Sen. Alan Simpson Still Has It

I've made mention on here a few times that I know Alan Simpson. Okay, I don't know him well enough to have him in my cell phone contact list but I've worked with him on a few different projects. When I knew him he seemed much more moderate but his response today to his Republican colleagues for still playing games with the debt ceiling reminds me of better times.

"We're at 15 percent revenue, and historically it's been closer to 20 percent," says Simpson. "We've never had a war without a tax, and now we've got two," he says. "Absolute bullshit."

In other words, stop playing games with the debt ceiling and let's move America forward.

Deep Thought

Just imagine what this country will become when everyone has access to health care. Imagine.

MSNBC, Freedom of Speech and Mark Halperin

I don't care what Mark Halperin calls President Obama. But there are some things you just can't say on public airwaves.  I also don't think he should have been suspended either.  Let him say whatever he wants.  If the censors don't like it then pay the fine.

What gets me is that we went through a month of talking about Anthony Weiner's wiener and now all of a sudden we can't use some slang?

Hold Him Accountable

Think Progress makes an excellent point that President Obama will have more troops in Afghanistan at the end of his first term than when he first entered office. All this despite his troop reduction plan too. Hold him to the fire on this one. It's really past time we come home and focus on America. You know, do the things the president said on the campaign trail.

Feds Uphold HCR

Liberal, socialist, islamofascist terrorist, activist, commie judges uphold individual mandate. Time for Republicans to get their Second-Amendment remedies going.  These judges have to be stopped before everyone has health care!

Quickies

• A study conducted by Brown University tabs the cost of Bush's endless war program at nearly $4 trillion. Not one single penny has been raised by the treasury to help pay for it either. Just the opposite has happened actually. Bush cut taxes and then President Obama helped extend those tax cuts. Meanwhile the Obama administration has expanded our wars into Libya and Yemen.  Let's not forget about the recession...

• Joe Lieberman and Tom Coburn introduced legislation yesterday that would raise the qualifying Medicare age and reportedly save about $600 billion over ten years. Couple it with tax increases and it might work.

• Fox News is now suggesting Jon Stewart is racist.  Next up they'll be suggesting he had secret brain surgery too.

• Just how much do you depend on government programs? Way more than you realize.  Which is to repeat one of my famous treatise.  People do not care about the size of government at all.  It's about the efficiency of government.

• Google's new social network looks promising.  But how can I get an invite?

Change the Facts to Fit Your Narrative

In the Republican Fantasy World, when the facts don't support your lies, what do you do? Simple actually. You rewrite history to fit your narrative.

Michelle Bachmann fans are flocking to encyclopedic Internet pages to edit history according to her lies.  Wikipedia is reporting people conveniently editing pages for John Wayne and John Quincy Adams to cover for her apparent untruths.

Just like they did with Reagan and their belief that he cut spending and shrunk government, so too is John Wayne now from Waterloo and John Quincy Adams a Founding Father.  Wheee!

Forget John Wayne, John Quincy Adams Was Who Bachmann Meant

To me it's not a big deal that Michelle Bachmann thought John Wayne was from Waterloo, IA. The big deal is that Michelle Bachmann is actually from Waterloo and didn't realize the John Wayne no one dares mention is the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.  That's pretty bad.  Pretty bad grasp of history and common sense.

Yet it's not even close to being one of her biggest historical blunders. Not even close by a long shot.

On Good Morning America this morning little man George Stephanopoulos decided to ask her about some of her other historical lies.  Like for instance her suggestion that the American Founding Fathers worked diligently to end slavery.  I wrote about this at length back when it happened.  And today little man George gave her the opportunity to explain why history isn't her strong point.

What ensued was yet another error-filled rant of historical ignorance where she not only still claimed the Founding Fathers helped to end slavery but her one source she used as proof that she was right was not a Founding Father, had nothing to do with the Declaration of Independence and wasn't even around during the writing of the Constitution.  Yet to her tea bagger Republican crowd, this only means that Bachmann knows the True rendition of history the rest of America has been forged to forget due to liberalism.

Bachmann: If We All Had the Spirit of a Serial Killer

At first I laughed off Michelle Bachmann's comment about being proud to have the same spirit as serial killer John Wayne Gacy, in which she referred to it as a spirit of sacrifice for America.  Not too sure sacrifice is a good word choice when talking about someone who murdered about 30 people.  Nonetheless she meant John Wayne the actor.

Those are easy things to confuse when on the campaign trail.  Every day you wake up in a new place and you are expected to know everything about the place you are in.  You're bound to misspeak. She's been known in the past to confuse towns and states she's visiting, so just add this to the list.

Then I realized Bachmann is actually from Waterloo, Iowa.  It's not that she confused a town she had never been in before.  She botched her hometown!!  How can you be born in Waterloo, IA and not know your most famous citizen is John Wayne Gacy not an actor born with a completely different name in a completely different town over 100 miles away?

This would be like Reagan going back to Tampico, Illinois and saying he's proud to have the spirit of hometown boy Lincoln in him.  For modern America; however, this is the supposed rising star if not the vanguard of the Republican Party.  God Help Us All!

Let's Just Keep Making People Criminals

Honestly, why don't we just ban people from riding in cars. Then we won't have to worry about silly seat belt laws.

