AEI/Bloomberg/McCain Hack Plays A Little Solitaire

Rush Limbaugh as Frank Sinatra/Major Bennett Marco?

No, I don't think so ...

Not in a million years, and all the CGI you can generate.

Kevin Hassett, on Bloomberg today, has a column calling President Obama "The Manchurian Candidate", because, after all, Obama has launched a War on Business and is out to totally destroy our economy.

I was immediately alarmed, until I got to the bottom of the post, and noted that was merely a one of the Right Wing Freak Show Flying Monkeys;

(Kevin Hassett, director of economic-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, is a Bloomberg News columnist. He was an adviser to Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2008 presidential election. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Here's some of his drivel;

It is no wonder that markets are imploding around us. Obama is giving us the War on Business. 

Imagine that some hypothetical enemy state spent years preparing a “Manchurian Candidate” to destroy the U.S. economy once elected. What policies might that leader pursue? 

He might discourage private capital from entering the financial sector by instructing his Treasury secretary to repeatedly promise a brilliant rescue plan, but never actually have one. Private firms, spooked by the thought of what government might do, would shy away from transactions altogether. If the secretary were smooth and played rope-a-dope long enough, the whole financial sector would be gone before voters could demand action. 

Another diabolical idea would be to significantly increase taxes on whatever firms are still standing. That would require subterfuge, since increasing tax rates would be too obvious. Our Manchurian Candidate would have plenty of sophisticated ideas on changing the rules to get more revenue without increasing rates, such as auctioning off “permits.” 

These steps would create near-term distress. If our Manchurian Candidate leader really wanted to knock the country down for good, he would have to provide insurance against any long-run recovery.

[Snip]

It’s clear that President Obama wants the best for our country. That makes it all the more puzzling that he would legislate like a Manchurian Candidate.

Nate Silver, over on this FiveThirtyEight.com, has the lowdown on Hacket, who penned the book, "Dow 36,000";

To review, Dow 36,000 came out in October, 1999, within months of the tippy-top peak of the tech bubble ... this is when stocks were as overvalued as at literally any time in American history, including the Roaring 20's -- and Hassett was telling you to double -- nay, triple-down on them! It would be hard to identify an individual who better embodied the phrase "irrational exuberance" -- well, maybe the Pets.com sock puppet -- or who destroyed more wealth with charlatanic financial advice.

And this guy thinks it's all some big conspiracy against him. Literally.

Wikipedia notes, regarding Hassett's book, "Dow 36,000";

The Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,750.28 in January 2000, but after the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the September 11 attacks of 2001, it steadily fell, reaching a low of 7,286.27 in October 2002. Although the Average recovered to a new record high of 14,164.53 in October 2007, it crashed back to the vicinity of 6,800 by the early months of 2009, amidst a global recession.

Also, Paul Krugman's assessment of McCain's campaign;

Controversy

In the course of the 2008 election campaign, Nobel-prize laureaute Paul Krugman criticised Hassett's position as an adviser to John McCain and implied that "Dow 36,000" was discredited

"We’ve known for a long time, of course, that Mr. McCain doesn’t know much about economics — he’s said so himself, although he’s also denied having said it. That wouldn’t matter too much if he had good taste in advisers — but he doesn’t. Remember, his chief mentor on economics is Phil Gramm, the arch-deregulator, who took special care in his Senate days to prevent oversight of financial derivatives — the very instruments that sank Lehman and A.I.G., and brought the credit markets to the edge of collapse... And last year, when the McCain campaign announced that the candidate had assembled “an impressive collection of economists, professors, and prominent conservative policy leaders” to advise him on economic policy, who was prominently featured? Kevin Hassett, the co-author of “Dow 36,000.” Enough said.[4]"

John Cole, over on Balloon Juice points out the irony of Hassett's use of "The Manchurian Candidate", in his "They Know the Title of the Book, But They Haven’t Read It".

Another irony is that, it is actually the hero/protagonist of 'The Manchurian Candidate' who defeats the Right Wing conservatives, and enemies, preserving and saving capitalism (yeah, that's a big hint, but I don't want to spoil it completely, for those that haven't seen the movie - the original, 1962 pic, with Sinatra, Laurence Harvey and Angela Lansbury)

Maybe, in his next column, Hassett will declare "There are exactly 57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party in the Obama Administration at this time!"

