Another Talking Point Down

The porkulus bill did NOTHING except burden our descendents.

The counter argument comes from the CBO, which was the non-partisan voice of truth a couple of months ago but by the end of the day will be considered Pravda.

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The massive stimulus package passed last year to blunt the impact of the worst U.S. recession in 70 years created up to 2.1 million jobs in the last three months of 2009, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said on Tuesday.


The package boosted the economy by up to 3.5 percent and lowered the unemployment rate by up to 2.1 percent during that period, CBO said.

Of course, that's Reuters talking, and they're an arm of the Obamitler Black House. If this was actually accurate news, Fox would report on it; I'm guessing it's going to get very little play on that network.

How Are the Talking Points Holding Up, Hmmm?

The way to bring down insurance costs is to deregulate.

Business has our best interests at heart, we should forbid lawsuits and deregulate.

We should privatize social security.

Can't wait to see what happens at the bipartisan meeting tomorrow!

Where's Your Deliverer Now?

(Title quote courtesy of Edward G. Robinson, The Ten Commandments. Probably inaccurate)

Scott Brown is no longer the man who saved the Republican party. Now he's a traitorous bastard!

Yeah! Way to double cross millions! Plus let me remind you, he still hasn't killed that communist health care plan in Massachusettes!

I warned you guys!

Best Wishes To Dick Cheney

The former Vice President is said to be resting comfortably after a bout with chest pains today. I wish him the best.

Medically, anyway. Look let's be honest, I consider the man a war criminal. As it happens he committed his war crimes for the right reasons, because he believed that torture strengthened the country that he and I love. I disagree with him on that but, well, his heart was in the right place.

So again, best wishes to a man whom I wish had made radically different decisions than the ones he made.

C Paul AC

Tom Schaller at Five-Thirty-Seven:

But the most revealing result from CPAC 2010, one that didn't surprise me but ought to wake up national political reporters, is this one: Ron Paul won this year's CPAC straw poll with 31 percent. Next best was Mitt Romney with 22 percent. Amazingly, Paul's support was more than that for Sarah Palin (7 percent), Tim Pawlenty (6), Mike Pence (5), Newt Gingrich (4), Mike Huckabee (4), Mitch Daniels (2), and Rick Santorum (2) combined. Yes, that's right--combined. By compare, just a year ago, Paul tied with Palin for third at 13 percent, with Romney winning and Bobby Jindal (who dat?) second at 14 percent.

Five months ago in this space, I speculated that this new conservative movement is fueled to a significant degree by a lot of ginned up former Ron Paul supporters. I mentioned and quoted at length from Dana Goldstein's fanstastic reporting that connected the Tea Party movement to residual Ron Paulites. When is the national media going to finally make these connections?

Instead, the kooky, historically revisionist, apocalyptic ideas of Glenn Beck and Ron Paul are treated with equivalency to those of the majority Democratic Party in Washington and--here's the key point--these movement activists and their ideas are often discussed without much mention of their connections to Beck or Paul. Beck earns his share of attention, granted. But there is almost no recognition whatsoever of the true origins of this conservative backlash. The movement is instead covered as if it is the somehow the byproduct and wind in the sails of national Republicans like Michael Steele, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, when in fact it is operating wholly independently of any or all of them. And remember that these are people who, as Nate pointed out earlier this month, believe that the president is a socialist Muslim interloper born in Africa; who, as I suspect, somehow think that earmark and tort reform will solve our deficit problems; and who, as we saw today, cheer without any sense of internal contradiction as Beck boasts about educating himself for "free" at a public library system paid for by the very taxes he complains about.

Point being that you can't trust the media - not because they are biased towards one side or the other, but because they're biased toward drama. Politics is simply not as entertaining as CNN makes it out to be, let alone Fox.

Them last three words is, of course, very good advice.

But ultimately the reason why the Republicans are so hard-pressed to provide alternate solutions to the problems they're trying to run on is because their leaders are either entertainers or people crazy theorists like Paul. If they really SAY that we should legalize drugs or 9/11 or Medicare must be stopped, it's all over for them. The whole Republican revolution depends on keeping their ideas under wraps, which means they appear to be running solely to regain power. And that's why I can't see how they'll win.

The Right Agrees With Me

Given the comments in my last post, apparently the right has no more regard for the speakers at CPAC than they do for ridiculed actors Wesley Snipes, Nic Cage and Zha Zha Gabor.  This theory is borne out by the straw poll they took... apparently they believe their last, best hope to win 2012 is Ron Paul.