Blago Guilty 17 Times

Image via Wikipedia

Former Illinois Governor, Rod Blagojevich (D-IL), will become the fourth Illinois governor to see the inside of a prison cell.  In my lifetime there have been 6 Governors of Illinois.  3 have been sent to prison.

I think my favorite synopsis of the Blago trials is this article in the Tribune where jurors describe the former governor as likable but guilty.  He is charismatic, I will agree to that.

Summers are Slow

I've been busy doing non-blog related items the last few days.  Should have a couple posts up some time today.

New York State Legalizes Gay Marriage.

New York marks the first state with one chamber of government being Republican-controlled to legalize same sex marriage; and the 6th state in the Union to do so. Definite victory for progress and equality.

Plenary Power Officially Over

When will Democratic presidents learn they are never to be Commander in Chief?

Just a hint, the last president to have his war powers checked by Congress was Bill Clinton in 1999.

*Update:

The problem with the Libya vote is not that the House sent a strong signal to the president that they don't like his ability to wage war without their approval, it's that the House sent a signal to the president that they don't like his ability to wage war without their approval but did nothing to prevent him from continuing to do so. 

I'm all for checks and balances and find it quite odd that Congress only realizes it can keep presidents from invading countries, killing people and spending billions of dollars doing so when a Democrat is at the helm.  Something like this would have never happened under Reagan or the Bushies.  Alas, though, the real ineptitude comes from Congress exceedingly failing to lead.  As Matt Yglesias stated, "[i]t’s not so much that we have executive branch power grabs as it is that congress pretty consistently fails to use the leverage that it actually has. Someone who was really determined to block the war in Libya could make an end to the bombing a condition of supporting a debt ceiling increase. When in the seventies congressional majorities were possessed of a strong and sincere desire to restrain Gerald Ford’s conduct, they turned out to have a lot of ability to do so. And members of congress have always had a good success rate fighting and winning battles to keep military bases open, keep favored defense contracts flowing, etc. It’s just that to win a political fight, you need to really care."

Caring and pretending are two very different things I suppose.  All this goes to say that as much as Republicans are trying to appear as if they now all of a sudden care about waging war and spending money, they really only care about keeping Democrats from doing it.  When it came to actually defunding the war and stopping it they balked.

...NEWS ALERT...

U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky still has not turned himself into the feds for attending and participating in a rally that called for the overthrow of the American government and the death of President Obama.

Palin Quits Again

Real Clear Politics is reporting Sarah Palin's semi-mentally deficient bus tour has abruptly ended.

Obama and Afghanistan

I was supportive of removing all American troops from Afghanistan before Obama took office. I didn't think there was anything else we could accomplish. Bush had let it rot. Since that time, war president Barack Obama has killed Osama bin Laden-- the person responsible for 9/11, the reason for invading in the first place-- killed  Ilyas Kashmiri, the military brain of al Qaeda, and ordered a surge of troops to further secure the war zone and defeat the Taliban.

I don't believe I was wrong to oppose Obama's 2009 surge to send more troops.  He obviously knew more than I did and he obviously did exactly what he said he was going to do.  Had the president not refocused our efforts on the people who attacked us in 2001, there's no way we would have had the huge victories we've seen these last two months.  No way at all.

With tonight's apparent announcement that we are still going to have some 70,000 U.S. troops fighting in Afghanistan at the end of 2012, I gotta admit I still think it's the wrong decision.  I don't see any reason to still be there.  And I certainly can't comprehend spending hundreds of billions of tax payer dollars to fight Bush's war for one more day.

But that's just it.  The reason why President Obama has to keep troops there, has to keep spending huge amounts of money is because he is still cleaning up Bush's mess.  President Obama didn't inherit a simple situation in Afghanistan.  Heck he didn't inherit anything good at all from Bush's presidency.  The very reason why we still have to keep fighting and having our own troops killed in Afghanistan isn't because Barack Obama became president one day and decided it was time to fight a war.  It was because George Bush and the Republican Party failed miserably at waging war and securing America.  

How President Bush executed the war in Afghanistan was pitiful to say the least and criminal to be blunt.  What he gave to his successor was two endless wars and an economy on the verge of collapse.  No elected president has ever inherited such a disastrous situation. Complain all we want that we are still there and might be there for a few more years.  Just realize, however, this is something that should have been taken care of a long time ago.

Just like with the economy, President Obama still has to clean up the disaster Bush left for him in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Complain all you want, but what have you done for the war effort?

Tuesday Quickies

• Speaker John Boehner's new found love of the War Power's Act seems to not only coincide with a Democrat in the White House but also contradicts a very expansive war powers bill he passed back in May.  As retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton notes, "the same body that voted to criticize the White House for using executive authority to open a conflict in Libya pass[ed] a bill that further concentrates executive power to wage war."

• The only conclusion right wing extremist and Republican Robert Spencer can come up with to describe the right wing invented marriage scandal of former Congressman Anthony Weiner is that he secretly converted to Islam. You see, everything to Republicans is a conspiracy and they are truly terrified of everything.

• Chris Hayes is coming to MSNBC.  I might actually start watching that station.  Probably not but at least having him on there almost makes me want to.

