Come along if you care

Interesting slice of time: Pyschedelic music from a one-hit wonder group.

Sadly, the lead guitarist (viewer's right) is still performing today, and is a certifiable angry, paranoid loon:

All right now, baby it's all right now

About as often as Halley's Comet drops by for a visit, a conservative is correct. When it happens, it quite joyful. Witness publius at Obsidian Wings:

The fight over the stimulus – a preview of the budget wars to come – has obviously taken on larger ideological dimensions. And the stakes are high. It’s a fight over the very idea of whether government can play a positive role in people’s lives. That’s in part why the Republicans are fighting it so hard.

The ideological debate is often taking place at a very abstract level – with anti-government advocates warning of vague unspecified dangers that will follow government spending. Last month, for instance, Jindal said in a speech that increasing spending “will have dire consequences for not only this time, but also for the future of America.”

It’s nice, then, to see some actual concrete vindication of government assistance. And it’s especially nice to see it in a state governed by Bobby Jindal.

The NYT reports that the massive post-Katrina relief effort has – shockingly – helped the people of Louisiana a great deal.

The experiment is still playing out, but some indicators suggest that what occurred in Louisiana — dumping a large amount of reconstruction money into a confined space in the three and a half years since Hurricane Katrina — has had a positive outcome. The state’s unemployment rate of 5.7 percent in February was considerably below the national average of 8.1 percent, and it was the only state to see a drop in unemployment from December to January. It was also the only state with an increase in non-farm employment in February.

Thus is the ideological shallowness of Jindal as poster boy for the new Right exposed. Publius' analysis is a good read. He ends with this:

I’m not saying this settles the debate. But it does show that government can play a significantly positive role in people’s lives.

And it reinforces a much larger point -- people like me prefer certain types of government spending because it helps people. It’s not much more complicated than that. I think national health care, broadband investment, and energy reform will help people.

And to help the public come around to that view, it’s important to advertise the successes of government done right – to show them the benefits. Democrats don’t do enough of that.

Indeed.

But he had high hopes . . .

A special election was held in NY for the 20th Congressional district, where Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand was appointed to fill Hillary Clinton's Senate seat.

Jim Tedisco, NY State Assembly Minority Leader, was picked to run for the R's. Scott Murphy, a non-politician, ran for the D's. Just a few weeks ago, Tedisco was up by 20 points. As of tonight, with some ballots yet to be counted, we know 3 things:

• Murphy is up by a few hundred votes.
• Tedisco filed a bullshit complaint (faxed from Staples!) before today's preliminary results were announced. (Warning: PDF [h/t FDL]).
• Michael Steele's future as anything other than Rush Limbaugh's lawn jockey may depend on this race.

This election ultimately changes nothing. The House is firmly under Democratic control, 1 vote either way doesn't matter. But I'll bet Steele doesn't feel that way. Other than alienating nearly everyone, raising less cash than needed, firing RNC staff, he's done pretty well.

For a FAIL.

Wrong

The swollen bag of pus that is Orange Co., CA's newspaper of birdcage bottoms, the OC Register, manages to step on their collective dick once again:

But not to fear, because, to start with, President Obama can seemingly purr his way out of anything, as when asked at his press conference the other day why the public should acquiesce in "sweeping authority for the government to take over companies."

My, oh my, did he sound reasonable. You see, the absence of this power makes it difficult to do what needs to be done – fixing AIG, for instance. In the case of federally insured banks, he said, the government can pounce, but is held back by law from grabbing other kinds of private companies. What's needed is a system that allows orderly procedures to tidy up everything.

Uh, huh. So what if the issue was doing away with warrant-less search and seizure of anyone the police wanted to investigate? The absence of that power makes it far more difficult for officers to get the goods on criminals, and there is consequently more crime than there would otherwise be, it could be argued. We allow these searches when the courts say OK. What's now required is a system permitting them whenever the police want so that we can have a more orderly society.

It's always possible to make certain kinds of pragmatic-sounding arguments for the demolition of liberty. I once heard then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore give a seemingly rational defense of curtailing press freedoms. Otherwise, he said, you could have riots. You could have chaos. What's more important, he wanted to know – having yakety-yak criticism, or saving life and limb?

Patently idiotic. Even more disturbing is that this paper purports to be not a neocon rag but a Libertarian organ. Thus, the argument that warrant-less search and seizure is too awful to contemplate rings hollow, knowing that the late GWBush administration orchestrated and executed just such searches and seizures, including holding "enemy combatants" with no charges filed, no access to the legal system, and no recourse. But that was OK, because it was in the name of the "War on Terra".

