Just a reminder as to how we got here.

Courtesy of the Political Animal:

1980: Ronald Reagan runs for president, promising a balanced budget

1981 - 1989: With support from congressional Republicans, Reagan runs enormous deficits, adds $2 trillion to the debt.

1993: Bill Clinton passes economic plan that lowers deficit, gets zero votes from congressional Republicans.

1998: U.S. deficit disappears for the first time in three decades. Debt clock is unplugged.

2000: George W. Bush runs for president, promising to maintain a balanced budget.

2001: CBO shows the United States is on track to pay off the entirety of its national debt within a decade.

2001 - 2009: With support from congressional Republicans, Bush runs enormous deficits, adds nearly $5 trillion to the debt.

2002: Dick Cheney declares, “Deficits don’t matter.” Congressional Republicans agree, approving tax cuts, two wars, and Medicare expansion without even trying to pay for them.

2009: Barack Obama inherits $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush; Republicans immediately condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

2009: Congressional Democrats unveil several domestic policy initiatives — including health care reform, cap and trade, DREAM Act — which would lower the deficit. GOP opposes all of them, while continuing to push for deficit reduction.

September 2010: In Obama’s first fiscal year, the deficit shrinks by $122 billion. Republicans again condemn Obama’s fiscal irresponsibility.

October 2010: S&P endorses the nation’s AAA rating with a stable outlook, saying the United States looks to be in solid fiscal shape for the foreseeable future.

November 2010: Republicans win a U.S. House majority, citing the need for fiscal responsibility.
December 2010: Congressional Republicans demand extension of Bush tax cuts, relying entirely on deficit financing. GOP continues to accuse Obama of fiscal irresponsibility.

March 2011: Congressional Republicans declare intention to hold full faith and credit of the United States hostage — a move without precedent in American history — until massive debt-reduction plan is approved.

July 2011: Obama offers Republicans a $4 trillion debt-reduction deal. GOP refuses, pushes debt-ceiling standoff until the last possible day, rattling international markets.

August 2011: S&P downgrades U.S. debt, citing GOP refusal to consider new revenues. Republicans rejoice and blame Obama for fiscal irresponsibility.

Any questions?

A graph that every Teabagger needs to see.

Courtesy of Ezra Klein:

What’s also important, but not evident, on this chart is that Obama’s major expenses were temporary — the stimulus is over now — while Bush’s were, effectively, recurring. The Bush tax cuts didn’t just lower revenue for 10 years. It’s clear now that they lowered it indefinitely, which means this chart is understating their true cost. Similarly, the Medicare drug benefit is costing money on perpetuity, not just for two or three years. And Boehner, Ryan and others voted for these laws and, in some cases, helped to craft and pass them.

To relate this specifically to the debt-ceiling debate, we’re not raising the debt ceiling because of the new policies passed in the past two years. We’re raising the debt ceiling because of the accumulated effect of policies passed in recent decades, many of them under Republicans. It’s convenient for whichever side isn’t in power, or wasn’t recently in power, to blame the debt ceiling on the other party. But it isn’t true.

This is the main reason I have NEVER taken the Teabaggers seriously because they are so clearly resistant to recognizing that the tremendous economic problems facing our country have virtually NOTHING to do with President Obama and EVERYTHING to do with George W. Bush, the fake president who came before him.

Let's face it, if the Teabaggers were serious about "taking their country back," they would have been Democrats or even true Independents, not obviously transparent covert Republicans.

Oh, and they NEVER would have been ignorant enough to call themselves the "Tea Party" either.

Just a reminder from 2004 of who the Republicans are, and what they are capable of doing to gain, or hold on to, power.

Karl Rove and George Bush patting each other on the back for fucking over the American people.

Courtesy of Truthout:

A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.

The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio's vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush's unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash.

Additionally, the filing contains the contract signed between then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Connell's company, GovTech Solutions. Also included that contract a graphic architectural map of the Secretary of State's election night server layout system. 

Cliff Arnebeck, lead attorney in the King Lincoln case, exchanged emails with IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore. Arnebeck asked Spoonamore whether or not SmarTech had the capability to "input data" and thus alter the results of Ohio's 2004 election. Spoonamore responded: "Yes. They would have had data input capacities. The system might have been set up to log which source generated the data but probably did not."