• Be very, very scared....Republicans sure are.  Nevada GOP House candidate started his campaign commercials by blasting fear of a Chinese takeover of America.  All because President Obama allowed it of course.  Boo!!  Just more proof Republicans are scared of the dark but portrayed in the media as tough guyism.

• John McCain, somehow, claims he never said AZ wildfires were started by illegal immigrants.  Later in his interview, he tried to claim that he never selected Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Wishing for Failure Isn't the Same Thing as it Actually Happening

One thing we are going to hear quite a bit of from Republicans this election cycle is the sorry routine meme that Obama's policies made the recession worse. Given their inherent ability to rewrite history, edit out facts, and live in a Fantasy World where George Bush was a popular president and Iraq had something to do with 9/11, one wouldn't expect them to say anything else about the policies of the current White House.

The truth is, more than 1.6 million jobs have been netted during the Obama administration including 15 consecutive months of private sector job creation.



More jobs have been created in two years of the Obama administration than all 8 years of George Bush. Not to mention, the Dow has almost doubled since January 2009.

Things are better than what they were when Obama took office.  But there is still a long way to go.

Fox News Edits Jon Stewart Interview

Conveniently, Fox News' on-air version of Jon Stewart's interview with Chris Wallace left out a key piece of criticism. Namely the mention of emails from managing editor Bill Sammon directing his staff to slant the news according to Republican talking points.  For instance, Sammon wrote in one email to his staff that candidate Barack Obama advocated socialism.  He also instructed his staff via email to use the term "government option," a common Republican talking point, instead of "public option" during the 2009 health care reform debate.

The emails are a sore subject with Fox News and it's very possible people who watch Fox News have never even heard of the leaked emails.  When they are mentioned, Fox simply edits it out.  Their existence is washed down the memory hole forever.  It's just like it never happened.

Rand Paul Loves Government Funded Transportation

Just like Rand Paul is against Medicare, well except for the part that pays doctors like himself.  He's also against other publicly funded government services like public transportation, well except for the part that gets him around D.C. at a very affordable and convenient rate.

It's too bad that he voted against properly funding the D.C. metro system.  Kind of reminds of all the tea baggers that used D.C. public transportation to get to their anti-socialist government rallies.  Wheee!!!

#fail

Insanely crazy GOP presidential candidate, Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) uses her twatter page to teach us all a lesson in just how jacked-up the Republican field is again this year.

Lesson in economic recovery: Consider Canada. No stimulus; unemployment is 20% lower than US. is.gd/jxebtd #tcot #teaparty #canada

She would be right except for the small fact that Canada did indeed have a stimulus program equal to about $360 billion.  That's almost half of what President Obama ushered through shortly after taking office in 2009. Equally important, the country of Canada has population comparable to the State of California.  Canada's 2009 stimulus would be like the State of California issuing a $360 billion stimulus bill.  That's huge to say the least; and a far cry from saying Canada had no stimulus.

Epic Jon Stewart

Fox News and people who watch Fox News don't particularly like Jon Stewart's fake news program that airs on Comedy Central. They refer to the show as a liberal program and even once tried to copy it with a program of their own that had what they called a conservative slant to comedy, the 1/2 Hour News Hour was the program.  It lasted a whopping 6 months.

The point being, Fox News-- and those who watch it-- think the Daily Show is biased and doesn't give a conservative perspective. And if something doesn't coincide with the reality Fox News publishes, then it must be a liberal medium.  The whole thing is just that simple.

This is how Fox News came to be about in the first place.  Rupert Murdoch was mad at CNN and its failure to grant a conservative perspective to the news.  So he invented Fox News.  But the whole Comedy Central thing still irks them.  And they still try to rebut it as much as possible by saying Stewart can't be taken seriously.  Not because his program is fake but because his program is liberal (remember liberal to them is anyone that didn't vote for George Bush).

That's really their only comeback.  Not that he's a comedian with a fake news show and therefore what he says can't be trusted.  But that he isn't a Republican and thus says things we don't like.  In the clip below, Fox News host Chris Wallace chastises him for trying to do what he calls political commentary with Sarah Palin.  As if political commentary is the news because it's not.  Political commentary is anything with an opinion, which is exactly what Fox News does

Stewart responds to Wallace by saying: "You're insane... Here's the difference between you and I. I'm a comedian first. My comedy is informed by an ideological background, there's no question about that. But the thing that you will never understand...is that Hollywood, yeah, they're liberal, but that's not their primary motivating force. I'm not an activist. I am a comedian."

He's right.  They will never understand the difference.  Again, that's why they invented their own fake conservative comedy program precisely because they don't understand the difference.  They really believe that Stewart and his show are on the same level as a media organization.  Yes, they are insane.



*Update:

It's definitely worth mentioning another part of Stewart's appearance on Fox News.

In addition to believing Jon Stewart is on the same level as a journalist, Fox News believes it has to combat his liberalness so their viewers can get the Truth.  In the interview Stewart slams the media apparatus for disappointing viewers.  Wallace takes exception to Stewart's claim by saying Fox News viewers are not disappointed at all with their coverage. 

STEWART: The embarrassment is that I'm given credibility in this world because of the disappointment that the public has in what the news media does.

WALLACE: I don't think our viewers are the least bit disappointed with us.  I think our viewers think, finally, they're getting somebody who tells the other side of the story.

