The Fire People Are Together Now

The Donald and the Mittens are on the same team now. The Mittens gratefully accepted The Donald's endorsement saying he also knows how to create jobs. Funny, The Donald is most famous for "You're Fired," though Mittens is gaining some ground on that one. We do know Mittens is RICH and that The Donald is supposed to be supposed to be REALLY RICH (analysis vairies) and they do share bankruptcies in their background - other people's in Mitt's case.

It has been pretty obvious from the outcomes of Citizen's United that RICH people really like to spend their money on Mittens. I'm a bit "Free Market" dubious that the money is getting spent out of altruism, in regard to the welfare of the general punlic. The plutocrats and their enablers have been informing us for years now that greed is good, that using money to get a lot more money is why the system works. That would cause some doubt about Mitt's claims that the poor and the rich are doing OK and he's concentrated on the Middle Class. If that were the actual case, you'd have to wonder why those RICH people are throwing money at Mittens to the degree they are. (sure at that income level a few millions is chump change)

Maybe the spectacle of two RICH guys making out on stage will get something across to the public. Don't bet your house on it (bet the bank might work).

See that liberal bastion Christian Science Monitor for analysis of Mitten's tax plan and the RICH.

What do you get when you combine two of the emptiest suits in the world on stage? The Donald's Mittens - possibly suitable for a hairpiece in some (one) circles.

ABM Wins Again

Once again a state, Florida in this case, has shown that a majority of GOPers, 54% this time, don't want MultipleMitt. You could go ahead and make the case that a four way race means lower vote totals and be accurate in a lot of cases. You do have a vote split but it is on the ABM side - not including Ron Paul. To be clear, Ron Paul's voters are not Mitt Romney's except in opposition to President Obama. Some of them won't go there because their pet issues are less represented by Mitt than the President, some of them are the Last Confederates Standing and will do damn near any sort of gymnastics to oppose that... darker guy in the White House. I am not making the case that race plays no role with the other GOP candidates or that they don't play at dog whistling, but...

Florida is a closed winner take all GOP Primary, you have to be a registered GOP to play. There are states where that would help Newt but Florida is a peculiar GOP demographic. Parts of the state are typical, but real big chunks of voters are from somewhere else with ties and traditions from elsewhere. Americans are mobile, but Florida is a special case, some of it is virtually a suburb of of the North East and North Central US. Fleeing the snow is not the same thing as fleeing the public policies of those areas.

As far as these candidates in regard to the "ideology" of the GOP this bunch are as fake as I can ever remember seeing - and I've paid attention for quite awhile. None of them has a record that matches what they're playing to the voters. If you're trying to give Rick Santorum credit for such a thing, you'd be well served to take a look back at Jack Abromoff and the Mariannes Islands amongst other issues. These characters are the most abject frauds that have run in any major party for a hell of a long time. And what matters is that all Mitt's money can't buy him love.

Ron Paul has love, to the cult degree, from a big part of his supporters and he has wishful thinking to the point of delusion from the rest. Rick Santorum gets himself some love from those ignorant of his past, and Newt gets some from the any bombast will do crowd. Mitt gets almost tolerated and it ain't his money.

There is no doubt that Mitt gets a lot of money from some real rich people but money works for a different type of loving than character. I've left a rather large sized blank in that statement for you to fill in. I don't know anybody who knows what Mitt stands for other than that he deserves to be President. As a candidate President Obama was somewhat of a blank slate that people filled in with their own chalk but there was a record that didn't stand in stark contrast to what he had to say. With Mitt you're left with what he has to say today and even that is pretty much empty word salad when it comes to Mitt.

I am really glad that I have almost nothing in common with the GOP beyond being a bipedal humanoid. I do think one Party having a slate of candidates like this is bad for a country with, essentially, a two Party system. Well, I have hopes for a long contested mess over there on that side, maybe the so-called non-affiliated voters will get some kind of an idea. Don't hold your breath on that score.

