Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow

That’s what we will all be saying on November 3rd.

For now, we still have to listen to His Phatness, and his silly remark on the (never-ending) extension of unemployment benefits:

“Thank goodness this political charade is over and working families can get the assistance they so desperately need. Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. When it comes to providing modest help to people in need—many who are worse off because of their economic policies—they continually chose obstruction over action. This speaks volumes about how Congress would operate if they regained control.”  

What a moron – as I noted last time the clowns in charge extended the unemployment bennies, if a person is “working” presumably they do not need yet another extension of unemployment.  So please explain, Mr. Hare, how does the extension of benefits to the unemployed help “working families … get the assistance they so desperately need”? 

And why do so many families “so desperately need” unemployment?  Because of the ruinous economic policies of His Phatness and President Obama, which have driven our unemployment rates to historic levels.  Where, Mr. Hare, are the jobs that were promised?  As Governor Jindal said recently, in a slightly different context:

“I want us to send a clear message to Washington, D.C. today – our people don’t want a BP check, our people don’t want an unemployment check, our people want this arbitrary moratorium to end so they can go back to work.

Mr. Hare – the people of the 17th Congressional District do not want an unemployment check (except one with your name on it); they want JOBS.  Where are they?

Finally, do you see how Mr. Hare is now starting to incorporate fear of Republican control?  (“This speaks volumes about how Congress would operate if they regained control.”)  Wonder why, if the Democrats are doing such a great job?  Wasn’t it just the other day that his mouthpiece laughed off a poll showing His Phatness trailing his challenger?  Why on earth would he now make a comment about “if” the Republicans regained control; isn’t that laughable?

Let’s see, the Democrats have been in charge of Congress since 2007, approximately when everything hit the fan.  And we’re supposed to be afraid of Republican control?  Geez, man, the Congressional approval rate is at 11%, an all-time low for any governmental institution!!! 

Methinks Monsieur Hare is hearing phootsteps…  

Phootnote:  What has become of Hare’s supposed devotion to PAYGO?  Guess that’s yet another charade that will end in November…

Phurther phootnote:  Wouldn’t that make a great campaign prop for Schilling?  A big phat unemployment check made out to Phil Hare, dated November 3, 2010.

Wow.  What a total goofball.  After driving the unemployment rate up over 10% (despite the so-called stimulus), Phil Hare now calls it an achievement when the unemployment rate rose to 9.9% for April.  From Hare’s press release:

“Just one year ago, the unemployment rate hit a 25-year high. Now, due to the policies we adopted including the Recovery Act, our economy is creating jobs again and more Americans are back in the market looking for work. This is certainly good news, but with millions of Americans still unemployed, we cannot rest on our laurels.”

Question – was the skyrocketing unemployment rate for the past seventeen months also “due to the policies we adopted including the recovery Act”?  Can you believe these clowns?  He expects us to believe that the prior sixteen months of job losses — well beyond the promises made, if we would only enact the stimulus — had nothing whatsoever to do with the “policies adopted,” yet takes credit for one month of job gains, due in large measure to hiring for the constitutionally mandated census.  And even then, the unemployment rate rose to 9.9%!

Rest on our laurels, (i.e., “to be content with one’s past or present honors, achievements, etc.”) indeed!

 But what have you done, Mr. Hare?  What “laurels” can you rest on?  If destroying jobs and diverting nearly a trillion dollars from the private economy to your public sector union buddies is “laurels,” then please, rest! 

Let’s see what “laurels” Mr. Hare wants to rest on.  From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:

* In April, the number of unemployed persons was 15.3 million, and the unemployment rate edged up to 9.9 percent. The rate had been 9.7 percent for the first 3 months of this year.

* Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rate for whites (9.0 percent) edged up in April, while the rates for adult men (10.1 percent), adult women (8.2 percent), teenagers (25.4 percent), blacks (16.5 percent), and Hispanics (12.5 percent) showed little or no change.

* The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks and over) continued to trend up over the month, reaching 6.7 million. In April, 45.9 percent of unemployed persons had been jobless for 27 weeks or more.

* The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) was about unchanged at 9.2 million in April. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

That’s quite a list of laurels, Mr. Hare!  No wonder you don’t want to rest on them.