Finally glad someone is telling the other side of the story? Yes, that's what Fox News is. It's the other story to the media, namely what Fox labels as the liberal media.  And what they give their viewers, and why their viewers are so appreciative and not disappointed like Stewart claims, is because what Fox is delivering to them is The Truth.  Not just a slant.  But the Real Truth.

People who watch Fox News really believe that they are engaged in a process that separates them from all the people who don't watch Fox News, namely that of Truth. These people believe that Fox gives them an access to truth that is denied to Americans who are brainwashed by the mainstream media. They really believe that Fox News is not just a network that counteracts the biased liberal media, or even a network that reports the stories that the liberal media ignore, but the only vehicle for Truth that exists.

That's why they believe Stewart to be on the same level as them.  He's counteracting their Truth.

Left and Returned

Took a trip over the weekend and purposely stayed away from the blog, the internet and the news. My focus was on beer, watching the Cardinals finally get two wins in a row but losing Pujols in the process and chasing 19 month old twin boys around.

Might have things back up to normal in a few hours.

Quickies

• Gay men in Kentucky are kicked out of a public pool paid by tax dollars and are told the Bible allows it to happen.  A public stoning should commence soon.

• Texas Governor Rick Perry says he might run for president and that the reason some Texans don't like him is because the Bible says no prophet is loved in their hometown.  This comes on the heels of Perry's call for governor's across the nation to come to Texas for a national day of prayer and fasting to heal America of its economic woes.

• Speaker John Boehner is very confused about what he believes on the War Powers Act.

• Republicans are resorting to their Clinton-era dove attitudes when it comes to Freedom Bombs.  Though it's refreshing to see Republicans not so giddy for endless war, I can't help but think it's only because they no longer control the military.

• 75 percent of the members currently serving in Congress voted for at least one — and in most cases more than one — of three policies that contributed to fully one-third of the $12.7 trillion swing from projected surpluses to real debt: President George W. Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and President Obama's 2009 stimulus bill.

Ron Paul Confuses Highly Paid Republicans

I am by no means any sort of Paultard. There are some things I agree with him on and once you get past his quirkiness he occasionally makes sense. What's comical to me, though, is to see Republicans at Fox News strive their hardest to discredit Ron Paul.

We all know there is no chance of the guy ever becoming president, so why do they waste so much time trying to discredit him?  I'm glad to see the guy running.  But I'm even gladder to see Fox treat a Republican like they so often do Democrats.

*Update:

David Shere at County Fair tells me that while trying to explain Ron Paul, Bill O'Reilly and genius boy John Stossell screw up a really big fact: The Federal Reserve was actually established in 1913.

Fox News Says It Might Have Went a Bit Too Far With Racist Segment

I am one of the slowest people to the racist band wagon.  Heck, I'm the guy that still fully believes the tea baggers are not racists just Republicans.  I really believe tea baggers would be perfectly happy with Michael Steele or Herman Cain as President of the United States.  They only want a Republican back in power, that's the number one priority for them.

I'm just not that quick to conclude something is the result of racism. To me that's a pretty heavy charge, so I reserve it for substantial instances.  Watching a Fox News Business segment a couple days ago I couldn't help but see it as a very negative way to portray what is official White House duties. Being that the president is black, I just saw it as very shameful.



Now it appears Fox News realizes their segment was a bit too much forcing them to sort of kind of apologize for it.  Watch it for yourself and I think you'll realize their apology is pretty weak considering he's only sorry people complained about the interpretation.



Could you imagine the backlash if CNN or MSNBC had portrayed President Bush hosting a governor from a Southern State as a gathering of a bunch of inbred, toothless, mildly retarded people?

Share of National Income is the One Chart You Should Look at Today

Since the total national humiliation of Republican Richard Nixon, any time a Republican has been president worker's share of national income has fallen. But nothing has been more substantial than it did during the humiliation of 8 years of George W. Bush.

Check it out:

Chart you won't see on Fox News

8 years of Reagan was bad enough for workers.  Compared to Bush's tenure it looks like a worker's paradise.  We haven't experienced anything like the wage slump over the last decade since the Great Depression.  If you want to know why consumer spending, consumer confidence, and public investment is down, this chart is all you need to know.  Wages have not kept up with the economy. Returning to Reagan-Bush policies right now would be suicide.

People Steal From Me

It is common belief, albeit standard thinking, among Republican folk that Barack Obama used organizations like ACORN to steal the 2008 election.

There are many reasons for Republicans to believe such. One is because on any given day, Fox News will devote unlimited time to conspiracy theories about the president being a Manchurian Candidate who is only in office because of ACORN and slightly smaller-- but still very scary-- terror groups like the Black Panthers. Fox has even run stories about the president having some sort of secret brain surgery to further add to their Manchurian stolen election conspiracy claims.

Another reason why Republicans believe that when they lose elections it's only because it was stolen is because they really believe they are True Americans and their ideology is not only popular but agreed upon by a large majority of America.  How many times have we heard the term "center right nation?"  Fox plays a huge role in this too.  To be certain, Fox News is always telling them that America is center right and their Rasmussen polling backs it up.

The only way for the people who make up a majority of America; and whose ideology is accepted by an overwhelming crowd of voters to lose is for the election to be stolen from them.  There's no other way for them to explain  it.  Democrats cheated.

