Freed Hikers Say Gitmo Deserves a Lot of Blame For Their Treatment

Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer after more than two years in captivity in Iran:

 "In prison, every time we complained about our conditions, the guards would immediately remind us of comparable conditions at Guantánamo Bay. They would remind of us of CIA prisons in other parts of the world and the conditions that Iranians and others experience in prisons in the U.S.," says Shane Bauer. "We do not believe that such human rights violations on the part of our government justify what has been done to us. Not for a moment. However, we do believe that these actions on the part of the U.S. provide an excuse for other governments, including the government of Iran, to act in kind."

Deep Thought

How long before tea bagging Republicans take credit for the Wall St. protests?

*editor's note:

I suppose I could also phrase this to include Libertarians since they have been talking for decades about Revolution! and disturbing the status quo of elitist power.  However, after some thought, the term "Republicans" is still correct since a Libertarian is simply someone who votes Republican.

Endless War Success!

U.S. kills it's own citizen in Yemen raid.

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki -- an American whose fluency in English and technology made him one of the top terrorist recruiters in the world -- was killed Friday in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, U.S. and Yemeni government officials told CNN.

But if we keep killing all the "next bin Laden's" how are we going to conjure up a new enemy????

Deep Thought

If you don't know who Sunny Ledfurd is, it's time to learn.

Most Awesomest Ever!!

Fantasy World Queen

The people who told us the Tea Bagger marches on Washington back in 2009 were the largest in the history of the world, now tell us that right wing extremist Liberty University is the best university "in the history of the world."

This is your standard case of Republican delusion no doubt about it. These are the same people who continually lie about death panels, killing old people, concentration camps, socialist takeovers, free health care for illegals, fake birth certificates, missiles in Cuba and ultimately gave us 8 Great years of George W. Bush. They are the very same people. None of us should be terribly surprised that exposing their lies only makes them lie more.

Tom Morello is Awesome!

From Sept. 23, HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher:

"Much like the President, I am half Kenyan. Like the President, I’m a Harvard graduate. Like the President, I’m from Illinois. And, like the President, I’ve been on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. I got a message for him. ‘Dude, it’s time to grow a pair. A lot of people who put you in office put you in office to fight for them; to fight against the Tea Party; to fight against this bullshit in Congress; to fight against those sons of bitches who are attacking the working class and the poor in this country.’ And he hasn’t done any of it. 

At the same time, I’m not waiting for him. I’m with the people in Madison. I’m with the people who are occupying Wall Street. That’s what my music’s about. When progressive, radical or even revolutionary changes happen in this country, it’s come from below. When women got the right to vote, when lunch counters were desegregated, it was people you do not read about in history books who stood up in their place and their time for what they believe.”

The dude is right on.  Absolutely people shouldn't wait for the president to act.  Idle hands have never made history or changed the world.

*Update:

Not waiting on the president is probably the best advice I've seen, read or heard yet from progressives.  There is no reason to wait for Republicans to be back in charge of this country before Democrats, Progressives, Liberals and Independents alike demand change like we did in 2008.  There's no reason at all we should sit with our fingers crossed hoping the change we so desire will suddenly appear. Opportunity wasted is seldom regained.

Waiting for the right moment is opportunity slipping away.  There may be no better summation of why idleness is no friend of success than Dr. Martin Luther King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail.  This portion most definitely:

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was "well timed" in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant "Never." We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that "justice too long delayed is justice denied."

We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we still creep at horse and buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. 

[...]

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail in this purpose they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress. I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that the present tension in the South is a necessary phase of the transition from an obnoxious negative peace, in which the Negro passively accepted his unjust plight, to a substantive and positive peace, in which all men will respect the dignity and worth of human personality. Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. I have just received a letter from a white brother in Texas. He writes: "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but it is possible that you are in too great a religious hurry. It has taken Christianity almost two thousand years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. 

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right. Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

It's really worth the 5-minutes to read it, trust me.

Losing Still Counts As a Career

When your name is Willard and your family comes from Mexico via illegal immigration in which your grandfather practiced polygamy you learn a thing or two about evading truth.

For instance, Willard Mitt Romney,  claims that even though his father was Governor of Michigan for 6 years, a 1968 Republican Presidential candidate and a political appointee of Nixon; and even though Willard Mitt himself is a former Governor of Massachusetts, a former Republican candidate for U.S. Senate and has run for president twice, it simply only means you have no "political career."

Maybe he means because he's lost 3 of his 4 elections that he has no career.

Bachmann Fears Muslim Missiles in Cuba

Heaven Help Us All.

While in Iowa, Batshit Crazy Michelle Bachmann was asked what she thought about normalizing relations with Cuba.

BACHMANN: Why would you normalize trading with a country that sponsors terror? There’s reports that have come out that Cuba has been working with another terrorist organization called Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is potentially looking at wanting to be part of missile sites in Iran and, of course, when you’re 90 miles offshore from Florida, you don’t want to entertain the prospect of hosting bases or sites where Hezbollah could have training camps or perhaps have missile sites or weapons sites in Cuba. This would be foolish.

I literally can't make this stuff up.  There's really not a sane one in the bunch.

