Pretty Certain These Should be Points Made by Someone Other Than a Comedian

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No Hope

So yesterday we had Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) say that Democratic health care reform, if enacted, could cost you your life. And today we have Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) playing right along with Fox News' ridiculous assertion the reform includes "death panels."

Republicans have no intention of taking the debate seriously. Their focus is instead on conspiracy theories and nut job lies. There is no hope for a basic sanity. Republicans, I would be so proud.

Pew's Wrong

None of this really matters because we have so intertwined ideology, labeling and party identification that popular culture rarely understands the distinction. But despite what the Pew Research Center's polling shows, Fox News is not "conservative." It's Republican! There is absolutely nothing conservative about a network that enabled 8 years of George Bush.

Quickies

• Pelosi unveils reform bill. Read it here.
  

• Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) says it's "pretty difficult for Republicans to have a solid plan." Also Boehner can't commit to posting the GOP bill online so everyone can read it.

• Internet father celebrates its 40th birthday and no it's not Al Gore.

• Assistant South Carolina attorney general and former state representative Roland Corning was caught on his lunch break with a prostitute at a local cemetery. His SUV was found to contain condoms, Viagra and plenty of sex toys. Corning is 66 years old if you weren't already grossed out. Josh Marshall points out:
  

  Corning was an ardent pro-life politician best known for introducing a law in the South Carolina legislature that would have made the subdermal contraceptive device Norplant mandatory for women on welfare. Even then though he was no stranger to controversy. In 1994, during a floor debate with pro-choice state Rep. June Shissias, Corning asked Shissias whether she herself had ever had an abortion. Later he admitted the remark was 'probably insensitive' but said he was 'sick and tired of the women representatives in this body acting like, just because we're men and male, we don't know anything about women.

  Sounds all very moral values, Christian Conservative to me.


• Nate Silver says there is no way Democrat Creigh Deeds can win the governor's race in Virginia.
  

Deep Thought

I'm afraid Obama's overnight trip to Dover might mean he plans on escalating the war in Afghanistan.

NCAA Preseason Rankings

I hate preseason rankings. I think it's a terrible idea to rank teams before they ever play and entirely based on last year's performance. Anyone remember Michigan State a couple years back?? What would be wrong with waiting at least three games before rankings come out? That way there's time to actually see a team play and win or lose. Preseason rankings skew the entire season and only favor rich programs. It's a very biased system.

This year's rankings are no different. I'm sure I could have named 9 out of the top 10 teams this year. I might not have been able to put them in their spots but I know I could have named who would be in the Top 10. The only team that really surprises me is Butler. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to see them in the 10 spot. It's just rare that small schools ever get there especially in preseason.

Great Baseball

Excellent game by Phillies' pitcher Cliff Lee. First complete game, no ER since 1903.



Truly an amazing feat.

Gots To Love the Protests

Fox News isn't going to give up it's promotion of Tea Bagger protests against the Obama administration any time soon. I suspect by the 2012 elections, Fox will have devoted thousands of hours of on-air coverage as well as hands-on promotion and organization of the Tea Baggers and their dislike of President Obama.

Since Fox is balls deep in the business of organizing protests against the president, it doesn't come as any surprise that they completely neglect coverage of other protests taking place in this country.

One would think, however, a news channel that prides itself as being "Fair and Balanced" and one that takes such a personal stake in organizing protests, would also fawn when it realizes other protests are happening all over, especially ones that are larger in size or comparable to their Tea Baggers. Take for instance the pro health care reform rally in Pennsylvania last week. Or a rally in Chicago yesterday where a thousand people showed up to protest bank greed. Now come on, surely Tea Baggers are against bank greed too. Why didn't Fox devote as much time to Chicago or Pennsylvania as it is their Tea Baggers. Actually, Fox didn't devote one single second of coverage to the ABA protest in Chicago or the pro health care reform rally in Pennsylvania. Doesn't make sense for such a protest-loving network to miss out on all the protests does it?

*Update:

How long until Republicans and Fox News start comparing their freedom loving plight to those of the protesters in Afghanistan wanting their country back?

When You Call Them Out, Call Them Out

From lies:

"The Taliban regime is out of business, permanently." Dick Cheney, 2002

"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, 2003

To flat out delusion:

"It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise. The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger." Dick Cheney, 2009

For nearly 8 years Bush & Co. neglected the war in Afghanistan. They told us the Taliban were defeated, that they were written off in the history books, that they were forever destroyed. They were dead wrong. We've been fighting their back burner perpetual war long enough. Nothing Bush or Cheney said about Afghanistan or Iraq turned out to be true. They were as wrong as any group of people has ever been in history. So when people try to write off holding the Bushies to their past record as merely Bush Bashing, they are as chest-thumping chickenhawks go-- as wrong as their Fantasy World day is long.

GOP Wants Resolution Honoring Tea Baggers

There is no denying Republicans really believe they are on the front lines of freedom fighting. As comical as it has been to watch tea baggers and various other Republicans debate, and squirm when confronted about their lies on crowd size, nothing quite captures the moment as when Republicans in Congress take those lies to the House floor to honor the nut slappers.

