Jindal Admits He Lied About Katrina Story (*Update)

I really haven't bothered to watch the Republican response delivered by Gov. Bobby Jindal to President Obama's address to Congress. The Republican Party is so weak and small it really doesn't matter what they think. They have no say in government. Not one single Republican vote is needed to pass legislation and not one single vote is needed to pass a budget. If it wasn't for their constant whining nobody would even know there is a Republican Party. So I suppose in the case of the GOP all news is good news, because then at least it might make the fascists in charge feel a sense of importance, but certainly when your future hope tells outright lies in his speech it would take someone from the Republican Fantasy World to believe such a story is a good thing.

...a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.

Here's Jindal in his own words describing how he was in the room with the sheriff at the time and that it was him who encouraged the sheriff to disregard the fed's warning.



*Update:

Oh the Republican Party! It must really suck to be so weak and impotent that every time you try to hold a circle jerk you have to make up lies to get people to pay attention. But lies are the inner-core principles of the Republican Party. So of course they will cheer and clap when one of their very manly, macho men (or women, see Ann Coulter's adam's apple) stands up and talks about how tough they are and how they stood up to Democrats and government.

Bobby Jindal's lie about his role in the Hurricane Katrina rescue efforts contains all of the above.

In case you don't want to watch the clip above of Gov. Jindal describing how tough he is and how he stood up to a weak Democratic Sheriff and government, here's the transcript of it.

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

It never happened. Jindal by his own admission was not there the day of the rescues and the conversation between him and the sheriff never happened.

After many questions for proof that Jindal was in the Sheriff's office that day, Jindal's staff finally released a clarification to Ben Smith at the Politico stating:

It was in the days following the storm. Sheriff Lee was a hero who worked tirelessly to rescue those in danger, and he didn't take kindly to bureaucrats getting in his way.

Realizing Jindal's office just made a comment calling their boss a liar, Jindal's staff has now said that he was indeed there during rescue efforts but that he wasn't there during the Sheriff's phone conversation about rescue boats. In the Republican Fantasy World this means the story Jindal told on Tuesday night to millions of people is true. But read it again and see if Jindal makes it sound as if he wasn't present during the Sheriff's phone call. He specifically states he was there when the Sheriff was arguing on the phone with a bureaucrat.

Looks like Bobby Jindal can see Russia from his front porch. (h/t to Zack Roth for his superb coverage of this).

Shoot 'em All

I've been briefly paying attention to the great conservative retreat known as CPAC this week. Mostly for comic relief and mostly in sheer awe at a movement that is as dead as the dinosaurs can still believe itself as relevant. As I mentioned below the annual event is reminiscent of Nazi rallies from the 20s and 30s. They cheer and clap the nuclear destruction of American cities, they celebrate war like it's a gift from God and they cheer and jump around when the President of the United States is called a communist and a foreign born alien. Yet all the while proclaiming themselves as true Americans. Fascism it is.

But really what strikes me as complete idiocy is when people like Joe Wurzelbacher (aka Joe Da Plumber), the new face of the Republican Party, says people should be shot for talking bad about our troops.

Back in the day, really, when people would talk about our military in a poor way, somebody would shoot ‘em. And there’d be nothing said about that, because they knew it was wrong. You don’t talk about our troops. You support our troops. Especially when our congressmen and senators sit there and say bad things in an ongoing conflict.

I'd challenge anyone to find one person that was shot for talking bad about the military. Find me one person, only one. This is just ridiculous. I'd also like to see Wurzelbacher's DD 214 papers. Furthermore, what about John McCain who yesterday said we are losing the war in Afghanistan, isn't that talking bad about our military and an ongoing conflit? Should McCain, the Republican candidate for president, be shot?

Thank You GOP!

While George Bush and John McCain were running around the country in 2008 telling us how great things were going and that the American economy was strong as ever the truth was things were really, really bad. How bad? Numbers not seen since the Great Depression bad. The feds just reported this morning that the economy shrank at 6.2% in the fourth quarter of 2008. With that report, the U.S. economy shrank a total of -3% for the year 2008. Two year average rate of growth ('07-'08) was an anemic 0.8%. Pretty much no growth in the economy for two solid years! The FDIC also released a report outlining there were 252 "problem banks" in the fourth quarter of 2008. Not mentioned in the FDIC report is the fact that 24 banks collapsed in 2008, the most one year collapse since the 1930s. Thank you GOP!

*Update:

I was just thinking if you notice at their CPAC event (mentioned below), Republicans are claiming-- in-between cheering on Glorious War-- they know how to fix the economy. The same people who gave us our current crisis are jumping and hollering that they are truly the only great Americans left who know how to fix our economy. They are a mad people, completely void of any understanding of reality. They have not an ounce of sense in the whole group. They're a sick lot, every last one of them.

How Can Anyone Be a Part of This?

In case you had better things to do this week, you might not have known that it's time for the annual CPAC conference. This is where conservatives get together to talk about how tough and macho and conservative and responsible they are. It's also where conservatives go to talk about Glorious War and Freedom Bombs and about how Great American Patriots they are. As if any of that isn't disgusting in itself, this year the also cheered the nuclear destruction of the city of Chicago.



If that's not enough to get your conservative juices flowing, maybe a tough macho extremely patriotic Cliff Kincaid calling the President of the United States a communist not born in the United States will.



How can anyone possibly be part of this? How can anyone with half a brain cheer the destruction of the nation's third largest city and home of the current President of the United States and then have the nerve to call themselves a patriot? This is the modern GOP, pathetic to its core. This is what the minority Party in American politics has sunk to. It's like watching a Nazi rally in 1930 Germany prior to their takeover of Regierung. It's disgusting and it can't be called anything else but fascism.