(editt) Santorum, Marianas Is, etc

Newt & RPGs

Steady readers may know that I have a fondness for Xbox360 Role Playing Games. I prefer first person (screen is view from eyes) and I insist that the game give me enough story that I feel like I have a reason to spend the kind of time it takes - and the aggravation that comes with playing at high difficulty levels. Good RPGs let the player build a character from a lot of different attributes and allow forks in the story depending on the choices the character makes and those base attributes.

The latest polling from Florida points to Newt having forgotten what is going on in the GOP RPG. Now I may be a compassionate man who tries to treat other people well, but I have taken roles in RPGs where I've been female or particularly amoral to down right nasty just to see where the story would go. A good Xbox game may let you go, in virtually the same breath, from cold blooded ruthless to kind without exploding the story. The GOP RPG is a bit different.

Newt may, despite a lot of evidence, see himself as a big idea guy - some sort of intellectual heavy weight in the GOP ring, laughably as a historian. He might think that, but the story line he's laid out for the GOP voters is something else entirely - he's the hard ass, they guy who'll stomp a mud hole in the back of the President, unlike that weaselly Mitt guy. To go out on the space coast and talk about putting a permanent colony on the moon in eight years is pretty damn big, but sure invites even a Mitt to talk about firing somebody in private industry who thought it was a profit maker. Florida GOPers didn't want a moon colony - they wanted to hear about the "food stamp President" and weasel Mitt's Obamneycare and maybe something about rapist economics (GOPers??).

I get to set up attributes like weaponry and clothing which may range from magic users wearing robes to warriors wearing heavy armor and excelling at close up hack and slash with big swords. I can tell you that when one of my warriors gets up and close to a mage - it is all over; and by the same token, if that warrior doesn't close the the mage will blow him away from safety. Newt won South Carolina as a heavy hitting warrior, even thoroughly beating Mitt on the electability question. He got up close and whaled away at the President and threw some sharp edged whacks at Mitt who was busy playing the mage - no fancy fooling about, just plain old hack and slash. Mitt is stuck playing the mage, a nasty natured one, but staying away from the brawling that requires heavy armor, the armor provided by resentment, ignorance, and even hate; and Mitt stood off and lobbed fireballs at Newt who obliged by waving his sword around from a distance.

RPGs are just exactly that, playing a role and you ignore your role at the almost sure risk of failure because that is the design of the game. GOPers have designed their game over the course of decades and the roles are pretty clear and players don't get to suddenly switch up mid-stream. I might not like any of these characters but it sure is a lot more fun to watch when it's competitive...

SC Primary

On the basis of exit polling the media started calling the South Carolina Primary for Newt a couple minutes after the polls closed. With a third of the vote in it looks like 41 Newt, 26 Mitt, 18 Rick, 13 Ron. (50% in 40,27)

So, in ascending order the GOP has:
The Last Confederate Standing
Frothy Blah People (Google is your friend, with a strong stomach)
MultipleMitt
The Slimy Amphibian

And from this stellar field they propose to beat President Obama like a cheap drum with whoever is erect (sort of) after this Primary. Honestly, I was kinda hoping the GOP would give America a pretty clear choice between the fakery of a Plutocrat versus the Middle Black Guy (sure I'd like left versus their crazed right but you've got the President).

Exit polls showed Mr Multiple losing the electability issue, geewhiz - that's been almost his entire play, "at least I can run with Obama."

Now I'd like to point out to the Ron Paul cultists, you might be impressed with your 13% in a GOP Primary, but here's the reality - that is your possible vote, not one of the other GOPer's supporters would go your way and any other Party voters already did. Generously speaking, in a two Party system that means you all are at best 6% in South Carolina where your flag is still flown on the State House grounds. Contrast that with the rate of serious insanity in the US...6%.

Rick Santorum... who the hell knows what that is about or would go. Maybe he wants to be a VP or maybe God told him to save the cretins in this country from themselves. If it was God, not many other than Rick were listening.