Whereas this dedicated group of freedom-loving Americans believe in open, accountable, responsible, constitutionally based government;

[...]

Whereas estimates of the number of people who peacefully marched from Freedom Plaza to the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on September 12, 2009, range as high as 1,700,000 marchers;

Yes they are that delusional. Yes the wackos absolutely control the GOP. There isn't a chance in Paris Hilton's vagina the Tea Baggers had more than 100K people show up on Sept. 12, which is still nothing to shy away from. Still slightly less than a Tennessee home football game, however.

U.S. Official Resigns Over War in Afghanistan

Matthew Hoh, a foreign service official, Marine and combat veteran, resigns over war strategy in Afghanistan.

In a letter to the Foreign Service personnel office, Hoh stated he had lost confidence in the strategic presence of the U.S. military in Afghanistan. He believes our presence only fuels the insurgency.

An interesting read is the WaPo article chronicling Hoh's service to our country and his present feelings toward the war in Afghanistan. It's really worth the read.

In it, Hoh states that he would recommend a smaller U.S. presence if we do stay. He would also suggest "providing more support for Pakistan, better U.S. communication and propaganda skills to match those of al-Qaeda, and more pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to clean up government corruption -- all options being discussed in White House deliberations."

Take note that a smaller U.S. presence, more aid to Pakistan and greater diplomatic actions are the exact opposite of what the Republican Party is promoting, and now seemingly the Obama administration.

Public Option Finds Its Way To the Senate

Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that the senate health care reform bill will have a public option, an opt-out and a trigger.

Obviously I'm all for the public option. Actually I'm all for a single payer system but a public option is doable. I also think the trigger is important but the opt-out I'm a little ambivalent towards. I think it's a great way to get votes. I also think it's a great way to let officials off the hook on a very important issue. I also think some states might actually opt-out leaving all of us doing this whole thing over again in a few years. I suppose my hangup is if states opt-out, how do they opt-back?

They Will Own It

I wonder if Kent and Jaz realize that their post calling Obama un-American and publicly criticizing his administration is, according to their blog, anti-American and only aids our enemies. 10 months ago, anything that dared speak ill of George Bush was the worst thing anyone could ever do to our country. But now today, Kent and Jaz want us all to forget such ancient history and never mention Bush again.

The Fox News Problem

I think it's pretty well known that Fox News' programming is slanted toward the Republican Party. It's not conservative programming, it's Republican. I have yet to find anything conservative about a Party that ran up the largest deficit in human history, increased the size of government more than any time since FDR and has as their only domestic successes for a two-term president two huge government programs in NCLB and an expansion of Medicare. It's a farce to call any of that conservative.

Keep in mind, throughout the entirety of Bush's 8 years, Fox News never once called it a socialist takeover, never organized one single protest against the administration and never promoted any serious discussion criticizing the Republican government. They were Bush enablers. They carried the water for the Republican Party. Conservatism has nothing to do with it. Thus, Fox News has a well known Republican slant.

Big deal really. Does anyone care?

The only way to effectively change Fox is if other networks called them out on their programming. This little tiff between the White House and Fox will accomplish nothing and looks silly.

The best example of how other networks behold the power to change Fox News is when CNN debunked Fox's breaking news report that Obama had attended a madrassa while a child living in Indonesia. Of course Fox never corrected their story and never apologized for such libel accusations, but CNN's debunking did effectively kill that Republican talking point. Just imagine if CNN had pressed Fox even further or started debunking other untrue stories from Fox the change it could bring.

For some reason other networks dare not directly challenge their biggest competitor. It's a shame too because it would only take a few weeks to cripple Fox while the other networks gobbled up their ratings. It's a missed opportunity but one only other networks can initiate.

Mail Bag

After 900 posts a lot has been said here on The Fold Blog. That's why I've decided to reach into the mail bag today and let everyone see what some of our readers have had to say.

Reader KL doesn't appear to have liked what he/she saw.

This site is all about vulgarity. You have a penis on your site with advertisements to trashy women. How do you expect anyone to take you serious when you give us your opinion about important matters like national politics? I hope no one is paying you to for your opinion unless it's about trash because that's really all this place is. Why not get rid of the male genitalia and grow up?

Just for the record, a nut sack is not a penis. And did you notice we also have Bush eating a cat???

Reader MM can't comprehend it either.

You name Tea Partiers as tea baggers only shows your immaturity. If you loved your country you would attending the protests. But you don't. You want to complain with your keyboard and sip your latte while our country is being destroyed by people like you. Maybe instead of complaining about war you should try to fight one. Your worthless opinion would sure change.

Let me get this straight, by fighting in a war I would conclude that wars are great and we should have more of them?

Reader Pauly also doesn't like the Tea Bag referencing.

I have never been tea bagged. I take offense to your childish name calling. If you hate Glenn Beck so much, why don't you watch him for 5 minutes and you would understand that he is trying to save a country he loves. His estimation of the protest was way off. Judging from the many photos I have seen and the correct news reports from overseas, the event totaled about 3 million. 5 times as many that showed up to watch the magic negro take office. Calls us tea baggers again and see what happens. This time Im not armed but I will be.