And the Prime Minister of Singapore wanted to curtail freedom of the press? Of course, that would never happen here. Unless you count Ari Fleischer back on 9/26/01:

And that's why—there was an earlier question about has the President said anything to people in his own party—they're reminders to all Americans that they need to watch what they say, watch what they do. This is not a time for remarks like that; there never is.

Yeah, I though so.

The Register did complain about Bush & Co. once in a while, but by and large, they were silent on many of his tyrannical overreaches. Thus the Libertarian tendencies fall victim to Wingnuttery. Like certain Supreme Court justices, the results are pre-ordained, and the methodology is all that varies.

Bastards.

I'm a loser

Someone who shares a mutual friend with me added me as a "friend" on Facebook tonight. He listed his Political views as Conservative, his Religious views as Christian.

Fine.

But one of his groups is Barack Obama Is Not My President.

Sorry, pal. I never even said that about the abomination that was George W. Bush. If you can't accept that Barack Obama is President, you have no business commenting or even thinking about politics in America.

So long, and have a nice day.

Going down

Never have so many bent over so far and been corn-holed so deeply. The latest is Jim Tedisco (R-Mouthful), candidate for Congress from NY-20 apologizing to Boss Limbaugh:

"Jim's comments were in response to a question about what voters are asking him about on the campaign trail," writes campaign spokesman Adam Kramer. "So far, the concerns he has been hearing from voters on the campaign trail have been local in nature, such as his support for lower property taxes, fiscal responsibility, and his opponent's appalling support for the AIG bonus loophole. That was his point and any effort to characterize it otherwise is a distortion of the facts."

Here's how the Republican brand is doing lately:



With numbers following this trend, why do these cowards follow a guy whose numbers are even lower:

Over the past few weeks, the White House has been casting right-wing talk show host Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican Party, and based on a new CBS News poll, it appears they may be onto something. According to the poll, Limbaugh’s favorable rating stands at just 19 percent, a full 43 points lower than President Barack Obama’s.

Limbaugh’s unfavorable rating, meanwhile, stands at 40 percent, while 41 percent say they don’t know or don’t have an opinion. Not surprisingly, the conservative commentator, who has said he hopes that the president’s economic policies fail, is far more popular with Republicans – 47 percent view him favorably – than with Democrats, just seven percent of whom view him favorably.

Can't even get a majority of his own party. Under normal circumstances that would be worse than weak. For Republicans, it's a mandate.

Idiots.

Come along and sing a song And join the jamboree

Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Rick Perry: you ungrateful hypocritical ideologue bastards:

In a budget proposal released Friday afternoon, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal indicated he is only rejecting $98 million of the federal stimulus funds due his state.

That figure is far less than the $700 million South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has indicated he may reject if the federal government does not allow Sanford to use that money to pay down his state's debt.

. . . Jindal's announcement also comes a day after Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would reject the $555 million in federal funds direct to his state to expand unemployment benefits.

Kids, the money isn't to pay down your state's debt, that's your own goddam problem. The money is for, hold on now, STIMULUS of the economy, and a major part of that is to extend unemployment benefits. Hear that Gov. Goodhair? Because people, when they are either employed or getting unemplyment benefits, inject money into the economy.

But no, says Gov. Jindal (R-OverHisHead):

Gov. Bobby Jindal said Friday he doesn’t want Louisiana to tap into $98 million in stimulus money for expanding unemployment benefits for thousands of people who wouldn’t normally be eligible to receive them.

The Republican governor repeatedly had said he wasn’t sure the state should draw down all the stimulus money it’s eligible to receive, but the announcement was the first detail he’s offered about dollars he wants to refuse.

. . . The dollars that Jindal intends to reject could provide unemployment aid to 4,000 to 6,000 more Louisiana residents, the state labor department estimates. But the acceptance would require a permanent change in state law that would force businesses to pay higher unemployment taxes once the federal dollars run out, Jindal said.

Yep, we can't offer unemployment to those poor people who don't have jobs because TAXESTAXESTAXES!! Is this even true?

The basic thought is that if unemployment benefits are expanded to people previously not eligible, the when the Stimulus bucks run out, the state will have to raise taxes to keep up the benefits.

While googling the hell out of this, I found many weasel words: might, may, could, possibly, especially when reading news reports about the above-named Senators, and on Right-wing blogs. But little in the way of actual attribution to the actual text of the actual stimulus bill.