Obama Reveals $3.55 Trillion Budget

Discarding dishonest Bush accounting policies, President Obama today released a proposal for a $3.55 trillion budget containing a $1.75 trillion deficit. The huge deficit comes from 8 years of an accounting scheme by the former administration that did not include $2.7 trillion in costs.

"All told, we are showing $2.7 trillion in costs, in this budget, that were excluded from previous budgets," Orszag told reporters. "And I think that's a mark of the honesty and responsibility contained in this document."

The president's first budget also contains a $634 billion down payment on a universal health care program.

While in office President Bush routinely left off items such as war costs and financial bailouts from his budget proposals, instead insisting such items were not costs but investments. The Obama administration has ruled out such schemes and wants to turn honesty into accountability.

"In keeping with my commitment to make our government more open and transparent, this budget is an honest accounting of where we are and where we intend to go,"

[...]

He said previous budgets have "not told the whole truth" about spending and that "large sums have been left off the books," including war costs that have been funded by separate emergency supplemental appropriations.

"And that kind of dishonest accounting is not how you run your family budgets at home; it's not how your government should run its budgets either," Obama said.

I whole heartily agree with this. There's no reason to let Bush and the Republicans off the hook for this.
Obama's FY 2010 Budget Overview

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Government Finally Defines Nationalization, Kinda

George Bush holdover and to me a very scary man, Ben Bernanke Chairman of the Federal Reserve, finally defined what socialism nationalization is:

"Nationalization, to my mind, is when government seizes the banks, zeros out the shareholders and begins to manage and run the bank, and we don't plan anything like that."

In many ways he's absolutely correct. I mean it's a good Republican answer because it means George Bush is not a socialist, which is convenient for the GOP. I just find it hard to believe that if Barack Obama had nationalized AIG like Bush did if such a definition would exist. If and when Obama gives one dollar to a private industry he'll be a socialist. Complete takeover won't have anything to do with it. We'll see if Bernanke's GOP abides by his definition. I seriously doubt it.

See I'm Not Always Disagreeable

It seems like the only time I link to some of my favorite bloggers it's to disagree with them. But not this time. Jaz and I have been having a nice little discussion on President Obama, socialism and all therein over at his blog. And I gotta admit I pretty much agree with everything he says here.

Speech Reaction

I just finished watching President Obama's speech from last night. I didn't get to catch it live because I was out and about doing other things far removed from politics. My initial reaction from the speech is just relief. It's so nice to see Obama leading the nation and Joe Biden sitting behind him. It's such a contrast from the last 8 years of a stumbling George Bush and a smirking Dick Cheney. Change doesn't even describe what last night was really about.

It finally dawned on me that we have an African-American president and a female Speaker of the House. America is truly a nation that has witnessed some extraordinary transformations. And not just these last two years, I'm talking these last 233 years. Even though we pride ourselves on equality, we have never been so close to achieving that truth as what we are today. We still have a long way to go but we are at least now on a forward path. So it was with relief that I watched one of the most remarkable moments in American history.

More Please

AIG is going back for seconds. Last September George Bush nationalized AIG with $150 billion of tax payer money. We already own 80% of AIG but they want more. This makes no sense. Let it fail. There is no reason to keep pumping money into a failed business. And I say this as someone who has mutual funds managed by AIG. I've already lost about 60% of my portfolio. So I should be all for another bailout right? Wrong. I'll move my funds and I'll make adjustments. That's what investors/planners do. You don't just keep throwing money into a pit hoping that buying up worthless debt will solve the problem. No more bailouts. This is getting insane.

Tags: AIG, Socialism, Bailout

Must Be Hyperbole

And so the super serious and very patriotic Kent at Right From Left once again states that George Bush cannot be blamed for any failures during his 8 years. In doing so, Kent manages to invoke both the Fantasy World Law and the Regretted History Law, a feat never accomplished before.

So says Kent:

Again Chris, you're coming at the argument from the wrong side.

If someone did the best that anyone has ever done in a particular area, like Bush with record highs on the Dow, than he cannot logically or reasonably be criticized for losses.

You have a pathological hatred of President Bush and all it does is make you sound rather childish.

George Bush is the greatest...Fantasy World Law. Me bringing up George Bush in a conversation and focusing on the Dow's 43% loss during his presidency....Regretted History Law. Remember we are never to mention George Bush unless it coincides with the Fantasy World Law which states George Bush is the greatest president ever. If we don't follow that Law then we are obviously full of hatred and only bashing Bush.

Never mind, though, that the Dow tripled under Bill Clinton. And never mind that the record highs Kent mentions lasted a whopping one day, and has fallen steadily since then.

In Kent's world George Bush can't logically or reasonably be blamed for failures. Time has miraculously stood still ever since the Dow hit 13,930 and it hasn't budged since then. It would be one thing to say that Obama inherited a Dow at its highest levels ever and since taking office has only allowed it to get worse. But the Dow had been tumbling since Oct. 2007, well over a year before he took office. He inherited a Dow in free fall; a Dow that lost 43% of its value under George W. Bush. None of that ever happened in Kent's world. To him Obama inherited a Dow at its highest levels ever, which is absolutely just not the case.

Polls and What the Right Constitutes as Fringe (*Update)

It has been common practice for right wingers to label anyone who doesn't believe everything they pretend to believe to be outside the norm of mainstream American thinking. All throughout George Bush's presidency we were bombarded by neoconservatives telling us that those of us who didn't support George Bush were part of some media driven hysteria exercising our hatred for America. The same was true during John McCain's candidacy as well. Numerous times McCain's running mate or surrogates reminded us that people who supported Barack Obama were part of "communist country" and not part of "real America." Their core belief for America is that people who don't lockstep down the road with the GOP are fringe members of American society.

