Kerfuffle

Jimmy, Brian and The Roots slow jam the Wisconsin protests

 

What we have to look forward to in 2011...

Four questions for Republicans and four answers for undecided voters

I apologize in advance for going way, way past the "fair use" standards by completely re-posting this piece from Jed Lewison, an editor at Daily Kos.  But it's worth getting out there to as many people as possible. 

Questions:

1. What was the average monthly private sector job growth in 2008, the final year of the Bush presidency, and what has it been so far in 2010?

1. What was the Federal deficit for the last fiscal year of the Bush presidency, and what was it for the first full fiscal year of the Obama presidency?

1. What was the stock market at on the last day of the Bush presidency? What is it at today?

1. Which party's candidate for speaker will campaign this weekend with a Nazi reenactor who dressed up in a SS uniform?

Answers:

1. In 2008, we lost an average of 317,250 private sector jobs per month. In 2010, we have gained an average of 95,888 private sector jobs per month. (Source) That's a difference of nearly five million jobs between Bush's last year in office and President Obama's second year.

1. In FY2009, which began on September 1, 2008 and represents the Bush Administration's final budget, the budget deficit was $1.416 trillion. In FY2010, the first budget of the Obama Administration, the budget deficit was $1.291 trillion, a decline of $125 billion. (Source) Yes, that means President Obama has cut the deficit -- there's a long way to go, but we're in better shape now than we were under Bush and the GOP.

1. On Bush's final day in office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 closed at 7,949, 1,440, and 805, respectively. Today, as of 10:15AM Pacific, they are at 11,108, 2,512, and 1,183. That means since President Obama took office, the Dow, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 have increased 40%, 74%, and 47%, respectively.

1. The Republican Party, whose candidate for speaker, John Boehner, will campaign with Nazi re-enactor Rich Iott this weekend. If you need an explanation why this is offensive, you are a lost cause.

The moral of the story is this: if you vote Republican, I hope you enjoy Election Day -- because you're not going to like what comes next.

If you have some misguided friends who have bought the bullshit coming out of FOX News and similar venues, and might not follow a link to Daily Kos, then send them here instead.

[Major h/t to Jed, and apologies for the shameles lift as well.  But I know you'll agree that it's OK in special circumstances.]

I'm you, so vote for me! Vote for the Willful Ignorance platform!

Art imitates life.  Or is it the other way around.  These days, that's not all too clear.

 

I look forward to the Republican deficit hawks spinning this inconvenient fact...

Republican tax plan adds more than $36 billion to the federal deficit next year; transfers most of that to the rich.

The Washington Post reports that the analysts for the non-partisan Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation have been crunching some numbers on both the Democratic and Republican tax proposals.  With that Bush tax cuts due to expire, we need a new plan.

As WaPo's Lori Montgomery reports...

A Republican plan to extend tax cuts for the rich would add more than $36 billion to the federal deficit next year -- and transfer the bulk of that cash into the pockets of the nation's millionaires, according to a congressional analysis released Wednesday.

Hmmm.  But I thought Republicans were against (right now) any kind of deficit spending... except for wars and associated profiteers, of course.  Anyway...

New data from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation show that households earning more than $1 million a year would reap nearly $31 billion in tax breaks under the GOP plan in 2011, for an average tax cut per household of about $100,000. 

And the distributions of the tax cuts look kind of like this:

Wow!  That sure is a big gray dot there.

Meanwhile, there are some who think both plans are a bad idea...

Given the soaring national debt, many economists deem both proposals unaffordable. Even some Republicans, including Reagan administration budget chief David Stockman and former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, have urged lawmakers to let them expire and allow income tax rates to pop back up to their levels during the Clinton administration.

Both parties are pushing on.  The Democrats want to live up to Obama's campaign pledge not to raise taxes on the middle class.  Meanwhile, Republicans are demanding support for their high-dollar plan, despite the deficit and the rather selfish and unseemly "let them eat cake" appearance, because they know that people who make over a million a year are really hurting.  Can you imagine having to go from the 25 year old Macallen to the 12 year old stuff?  Outrageous! 

I'm inclined to roll with the President and the Democrats on this one, but I actually think Stockman and Greenspan are correct.

Shorter health care reform summary: Republicans are assholes; Democrats are pussies

That's pretty much the bottom line on this whole health care thing.  The Republicans play hide the ball, claiming documents are too long to read, then too brief to have sufficient detail.  They want a bipartisan meeting with cameras present, until there's a bipartisan meeting with cameras present.  They want a plan and an understanding of who will be invited and what the format of the meeting will be, then they don't bother to read it and act as if it isn't there.  They demand to have input and yet produce no plan.  They act like 41 beats 59... and these days, apparently it does.

And all the while, the euphemistically castrated Democrats, well... they act like Democrats.

And Jon Stewart pretty much makes that both insightful and funny in six minutes:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Summit's Eve
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Vancouverage 2010

I believe I just became an "Independent."

Dear Congressional Democrats: Are you fretting over what to do about HCR and every other thing people expect you to accomplish? Well, sit down and let me buy you a beer and help you figure this out

Sophomoric yet dead on...

Here... let me get you a pair. While not required, two are better than one.

Apparently, some basic fact checking is all that's needed to demonstrate (again) what lying sack of poop Dick Cheney really is

The so-called "Underwear Bomber" story has been pumped and pumped hard by the GOP this week.  Their talking points have been repeated by habitual liars like Karl Rove, Pete Hoekstra and others on the cable news channels.  But the Republican's Darth Vader himself finally emerged from the ether to offer his memory-and-facts-be-damned take of the story.  As is to be expected, he found several points to criticize about the current administration, while completely forgetting or ignoring that the administration in which he served as co-president did exactly the same things and then some.