Bobby, Get Your Gun ...

Anything you can do,
I can do better.
I can do anything
Better than you.

If this keeps up, Leonard Pinth Garnell is going to need that Universal Healthcare package, to deal with his exhaustion.

Two big duds in the same week.

And, I don't believe Tweety mumbling a plaintive "Oh God" as Bobby Jindal came to the podium, was the only one to do so ... There had to be, throughout Jindals' GOP Talking Points rehash, titled "Americans Can Do Anything", thousands of others.

Numerous folks are comparing Bobby Jindal's rebuttal to Obama last evening with Kenneth, from "30 Rock".

Fine, however, for me, it played out much more like an old SNL skit, a "Bad Politics" delivered dead-center in the strike zone for Garnell to seeth as a "delicious disaster".

Boy, if the message we are supposed to believe from it, that the Republican's "Can Do" spirit is better than the Democrat's "Can Do" spirit, man are the Republicans so tone deaf, and so, so fucking lost.



I mean, when your offical rebuttal to Obama's Not-A-State-of-the-Union-State-of-the-Union Address is Hurricane Katrina, and a racist sheriff .... 

Let me tell you a story. 

During Katrina, I visited Sheriff Harry Lee, a Democrat and a good friend of mine. When I walked into his makeshift office I'd never seen him so angry. He was yelling into the phone: 'Well, I'm the Sheriff and if you don't like it you can come and arrest me!' I asked him: 'Sheriff, what's got you so mad?' He told me that he had put out a call for volunteers to come with their boats to rescue people who were trapped on their rooftops by the floodwaters. The boats were all lined up ready to go - when some bureaucrat showed up and told them they couldn't go out on the water unless they had proof of insurance and registration. I told him, 'Sheriff, that's ridiculous.' And before I knew it, he was yelling into the phone: 'Congressman Jindal is here, and he says you can come and arrest him too!' Harry just told the boaters to ignore the bureaucrats and start rescuing people.

From Joan Walsh;

But Jindal is making no sense: He's lying about Obama's plans (there will be no government-run health care) and his Katrina stories are the perfect symbolism for the current GOP: They'll rescue wealthy bankers from oblivion, but leave low-income black people on roofs. Also, Politico caught it first, to my knowledge: The sheriff Jindal lionized in his speech, Harry Lee, is most famous for gruesome racial profiling during his tenure as Jefferson County's top cop. His Wikipedia page has all the details.

Jindal, among other distortions, dissed the monitoring of volcanos;

While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is larded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a "magnetic levitation" line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, and $140 million for something called "volcano monitoring." Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C.

Well, he might have well mocked the rebuilding of the levees in New Orleans.

Nate Silver has the 411 on this, in his "Jindal Versus the Volcano";

Before the cataclysmic eruption, roughly one million people lived in the region around Mount Pinatubo, including about 30,000 American military personnel and their dependents at the two largest U.S. military bases in the Philippines--Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Station. The slopes of the volcano and the adjacent hills and valleys were home to thousands of villagers. Despite the great number of people at risk, there were few casualties in the June 15 eruption. This was the result of intensive monitoring of Mount Pinatubo by scientists with the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) and the USGS.

The first recognized signs that Pinatubo was reawakening after a 500-year slumber were a series of small steam-blast explosions in early April 1991. Scientists from PHIVOLCS immediately began on-site monitoring and soon declared a 6-mile-radius danger zone around the volcano. They were joined in a few weeks by USGS scientists from the Volcano Disaster Assistance Program, a cooperative effort with the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The USGS and PHIVOLCS estimate that their forecasts saved at least 5,000 lives and perhaps as many as 20,000. The people living in the lowlands around Mount Pinatubo were alerted to the impending eruption by the forecasts, and many fled to towns at safer distances from the volcano or took shelter in buildings with strong roofs. Additionally, more than 18,000 American servicemen and their dependents were evacuated from Clark Air Base prior to the June 15 eruption. In the eruption, thousands of weaker roofs, including some on Clark, collapsed under the weight of ash made wet by heavy rains, yet only about 250 lowland residents were killed. Of the 20,000 indigenous Aeta highlanders who lived on the slopes of Mount Pinatubo, all but about 120 were safely evacuated before the eruption completely devastated their villages.