No wonder these guys worship Rush Limbaugh - he's the only guy among them with any self-esteem!

Tasteful Rightwing Comedy

"Not that he wouldn't have, but he can afford an accountant! AmIRight?"

Here Dino!

I'm willing to donate money to Rick Perry if I am convinced that he'll follow through with his succession rhetoric and get Texas out of the United States. Check this out!

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll...

• 38 percent said human beings developed over millions of years with God guiding the process and another 12 percent said that development happened without God having any part of the process. Another 38 percent agreed with the statement "God created human beings pretty much in their present form about 10,000 years ago."

• Asked about the origin and development of life on earth without injecting humans into the discussion, and 53 percent said it evolved over time, "with a guiding hand from God." They were joined by 15 percent who agreed on the evolution part, but "with no guidance from God." About a fifth — 22 percent — said life has existed in its present form since the beginning of time.

• Most of the Texans in the survey — 51 percent — disagree with the statement, "human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals." Thirty-five percent agreed with that statement, and 15 percent said they don't know.

• Did humans live at the same time as the dinosaurs? Three in ten Texas voters agree with that statement; 41 percent disagree, and 30 percent don't know.

And people wonder why Dell is losing market share - their IT people believe that power spikes are God's way of punishing outlets.

In A Nutshell

Jackpot!

Good news, Republicans - Scott Brown isn't a RINO, he's a TEABAGGER!

Cavuto interviewed Scott Brown today (he touted it as an exclusive interview) and asked him to comment on the tragedy that struck Austin, Texas... Instead of denouncing it as a domestic terrorist act or a lone wolf nut---he didn't hesitate to use it for his own political advantage and said this:

Brown: and I don't know if it's related but you can just sense not only in my election and being here in Washington, people are frustrated. That they want transparency. They want their elected officials to be accountable and open and talk about the things that are affecting their daily lives. So I'm not sure if there's a connection there I certainly hope not. We need to do things better.

Hey, the guy's just flying a plane into a government building just like we all want to... am I right? Hennngh?

This Oughtta Buy 'Em Some Votes

It's too early to tell anything, but I'm a blogger and we jump to conclusions here. I'm prepared to retract any mistakes as the facts come in.

So you have heard about this:



Guy crashed a small engine plane into a Texas building which housed several offices of the IRS. The Austin-American Statesman thinks it was flown by the guy who wrote this.

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Joe Stack (1956-2010)

You certainly can't tell from the letter if he's a rightwing or leftwing crazy, though there's a strong whiff of Glen Beck in his words. On the other hand, he's from Los Angeles.

Still, I hope that Steve Doocey of FOX AND FRIENDS won't try to peddle that "for the most part all the people who tried to blow airliners out of the sky pretty much look alike, look similar" line again. Because I'm betting that Joe Stack and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab share few identifying characteristics.

I'm anxious to hear whether this is incident is ignored or denounced at CPAC; and I'm hoping at least one of the Tea Party Boys says "well it's wrong what he did, but he did it for the right reasons." Going to be an interesting news cycle!

Oh For Heaven's Sake, Just Admit It's Because He's Black

It's more funny than sad. But it's still sad. But it's pretty funny.

Look, there's gotta be a reason why bipartisanship isn't working - I'm putting a little money on the R word.

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Personally, I LIKE My Fellow Citizens To Be Able To Read

But apparently, that's just me.

The sudden buzz over the relative value of senior year stems from a recent proposal by state Sen. Chris Buttars that Utah make a dent in its budget gap by eliminating the 12th grade.

The notion quickly gained some traction among supporters who agreed with the Republican's assessment that many seniors frittered away their final year of high school, but faced vehement opposition from other quarters, including in his hometown of West Jordan.

"My parents are against it," Williams said. "All the teachers at the school are against it. I'm against it."

Buttars has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. He estimated the move could save up to $60 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

The proposal comes as the state faces a $700-million shortfall and reflects the creativity -- or desperation -- of lawmakers.

"You're looking at these budget gaps where lawmakers have to use everything and anything to try to resolve them," said Todd Haggerty, a policy associate with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "It's left lawmakers with very unpopular decisions."

Most conservatives don't like public schools, which they perceive as a breeding ground for liberals; the idea that younger people tend to be more liberal and have been since the beginning of time isn't the issue, as far as they're concerned. Anyway, the most important thing is to ensure that the rich hold on to their historic tax cuts. If it means whittling away at education until the typical Peruvian kid is more knowlegable than one of our'n, then so be it. The rich kids will still be able to afford school, right?

