... for is boneheaded remark about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
"I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsberg," Bunning said. "That certainly was not my intent. It is great to see her back at the Supreme Court today and I hope she recovers quickly. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family."The Bunning office misspelled her name.
My current Followers List on the right on the right side of this page boasts 22 followers. It was 23 this morning. Who bailed? Why? Did I offend someone with my last few posts? Do they disagree with me on the forclosure plan so vehemently that they decided to write me off and sever their ties to my blog? Or maybe they were just following too many blogs and I was the odd site out.
The darned thing is that I can't figure out who decided to stop following. The list is right there with names and everything, but if they disappear, I can't tell who left. I guess that's what bugs me the most. Who were you?!
Oh well. Good luck, lost follower. Perhaps we'll meet up again someday.
ADDING... I figured it out! It was a follower who used a Greatful Dead logo for his icon. And I think he had a "43" after his name. Well, whoever you were, I hope you are well.
Looks like the Southern Regional GOP is losing their shit. For years now, these Boss Hoggs sat in their sties as they enjoyed rolling around in their shit. But now that there's a new farmer in the house, they're squealing as they're being led to the election slaughterhouse.
Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour:
...a Republican, has said he is considering turning down millions of dollars in unemployment aid because it would force his state to raise taxes when the stimulus money runs out by putting in place a tax on employers.Maybe if Governor Barbour took the mud out his eyes, he might see that extended unemployment aid might help bridge the time between receiving the aid and developing the jobs. Is he telling us that hey have absolutely no infrastructure to improve in Mississippi? Mississippi?!
"There is some (money) we will not take in Mississippi. ... We want more jobs. You don't get more jobs by putting an extra tax on creating jobs," Barbour told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
I think the best thing they could've done, for example, was to cut taxes on things like capital gains, the lower tax brackets, to get the private sector spending again.Uh... how many citizens of Mississippi receive capital gains?
...How does $300 million for federal cars, $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, how is spending like that going to help our economy? How's that stimulus?Somebody has to make those cars. That equals jobs. It also makes the new hybrid fleet more energy efficient thereby reducing our energy dependence over the long term. NEA spending? I'm sure hundreds of thousands that are employed in the arts, actors, dancers, artists, stage crew employees, designers, non profit public television, and on and on would appreciate the continued employment. Or would you rather have them lose their jobs and homes as well?
You know, now they're talking about spending billions of that to build a train from Disneyland to Las Vegas. There was so much wasteful spending here.Please show us the provision in the bill for the train from Disneyland to Las Vegas. Go ahead. What page is that on? After watching Jindal on Meet The Press, I heard absolutely nothing new but the same typical Republican talking points that we've heard all along. More tax cuts for businesses, wasted spending in the bill, blah, blah, blah. I'm surprised he didn't go for the "Pelosi's swamp mouse" dig.
At a Lincoln Day Dinner speech over the weekend, Bunning predicted that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer in nine months, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.What a compassionate Christian conservative, that Jim Bunning. Talking about support for conservative judges because Ginsburg is about to kick the bucket? How sweet of him. By the way, Ginsburg went back to work today, 18 days after her surgery.
The paper reports that Bunning reiterated his support of conservative judges, saying “that’s going to be in place very shortly because Ruth Bader Ginsburg…has cancer.”
“Bad cancer. The kind you don’t get better from,” Bunning went on. “Even though she was operated on, usually nine months is the longest that anybody would live after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”
[A] local resident asked Shelby if there was any truth to a rumor that appeared during the presidential campaign concerning Obama’s U.S. citizenship, or lack thereof.Shorter Shelby: When you are a Republican and see your base shrinking as your nose is growing, it never hurts to sling mud and bring up doubts about a Manchurian candidate for rabble rousing purposes. Git yer pitchforks ready!
“Well his father was Kenyan and they said he was born in Hawaii, but I haven’t seen any birth certificate,” Shelby said. “You have to be born in America to be president.”
Transcribed live from MSNBC at 11:05am EST.
President Obama: "There has been some healthy debate over the last few weeks, the last few days about this stimulus package even among the Governors. And I think that's a healthy debate. That keeps me on my toes, it keeps our administration on our toes. But I just want us to not lose perspective of the fact that most of the things that have been the topic of argument over the last several days amount to a fraction of the overall stimulus package. This sometimes gets lost in the cable chatter.