What To Expect, It Only Gets Worse From Here

2008 saw some of the most grotesque political behavior in a long, long time.  The last time America witnessed such extremism was in the 1960s when interracial marriage was illegal in most of the country.  Segregation was law.  Blacks were treated like second-class citizens and were specifically told where they could and couldn't be served.  And when Jim Crow disenfranchised most anyone who wasn't a white male from voting.

We are a far cry from such a world today.  Those of us who weren't alive back then can't even comprehend such a place.

Equality has come a long way.  Blacks no longer have to be subjected to areas designated for them.  They can play professional sports, eat where they like.  People of different skin colors can marry.  Jim Crow is gone.  The apartheid is over.  We have a black president.  A racially and gender-divided America largely no longer exists today. Maybe it's better to state the fears of the right wing extremists in the 60s have been fully realized-- equality is greater than at any other time in American history.  The world the racists feared in the 60s is here and that is what's driving them today.

But that very same behavior from 50 years ago isn't over.  We saw it in 2008 when people attending Republican political rallies called Barack Obama a "nigger" and carried signs calling him much more incendiary things.  Numerous times people attending GOP events called for the death of Obama; called him a terrorist; and a socialist.  All that was present and so much more in 2008.  And guess what?  It will be worse in 2012.

If you want a flashback to 2008 just to get a glimpse of how bad it's going to get, here's a post from Oct. 30, 2008.  Times that by 2 and you'll get what 2012 is going to look like.

Only the Beginning...

This sort of stuff will get worse and more widespread.  If you'll recall, in 2008, Republican events were very hard to decipher between a mental home or a political rally.  Expect more of the same except on a larger scale from Republicans this time around.

Quickies

• Republican wish to treat foreign Muslims better than Americans and shut down the American government in the process loses out.  Democrats hold the line and force funding for disaster relief not to be offset with needless budget cuts.  More here...

• Elizabeth Warren is more right than she even realizes.

• No doubt the radical right wing will try, again, to make 2012 an election about moral values and Americanism.  Except this time Democrats, thanks to President Obama aren't backing down.

• In Saudi Arabia, where 15 of the 19 hijackers were citizens, women have gained a slight bit of equality by earning the right of suffrage in some elections.

• Fox News drums up a make-believe War on Salt where it entices people to believe President Obama isn't going to allow you to use it in your own home.  When people are curious as to how ridiculous our political discourse has become in America, the most watched news organization in America is Exhibit A.

Rich Man Asks President to Raise His Taxes

Stunning video and key point in today's politics, unless they guy's an implant and not genuine. 

Deep Thought

Barack Obama is a war president too!!

Doing Some Traveling...Fold Blog Will Survive

Going to be hopping on some planes the next few days.  But I will try to get some posting done as best as I can.  Just a heads up that our Freedom Fighting Coalition will be strained but not broken.

FL Tea Baggers Support Sissy ACLU

Maybe a sign of the times, or proof hell is freezing over, the Tea Baggers of Florida are siding with the ACLU to get rid of Republican-passed legislation that prohibits third party members from running as Republicans or Democrats in the next election.

DADT Is Over

It's official, DADT is no more.  Equality is one step closer.

It's Not About Policy Anymore, and Never Really Was

Along the same lines of a post I wrote yesterday, I'm surprised to see some progressive bloggers missing the point of the president finally playing some politics.

Yglesias writing about his displeasure with President Obama blaming too much a focus on policy:

This is not the first time I’ve seen the president quoted as expressing those views, and I’ve heard similar things myself from his lips. The invocations of Carter and Clinton, if anything, seem to me to illustrate what’s wrong with it. Clinton succeeded precisely because he was a policy wonk.

I have to disagree.  Bill Clinton succeeded precisely because he was a master politician.  Not to cut him down on his policy skills because he surely had that too.  But his political ability is unmatched by anyone alive today.  Clinton played politics.  He played it the old way. He won.  He wasn't afraid to benefit from his opponents being wrong. And he certainly wasn't afraid to kick them while they were down.

One of the best lines I ever heard from President Clinton was in 2004 when he was asked he how handled all of the attacks against him. He answered, when they hit me, I hit back.

That's how it works.  That's politics the old way.  It's probably politics the only way.  If you expect it any other way, you're sorely mistaken.  Hope for it to get better, maybe even try a couple things to help change it.  But if you want to win elections, you don't get points for making your opponents look like willing equals.  You win elections by making your opponents look like willing executioners. Bill Clinton, for all his policy wonkishness, was a master politician long before he ever cared about policy.  Not to mention, you don't get to write policy unless you win.  And you don't win by picking your opponent up off the ground.

If you think for one minute if Republicans win the White House next year that they will give one ounce of consideration to Democratic ideas, you're an idiot.  I mean that in every sense of the word too. The last thing they will do is focus on bipartisan policy.  You either play the game or go home.  Ain't nobody gonna change it, I absolutely guarantee that.

*Update:

Well, well, well...I see Whiskey Fire actually has a set of balls.

The reason Obama is in trouble is because too many people don't have jobs, and one of the reasons too many people don't have jobs is that the asshole commentariat thinks "unity of purpose" is more important than "jobs."

What is batshit here is that Keller is utterly oblivious to his own role in this nonsensical disaster. Obama is a creature of the Sensible Consensus. He is the Bill Keller President.

You'd be surprised how much unity is created when people have money in their pockets. You think Clinton unified any sort of purpose? Heck no. But unemployment was 4.6% and that's all anyone cared about. Go unify your tree hugging doggy day-camp friends and leave the rest of us alone.

