kill time
This would be laughable if it wasn’t such a mean-spirited and blatant attempt to de-legitimize the blackity black black dude who so inexplicably became preznit.
Jay
Isn’t Rep. Noogiebauer the mouthbreather who yelled “Baby killer!” at Bart Stupak?
Omnes Omnibus
What a bunch of wankers.
Hunter Gathers
You know what really kills me about these fucktards? They are gutless. They lack the intestinal fortitude to say what they really want to say. And do you know what? I could care less if every time they held a press conference or pontificated on the floor of the House or Senate, if they called Obama a nigger. I really don’t fucking care anymore. Have the guts to say what you really think, you fucking cowards. I promise not to think any less of you. That’s kind of impossible at this point. Hell, I won’t call you evil, won’t call you a bigot or anything along those lines. I do, however, reserve the right to call you morons. Which is what they are. Bigots and racists aren’t evil (most of them anyway). They’re fucking stupid. Only an idiot would think that any one race is superior to the other.
Grow some balls and say what you really think, cowards.
Tonybrown74
We are a fucking STUPID nation …
ruemara
Dammit, Tonybrown74 took my comment.
BGinCHI
Countdown till PBS has to run Hee-Haw 24 hours a day…..
morzer
@Tonybrown74:
If we could at least stop them fucking, that would slowly improve the situation.
Cacti
Oddly enough, I don’t see the GOP House majority moving to index their Congressional salaries to median household income, or opt for purchasing indivdual insurance policies out of pocket.
Austerity for thee and not for me.
Suffern ACE
@BGinCHI: You know, I kind of liked Hee Haw. An American Masters on Hee Haw wouldn’t be that bad of an idea, since the fundraising right now is skewed heavily toward people who grew up listening to east coast doo wop groups.
gnomedad
I get the script here: when we call them out for assholery, they launch into “Haw, haw, you’re afraid Obama will fold without his teleprompter, stoopid libruls!”
namekarB
For starters we could eliminate all Congressional and Congressional staff pensions and use that money to reduce the deficit.
At the very minimum, Congressmen should not be able to draw a pension unless they have 30 years congressional service and are age 67
Omnes Omnibus
@Cacti: They are important leaders who deserve things. If you have any things, well, you shouldn’t, you should just give them to your betters. You know, like the Republican leaders in Congress.
MikeJ
@BGinCHI: The infomercial channel? PBS rarely has anything that doesn’t have an 800 number to buy something on it.
BGinCHI
@Suffern ACE: Hey Grandpa! What’s for dinner?
I grew up a regular watcher as a kid and I loved the humor and the music (most of it anyway). That Roy Clark and Buck Owens are famous to most people from that is pretty sad, and it would be a great Am Masters to show all the talent showcased there and all the other stuff those folks did.
Tonybrown74
@morzer:
You know, I wish I had something witty or clever to add to this comment, but right now?
These people make my fucking head hurt!
Suffern ACE
@namekarB: But then we wouldn’t be able to attract the high caliber leadership we’ve been attracting.
Davis X. Machina
Hey, life’s about choices, people.
Do you want to run the country, or do you want to win elections? Because it’s pretty clear you can’t do both. Not any more.
Citizen Alan
It’s like he’s fucking 5! /Stewie Griffin
morzer
@Tonybrown74:
I hear ya. I am generally a fairly optimistic person, but seeing these moral vipers in action just makes me want to lie down and not get up again. I feel so ashamed of sharing membership in the human race with them.
djesno
bad link
djesno
bad link
gnomedad
@Hunter Gathers:
It’s the Republican Thesaurus Challenge!
Omnes Omnibus
@morzer:At the rate they regressing, we can expect that they will experiment with forks and electrical sockets within the next six months. You see, there is reason to be optimistic.
BGinCHI
@gnomedad: You won’t get very far with that.
Most Republicans think a Thesaurus is a small, land-dwelling dinosaur.