I think the biggest question is what Mitt Romney does about the results from South Carolina. Both he and Newt Gingrich are fakes of improbably degree, but Newt is a hell of a lot better actor. Without saying much of anything of consequence Newt has scorched Mitt, taking him from over a ten point lead to maybe a seventeen point deficit and that would be a twenty seven point drop against Newt. Mitt is going to have to do something about that and what Newt has is tough to top by a Romney. Mitt is going to out dog whistle and out mean Newt? Mitt cannot "fire" Newt and his smug dismissal isn't going to work with that dog. Added to that Mitt has some idea that he can appeal to the not crazy part of the General Election and he cannot get there by trying to out-Newt Newt. Maybe Mitt's best course is to wait for Newt to pull the pin on a grenade and then drop it.

That gets to the point of people looking for Newt to implode in the Primary. If Newt doesn't say something "socialistic" it is hard for me to see where Newt loses votes from the ABMs. The GOP establishment can't stand Newt and will do what it can and their problem is that the ABMs do not give a damn or they'd not be ABMs. The South Carolina voters think Newt is more electable than Mitt and that is a pipe dream worthy of Ron Paul sponsorship. Newt's negatives nation wide are horrific and short of an economic implosion or other national catastrophe he'd be smashed.

This GOP Primary may be way more fun than the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. (well, there is the part where they're competing to be Sauron) Buy lots of popcorn, this show may be pretty long.

Where's The Truth?

I wish I could have written this, but Charlie Pierce did it:

The lies are also bone-deep in Romney's campaign. His wife, of all people, told a complete fairy tale here on Friday night about how, "a year ago," she and Willard "were talking and had the same conversation so many of you have had out there, and we said we thought the country was going in the wrong direction, and I turned to Mitt and asked, 'Can you save the country?'"

Okay, now Ann Romney is a very nice lady, and a very brave one, but, honest to god, is there anyone not playing with their toes who believes that Willard Romney stepped into the fray a year ago out of patriotic altruism? Is there anyone not playing with their toes who believes that he he ever stopped running for president after 2008? Hell, the hardcover edition of his campaign book, No Apologies — the book he barbered to make its contents more palatable to a Republican primary audience as a paperback — is almost two years old. The truth simply has ceased to matter in this campaign.

Does the truth come out of Willard's mouth other than when he says, "Hi, I'm Mitt Romney and I want to be President?" Except of course that his name isn't Mitt...

Rah, Rah, Mitt... oh sure...uhuh

This morning I watched a TV clip from a Romney rally, and considering the time difference it must have been mid-morning or so in South Carolina. The crowd started chanting, "We need Mitt," and MultipleMitt responded, "You're going to get me." OK, so far pretty standard election morning stirp the team stuff, right? Wellllll...

I didn't listen to the volume because I don't trust audio levels or mic placement. What I did listen to and for was the mix of voices, the varying tones and sexes and differences in volume. What my ear told me was that this chant involved very few people, I don't mean around a hundred - I'd say not much more than twenty. There's a point to this...

What is there about Mitt Romney beyond Mormon and wealthy that would inspire you to jump up and chant? Well, that or even jump up and smack you hands together and holler, "Yahoo," or whatever? Maybe repeating applause lines like, "apologize for America," or some such... well... other actual lie. I'm not even sure, "let GM die," would work in a Mitsubishi assembly plant.

It is to be sure, true that I don't like MultipleMitt, that I think, by evidence, that he is a two faced lying sack of ... poo; who will say anything to anyone in order to further his own ends and that there isn't anyone outside his immediate family and immediate friends he wouldn't throw in front of a train for extreme profit or his political desires. You have to look at the Bain profits to understand exactly how disconnected this guy is from anything other than himself. Bain wrecked companies to make 200-300% profits, keeping a company alive and people working might have meant returns like ordinary investors salivate for... 15%. Bain was not in the business of creating or salvaging businesses - it was in the business of making great whacking piles of money for a couple people, anything else that happened was entirely secondary. In that world humans are no more than an integer on a spreadsheet and long term considerations are entirely trumped by short term profit taking. If you think you count to that guy, just watch him around "regular" people. What? You thought that picture was just some prank sort of thing, a damned joke?