Tough talking, macho conservative Republican and Governor of South Carolina Mark Sanford perfectly summed all this up the other day. Talking about how as a conservative Republican he cannot rightfully accept $42 million from the stimulus bill for green construction efforts in his state, Sanford proceeded to call supporters of the bill "the real fringe" in American politics. Despite what wackjob Sanford may be saying, the fringe of American politics is as Republican as ever.

Latest polling from Gallup shows 59% of Americans support the passage of the stimulus bill, with 33% opposing. In Sanford's make-believe world 59% is fringe where 33% (a number significantly higher than George Bush's approval rating) is mainstream.

A new poll just released today from Gallup also shows President Obama has increased in popularity among the American population in every identifying factor except for Republicans. In other words, Obama got more popular amongst every group except the very mainstream and non-fringe Republicans.

Contrary to whatever reality may be, in the Republican Fantasy World nothing could be more popular and more mainstream than their Grand Leader who left office with a 20-something approval rating and nothing could be more out of the mainstream than our current president who, somehow, got even more popular with the American people than he already was. This is an epidemic that plagues an entire party from the head down and it doesn't seem to be slowing down.

*Update:

Aaaaahhhh more polls. WaPo has Obama @ 68% and the NY Times has him @ 63%.

How about that very unpopular stimulus bill...64% in the WaPo.

So how are those mainstream Republicans doing? WaPo has them at 38%. The NY Times poll says 63% believe GOP lawmakers opposed the stimulus bill purely for political reasons. But what about their inner-core values and disdain for wasteful spending?

Now remember, in the Republican Fantasy World a 68% job approval is on the fringe of the political spectrum and a 64% approval for a piece of legislation is totally wackjob fringe America. Given this latest round of polling there is no logical reason why there is a Republican Party.

Expanding Ownership

What happens when a bank is worthless? The government steps in. Why? Just let it fail. Seriously. Either socialize the entire bank or let it fail. And really the American government wouldn't have to takeover all of it because as it seems other very rich oil exporting Arab governments already pretty much own the bank.

As part of the plan, Citigroup officials hope to persuade private investors that have bought preferred shares -- such as the Government of Singapore Investment Corp., Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Kuwait Investment Authority -- to follow the government's lead in converting some of those stakes into common stock, according to people familiar with the matter. That would further bolster an obscure but increasingly pivotal measure of banks' capital known as "tangible common equity," or TCE.

Converting stock, as I'm reading it, is supposed to quench fears. Somehow it just doesn't do it for me.

Having It Both Ways Club

In addition to the 4 Republicans I listed here who voted against the stimulus bill but couldn't wait to send out press releases bragging about all the money they are bringing home to their districts, just go ahead and add these other 14.

Jindal Proves He's a Man

Republican Governor of Louisiana says he'll turn down $98 million of the stimulus offered to his state, but he'll keep the other $7.5 billion. What a wuss.

Honesty Is Accountability

The NY Times reports for his budget proposal next week President Obama has "banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller."

This is the biggest change Obama has brought to Washington and America thus far. For 8 years George Bush didn't include a number of very expensive items in his budgets so as to make the deficit appear smaller than it really was. It's a vastly immoral way to run a country. Not only was it delivering to the American people a lie but it built a foundation for secrecy and allusion that haunted the Bush administration throughout its two-terms.

One of the biggest changes to the budget will come in funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Obama will include the wars as budgeted items whereas President Bush did not, deciding instead to fund two wars with supplemental spending bills.

Director of OMB Peter Orszag tell it this way, “the president prefers to tell the truth,” he said, “rather than make the numbers look better by pretending.” That's a telling statement from a nonpartisan government official.

By adding actual "real" accounting practices to the White House, it will add $2.7 trillion more to the deficit than it otherwise would have appeared under George Bush. The Bush administration preferred to hide such deficits with asterisks and footnotes rather than with the truth. So Obama inherits a much larger deficit than so-called fiscal conservative Republicans would like to admit. Presenting the truth in budgets is the only way to put the country back on a sound economic footing. This is just the beginning.

My Map: Update

I had almost forgotten to check and see how close I was in predicting the outcome of the presidential election. Usually I'm terrible at predicting anything. From sports to politics to lottery numbers, I'm no soothsayer. But I can usually come close enough. Here was the map as I predicted it in June of 2008.

As you can see in the actual map I missed three states. I thought for sure Obama had Missouri, he ended up losing it by less than 4,000 votes. And I thought McCain would get Indiana but only barely. Turns out, Obama won Indiana fairly big. And I missed North Carolina where you can tell by clicking the link that I had a hard time in deciding what color to paint the Tar Heel state. I eventually settled for red but knew it would be close.

I picked 364-194. Turns out Obama won even bigger than I predicted: 365-173.

Sanford Takes the Money

After all his bitter opposition to the stimulus bill, the Republican Governor of South Carolina has now decided he will indeed take the stimulus money allotted to his state. Hypocrite.

*Update:

Republican Governor of Texas can't seem to grab his balls and turn down the federal stimulus money either. Those inner-core principles the Republicans were bragging about having found again sure did get lost in a hurry.

Where Were You Then?

The Dow lost a total net sum of 5,980.92 points under George W. Bush. That's nearly 43% of its value. And not one time, never, did Kent complain. But now all of a sudden he's worried about a falling stock market. The Dow didn't just start its tumble on January 20th, 2009. It's been falling steadily since October 2007. Somehow to the right wing American history began a month ago.