Suffern ACE
@Omnes Omnibus: If we could just get the first lady to get off the childhood health kick and on to a dangers of home electricity campaign, we might speed up that process.
gnomedad
@BGinCHI:
The kind Jesus rode?
morzer
@BGinCHI:
Presumably Roget’s Thesaurus is just proof that the twelve disciples walked with dinosaurs as well as Jeebus….
morzer
@Suffern ACE:
A campaign to ban white southern males from connecting bare metal self-pleasuring devices to high-voltage outlets might be a good first gambit….
PanAmerican
I’m inclined to agree with Booman.
Boehner is an incompetent dolt and his majority is going out with the tide next year.
Phoenician in a time of Romans
We’re asking people to do more with less.
“Except for the rich, who need tax cuts, tax cuts, and more tax cuts so they can get as much loot out of this benighted hell-hole before it finally collapses into anarchy.”
Anya
Does this asshole know that any repair or improvement made in the White House, does not benefit Obama, personally. He does know the White House belongs to the nation and not to the Obamas, right?
El Cid
HA HA!
TELEPROMPTER!
Guess you libtards are sorry now you have a President who wasn’t smart and couldn’t talk good from his head like George W. Bush!
Maybe if Obama stopped all his golf games and bowing to foreign leaders and telling union thugs in Wisconsin to murder everybody he could learn how to talk for once!
Waldo
Is it too much to ask for these dipshits to try to look like they take their jobs seriously? If the deficit is such a big freakin’ deal, quit playing grab ass and propose something constructive. That or STFU.
Maude
@Anya:
The president is black.
Anything above a chicken coop is too good for him.
I hear the resentment about Obama flying in AF1.
It never ends.
Mrs. Obama could warn people not to be in standing water when you stick that fork into that outlet.
Shalimar
@morzer: There’s a reason demographics in this country are rapidly changing away from a WASP majority. They aren’t good at the fucking either.
JPL
@Maude:
Would Sarah then tell her supporters that the Govmint should not be dictating what they do. It is an interesting thought.
Hungry Joe
These are our elected leaders … yet somehow, in the 1770s, out of a population of a little over two million, we came up with Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin, Madison, Hamilton, Rush (no relation), and any number of other first-rate folk. JFK once said to Gore Vidal that it must have been something in the water.
Tonybrown74
@morzer:
I was born and lived the first 14 years of my life in another country. I had to go through the tedious process of obtaining my US citizenship (and before that, the gawd-awful green card process). And to see this … ASSHOLE … in government, no less, try to make an incredibly stupid point, I have to ask myself, WHY?
Why did I waste my time?
In Trinidad, someone like him would have never made it to any position of governing authority. The leaders there actually have to have some level of competency and intellect to even be considered for the opportunity.
It really shows that white, male privilege is a universal advantage.
I truly has a big sad now …
I need a drink!
Dennis SGMM
@morzer:
Just enact a federal law making it illegal to pee on an electric fence.
El Cid
@efgoldman: Ha! I bet you also is one of those Obots who think we got to keep our tires inflated! Damn gay tire gauges, I ain’t gonna let no damn Kenyomuslim ‘community organizer’ tell me what the hell to put in my tires! Why don’t you tell your Al Gore Jesus that!
dlnelson
Seriously, if these guys hate gov’t so much, why do they bother. They are not interested in democracy, not interested in a coherent conversation. The minute they are elected, they ravage the system. Where do these weasels come from, how can they be so averse to facts. The private sector benefits greatly from the unions, women’s rights, equal pay, etc. Folks who own their own business or corporations, have a giant advantage what with tax deductions (cars, health insurance, meals, mileage, etc.) The average wage earner, pays dearly tax-wise. There is nothing to hide. We need a grass roots program to make all conservatives whether they are repubs or demos, to forsake any and all government benefits. We need to call them on that right now. End of story. California is held hostage by the R’s, we as a state have our own problems, but they are addressable. Power to Wisconsin.