Hare’s latest solution?  Spend more of your money, of course!

Hare discussed two pieces of legislation he believes will speed up job creation. The first is the Local Jobs for America Act, a bill that would create one million public and private sector jobs by providing funding to local communities across the country. The bill would provide $75 billion over two years to local communities to hold off on planned cuts or hire back critical workers like teachers and emergency personnel.

More funding for more useless public sector “workers”…  what a joke.  Funneling money we don’t have at jobs that don’t sustain themselves is not job creation, it’s self-delusion.

Mr. Hare’s press release is titled (believe it or not), “Earth Day Should be Jobs Day.”  I personally think every day should be Jobs Day, and that every day the government should get out of the way of the private sector so it can create jobs.  But I don’t think that’s what Hare means.  I think he means “let’s destroy our economy and manufacturing sector by artificially limiting our productivity in sheer obeisance to the religion of global warming, and somehow this will create, rather than destroy jobs.” 

But I suppose Earth Day will create about as many jobs as the Stimulus — that is, none.

At the end of the press release, Mr. Hare throws out this little nugget:

“We must also use Earth Day as an opportunity to recommit ourselves to combating climate change.  Our nation’s scientists have overwhelmingly declared that climate change is a threat to our way of life and the Defense Department has deemed it a national security risk.  We owe it to our children and grandchildren to pursue policies that reduce climate change and get us off of our dependence on Middle Eastern oil.”

If you truly want to end “our dependence on Middle Eastern oil,” Mr. Hare, there is an easy solution.  And it doesn’t involve taking over our lives and economy.  Just drill, baby.

And when are you going to reduce our children’s and grandchildren’s dependence on government?  Never?  That’s what I thought.  The real threat to our way of life (as opposed to the faux threat, global warming  — oops! I mean “climate change”) is over-reaching and unconstrained gov’mint.

Well, it turns out that Hare’s office has admitted that it screwed up.  As noted previously, the allegedly racist paper handed to Hare by Quincy resident Allie Lymenstull was not racist at all; Hare’s office just said (falsely) that it was.  While it was over-the-top, it was NOT racist. 

But given that Hare was backpedaling for his political life, that didn’t matter.  The press release issued by his office explicitly stated, and placed in quotation marks the supposed quote from the paper that “The White House is No Longer White.”

Hare’s office left this slander out there for at least a whole week.  Then, after it had served its purpose (namely, making his opponent’s supposed racism the issue, rather than Hare’s stupid statement) his office silently changed the press release to conform to the truth.  (Initially, the office obviously simply cut and pasted the true quote over the falsehood, it even left in place the initial period, thus, the sentence ended with an exclamation mark and a period – they have since changed this.)

When called on it, Hare’s office then sought shelter in the comforting arms of its cheering section — the press.  The Springfield Journal-Register willingly obliged with a puff piece, which paints Hare’s detractors in the worst possible light, while refusing to ask the most basic questions of Hare and his alleged mistake:

After the video started circulating — portions have been shown on various Fox News programs, and a short version has logged more than 325,000 views on YouTube — Hare’s communications director, TIM SCHLITTNER, issued a statement saying that what Hare said was taken out of context. What Hare meant, Schlittner said, was that he is not worried about the new health-care law being ruled unconstitutional.

Hare repeatedly said at the meeting that he supports the Constitution, Schlittner said.

“Congressman Hare served six years in the Army Reserves. He needs no lectures on fighting for the Constitution,” Schlittner added.

Schlittner also accused Hare’s Republican opponent in the 17th Congressional District, BOBBY SCHILLING of Colona, of politicizing the Quincy event by sending supporters to be disruptive.

Schilling denies that and says Hare’s trying to change the subject. He also accused Hare of an “out-and-out lie” that implied agitators against Hare were racist.

Schilling has a good point. Schlittner’s statement said that at the meeting, “Congressman Hare was called a Nazi. He was called a liar. He was handed a piece of paper that said ‘The White House is no longer White.’”

Actually, the flier, handed out by 88-year-old ALLIE LYMENSTULL of Quincy, who calls himself “100 percent radical American,” carried a picture of the White House above the words: “America’s White House? Not any more!”