*Update:

Kent and Jaz can't for the life of them figure out why I won't quit mentioning the presidency of George W. Bush in relation to their new found concern for the country. It's been so long since Bush was president that his presidency has no influence on the world today. Mentioning him only demonstrates my "feckless" ability to distinguish historical comparisons. They are indeed invoking the Regretted History Law.

Kent insists it's impossible to say the Dow lost 43% of its value under Bush because Bush took the Dow to its highest levels in history-- and then time has since stood still, nothing ever happened once the Dow hit 13,000. Jaz just calls it "Bush Bashing" to use the ancient history of the Bush presidency as context for today-- a complete invokation of the Regretted History Law. And there you have it. Never, not one single time, did either of them complain when the Dow was cut in half during the Bush years but now both are very concerned with a tumbling Dow, and it's all Obama's fault.

Decrepit

Talking to some buddies this morning an interesting take on the Republican aversion to the stimulus bill was the main topic. Mainly it goes like this (note: I've been seeing this all over the place so I'm not trying to pass this off as original material, I'm just summarizing the conversation). Should Republican legislators (all of them actually) and governors (16 I believe) who opposed the stimulus bill be allowed to accept the funding? I think it's a pretty legitimate question, though I personally believe it to be impossible to impose such restrictions.

What's more is crap like this from Republicans such as Sen. Kit Bond in Missouri who voted against the stimulus but sent out a press release bragging about the new jobs he helped create with its passage. This goes beyond hypocrisy. There's something morally decrepit about these people. If there were a way to block Republicans from getting access to the funds I'd be all for it.

*Update:

Elana Schor at TPM points out four other Republicans all too eager to take credit for the stimulus bill, a bill they voted against.

Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (MO) - "Luetkemeyer said the project is considered 'shovel ready' and that's what the economy needs. President Darrell Krueger and Luetkemeyer discussed the educational benefits of the economic stimulus package." [KTVO-TV, 2/17/09]

Representative Don Young (AK) - "Alaskan Congressman Don Young won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. [Congressman Don Young's Press Release; 2/13/09]

Representative Ken Calvert (CA) - "All of us in the Inland Empire will do what we can to direct as much money as we can." [The Press Enterprise; 2/13/09]

Representative John Mica (FL) - "I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," [Congressman John Mica Press Release; 2/13/09]

Is It Ever Socialism?

Super capitalist and tough guy Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was forced to redefine what he was talking about on Sunday when he said he would not take the idea of nationalizing banks off the table.

"I would not take off the idea of nationalizing the banks" from the table, Graham, R-S.C., told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's "This Week" program

"This idea of nationalizing banks is not comfortable, but I think we have gotten so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we're going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago, no one likes," Graham said. "But, to me, banking and housing are the root cause of this problem. And I'm very much afraid that any program to salvage the bank is going to require the government.."

Sen. Graham insists he only meant a few banks not all of them. He also added the federal takeover of a few banks would only be to "restructure" them.

Apparently Sen. Graham has no idea what socialism is. It doesn't matter if the government takes over one bank or all of them it's still socialism. Take for instance China a country that allows some private investment but the central government still controls the means. It's still socialism my dear.

What does "restructure" even mean? Isn't that the same thing as redistribute? Alas, only in the Republican Fantasy World can someone get away with such wordage and still not be a socialist.

President Signs Stimulus Package

Supporters insist the massive $790 billion package will create or save 3.5 million jobs and lift America out of its recession. In all honesty, the only way to pull us out of this recession is to put people back to work. President Obama has four years to make this work. If not, like the president said the other day, he won't be back for another four.

Back in the Saddle

Who would have guessed all it would take for Republicans to return to their inner-core principles of fiscal conservatism and small government would be getting demolished in the 2008 elections and losing every last grip of power they had spent the better part of 14 years in creating? They are so emboldened now in their core principles that they have created a rock video proclaiming the GOP is Back! Anyone who would have guessed the Republican Party would be back on its feet this quickly would have to be some modern-day Nostradamus. Though not to ruin their coming out party, someone should point out to them that they just voted almost unanimously against the largest middle class tax cuts in American history. Not sure how that jives with their new found inner-core principles of fiscal conservatism and small government-- surely it’s just an oversight. Now back to the party!!



Tags: GOP is Back, Back in the Saddle,Republicans

President Clinton Is Dead On

“I find it amazing that the Republicans who doubled the debt of the country in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it, gave us an economic record that was totally bereft of any productive result are now criticizing him for spending money."

Take a stroll down any right wing media outlet or blog and you'll discover that they have totally forgotten the last 8 years. Not one time did they ever oppose a George Bush spending bill or not one time did they ever complain about deficit spending. To them the greatest thing a president could do was what George Bush did-- cut taxes. Now that Obama has done that and cut more people's taxes than George Bush ever dreamed of doing Republicans can only return to their fiscal conservative, small government lies of yesterday. Not only is the Republican Party bereft of any moral standing or any inclination of how to administer government, they are also totally void of any logical response to our new progressive government that doesn't involve talk of fiscal conservatism, small government, pork spending or Rush Limbaugh.

GOP-- Not Socialists!

I wrote the other day about President Obama's comments regarding socializing our banking industry and how throughout the campaign season Republicans tried their hardest to brand him as a liberalsocialistterroristcommie. It didn't work, but what's really interesting is that it was George Bush who socialized the lending and insurance industries and it's the Republican Party, led by all people Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, stating that socialization of the banking industry may be a necessity to save our country. Yes, the big, bad, macho, tough talking, purely capitalistic small government conservative Lindsay (yes that's a man's name) Graham supports socialism. Only in the Republican Fantasy World can someone come right out and say they support socialism and not be called a socialist.