Threats of Class Warfare are Hollow...finally

In the 90s calling the president's policies socialism, aka class warfare, would have worked.  Today, as we embark away from the many firsts of this presidency; the epic sliding away from conversations about glass ceilings; and the mediocre attractions of political labels just for the sake of politics, the threat of class warfare affecting our discourse is over.  Time has not been kind to the phrase.  Thankfully, time gave up.

The president today proved he'll take it head on.  You can argue the policy but I promise you, math will win.

This is not class warfare.  It’s math.  (Laughter.)  The money is going to have to come from someplace.  And if we’re not willing to ask those who've done extraordinarily well to help America close the deficit and we are trying to reach that same target of $4 trillion, then the logic, the math says everybody else has to do a whole lot more:  We’ve got to put the entire burden on the middle class and the poor.  We’ve got to scale back on the investments that have always helped our economy grow.  We’ve got to settle for second-rate roads and second-rate bridges and second-rate airports, and schools that are crumbling.

That’s unacceptable to me.  That’s unacceptable to the American people.  And it will not happen on my watch.  I will not support -- I will not support -- any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans.  And I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share.  We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable.

Time To Lead the Old Way

I had to wait all the way until the very end to read what I wanted to read in this Ezra Klein post:

That isn’t how the White House would prefer to govern. It’s not how they would prefer to campaign. It is, let’s admit it, politics-as-usual. It’s the triumph of the old way of doing things, an admission that Washington proved too hard to change. But it’s also the only option they have left.

It's not the only option they have left, however.  It's the only option that works.  That's why politicians have been doing it for centuries in this country.  

It's nice to have politicians get along and compromise for the good of the whole country. But it's rare; if not impossible. To think a fresh-faced newbie was going to change that in two short years is naivete. Also, to think people actually wanted a change from the "old way of doing things" is just as wrong.

You bet it's politics-as-usual.  Now go do it.

That Reagan Boom

Talking with a friend on Facebook over the weekend led me wanting to learn more about a phenom he kept referring to as the Reagan Boom.  I was in infancy and elementary school in the 80s so I don't recall much about how great things were economically back then.  I know my dad had a good job and we never went without but other than that I don't remember much.

With a little spare time today I dug into this great era known as the Reagan Boom that my friend said was filled with economic growth never seen before.

Here's US GDP from the last 80 years or so.

If the Reagan Boom was an era of unprecedented growth due mainly to his policies surely GDP during that time would reflect that right?  Well, as you can see from the graph GDP has been rising since 1942 and it looks no different in the 80s than it did in the 60s, 70s, 90s or 2000s.  In fact the sharpest growths come in the 90s after Reagan was out of office and during the 2003 to 2007 after Reagan was dead.  So dang it, even though GDP grew during the Reagan Boom it's not unprecedented or even in "never seen before" territory. Just normal growth like we've seen for 80 years.

Besides GDP, another great measuring stick to test out good economic times is wages.  Obviously when wages go up, people spend more and the economy grows.  So surely the Reagan Boom had never before seen wage increases.  You know, normal every day Americans making more money-- that's what a boom is all about.

Alright, well, the Reagan Boom for sure saw wage increases but not like what we saw in the 50s and 60s when Reagan was still acting like he was a war hero.  What we do see is that wages had a much better time in the 90s after Reagan left office than during the Reagan Boom.  Now don't get me wrong, wages increased but not into unprecedented territory.  And certainly not greater than they did in the immediate post-war years or during the 90s when Clinton was in office.

So with two of the leading economic indicators there is no boom. There's growth no doubt about that.  But no boom or nothing that suggests there was unprecedented, never before seen growth.  The 90s saw much sharper GDP growth.  And most certainly the 50s, 60s and 90s saw much greater wage growth.  The Reagan Boom looks awful ordinary doesn't it?

Okay, okay, how about productivity?  Surely Reagan oversaw an era of great increases in production.  There's no way Republicans are going around calling the 80s a "boom" when there's no economic evidence to back it up, right?   Well, actually...

Productivity sucked!

What the heck is going on here.  I'm not seeing a boom at all.  It has to be found in the notion that Reagan cut taxes and paid for all his spending.  Has to be...

Well no, that didn't happen either.  Reagan didn't pay for anything. He ended a post-war budget practice of paying for most stuff (that's what the long sloping downward line is starting about 1946 and continuing until 1981).

Nothing is appearing unprecedented or never before seen.  Is it possible the Reagan Boom is simply code for "if we say it enough people will start believing it"?

If someone finds some data in support of the Reagan Boom let me know.  I would really like to learn more about it.

*Update:

Got an email from a friend, a very Republican friend, telling me that Reagan's Boom was more to do with rescuing the nation from a very deep recession, one similar if not worse than today, than it is about having actual data to back it up.

Just one thing wrong with that.  It's not true.

As you can see in the graph below, which I blew up from one above and made the start date 1979 instead of 1947, the loss in GDP in 1979 and then again in 1981 is no where near as severe as in 2008-2009.  In other words, the economy Reagan inherited was stronger than the one Obama inherited. 

There's a huge drop in GDP in 2008-2009.  Barely a smidgen of a drop in the year preceding Reagan and only a slight one after his inauguration.  The drops we recently went through haven't been seen since the 1930s.