Arundel
Ugh, this petty stupid juvenile “teleprompter” shit. It’s from the Rove playbook to attack an enemy’s strength. Like John Kerry’s service in Vietnam, or Obama’s exceptional verbal talent and graceful oratory. Sometimes I enjoy seeing them pull this out, because I doubt even the dumbest Teatard really thinks Obama would be a gibbering fool at the the mike without a teleprompter. It’s just a nasty joke that only they find funny, because it makes no sense.
morzer
@Dennis SGMM:
While holding hands with another white southern male?
BGinCHI
@Tonybrown74: There must be a good Calypso song that sums all that up.
Dennis SGMM
@morzer:
Godd idea! And double the penalty if the fence is a weed cutter.
El Cid
@Tonybrown74:
Due to being so close to the damn fidgety English, Trinidad never got to enjoy the fruits of US intervention into Central and South America, because for most of the 20th century we helped improve their lives by making sure that more macho, less ivory tower types ran the countries and weren’t afraid to use a club or machine gun on those restless peasants! They didn’t even understand the value of what we did in Grenada to save them from Nutmeg-o-Communism.
BGinCHI
@El Cid: For an up-close on Colonialism and Trinidad, see Earl Lovelace’s great novel Salt.
Davis X. Machina
Disorganized crime hits you over the head and takes your wallet.
Organized crime suborns your accountant and takes your business.
Really organized crime has the legislature remove larceny from the statute books.
And for that, you need to serve in the legislature. Or own people who do. And that’s why they bother.
El Cid
@BGinCHI: I’ll check it out. I hope the library has a copy.
James E Powell
The bad news for Democrats is that each one of those ridiculous amendments will be trumpeted throughout the right-wing media as a bold attempt to rein in federal spending that was foiled (again!) by the anti-American, tax & spend, N-loving liberals. And although each one is ridiculous, the Great American Morons thrive on that kind of stuff.
A billion a week for invasion & occupation? Our Brave Troops! But a teleprompter? Outrageous! Soshulism! We want our country back!
Tonybrown74
@El Cid:
I was 8 years old when the Grenada invasion happened. I remember the adults voicing at the time that hell, if they can invade Grenada for little or no reason, then what’s to stop the US from invading T&T.
Those were scary times for us.
Zuzu's Petals
I think someone needs to get the CBO analysis of how much this idiot stunt cost the taxpayers in staff research and preparation time, etc.
In the meantime, I’m going to comment with my pocketbook. I’m donating $50 to whoever is running against Womack in 2012 – even if its an unnamed Dem candidate fund – and then I’m going to tell Womack why.
BGinCHI
@El Cid: It’s really great. Another excellent read is VS Naipaul’s Miguel Street. Childhood in Trinidad stories.
gbear
@dlnelson:
Because the benefits are so good.
Tonybrown74
@BGinCHI:
Agree with this choice!
morzer
@gbear:
Because it’s the best resume credential for a judicious move into the areas where real money can be made by talentless and lazy frauds: lobbying and Wall St.
dlnelson
Davis X point well taken, but it is not right. I do believe both sides are compromised, but the dems, I hope, are on the right side. It is getting harder every day. I am from MN, and ND, I do not always agree with them, but I have never seen such a division. Right now it is about us against them. I am talking about the haves and the have nots. It is striking. I hate the thought that folks are bought and paid for, but that is the reality. How do you stop it. There is legacy politics, Dianne F., is old, Bob Byrd was a mummy, how do you stop the legacy. What can one do. Each party is ingrained. I think we need to have a real conversation within each party, clearly the demo party is not effective.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Benjamin Cisco:
The pay for our reps and senators should be the median income and health care levels of workers. If their pay was tied to how well workers are doing then we might get some reps who will actually work a bit harder to improve the lot of the American worker. As it is, their pay allows them to pontificate about how ‘everyone’ (except for them and their rich pals, of course) needs to ‘tighten their belts’.
Remember when these ’employees’ of ours used to have to vote for their pay increases? Once they made them automatic that allowed them to bump their pay up without having to vote for it and being held to account for that vote.
Don’t you wish you could set up automatic pay raises for yourself? Our crooks, I mean politicians, have set themselves up a nice gig, haven’t they?