Textbook

The fact that Republicans are calling the passage of President Obama's stimulus bill a failure is proof just how successful the new president has been.

Let's see here. President Obama got everything he wanted in the stimulus bill on the day he wanted it and no one got called an anti-American or a terrorist sympathizer for opposing him. And the Republican strategy seems to be to revert back to the days of Gingrich and claim the GOP is morally superior. I don't think this could have turned out any better for Democrats and the President.

The Stimulus Plan

ProPublica has some great coverage of the stimulus debate. Today they have posted a detailed list of spending contained in the compromised version of the bill. Here are some of my thoughts, what I like and don't like.

Con's

--Accountability Section-- $323,500,000

That's a lot of money and it seems entirely vague. I understand it's going for accountability but does it really take 300 million to keep track of this stuff?

--Aids to States Section-- $58,355,000,000

Lot of money, but much needed money. What I don't like in this section is the $10 million for justice department salaries. I'd probably lose the argument, though, from a justice department employee who hasn't had a pay raise in 3 years.

--Other Section-- $80 million for "Salaries and expenses for the management of the Department of Labor?" No need for that.

Pro's

Highway infrastructure investment $26,725,000,000
High speed rail capital assistance $8,000,000,000
Distance learning, telemedicine and broadband program $2,500,000,000
National Telecommunications and Information Administration - broadband technology opportunities program $4,690,000,000

I'll have more updates to this later. I want to get some time to read through the tax cut portion of the bill. My initial thoughts are they could have added slightly more tax cuts but let me read it and see.

Bank CEO's: Bailout Wasn't Necessary

Reading through some of my archives this morning I discovered that I wrote rather extensively on the $700-800 billion financial bailout back in Sept.-Oct. 2008. Or I believe we are calling it TARP nowadays. Any way, it looks like I really opposed this thing and even though the Democrats in Congress largely supported it.

Here, here, here and here I flat out come out opposed to it. And here I plain as day say it's not going to work. As it turns out, I was right.

Socialism, Schmocialism

Remember when the Republican Party was trying to scare the American people into believing that Barack Obama was a liberal, socialist, commie? Oh wait, they still are.

Well here's what the most liberal person in America had to say about socializing nationalizing the banking industry.

[Sweden"] took over the banks, nationalized them, got rid of the bad assets, resold the banks and a couple years later, they were going again. So you'd think looking at it, Sweden looks like a good model. Here's the problem -- Sweden had like five banks," he said, laughing. "We've got thousands of banks. You know, the scale of the U.S. economy and the capital markets are so vast and the, the problems in terms of managing and overseeing anything of that scale, I think, would -- our assessment was that it wouldn't make sense. And we also have different traditions in this country.

Now what president was it that socialized the insurance and banking industry? My mind is a little fuzzy but I believe it was George W. Bush, the greatest president to ever live.

This Is What "Defeated Forever" Looks Like To Republicans

From the AP:

"Eight Taliban gunmen wearing suicide vests attacked three Afghan government buildings Wednesday in a coordinated assault that killed 20 people in the heart of Kabul just ahead of a planned visit from the new U.S. envoy to the region."

But I thought George Bush defeated the Taliban?

• George W. Bush, March 2002: “Because of American soldiers and our brave allies and friends, who have fought beside them, the Taliban is out of business.”

• George W. Bush, July 2002: "In Afghanistan we defeated the Taliban regime, but that was just the first step."

• George W. Bush, August 2003: “Now thanks to the United States and our fine allies, Afghanistan is no longer a haven for terror, the Taliban is history, and the Afghan people are free.”
  

• George W. Bush, November 2003: “Working with a fine coalition, our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of Al Qaida, and put the Taliban out of business forever.”
  

• George W. Bush, September 2004: "And as a result of the United States military, Taliban no longer is in existence. And the people of Afghanistan are now free."

These are just a few of the times George Bush and the Republicans declared the Taliban defeated and Mission Accomplished. So why in the world 8 years later are we still there fighting and dying? And how in the world can the Taliban still carry out successful attacks when George Bush took care of all that for us?

Defeated forever looks an awful lot like the GOP's Permanent Majority.

This Wouldn't Happen At Fox News

We all know Fox News is extremely fair and balanced. We all know this because they tell us directly. There's no beating around the bush. They don't hide the fact that they are not biased in any sort of way. They have lineups that entirely reflect all political spectrums that often contain viewpoints from all over the board. Fox News merely reports the news and lets us all decide our own viewpoints. There is no such thing as passing off a political party's talking points onto such a fair and balanced news organization like FNC. Which is why this story about Fox reprinting word for word a GOP press release is so bizarre.

A GOP press release was turned into a series of graphics and passed off as the network's own research -- so exactly that the graphics even included the Republicans' original typo.

It's unexplainable how a news organization that has very objective hosts like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck and Mike Huckabee could possibly let something like this slip by and get reported as straight out news. It's a mystery.

*Update:

Fox News comes out with one of the weirdest corrections to a story I've ever seen. Instead of admitting to copying a Senate Republican press release and running it as a genuine news story, Fox admits to making a typo but says nothing about passing off a Republican press release. Interesting enough, the typo Fox News admits to making was also in the original Senate Republican press release. So how did it end up in the Fox News segment? It was copied word for word that's how.