It's not that they are unpopular and that they really don't represent the views of Americans, it's that Democrats used racist terror groups to steal the election.  If you don't believe me just read what the Republican Governor of Maine says:

“If you want to get really honest, this is about how the Democrats have managed to steal elections from Maine people,” Webster told a columnist for the Portland Press Herald in a piece published Friday. “Many of us believe that the Democrats intentionally steal elections.”

Get it? Not that Obama is popular and actually won the election outright. Democrats steal.  Is it just me or does the GOP become more and more like that song Pretty Fly For a White Guy with every passing week?

Quickies

• Most Americans wrongly attribute Bush's endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as being the largest supplier to the national debt.  When in fact, the Bush tax cuts, and the Bush Recession quadruple the contribution of Glorious War.

• About 24,000 pages of former half-term Governor Sarah Palin's emails are set to be released today.  Get ready for the gotcha questions.

• Newt seems to be imploding only long enough to regain his footing from God.

• Sign of the times: what may hinder Mitt Romney's chances with the GOP base is not his past history of wanting to provide health care to people but his belief that the 16th century norm of science is real.

• Friday's rock.

*Update:

Email from reader "Jackie" about a comment I left on Cooper's excellent site:

Chris, came across you from a comment you left on a different site.  You say the diary on that site fired you up to write the comment.  Well your comment fired me up. It's one of the best I've read in a long time.  Yeh it was a rant of sorts.  A rant that nailed exactly what I've been thinking about the current crop of crap that produces news in this country.  I'm linking to your comment in a few different places because every time I read it I laugh and then get mad.  I'm glad to finally find someone that says it the way it is and isn't scared of who might get offended or who might read it. 

I wanted to let you know I found it a very witty way to capture what a lot of people are feeling.  Good stuff.

In case you are totally unaware of what Jackie is talking about, I left a comment sometime this week to a post by Cooper over at Wonderland Or Not.  I don't think it's any different than anything I normally say on my own blog.  But Cooper's post did jar something loose in my fingertips.  So maybe I did let it fly a little more.  I'll repost the comment below.  I hope Cooper doesn't mind.

Here’s how to get headlines in America. Yesterday, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, who is a Republican appointed by a Republican president and held over by Obama, said that defaulting on our debt would cripple what is a weak economic recovery.

So who are the people wanting to not raise the debt ceiling and default on our bills? Republicans of course. So we have the lead Republican economist in the nation saying that the political games his party is playing with the economy could send us spiraling downward like never before. And not a single mention of it on any front page news outlet and/or media. Only the blogs. ABC, CBS, Fox, CNN, NBC…all of them are too busy talking about Weiner’s wiener.

Here’s my advice. Next time Bernanke talks he should have his dick in his hand. Just take it out. Hold it and then begin to speak about how catastrophic and ridiculous it is for Republicans to insist they won’t raise the debt ceiling. He might even stroke it a little while he talks. I don’t care. But at least have it in his hand for all to see so we can finally begin talking about things that really matter.

Not only is the recovery at a stand still but any time we mention that government can actually provide a huge boost to the economy by spending money– you know the world’s largest buyer of goods and services buying goods and services to boost economic activity– we delve straight into some stupid discussion about socialism and Big Government and how Republicans are trying to defend all of us from it. It’s all so stupid. So if we have to have this circle jerk then let’s do it. Take your dicks out and let’s start.

Sorry for the rant Cooper and thanks for the space. Your post got me fired up.

Not much is it? Glad to see at least one person liked it.

Colbert Blasts Rand Paul's Libertarianism and His Truthiness

I'm so glad to see Stephen Colbert pick up on Freedom Fighter Rand Paul's notion of who we should be arresting in this country.

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

Last week I brought up Sen. Rand Paul's interview on his fellow Freedom Fighting network where he calls for people who attend events where people call for the overthrow of the government to be rounded up and arrested or deported.

This squares entirely with his media-hyped persona that Rand Paul is a Very Serious, Constitution-Loving, conservative who only wants everyone to be free, especially free from government.  He just doesn't want people who disagree with him to be able to enjoy those same freedoms he wants for himself.  You know like the time he attended a political hate rally where people not only called for the overthrow of the American government but also for the assassination of the president.

As long as people are calling for killing a Democratic president it's good.  What Paul mistakenly left out of his newest doctrine of fringe libertarianism is that it's only meant for people who call for the overthrow of a government led by a Republican.  Those are the people that should be locked up.  He obviously left that part out because if he didn't that would mean he would be calling for his own arrest.  And as of this writing, he hasn't turned himself in to the feds yet.  So it's obvious his omission clears Republicans from being arrested for merely attending a rally or speech.

Boehner Knows Tabs

fiscal conservatism at work

Next to being a habitual crybaby, Speaker John Boehner is known throughout DC as a hardcore drinker. And one of the things you learn after decades of bar hopping and being a Member of Congress, is how to run a tab.  Roll Call reports Boehner loves the idea of other people paying for his "official duties."

Boehner now receives a monthly $2,083.33 direct payment for expenses, according to the most recent expenditure reports from the Clerk of the House. Because the total of the expense payment is the same each month, it is apparently not reimbursement for individual itemized expenses.