So I dunno. Maybe Gov's Jindal, Sanford, and Perry are right, that they would have to raise taxes to fix the clusterfuck that their state economies have become. Heck, even here in CA, Ahnuld has agreed to a state tax increase, because, well, we need it!

I think the House and the Senate missed a wonderful opportunity to make the Stimulus all-in: you take all, or nothing.

Or maybe Bobby, Mark, and Rick are wrong. Or maybe they're just actors on the Mickey Mouse Club; they certainly sound like it. If they were, I'd believe them more. Regardless, the Republican party has dwindled in relevance to somewhere just above the WCTU, and far below the Mickey Mouse Club:

Come see victory, in the land called fantasy

The American Conservative sometimes has reasonable things to say. Daniel Larison, for example, is readable:

Conservatives seem to have spent the last year rapidly regressing from cheering on lame politicians who could at least intelligently recite their platitudes (Romney) to worshipping pseudo-populists who could not even do that (Palin) to elevating random guys who didn’t like taxes (the Plumber) to rallying around a radio host who makes Romney’s own brand of Reagan nostalgia and three-legs-of-the-stoolism seem deep and meaningful by comparison. Of course, there isn’t that much substantively different between Romney’s opportunistic recitations and Limbaugh’s boilerplate, but at least with Romney you knew that he was capable of saying something else and would have said it if he had thought it was to his advantage. The boilerplate is not only all Limbaugh knows how to say, but if you pressed him to elaborate on any of it he would just repeat himself.

But this masturbatory fantasy from Pat Buchanan is really, well, near delusional:

Not only is Barack running a deficit four times as large as Bush’s largest, he has called for $1 trillion in new taxes on America’s most successful, who have already seen their savings and pensions ravaged.

He wants a cap-and-trade system to deal with a global-warming or climate-change crisis many scientists believe is a hoax. He is going to provide health care for all, including immigrants, millions of whom arrive uninsured every year. He is going to plunge scores of billions more into education, though education has eaten up the wealth of an empire, as SAT scores sink further and further below the apogee of 1964, before LBJ and the feds barged in. He is going to ask Congress for authority to spend another $750 billion rescuing the banks.

He is going to find the cure for cancer. He is going to ensure every kid gets a college education. He is going to drop half of all wage-earners off the tax rolls, while the top 2 percent, who already pay 40 percent of all income taxes, are forced to cough up more.

Obama is misreading the election returns. When America voted to cancel the White House lease of Mr. Bush, it did not vote Barack Obama a blank check.

By misinterpreting his mandate, Obama has accomplished something John McCain could not — unite the Republican Party and instill in it a new esprit de corps. For the Obama budget is an insult to the core belief of the party — that free people, not coercive government, should shape the character of society.

Taxes on the most successful, who make the MOST FUCKING MONEY? Quelle surprise! I won't bother beyond saying that the proposal is for taxing the upper crust at the Clinton-era level. We're not exactly talking Scrooge economics here.

And Pat? Saying this:

climate-change crisis many scientists believe is a hoax

puts you squarely in the camp of those who firmly believe that they can fly, that gravity is only an opinion.

Seriously, America did vote Barack Obama a "blank check", and no one on the immediate horizon can:

unite the Republican Party and instill in it a new esprit de corps

no matter how hard Rush tries.

Pat, sometimes you make sense. This time, you FAIL.

Now, if you're feeling kinda low 'bout the dues you've been paying

Actually, I love it when the Right gets it right. From Rod Dreher at BeliefNet, a crunchy con:

Verily, that's the way to bring the party back: blame the media. I talked to a conservative the other day who assured me that Obama's success is entirely a creation of the lying biased media, which tricked people into voting for him. The unpopularity of Republican policies has nothing to do with it. Why, we have that from the mouth of America's Top Conservative, who said at CPAC:

Rush Limbaugh, touted by many conservatives as the de facto head of the party in the interregnum, closed the conference with his own speech. "We can take this country back," the radio host told the assembly. "All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It's no more complicated than that."

Yep, it's just that easy. No need to return to first principles and recalibrate policies to account for new realities. Just find a better messenger for the same old same old. You begin to see why nobody inside that bubble could grasp what a flop Bobby Jindal's reheated Republican mush of a speech was going to be ahead of time. Here's a transcript of the entire Limbaugh CPAC speech. Take a look at this passage, and please tell me what is conservative about it?:

Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. [Applause] When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. We don't see people we want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don't think that person doesn't have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government.