Stimulus Passes Senate Overwhelmingly, Media Still Doesn't Get It

Well I've given Alex Bolton at The Hill over 8 hours to respond to my email asking about this sentence in his article about the passage of the stimulus bill today:

"Having just three Senate Republicans on board means Democrats are clinging to a razor-thin majority in the Senate where a few members of the minority are needed to advance difficult legislation."

How can that possibly be, I asked Alex. The last time I checked senate power is controlled by a simple majority and bills are passed by a 50+1 margin. The Democrats currently have a 17 seat majority, or 58 seats. Once they seat Franken they will have an 18 seat majority. So how in the world can the Dems be clinging to a "razor-thin" majority? I just don't get it.

Even if we use the silly Republican cloture rule that has nothing to do with majority seats in the senate. The cloture rule just requires 60 votes to end debate, it mentions nothing about vesting power in the 60 votes. Unless I'm missing something, senate power is a simple majority. I don't understand the inaccurate necessity by the media to state otherwise. I also don't understand why people can't respond to their emails.

First Press Conference

It's so nice to have an articulate president that is engaged and motivated to make America a better place.

Instantly classic quotes from the presser.

*This is an excellent quote rebuking the last 8 years of failed policies.

Prez Obama: "I'm happy to get good ideas from across the political spectrum, from Democrats and Republicans. What I won't do is return to the failed theories of the last eight years that got us into this fix in the first place, because those theories have been tested and they have failed. And that's part of what the election in November was all about."

*Another great quote about how we can possibly even be debating government's role:

Prez Obama: "Some of the criticisms really are with the basic idea that government should intervene at all in this moment of crisis. You have some people, very sincere, who philosophically just think the government has no business interfering in the marketplace. And in fact there are several who have suggested that FDR was wrong to intervene back in the New Deal. They're fighting battles that I thought were resolved a pretty long time ago."

* Has to be my favorite quote yet from President Obama. Ideological blockage? Classic!

Prez Obama: "When it comes to how we approach the issue of fiscal responsibility, again, it's a little hard for me to take criticism from folks, about this recovery package, after they presided over a doubling of the national debt. I'm not sure they have a lot of credibility when it comes to fiscal responsibility.... [W]hen I hear people just saying we don't need to do anything; this is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill, without acknowledging that by definition part of any stimulus package would include spending -- that's the point -- then what I get a sense of is that there is some ideological blockage there that needs to be cleared up."

I think the biggest "news" coming from the president's first presser was his insistence that his initial proposal for tax cuts made the GOP a little impotent (no pun intended). President Obama commented that maybe he should have let the Republicans come up with the tax cut idea first rather than him doing so. I think that's being too nice to the GOP. Once the most liberal person in American history proposes tax cuts that are deeper than anything the greatest president in history ever proposed, I can see how the Repubs were a little peeved about the whole thing. Oh well. They lost.

One Step Closer

Senate votes to end debate on stimulus bill, 61-36. Three Republicans crossover. Let's all recall, though, that the bill only needs a simple majority vote to pass. The 60-vote cloture rule is a made-up Republican rule that was instituted in 2006 so the minority Republican Party could have more say. And somehow the Dems allow this rule to remain. Asinine doesn't even begin to describe it. But if the bill gets 61 votes tomorrow at noon then it will have passed by an overwhelming vote. Contrary to what the media and Rush Limbaugh want us to believe, this bill is popular and has large support in the U.S. Senate.

*Update:

In 2005 the Republican-controlled congress passed a budget bill that contained 6,371 pork barrel earmarks. Never, not one single time, did the GOP ever oppose a single George Bush spending bill. During that time Bush took a huge budget surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in American history. While in the White House, the Republican Party increased government spending by 60%, never-- not once-- ever shrinking government or people's dependence upon government. And throughout all that, throughout the entirety of the Republican control on the American government Fox News never one time questioned a single cent. Never once did it ask its viewers to help them locate the pork in a bill.

Two weeks out of power, Fox News has now too decided that it will return to its fiscal conservative, fiscal responsibility, small government "core principles." Anyone who can watch this channel and believe anything they say has to lack a chromosome.

Cavemen

Here you go. Here's the opposition to the stimulus via the Republican Party.

"A job is something that a business owner creates. What this administration is talking about is 'making work.' ... It's not a job."-- RNC Chairman Michael Steele, Feb. 8th.

Government doesn't create jobs? Is there anything more retarded than that statement? This, however, is the modern Republican Party talking. This is why they oppose the stimulus bill, because in their world the government doesn't employee anyone.

Go tell all those federal employees that they don't have real jobs. Don't forget either that the government owns the banking industry and the insurance industry, what used to be considered private sector jobs but are now federally funded industries, that they too do not have real jobs. Please let the GOP explain to all the subsidized farmers that they aren't doing real work. Go tell the correctional officers they aren't really working since they aren't in the private industry. I would love to hear the GOP explain to the cops that what they do isn't real work since they are paid by tax payer money. And oh yeah, our men and women in uniform in Iraq and Afghanistan serving our country, doing everything that has been asked of them, that they aren't really doing a job since government pays their bills. Go tell them you big macho Party.

These people are cavemen. Listening to them talk is like listening to someone trying to explain to me that the Sun revolves around the Earth. They live in a world that long ago disappeared but refuse to face reality. They are like cavemen who believe the only responsibility of government is to rub two sticks together, but even that may be too much work for them.

*Update:

There is nothing more indicative of the modern GOP and how it portrays not only government but people's relation to government than their stance on the stimulus bill.