And what are Democrats doing about it?  Not much, it seems.  They're just letting these asshats bullshit their way through hypocritical and baseless talking points unchallenged.  I have to give Republicans props for sticking to the script, and knowing they can get away with saying almost anything since Democrats do have a penchant for spinelessness, and the media can't be bothered to fact-check all that much.

While FOX News,  with their fact-challenged straight face, is now promoting themselves as "Hard News, Real Reporting," MSNBC actually did some real reporting on this subject last night.  And all they needed to do was some Google searching to demonstrate what an evil asshole of a liar Richard B. Cheney is...

Well played, Rachel Maddow.

Sometimes the satirical truth hurts. President Obama hasn't really gotten a lot done so far.

It's been a subject that a lot of Democrats don't want to address.  It's a subject that get's one labeled a "concern troll" on progressive blogs if one is to write about it.  But, when it comes right down to it, Barack Obama doesn't have a whole lot to show for this first year in office.  And Saturday Night Live -- which can be wickedly accurate on some nights -- called him out for it:

Admittedly, this has been bugging me for a while.  Most all who voted for Obama were hoping for change, as the campaign suggested.  And they were hoping to get far, far away from the mess that George W. Bush and his Republican pals had made of the country.  I wasn't expecting miracles.  I wasn't even expecting a lot.  But I was expecting something. 

Make no mistake; I'm not bailing on President Obama.  Yet.  But I am growing impatient.  Much of my impatience is focused on the Democratically controlled Congress... especially the Senate.  While the GOP has truly been the party of "if Obama's for it, we're against it," at least they are more or less upfront about that fact.  Democrats, on the other hand, seem to have a real dilemma on their hands:  to vote with their constituents or their lobbyists.  Add to that the fact that small-staters are the ones fucking things up for the most part, and you have the makings of a poor showing in the off-year elections and you offer comedy gold to the satirists and late night comedians.

Nice going, you guys.

There are a lot of people who simply can't wait much longer for a public option

People against what they call "socialized medicine" and a "government takeover of health care" seem to either not know, not understand, or not care that there are a lot of people (including me) who cannot get insurance, or have certain parts of coverage denied due to pre-exisitng conditions.

To those who don't know:  Climb out from under whatever rock you are living.

To those who don't understand:  Educate yourself.  Reach out to people not like you who have different lives, and talk to them so you can understand that not everyone without insurance is some kind of lazy bum or otherwise less-than-human.  Read.  

To those who just don't care:  How can you sleep at night?  I mean, really.  So many people aligned with the conservative right in this country only see health care as a privilege that you get if you can afford it... like a new car.  Can't afford health care?  Tough.  And yet, they are the same who talked of death panels with great authority, choosing not to acknowledge that CIGNA and United Health Care give out death sentences every day in our current system.  Oddly, these people claim to be "Christians" while espousing this point of view.  How very unChristlike. 

Of course, not everyone of the Democratic side is happy either.  Evidence this email sent in reply to the person who sent around the video shown above:

"With the news that some in the White House are considering a "trigger"—a delay tactic designed to kill the public option—it's more important than ever to get the word out that we simply can't afford to wait for real reform."
 
It could be you or me without health care one day indeed. There but for the grace of god...
 
Oh, MAN. Therese, I just can't take this anymore. OBAMA IS THE SINGLE GREATEST DISSAPOINTMENT IN MY POLITICAL LIFE. Does anyone else I've CC'd feel the same? It's not just on gay issues, it's on everything. It boils down to this: Why is he in ANY way "negotiating" or "compromising"? The Democrats control the legislative and executive branches of our government. He was elected to do the things he promised, like health care for all. And he's worried about the fringe Republican minority?! He's been letting the Republicans frame the debate over health care, and other issues, when he, IF HE WERE A TRUE LEADER, should be defining the debate and not compromising for anyone. "Change you can believe in"? What an asshole. He is just another spineless Democrat who doesn't know how to govern and is a pussy when it comes to leading. Obama is nothing but the grandest political disapointment in modern American history. If he does health care reform without a public option, it's not health care reform at all, and the Republicans will have won.
 
I'll say this for the worst president in our history, GEORGE W. BUSH. He had an agenda and he got everything he wanted done. And he did so with a DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED LEGISLATURE! The spineless Democrats, as always. Bush did not compromiose and he got everything he wanted. I don't agree with Bush, OF COURSE, but my point is he led and did everything he wanted to do. Why the hell can't Obama do the same? I'll tell you why, because he is a FUCKING PIECE-OF-SHIT SPINELESS DEMOCRAT FUCK. Democrats, suck.
 
And now I'm back to being unable to watch the news. I had to stop watching the news during the Bush presidency because I got so steamed it threatened my mental health. And now I can't watch the news because of the tiny little decaying Republican party controlling the debate on every issue and the limp Obama exercising his FETISH FOR COMPROMISE. He's not going to get anything done unless he turns into LBJ and starts smashing some Democrats' heads. Obama is a piece of shit.

People are dying around us for lack of health care... in the United States of America... land of yellow "Support our Troops" magnetic ribbons., as if we are some Third World contry  People who supported the Democrats in general and Barack Obama in particular are very unhappy.  And nothing changes.

As I've said before, we are, indeed, doomed.  So party on while you can.