Does that mean you are going to shoot me through email?

Finally, I'll end on a good one because I really do get some great emails. Not all are from Tea Baggers or from people who think nut sacks are penises.

From reader LM:

I found your blog today (via a link from The Political Carnival) and love your mantle of making the GOP/Conservoclown bitches OWN their failures!!!

You rock and keep up the great work and unrelenting pressure on the likes of Kent and Jaz (weren’t they a big hair band in the ‘80s?)... My labrador has the sense to drop her head in guilt when I point out the occasional poop on the floor, but these morons think they can get away with the "piss on your shoe and tell you it's raining" ruse.

Own it, bitches!

Every now and then it's good to reflect.

New CNN

Has anyone seen the new cnn.com site? Is it me or does it look more bloggish?

900th Post

One year and four months in, and we're at 900 posts!

They Had Their Chance and They Failed

The perplexities of what's going on in Afghanistan and how to move forward almost always escapes popular discourse. I think there's room for plenty of opinions on the subject and I'm by no means an expert in the field of waging war. What I do know is that if you are going to try as best as possible to do the right thing to achieve the best possible outcome, the last thing you would want to do is listen to the people who are responsible for the mess in the first place.

If someone built you a house and it began caving in all around you would you go back to that person and ask them the best way to fix it? No, you would find someone else to make things right. And then you would sue the hind end off the moron that screwed you over.

Now I know "responsible" is a major word for Republicans and easily evaded, but it doesn't require genius IQ to realize the people with the least amount of credibility on the subject of Afghanistan are the Bushies. Why Dick Cheney would think his opinion would even matter is a great question to ask the remaining 20% of voters who still identify themselves as Republican.

For 8 years the Bush administration "dithered" in Afghanistan while they deployed 150,000 troops to go fight somewhere else. When in 2008, after 7 years of war, Gen. David D. McKiernan requested more troops so he could better wage that war, the Bush administration denied it. Looking now toward George Bush or Dick Cheney for answers on how to resolve the situation would be like asking Hoover what's the best way to deal with a Depression. It's not necessarily their ego that confounds the situation, it's that they were entirely wrong about all of it.

Site Maintenance

We are experiencing some technical difficulties today. Not sure what is going on. Comments are disappearing and the page is taking forever to load. We'll keep you posted.

Anyone Seen a Bill?

It's good to see Speaker Nancy Pelosi is keeping track of the days Republicans have spent coming up with conspiracy theories to thwart health care reform instead of coming up with an alternative bill of their own.It's been 126 days since Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) declared the GOP would come up with a better plan than the Democrats. Now if you're a Republican like Jaz who insists newspaper op-ed's are alternative plans or that dead bills from 4 years ago are alternatives, or that a bill that allows for insurance companies to operate across state lines is actual health care reform, if you're of that persuasion then Republicans are really whipping up Democrats on HCR. If instead you are waiting for Republicans to submit their own legislation with support from leadership full of cosponsors, you might not be a Fox News viewer. It's tricky, I know.

Beck: Slave Owners Would Haved Called Progressives Slave Owners

No person in their right mind would ever pay attention to anything Glenn Beck says. Only in America can someone as dishonest and sad as him be a millionaire. And only on Fox News can someone as lunatic fringe as Beck be their main attraction. Beck's latest rant, however, is remarkably stupid and only adds more fantasy to a World that already suffers from manic hallucinations.

Beck, in all his right wing glory, announces to his fellow Tea Baggers that present-day progressives would have been considered "tyrants" by our Founding Fathers and, later in time, "called slave owners." Oh my.

It's hard to imagine anything more lunatic stupid than this. Our Founding Fathers were progressives. The most progressive thing anyone could believe in the 18th century was that man does not need to be ruled by a monarchy. Tyranny in the colonial days were the loyalists who rejected the Revolution and believed America should remain under the control of a king thousands of miles away. The Founding Fathers were obviously not inclined to conservative thought and pushed a progressive if not liberal ideology that eventually founded a new nation and a new government.

As if that's not enough to put to rest modern Republican idiocy all delivered via Fox News, there's also the very well known fact that many Founding Fathers were slave owners!! Beck is actually trying to argue that modern progressives would have been considered the most viral practitioners of a horrific act by the very people who actually owned slaves. Not only is it beyond dumb to think people who owned slaves would be so repulsed by modern day progressives that they would call them "slave owners," but those advocating abolition were PROGRESSIVES. So there is no way that conservatives who owned slaves and did not want anything to change would be calling people who wanted slavery to end and wanted government to ensure its destruction "slave owners."

CBO: $870 Billion House Health Care Reform Bill

Speaker Pelosi stated this evening that preliminary CBO reports indicated the House health care bill including the "public option" will cost $870 billion over the next 10 years and remain deficit neutral. With that in hand, it appears Pelosi will move forward with a robust public option that ties rates to Medicare. The House bill will also provide insurance coverage to 96% of Americans.

Meanwhile, in a galaxy far far away, disgraced former Speaker Newt Gingrich still thinks he's a Member of the House and vows Republicans will repeal health care reform once they take back the Hill in 2010.