No, wait a minute, it was, forget about the Democrats, and their Big Government, Big Spending Ways, you should just "Trust Us";

In recent years, these distinctions in philosophy became less clear -- because our party got away from its principles. You elected Republicans to champion limited government, fiscal discipline, and personal responsibility. Instead, Republicans went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington. Republicans lost your trust -- and rightly so.

Tonight, on behalf of our leaders in Congress and my fellow Republican governors, I say: Our party is determined to regain your trust. We will do so by standing up for the principles that we share -- the principles you elected us to fight for -- the principles that built this into the greatest, most prosperous country on earth.

"... Went along with earmarks and big government spending in Washington ...?"

Hello? ... The Bush Grindhouse and their billions-of-dollars lies? ... Ted Stevens? ... The rubber-stamp Republican-controlled Congress for six-of-the-last-eight-years?

Yeah, we'll get back to you on that one, Bobby ... 



It would have been much better off, despite whatever the traditions may be, if the Republicans sat this one out last evening.

If Jindal is supposed to be one of the top tier, "the smart one" of the potential 2012 field, you saw how worried The Wasilla Whiz Kid is about him, using the day to dump the news of settling her Ethic Charges, and getting dunned about $7,000 in reimbursement payments and taxes.

Trying to compete with the Big Show, Obama in his groove spot of a giant spotlighted speech, was a lost cause.

They should have saved themselves, and sent out Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, for his continuing bitch session, which, undoubtedly, would have been equally, if not more, entertaining.

But no, the Republicans wanted to show us their future, a shitbag of failed policies, bankrupted ideology, completely empty of any new ideas, and no desire to even get into the game.

That's their mantra and their sticking to it.

My fellow citizens, never forget: We are Americans. And like my Dad said years ago, Americans can do anything.

Yeah, that song has already been sung.

Anything you can be
I can be greater.
Sooner or later,
I'm greater than you.

Bonus Jindal Riffs

There is an explosion, out on the World Wide Web, of great reactions to Jindal today, so we have posted them separately ... Jump on over to Jindal Jabberwocky to catch up on them.

And, since we weaved it into the narrative above, we might as well post it.

Annie Get Your Gun - Anything You Can Do

Jindal Jabberwocky

As we noted above, in our Bobby, Get Your Gun ..., there has been a fevered reaction to Bobby Jindal's rebuttal ("Americans Can Do Anything"), on President Obama's speech to the joint session of Congress last evening (The Not-A-State-of-the-Union Address).

So much so, that it wouldn't do justice to our typical "Bonus Links" that we often include.

Nosireebobby ... We have to hightlight some of the great riffs that are out there, with their own post.

First, the basics

Full text of Obama's speech to Congress and the nation

Full text of Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican response



A Little Pre-Game Trash Talk

ABC News, in two posts, seemed to want to paint the President as a braggart;

Obama Claim: Done More in 30 Days Than Other Presidents

Official: Obama Accomplished More in 30 Days Than Any President in Modern History

And the Queen of the Flying Monkeys, Michelle "Stalkin" Malkin was having a hard time sitting still, waiting for the speech.

Obama - A+

Joan Walsh: "We are not quitters"

Libby Spencer: Scoring the speeches

Digby: The Speech

And, over on Brilliant at Breakfast, Jill sighed It would be a relief even if all he could do is speak coherently

And, now, some of the Jindal Jabberwocky!

Paging 30 Rock

Andrew Sullivan: Kenneth Jindal

Andy, at Towle Road: Obama Speaks to Congress, Jindal Does 30 Rock Impression

Greg Veis: Epic Fail, SOTU Rebuttal Version

Is there a more dangerous assignment for a rising party star to accept than a State of the Union rebuttal? Seriously, it’s hemlock. Tonight, in all fairness, would’ve been tough to pull off even if Bobby Jindal didn’t sound like Kenneth from “30 Rock,” or, in my favorite analogy of the evening, a third grader performing in his Thanksgiving play: Obama’s favorables are still roughly comparable to delicious, delicious beer’s; Republicans are widely perceived to be obstructionist naysayers; and, as Jon Cohn notes below, Americans are scared enough these days to prefer policy solutions to partisan sniping. But, holy crap, did Jindal blow it. I don’t even want to rehash the deadly obvious reasons why--just check out what the people who were supposed to like it are saying.