As detailed above the Republican Party does not believe that government can create jobs. Or if it does create a job it's not a real job. Never mind the fact that Republicans call me daily wanting a good government job, however. But here we also have actual elected Republican officials bragging about their recent actions toward the stimulus bill.

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)--“We are so far ahead of where we thought we’d be at this time...standing on our core principles” against President Obama’s recovery plans.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA)--Opposition towards the stimulus “will give us a shot in the arm going forward is that we are standing up on principle and just saying no.”

Their core principle is the belief that government does not create jobs. They're excited by their party's ability to not budge on such core ideals. They are excited by the fact that they can go on the national airwaves, as government employees mind you, and pronounce one of the most discarded notions in human history (completely unfettered) that government cannot create jobs for people. I hope when these Republicans return home they do not fly in an airplane because all are subsidized by federal tax payer money, or drive on roads entirely built by federal tax dollars. I hope they hike on trails and backpack to get home because if they don't they are the biggest hypocrites the world has ever seen.

**Update II:

Where the sun always shines.

Head of the Republican Party, Alan Keyes Michael Steele says that President Obama is trying very hard to shore up support for the stimulus bill because he's "upside-down in the polls." As if saying that government doesn't create jobs isn't fantasy world enough, Chairman Steele also thinks having a 67% approval rating for how you're handling the economic stimulus passage means people don't support what you're doing. Steele goes on to say that those wanting the stimulus bill passed are only trying to "get a little bling, bling"

Only in the Republican Fantasy World can someone have a 67% percent approval rating on an issue and they be "upside-down in the polls." Because, remember, George Bush was by far the greatest and most liked president to ever serve and we know this because he was not at all upside-down in the polls.

Like Sheep, GOPers Follow Limbaugh's Stimulus Opposition

The word is the stimulus vote will take place in the senate on Tuesday. Whether that happens or not, I have no clue. Half of what's going on in Washington right now I have no clue. But one thing is certain is that the Republican Party is probably going to offer at best 3-4 votes in favor of the bill. After taking their cue from Rush Limbaugh, a man who has to know more about stimulating things than anyone on earth, the Republican Party and its devout followers want America to believe that they are truly the ones who know how to fix the economy.

Yes, that's right. The Party that presided over that last 8 years of total failure, the Party that took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history, the Party that passed more pork-barrel spending than any in history, the Party that stood firmly behind and exalted the presidency of George W. Bush, wants us all to believe that the stimulus bill is nothing but pork and that Rush Limbaugh knows, now that he's out of rehab, exactly how to solve the current crisis.

After 8 years of never once opposing a spending bill by their Grand Leader, after 8 years of never once caring about fiscal matters, after 8 years of doing nothing but making government bigger, they want us all to believe that they are fiscal conservatives who care about government growing too big. They line up behind their ideological and moral leader and drug dealer, Rush Limbaugh, call it "porkulus" and claim they and only they know what's best for the country.

They are sheep and their policies have failed this country. Giving them any sort of credence now is irresponsible and a disgrace to the historical Democratic victories in November.

Don't Forget, Again

Again, somebody should probably tell Kent that a mere 17 days ago a post like this about George Bush would have him calling that person an anti-American.

New RNC Chair Under Fed. Investigation

That didn't take long. I said this guy wouldn't last a year, he might not last a week.

WaPo:

Michael S. Steele, the newly elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, arranged for his 2006 Senate campaign to pay a defunct company run by his sister for services that were never performed, his finance chairman from that campaign has told federal prosecutors.

WTF?

I just heard Stone Temple Pilots and Alice In Chains on a classic rock station. I can't possibly be that old.

Up or Down?

Vote expected Tuesday on $780 billion stimulus bill. The bill includes $350 billion in tax cuts. Good luck with that.

Deal or No Deal on Stimulus Bill?

Many media outlets are reporting some sort of a deal in the senate for a $780 billion stimulus package. Notice this is a slimmed down version of the Democratic House bill but a larger version of the original President Obama version. Elana Schor, whom I've found to be remarkable in her coverage of this, reports tonight that even though a deal seems to have been struck a vote has not been scheduled yet.

It appears, at least from what I can tell, the votes are there to pass this thing but Republicans will opt to stall as long as possible. The longer they stall the economic news just keeps getting worse and worse. Almost 2 million jobs lost since November. Stalling is the worst thing they could do but really all they have left.

Best Hope For Stimulus?

Elana Schor reports the best hope for a filibuster-proof stimulus bill rests on about a $100 billion bipartisan cut to the bill. The cuts include "$24.8 billion in state stabilization money for education, which was intended to plug existing budget holes; $15 billion in state incentive grants for education; and $1.4 billion for the National Science Foundation..." This sounds really good to me. Is it possible that I agree with two GOP supported amendments in one day? It seems that way. Actually when I worked in the senate I agreed with a lot of Republican budget proposals. Not all but a lot.

I do see a state aid bill getting passed later on, however. Nearly every state in the Union is in financial trouble and I think Congress will return some of the money cut from this amendment in later bills. Actually I foresee a lot of smaller spending bills coming through the Congress this year.

*Update:

CNN is reporting the "best hope" for the stimulus bill as getting a line-by-line bipartisan review. Hey, I'm all for that. That's what Congress is for. Just because the Dems have the majority it doesn't mean they get anything they want passed. What's interesting is that not one single bill when the Republicans were in charge ever got a line-by-line bipartisan review. It was either 100% Republican or nothing at all. That's no way to run government. That's how we got into this mess. I'm glad to see things have definitely changed.

Senate Adds GOP Amendment to Stimulus

The senate "unanimously approved a Republican amendment that would temporarily offer homebuyers a tax credit worth $15,000 or 10 percent of a home’s purchase price, whichever is less. The plan would cost $18 billion."