Please, oh please run your campaigns on repealing health care for 300 million people. Please finally be telling the truth Fruity Newty.

Revisiting the Obama List

9 months into Obama's term, it's time to re-evaluate my Obama Wish List.

I first created the list on Jan. 14th. At that time I was on my way to DC to attend the inauguration. It was a time-- we all thought-- for things to change. The list was created to publicly show what items I felt were important and what "change" actually meant to me. It was also a way to hold myself accountable. Here's the list:

• Safe, careful and timely withdrawal from Iraq
• Stimulus bill that is real and on par with the New Deal. One that will create millions of new jobs; that will repair and enhance our crumbling infrastructure and will provide new money and initiative for green technology and high-speed commuter rails.
• Broadband access universally.
• Obama’s health care plan passed in full.
• Close down Gitmo.

On Jan. 22, I crossed "close down Gitmo" off the list. On March 29, I crossed off items 1 and 2 from the list.

Now on Oct. 20, I realize jack squat has actually been accomplished. Sure we are slowly winding down Iraq but hundreds of thousands of troops remain. Item 1 is back on. Diddo on Item 2. A stimulus bill was passed but no jobs, certainly not millions. I realize the stimulus bill was designed to work over 2 years but I can't faithfully cross it off the list until I see some results on job creation. And Item 5 is back on as well. Not only is Gitmo not closed down, it's no where near being closed. Not only is Obama not going to meet his own deadline for closing Gitmo, nothing has really changed as far as closing this place down. It's very much the same as it was when Bush was telling us how necessary it was to have it.

Also, in fairness to myself, my list was created as items to be accomplished over a 4 year period, not 9 months. So I still have time to cross things off later. But right now, the only Item even somewhat accomplished or with hope of accomplishing is Item 2. For now, I'm not crossing anything off though. Let's get something done B.O.!

The Bush Years (2 Updates)

I don't think anyone can logically argue that George Bush and the Republicans gave the war in Afghanistan the attention it deserved. The one country with actual ties to 9/11 was put on the back burner to invade and occupy a country that had nothing to do with September 11th. Whatever the case may be that President Obama needs to do more or less in that country, the brevity Bush gave the war that engulfed all but 9 months of his two terms was and is a chronic failure. Whatever the White House decides to do to wind the war down is at the direct result of Bush punting the war off for someone else to handle. Like it or not, this is something that should have been handled years ago.

Needless to say, no elected president has ever inherited two ongoing, endless wars tripled by an economy on the verge of collapse. Monumental circumstances doesn't even begin to describe the world Barack Obama inherited or the failure of office George Bush gave to us all. So when you hear Genius Boy Karl Rove cry like a little baby about being blamed for stuff it's only because he knows exactly he's largely responsible for cataclysmic failure not seen in American history.

*Update:

Reminding America of the damage bestowed upon us during the Bush Years, it was quite the populist for President Obama to not let us forget that the very same people responsible for the last 8 years are today cheering for failure and acting like dirt isn't on their hands.



"[W]hat I reject is when some folks decide to sit on the sidelines and root for failure on health care or on energy or on our economy. What I reject is when some folks say we should go back to the past policies when it was those very same policies that got us into this mess in the first place.

"Another way of putting it is when, you know, I'm busy and Nancy's busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess, we don't want somebody sitting back saying, 'You're not holding the mop the right way.' Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up? 'You're not mopping fast enough.' 'That's a socialist mop.' Grab a mop -- let's get to work."

The Bush years were really that bad. Own up and let's make things better. I don't think Republicans have any problems wanting to make things better. I truly believe they want America to succeed. It's that they can't come to terms with wanting to move America forward without the slightest bit of acknowledgment for how bad they screwed things up.

**Update:

Listening to the president's speech in the clip above reminds me of a mini-speech in 2004 when he was running for U.S. Senate in Illinois. I was with Obama at this speech on March 18, 2004 when I heard him talk about political labels. This has to be my "sold ya" moment for Obama. He seemed to cast aside the old stereotype of political labeling in a brief moment of prose. He refused to abide by the status quo of "liberal" or "conservative." And then he took it one step further; he also challenged it. I knew right then I was part of something that was much bigger than a U.S. Senate race.

I was hoping to find an article about his visit to the airport that day because it stands out so much in my mind especially when I hear him today telling people to 'grab a mop' and quit with the status quo of politics as usual (luckily I did). 'Quit with the labels, grab a mop and let's get something done.'

The Bush Recovery

If you've paid attention to the slider at the top, the Republican media relations center tells us that we are now in the middle of the "Bush Recovery." If by recovery they are meaning that the nation is finally starting to rise out of the rubble Bush drove us into then I can almost agree. But if by recovery they are insinuating that George Bush is responsible for a resurgent Dow and the fluttering of economic growth we are witnessing then they are sadistically deranged.