Class Warfare

Class warfare is not when you make millionaires pay the same tax rate as the middle class.  Class warfare is when you make the middle class pay a higher rate than millionaires, which is what we are doing currently and what the GOP wants to keep doing.

*Update:

I was listening on the radio to some Republicans talking this morning about what the public thinks about raising taxes on the wealthy.  As with all things Republican, they were saying the public stands squarely behind them in believing raising taxes on the wealthy is a bad idea.  Honestly, would we expect any other answer from Republicans? 

Instead of taking the raging idiots at the word, I decided to see what the polling data said about public opinion on taxing the wealthy.  And would you believe the actual data doesn't square at all with what Republicans are going around saying.

Check this poll out: Gallup, August 2011, 66% of Americans support tax increases on the wealthy to help reduce federal debt.

Or this one: CNN, August 2011, 62% said taxes on wealthy should be high to help pay for lower income people.

How about his Marist Poll from August 2011, 68% support increasing taxes on people who make over $250K/year.

Here's a Reuters Poll from August 2011 showing 46% of Americans support raising taxes on the wealthy.  Maybe not a plurality but still a higher percentage of Americans who support raising taxes on the wealthy than support the GOP.

Saying the American people don't want higher taxes on the wealthy to help pay the deficit is a lie.  Saying the American people don't want millionaires to pay the same rate as someone who makes $40,000 a year is psychosis.

Technically, Offsetting Disaster Relief Isn't Fiscally Responsible

I suppose if the really cool thing to do now is to offset extra spending with cuts from other parts of the budget, then I would agree with Rand Paul that the first place we should start pulling money away from is the "coffers of our numerous nation-building programs overseas."

Alas, though, if any item needn't be offset it should be disaster funding for our own people.  Before you pat yourself on the back too hard there Randy and repetitively call yourself a Freedom Fighter, how about attaching that amendment to a spending bill where we are spending 10 times that amount on Muslims.

Three or Four More Years and a Few Billion More, Please!

If only the Liberal America-haters would understand that now is not the time to end our Glorious Occupation of Iraq.

Just imagine what else we could do in Iraq; all the good we could bring.  All the Freedom and messy democracy we could be delivering.

Consider this: "Keeping ten to twenty thousand U.S. troops in Iraq could do all the above. If carried out for say three more years, it might cost us a total of $30­–40 billion over that time. It is a small price to solidify the gains of what has already been a trillion dollar investment in one of the Middle East's most pivotal states."

Honestly, what could go wrong?  Think of it just like O'Hanlon specifically calls it, an "investment."  What better or where better to invest our billions???

*editor's note:

Don't think of it as war and death where thousands of innocents die and our troops are asked to sacrifice even more.  Or as another 4 years for a war we've already been fighting for 8.  Doing that only proves you aren't Serious about America.  If you want our future to be full of Freedom and Liberty, you'll think of it as it actually is, an investment.

A very small price to pay for what has really been a very worthwhile freedom spreading endeavor.

Very True

President Obama:  “The odds of me being reelected are much higher than the odds of me being elected in the first place.”

I agree.

Completely Stupid People Say Completely Stupid Stuff

About as stupid and crazy as it gets.  Yet these are Republicans who voted twice for George Bush so it really shouldn't surprise us.  It's still frustrating, however, to know this is what we are up against and for some reason Dems can't formulate a coherent response and instead allow (insist) Republicans equal status in Washington.

Beer With a Marine

I've drank many a beer with Marines and Obama. But this is kind of cool.

Bachmann Blew It Long Before Vaccination Stunt

With or without her idiotic insistence the vaccination can cause retardation, she didn't stand a chance at winning the nomination or the presidency.  She's a complete idiot.  She won an Iowa straw poll in which you pay people to go vote for you.  Only about half of every vote she paid for showed up to vote for her.  How that equals frontrunner status or being on the verge of capturing the presidency is simply a figment of the Republican Fantasy World.

Also, insisting the vaccination stunt is what is going to do her in isn't true either.  She never had a chance.  Never.

They Don't Hate the Fed, Talking Tough is Just Funner

To be clear, it's not that Republicans hate the Federal Reserve.  They just love talking tough more.

Let's say Ron Paul, some how-- don't ask how just go along with it-- becomes president.  You think the Federal Reserve is going to be abolished?  Not a chance.  No not even by Rick Perry.  They won't touch it.  Let's all recall Ronald Reagan said he would destroy the Department of Education and privatize Social Security.  He did neither.  Actually, he saved Social Security by pumping about $150 billion into it and he greatly expanded other realms of government like the VA, the Military Industrial Complex and so on.

George W. Bush, too, said he would fix Social Security.  He didn't.  In exchange he expanded Medicare by about $700 billion.  He also grew government larger than any president since FDR.  He created Homeland Security, NCLB, the Patriot Act, and even exempted himself from dozens of laws.

Do you think if Reagan had said he was going to rescue Social Security by raising taxes he would have been nominated by the GOP, or even won the presidency?  No.

Do you think if George Bush said he was going to expand Medicare, create a state-sanctioned torture regime, become a professional nation-builder and run up a trillion dollar deficit that he would have won?  No.

Neither would have.  That's why it's all about talking tough.  It's all about making your base jump up and cheer for executions and uninsured people dying.  It's about saying all the right things and telling them what they want to hear.  Once your in office, none of it matters.  Whatever you do will all go down the memory hole anyway.