I am 100% in support of this. I think this is a very good idea and will help new home buyers tremendously.

A GOP amendment that I don't like is the one also approved yesterday that relaxes "Buy American" provisions in the stimulus bill. I don't know how the GOP can't be for "Buy American" laws. This should be highly noted by the Dems and in every talking point. Not only is the GOP, apparently, against the stimulus bill, but one of the provisions they want taken out before they even consider voting for it is a provision that requires iron and steel be purchased in America.

Dick Cheney Treason

Fourteen days ago, any mention by a former government official, much less a former vice-president, that did not highly support George Bush and express great satisfaction in the job he was doing would have landed in the MSM as treasonous activity. Here's the ever so fair and balanced Fox News unequivocally stating as their lead talking point on Hannity & Colmes that any attack on the president during time of war is "unconscionable." The Fox News lede was referring to a speech former vice president Al Gore gave about the Iraq war. Where's the media at in doing the same for Dick Cheney?

Owning Up

I just want to go on record saying Tom Daschle did the right thing by removing himself from the appointment process. I also want to note that I opposed the confirmation of Tim Geithner to head the treasury. Subsequently, my opposition also applies to whoever the lady was yesterday who also removed herself and also had tax evasion problems. You can't expect people in high office to have such illegal actions and have the support of the American people. I find it hard to believe that there isn't a single person in the world besides Tom Daschle that can fix health care. I'm sure there is possibly one other person that can do just as well or better than Daschle.

I also want to say President Obama did the right thing as well. He owned up to his mistakes. He actually sat down with the media and said "I screwed up." That's candor and openness we never had from George Bush. Obama said from the beginning of his administration that when they made mistakes they would admit to them. Yesterday he did just that.

I also know that Republicans will use this as an example to portray President Obama as weak and ineffective. But remember those are the same people who blindly stood behind a president who said he couldn't think of one single mistake he had made. To them admitting you're wrong is weakness. The American people deserve so much better than that.

Exorcise the Demons

It appears that sometime between November 4, 2008 and January 20, 2009 the Republican Party decided they were no longer in favor of government spending bills. The Party who turned the largest surplus in history into the largest deficit in history has over a matter of two-and-a-half months discovered some sort of growing distaste for government spending. Surely something must have happened in those two months that was truly earthshaking to their movement to cause such a discord for the love of government spending. As we can see from the chart below, there was never a time prior to Jan. 20th the GOP didn't fall over backward to spend tax payer money.

Every year under complete Republican-rule government spending bills increased. Then something jaw dropping happened in early 2007. Not sure what that was. Since then spending has been cut in half and is currently at 2003 levels. But how can that be? I thought the Republican Party was the party of small government and fiscal conservatism. I'm so glad they have finally found their way.

So today when they say they are firmly against government spending bills such as the stimulus bill currently being debated in the senate, they are truly embarking on a revival of their inner soul. Either that or they're just big fat liars.

*Update:

The Republican List of what the anti-stimulus party deems as waste. No mention though of the 2005 Republican budget that contained over 10,000 pork projects.

Make Yourself Comfortable

Less than two weeks into Barack Obama's four year term as president, we've vividly seen how the minority GOP and the media expect government to operate and what it means to be the minority party. In the Republican Fantasy World, which is increasingly engulfing mainstream media, the minority party actually gets majority rights. And the Constitutional law that says a bill passes the senate with a simple majority actually becomes a super majority vote to give the minority Republicans more power. And now we see the face of true bipartisanship, Rush Limbaugh, demanding that not only should the senate be controlled by 60 votes, but also since the GOP received roughly 46% of the vote in November that legislation should be divided up by electoral returns. Yes, that's right. Republicans control the senate because the Democrats only have a 18 seat majority and Republicans get to control 46% of legislation because that's truly how a bipartisan government operates.

Never in the history of America has a minority party enjoyed so many luxuries in governance and media portrayal. One would almost think the Republicans enjoyed huge amounts of success in November of 2008. Constitutional laws get thrown out to pander to the minority; legislation gets divvied up to as not insult a party that lost over 50 house seats in two years and 14 senate seats. Even when the Democrats were at their weakest period, 2001-2006, never did they have as few seats as what the GOP has now. So how come during the first part of this decade when the Democrats were supposedly weak and powerless yet still had more seats in government than the GOP has now, did we not have a unconstitutional 60 vote senate requirement and did not divide legislation up according to electoral returns-- returns that barely favored Republicans?

Alas, though, we all are forced to succumb to the Republican Fantasy World where elections and simple majority votes no longer matter. It's a world led by a right wing, hate-filled, drug addict who is the epitome of macho, Viagra-popping conservatism. Even when you are as impotent as Rush Limbaugh is, you still have the most stroke around when you live in the Republican Fantasy World. Welcome to it.

Media Completely Buys In To GOP 60 Vote Myth

Here's the Associated Press headline, GOP leader: Sen. Gregg departure won't shift power.

Of course it won't shift senate power. Senate power rests on a simple majority not a super majority like the GOP has convinced the entire world it does. Even if Gregg is replaced with a Democrat it does nothing to shift power. All it does is give the Democrats a veto proof senate. The filibuster crap is a Republican created myth. It does not take 60 votes to pass a bill in the senate. It only takes a simple majority. Republicans, however, have everyone convinced that senate power rests on 60 seats rather than 50. Will the media quit with this nonsense! When the Democrats were in the minority there was never talk of a 60 seat majority. This is a gross and epic Republican lie the media has bought without the slightest bit of consideration for facts.