This is a comforting lie. It is Rousseau conservatism: the idea that man is born innocent, but corrupted by society, or government. Remove the chains of government, and man will return to his natural, good state, which is one of limitless possibility. This denies two bedrock truths of philosophical conservatism, which are that 1) human nature is fallen, and 2) man must learn to live within limits. A conservatism that is not founded on a conscious recognition of those two truths is a false conservatism, and has a shaky foundation from which to criticize liberal utopianism.

There's more, the whole thing is a revelation in non-insane conservative thinking, somethine we don't get to hear too often. Rod adds this:

Anybody who challenges Limbavian orthodoxy is, ipso facto, the Enemy. If you suggest reform, even from the Right, you are a useful idiot for the Media, which are the Enemy, and can never be anything but the Enemy. Limbaughism sounds a lot like Leninism.

I loved it when the Soviet Union went down and the wall went down and the liberals in our country said you know they may not be ready for freedom over there. They've been oppressed -- yes, liberals will gladly tell you who can have freedom and who can't.

Um, what were the Nineties like in the former Soviet Union? That experiment proved that free markets and liberal democracy can't take hold without the cultural and social preconditions for same. Ditto Iraq. But the Limbavian ideologues, these Right-Wing Rousseauists, see human nature as essentially perfect, except for the corrupting hand of government.

Nicely done, sir.

Walk right back . . .

TheNextRight.com fancies itself as the new intellectual side of the Republican movement. Staffed by earnest young conservatives, it tries to present non-wingnut ideas that still reflect a conservative world view. Don't start laughing yet, the punch line comes later.

After the Epic Fail of Bobby Jindal's rebut of Pres. Obama's not-State-of-the-Union speech the other night, the Next Rightians try to rehabilitate the guy some think will be the candidate in '12.

Let's see how that works out:

With his actions during that natural disaster and his words as a result, we can see his most basic ideals laid bare. And they are ideals we should all applaud. So, as a reminder here are some highlights of his op ed in the Wall Street Journal from September 8, 2005. Jindal began his piece with these words:

Over the past few days, America has been both moved and disturbed by television footage of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath. But for those of us in Louisiana still struggling to cope, the troubling images are of opportunistic politicians playing the blame game while there is so much real work to do.

Rather than point fingers, we should be fixing the situation on the ground. And that will include taking steps to ensure that red tape doesn't stifle the continued security and rebuilding efforts.

There have already been a number of instances in which an overly inhibitive bureaucracy prevented an appropriate response to the disaster. For example, on Wednesday of last week a company called my office. With only three hours before rising waters would make the mission impossible, they were anxious to send a rescue helicopter for their stranded employees. They wanted to know who would give them a go-ahead.

We could not identify the agency with authority. We heard that FEMA was in charge, that the FAA was in charge, and that the military was in charge. I went in person to talk with a FEMA representative and still could not get a straight answer. Finally we told the company to avoid interfering with Coast Guard missions, but to proceed on its own. Sometimes, asking for forgiveness is better than asking for permission.

True as can be. Big Government does not work. Local efforts are far more effective. And if anything speaks to Jindal's basic American ideal it is this line...

Jeebus. So local government was too shy to act on its own, and waited until the Big Bad Feds fucked it all up? Because "Brownie your doing a heckuvajob" had no idea what to do, and thus, had no idea what to tell you to do?

Dude, if you hate the federal government, then grow a pair and act like you can take care of your own.

Seriously, the commentors at the post take no prisoners:

The Katrina story / Sherrif Lee has been found to be an exaggeration which his aides have had to walk back.

The point of the Katrina story is your "rugged individualism" and "government doesn't work". But who is the hero of the story? Sherrif Lee - a government official. Who is the villian? A FEMA bureaucrat. So the story is really about competance vs. incompetence. So it ends up reinforcing a Democratic meme.

and:

Jindal demonstrated that he does not have the leadership skills to lead a conservative movement back from being irrelevant. Knowing that everything he said was going to be facted checked by literally thousands of people, his staff choose to lie. So either Jindal picked a bad staff and thus has bad management skills or he is not capable of getting good work out of his staff.

and:

This is so off base that it is so laughable. FEMA was gutted by Bush and put in Homeland security. Many experienced people lost their jobs in the process. You had Brown who was in charge, someone who did not know emergency management. You had a video conference with Bush, Brown, and others talking about the hurricane before it struck. And then after it hit, you had a governor and a mayor who were incompetent. But you also had an incompetent FEMA. And after some three days of people screaming, Bush said "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." That is one of many blunders by Bush and company.

and:

A recent thread turned to memories of Reagan. People need reminding that he was a pathological liar. He made up the welfare queen story. It got to the point that his people didn't bother with "clarifications" and reporters didn't bother repeating them. It just was who he was. Bush also had an "interesting" relationship with the truth.