If It's Cold, There's No Such Thing As Global Warming

But what about if it's warm? What if you had to ship snow to Vancouver just so the Olympics could go on as planned? Why doesn't this prove that Global Climate change is a reality?

By the way, all the money you're saving by not retrofitting to cut down carbon emissions? You're going to wind up spending it on coffee.

A New Blog Idea

I was just perusing this: It's a blog which comprises nothing but editorial cartoons making the point that since it's really cold right now, there must not be global warming. Incidentally, it's pretty warm outside in Canoga Park, so there must not be. (h/t to Comics Curmudgeon for the link)

Anyway, it's inspired me to hunt down cartoons for my new blog, IF CUTTING TAXES CAUSES PROSPERITY WE MUST NOT HAVE RECORD UNEMPLOYMENT. Then I'm going to follow up with IF WE ATTACKED IRAQ THEN THERE MUST NOT BE ANY MORE TERRORISTS. Ha ha! It's funny because cartoons prove that it's true!

Sarah Palin IS the Next George Bush After All

Washington Post/ABC Poll puts her favorability at 37% and unfavorabilty at 55%, which in Rasumussen math means the American People love her at a -18%. Beats that Barack Obama fellah!

FOXNews.com - What Do You Think Tea Party Movement Is About?

FOXNews.com - What Do You Think Tea Party Movement Is About?

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See the results... I may not be able to rely on these guys to keep the election year entertaining after all!

Give A Man A Rope, He'll Hang Himself...

...teach a man to make rope, and he'll hang the people who taught him.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp — the parent company of Fox News — making him the largest shareholder outside the family of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch. Alwaleed has grown close with the Murdoch enterprise, recently endorsing James Murdoch to succeed his father and creating a content-sharing agreement with Fox News for his own media conglomerate, Rotana.

Last weekend, at the right-wing Constitutional Coalition’s annual conference in St. Louis, Joseph Farah, publisher of the far right WorldNetDaily, blasted Fox News for its relationship with Alwaleed. Farah noted correctly that Alwaleed had boasted in the past about forcing Fox News to change its content relating to its coverage of riots in Paris, and warned that such foreign ownership of American media is “really dangerous.”

Haha! I'm tired of concern trolling. The teabaggists aren't my Golem. Best of luck you guys. Have fun energizin' your base! Also.

The Country Of Texas

The Snow! It Proves Everything!

So briefly before I drive to work in the rain, let me ask the conservatives something that they won't answer. It's really really cold this week. It's snowing so bad in Washington that they closed the government buildings. Most commentators are taking the opportunity to claim that this proves that there's no such thing as global warming.

However, isn't it possible that the steps people have taken for the last 50 years has had an effect? That banning CFCs (for example) has allowed the greenhouse heat to escape, and make it really really cold all the time? And that this is therefore a reason to stop all attempts to curb all Gorean policies before we're plunged into a permanent ice age?

Palin/Brown 2012!

Quote of The Day

Is it a big deal that Palin wrote some notes on her hand? No, not really. Lots of politicians carry notes with them (if not, as in Palin's case, literally on them). If this were Mitt Romney, it wouldn't have been a particularly big story. Nevertheless, politics is inherently contextual, and this was something that was bound to play into every negative caricature of Mrs. Palin. Somebody needed to take Palin aside and tell her: Honey, this is going to make you look ridiculous. Can't you write on a notecard instead?

-Nate Silver

If At First You Don't Succeed, Take the High Road

I haven't mined WAMK for material in a while but I think there are two interesting things in the epic comments battle from this post.

One - Madeline's Dad says this at one point: Obama is popular, but his policies are not. I'm not going argue with that; poll data backs him up. And if the polices are unpopular it's because the opposition has succeeded in painting them that way. But that's fine too - it's a return to adult politics. I'd much rather see this than mud-slinging. There was a lot made of Scott Brown's brief appearance 20 years ago as a nude model, and just on the basis of that unfairness he earned my support. If it doesn't have to do with politics it doesn't belong in the campaign.

Still, as happy as I am with the right over this emphasis on lying about policies over lying about personality, I can't help but notice that they seemed to have arrived at it after failing so spectaularly to gain traction with personal smears during election season. Don't put it down to nobility, put it down to switching tactics to go with what works better. Lee Atwater's ghost is waiting, probably in his own private room in the RNC offices, until he's needed again.