Oh hell, in a General Election straight up tribalism and hate will get him that good old 27% plus another nearly 15% of who'd hold their noses just for the (R).

Dividing America

Mitt thinks the President is dividing America and that the alternative to the current plutocracy is ... North Korea??? Can we please harken back to the GOP mantra of class warfare? And, maybe, just who is actually waging it?

Regarding taxes, SS/FICA on median income is nearly 16% total employee/employer and 15% as the bracket which would be 31% and if you want to get picky and dismiss the employer end you'd still get to over 22% on every bit of wage. Without any monkey business Mittens pays 15% and no SS/FICA on the immaterial at his wealth cut-off because that income is not wage/salary and is exempt from SS/FICA. (this neglects the temporary cut)

We could get into the division between income gains by the top 1% versus the bottom 20% would be somewhat informing and you will please note that whether or not the bottom 1/5th pays a nickle of Fed Tax, every cent of wage is subject to SS/FICA.

One could point out to Mitt that while the vast majority of us were growing up in families that had to pay real attention to finances his Daddy was CEO of AMC and later Gov of MI. Maybe there are divides that you were insulated from, maybe there are outcomes of performance that you flatly never had to worry about. Maybe while you were busy raping companies the warfare aspect didn't dawn on you, something like that awareness might have cut into your returns, obscene returns by the standards of most investments.

Mr Romney, it is not the President and the Democratic Party that are using falsehoods and dog-whistles and code words to stir hate and resentment. Mr Romney, the President may be one of the best friends your particular version of wealth has. He may be the guy offering you a really good deal compared to what almost all Americans get. But then, anything other than the bootlicking you're used to is class warfare.

The Mitt Juggernaut

To listen to the media of late, you'd have to be really impressed by Mitt's strangle-hold on the GOP Primary. He's racking up the victories and that's really something. So, how's this impressive machine functioning today?

Mitt Romney got about three quarters of Iowan primary caucusers to vote for somebody else. That's right, he tied or lost or something real close with Rick Santorum. He got to New Hampshire and managed to get three fifths of their electorate to support someone else. Looking at the polling in South Carolina he's got over two thirds of that electorate looking elsewhere. Yep, and Newt is moving up.

This is the GOP version of the annointed, presumptive nominee. Wow, that's one hell of a machine.

Newt, It Was Predictable

Going after another Republican was going to cause some heartburn in the GOP. Going after their presumptive nominee was going to cause some heartburn. Going after a Republican as a greed head plutocrat was going to cause apoplexy. The mental derangement has extended all the way to John Sununu making not so veiled economic threats to those funding the attacks and people fuming about Communism. Yes, really.

Now it is true that Ronnie Reagan made some references to some sort of Eleventh Commandment regarding fellow Republicans. That has been kept mostly in a theoretical sort of way as John McCain might note regarding a South Carolina Primary involving GW Bush. In fact, a bit more recently - like Iowa Caucuses - a certain Newt Gingrich got eviscerated by fellow GOPers without so much as a peep by anyone other than Newt.

You could be forgiven for scoffing at the idea that the GOP problem is with attacks on the front runner, especially since Newt was that guy in Iowa when he got whacked. You'd hurt yourself laughing trying to make the case that attacking Mitt hit the purity of the Party message.

Whew. That leaves the money issue. Not the personal money, money issue - the how I got my personal money issue. Outside of making big piles of money from Drugs and Hookers making big piles of money is the entire good for the GOP. (not so sure about the Hookers if it is Nevada) To the GOP it doesn't matter if you got your piles from gutting companies or making trades every two minutes or off taxpayers or from building an enterprise. The methodology is trumped completely by the big pile not the outcomes as long as it doesn't involve handcuffs. (you could make the case that if the handcuffs result from violating regulations... crickets chirping)

The sin being committed against Mitt is that somebody has the temerity to question the methodology from within the GOP. That is just not done. If you were to stop and think about it for even a moment it might raise questions regarding the "Job Creators" and some of the other themes. That cannot be done. Making big piles of money is the engine and it doesn't matter that those big piles of money are resulting in the impoverishment of our economy... or wrecking the environment or...