Now, talkingpointsmemo.com has the goods on Jindal. The Sheriff Lee story is a Reaganisque fib. That makes Jindal the future of the Republican party.

Seriously. Republicans, Jindal, the future of the party. It is to laugh.

That said, never assume anything. This guy, with the vast machine available to him, might make some actual noise in a few years. Or he might land a high-profile gig with Fox News or on a radio network next to Limbaugh, Liddy or North.

His clown skills may actually pay off.

we found your weakness, and it's right outside the door, now testify

Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa Co. in AZ, has long been a toxic villian, posturing and preening on TV while he routinely violates the rights of prisoners he captures. Of course, his actions delight the anti-immigrant vigilante groups holding their watches at the border.

In fact, members of the House Judiciary Committee are interested in Sheriff Joe:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), and Immigration Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Constitution Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Crime Subcommittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-Va.) called on Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate allegations of misconduct by Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

America's Voice has created a special website, with a petition you can sign, demanding something be done about this tyrant:

With over 2,700 lawsuits against him, a history of virulently anti-immigrant and anti-Latino tactics, and 40,000 felony warrants outstanding in his jurisdiction, Arpaio has fostered a climate in which real criminals roam free while hard-working immigrants live in fear. America's Voice is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to begin a federal investigation into his tactics, giving Sheriff Arpaio the attention he really deserves.

There's even an event scheduled here in L.A.:

Event: Teach-in at UCLA on Human and Civil Rights Violations

Date & Time: Thursday, February 19, 2009, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Location: UCLA Labor Center, 675 South Park View Street, Los Angeles, CA 90057

America's Voice also tells us that:

As reported in the Phoenix New Times, former lead singer of Rage Against the Machine, Zack de la Rocha, joined a rally yesterday in advance of today's protest against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio:

The terror campaign that Mr. Arpaio is waging here in Arizona is keeping people in the shadows. They want to speak out.

Just what are they speaking out about? Arpaio's atrocious law enforcement tactics, though his "forced immigrant march" two weeks ago tops the list. In broad daylight he rounded up and paraded all of the undocumented immigrants in his jail in a chain-gang to a segregated ‘Tent City' surrounded by electrified fences in the Arizona desert.

Glad to see an artist take a public stand on an important issue. Zack has never been afraid to speak up against, well, The Machine.

On that note, here's Zack's former band doing some live Raging:

I always thought I'd be a failure

Bobby Jindal's response to the Not State of the Union address tonight will go down as a legendary Fail.

Rachel sez:


(h/t Hoffmania.com)

Lies:

County Fair: Shuster to Rep. Issa: "Congressman, there is no project for a train from California to Las Vegas. You Republicans know better."

Sherrif/Katrina story

Stupid:

There is a lesson in this experience: The strength of America is not found in our government. It is found in the compassionate hearts and enterprising spirit of our citizens. We are grateful for the support we have received from across the nation for the ongoing recovery efforts. This spirit got Louisiana through the hurricanes - and this spirit will get our nation through the storms we face today.

Creepy rhythm, creepy smile. Made McCain's debate smile seem almost human. And folksy where it wasn't called for. Like a cadaver re-animated turned into a creepy "Hey kid, want to see what I've got in here?" kind of folksy.

And we'll drive all the way to reno on the wrong side of the road

(Tom Waits-Wrong Side of the Road, + more)

Thoughtful, reasonable Rick Moran at RightWingNutHouse steps in shit, and thinks it smells fine. He lists parts of the Stimulus Bill that will, you know, create jobs, and market spending, and has this to offer:

Again, for dimwitted lefties who may be lurking out there, some of this spending is no doubt needed – but has absolutely no business being attached to this bill. Why can’t some of these programs be funded through normal legislative channels? Because the whole Congress knows they would never be able to spend the amounts earmarked in this stimulus package or even pass some of these spending provisions at all unless we had a president out there deliberately and cynically ginning up fear in order to scare people and thus justifying its passage as a result of a national emergency.

Let's examine this quote:

unless we had a president out there deliberately and cynically ginning up fear in order to scare people and thus justifying its passage as a result of a national emergency

Um, yeah. See, your guy did that with Iraq, when no sane person, upon examining empirical evidence, would have felt that it was a threat to the US, and its security.

But now, with Wall St. crashing and burning, with massive lay-offs and loss of health care for many Americans, does he fret that the stimulus bill is a great big wank.