The flier also shows drawings of flags with a swastika and a hammer-and-sickle and pictures of ADOLF HITLER, JOSEF STALIN, FIDEL CASTRO, BENITO MUSSOLINI, NANCY PELOSI, HARRY REID and President BARACK OBAMA. The American flag is turned upside down, Lymenstull told me, to indicate “distress.”

Lymenstull said he considers members of Congress who voted for the health-care bill to be “communist, socialist, Marxist, fascist traitors.” (Lymenstull gets his own health insurance through his elevator construction union, a line of work he was in for 38 years, and Medicare — which, of course, is a government insurance program.)

Nonetheless, he said, the president’s race had nothing to do with the wording on the flier.

“We did get the wording on the flier wrong,” Schlittner said of the “White House” line.

That’s all folks — we got the wording wrong.  Nothing to see here.  Go home to your families. 

Any reporter worth his salt would ask the obvious follow up:  how did that happen?  But not the Journal Register!  They simply parrot the theme pedaled by Hare’s office.

A few other obvious questions, questions any fifth grader would ask, if trying to get the real story:  You placed the erroneous racist comment in quotes – why?  Who did it?  How did it happen?  Where did the erroneous quote actually come from?  Was it manufactured in your office?  We know it was not on the actual piece of paper, so where did you get it?  Why did you not correct it right away?  Why did you not issue a retraction, and an apology?  How is it that the remark just so happened to fit the Democrat talking points (also now disproved) that the “tea partiers” were racist?

Inquiring minds want to know.  The Springfield Journal-Register apparently doesn’t.  And some people wonder why newspapers and news are dying.

A few days ago, Phil Hare’s office released a statement, explicitly stating that at the now-famous meeting in Quincy (“I’m not worried about the Constitution” and all that), Hare “was handed a piece of paper that said ‘The White House is No Longer White.’”

I questioned whether this was true at the time, stating:

And where’s the piece of paper?  Why didn’t he hold it up on the video (WGEM was there), and call out the racist who handed it to him?  (Let’s see, if it took him a whole day to read those seven words, I wonder how long it took him to read the 2,700 page Health care Bill three times…?)

Illinois for Growth has now conclusively shown that the piece of paper did NOT say “The White House is No Longer White.”  It was a lie.  The Congressional Representative for the 17th Congressional District in Illinois lied.  And not a simple misstatement, either – this was a deliberate and premeditated falsehood, and smear.  Phil Hare wanted people to believe that the people at the meeting — his constituents! — were racists.  The press release issued by his office explicitly stated, and placed in quotation marks the supposed quote from the paper that “The White House is No Longer White.”

But the actual document never said that.  More importantly, it never implied anything remotely racist.   Instead, it used some admittedly over-the-top imagery of historical political figures and stated “America’s White House?  Not Anymore!”  This is a far cry from what Phil Hare said was on the document, and is not racist is any way, shape or form.

Hare’s sliming of his own constituent as racist is reprehensible, but certainly not beneath the  Democrats in Congress.

Hare has already silently backtracked, though.  If you click on the link for his prior press release, it has been silently changed, and now the quote reads:

“Yesterday, Congressman Hare held what was supposed to be a meeting with seniors in Quincy to discuss important provisions in the health care bill. But Bobby Schilling, Congressman Hare’s opponent in the fall, politicized the event by sending his supporters to disrupt it. Congressman Hare was called a Nazi. He was called a liar. He was handed a piece of paper that said “America’s White House? Not Anymore!.” So much for a civil debate.

Notice how the updated release now shows the actual quote, confirming that Illinois for Growth’s document is correct?  So, in sum, Representative Phil Hare called one of his constituents falsely, a racist, and has now confirmed the fact by changing his press release, without informing the public, or apologizing.  This was no innocent mistake, it was a smear, through and through.

Confirmation that Hare changed the press release to remove the defamatory remark is found in this article from the Quad Cities Online, which quotes the slanderous statement from Hare’s (prior) press release:

But Rep. Hare’s office alleges that Bobby Schilling–the congressman’s Republican opponent–sent his supporters to derail the event.

“(Rep. Hare) said several times during the meeting yesterday that he supports the Constitution, but that conveniently didn’t make the tape,” the release from the congressman’s office states.