Boehner’s office offered no details about how his monthly check is spent. Spokesman Michael Steel would only say, “This money is used in appropriate ways for expenses related to his official duties.”

Because Boehner has increased his personnel thus increasing his payroll, has increased his own personal paycheck, and more than doubled his unspecified monthly expenses check he gets to be labeled a fiscal conservative by the media.  Boehner is the only Member of the House who receives a direct check for expenses.  He's a total fiscal conservative no doubt about it.

Stone House Made of Glass

Let me preface this by saying I think Anthony Weiner should resign. He violated the public's trust. I believe any time you are an elected official and you violate the public's trust you should resign your office.

That's my own personal feeling on the matter. He's not as important as he thinks he is and he's not as smart as he apparently still thinks he is. His job will survive without him in office. He's just no that needed.

To hear other members of congress calling for his resignation is a totally different matter, however. Weiner, to my knowledge, didn't break any laws. Sure he was screwing around on his wife in some sort of weird non-tangible way.  But he didn't do anything illegal.  Other members, like Eric Cantor, calling for his ouster are laughable and better off to leave him alone.  After all, Cantor's very own party has a known prostitute frequenter, David Vitter, as well as a known extortionist in Tom Coburn when he helped negotiate Sen. John Ensign's mistress's payoff.  If you can run on the same ticket with those guys, you can certainly tolerate a guy that likes to take pictures of his penis.

This Is How Dems Lose the Messaging Battle

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Jerry Costello is my representative. I know the guy. He'll be just fine in any election. So why Republicans are coming after him with Medicare messaging is odd. Maybe it's because the new Illinois map changes everything and John Shimkus is going to run against him. It's possible I suppose.

But what I want to highlight, in many of the same ways Greg Sargent has, is the content of the ad.  Republicans are trying to say that by voting against Rep. Ryan's budget plan that turns Medicare into a private voucher system, Costello is, by his no vote, allowing the social safety net of Medicare to collapse.

Yes Republicans running on the fact that America has a social safety net is monumental I know.  Agreeably, this is quite an odd ad for Republicans to run.  Not only did the GOP in both the House and Senate vote to pass the Ryan Plan, they voted to officially voucherize Medicare and end it as we know it.  So you would think the people who just voted to do away with Medicare wouldn't be bashing someone for supposedly ending Medicare, right?

But Republicans don't care.  They don't care about how ridiculous this looks.  They don't care about the facts supporting their ad.  They only care about the sensation their ad will produce with senior citizens-- you know the people who actually vote and use Medicare. Instead of being appalled that people who voted to do away with Medicare would try to bash someone for an insolvency that is decades down the road, create an ad just as sensational in response.

Create an ad talking about how Republicans want to back their cars over your grandma.  Sure it's not true but it will be on par with the crap the GOP is running.  It's either going to come to a point where both sides will agree to end the charade or all of our grandmas are going to be dead.  It's an easy game to play.  It's even easier when you want to win it.

10 Years of Bush Policies Have Left Us Bankrupt

Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the Bush Tax Cuts.  Since that time the federal government has been starved of at least $2.5 trillion.  That's double the cost of the Affordable Care Act.  And more than a trillion dollars more than our current budget deficit.  When you cut at least $2.5 trillion of revenue from the government and then wage two ongoing endless wars coupled with an expansion of Medicare costing over $700 billion, it's a recipe for disaster.  It's why today we have the budget deficit we do.

But remember, we aren't supposed to say any of this.  We are supposed to blame it all on Obama, even though he inherited the entire thing.  It's up to him to fix it.  And if he doesn't, he gets all the blame for it.  

Weiner Said He Lied About His Wiener

A lot of guys lie about their wiener. Obviously Anthony Weiner likes to do it while the whole country is listening.

Beside the fact he's married, which is his own personal problem not mine or America's, but who uses Twitter to pick up chicks? And in case you haven't seen it, who would be proud of this wiener? That's really not something you should be proud to take pictures of and send to women.  Maybe if you had something that took both hands it could be understandable, or at least distinguishable.  Not this one though.

The World Remembers

More Obama Era Terrorism Victories

"(CNN) -- The man described by counterterrorism officials as al Qaeda's "military brain," Ilyas Kashmiri, was killed in a drone strike Friday night in Pakistan, a spokesman for his group, the jihadist Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami, said."

I was against President Obama's surge in Afghanistan.  I thought we had screwed up all we could screw up in that country.  8 years of war led by George Bush had taken its toll.  It was a complete lost cause. It's amazing what competent leadership can do, however.

Interesting to note, however, is how quickly Republicans are turning against their endless wars.  Victories like the one above bring out more and more Republicans to either insanely try to give the credit to George Bush or to start speaking out against killing people in yet another Muslim country.  Barack Obama said he would take the fight to Pakistan if need be.  He would do it to fight the organization actually responsible for 9/11.  And that's exactly what he's doing.

Do I support the growing war?  No, I still think it's time to end it. But like it or not, the president is doing exactly what he said he would and exactly what Bush should have done a long, long time ago. Credit the man for at least doing what he said.  And there's no doubt he's waged a much more compelling and successful strategy against al Qeada than the Bushies could have ever dreamed of.  Again, it's amazing what competent leadership can accomplish.