About That Volcano Stuff

Now, it was astoundingly strange, for the Governor of state that has a city that sits below sea level, and flooding can come, just from a normal summer thunderstorm, let alone a Category 5 hurricane, to go out and disparage the section of the Stimulus Package for Volcano Monitoring.

Andrea Thompson: Gov. Jindal Follow-up: What Is 'Volcano Monitoring'?

Davenoon - Bobby Jindal: Soft on Volcanoes

Matthew Yglesias: The Case for Volcano Monitoring

Nate Silver: Jindal Versus the Volcano


Hurricane Katrina Jindal's Good Luck Charm

Steve M: JINDAL LOVES THAT BOAT STORY

David Weigel: Bobby Jindal and the Stimulus as Hurricane Katrina


Oh, God

It was, primarily, the Right Wing Freak Show that has got their panties in a bunch, over Tweety letting out an "Oh, God" as Jindal strode out and walked down the short corridor to the podium, in the Governors Mansion.

Michael Calderone - MSNBC welcomes Jindal: 'Oh God'

Michael Goldfarb: Matthews Not Tingly for Jindal

Michelle "Stalkin" Malkin: Bobby Jindal and the expectations game; plus: which MSNBC host said “Oh, god?”

Chris, at TVNewser: "Oh God" Heard From MSNBC Set As Gov. Jindal Appears for GOP Response

Chris, at TVNewser: "Oh God" Book II: Chris Matthews Responds

I was taken aback by that peculiar stagecraft, the walking from somewhere in the back of this narrow hall, this winding staircase looming there, the odd anti-bellum look of the scene. Was this some mimicking of a president walking along the state floor to the East Room?

They Don't Like Me ... They Really Don't Like Me

Andrew Sullivan: The Right On Jindal

Think Progress: Fox Panel’s Verdict On Jindal’s Speech: ‘Childish,’ ‘Amateurish,’ ‘Not Exactly Terrific’

Taylor Marsh: Calling Sarah Palin

LEHRER: Now that, of course, was Gov. Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, making the Republican response. David, how well do you think he did? 

BROOKS: Uh, not so well. You know, I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I oppose the stimulus because I thought it was poorly drafted. But to come up at this moment in history with a stale "government is the problem," "we can't trust the federal government" - it's just a disaster for the Republican Party. The country is in a panic right now. They may not like the way the Democrats have passed the stimulus bill, but that idea that we're just gonna - that government is going to have no role, the federal government has no role in this, that - In a moment when only the federal government is actually big enough to do stuff, to just ignore all that and just say "government is the problem, corruption, earmarks, wasteful spending," it's just a form of nihilism. It's just not where the country is, it's not where the future of the country is. There's an intra-Republican debate. Some people say the Republican Party lost its way because they got too moderate. Some people say they got too weird or too conservative. He thinks they got too moderate, and so he's making that case. I think it's insane, and I just think it's a disaster for the party. I just think it's unfortunate right now.

Republicans might have to rethink this Jindal thing.

Calling Sarah Palin? Yep, all Palin has to do is stay out of sight and study. They'll end up begging her to come back, with Rush & Sean Hannity leading the cheers. She can't answer the simplest questions but at least she can deliver a speech.


Piling On

Steve Benen: SO MUCH FOR THE JINDAL BREAKTHROUGH...

Paul Begala: Memo to Bobby Jindal: Dump Rush

TBogg: Bobby, we hardly knew ye

John Aravosis (DC): Bobby Jindal epitomizes Republicanism

Nick Baumann: Bobby Jindal's Stimulus Lies

Joe Sudbay (DC): Jindal's reviews are in: "really poor performance" "unserious" "hackneyed" "childish" (and that's just from one article in Politico)

Jamison Foser: Will media repeat Jindal's false attack on Obama, or correct it?

John Amato: Bobby Jindal's Zombie like performance uses phony Republican talking point of 'magnetic levitation' trains

A Good Fox Slapdown!

Oh, this one is just pure fun.

