Corporations can now have their feelings hurt. We await Supreme Court confirmation.

A press release:

Statement from Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC in Response to Obama Campaign Remarks

WICHITA, Kan., Feb. 10, 2012 PRNewswire — We will exercise our First Amendment rights and not be intimidated or silenced by the President’s aides and his allies who criticize private citizens that disagree with the President’s policies.

The Obama campaign’s decision to embrace Super PACs is similar to the President’s hypocrisy in 2008 when he broke his promise to use public campaign financing, and became the first major party presidential candidate in history to turn down public financing in a general election. It is worth noting that President Obama outraised and outspent his opponent by hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2008 Presidential campaign, relying in large part on the same corporate executive funding sources whose productivity, business practices, and profitability he pretends to denounce.

Apparently, the President and his allies do not want to lose that perceived fundraising advantage during the 2012 Presidential campaign, and are trying to intimidate into silence those who may disagree with them and who may decide to support other candidates.

— Philip Ellender, president and COO

Government and Public Affairs

Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC

SOURCE Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC

Apparently they don’t have anyone on their payroll who knows how to start up a blog. Even with all that money.

It’s not that we’re volunteering.

A high end cabin in Summerhaven, Arizona close to 8500 feet in the Coronado National Forest.

Photo by TG.

Think about that for a moment.

Photo by TG.

A large portion of Summerhaven was devastated almost a decade ago by a massive fire. Who put it out? Conservative Libertarians who don’t want the federal government to do anything? Rugged individualists with a large amount of accumulated wealth? Our Galtian overlords? You wonder.

Representative Vicky Hartzler (r) complained via a retext of a republican talking point about legislative agenda productivity:

@gopconference GOP Conference by RepHartzler

Your budget was rejected by Senate 97-0 & Dems haven’t produced budget in 700+ days. Where is your economic plan? #AskObama 21 hours ago

Another in a slew of reasons why right wingnuts have zero credibility.

112th Congress is one of the least productive in years

Fervent partisanship and the standoff over the debt limit are partly to blame for lack of action in the Senate and House.

…the House isn’t exactly breaking records.

The 50 bills it has passed in the first five months of 2011 represent the lowest such number in more than 15 years. Republicans’ anti-Washington rhetoric translated into a schedule intended to keep lawmakers out of Washington. The result has been fewer days in session and fewer votes…

Remind us, which political party controls the House of Representatives? And obstructionism on the part of republicans in the Senate would have nothing to do with that, right?

That’s some serious chutzpah.

Update:

Oh, this gets even better. Representative Hartzler (r) retweeted right wing astroturf.

How Republicans and Tea Partiers Alike Used the Heritage Foundation’s #AskObama Script

By Abe Sauer | July 7, 2011

…A day before the event, The Heritage Foundation, a tax exempt, 501c(3) nonpartisan “educational institution” whose goal is “to formulate and promote conservative public policies,” published five Twitter questions to “put President Obama on the spot.”

These five questions, gift-wrapped by Ericka Anderson, Heritage Foundation’s senior digital communications associate and former communications director for Congressman Todd Rokita, were fascinating. And boy, did they get asked

Your budget was rejected by Senate 97-0 & Dems haven’t produced budget in 700+ days. Where is your economic plan? #AskObama….

[emphasis added]

Gee, that looks familiar.

Nonpartsan? Really?

The next few days, until the end of the quarter on June 30th, are going to be rather interesting as we witness the mad scramble of candidates receiving those large contributions which help pad their fundraising totals.

Readers here may be aware of our previous interest in republican CPAs who have become involved in Missouri politics. So, when we come across something along that vein, we tend to notice.

Harry Otto, a republican candidate in the 6th Senate District, is a CPA.  

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C091048 CITIZENS FOR OTTO [pdf] 6/25/2010

Committee for Political Action of MO Certified Accountants

St. Louis, MO

6/25/2010

$10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Whoa, Nellie! Have they dropped large contributions on CPA candidates before? Why, yes, they have!

The republican candidates (no Democrats filed) in the 6th Senate District:

State Senate – District 6

Republican

HARRY OTTO JEFFERSON CITY MO 361 2/23/2010

BILL DEEKEN JEFFERSON CITY MO 456 2/23/2010

KENNY JONES CALIFORNIA MO   565 2/23/2010

MIKE KEHOE JEFFERSON CITY MO 962 2/23/2010

The irony impairment? From a September 22, 2009 article in the Jefferson City News Tribune, reproduced at Harry Otto’s campaign web site:

“….I do expect to be outspent in this campaign,” Otto said, “but I don’t expect to be outworked.

“I don’t think this office ought to be purchased.  I think it ought to be earned.”  He said he’s not afraid of a fiveman primary race….

This has happened before, sort of like déjà vu all over again:

MISSOURI ETHICS COMMISSION

CONTRIBUTION OF MORE THAN $5,000.00 RECEIVED BY ANY COMMITTEE FROM ANY SINGLE DONOR – TO BE FILED WITHIN 48 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE CONTRIBUTION

C091048 CITIZENS FOR OTTO [pdf] 9/29/2009

Committee for Political Action of MO Certified Accountants

St. Louis, MO

9/29/2009

$10,000.00

[emphasis added]

Two $10,000.00 campaign contributions from the same folks is a lot of not getting outspent, don’t you think?

…and satire is dead.

May 13

Incident spurs call for school use review

A city School Committee member says she’s ‘appalled’ at how GOP guests treated a classroom.

….The Republican State Convention was held at the Portland Exposition Building, which is on Park Avenue, near the middle school. Party members from Knox County caucused in a classroom used by eighth-grade social studies teacher Paul Clifford…

…Later, Clifford learned that his classroom had been searched. Republicans who had attended the convention called Principal Mike McCarthy to complain about “anti-American” things they saw there, including a closed box containing copies of the U.S. Constitution that were published by the American Civil Liberties Union….

The Constitution is anti-American? Go figure. That would explain a lot.

Via Balloon Juice.

In today’s Kansas City Star:

…said her anger is real.

The Lee’s Summit resident fears Obama’s plans for health care reform won’t work, and she resents criticism of the town hall outbursts.

“I don’t remember criticism of the people shouting, ‘Thousands died, Bush lied,'” she said. “It was OK to demonize Bush, but when we’re talking about real policy issues, we mustn’t mention it…”

Lying to get us to a war in Iraq or to gin up Homeland Security alerts for partisan political gain before a national election weren’t “real policy issues”? It boggles the mind.

“…I don’t remember criticism of the people shouting, ‘Thousands died, Bush lied,’ she said….”

Matthews, Gingrich, Hannity, others seize on new bin Laden tape to discredit war critics

January 20, 2006 3:47 pm ET

…Several media figures have seized on Osama bin Laden’s newly released audiotape to denounce critics of the Bush administration’s conduct of the war in Iraq. Explicitly asserting comparisons between bin Laden and prominent war critics…

March 22, 2003, 5:57pm EST

ANTI-WAR PROTESTS CONTINUE WITH LARGE CROWDS IN N.Y

…Signs from the demonstrators supporting war read, “We Gave Peace a Chance and It Cost Us 9/11” and “Anti-War is Anti-American…”

And it goes on and on and on and on…

To quote a Congressman from Massachusetts: “On what planet do you spend most of your time?”

* it’s okay if you’re a republican

From a comment at Balloon Juice:

C’mon didn’t you know the real golden rule:

Waterboard your neighbor before they teabag you.

That’s from the Sermon on the Undisclosed Location.

We are not worthy.

More like “broken record” for a Roy Blunt (r – lobbyists) Twitter entry:

They know what’s at stake in this election and what will happen if the Washington Democrats get 60 seats in the U.S. Senate. 12:03 PM Mar 25th from mobile web

As opposed to what, “Washington republicans”?

Roy D. Blunt…

…Among government watchdog groups he is mainly known for his ties to lobbyists. In 2002 there was an uproar when Mr. Blunt tried to include a measure supported by the tobacco industry in the legislation that created the Department of Homeland Security. The provision was aimed at restricting Web sales of tobacco. Representative Blunt, who was dating Abigail Perlman, the chief lobbyist for Philip Morris, agreed to remove the rider from the final bill. (The Senate later approved the same restrictions on tobacco Internet sales, and they became law.)

Mr. Blunt has continued to have ties to the tobacco industry. He divorced his wife of 35 years, Roseann Ray, to marry Ms. Perlman, who became chief lobbyist for Altria. (He famously cleared his second marriage with the House Ethics Committee to get “a waiver of the limitations of the gift rule to allow me to accept gifts in connection with my wedding.”) Abigail Blunt now lobbies for Kraft Foods, which was spun off from Altria in 2007.

His son, Andrew has long lobbied for Altria subsidiaries, and his daughter Amy Blunt Mosby, a lawyer, has also represented tobacco interests…

A small slice of contributions to Roy Blunt’s campaign(s), via the Federal Election Commission:

…ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 03/20/1997 500.00 97032221285

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 08/27/1997 1000.00 98032700443

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 10/09/1998 2000.00 98033750051

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 10/15/1999 2000.00 20035094886

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 10/15/1999 2000.00 20035094886

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 06/15/2000 1000.00 20035920488

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 07/20/2000 -329.00 20035964094

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 06/18/2001 5000.00 21990199913

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 02/21/2002 5000.00 26940306381

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 07/17/2003 1000.00 23991734785

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 11/20/2003 2000.00 23992445717

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 05/20/2004 2000.00 24961598138

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 05/20/2004 3000.00 24961598138

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 01/27/2005 5000.00 25990050299

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 03/30/2006 5000.00 26940095112

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 02/22/2007 5000.00 27930267527

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 09/27/2007 1500.00 27931394340

ALTRIA GROUP, INC. POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE (ALTRIAPAC) 04/25/2008 3500.00 28931588902…

And Sarah Steelman weighs in on Twitter, after two weeks of silence:

Political fun – nice April Fools joke on fired up this morning! Too bad the financial mess created by Congress isn’t an April Fool’s joke! 7:31 AM Apr 1st from web

Congress? Congress? Oh yes, now I get it, Roy Blunt is in Congress. Sarah Steelman is a broken clock, she’s correct twice a day.

Roy Blunt as an “outsider” and Sarah Steelman maneuvering to be a spokesperson against those Washington insiders? Now that’s real irony impairment.