I'm not going to waste my time linking to the economists, to the WSJ articles listing the EPIC FAIL of the US economy. If Rick wants to politicize the Bailout, so be it.

But let me explain something really simple:

Dude, it was your team that got us here. They were traded off to Triple-A ball. Outsourced. Let go. Layed off. The American people, sheep though they often are, became, at long last, tired of being pissed on while told it was raining.

Idiot.

(Buzz)Flash - a-ah - he'll save everyone of us

Update I below.
Bump & Update II by The Sailor below.



I've been a fan of BuzzFlash for years. Editor Mark Karlin scours news sources worldwide, linking to divergent sources, exposing right-wing hypocrisy and failed policy. He's even linked to us a few times.

Today Mark has a wonderful editorial that is a must-read:

I have a modest proposal: if a U.S. Senator votes against the "Main Street Job Creation Act" (BuzzFlash's name for the "stimulus" bill), their state should lose half the funding from the bill. If both U.S. Senators from one state vote against the bill, the state loses its entire allocation from the legislation.

This may sound Draconian, but it might induce the people out of work and with piles of bills to tar and feather the "economic kamikazee" Republican Senators who got America into this mess -- and to run them out of the country.

After all, most of the GOP Neo-Confederate opposition to the "Main Street Job Creation Act" comes from Senators who represent states that already receive more money from the federal government than they pay into the treasury. With the exception of Florida, most of the Old South is still poorer than most of the rest of the nation, and needs massive federal aid to survive economically.

Read it all.

Of course, Huckleberry Graham is the first Senator whose state should lose its funding:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has been one of Congress’s most vocal opponents of the economic recovery package. In fact, he and several other Republicans — including John McCain — introduced an alternative bill, which focuses mostly on massive tax breaks for corporations.

Yesterday he went on CNN to explain why he voted against the Senate’s economic recovery package. While many progressives criticized the bill because it slashed vital funding for education and state assistance, Graham is objecting because it has too much state funding:

BLITZER: Doesn’t South Carolina need some help?

GRAHAM: Yes. But there’s only one taxpayer. This is not money we found under a tree in Washington. The money we’re sending back to the states came out of the same wallet that the money going to the states came from. So, yes, South Carolina needs help. I’m all for infrastructure spending. But it’s got to be shovel ready. […]

I’m not for $75 billion slush fund for states that can be spent on anything they want to spend it on including budget problems because we’ve got our own budget problems and you’re rewarding states who have done very little to trim up their own budget.

However, when Blitzer asked him whether South Carolina should “take the money, Graham replied: “I think that, yes, from my point of view, I — you don’t want to be crazy here. I mean, if there’s going to be money on the table that will help my state, but I’ve got a job to do up here, and that is to try to help people and not damn the next generation.” Watch it:

And in a non-related topic, Graham should lose his closet-case status.

Bastard.

Update & correction: It's not just Mark, but his entire fearless, tireless staff who provide all those links. Go support them. Please.

Update II: ThinkProgress notes some of the Republicans who voted against the bill but are trying to take credit for it:

– Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) slammed President Obama’s recovery and reinvestment plan. “Hold on to your wallets folks because with the passage of this trillion-dollar baby the Democrats will be poised to spend as much as $3 trillion in your tax dollars,” Bond said. “Unfortunately, this bill stimulates the debt, it stimulates the growth of government, but it doesn’t stimulate jobs,” Bond insisted.

However, today Bond is touring Missouri to tout the very stimulus plan he railed against. In a press release, Bond boasted about an amendment he included in the bill to provide more funding for affordable housing — and that will create jobs:
[...]
This provision will have a real impact in Missouri, especially for low-income, working families in need of safe and affordable housing. … Bond’s amendment will save more than 700 housing units and create 3,000 new jobs in Missouri.

– Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), who complained that the “federal government is spending money they don’t have,” told Rachel Maddow he would nevertheless accept funds for Minnesota: “Our view is, if you buy the pizza, it’s OK if you have a slice.”

– Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who also campaigned ardently against the bill, said he would nevertheless gladly accept its funds for his state. “You don’t want to be crazy here,” he said.

– Rep. John Mica (R-FL) gushed over the bill, which he, too, voted against. “I applaud President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future,” he said in a press release.

– Rep. Don Young (R-AK) boasted that he “won a victory for…Alaska small business owners” in the recovery bill he refused to vote for.

– Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) boasted about the educational benefits of the recovery act

– Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) said his office "will do what we can to direct as much money as we can." Neither voted for the bill.

– Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) joins in, praising the stimulus' "generous" incentives for home buyers on his Twitter feed:

petehoekstra If you know of someone thinking of buying first home, now may be the time.Stimulus incentive is very generous!Up to 8k!Check it out.

– Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) to the growing list. After insisting last Friday that the recovery bill "would have exploded our national debt without providing meaningful job growth," Lance toured construction sites in his district yesterday, touting funds that would come from the stimulus bill. "This is a classic example of a "shovel-ready' project," Lance said after the tour.

the crying game

(Boehner throws copy of stimulus bill on the floor)

When your Boner experiences an Epic Fail, use Viagra.

And they think this will help make them popular again.

And you know it's all drama, not based in reality:

"When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today," said Specter, "one of my colleagues said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.' My Republican colleague said, 'Arlen, I'm proud of you.'

I said, 'Are you going to vote with me?'

And he said, 'No, I might have a primary.' And I said, 'Well, you know very well I'm going to have a primary.'"

. . . "I think there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation," he said.

That's standing up for principles you can believe in.

Bastards.

I walk away, walk away, I will follow

(U2-I Will Follow)

All the kidz™ know about Teh Twitter, where you can send updates to your team, and can follow peoplez to see what they are Tweeting about.

Well, I was checking out a well-known pundit/blogger, seeing who she was following, and it was an interesting group. Mostly lefty bloggers, as well as news people, but some big-time Righty folks, including the lovely and talented, impish and cute, Karl Rove.

So I clicked on the "Follow" button, to see what Mr. Rove might be tweeting, figuring that it would be interesting as oppo research.

Imagine my surprise when I checked Twitter today, and discovered the aforementione Mr. Rove was now following me!:

KarlRove / Karl Rove You are following KarlRove

Wow. I'm not sure whether to feel like part of the in-crowd, or run screaming for the showers. All I can say is that technology can be a great equaliser.

i tell you once more before i get off the floor

In the interest of encouraging writers here to do some "Quick Hits", here's my first of the day.

Eamon Javers of Politico, on MSNBC today, repeating the Right-wing Zombie lie that Roosevelt didn't end the depression, that job loss in '37 was as bad as in '30. The MSNBC talking bouffant, of course, agreed.

Idiots. Too stupid to live, too dumb to die.

Krugman explains:

Television rules the nation

Press conference I'd like Pres. Obama to have:

In the spirit of bi-partisanship, I invited the Senate and congressional Republican leadership to meet with me and my advisors to discuss the stimulus bill we submitted. We had coffee, diet Coke, and some pleasant salty snacks. The discussion was cordial, and I even added some tax cuts the Republicans asked for, in an effort to include at least a tiny bit of their failed policies.

That said, the vote yesterday was largely along party lines, and not one Republican voted for the bill. That, surprisingly, was the first time in my memory that Republicans voted against a tax cut. I knew this was likely, and I wanted to prove to the American people that the Republicans, at long last, have no true core principles except to be obstructionists and enrich their wealthy supporters.

In fact, the new RNC chair, Rush Limbaugh, has called publicly for my failure as your President, and by extension the failure of America.

Now that the true face of the Republican Party has been exposed, I plan to have nothing further to do with these asshat motherfuckers, and not one of those bastards will ever be invited to my White House again. Unless they apologize to me and the American people, those cocksuckers can stick their heads up each others asses, rot in the sun, and die.

Thank you, and God bless America.

One can only dream.

Take this job and shove it-Update

Bump & update: The Senate voted 72-23 Thursday afternoon to proceed to the bill. This is a good thing. Be proud, Democrats and Progressives.

Also, to show the awfulness of Alito:

President-elect Barack Obama paid a visit Wednesday to the Supreme Court and chatted in front of a fireplace with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., a fellow Harvard law graduate whose confirmation he opposed three years ago.

. . . Wednesday's meeting was described as a relaxed, get-acquainted session. It included Roberts, seven associate justices and Vice President-elect Joe Biden.

The absence of Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who was at the court Wednesday morning for arguments in two cases, was a mystery. He has, however, voiced lingering anger over Senate Democrats, including Obama and Biden, who voted against his confirmation three years ago. When walking on Capitol Hill, Alito has said, he crosses to the far side of the street whenever he nears the Senate Office Building.

Great. We have a fucking petulant adolescent on the Supreme Court. Judicial temperament my ass. This prick has the temperament of a shunned Heather, still willing to lash out at classmates who called her geeky. Reminds me of the slut-monkeys in Carrie who trashed and humiliated her. Difference here is Alito deserved to be trashed and humiliated.