In the statement, the congressman’s office also contends there were other things not shown on the tape.

“Congressman Hare was called a Nazi,” the release states. “He was called a liar. He was handed a piece of paper that said ‘The White House is No Longer White.’ So much for a civil debate.”

WGEM also confirms the smear here; The Quincy Herald-Whig here.

Hare thinks he can silently back out of this, but I beg to differ.  This is news, folks.  Mr. Hare has been caught in a white lie.  And it ain’t pretty.  As Mr. Hare said, “so much for a civil debate.”   This guy is a disgrace. 

ps- anyone know how to get a “screen grab” or a cached view of the prior statement?

Gosh, didn’t see this one coming.  Apparently, after yesterday opening his mouth and proving he is as stupid as he looks, Phil Hare wants to claim he was taken out of context.  Not only that, but those evil non-seniors who support his opponent called him names:

Yesterday, Congressman Hare held what was supposed to be a meeting with seniors in Quincy to discuss important provisions in the health care bill.  But Bobby Schilling, Congressman Hare’s opponent in the fall, politicized the event by sending his supporters to disrupt it.  Congressman Hare was called a Nazi.  He was called a liar.  He was handed a piece of paper that said “The White House is No Longer White.”  So much for a civil debate.

Bobby Schilling “politicized the event”?  You know, if the Democrats didn’t have the government take over everything, then everything would not be political, would it?  For crying out loud — these clowns involve the government (and hence politics) in every facet of our lives, and when they hear a squeak of dissent, immediately charge the dissenter with injecting “politics.”  Disgusting.  And it’s a meeting with a politician — how can the event be “politicized”?

I want to see the evidence of Hare being called a “Nazi.”  As I noted yesterday, on the tape Hare was the one who mentioned the word “Nazi” and “Communist,” not the questioner. 

And where’s the piece of paper?  Why didn’t he hold it up on the video (WGEM was there), and call out the racist who handed it to him?  (Let’s see, if it took him a whole day to read those seven words, I wonder how long it took him to read the 2,700 page Health care Bill three times…?)

Here’s the Fox News story.

I’ll have more to say later regarding Hare’s pheeble attempt to “contextualize” his Hare-brained comment, after further review.  For now, suffice it to say:  NO ONE BELIEVES YOU, MR. HARE.  We are not as stupid as you think we are.  Actually, maybe I should cut that sentence short and just note that “We are not as stupid as you.”

That’s the real name of an Act for which Phil voted.  Does that sum up how stupid our representatives are, or what?  Disaster relief and …. Summer Jobs!  Everyone wins!!  And the guy is so out of touch, he trumpets this ridiculous waste of taxpayer money (excuse me, “investment”) in a press release. 

From Hare’s press release:

Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) today voted for two pieces of legislation seeking to spur hiring in the near term. 

What’s the “D” stand for, “Dummy”?  Just asking.   And why do we need to “spur hiring in the near term,” I thought the $787 billion Stimulus was going to “spur hiring in the near term,” and prevent all of this unemployment — what happened there?

More:

The Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act includes $600 million to create about 300,000 summer jobs for those ages 16 to 24 and extend a Recovery Act lending program for small businesses.

Let’s say half of the $600 million will go to summer jobs.  That would mean each “summer job” equates to an average of $1,000.  That’s it — a thousand bucks.  How (and more importantly) who is that going to help?  Sounds like more government crapola to me.

“The Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act responds to the devastating unemployment rate among young workers,” Hare added. “The ‘disconnection rate’—Americans aged 20 to 24 who were neither in school nor working—jumped to 28 percent last year from 17 percent in 2007. This emergency bill will get them working again and help our economy as a whole.”

First of all, what happened between 2007 and now?  Oh, that’s right – first the Dems, and then Obama took over.  Again, why has the problem gotten worse? 

Second, are you really telling us that “summer jobs” for 20-24 year olds, for crying out loud, earning $1,000 bucks over the whole summer is really going to “help our economy as a whole”?  Is it possible to be so mind-numbingly stupid? 