Who Gets To Have Nice Things?

DAVID GREGORY: All right. We're gonna come back to the question of obstacles to the nomination, but let me get to policy, Governor Huntsman. This is, by all accounts, an age of austerity for this country. A jobs crisis. Also a spending crisis in Washington. I wonder what specifically you would do to say to Americans, "These are cuts I'm going to make in federal spending that cause pain, that will require sacrifice?"

From the MTP "debate" transcript.

By all accounts... Age Of Austerity... Jobs Crisis... Spending Crisis... Sacrifice.

Hmmm. You know, if you took all those themes and addressed them as regarding working and poor Americans you might really have something. They are not, of course, regarding working/poor Americans other than the SACRIFICE. Every one of the people this horseshit question was addressed to has a tax plan up that would cut the taxes on wealth and increase the taxes on work and cut programs designed to keep people out of abject poverty.

If you were to read the comments on the MTP Debate transcript you'd find a whole lot of them attacking Gregory for being a LIBERAL trying to stir up trouble and - by the way - shorting Ron Paul's time to be a Confederate.

You would think that from the time of St Ronnie the Raygun there'd be enough data laying around to make something like a coherent case for something in regard to tax policy and the state of the economy. Well - it happens there is. The really big problem is that it doesn't support Clinton era tax rates much less StRR or GWB. The case that gets made in regard to the overall economic health is that StRR screwed things up and pretty much everybody made things worse and Bill Clinton only managed to mildly stem the tide in some regards.

Working/poor Americans have been sacrificing every damn day from StRR on in one way or another. Some of them tried to avoid that sacrifice and used their houses as a credit card or profit center but most just kept working harder for less while watching their betters rake in more of the scraps that might have fallen off the banquet table.

Now you have - no shit - the kid of Geo Romney talking about being "unemployed" and having to worry "about getting a pink slip," as if he had a worry about falling into the lap of luxury instead of off the face of the freaking earth. This is the kind of crap that gets served up as a goddam question by the goddam liberal elite media by talking head that has about as much to worry about or goddam sacrifice as Willard Mitt Romney does.

Mittens seems to make about $15M per year for doing nothing for Bain Capital (numbers vary - mostly up) which sounds like a bit of money, but probably ought to get taken in the context of $43K/yr median income family of four which works out to be 349 of them. Yes you suckers, Mittens makes that much money being un-damned-employed. Taken another way, he virtually makes DAILY that median income.

How it could be made much clearer to the rubes that these guys want to give themselves and their pals a big break while cutting your throat is way the hell beyond me. I don't begrudge these bastards their wealth... but I'm not hot on the idea of being their human sacrifice.

Twas A Dark And Stormy Night

Out in GOPland and especially the ABM faction, it has to be that sort of feeling. What you've got is the hard core Ron Paul faux-libertarian bunch who really, really like the standard bearer of The Confederate Party of Republicanism but once you get past that bunch ... Wow, the Romney PACs sure did a job on our favorite salamander which has left not so much other than late comer Santorum. (you make the jokes - Google) Paul will be around all the way to the end, the question is who else will.

Now if you look at the others beyond Ron Paul you see momentary poll enthusiasm followed by disregard. That isn't the behavior of a happy electorate. It sure isn't the behavior of a happy electorate for the presumptive nominee to be hanging around 27%; regardless of the size of the current field.

I have no idea how this parade of clown cars is going to play itself out. It is silly to ignore what Goldwater, Nixon, Reagan, ad infinitum actually were but I won't propose that today's GOP is the same Party rather than an out-growth and maybe natural consequence of its century long history. That makes predicting where the current GOP will jump a pretty iffy proposition. It is starting to look as though the enthusiasm will be composed of not much more than getting rid of the guy currently in the White House. It will be difficult to get much going with those not deep into the hate Obama camp if the GOP itself just tolerates its own candidate.