While I don't believe Obama has Carrie-like powers, still, I hope he realizes that Alito, Roberts, Thomas, and Scalia are self-important Right-wing ideologues, who have no, none, never not any chance of being rehabilitated.

They are broken men.


(Take This Job and Shove It-Johnny Paycheck)

Remember the name Lilly Ledbetter? She's the woman the Supreme Court royally screwed in 2007, when Injustice Sam Alito ruled that it was completely OK for an employer to illegally discriminate against an employee, as long as the employer keeps the discrimination secret for 180 days:

Justice Alito held for the five-justice majority that employers are protected from lawsuits over race or gender pay discrimination if the claims are based on decisions made by the employer 180 days ago or more.

This was a case of statutory rather than constitutional interpretation. The plaintiff in this case, Lilly Ledbetter, characterized her situation as one where "disparate pay is received during the statutory limitations period, but is the result of intentionally discriminatory pay decisions that occurred outside the limitations period." In rejecting Ledbetter's appeal, the Supreme Court said that "she could have, and should have, sued" when the pay decisions were made, instead of waiting beyond the 180-day statutory charging period.

She might have sued except that she DIDN'T FREAKING KNOW! So as long as the employer keeps a successful secret, the employee is screwed. Republican values at work again. Of course, Ms. Ledbetter, being a woman, probably shouldn't have even been working at all.

Thankfully, Sen Pat Leahy (D-VT) has started a movement to fix this awful problem, and the details are at the Equal Pay for Equal Work website:

American women still earn only 77 cents for every dollar earned by their male counterparts. In the year 2009, that's downright shameful.

That's why I am joining several of my colleagues in the Senate to introduce the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act of 2009, to protect women from discrimination in the workplace. But this common-sense legislation faces considerable opposition from some of my colleagues -- and a likely filibuster attempt -- so I urgently need your help to ensure it passes when it comes before the Senate on Thursday.

Please stand up for the principle of "equal pay for equal work" by forwarding this message to your Senators, urging them to support the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009!

Thank you for taking action.

Indeed. Please click through and use the tools there; you can send an email to your Senators, and you can copy and paste the letter and send to other politicians, especially your representatives. This ruling by the Supremes is unconscionable to any normal person. It makes perfect sense to conservatives, who want to keep things the same:

• No justice for "them"
• No voting for that gender.
• No marriage rights for "them".
  
• No rights for anyone but "us".

Bastards.

Well, they don't make 'em like that no more, Not since nineteen seventy four. Big cars.

(Heather Myles-Big Cars)

Mark Steyn unleashes a big can of Teh Stoopid™, while trying to make Obama look foolish. He starts with this Obama quote:

"We can't just keep driving our SUVs, eating whatever we want, keeping our homes at 72 degrees at all times regardless of whether we live in the tundra or the desert and keep consuming 25 percent of the world's resources with just 4 percent of the world's population, and expect the rest of the world to say, 'You just go ahead, we'll be fine.'"

It appears that Steyn has embellished the quote. Here's the original from Agence France Presse including the next sentence ol' Markie conveniently left out:

"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.

"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.

Hard to disagree with, IMO. Yet after his distortion of the quote, Steyn feel compelled to translate for the rubes:

If I understand then Sen. Obama's logic, in a just world Americans would be 4 percent of the population and consume 4 percent of the world's resources. And in these past few months we've made an excellent start toward that blessed utopia: Americans are driving smaller cars, buying smaller homes, giving smaller Christmas presents.

And yet, strangely, President-elect Barack Obama doesn't seem terribly happy about the Obamafication of the U.S. economy. He's proposing some 5.7 bazillion dollar "stimulus" package or whatever it is now to "stimulate" it back into its bad old ways.

Clearly Mark, you don't understand Pres.-elect Obama's logic, or you wouldn't misstate it so blatantly. Jeebus, where to begin.

First, nobility is always overthrown. It's called revolution. And America has acted like global nobility for several years, and we can't afford to any longer. We've told the world, and our own citizens to 'eat cake' one too many times. Or hadn't you noticed? Because the entitlement of the Right-wing economists, pundits, de-regulators, and money lenders has worked out so well for us.

We've lost our manufacturing base, shipped millions of jobs to former third-world, now second-world countries thereby building their middle classes, and ruined the housing market. All under the watch of the Right. Since the start of the ruinious Reagan years, America's fiscal soundness has continually devalued until the dollar and its image are nearly worthless.

But the stimulus package you bitch about, done correctly, will save jobs. Ulike the fantastically larger bail-out given to Wall St., which will only save the jobs of hedge fund managers. I'm guessing you thought that one was OK.

Bastard.