Site Issues

At first I thought it was the bulging underwear pic I posted the other day that violated my site's terms of service causing Google to shut me down. Now I think it's just the fact I didn't pay my bill. Should be back to normal soon, I hope.

Quickies-- Drunk Edition

• Don't post to your blog while drinking.  Exhibit A: Anthony Weiner's Wiener.

• Kristen Billy left me a very nice adoration comment today.  Thank you Kristen.

• Want to know how to make your detractors look like total idiots? Sergio Marchionne, chief executive of Fiat and Chrysler, teaches us all how: "Whoever told you that is smoking illegal material."  Was his comment when talking about people who say the government bailout of the auto industry was wrong.

• Europe isn't just a country.

• Helping states recover is part of recovery.

• The number one search word to The Fold Blog is...wiener.  We are very proud tonight.

Deep Thought

If you can't post your wiener then you're a girl.

Weiner's Wiener

Anthony Weiner can't say for certain if the wiener posted on his Twitter page was his actual wiener or not.

Here's the pic in case anyone hasn't seen it yet.

First off, not sure if posting this results in some kind of softcore porn. Oh well. The Google bots will just have to go crazy I suppose.

What I can say is I'm not really certain if that's not a picture of my wiener even.  I do have grey boxer briefs and it looks like a ribbed A-shirt (wife beater) which I've been known to wear too.  Nah nothing's hanging out of the bottom of the boxer briefs so I'm certain it's not mine.

How Republicans Confront Facts

Wednesday was a test study in how Republicans handle truth when it hits them square in the face.

At a meeting called by President Obama at the White House to make leeway on raising the debt ceiling so America can still function as a nation, Republicans in attendance rolled their eyes and laughed off an attempt by the president to bring the discussion to some sort of grounding in reality.

GOP members engaged in a lot of “eye-rolling,” according to a member who was on hand to hear Obama, who invited House Republicans to the White House for discussions on the debt ceiling. The White House and Republicans are trying to reach a deal on spending cuts that could allow the $14.3 debt ceiling to be raised.

“[The President] made a comment like the tax rate is the lightest, even more than (under former President) Reagan,” Rep. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) told The Hill following the meeting.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) joked that during the meeting, “We learned we had the lowest tax rates in history … lower than Reagan!”

In the Republican Fantasy World things were never better when Reagan was president. He cut spending, shrunk government, raised revenues and the nation even had the lowest taxes ever.  This is really how they perceive Reagan's legacy.  Though in reality, nothing of the sort ever happened.  But we aren't talking about real Reagan here. We are talking about the Fantasy World version.

For those of us who don't live in dreamworld, today's tax rate is much lower than it was during the 80s.  In fact, it's the lowest it's been since Eisenhower.  And what we really need to do is what the real Reagan did, raise taxes!  That's right, in reality, Ronald Reagan raised taxes many, many times.  He had to.  Revenues were dropping, unemployment was rising and the economy was in a big slump.  Plus Reagan wanted to expand government so he knew he had to raise taxes to pay for his huge military buildup and Social Security expansion.  He still didn't raise enough revenue, however. He tripled the national debt in 8 years. Yes the same debt that now accounts for 1/3 of the national debt the Republicans want us to default on.

When you confront Republicans with this stuff they roll their eyes and tell little jokes to their buddies.  They snicker at the thought Reagan grew government, raised taxes and tripled the national debt. They can't fathom a world where any such thing happened under Republican rule.  I wonder what they would do you if approach them with the fact that Reagan armed, funded, and supplied intelligence to Osama bin Laden?  Have you arrested and/or deported probably.

Only in America is Rand Paul Considered a Libertarian, everywhere else they'd call him an idiot

Sir Rand Paul thinks you should be arrested or deported if you attend a GOP rally or speech.  That's right.  If you attend any sort of "speeches" from any person promoting the violent overthrow of our government, the Constitution doesn't apply to you and you should be imprisoned and/or deported.  Hey it's not my idea of freedom but it sure is Rand Paul's, via the very fair and balanced Fox News of course:

PAUL: I’m not for profiling people on the color of their skin, or on their religion, but I would take into account where they’ve been traveling and perhaps, you might have to indirectly take into account whether or not they’ve been going to radical political speeches by religious leaders. It wouldn’t be that they are Islamic. But if someone is attending speeches from someone who is promoting the violent overthrow of our government, that’s really an offense that we should be going after — they should be deported or put in prison.

Geez who could be promoting the violent overthrow of our government?

It's a good thing for Paul that he won't have to go very far to find those he wants to imprison cause they are right next to him.  Oh that's right, Rand Paul attended his very own political rallies where people in attendance and speakers advocated overthrowing the government.  Lest we also forget, Rand Paul himself openly supported, with speech orating from his opened orifice, overthrowing the American government.



Of course what Rand Paul is meaning-- as all his Paultard followers will agree-- speeches that don't agree with him should be illegal.  He and people who agree with him can do and say whatever they please. People who disagree and actually think the Civil Rights Act is Constitutional and that businesses have to afford people their civil rights as protected by the Constitution should be locked up.  After all, if you think the Civil Rights Act is Constitutional then you absolutely disagree with Sir Rand.