Six months ago this might have been the GOP's election to win, it now looks as though it might just not be.

Appeasement

I've been thinking about the Mitt "appease, appease, appease" speech the other day. The root of this seems to be the base's idea that Barack Obama is weak. I might agree that the President has been a bit weak on economics and a bit on Civil Liberties. What they, GOPers, seem to have mental lacunae about is that this guy has done things as President, some of them damned aggressive in foreign policy and he has faced ludicrous lockstep opposition from the GOPers and still managed to get some things done.

Maybe, when they get ready to trot out this junk, they just completely miss what it means to be black in this society. If you look at the complexions of the actors it is pretty clear that they've not had to personally deal with the (at best) whispers, the profiling traffic stops, above the mean requirements to succeed, and ... This guy never has gotten to forget it, every morning that mirror restates the condition. The work Obama did before his political office career was a constant reminder. Somehow this man not only managed to run for offices but to actually win a nomination against the presumptive nominee and beat an angry old white guy war hero POW.

Playing at 'weak appeaser' is factually stupid and politically extremely risky. Flying in the face of facts this way only gets the stupid vote and gives the target a chance to make you look ridiculous while touting his own record. It isn't as though almost anybody reading this doesn't know where this theme comes from or know what sliver of the electorate Mitt was reaching out to. The question is why such a candidate thought it was a good idea since even FauxNews was likely to run the President's response.

As this Primary goes on the GOPer clown show just seems to get more broadly stupid, despite the seeming unreasonableness of such an occurrence.

Mitt, 'Idiotology Trumps Facts'

Oh for gods sake, Mittens...

“Sometimes you wonder, would there be someway to introduce some private sector competition, somebody else that could come in and say, you know, each soldier gets X thousand dollars attributed to them and then they can choose whether they want to go on the government system or the private system and then it follows them, like what happens with schools in Florida where they have a voucher that follows them. Who knows.”

We must help those poor veteran victims of socialization...
Steve Benen bothered to take a look at what actually happens at the VA. Quoting Philip Longman:

An answer came in 2003, when the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine published a study that compared veterans health facilities on 11 measures of quality with fee-for-service Medicare. On all 11 measures, the quality of care in veterans facilities proved to be ‘significantly better.’ … The Annals of Internal Medicine recently published a study that compared veterans health facilities with commercial managed-care systems in their treatment of diabetes patients. In seven out of seven measures of quality, the VA provided better care.”

This surely needs Mitten's grubby profit hands all over it.

Facts entirely optional GOPers...

I'm not suggesting that health care isn't (rude word) up.

The Perry Saviour

You can look at the current GOP field and find something interesting at the most optimistic and if you were a GOPer - appalling. It is pretty obvious that there exists a rather sizable and wealthy "Anybody But Mitt" segment of the GOP. This is where the Rick Perry campaign came from.

Now, if you cannot understand the sizable "ABM" sentiment because you aren't a GOPer you could try this one on to see how you would react - Joe Lieberman For President (D). If the mere concept makes you throw up a little, you can start to "sympathize" with the "ABM"s. I may have found Barack Obama, the primary candidate, a bit lacking in leftism but supportable as intelligent and generally in agreement with my concept of a Democrat - something Joe Lieberman totally fails. It is reasonable to assume that the GOPers who put forward Rick Perry were at least astute enough to understand that the rest of the clown parade were ... well, clowns and never going to get anywhere in a General Election. In shorter terms, not completely stupid.

Before his entry, I was somewhat familiar with Rick Perry by reputation. The reputation of not losing elections, the reputation for being a 'hardnosed' candidate, and someone the handful of thinking Texans I know of, loathed and considered stupid. It has taken his entry into "Presidential" politics to acquaint me with the levels of incompetence he has, a Texan who makes GWB look able and Sarah Palin a speaker of the English language. It isn't as though he wasn't good at debating, a shy child would have out-performed him. His speech in New Hampshire ... well, jeeze. His failure at the persona of candidate isn't even the crux of the issue.