George Bush presided over the largest monetary loss in the Dow's history. He is the only president since Herbert Hoover to leave office with a Dow lower than when he entered office. In every economic performance indicator the presidency of George Bush ranks as the worst president ever, except for household income where he is tied for third worst ever. At the first sign of an uptick, Republicans and Fox News want to give all the credit to George Bush. But wait and see when the Dow fluctuates again, it will all be because of Barack Obama and his socialist tyranny. All good things come because of George W. Bush. Just watch Fox News for five minutes and you'll catch on really quickly.

War, More War, Thank God for Glorious War

Republican John Bolton just can't get enough war on his Fox News teevee set. This time he's salivating for nuclear holocaust.

Quote of the Day

My senator Dick Durbin tells it straight about Fox News and why the president has no obligation to play nice.

“The point is this, and it really needs to be made: Fox is not just another television network,” said Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), a close Obama ally. “Fox has become the official/semi-official voice for the Republican Party, in opposition to the president. And I think calling them out is the only way to delegitimize them as political propaganda.”

Asked if he would follow Obama’s lead and boycott Fox, Durbin said, “I don’t know that I’d never go on Fox, but I will tell you that when I go on, it’s with a clear understanding that this is not a news network. This is the closest thing to the Republican Party’s official voice on television.”

This needed to be said. It needs to be said every day. But the real way to combat Fox News is if the other major networks join game and start reporting on all the falsities being spouted by Fox. When that happens, we'll see a change. In the meantime, Democrats definitely need to be following suit with Sen. Durbin.

Repubs Begin Movement for Impeachment

I knew it wouldn't be long because predicting Republican behavior is one of the easiest things anyone could do. Sometimes we underestimate their insanity but guessing their immediate behavior is rather simple. In 2006 Republicans claimed that if the Democrats took back Congress they would go on a rampage to impeach George Bush. It didn't happen and no serious effort ever made it to the House floor. Republicans claimed Democrats would look to remove the president because that is exactly what they would do and have done when they control Congress and can't win presidential elections. And they've already started on their movement to impeach Obama.

Yes they are that crazy to try this again. They almost succeeded in 1998. The impeachment of Bill Clinton was the culmination of 5 years of wing nut grandstanding to subvert democratic elections. There's no reason to believe that a much more insane party that uses "death panels" and "Soviet style gulags" to frame national debates would not think two seconds before removing President Obama from office if they were to take back Congress. In fact, they would see their victory as a Revolution! proving the American people want Obama impeached and removed. Their whole party is ripe for another round of impeach-the-president.

Just Moving the Conversation Forward

The newest Republican talking point to distort the health care reform debate for the month of October is Obama wants to create Soviet style gulags.

It's very possible Republicans have no clue what a gulag even was. Not that it matters to them but Soviet gulags are forced labor camps where Stalin sent political dissenters, political opposition, or people he didn't like. In all about 2 million Soviet citizens were rounded up and eventually killed.

The proud Republican Party has taken us from socialist takeovers, to death panels, to gulags. Instead of proposing their own alternative plan, they would rather lie and run and hide like little whiny babies.

Gay March Equally Attended As Fox's Tea Bag Protest, Why Didn't Fox Report It That Way?

Remember when Fox News was furious that other networks did not properly cover the Tea Bagger 9/12 circle jerk protest? Fox was so fed up with people not covering their self-promoted protests against the American government that it ran full-page ads in newspapers crying about the other networks' lack of coverage. For the record, other networks did cover the Tea Baggers but Fox wanted it promoted as the largest protest in world history, that millions attended, that Obama is unpopular and that Tea Baggers are Freedom Fighting Warriors. Unless Fox and their loonies are portrayed that way, they get really mad and throw hissy fits.

It's still debatable, but Fox's protest brought in about 60-80 thousand Tea Baggers to slap nut sacks with each other, talk about small government, balanced budgets, war without end and how Obama is a foreign-born enemy. You know, to reminisce about the good ol' days when George Bush and the Republicans reigned in spending, shrunk government, fought evil doers, put women in their place and launched America into the forefront of the 21st century. To Fox News, this was the largest crowd ever assembled in one place equivalent to the Civil Rights marches in the 60s. Hemorrhoid Glenn Beck reported without hesitation that the crowd numbered 1.7 million. Of course none of that is true. Fox has yet to issue any sort of correction to its lies and has moved on to promoting their next Tea Bagger protest scheduled in November.

Incredibly, it takes a comedian to level the playing field with Fox News. When 75 thousand people showed up in DC last weekend to march for gay rights, Fox News did not even send a camera crew to cover the event. A march of people equally attended as their Tea Bag protest and Fox does not even bother to cover it. They did the exact same thing they accused the other networks of doing last month, except for the fact that other networks didn't ignore it like Fox just did.

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According to Fox News' math, people marching for queers was the largest protest in history attended by millions. Networks that didn't cover this historical event should be ashamed. Fox News, how did you miss it?

America: Fantasy World Version

One of the things I routinely hammer conservative bloggers and even my conservative friends for is their total lack of care for anything during the Bush years. Especially when it comes to fiscal matters, so-called conservatives were almost entirely absent during the 8 years of complete fiscal mismanagement that embodied two full terms of Republican rule. Blogs are the easiest to hit because of archives and their noticeably absent criticism of a president that took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history while also doubling our national debt. I would think it would be hard to overlook such things if you considered yourself even the slightest bit conservative or fiscally concerned.

And then you come across something like this that explains how the people who cheered on George Bush sleep at night.

It's not that the very fiscally conservative Republicans objected to Bush's economics, it's that it never happened. In their world, the deficit became a concern on Jan. 20, 2009 when Barack Obama tripled it. It was then, too, that Iraq became a mess, Afghanistan became important, and unemployment turned into a national nightmare. Their Fox News teevees tell them so.

They get to pretend that it was Obama that tripled the deficit. Somehow, and this is only possible in the Republican Fantasy World, but somehow a president that inherits a $1.2 trillion deficit and then takes it to $1.4 trillion has tripled it. The fact that George Bush gave Obama a budget that was already $1.2 trillion in debt never happened. Instead, all of it is because of Barack Obama. It's so easy being Republican. All you have to do is pretend the last 8 years never happened and that anything wrong today is entirely because of the last 8 months.

It's Not His Call

President McCain tells me we need a larger war in Afghanistan.

I'm Back

I'm back and the blog will be up and running once again. I really need to get me one of those Verizon wireless internet cards.

Blog Updates

I'm on the road traveling throughout the Midwest the next 4 or 5 days and will only have sporadic internet connection. I'll try to do what I can but my time is going to be very limited. I should be back and operating normally regularly by Tuesday.

Meanwhile, I will state the Nobel Peace Prize to our president was quite a surprise to me. I think it's a little premature but not totally undeserving. Obama is the fourth American president to win the prize and the third to win it while in office. But if all you had to do was give inspiring speeches to win it, why didn't the greatest president ever George W. Bush win it for his numerous speeches about Freedom, Democracy, Justice and smoking out bad guys?? I think this just goes to show that the whole world is anti-American.

*Update:

Disgusting it is to read right wing and Republican reaction to President Obama winning the Nobel Prize. Is there not an ounce of graciousness among them? From what I can gather, Obama winning this award means America is weak, that Obama is weak, that the terrorists have won, that somehow neocons and Republicans are vindicated for the 8 years of war and Freedom Bombs. This award has by no coincidence shook the extremists in the GOP to a new dimension of Fantasy.

Republicans live in a world where they cannot fathom how unpopular they are and how unpopular their ideas are. They cannot imagine that someone who does not support their agenda of war without end, spending freezes, and putting women in their places and the likes could win something as prestigious as a Nobel Prize. Such awards, such popularity, such inspiration is reserved only for Republicans. If not, then the whole thing is bogus.

Josh Marshall has to sum it up best:

This is an odd award. You'd expect it to come later in Obama's presidency and tied to some particular event or accomplishment. But the unmistakable message of the award is one of the consequences of a period in which the most powerful country in the world, the 'hyper-power' as the French have it, became the focus of destabilization and in real if limited ways lawlessness. A harsh judgment, yes. But a dark period. And Obama has begun, if fitfully and very imperfectly to many of his supporters, to steer the ship of state in a different direction. If that seems like a meager accomplishment to many of the usual Washington types it's a profound reflection of their own enablement of the Bush era and how compromised they are by it, how much they perpetuated the belief that it was 'normal history' rather than dark aberration.

**Update:

Always seeing themselves as the true Freedom Fighting peacemakers in the world, Republicans can't handle Obama receiving this award. In a sense they truly believe they alone represent the last remaining tough macho men and share allegiance with any people worldwide also seeking freedom and the struggle against tyranny. It's so obvious that unless they are regarded in such fashion, it's all bogus until they are given their proper respect. Some of the best Republican reaction to Obama's award entirely prove my point.

• Glenn Beck: Obama should turn down the award and give it to the Tea Baggers for standing up to his progressive agenda. Yes because only Tea Baggers are the true Freedom Fighters in the world. If not, then no one is.
• Rep. Gresham Barrett (R-SC): This award should "give the President cause to reevaluate his current course." Receiving the Nobel Prize means you should start doing things differently??? Only in the Republican Fantasy World can something like that be true.
• Hugh Hewitt: He actually used Obama's Nobel Peace Award as a chance to call for more war. Because when you win an award for peace, it only means you should spread war as much as possible. Remember, Hewitt is so deranged that he believes he is on the front lines of battle while sitting in a comfy chair in an office in NYC. When you believe that, I suppose nothing is demented.

Unless you recognize them and them alone as true heroes then you are just another islamofascistterroristliberal that hates America. Wheeeee!

Modern Republican Mindset

Let's take a stroll through the mindset of the modern Republican Party.

The other day I wrote about how Republicans were in a tizzy because Democratic governor's candidate in Virginia referred to a female journalist as "young lady" instead of the accepted Republican term "feminazi." That's a big no-no for the 21st century.

Next we have the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) spinning out of control that Speaker Nancy Pelosi dared to realistically speak about escalating the 8 year war in Afghanistan. Such a public comment from Pelosi led the NRCC to hope that Gen. McChrystal would "put her in her place." What "place" could that be? The kitchen? At home? Breastfeeding? The place for the Speaker of the House of Representatives is to make tough decisions about endless war, despite what Republicans may think. In their world, women dare not publicly appear in charge so as not to emasculate any men that might be around.

One of the more telling signs, though, of the mindset of the modern Republican Party is Virginia's Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell and his graduate thesis. In it, McDonnell wrote that working women, like Speaker Pelosi for instance, destroyed the family. That government should not reward things that destroys families and that contraception for "un-married" couples should be illegal. It's quite a dandy. Now, we can forgive McDonnel because surely this was written eons ago, right? Not exactly. He wrote it in 1989 when he was 34 years old.

This is the opposition party in America. Women are to be put in their place. Women that work are destroying the family and sinning against God. Those who do work and demand equal treatment are "feminazis." Referring to them as young ladies is a kick in the nuts to every man that struggles daily to provide for his family like God intended. When can we start this over?

*Update:

I purposely left out John Derbyshire from my examples above of modern Republican thought. I did so because Derbyshire is a pundit and not necessarily a Republican official. Quite the opposite is the NRCC, the people running ads against Deeds and McDonnell who is currently in a GOP leadership role. I did, however, mention Derbyshire's brilliant conservative analysis the other day when highlighting leading Republican intellectualism and his very well thought-out case against women having the right to vote. I recognize the difference between pundits and political leadership if only briefly and fuzzy.

But it would be a mistake to mention the modern Republican mindset without Derbyshire's latest antics. In a radio interview yesterday trying to explain his case against women suffrage, Derbyshire admitted he thinks women should have the right to vote but granting such a right is "bad for conservatism" and ultimately "bad for society." This guy is a leading conservative/Republican "thinker." He's one of the people that spreads ideas to GOP leadership like the NRCC and their candidates. So we shouldn't be too surprised when we see men like McDonnell in Virginia that have publicly written such things like women don't belong in the workplace go on to become GOP nominees. Their whole movement is based around chauvinistic ideas expounded by people like Derbyshire. It's definitely worth a mention when we consider what "place" the NRCC wants Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be put in.

Totally Ethical

The saga of Republican Senator John Ensign is far from over. As you'll remember, Ensign had an a long term affair with a friend/staffer's wife. Once his friend and staffer learned of the affair, Ensign helped land his mistresses husband lobbying jobs even hiring their teenage son as a political adviser to the senator. As if that wasn't enough, Ensign's parents had to pay off the mistress in the sum of $96,000 to keep her from going public with the affair. Not too shabby for a self-proclaimed Christian-conservative-moral values-Republican is it?

Given all that we already know about Ensign's ordeal, the senator told CNN today that everything he did was ethical.

"We absolutely did nothing except for comply exactly with what the ethics laws and the ethics rules of the Senate state."

GOP Candidate: My Campaign is Like Fighting the Nazis in WWII

So sad. It really is. Next to seeing themselves as perpetual victims being denied liberty and freedom, Republicans also see themselves as Freedom Fighters equivalent to the millions who fought and died in WWII. How you ask? Because running a political campaign against the evil socialistnazi Democrats is just like, if not the same thing as joining up to fight the evil nazis in WWII, or so says Republican Peter Schiff who is running for a U.S. senate seat in Connecticut.

Historically, such a comment is Sarah Palin dumb. Schiff has never been in battle a second in his life. Democrats are not nazis, political campaigns are nothing comparable to war and such discourse trying to relate any of the above to your candidacy is egotistically narcissistic.

GOP: Democrats Refer to Proffessional Woman as "Young Lady"!! Booo!

You know things are bad for Republicans when they think it's scandalous to call a young lady a young lady.



I guess the Democratic candidate Creigh Deeds could have suggested that women should not have the right to vote like big bad conservative and NRO contributor John Derbyshire did last week. Or maybe he could have suggested to the young lady that feminism was created to give ugly women access to the mainstream like super tough guy conservative Rush Limbaugh does every day.

Now that I think about it, I bet Republicans are running the above ad to garner support from their base because Deeds properly addressed the young lady instead of telling her she should be at home. Nothing will fire up conservatives quite like calling a professional woman a "young lady" instead of their usual feminazi title they apply to them.

That Thinking Thing

It has been said many times over the past six years or so that "intellectual conservatism" is dead. In other words, the thinking part of the movement isn't working anymore. I think that confuses people because obviously Republicans are coming up with ideas, just not anything of substance. For instance, Steven Hayward-- a staunch conservative-- concludes Tea Baggers and birthers, the current motivated faction of the GOP, are not fixating anything to conservative ideology. But that people like Jonah Goldberg, Hugh Hewitt and Glenn Beck are adding "serious" substance to the movement.

I can agree with that. I can't think any people smarter than Goldberg, who argues liberals are fascists, and Hewitt, who thirsts for war without end and actually believes that by sitting in a cushy chair in an office in NYC that he's on the front lines of fighting terrorists, and Beck, who is for a lack of a better term, a complete idiot. These are by far the leaders of the movement, intellectual or not. "Thinking" doesn't always mean reason. And "intellectual" doesn't always mean rational.

