Sacramento - California

Michael Steele - Radio

"Please take a look at the RNC [Republican National Committee] website - http://www.rnc.org/ On the right hand side is a link that goes to a list of all of the right wing radio shows, along with a plea to promote the RNC. The [Republican President] Bush administration was constantly denying that talk radio was just another arm of their party. The RNC seems to have given up this pretense. It was blatant government propaganda for eight years. Sickening!"

"KRUGMAN: Look at what just happened, we had a proposal I think it was McCain’s proposal for an economic recovery package, his version of it which was all tax cuts, a complete, let’s do exactly what Bush did, have another round of Bush-style policies. After eight years which that didn’t work and we got 36 out of 41 Republican senators voting for that which is completely crazy. So how much bipartisan outreach can you have when 36 out of 41 republican senators take their marching orders from Rush Limbaugh?"

"[Pete Sessions:] “Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban — I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.” […]"

"When pressed to clarify, Sessions said he was not comparing the House Republican caucus to the Taliban, the Muslim fundamentalist group. “I simply said one can see that there’s a model out there for insurgency,” Sessions said before being interrupted by an aide."

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"Later, Boulanger sent an e-mail to Abramoff expressing confidence that the senator [Republican Judd Gregg] for whom the staffer worked would give them a favor. “Easy money,” Boulanger wrote, adding that the aide “practically lives in our various suites. We are shady.”"

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"Cable News Appearances By Members of Congress"
"(By Party - January 26-28, 2009)"

[Red=Republican / Blue=Democratic]

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"The Curious Capitalist: Judd Gregg’s dubious tax math: Republican New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg (or one of his staffers) writes:"

"The growth in tax revenues from 2002 through 2007 were some of the largest in history. The tax system became much more progressive, with the top 20% of income earners paying 85% of the taxes -- a rate much higher than during the Clinton years -- all while keeping capital-gains rates low."

"I'll blame the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] opinion editors for the verb-subject disagreement in the first sentence. But I'm assuming the facts came from Gregg. Except they're not quite facts—and since this sort of tax disinformation is pretty common, I couldn't resist wasting an hour digging up the data to refute them."

"Non-fact No. 1: The tax revenue gains from 2002 through 2007 weren't "some of the largest in history," unless you define "some" extremely broadly. Adjusted for inflation, [United States] U.S. government revenue rose 20% from 2002 to 2007. That ranks 24th among the 58 rolling five-year periods between the end of World War II and 2007. Just barely above average.... Over the full eight years of the [Republican President] Bush administration, it appears likely that federal revenue growth will be just about zero. Over the eight [Democratic President] Clinton years it was 58%."

"Non-fact No. 2: The percentage of federal taxes paid by the top 20% of the income distribution in 2005 (the most recent year covered by the Congressional Budget Office's annual examination of tax rates and the income distribution) was 69%. The percentage of federal income taxes was 86%...."

"The cuts in tax rates on capital gains and dividends during the Bush years accentuated this kink, so on the whole a fair-minded observer would have to say the tax system became somewhat less progressive. Which isn't what Judd Gregg said."

[-By Justin Fox -TIME.com]

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"GREENBERGER: So now we’ve got these judges taking the Ledbetter decision to absurd lengths and saying that the most entrenched and invidious discrimination — now that those who have the courage and the knowledge and the ability, for the first time to combat are out of time. It is an outrageous approach, an undermining of civil rights principles across the board. It’s now causing real misery, as was described not only for women and their families in pay…but for all victims of discrimination."

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