Third, I wonder what the “disconnection rate” in Congress is?  You know, the rate at which congressmen are so completely and totally disconnected from their home districts, that they vote for crap like The Disaster Relief and Summer Jobs Act, and then brag about it in a press release:  “Hey guys — I just spent another $600 million we don’t have, for walking around money for 20-24 year olds who aren’t doing anything better this summer!  Isn’t that great?”   In the 17th District at least, the disconnection rate appears to be 100%.  Time to “disconnect” Hare from his employment on our dime.

A few other thoughts:  When do we get “disaster relief”?  Maybe we can apply for a disaster relief grant, to get some relief from the disaster that is Phil Hare, and his idiot buddies in Congress…

The press release also helpfully notes that “Hare has been very active on the job creation front….”  Really?  Show me one job His Phatness has created himself, just one.  Shoot, the only job this guy is ever gonna create is when we throw his butt out of office in November.

what us normal people do every day of our lives.  That is, pay for stuff as we go.  And if we can’t afford it, we either don’t get it, or we figure out a way to get more money to pay for it.  Of course, Congress doesn’t have to live by the same laws as the rest of us.

Hare’s press release casting his vote for PAYGO as some heroic act merely demonstrates how out of touch he is with real people.  If you actually issue a press release to pat yourself on the back for promising not to spend more than you confiscate from the American public, you are out of touch.  I mean, who wrote this?  Did they not realize how it comes off?  “Hey everyone!  Guess what – that’s right!  I’m not gonna spend more than the outrageous amounts I take from you!  Isn’t that great?”

Unfortunately, Hare can’t even make a phool of himself without screwing it up further — he also notes that “On regaining the Congressional majority in 2007, Democrats made PAYGO a part of House rules.”

Well then, what’s the problem?  Why have our deficits ballooned since the Democrats took over?

Seems if the Democrats could follow their own rules, we wouldn’t have needed the PAYGO law.  And yet we did.  Then, within weeks of PAYGO becoming law, they exempt the unemployment/COBRA extension.  Unbelievable.

Don’t worry though — I’m sure Rep. Hare is on the case.  He’ll probably pass a PAYGO “commandment.”  Heck, it’s already gone from a rule which Dems ignore, to a law from which they exempt spending we really need, next it will be a commandment from which Dems absolve themselves.  But I’m sure Hare will issue a press release to go along with it.

Less than one month ago, Rep. Hare was loudly trumpeting his vote for PAYGO:

“Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) today voted for legislation that requires Congress to pay for any new spending or tax cuts, a process known as Pay-As-You-Go or PAYGO. The bill now heads to the President’s desk.

If signed, any increase in spending will have to be offset by spending decreases elsewhere or by finding additional revenue. Likewise, any tax cuts will have to be accompanied by decreases in spending because of that lost revenue.

“The days of excessive borrowing, wasteful spending, and massive tax cuts must come to an end,” Hare said. “PAYGO provides us the best opportunity to return to fiscal sanity so we do not pass our bills onto our children and grandchildren.”

However, that was then, this is now.  Now it’s “forget PAYGO, people are suffering!!!”  In his latest press release, Hare “slams” (his word – wow! what a tough guy!) Senator Jim Bunning for refusing to allow the extension of unemployment benefits for (another) month:

“Yesterday, I stood side-by-side with my Democratic and Republican colleagues in the House to extend unemployment insurance and the COBRA subsidy for one month. Yet the actions of a lone opponent, Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, have prevented similar action from taking place in the Senate and will ultimately lead to these programs expiring this weekend.

“It is more apparent than ever, with this latest affront to working families, the Senate is broken and needs to be reformed.”

First off, is Rep. Hare so stupid that he does not know the difference between one who is “working” and hence, does not need an extension of unemployment benefits, and one who is unemployed?  Apparently not, as he thinks the failure to extend benefits (meaning the persons are already receiving them) is somehow an “affront to working families.”  But if one is working, can we not safely assume they are not also receiving unemployment benefits?  Maybe I shouldn’t ask… 

Second, whence Hare’s devotion to “pay as you go”?  For Senator Bunning’s objection was due primarily to the fact that Congress had not come up with any offsets (reduced spending or increased taxes) to pay for the extension of benefits, as required by PAYGO.  As noted by Senator Kyl: