Thune

Hey Look! Ironic Johnny being a hypocrite, again!

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If only the stimulus would bailout crappy RR companies, maybe ironic Johnny would get behind it

John wants to end TARP even though he was all gungho about it when his best buddy GW pushed for it;

Thune voted for the bank bailout bill last year that then-President George W. Bush pushed Congress to adopt as Wall Street institutions started to fail. Now Thune is leading the charge to end TARP, saying the Obama administration has used the money in ways that Congress never intended by buying stakes in banks, financial institutions and automakers.

But now that a Democrat is running the show, it can’t be helping;

Thune’s criticisms come as the once-moribund economy shows signs of life: The stock market has risen since mid-August; banks are stabilizing; the rate of job losses, while still steep, has begun to moderate.

A report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office, Congress’ watchdog arm, found that states have been using billions from the stimulus program, officially known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, to ease budget shortfalls, expand medical coverage and undertake about 7,000 highway projects over the past six months.

Yeah, kind of sounds like the stimulus isn’t doing shit, huh John, accept of course helping Americans on domestic projects instead of building bombs to blow up foreigners. I wonder if John would support the stimulus if it would help dying RR Companies?

That hasn’t stopped him in the past from seeking federal aid for items and issues benefiting his home state, such as safety on Indian reservations, water projects and weapons systems.

Hyp, Hyp, Hypo . . .

Ken Blanchard, a political science professor at Northern State University in Aberdeen, said it’s only natural, and politically important, that Thune would fight to steer some taxpayers’ money back to South Dakota.

There’s clearly a risk in doing that because it makes you look like a hypocrite. The only thing worse would be not doing it,” Blanchard said

GOP senators (Ironic Johnny included) declare war on Net neutrality (H/T – Helga)

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Six Republican senators have introduced an amendment that would block the Federal Communications Commission from implementing its recently announced Net neutrality policy.

Texas Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison introduced the amendment to an appropriations bill. It would prevent the FCC from getting funding for any initiative to uphold Net neutrality. According to The Hill, the co-sponsors are Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), Sen. John Thune (R-SD) and Sen. David Vitter (R-LA).

The move appears to be an attempt to pre-empt the FCC’s expected new policy to ensure that Internet service providers don’t discriminate between different types of information on their networks.

On Monday, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski gave a speech in which he outlined the FCC’s plan to enforce Net neutrality, a position President Barack Obama held during his campaign for president.

In recent years, concern has grown that some Internet service providers are slowing down “access to high speed Internet for things like Internet-based voice calls, video streaming, and legal file sharing (that carriers might wish to block or at least charge extra for),” writes Ian Paul at PCWorld magazine.

While Net neutrality is supported by Internet-reliant companies such as Google and Microsoft, it is opposed by major Internet service providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon. Those three have come out against Genachowski’s plan, ChannelWeb reports.

The part of Genachowski’s plan that ISPs are most opposed to, according to PCWorld’s Paul, is that it would apply to mobile carriers as well — cellphones, Blackberries and the like. Bandwidth for wireless is not infinite, and some carriers have argued that they need to shape some traffic on their networks in order to make sure there is space available for everyone.

But, as the experience of other countries has shown, that is not necessarily the way “traffic shaping” is used. In Canada, throttling some types of traffic on the Internet — not on wireless — hasbecome commonplace. It is used to slow down peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

“Broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications,” Genachowski said in his speech. “Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider. The Internet must continue to allow users to decide what content and applications succeed.”

“I am deeply concerned by the direction the FCC appears to be heading,” Sen. Hutchison said in a statement. “Even during a severe downturn, America has experienced robust investment and innovation in network performance and online content and applications. For that innovation to continue, we must tread lightly when it comes to new regulations.”

A Net neutrality bill is expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives this fall.

— Daniel Tencer

Ironic Johnny never disappoints

Leave it to Thune to lay it on thick;

Sen. John Thune: “It is time for President Obama to put politics, ideology and the wants of special interest groups aside . . .

But it is okay for you to play politics and take money from special interests?!

and show some leadership by working in a truly bipartisan manner on a health care reform package

Bipartisan manner? Hey, John, bipartisanship is a two-way street and it is time for your party to pull their car out of the garage.

that will improve health care and lower costs without burdening our children and grandchildren with trillions of dollars in new debt.”

So it is better for private insurance companies to make billions in profits while people file bankruptcy left and right from health care bills?

You are so full of shit John.

So will Ironic Johnny hold a Town hall in Sioux Falls?

According to this press release I swiped off of DakotaWussCollege, Thune still is planning ‘other’ locations for Town halls, wonder if they will include the Sioux Falls area, considering a third of the state’s population lives here. It did not surprise me he picked the very conservative and very safe communities of Aberdeen and Watertown, can’t have any dissenters posting video on YouTube, yah know. I think Thune would have a tougher go of it in SF, remember, Obama won the majority in Minnehaha County. Is Thune scared to talk to people from the community he calls home? Don’t even get me started with Herseth and Johnson, who are apparently holed up in a bunker somewhere.

Senator Thune to host Town Hall Meetings in Aberdeen and Watertown

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. —Senator John Thune will hold a town hall meeting in Aberdeen on Thursday, August 20th in the Centennial Rooms at the Student Center on the campus of Northern State University at 11:30 AM CT and in Watertown on Monday, August 24th at the County Fair Banquet Hall at 5:00 PM CT.

“As I have been travelling across South Dakota for the last week and a half I have heard from a number of people about various issues,” said Thune. “South Dakotans are especially engaged on the issues of health care, cap and trade, and the out-of-control spending going on in Washington. These town hall meetings will give residents in the northeast part of South Dakota an opportunity to ask questions on these and other issues.”

Additional town hall meetings planned before the Senate reconvenes on Tuesday, September 8th will be announced soon.

Bring the pork & beans and potato salad, our Washington delegation will be providing the chicken (shit)

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Though I think most of the people whining and bitching at the healthcare townhalls across the country are misinformed and, well, f’ing stupid, I still support their right to dissent. For those of us that were against the failed experiment in Iraq, we should have been this vocal. But I see, our Washington delegation is chickening out as usual and not holding any public meetings.

Sen. Tim Johnson and Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin would be most likely to bear the brunt of any angry opposition to the health reform plans driven by their party leaders in Congress. But they won’t be holding any town halls on the subject.

I think the best way would be to get all 3 of them on a stage together so they can hear it from both sides, I know I have a few things I would love to ask all 3 of them. No surprise though, especially from Johnson (Mr. dodge debates). I remember last 4th of July when he was running he was in the SF parade and a certain poster here (wink-wink) approached him before the parade started and very politely asked him NOT to support FISA. Him and his wife acted surprised that a constituent would encoste him before the parade. They act like they are freaking untouchable. We elected you, it is time you listen to us, even the batshit crazy ones among us.