He obviously didn't mean Republican Michelle Bachmann should be thrown in jail.  She has called for the overthrow of the American government many times, even holding rallies right on the Capitol steps to call for Revolution! an event where many other speakers called for the overthrow of the government.  People who attended her rally that day should be locked up right?  He obviously didn't mean Republican Paul Broun or Republican Steven King who have both numerous times called for the government to be overthrown. No, not at all.  Talking about overthrowing government led by Democrats is Patriotic.  You get labeled a very serious Libertarian tough guy who is simply trying to protect civil liberties.  He has no problems hosting, attending and listening to people talking about overthrowing government just so long as it's Democratic-led government.

(H/T to BaP)

Pot Should Be Legal, So Says the World

A group of prominent former world leaders said Wednesday the so-called war on drugs, as begun by the Great Richard Nixon, has "failed" and that decriminalizing marijuana may help curb drug-related violence and social ills. I agree.

By agreeing and being a registered Democrat I realize this opens me up to being labeled an America-hating liberal.  Only if I were a Republican like Ron Paul could I then hope for being labeled a Great Freedom Loving, Liberty Supporting Patriot for my political stances.  Alas, though, I'll take being a Democrat any day.

Stocks Go Downward

Slow job numbers, fear of American default on its bills for the first time in history as held hostage by the GOP, trouble in Europe, another bailout for Greece, Japan still under meltdown and a cooling off in China all led to the worst day in over a year on Wall St.

Know what all this means? Republicans couldn't be happier.

Facts Don't Support Our Fantasy World, So Let's Ignore Them

There are a few very basic facts about the nation's debt and budget deficit that are essential to understand. One, the budget deficit was $1.4 trillion dollars when President Obama took office. Two, the federal debt level was over $11.9 trillion at the end of Bush's 2009 budget.

The fiscal 2011 budget deficit was $1.34 trillion. And the federal debt today is $14.34 trillion.

That means the budget deficit is, at worst, unchanged. And the federal debt has grown by $2.44 trillion since Obama took office. These small and simple facts are very, very hard for Republicans to grasp, however.

Sarah Palin, when giving her only campaign interview to her employer, the Republican Fox News channel, seemed to not have a care in the world for facts or intelligent conversation when discussing important issues like budgets and deficits.



President Obama has grown more debt than all other presidents combined?? Wow that is very crazy talk. She can't be serious.

Unfortunately she is serious. And she is what the Republican base cheers on, even cherishes. Her completely untrue, crazy chatter like Obama has grown more debt than all other presidents combined is considered very Serious and president-worthy criteria for Republican voters.  They really want their candidates to deny reality.

The simple fact is, though, President Obama hasn't even raised near the level of debt Reagan did when he tripled it. Or when George W. Bush doubled it. Inheriting the largest budget deficit in world history on top of the largest federal debt in the galaxy means, in the Republican Fantasy World, you're responsible for it. Republicans are for whatever makes them appear least responsible especially when it comes to fiscal deficits.  After all, these are the very fiscal conservatives that we are talking about.

*Update:

As luck would have it, I came across this image below demonstrating who is more responsible for the debt situation.

There's just no way anyone with half a brain could suggest Obama has added more debt than all previous presidents combined.  Well, I take that back.  It's very possible Republicans talking on Fox News can suggest, despite clear and simple facts to the contrary, pretty much whatever it is they want with complete immunity.  Case in point is quitter Sarah Palin.

That Pesky Individual Mandate

There's a dizzying array of political backspin happening right now in the GOP that could either make their primary next year a total laughing stock or a gut check moment where they finally realize they loved the individual mandate up until a black man signed it into law.

What else is there to say of the vast Republican support of the individual mandate right up until 2009 when Barack Obama became president?

The probable front runner, Mitt Romney, not only supported the mandate but as governor legislated it into law calling for his system to be replicated nationwide.  If I'm not mistaken, the last couple weeks he has routinely defended his mandate as being the right thing for his state.  If it's Constitutional for a state to do it then it is, for all practical reasons governing a Constitutional republic, just as Constitutional for the federal government to do it.

This week Steve Benen reminded everyone that announced GOP candidate, Tim Pawlenty, also supported the individual mandate right up until the time Barack Obama liked it.

Right there alone we have two very possible GOP candidates who used to support the individual mandate until they all of a sudden were reminded that it was unconstitutional once Obama put it in a piece of legislation.  But wait, there's more.

Since 1991, when Republicans first introduced the individual mandate as viable law to protect private insurance companies, multitudes of Republicans have offered support for it. John McCain, Orrin Hatch, Jim DeMint, Chuck Grassley, Bob Bennett, Tommy Thompson, Lamar Alexander, John Thune, Lyndsay Graham, Scott Brown, and Judd Gregg are just a drop in the bucket of GOPers that once saw the individual mandate necessary and legal.  And trust me there are many, many more.

Oh yeah, as Benen reminds us again today, possible Republican candidate, former Governor of Utah and former Obama appointee, John Huntsman, praised the mandate in 2007 as a legitimate means to reform the health care industry.

These aren't ancient hieroglyphic examples of pre-Civil War Republican support of legislation.  This was just two years ago.  You know right before Obama was president and the Constitution was amended to state that government couldn't tax people, provide for the general welfare of its citizens, or regulate an interstate industry spanning 20% of the total American gross domestic product.