Two - Here's a sampling of my remarks in the comments, all about my belief that perhaps Obama's budget projections could turn out to be accurate.

...Interestingly, those big spikes on the chart happened after recessions. Just sayin'.




...Since the point is unusually low you could argue that it will tend to normalize; if that's the case it might even shoot up higher quicker.

...Anyway, neither one of us knows what's going to happen; we should check back in a few months. You were right about Obama's popularity after all. Perhaps you're right about this.


That's the tone I take all through the discussion, which is why this response surprised me.
 
Can you point to any single benchmark prediction the Obama Administration has made that has been met? I can't. Why do you put blind faith in his predictions on his budget?


BLIND FAITH! This is how Fox hosts characterize Juan Williams and Alan Colmes and the host of other wishy-washy centrists who appear in their studios. Anything that doesn't jibe with the echo-chamber is far-left-loony. You can easily see where this "liberal media bias" idea has come from, based on the above exchange.
 
Incidentally there are probably a good half dozen or so projections that were met or exceeded, but the talking points focus on employment because it's dramatically off estimates. No, I don't know what they are. I'm supposed to be working right now. If I get a chance this weekend I'll google a little and post 'em here. Hope I'm not wrong!

Pity That You Can't Ask, Shame That He Can't Tell

Here's my thinking... if you're homophobic at all, and you're showering with a roomful of strangers, wouldn't you rather be able to know which ones are the homosexuals? I mean, as far as you know now, they ALL are. And this is good for unit cohesion?

Donate Now, Receive Runaway Best-Seller

Sarah Palin used her PAC money to buy up copies of Going Rogue, then sold them at a profit to subsequent donors. It's legal! And is uses all free-market principals.

I'm not sure the practice proves that she's not really popular though. Let's face it, this kind of thing cannibalizes sales, so it would work like Cash For Clunkers - load sales up front but kill then down the line. And ultimately Palin did okay with the book overall. So the only real thing to get mad about here is the idea that you're donating money to a woman not realizing that she's getting to pocket a fraction of it as royalties. And if you're not already furious that after you gave her all that money that the's not even RUNNING for anything, this probably won't make it any worse.

A Poll Both Annoying and Illuminating

Understand, the source is suspicious as hell - this poll of self-identified Republicans was commissioned by Daily Kos. So most Republicans would reject it without even looking. On the other hand, I imagine that they would agree with the results I'm going to quote, while vigorously decrying Kos's conclusions about what they mean.

For example:

Should Barack Obama be impeached, or not?


Yes 39
No 32
Not Sure 29

Kos' conclusion is that this is out of the mainstream of most Americans; but everything I've read on the right suggests that they believe all Americans think Obama should be impeached. Or they're about to think that.

Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?


Yes 42
No 36
Not Sure 22

It's nice to know that more Republicans are sure he was born here than don't; but it's a little stupid that more are certain that he wasn't than are not sure. Similarly:

Do you think Barack Obama is a socialist?

Yes 63
No 21
Not Sure 16

I guess it depends on whether you define "socialist" formally or as just a kind of muttered insult.

Anyway I'd be interested to see whether any of my conservative pals thing Kos exaggerated the NUMBERS in the poll. Even I think he went overboard on the conclusions.

Light At The End Of The Tunnel

Perhaps obstruction for its own sake is no longer seen as a good thing. Here's John Boehner on Meet The Press yesterday:

I think the President’s proposal on freezing nonsecurity domestic spending is a good first step, but it’s only $15 billion for each of the next three years. I think we can do much better than that. I don’t think any agency of the federal government should be exempt from rooting out wasteful spending or unnecessary spending. And I, frankly, I would agree with it at the Pentagon. There’s got to be wasteful spending there, unnecessary spending there.

You know who else says that? Nancy Pelosi. And I say it too, though nobody's gonna quote me in their blog.

It's interesting that Boehner says we can do MUCH BETTER than that, suggesting that there must be a huge chunk of perceived waste in this military, more than the domestic programs to help the poor and keep the schools going that they've been hacking at for years. It will be fascinating to see if the other Republicans pick this talking point up. If they do, I'll start believing that they actually are interested in making America better. Come on you guys, it's a gimme. And you even get to disagree with Obama, though you have to back up Pelosi.

Just One More Thing About Last Friday's Q & A

Pretty nice work - dude oughtta ditch the teleprompters more often.

To be fair, every time Bush appeared before a room full of Democrat critics on camera he... uh... wait, I need to do a little research. I'll get back to ya.