Spoonamore explained that "they [SmarTech] have full access and could change things when and if they want."

Arnebeck specifically asked "Could this be done using whatever bypass techniques Connell developed for the web hosting function." Spoonamore replied "Yes."

This is the kind of thing to keep in mind when you are hearing the Teabaggers talk about "taking their country back."

The GOP are the ones who rigged not one, but TWO, elections and took the choice away from the voters.  It was the Republicans who lied to the American people in order to start an unnecessary war in Iraq. And it was the Republicans who put this economy into the tailspin that we are still trying to recover from today.

So exactly WHICH party is the one that stole this country away from its people?

And our President is supposed to negotiate with these unscrupulous bastards?

Another reminder of why the GOP hates teachers and their unions so much.

From CNN:

A year earlier than usual, the nation's largest teachers union on Monday endorsed President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012.

The National Education Association, which represents 3.2 million teachers and administrators, approved the recommendation from its political action committee at its annual meeting in Chicago.
Obama "shares our vision for a stronger America," NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said in a statement issued by the group. "He has never wavered from talking about the importance of education or his dedication to a vibrant middle class."

Since taking office in 2009, Obama has championed education reform and used stimulus money to help keep teachers employed. Now he is calling for maintaining or increasing spending on education despite negotiating federal budget cuts.

However, not all of the Obama administration's education policies have pleased the union, particularly its support for charter schools and continued reliance on standardized testing to assess performance.

The NEA statement said the organization usually waits until the summer of an election year to endorse a candidate. This year, it did so earlier than normal "in order to provide early and strong support to help ensure the election of a candidate who is on the side of students and working families."

Of course it stands to reason that a union made up of educators would decide to throw their weight behind the candidate with the brains. Doesn't it?

I also have to add that I agree with the NEA's frustration over the fact that Obama supports charter schools and standardized testing as well, but I also know that he is our best hope for dumping NCLB, and getting our education system back to where it was before George Bush took a big steaming crap on it.

Just who do you think Michele Bachmann might model her Presidency after? Perhaps watching her fawn over a recent President will provide us with a clue.

Jesus, that was disturbing.

One has to wonder if there had not been a crowd present exactly how Bachmann might have shown her affection for the Worst President Ever?

It is kind of bizarre that if the Teabaggers were honest about their frustration over what has happened to their country they would seek to have George Bush brought up on charges of treason, but I guess because he is white like them he gets a free pass.

Well if this is the guy that gets Bachmann's panties all wet, I have to imagine his two terms would serve as the blueprint for her own.  As if we needed yet ANOTHER reason to dismiss this nutjob.

Happy President's Day!!

Best President of all time-Franklin Delano Roosevelt

 Worst President of all time-George W. Bush

Who will never be president-Sarah Palin

Who should have been president-Al Gore and John Kerry

Titties, Toes, & Tater-Tot Tuesday

Thanks To The Recession, Bush Is Back... No, Not That One...The Other One

From Salon.com:

Recently someone forwarded me an invitation to a cheeky Inauguration Day event called "Shave the Date." As organizer Kristen Chase explains on her Web site, "Show your love for your country, and as you watch our new president take his oath and feel your satin undies against your smooth nether region, you can take pride in knowing you've rid your world of bush once and for all."

Now, you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone more eager than me to offer Junior a hearty farewell to wherever ex-president frat boys go. And the event is, indeed, a lovely act of unity. But I won't be participating in this brilliant call to action. See, it ignores one thing: W. may be leaving the White House, but when it comes to our most private places, bush is back.

"Absolutely," agrees April Barton, stylist extraordinaire and owner of Suite 303, the salon in New York's notorious Chelsea Hotel. "The new rule of thumb is: When you lift your leg, there shouldn't be any hair below the crease. Keep it clean in the back. And in the front, trim the hair right before its natural curl." She likens the look to a more trimmed, 21st-century version of '70s pubes: the tailored bush.

Or, as my friend Jen put it, "My landing strip has turned into more of a Dorito."

It should probably come as no surprise that the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression would inspire a little fuzz. Conspicuous spending is out, after all. And maintaining a stripper-worthy wax job ain't cheap.

"It's back to shaving in the shower for me," says Catlin, a brand manager for a Los Angeles fashion label.

"It's a fortune to keep a trim bush," bemoans Meredith, a healthcare marketing executive.