All these blah blah stories about hating on the Fed is nonsense.  What we are talking about are chronic liars who, much like Reagan, are professional actors on the political scene.  It's fraud at its best.  But by all means, if they really want to reform America into a 19th century image, then make them do it.  Hold them accountable.  Don't let them stand there with their dick in their hands.  Make them use it.

Why the Internet Was Invented

Katy Perry

Just to please the Google bots.

GOP: Muslims Are Way More Important Than Americans

GOP Presidential Candidate Rick Perry's dedication to our Muslim brothers: We have to stay in Afghanistan in order to “continue to help them build the infrastructure that they need, whether it’s schools for young women like yourself, or otherwise.”

For our hard working American tax payers?  We can't afford to spend money on our infrastructure or schools.  It's wasteful, misguided and a mistake.

George Bush policies don't work.  Our tax money for our country!

Senate Repubs Block Disaster Aid

Senate Republicans blocked a $7 billion aid package for victims of recent natural disasters like Hurricane Irene, tornadoes in the Midwest and the South and floods along the Mississippi, Missouri and other rivers.

Just two years ago, Republicans never thought twice about passing billion dollar legislation to rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.  They couldn't pass those bills quick enough.  In fact, they called anyone who dared speak out against such bills anti-American and routinely questioned their patriotism.  Spending money here at home on our own people is socialism and must be stopped, however.  Wheee!!!


*Update:


Late last night Democrats overcame a GOP filibuster of the bill.  Now it heads to the House where even more Republicans are going to insist helping and rebuilding America is not as important as helping Iraqis.

All Worked Up About Truth

Looks like Republicans are getting all upset at people who used the anniversary of 9/11 as a chance to remind Americans just how misguided our response was.

Let's be clear on this.  Within 6 months of al Qeada killing 3,000 innocent Americans on our soil, George Bush was on television saying he wasn't worried about bin Laden and those who were, were not Very Serious People.

Within 18 months of the attack, Bush had only sent 10,000 troops after bin Laden (someone he routinely said wasn't worth chasing) and 150,000 to invade a country and capture its leader that had nothing at all to do with the attacks.  The result of turning our attention away from bin Laden has led to a 10 year war in Afghanistan and an 8 year war in Iraq.  Plus trillions of dollars spent on war and rebuilding foreign countries and who of us can ever forget the 6,000+ dead service men and women. Needless to say, all of this was done without the Bush administration raising one penny to pay for any of it.  If we are a broke nation like the GOP keeps telling us, it's because they took us down a path of bitter self destruction.

Simply put, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.  It was a war of choice waged by a bunch of madmen.  Covering any of that up--  especially on the day that started us down such a shameful path-- is a grave injustice to this nation.  If you don't like to hear it, it's because you're guilty of trying to cover it up.

Pick Your Socialist Liberal

President A

• Increased taxes 11 different times.
• Increased government spending by 103%.
• Increased Social Security solvency by $160 billion.
• Raised debt ceiling 18 times.
• Tripled the national debt.
• Grew federal public sector payroll by 61,000 employees.
• Armed, funded and aided Saddam Hussein.
• Armed, funded and aided bin Laden.

President B

• Cut taxes twice.
• Increased government spending by 71%.
• Raised debt ceiling 19 times.
• Created largest budget deficit in history upon leaving office at $1.29 trillion
• More than doubled the national debt.
• Grew federal public sector jobs by 50,000 employees.
• Created the largest federal expansion into a national education system in American history effectively centralized all primary educational institutions and eroded local control.
• Redistributed over $1 trillion of American tax payer wealth to foreign countries to wage endless war, build roads, schools, bridges, mosques, and other infrastructure as well as to pay for and train national police forces and military personnel.
• Instituted 8 tax payer funded takeovers of private industry including, but not limited to, the takeover of 234 private banks-- all with tax payer money, TARP. By far the largest federal expansion into the American free market economy ever.

President C

• Instituted $787 billion "stimulus bill" to revive the American economy. Tax payer money spent on tax payers and on American soil rather than in foreign countries.
• Signed $330 billion payroll tax cut.
• Followed through with $80 billion auto industry bailout setup under previous administration's TARP.
• Increased spending by 16%.
• Raised debt ceiling 2 times.
• Every policy instituted was either paid for or deficit neutral.
• Expanded health insurance to 32 million Americans.
• Forced banks to successfully repay TARP to ensure minimal costs of the program.
• Shrunk public sector jobs by over 200,000 employees.
• Repealed DADT.

Could have also easily titled this post as "Which Is More Fiscally Responsible?"

Fiscal Responsibility in Action

This is what fiscal responsibility looks like. Something that never happened when Republicans were in charge.

The Obama administration has proposed a $467-billion package of savings, including changing how deductions count for wealthy income-tax payers, to offset the cost of its proposed jobs package, officials announced Monday.

At a televised briefing, Jack Lew, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, outlined the package, which is being sent to Congress along with the $447-billion jobs bill. The extra $20 billion is designed to create a cushion to make sure the jobs plan is fully paid for as the president has promised, Lew said.

“In order to invest in jobs and growth, we're going to have to pay for it,” Lew told reporters at the news session, which included White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.

Every piece of legislation by the administration has been paid for or deficit neutral.  Yet the media and the GOP refer to such policy as tax and spend socialist Liberalism.