This guy's campaign looked at a demographic that thought the tax code is a mess and decided to add a voluntary additional layer to the current mess. Never mind that the voluntary chunk would screw them and aid the oligarchy - even the factually impaired will quickly grasp that it is just another layer of complexity.

What you're looking at in this little snapshot of Rick Perry is what the ABMs came up with, their best shot. This is the cure for Mittism. Imagine that you are a GOPer and this is what a bunch of your movers and shakers came up with as Party Saviour.

I find it real damn difficult to feel sorry for the GOPers, but there's an actual twinge.

Idea Guy Newt Hits The Wall

The Newt, our favorite lizard, has hit a pretty serious wall with his top aides and managers quitting today - en mass. The money has been run through and the GOP isn't on his side (whatever that is lately). Newt is really impressed with his intellect and the GOP has fed this delusion for years and years. He's been extolled as their Idea Guy for a long time.

It doesn't matter that his Ideas on policy have been damn near universally stupid and even un-Constitutional. What The Newt did for the GOP that they liked was raise money and put together The Contract On America (cheap shot, I know). That amounts to ethically challenged methods of getting cash and propaganda. It isn't as though the GOPers are adverse to propaganda - hell the Ryan Plan is just that, it isn't serious policy.

What happened is that The Newt continued to believe his press releases and thought he could say something negative about the Ryan Plan. He forgot about the propaganda part of his resume and got paid for it. The Contract wasn't taken seriously by the GOP as any more than propaganda any more than the Ryan Plan is, but in order for such propaganda to work it must be seen as taken seriously by concerted whole-hearted support. Newt missed that boat with his comments on Ryan's Plan.

Ooops, there went Newt taking himself seriously. Not to be done in the GOP.

The only way this is really a disaster for Newt is if it interferes with his ability to grift money out of politics.

It might...

While You Were Looking At Sexting...Pawlenty...

Poor old boring Timmy Pawlenty had to do something to not look like ... well, anybody sane. He proposes a 5% GDP growth while slashing taxes and federal spending. One way is to cut the government out of anything you could Google as a service. I guess the FBI is gone since a quick google will find you private investigators and certainly that evil EPA can be replaced by Waste Management. There will be two tax rates, 10% up to $50K and 25% thereafter. Estate tax gone and corporate taxes cut to 15%.

You'd be well informed to understand that the last time the growth was 5% for even two consecutive years was 1973-4. The top Fed income rate was 94% and capital gains were at 77%. He proposes something historically unlikely driven by something factually contradicted.

Where does the rest of that field go from there? What nuttiness is Mitt pushed into advocating in order to keep up? These folks are doubling down on all the crap that directly led to where we got to in 2007. Is anybody paying attention and doing spit to deconstruct the lying bullshit that passes as GOP economics?

There is actually talk that the GOP could make a run of it in the 2012 General... That sure gives the Democrats lots of room to play at "not as bad as." It must be plain old masochism that keeps me interested in politics.

A Love Letter From Greg Walden ... ugh

"You deserve a fact-based conversation on the budget"
That is the opening line so one could almost have hopes ... er maybe not considering the source of the use of this franking privilege.
"Every year proponents of borrow - and - spend policies in Washington use gimmicks and" ... blah, blah ... "borrowing 40 cents on every dollar"...
This is the guy who stood shoulder to shoulder with BushCo as they ... well economic debacle and all. But -
"On April 15th, House Republicans passed a budget that takes the first steps on a path to prosperity"...
"Prosperity" for somebody un-named.
"Before going farther, I want to make one point very clear: If you are in or approaching retirement, you have earned" ... blah, blah
(format bold underlined):
Our budget does not propose any changes to the Medicare or Social Security programs for those 55 or older.
(end format)
(Lots of snip of lots of boiler plate demonstrably false crappolla...)
"I understand fairness. That is why our budget does not propose any changes ... for those 55 and older."