But it isn't just hard times driving this trend. After seeing the shaved beav of nearly every pop tart, after years of porn going mainstream, isn't the thrill of the bare vage getting a little stale? If not, you know, creepy?

That was Bill Maher's take, when he lamented on a Sept. 19 episode of "Real Time With Bill Maher," "Bring back a little pubic hair. Not a lot. I'm not talking about reviving that 1973 look that says I'm liberated ... and I'm smuggling a hedgehog. I just want a friendly, fuzzy calling card that tells me I'm not going to get arrested."

These days, even Playboy -- and it's hard to find better experts on the matter -- acknowledges a departure from a near-decade run of absolute clean living. Gary Cole, the Playboy photography director who has observed the region's changing landscape since 1975, says, "It started [in the '80s] with trimming and a landing strip, in part a reflection of the skimpier swimsuits. Then it went further to tiny patches, then to none at all. Now, the pendulum is swinging a little the other way."

And I, for one, am not going to complain.

I first took a lady Schick to my bikini line sometime during the second term of the Reagan administration. The process guaranteed unpleasantries: razor burn and in-grown hairs, not to mention the constant and necessary repetition. But in time, with increased skill, the invention of the gazillion-blade razor and ladies-only shave gel, I gave the task little thought. Until I moved to New York City, of course, where highlights from a New Jersey mall and a "natural" brow were the sartorial equivalents of hate crime. Eventually, seduced by the city's indulgent carelessness, I let Sonya and her thick imported Brazilian wax have their way with me. My lady garden -- once lush -- now lay nearly bare. And for years, that's how it stayed: a tiny patch of hair, not dissimilar to Hitler's mustache.

But in recent months, I've longed for the fuller landscape of yesteryear. While I've become accustomed to some benefits of the Brazilian -- it does clear a nice path for action -- I'm aching for change. The act itself is invasive. I'm feeling a little rebellious. And, hey, money is tight.

It does seem that George Taylor's famous hemline theory -- that the length of women's skirts rise and fall with economic times -- can be applied to bikini lines as well. In 1922, Sears and Roebuck introduced the first women's razors. Electrolysis emerged in the '60s until social and political rebellion gave way to a renewed celebration of "Hair" (whose upcoming Broadway revival is no mere coincidence). Then, in the '80s, power suits and polished, tight skin reigned, just before Black Monday pushed bikini waxing to the bottom of "to do" lists. As the millennium neared, however, dot-coms let the money and the liquor flow, and women bared all like never before. As "Sex and the City" reminded us (and reminded us again), the Brazilian plowed its way across America's heartland, but these days those crops are growing back -- in Technicolor.

Take, for example, Betty Beauty, a pubic hair dye in a range of colors made popular not by young club-goers but by middle-aged Middle American women. Nancy Jarecki, founder of the product, explains, "The boomers are buying our product. They spend hundreds of dollars getting their hair that beautiful auburn color. They want it to match. And they want to cover gray." Seventy-three percent of Betty Beauty total sales are sold to women over age 36. And by the way, 42 percent of their Middle American clientele prefer pink. (The product isn't just for Kansas anymore, however. According to the Superficial, Betty Beauty is also popular with celebrities like Mariska Hargitay and Christine Taylor, Ben Stiller's wife.)

But as a woman, I think there is something powerful in deciding that products and waxers and experts don't need to come between you and your private parts. It's OK to be a woman again -- a real woman, hair and all.

And, as April Barton points out, "'Racing stripes' are not safe and secure. And security is what's important right now. It's nice to have a little something to come home to. It's time to get back to basics."

Personally, I've garnered only positive feedback with my new coif.

So while some women shave themselves silly on Jan. 20, I plan to enter this new era with a tailored modern mini-bush and a reclaimed sense of womanhood. Maybe, if the bikini line theory plays out, we'll all go back to the Telly Savalas sooner or later. But the promise of a new America under an Obama administration gives me greater optimism. I envision a country where we can one day have it all -- a booming economy, national security, a healthy respect for sexuality and even a little bush. I say, Yes we can.

George W. Bush: Blood or Crip?

Someone Is Listening In On Your Phone Sex...Uncle George, Dick, etc.