Deep Thought

Thank goodness it's the 12th and I don't have to watch Saddam flying planes into our buildings a thousand times today.

9/11 Anniversary Highlights Just How Destructive Our Response Was

Even though yesterday's remembrance of 9/11 shouldn't be political, it always will be.  The big reason it will always be political is because Republicans will forever use it as a reason to justify Bush's invasion of Iraq.

Thankfully, there are some journalists in America willing to rightfully make the distinction that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks.  Here's Fareed Zakaria on CNN setting madman Donald Rumsfeld straight on the facts behind the invasion.

"There's no question that al Qaeda and Zarqawi and people were in Iraq," Rumsfeld argued. "They aggregated there."  "If we hadn't invaded, they wouldn't have been there," Zakaria pointed out.  "We don't know that," Rumsfeld insisted. "You don't know that. I don't know that."  "But they went in to fight us. So since we weren't there, why would they have gone into Iraq?" Zakaria countered.  "Why have they gone into Yemen and Somalia?" Rumsfeld asked. "Why do al Qaeda go anywhere? They go where it's hospitable."  "Right, and Iraq hadn't been hospitable," Zakaria said.

And here's NBC's Brian Williams this morning calling Iraq an "elective" war delivered to us by a president with a "blank check."

“Having listened to a lot of discussions on the war in Iraq at a lot of gatherings, I’ve settled on the word elective,” Williams explained. “It was an elective war on the part of [President] George W. Bush because none of those pilots [who carried out the 9/11 attacks] were Iraqi, because none of the people in those planes were Iraqi, and because as a wounded nation, we gave a president, in effect, a blank check.”

As the whole world knows, 15 of the 19 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia.  None from Iraq.

We've spent a trillion dollars, thousands of lives and forced our country into a deep recession all for Bush's insistence someone who had nothing to do with 9/11 was more important than bin Laden.

Remembering 9/11 and What Followed

As we all remember this day, we also shouldn't forget the administration in power during and after the 9/11 attacks completely turned their attention away from the people responsible. In place of hunting al Qeada we were given the war in Iraq.

Here's President Bush just six months after the attacks saying he's not worried about bin Laden and that people who think going after him is important are not fully aware of the crisis. That's because even at that time the Bushies were preparing to turn our attention to Iraq and people who had nothing to do with the attacks.  It was a colossal failure with the gravest of implications.

Republicans Had No Qualms About Adding to the Deficit to Rebuild Iraq

A very good pickup from Think Progress...

After George Bush invaded and blew up Iraq, we had to fix it. In the words of Bush's then Secretary of State, former General Colin Powell, if you break Iraq, "you buy it."  And buy it we did.

To date the American tax payer has footed at least $44.6 billion to build roads, schools, mosques, and other infrastructure in Iraq.  Bush and the GOP did not raise one penny to pay for any of it.  In fact, they never, ever, one single time complained about spending money in Iraq where we've spent over a trillion dollars.  Therefore, every single penny for reconstruction, just like for the war, has been added to the national debt.

Last week when a natural disaster struck the east coast and did billions in damages, Republicans decided to channel their make-believe fiscal conservative side and suggested that any money for disaster relief (i.e., money for our own people to be spent on our own soil) has to be offset with cuts from somewhere else.  Truth be told, this year alone any time federal disaster relief has been promised to aid in reconstruction efforts, Republicans have insisted all of it must be offset with cuts to other areas.  Prudent fiscal conservatives they are.

When Republicans were in charge of this country and were in a prime position to hold true to their self-proclaimed fiscal conservative values, they never one single time paid for anything.  Everything they did was added to the national debt including reconstructing foreign countries.  In addition, they never one time tried to hold up funds to reconstruct Iraq and routinely called anyone who dare question it unpatriotic.  But when it comes to spending money here at home on our own people for natural disaster relief, Republicans would rather spend that money on an Iraqi.

On what planet does any of that make sense?

Iraq Still Had Nothing To Do With 9/11

As I've said before, I'm not against giving George Bush some credit for the death of bin Laden.  Actually, I think we should extend the credit to Reagan as well.  If he hadn't armed, funded and trained bin Laden we wouldn't have had to kill him.  So credit extends across a multitude of people none more so than the guy who created him.

When the former president says things like: “The work that was done by intelligence communities during my presidency was part of putting together the puzzle that enabled us to see the full picture of how bin Laden was communicating and eventually where he was hiding,” he said. “It began the day after 9/11.”  It just drives people crazy.  Rightfully so because Bush is obviously trying place himself into the context that he helped track down and kill bin Laden.

As history tells us, Bush did about the least amount possible in hunting bin Laden.  That's why it irks him so much to see his successor succeeded where he failed.  To make up for his lack of "tough guyism portrayal" in the media-- after all let's face it there's nothing Republicans hate worse than being portrayed as wimps by the media-- Bush has to talk tough as if he had some huge role in the killing of the person responsible for a mass terror attack on his watch.

Nonetheless, let him have it.  Let Bush pretend.  But don't stop there. Reagan has to be included in the list of gratitude as well.  Just imagine if Reagan hadn't created both bin Laden and Saddam Hussein where this country would be.

Economists Like Obama Job Act

This is encouraging if you believe economists are real people.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics: “The plan would add 2 percentage points to GDP growth next year, add 1.9 million jobs, and cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point.”

 [...] 

"go along way toward stabilizing confidence, forestalling another recession, and jump-starting a self-sustaining economic expansion.”

Goldman Sachs’ forecasters: “Thus, if enacted in its entirety, this proposal could shift the fiscal impulse in 2012 from -1.1% of GDP to +0.4% of GDP. However, it is not yet clear how congressional Republicans will respond to the proposal, and we are not changing any of our estimates at this time.”

Paul Krugman: Still, the plan would be a lot better than nothing, and some of its measures, which are specifically aimed at providing incentives for hiring, might produce relatively a large employment bang for the buck.

Heidi Shierholz, Economic Policy Institute: President Obama’s jobs plan, if implemented, would boost employment by around 4.3 million jobs (yes, 1.6 million of those jobs would come from continuing temporary policies that are already in place and supporting the economy today, but the new initiatives alone would generate 2.6 million jobs).

All quotes from WSJ.

Stimulating

Only watched part of the speech last night. But I did read the text of it this morning. Much bolder than I thought it would be. More specific than I thought it would be and it also included a mention about refinancing efforts, which I think is huge for mortgage holders to get out from under some debt. The chances of any of it happening are very slim, however. Republicans control the House and they do not want job creation. They want total failure so they can blame it on Obama. They want America in decline and won't be happy until no one has a job.

Winners, Losers of the Freak Show

Last night's freak show demonstrated two undeniables. This is a race between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. From what I saw Romney looked cool and calm. He even defended Social Security and hit Perry right back with some George Bush lines on job creation. That is general election material no doubt.

Perry, on the other hand, appeared to be trying too hard. Yet he said all the things necessary to win the GOP: he loves to execute people, Obama is a liar, etc., etc.

The other contenders are just there to be seen on teevee. Bachmann is done. Ron Paul ruined any chance he might have had, which was none really, when he said he feared a wall on the Mexican border not to keep people out but to keep Americans from escaping with capital. Newt is a has been. Santorum is possessed by demons. Herman Cain stands not a chance in Jim Crow that he'll ever be nominated. And Huntsman did the unthinkable thus ruining his chances forever when he said science was real. Yes, these people are nuts. No doubt about it.

Ron Paul is Nuts Alert

Did Ron Paul just say he opposes a wall on the Mexican border because he's afraid it will be used to keep Americans from leaving with their money?? Holy cow! We've went from fringe extremism to full-fledged conspiracy takeover. He's nuts.

Obama Readying $300 Billion Package

Teh Very Smart People are telling me that President Obama intends to unveil tomorrow night some sort of jobs-making bill worth about $300 billion.

Here are some top secret highlights.
-- lots of tax cuts
-- payroll tax relief
-- some infrastructure spending
-- unemployment extension
-- state and local aid

My first thoughts.

• It's too small.  I would like to see it around the $600 billion range.
• Not entirely sure what new money is being influxed into the economy.
• Why no mention about a widespread refinancing effort?
• More specifics especially with broadband expansion
• Why can't we just helicopter drop a bunch of money?
• If we can't helicopter drop money, why don't we just print a bunch of money and mail it to people?  Say about $4,000 for each tax payer.  Call it a rebate and be done with it.

Everything We Did Was Exactly Right

The legacy of the Bush Administration is one of abject failure. No two-term president in American history has ever presided over so much incompetent deficiency.  But to the madmen that made it all possible, and the Tea Bagging Republicans who hope to return us to the Days of Bush, everything about that era was perfect.

As a matter of record, George Bush presided over the single largest monetary loss in the history of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. He is the only president-- other than Herbert Hoover-- with a Dow lower than when he entered office.  GDP growth during his 8 years is the worst for any president since the invention of numbers.  By the time his 2009 budget ended, he had added more to the national debt than any president in history (over $5 trillion).  On the day he left office, he turned over to his successor the largest budget deficit in world history, $1.29 trillion.  Six million people were added to the poverty ranks and over 8 million Americans lost their insurance during his reign.  Wages took their sharpest loss since the Great Depression and the unemployment rate almost doubled from 4.2% when he took office to 7.6% when he finally ended his 8 year demolition of America.

A complete and utter failure to say the least.  Yet all of that doesn't even begin to touch upon his Endless War Program or the fact that every single piece of legislation passed by his GOP-controlled Congress and signed by him was completely unfunded.  His Medicare expansion adds nearly a trillion dollars to the deficit.  And his wars are well above the trillion dollar mark and counting.  His legacy is of nothing but a tax and spend Big Government failure.  It is the epitome of everything Republicans pretend to be against.  Of course, as we all know, despite what they claim to stand for, it's the only track record they have.

As one would imagine from such a decrepit and morally bankrupt presidency, they have no regrets.  In fact, everything they did was "exactly the right decisions."

*Update:

Reader M.L. writes in to explain why Cheney and the other Bushies aren't sorry or claim any sort of responsibility for anything.

Why on earth would you think Cheney or anyone from Shrub era would be apologetic or even the slightest bit concerned about some of the decisions they made?  You, more than anyone, should know why Cheney doesn't care.  Or why Bush has yet to even be held accountable by the GOP which appears on the verge of nominating Bush On Steroids with Rick Perry.  It's because none of it ever happened!!!  It's down the memory hole!