With the Republicans in meltdown, not knowing whether to piss, or wind their watches, it will be, for the next few years, such a joy to see the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds over there on Faux News, sitting there, their heads exploding from the build-up of methane gas.

We agree with Glen Greenwald, that this is "really worth watching";

Even more notable is the dripping condescension directed at him by the Fox personality at the end of the interview for having committed the sin of exhibiting genuine passion and anger over something as trivial as the disappearing middle class and the massive and growing rich-poor gap. That's the crime of Shrillness, one of the prime hallmarks of Unseriousness -- failing/refusing to suppress one's anger towards our political and financial establishment ...

And, we also have to hip you to John Cole's suggestion, over on Balloon Juice;

If you really want to get the full flavor of what a jerk this interviewer comes across as, watch this video without any sound. It almost looks like an SNL skit- the guy did everything but stick his tongue out and put his thumb to his nose while waving his fingers.

We give you Lansing, Michigan Mayor Virg Bernero.

MAYOR VIRG BERNERO OF LANSING MICHIGAN TEARS FOX ANCHOR A NEW ONE - HILARIOUS!!!



Mayor Bernerno kicked his ass, and then knocked his teeth out for mumbling about it!

This is right up there with Robert Gibbs tap dancing all over Sean Hannity's head last fall.

I guess the GOP didn't send over all of the talking points this day.

Is There Some Kind of Stimulus Package Going Around Out There?

Still on the mend, and in recovery mode today.

It was made all the more wonderful by bitter, bitter cold weather (low teens, with zero-degree wind chill; to quote an equally-ailing friend, "It's colder than Dick Cheney's heart out there"), and anchoring the sofa left us with nothing on the television but STIMULUS, STIMULUS, STIMULUS ...

Obama, finally, ate his can of spinach, penning a forceful Op-Ed in the WaPo today.

But that didn't stop the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds

The crew at Morning Joke, particularly female co-anchor, continued with their Right Wing Freak Show mantra of disinformation.

Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain still doesn't know whether to piss, or wind his watch, when it comes to the economy

And McCain's Other Mini-Me, Lindsey Graham got all red-faced and his panties in a bunch.

But the killer, the fall-on-the-floor, gigantic head-slap-heard-round-the-world comes from Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, who wants to place the Republican Party (well, officially), on the Axis of Evil list, calling for them to become "insurgents", and model themselves after the Taliban.

Yeah, you read that right.

From Think Progress;

“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,” Sessions said during a meeting yesterday with Hotline editors. “And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes. And these Taliban — I’m not trying to say the Republican Party is the Taliban. No, that’s not what we’re saying. I’m saying an example of how you go about [sic] is to change a person from their messaging to their operations to their frontline message. And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.” […]

When pressed to clarify, Sessions said he was not comparing the House Republican caucus to the Taliban, the Muslim fundamentalist group. “I simply said one can see that there’s a model out there for insurgency,” Sessions said before being interrupted by an aide.

I suspect, we'll soon see some pork bill from Sessions, to dole out millions in STIMULUS money to some Hijab maker in his district, and, perhaps broader laws to ban girls from going to school, and making splashing them, if they do, with acid a misdemeanor

We might just have to come up with something much bigger, and stronger, then the IDOTW to cover the breathtaking intellect of Congressman Sessions.

In the meantime ...

Puppet Playtime-Howdy Doody intro




(Go HERE for a kick-ass version of it by Lester Bowie)

Que Sera Sera

Back on the DL today, folks ... Dealing with the latest snowfall has, yet again, issued a setback to the hip injury, sustained about four snowfalls ago ... So, along with enduring pain, the energy level is zapped as well ...

Then again, not sure what we could have come up with today ...

Let's see ...

The Republicans aren't being obstructionists, they're just looking out for the country ...

And where o' where is our President Obama, of where o' where can he be?

Keyser Soze (aka, former VP Cheney) is baiting and goading the terrorists of the world, all but asking them to come and attack us again, so we will all say he was right to shit on the Constitution, illegal spy on us, and torture anyone who doesn't look like "us".