For example, I think there are some very legitimate concerns on the part of some about the sustainability of expanding unemployment insurance. What hasn't been noted is that is $7 billion out of a $787 billion program and it's not even the majority of the expansion of unemployment insurance. So it is possible for those who are concerned about sustaining a change that increases eligibility for part time workers to still see the benefit of $30 billion plus that is going even if you don't make the change.
So I, the reason I make that point is that I want to make sure that we are having an honest debate and presenting to the American people a fulsome accounting of what is going on in this program. When I hear people say, 'Well, there's a lot of waste in this program,' well from my perspective at least, keeping teachers in the classroom is not wasteful. From my perspective, tax cuts to 95% of working families is not wasteful. From my perspective, providing all of you additional resources to rebuild roads and bridges, and levees and dams, that will enhance the quality of life in your state but also make it more economically competitive, that's not wasteful.
And so if we agree on 90% of this stuff and we're spending all our time on television arguing about one, two, three percent of the spending in this thing, and somehow it's being characterized in broad brushes, wasteful spending, that starts sounding more like politics, and that's what right now we don't have time to do.
So, I will always be open to honest disagreements and I think there are some legitimate concerns that can be raised on a whole host of these issues, and you're responsible at the state level. And if the federal government gives you something now, and then two years later it's gone and people are looking to you and starting to blame you - I don't want to put you in that position - and so you need to think about how this money is going to be spent wisely. What I don't want us to do though, it to just get caught up in the same old stuff that inhibits us from acting effectively and in concert. There's going to be ample time for campaigns down the road. Right now we've got to make sure we're standing up for the American people and putting them back to work."
Ever wonder why no one made a big stink on the television invention about the vast amounts of money being used for Iraq and Afghanistan but wasn't included in the budget? George W. Bush would call it "emergency funding" or a "war supplemental" bill. They'd allocate billions and billions of dollars to the war on terror but not really show it on their balance sheets. They essentially had two sets of books. Well not anymore.
For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear, according to administration officials.
The new accounting involves spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Medicare reimbursements to physicians and the cost of disaster responses.
But the biggest adjustment will deal with revenues from the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system enacted in 1969 to prevent the wealthy from using tax shelters to avoid paying any income tax.
...Mr. Obama’s banishment of the gimmicks, which have been widely criticized, is in keeping with his promise to run a more transparent government.
Fiscal sleight of hand has long been a staple of federal budgets, giving rise to phrases like “rosy scenario” and “magic asterisks.”
The $2.7 trillion in additional deficit spending, Mr. Orszag said, is “a huge amount of money that would just be kind of a magic asterisk in previous budgets.”
“The president prefers to tell the truth,” he said, “rather than make the numbers look better by pretending.”
Gareth Porter: Obama Nixed Full Surge After Quizzing Brass
Robert Parry: Obama's 'Seven Days In May' Moment
The Rude Pundit: Michael Steele Ain't Frontin'
Last night, I had the pleasure of taking the wifey to the sold out Kathy Griffin concert at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. Though I rarely watch My Life On The D-List, Wifey's a fan and I do enjoy an occasional episode when I have a chance to catch it. Griffin was on fire as usual and we had a great time.
But the reason for this post was to bring up VetDogs.org. As we were walking in, there was a table set up for this amazing organization helping injured Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans by providing guide dogs and service dogs free of charge. The training for each dog costs approximately $55,000 and there are currently 80 veterans on the waiting list to receive a dog. This a non-profit organization with no funding from the government.
To find out more information, go to VetDogs.org . You can donate here.
The quickest and broadest tax cut ever
I think the White House is finally starting to listen. Change the framing. All but three Republicans voted against the largest tax cut ever!
You'll notice a new widget on the right side of my page I've titled, "Tweeting Thoughts." I don't know what can of worms I'm opening with this Twitter thing, and I'm not expecting people to follow my every move, nor am I using Twitter for that purpose. My main intent is to use this application to quickly jot down a thought electronically when the thought just isn't big enough for a fully expanded post. It'll also give me access to my blog when I'm not near my laptop or desktop.
Of course, if you choose to follow me on Twitter, I won't mind.
In the meantime, the look might change occasionally as I experiment with The Twitter. Right now, I have no idea what I'm doing since I'm the type to rip open the box and start playing with gadgets before actually reading instructions.
Tweet! Tweet!
Who knew Groucho Marx was clairvoyant in summarizing the Republicans in the 111th Congress within a one minute song?
(H/T GDAB commenter bibimimi)
The New York Post has issued the typical apology in which those who were offended were at fault for the tasteless editorial cartoon printed in yesterday's edition.
Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.
It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says.
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
Whatchu talkin' 'bout, Steele?
Is Michael Steele the Chairman of the RNC or a marketing strategist for Sean Combs?
Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”Off the hook? Hip-Hop? What's next? Is Steele going to make his party start using "Dy-no-mite!" as the new GOP catchphrase?
Obviously this douchebag doesn't even understand the premise of President Obama's foreclosure rescue plan let alone understand that sometimes you have to help your fellow man in order to save the yourself instead of constantly looking at the bottom line. I don't expect this asshole to make an apology when the economy turns around, just take credit for manipulating the markets with their bullshit reports when they start bouncing back. God bless Wall Street, right Rick?
Douchebag of the Week: CNBC's Rick Santelli
Adding... from commenter "steve" at the GDAB:
This really encapsulates the Republican attitudes that got the country into the mess it's in. If people lose their houses, if they lose their jobs and can't get health insurance, if they can't feed or shelter their families, it's because they're stupid losers and they don't deserve those things.But if a bank is failing because of horrible management, throw money at it because "they're too big to fail." How fucking illogical is that?!
It's amazing to me that some of these insane Republican Governors would even fathom the idea of refusing federal aid for their states to make political hay. South Carolina's Mark Sanford has been the most vocal when it comes to the recovery bill.
“We’re moving precipitously close to what I would call a savior-based economy,” Sanford also said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union.I wonder if Sanford will make the "stupid decision" of letting his state starve instead? Hell, he waited until the last possible second before asking for money to shore up unemployment benefits in the state with the third highest unemployment rate at 9.5%, so I wouldn't put it past him.
...“That is quite different than a market-based economy where some rise and some fall but there’s a consequence to making a stupid decision,” Sanford said after pointing to the powers granted to the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve to help deal with the current economic crisis.
NY Times: Louie Bellson, a crisp and dazzling drummer who worked with many of the major figures of the swing era and a gracious entertainer who made frequent appearances at the White House and on “The Tonight Show,” died on Saturday in Los Angeles.
Rupert Murdoch's New York Post strikes again. Sean Delonas and whoever the editor was that thought this editorial cartoon was worthy of printing should be fired immediately.
There is absolutely no way that this racist cartoon can be explained away. If your first instinct was that cartoonist Delonas was comparing President Obama to a chimp, and a dead chimp shot by police no less, then no other explanation is necessary. I'm all for free speech, but this is beyond tasteless.
Sam Stein has more.
UPDATE (2:05pm):
From Fraulein in the comments:
I keep thinking that our illustrious media can't shock me anymore, but somehow they manage to keep doing it.
Jumping on this soapbox will make me sound 100 years old, but I'm going to do it anyway. In my day as a newspaper reporter (early/mid-1990s) we approached our jobs with a certain sense of ethics. We tried to air all sides of a story, to the extent that this is ever possible, and one rule we most certainly never broke, at least at the unremarkable suburban newspaper where I worked, was the one about not gratuitously insulting your readership. I would argue that by running such a viciously racist cartoon, the Post has attacked not only Obama, but most of its readership. It's attacked not only blacks, not only Obama supporters, but every one of its readers who don't consider themselves violent racists. Which one would hope is most of them (even though this is the Post we're talking about...)
Firings are the least of what's required to address this kind of systemic disregard for the principles of journalism. Unfortunately, I think the very issue is that it IS systemic. Across the board, from major newspapers to the execrable news weeklies (I'm looking at you, Newsweek) to the sewer of cable news, the ideals of a true free press died out long ago.
As news consumers, it's our job to call out the media on this kind of bullshit every time it happens. It's the only way they're ever going to learn how intolerable this kind of thing is.
I still haven't figured out Reagan.. What the heck did he do that was so great?? I just wish someone would tell me that. Cause I sure don't remember anything.To which I replied:
I've often wondered the same thing. I've never been able to point to one tangible good to have emerged from that snake-oil salesman's tenure, and much bad, so it has been a continuing source of annoyance tinged with rage to always see Reagan and his legacy treated as some manner of axiomatic good in our national discourse. Naturally, this situation has been by design, but the mandarins of our national media would never acknowledge that.And then today Fred Kaplan at Slate.com (unknowingly) gives me an assist by unqivering a few arrows of his own into the Reagan mono-myth:
I once asked my Texas Rethugli-bot, FOX News zombie dad why he had such a glowing love for Saint Ronnie of the Ray-Gun and he told me that it was because he made Americans feel good about their country again. Of course my dad gets teary-eyed to the treacly strains of Lee Greenwood screeching out "Proud To Be An American", so I have always thought his analysis suspect. Since all those dirty fucking hippies (DFH's), queers, uppity wimmin-folk and assorted scary brown people had spent the better part of 20 years making the corrupt, racist, hypocritical white guys running the country for the previous two centuries feel bad about themselves, I guess we should have expected some blowback for demanding, you know, some fealty to the spirit if not the letter of our founding principles -- bad as such things had proven to be for white, male privilege.