The bastards are at it again! Any time you are tempted to believe the bland assurances that government wiretapping (or any other broad surveillance) is strictly for purposes of national security, think about this story and remember that government employees are the same kind of monkeys the rest of us are — snoopy, gossipy, voyeuristic, and inclined to disregard “the rules” whenever it seems likely that we’ll get away with it. Which means, they will listen to your phone sex if you let them listen to anything that they don’t have to justify (individually, specifically, each and every time) to a skeptical judge. From abcnews.com:

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

…

“These were just really everyday, average, ordinary Americans who happened to be in the Middle East, in our area of intercept and happened to be making these phone calls on satellite phones,” said Adrienne Kinne, a 31-year old US Army Reserves Arab linguist assigned to a special military program at the NSA’s Back Hall at Fort Gordon from November 2001 to 2003.

Kinne described the contents of the calls as “personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything to do with terrorism.”

She said US military officers, American journalists and American aid workers were routinely intercepted and “collected on” as they called their offices or homes in the United States.

…

Another intercept operator, former Navy Arab linguist, David Murfee Faulk, 39, said he and his fellow intercept operators listened into hundreds of Americans picked up using phones in Baghdad’s Green Zone from late 2003 to November 2007.

“Calling home to the United States, talking to their spouses, sometimes their girlfriends, sometimes one phone call following another,” said Faulk.

The accounts of the two former intercept operators, who have never met and did not know of the other’s allegations, provide the first inside look at the day to day operations of the huge and controversial US terrorist surveillance program.

…

Faulk says he and others in his section of the NSA facility at Fort Gordon routinely shared salacious or tantalizing phone calls that had been intercepted, alerting office mates to certain time codes of “cuts” that were available on each operator’s computer.

“Hey, check this out,” Faulk says he would be told, “there’s good phone sex or there’s some pillow talk, pull up this call, it’s really funny, go check it out. It would be some colonel making pillow talk and we would say, ‘Wow, this was crazy’,” Faulk told ABC News.

Anyone surprised?

Monday With McCain

"He has more than earned our support. He has earned our admiration and our love."---John McCain on George W. Bush [Chicago Tribune 08/11/2004]

McCain? Bush? Even Republicans Think They Are The Same!

From knoxnews.com:

In a slip of the lip echoing a misstatement 20 years ago, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey cast Tennessee's 55 votes at the Republican National Convention for "George S. McCain."

Ramsey, chairman of the delegation, said Friday that he was concentrating on the first part of his floor statement, wherein he recalled that George Bush in 2000 defeated Democrat Al Gore Jr. in Tennessee, then lapsed into an auctioneer's chant.

An auctioneer by profession, Ramsey spoke in a sing-song voice as if bidding up the number of votes to be cast for Tennessee for John McCain. At the end, he declared, "Tennessee casts 55 votes for George S. McCain."

"The ironic thing is that, back in 1988, Lamar Alexander, who was chairman of the delegation to the convention then, nominated 'Robert Bush' for president," said Ramsey.

He said Alexander told him at breakfast the day before the convention: "Don't do what I did."

"I told him, 'I don't think that will be a problem. I can remember his name.' "

Ramsey said relatively few people noticed his misstatement in naming the presidential nominee at the convention because "they were laughing or mesmerized by the auctioneer part."

The lieutenant governor said he was not especially unsettled by the experience.

"I think all 55 of them (votes) still counted, and that's what was important," he said.

Devaluation Of The Dollar

Just to make you feel better, if the U.S. was using the Euro right now, one gallon of gasoline would cost $2.58.

Saddam Hussein was about to discontinue using the US Dollar as it reserve currency for trading in exchange for the Euro. Maybe he was on to something...

The Bush Administration's Secret Laws

Reports the LA Times: "The Bush administration recently announced it will allow select members of Congress to read Justice Department legal opinions about the CIA's controversial detainee interrogation program that have been hidden from Congress until now. But as the administration allows a glimpse of this secret law -- and it is law -- we are left wondering what other laws it is still keeping under lock and key." Read the rest.

Of course, in a moral sense, these are not laws at all. Neither are the arrogant orders that pour out of legislatures and agencies. Genuine law, natural law, is unchanging, and we do not have to be told what it is by some politician: you shall not kill, steal, bear false witness, etc. What the state emits is anti-law.

Related By Blood?

George W. Bush: "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."


Joseph Goebbels: "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress the dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State."

Meet & Greet With G.W.

Who da' thought?