Now I'm just damned ecstatic that Greg understands "fairness" at least in regard to throwing those 54 1/2 years old on to the tender mercies of the for profit insurance companies because they haven't paid SS/FICA until 55 or some such thing which means their benefits are ... I don't know - disposable(?). This "fairness" wouldn't have anything to do with the voting percentages of those 55 and over would it? It wouldn't be a case of kicking the can of consequences far enough down the road to be meaningless to someone like Greg Walden's electoral chances?

This "moderate" Republican always keeps his head down unless it is a matter of screwing up the RNC's campaign finances by exercising no oversight or standing on a dam to provoke the US' worst fish kill. He gets re-elected in this OR2 CD because he doesn't stick his head up while he consistently votes against the District's inhabitants economic interests. Even with this abjectly stupid political move of sending out this letter he'll get re-elected if he wants to be. Why that is ... well it's because he's not one of them (you know - Democrats).

A monkey at a typewriter ought to be able to come up with policy prescriptions that would beat ole Greg but ... nooooope. If you wonder why I sometimes despair of the electorate ...
oh hell

Sen Crapo - Is That kraypoe or crapp - oh

So Sen Mike Crapo (R-ID) gets time on LO's Last Word to grind out horseshit that fixing the tax code (not such a bad thing in itself) would let the tax rate for the top get lowered to 28% or lower. This would be important for the "job creators" and not affect the rest. You have to have your head stuffed so far up your backside to believe this GOP canard that ... ah well. This is, naturally, in the midst of the GOP hack-and-slash budget rhetoric.

If you'd like to track the concentration of wealth in this country with something that correlates the one place you can look is the tax code and the tax rates. When even LO doesn't laugh this shit off the stage I think it's time to give the hell up.

Plutocrats - friends to all.

Goddam, utter stupidity followed by banal stupidity - followed up with lame David Brooks (Bobo) who can't ... Appleby's Salad Bar guy. The guy who makes his living making false equivalences and outright falsehoods as a balanced moderate. This is what we need is the enablers of plutocrats given even more fucking air time without accompanying bitch slaps.

Yes the NYT still pays this idjit real money instead of bananas.

Democrat And Democratic

When you listen to someone talking about politics one clue that you're about to hear canned lying talking point is contained in the difference between "Democrat" and "Democratic" in usage. I give you WI State Senator's usage - "mess left behind by Democrat Governors." I am registered as a "Democrat" but I belong to the Democratic Party and as an elected official I would be referred to as "Democratic *Office* at whatever level of office.

It is a GOP insult tactic no different than (G)rand (O)ld (P)lotocrats would be other than in regards to actual accuracy. It tells you from its utterance that the person is not serious in any manner about the Party he is referring to - it is an immediate dismissal. There is no "Democrat Party," no such thing other than in the fevered language of the Right. Maybe they don't like the association of "Democratic Party" with democratic behavior or democratic process. But then I have no idea why they still associate themselves with A Lincoln in any terms.

I'm not complaining in the least about their usage - it is a nice verbal cue to the lying that is about to commence. Maybe the "( )" usage I made should have been (G)rand (O)ld (P)ervaricators ... I'll stick with Confederate Party of Republicanism though.

Where's The Jobs, GOPers?

OK, I'm not advocating something as stupid as that sounds, any government action takes time to work into results. I'm not even asking where the voted on bills are. What I'd like to know is where are the concrete proposals about something other than going to war with women and low income earners?

No shit. All the talk about job killing stimulus and other crap and nothing to offer? What is offensive is that they get to do this 'for free.' The Obama Admin. had a stimulus proposal on the table virtually when the walked in the door. Whether you argue it worked or not (I'd say yes) is immaterial to this question. You GOP buttheads have been screaming from Inauguration that Obama was wrecking the country and going on and on about everything the Democrats have proposed or done and you have not one damned thing ready to offer? What? You haven't had time to put something together?

Who the hell is going to call them out on their crap? (that would be other than $0.02 bloggers)