At the end of the day, I suspect, it was really all about what it has always been about since Reagan sold his particular brand of toxin as an elixir to a coalition I have deemed "The Stupid, The Deluded and The Corrupt" (h/t to Atrios) -- Good is whatever pisses-off liberals.
[Reagan] was, in fact, a babbling nut job who was lucky that Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, a genuine reformer desperate for Western assistance, was on the receiving endFunny how the arm-chair warriors and draft-dodging He-Men of the Rethugli-goon Party have all chosen to ignore the mediocre and frequently embarrassing truth about Saint Ronnie of the Ray-Gun and instead create the hero myth of their dreams, a patron saint of sanctimony, criminal greed and profitable war-mongering, a noble ideological warrior to challenge the Democrats' most-hallowed FDR and neutralize that lefty legacy, to sweep away the bitter after-taste of the long string of crooks, degenerates and losers they'd fronted since, well, since they ceased to be the Party of Lincoln somewhere towards the end of the 19th century.
[...]
At their first one-on-one talk, Gorbachev tried to talk substance, but Reagan kept telling interminable anecdotes and anti-Soviet jokes, leading Gorbachev at one point to mutter, "On boltayet yeshchyo" ("He's babbling again")
[...]
And yet the real dirty secret about Reagan — the one that Republicans would rather not remember or, in many cases, never knew — is that, at heart, he had no stomach for war and detested nuclear weapons.
[...]
In his first term, from 1981-85, Reagan escalated East-West tensions, spoke in bellicose rhetoric, and jacked up military spending to 30-year highs. This is the Reagan whom Republican chieftains worship and insist that all subsequent presidents emulate. But in his second term, which coincided with Gorbachev's rise to power, Reagan flipped, making dramatic diplomatic overtures to Moscow and accepting equally dramatic proposals in turn.
Few remember, but many of the Republicans who now tout Reagan's accomplishments pummeled him at the time for "betraying" his followers and their Cold War ideology.
C-SPAN 2009 Historians Presidential Leadership SurveyHere's "The List":WASHINGTON — Just days after the nation honored the 200th anniversary of his birth, 65 historians ranked Abraham Lincoln as the nation's best president.
Former President George W. Bush, who left office last month, was ranked 36th out of the 42 men who had been chief executive by the end of 2008, according to a survey conducted by the cable channel C-SPAN.
Bush scored lowest in international relations, where he was ranked 41st, and in economic management, where he was ranked 40th. His highest ranking, 24th, was in the category of pursuing equal justice for all. He was ranked 25th in crisis leadership and vision and agenda setting.
In contrast, Lincoln was ranked in the top three in each of the 10 categories evaluated by participants.
In C-SPAN's only other ranking of presidents, in 2000, former President Bill Clinton jumped six spots from No. 21 to 15. Other recent presidents moved positions as well: Ronald Reagan advanced from No. 11 to 10, George H.W. Bush rose from No. 20 to 18 and Jimmy Carter fell from No. 22 to 25.
This movement illustrates that presidential reputations are influenced by present-day concerns, said survey adviser and participant Edna Medford.
"Today's concerns shape our views of the past, be it in the area of foreign policy, managing the economy or human rights," Medford said in a statement.
After Lincoln, the academics rated George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt and Harry Truman as the best leaders overall. The same five received top spots in the 2000 survey, although Washington and Franklin D. Roosevelt swapped spots this year.
Rated worst overall were James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, William Henry Harrison and Warren G. Harding.
The survey was conducted in December and January. Participants ranked each president on a scale of one, "not effective" to 10, "very effective," on a list of 10 leadership qualities including relations with Congress, public persuasion and moral authority.
Hopefully, Armadillo Joe and Fraulein will mind the store while we enjoy a little quiet time, eat some good food and get inebriated on some fine wine. I'll be back Tuesday evening provided the world doesn't end before then.
Click on portrait for a complete list of President Obama's Executive Orders, Presidential Memoranda and Proclamations
ShareThis