Sure conservatism is still ticking. It's not what it used to be by any means. Their alternative to health care reform is heckling the president and holding Tea Bagger rallies where they hold up signs about white slavery and socialism. That doesn't make them un-smart. Nor does it mean their movement is dead. Dumb is the new intellect biatch!!

Horrific Numbers

As you can see from the hastily put together chart I made this morning, job losses over the last year have been horrific. In 2008, we lost 3.6 million jobs. So far for 2009, we have lost 4.0 million. It's absolutely ridiculous we should expect another year of job losses before things get better.Though this one calendar year really doesn't hit the entirety of job creation/losses we have been through this decade.

From 2001-2009, the American economy for the first time since records have been kept, had a net job loss of 298,000. Compare that to a net gain of 23 million the previous decade, and you can really see the depth of just how bad the last 8 years of have been. I don't see how we can sustain another year like the last 8.

War, More War, Thank God for Glorious War

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) calls for war if sanctions fail against Iran. Man, he's got the prettiest eyes I've ever seen.

Undermining America Was So Last Summer

Once again another Republican is going to a foreign country to undermine President Obama's foreign policy.

I can remember the days, way back when, if anyone dared travel to a foreign country, much less a member of government, to talk foreign policy it was "illegal," "treasonous" and the person should be "censored" for doing it. The conservative-Republican thought was that it was "never good to show your enemies that your country is divided on how to handle the threats they pose to the United States and to the rest of the world."

Do they even know how stupid they sound?

Gloomy Economic Numbers

• Job losses get better every month but still not where they need to be for recovery to be achieved. Unemployment rises to 9.8%.

• Dow is having a down week.

• Manufacturing orders dropped.

• Consumer spending only slightly rising.

• Krugman argues yes Obama's stimulus pulled us back from the brink, but is painfully insufficient at restoring economic growth and/or job recovery.

No to Chicago

Chicago loses Olympic bid in first round of voting.

Good. As a resident of Illinois, I'm glad the Olympics aren't coming. Like I said yesterday, it was the president's duty to make the appeal.

Congress Loves Their Government Health Care

ABC News almost did their job last night. I say almost because they actually ran a story on World News Tonight about the 100% tax payer funded health care coverage Members of Congress enjoy, but left out the most important part. They failed to ask one Member of Congress why the American people don't deserve the same tax payer funded coverage they give themselves. It's a simple question that has to jump right out at anyone even remotely concerned with health care reform. It wouldn't be all that hard just to ask why do you deserve it but no one else.

Alas, at least ABC News made somewhat of an effort to do a story on a topic that no one, especially Republicans, wants to talk about: A government run health care program for Congress.

For a small fee, Members of Congress can "opt out" of their quasi-private but still tax payer funded plans to partake in an entirely government-run program that covers everything without co-pays or ever filing claim forms. Must be nice. What's more is that even the Members of Congress that don't "opt out" still get, now get this, FREE health care through this government-run program. It happens every single day.

I actually have experience with this wonderful government program. One time while riding the Metro into the District, I got the worst headache ever. By the time I got off at Capitol Hill, I was spinning and nauseous. One of my friends noticed I was not feeling too well and walked me right to the clinic. Seemed like a nice enough place and they gave me Imitrex and something else for the spins. Within a few hours I was better. By the next day I was as good as new. I didn't pay anything. But I did miss out on my meetings that afternoon.

What's surprisingly so simple about this whole debate is that this is normal every day stuff for Congress. They raise their entire families off of government-run programs but want to spread fear and lies about granting such programs to anyone else. What would it hurt to ask the question, why do you deserve tax payer funded health care but no one else?

I Guess the Near Dictatorship Ended

This screen capture of Fox News this morning says it all about how Republicans now view dissent with a war time president. But more importantly, it still shows us those who gave us 8 years of George Bush, the catastrophe of Iraq and the endless war in Afghanistan still think they matter.

Disagreeing with George Bush's many wars would have landed you in the hot seat on Fox News just nine months ago. The Bush administration viewed a wartime president's power as plenary. His right wing base of support viewed Bush's war time powers as "near dictatorial." They even advocated more war that would further more of the president's dictatorial power. But now, questioning the war president and still listening to the very people who were wrong about everything the last 8 years and who chest-thumped all of Bush's decisions is the most patriotic thing anyone can do.

Olympic Fury

I really don't understand the whole Republican reaction to President Obama lobbying for his hometown to host the Olympics. If Obama was not out lobbying for it, Republicans would be saying he is un-American for turning his back on his hometown and his home country. The Republican game plan is to oppose whatever the president supports. For something that is such a non-story as this, it wouldn't hurt to at least cut the president some slack for doing what anyone would do.

I'm from Illinois, however. And I don't want the Olympics in Chicago. It has nothing to do with my steadfast dislike of the city Cubs. I don't want it anywhere. I'm just that way though. Sure the commerce the games would bring are much needed here in Illinois, but the headaches make it not worth it. So if it were up to me, the games would be in some far off place. But it's not up to me and I live 400 miles south of Chicago so either way it's just as pointless for me to be hounding the president for wanting the games as it is for Republicans who merely just want to oppose anything that might appear as a win for Obama.