Our government is one big RICO violation. Good thing for them that they write the laws, eh?
maya
Indeed you have, sir. But it’s got to be tough on your hats.
Benjamin Cisco
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Not only do they write the laws, they are not subject to most of them. Even the ones they are SUPPOSED to be subject to.
Suck It Up!
We certainly could do more with less Republicans
Ana Gama
If I recall correctly, the Obama’s declined any redecorating funds normally made available to the First Family two years ago when they moved in, and instead, paid for all that themselves.
Repairs are another thing, though. They don’t own the place, they are only tenants. The landlord makes repairs.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@BGinCHI:
That’s “What’s for supper?”
SUPPER. Geez, if you’re going to quote it, get it right. Dinner is what the rest of y’all call lunch.
BGinCHI
@Evolved Deep Southerner: I got over-excited on that one. Thanks for the correction.
Love that Granpa Jones.
And for the record, in my house growing up (which was a trailer for a few years), it was supper.
Ash Can
@Ana Gama:
Impressive. I’m sure it wasn’t cheap to get all that crayon scribbling scrubbed off the walls.
Ana Gama
@Ash Can: The real expense was having all those comic books hauled away.
gwangung
Because they weren’t worth much on the back market, huh?
Figgers.
Thoughtful Black Co-Citizen
As others have already observed, these dipshits are just begging for people to ask why they don’t vote themselves a big pay cut, smaller budgets and to shut down the Congressional dining rooms. They can bring a bag lunch or run over to Union Station.
TuiMel
@Suffern ACE:
That classic from Hee Haw is exactly what popped into my head. I would probably watch Hee Haw over Morning Joe.
Evolved Deep Southerner
@BGinCHI:
Damn straight. Master of the clawhammer banjo.
Hell, Buck Owens was actually taken seriously before he got on that show.
“Hee-Haw salutes my hometown, Madison, Wisconsin. Population 235,626.”
suh-LOOT! (Mass hat flourish.)
Nellcote
@Ana Gama:
The goopers don’t want anybody Greening up the joint.
piratedan
Well here’s a thought to reduce government. Fire all congressional staffers. Then its simply up to the people who were actually elected to read, draft and vote on legislation.
It’ll cut down on GOPpers having to rape and seduce and virtually eliminate all their sex scandals and they can simply keep all their graft instead of participating in that soshulistic practice of spreading that wealth around to people like “employees”.
@TuiMel: I suspect the fine ladies of Hee Haw were/are a bit more politically up to date than Mika
Odie Hugh Manatee
@piratedan:
My toilet is more politically up to date than Mika. I bet her father cringes every time she opens her mouth.
I would prefer to watch a dog turd dry on the sidewalk instead of watching Morning Blow.
Oh, while it’s raining.
huckster
@Davis X. Machina:
yep
Wile E. Quixote
@BGinCHI:
I have to confess that I thought the same thing once. I remember picking up copy of Roget’s and thinking “Shit! This book is full of a bunch of words. Where are all the fucking dinosaurs?” Of course I was only seven at the time.*
*I wasn’t a particularly precocious child, except when it came to being foul-mouthed.
Mike G
“I think we made our point,” Womack said.
“That we’re petty little dickheads with the minds of 4-year-olds”.
Wile E. Quixote
I have an idea. Let’s reduce the deficit by passing a bill that harvests the organs of any member of Congress from a states that receive more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes. I’m sure that Representative Womack won’t mind kicking in a kidney or two to help reduce the deficit.
Kyle
Seriously, if these guys hate gov’t so much, why do they bother.
Repigs are the party that says government doesn’t work. Then they get elected and make sure of it.
Carol
@Shalimar: LOL! Of course. Who wants to fuck those clowns without getting paid for it? Which is why they need to take all of the corporate graft they can. Mama needs a new car and vacation every year if she isn’t going to spend more time with the pool boy. The pool boy, on the other hand has a wife and a girlfriend and a “friend with benefits”. He will reproduce, even if by accident.