True enough.  I should have known better.  That George Bush doubled the unemployment rate.  That George Bush, a small government fiscal conservative, added over $5 trillion to the national debt and grew government larger than any president in 80 years.  That Bush and the GOP did not pay for one single spending bill in 8 years.  That the fiscally responsible Republican-led George Bush was the first president since the Great Depression to have the Dow actually lose money during their watch never happened.  None it ever happened.

The fact that Cheney has no regrets is perfectly normal to a Republican.  What has he to regret?  The deficit never happened until Obama took over.  The national debt was completely manageable until Barack Hussein Obama started adding to it.  According to Fox News unemployment was at 5.6% when Bush left office. Iraq and Afghanistan are merely Obama's problems.  And the fact that George Bush added not one single new job in 8 years is but a side note of history when you consider he kept us safe.

We are never allowed to bring up anything that actually might have occurred.  Therefore, it's entirely possible Cheney and Bush made the right decision about everything.  Actually, there is no other conclusion.

Conspiracy Central

Eric Trager asks the question "Why Is The Middle East Still In Thrall To 9/11 Conspiracy Theories?"

The Middle East??? Has he not been watching Fox News and paying attention to the GOP? Heck they still claim Iraq had something to do with it.

Everybody Knows, except the people calling the shots

I've long read Atrios, who I believe goes by Duncan Black when he's not on the internets, for his quick summation of very important items. No one can quite take a huge, boring paragraph of needlessness and shrink it down to one sentence better than him. He's superb at what he does. He also probably is clueless when it comes to politics.

Now I don't mean writing about politics. I mean working in politics. Many of you might not realize it but there is a huge difference between writing about politics and working in politics. I've done both. And it's much easier to write about politics, trust me. Again, don't get me wrong, Atrios does a heck of a job writing about politics. Maybe the best in the biz. But he's never actually worked in politics and never been in a position where he has to choose between listening to a union boss, the party chairman, a central committee person, a single mom on welfare or your chief of staff. When you get in a position like that, and you can only choose one, you end up making a lot of people mad. Alas, that's how it goes. That is the nature of modern American politics. Surely Atrios knows all that and I don't mean to hippy-punch him too much. I just felt the need to note that those who usually make a living off of being critical have never had to do the job they so criticize.

With all that said, Atrios pens one of the greatest analyses of our day and he does it with one sentence: "If you make the case that Republican issues are important, you're making the case for...Republicans."

Alright, so maybe not ever working in politics has made him a much better adviser than anyone else currently working at the White House.  Somebody please listen to this guy...

Quickies

• Rick Perry's Texas loves it some socialist infrastructure investment. Could you imagine what Republicans would call President Obama if he cheered on investing $50 million of federal tax money to build high speed rails in a very Patriotic, non-socialist loving state like Texas??? When someone tough like Rick Perry does it, those Freedom Loving Tea Baggers can't get enough of it. All of this goes right along with my assumptions going as far back as 2009 that tea bagging Republicans are not against socialism, Big Government or even spending money. They're just against Democrats doing it.

• Must read: "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult"  ***Fox News Viewers Warning!!!  You Won't Like What He Says.

• The Liberal Media: “If it [Iraq war] had just gone well, it would have been a completely different reaction.” Ya think? 

• The latest WaPo/ABC News poll has the president at an all-time low, 43%.

• Right-wing billionaire and Republican money-man, Robert Koch, referred to President Obama as "Saddam Hussein" at a top secret Republican donor meeting in Colorado.  He said the GOP needs to wage "the mother of all wars" to oust the president and advised other donors to pony up to the cause.

Republican Recovery in One Graph

For over two years Republicans have been telling us that in order to get the economy back on track we have to jolt the private sector by starving socialist public sector employment. Well here you go:

This should mean we are on our way to full recovery via Liberty and Freedom right?  Well, not exactly.  Judging from our latest 1% growth rate, it means our economy is just as dependent upon the public sector as it is the private sector.  Public servants, such as teachers, cops, firefighters, bus drivers all play a large role in our very advanced, technologically structured 21st century economy.  To think that we can somehow starve the public sector and thus bring back economic growth is absurd.

But this is what Republicans are telling us we should do.  The trend in the graph above is exactly the path they say we have to be on in order to get America's economic engine running again.  If there is anyone who can look at the latest GDP numbers, the latest housing numbers and the latest consumer confidence numbers, and then that graph and tell me we are on the right path, you're crazy.

Democracy Brought

Along with everything that is great and good in the world, it's all because George Bush and his decision to invade Iraq.  This is an important lesson not just for life.  But also if you want to be taken seriously in American politics.

"Sound policy" in America is an almost 10 year war that was raged merely for spite led by a bunch of madmen with hard-ons for other people doing the fighting.  It is a war that has cost almost a trillion dollars, thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of foreign lives; not to mention, not one thing the Bushies ever told us about it has turned out to be true.  But this is "sound policy" as dictated to us by our small government fiscal conservatives.

It's also, according to Cheney and the other madmen who ordered it and the thousands who continue to cheer it on, purely responsible for democratic uprisings in other Arab countries.  Despite Iraq not being a democracy or even remotely close to anything desirable enough to emulate by any country in the world (just this week over 100 people were blown up in streets), the Bushies continue to insist all the credit for all the good is directly because of the Glorious War and their Super Patriotism.

Meanwhile, no one questions it...