David Noon, over on Lawyers, Guns and Money, is on-the-money, with his "Dick Cheney is Insane";

In a truly just world, Dick Cheney would be stuffing envelopes at home for a living, or perhaps sorting plastic at a recycling center somewhere. And yet here he is, "in a non-descript suburban office building in McLean, Va., in a suite that could just as easily house a dental clinic," making his O Face for Politico. It nearly goes without saying that Dick Cheney proved to be one of the nation's greatest natural catastrophes -- a Dust Bowl in human form, the Spanish Flu incarnate -- and as such, he merits our enduring scrutiny. Still, it bears remembering that much of what he has to say from now on will be completely insane ..."

We also saw another example of why it is urgent, desperately urgent, that someone give Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a couple-of-bucks, so he can go out and buy a personality ...



CNBC's Mark Haines, the jolly large guy that Morning Joke throws it over to for some pithy comments about how funny the Wall Street Meltdown is, went all Dick Armey on Arianna Huffington.

How appropriate his show is "Squawk Box" for, whenever I see Haines on the tube, I can't help but think of him as the obnoxious fat guy that anchors the end of the neighborhood bar, beer-and-bowl-of-peanuts perpetually in front of him, pontificating and lecturing everyone in the room, on any subject, and always, always being abjectly wrong.

And speaking of insanity, and obnoxiousness, there was "Fredo", peering into the looking glass, saying everything was hunky-dory at his Department of Injustice.

As we have done so often, we sigh, throw up our hands and say ...

Que Sera Sera - Sly & The Family Stone

Smokin' Frank Rich Today!

"...the Republicans should either lead, follow or get out of the grown-ups’ way."

They gloat over their big "Goose Egg", much with the same elan as The Commander Guy dishing out birthday cake to Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, as New Orleanians clung, precariously, to rooftops, their city filled like a fishbowl with flood waters.

Frank Rich's column today - "Herbert Hoover Lives" - lays it all out, that if they can be enough of obstructionists, if they can make it so President Obama fails, well, that is what will save their dying party, which Rich pegs as "At this rate the G.O.P. will be in Alf Landon territory by 2012."



More Rich;

The Republicans don’t acknowledge the need for this transformation, or debate it in good conscience, preferring instead to hyperventilate over the contraceptives in a small family-planning program since removed from the stimulus bill. All it takes is the specter of condoms for the party of Vitter, Foley and Craig to go gaga.

[Snip]

Obama no doubt finds Limbaugh’s grandiosity more amusing than frightening, but G.O.P. politicians are shaking like Jell-O. When asked by Andrea Mitchell of NBC News on Wednesday if he shared Limbaugh’s hope that Obama fails, Eric Cantor spun like a top before running off, as it happened, to appear on Limbaugh’s radio show. Mike Pence of Indiana, No. 3 in the Republican House leadership, similarly squirmed when asked if he agreed with Limbaugh. Though the Republicans’ official, poll-driven line is that they want Obama to succeed, they’d rather abandon that disingenuous nicety than cross Rush.

Most pathetic of all was Phil Gingrey, a right-wing Republican congressman from Georgia, who mildly criticized both Limbaugh and Sean Hannity to Politico because they “stand back and throw bricks” while lawmakers labor in the trenches. So many called Gingrey’s office to complain that the poor congressman begged Limbaugh to bring him on air to publicly recant on Wednesday. As Gingrey abjectly apologized to talk radio’s commandant for his “stupid comments” and “foot-in-mouth disease,” he sounded like the inmate in a B-prison-movie cowering before the warden after a failed jailbreak.

That they take their marching orders from a fat drug addict, I suppose, isn't so astounding, considering they selected The Wasilla Whiz Kid for their ticket in the last election.

A "Limbaugh with Lipstick", as it were.

The word "serious" doesn't seem to making its' way into their talking points.

As Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said last week;

“It’s almost as if the election didn’t happen and that the message wasn’t received: that people in Washington need to cooperate a lot more than they have in the past.”

Maybe they need to tweak The Commander Guy's mantra, from "You're either with us, or against us", to "We're not with you, and we are against you"

They sure be playin' it that way


Bonus Gone-Out-To-Pasture Party Riffs

BooMan: Wanker of the Day: David Broder

Prairie Weather: Republicans go AWOL; Palin steps in, hair loose to shoulders

Steve Benen: HIGH BRODERISMS...

No More Mister Nice Blog: AN ASSERTION THAT SEEMS SELF-EVIDENT, EXCEPT THAT IT'S UTTERLY WRONG

You Gotta Check This Out!

Good (Fuckin') Post Alert here today ...

Really good one ...

Skippy the bush kangaroo nails it!

Perfect!

today's repubbblicans

Click over and check it out ... Be sure to play the video!

Stand

(Ed. Note: Rough Day, and trying to fight my way off the DL)

Stand, they did ...

All the dittoheads ... All the dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds ...

In other words, the Republican Caucus of the U.S. Congress.



Christ, could you imagine if they were staffing the Titanic?

I certainly wouldn't want passage on that trip, worrying that they would vote, en block, not to lower the life boats.

"Sorry, folks, but we want the Captain to use our plan."

Ahh, but they already have run us into the proverbial financial iceberg, and now, they want to nitpick over what type, or what size, buckets we should use to start bailing out the water.

Or, their whiny bleating about Tax Cuts, just who should be able to climb into those lifeboats.

There's some other noise, as well, but it's hard to make out - it's only Mark Halperin, talking with his head up his ass, again.

I'm with John Kerry, and Kathy, from 'Comments from Left Field' - Fuck'em (my choice of words).

Blast out the Tax Cuts, squeeze back in the Contraceptives, and tell the GOP nitwits to follow the advice of their Leader-in-Exile, The Cheeseburger That Sweats (h/t Barry Crimmins), that being, to bend over and grab their ankles!

It ain't their playground anymore.

They are the MINORITY Party, and, they don't get to call the shots, or grease the skids, as they did, so proudly and willingly, for The Bush Grindhouse.

All President Obama, and the Democrats have to do is keep up the Eddie Haskell routine, keep saying nice things about the MINORITY Party, invite them to join in at every turn, but keep the eyes straight ahead and get the business that needs to be done, done.

At some point, their own supporters, their own constituents, will see their obstructionism, and ask why they don't have their gloves on, why aren't they in the game.

Something tells me, that despite decades, and generations, apart, Sly and the Family Stone are singing this song to President Obama, and the Dems;

Sly & The Family Stone - Stand




Bonus Riffs

No More Mister Nice Blog: TIME FOR A FIRESIDE CHAT

Nate Silver: The Republican Death Spiral

Skippy the bush kangaroo: "oh yeah? well, just for that, we're going to sh*t in our bed again!"

Tristero: Ominous

Greg Sargent: Obama Allies Launch Ad Campaign Targeting Republican Senators

Pennies from the Heaven

Boy, rough day to sit on the sidelines, still on the DL.

We had to listen to the Congressional Republicans whine and moan like cats in a warehouse full of rocking chairs.

Stimulus Bill Passes House With 0 Republican Votes

President Obama won his first vote, with the House, going strictly along party lines, but this is just the first dance, with much more, and, perhaps, greater theatre, to be played out.

Steve Benen asks a rather interesting question;

If the House Republican caucus, en masse, isn't willing to support a stimulus package in the midst of a global economic crisis, it's hard to imagine when, exactly, GOP lawmakers are going to work with the majority party in a constructive way.

[Snip]

Of course, the last time we saw a vote like this one was probably the 1993 vote on Clinton's first budget -- every single Republican in the chamber voted against it, hoping to prove, once and for all, that they were right about economics and Democrats were wrong. If memory serves, that budget was the first step towards the longest economic expansion on record, the creation of 22 million jobs, and the total elimination of the federal budget deficit.

Cue me when the Third Act starts up

In the meantime, sing along with Louis, because they better start falling damn soon ...

Louis Prima - Pennies from the Heaven

I Won't Dance

I suppose, there's a number of items I could spin off the title of this post.

You have Israel pounding the shit out of the Palestinians, almost as a final fireworks salute to The Bush Grindhouse ("Shock and Awe" - Again!) ...

And there's Mitch McConnell already defiantly declaring he wants to be the Biggest Asshole in 2009 ...

But no, it's just that I am beat tired, another banner day on the homefront (only to get better, with, not one, but two snowstorms coming down the pike this week).

So, a little musical interlude, and a quite tasty one at that ...

Blossom Dearie - I Won't Dance