"And a little child will lead them."

As a man who digs babies, a political observer, and simply a human being, this comparison speaks volumes to me.

(H/T to O'Toolefan, perhaps the MOST prolific tweeter on the internets.)

The Teabaggers and what their scorched earth approach to politics portends for this country.

Courtesy of Aljazeera:

After its humble beginnings as an astroturf, Koch-Brothers-funded revival aimed at mobilising ill-informed, reactionary, mostly older white Americans against health care reform and other psychologically-constructed monsters under the bed, the Tea Party has become an malignant force that now holds the Republican Congressional Caucus - and with it the country - hostage. 

While the Stockholm Syndrome may not have quite set in yet among all Republicans, the tri-corner-hat crowd seems to behave much like the giant Brain Bug in the movie Starship Troopers, jamming a claw into the heads of their fellow GOPers and slowly sucking out cerebral tissue until only the brainless body remains. 

Most problematic, most of the Tea Partiers, private citizens and elected officials alike, seem to possess just slightly less understanding of the Federal budget or tax code of than say, Mater from Cars. Yet, these are the people in the driver's seat as the country heads for what might be Act II of the Great Recession, unless progressives, centrists, and others edified with high school civics adopt a new strategy to counter them.

And counter them we must, for they and their ilk are nothing new, but representative of a recurring and quite dangerous political strain that has always been with us since the dawn of civilization. Their undermining of the traditions, culture, and give-and-take necessary for any democracy to function has had destructive results on free societies in the past, and taken down a Republic or two.

From its inception, the Tea Party is the very definition of the type of revolutionary movement. Until Democrats, and their leader in the White House, realise they need to stop calling people like Paul Ryan "courageous" and "serious", and start fighting fire with fire, Michelle Bachmann and her creepy pinwheel eyes are going to continue to get their way at the expense of American values and the middle-class that once made this country great.

 The late, great historian Richard Hofstadter added further insight into just the type of "movement" we're dealing with, in his 1964 award-winning tome, "The Paranoid Style of American Politics". In it, he outlines the psychological origins of the type of crazed, Tea-bagger style of all-or-nothing dedication to an absolute end, when he wrote of their forebears: 

 "He does not see social conflict as something to be mediated and compromised, in the manner of the working politician. Since what is at stake is always a conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, what is necessary is not compromise but the will to fight things out to a finish. Since the enemy is thought of as being totally evil and totally unappeasable, he must be totally eliminated - if not from the world, at least from the theatre of operations to which the paranoid directs his attention." 

 In other words, any compromise, no matter how small, is seen as an act tantamount to treason, which is precisely why we need to stop engaging these tottering tea lovers, because they simply do not believe in the workings of democracy. 

Not really too much to add here except to say that between the Teabaggers and the Domininists trying to fuck up our country this may be one of the most divisive and important Presidential elections in America's history.  Yes I realize I said that same thing in 2008, and I said it because it was true, but I am convinced that what was true then remains true in 2012.

 Personally I long for an election that is simply an election, and NOT the potential harbinger to the end of the United States of America as we know it.

By the way in case you have convinced yourself that this is mere hyperbole on my part, let me remind you of a certain Presidential election in 2000, and how the repercussions from that are still resulting in death, financial collapses, and disharmony all over the world.

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?

For those who are concerned that President Obama is giving in to the Republicans and their Teabagger masters, this might help to alleviate those fears.

Somebody sent me this link today, and reading it kind of changed my perspective on a few things.

Here is just a sample.

I’m not angry often. I don’t believe anger is an emotion that makes things better for anyone but yourself, and even that is rare. This is generally a political blog, and in politics, anger is poisonous. I can’t say this enough; the average voter in this country (NOT voters on either extreme side of the political spectrum, but those who actually decide elections) is NOT motivated by anger, cannot be motivated by anger (usually), and actually reacts to expressed anger with disgust, for the most part. They don’t want to elect angry people, they want to elect competent people. They don’t care what WE think the issues are; they want to elect someone who knows and understands the issues and will do something about it.

Put simply, the general public already thinks all politicians suck, so you reiterating that politicians suck does nothing to advance the political process. 

But I’m becoming angry with the far left these days, not just because they’re being unfair to the president and the Democrats, but because they pose as political “experts,” despite the fact that they seem to know nothing about how politics actually works.

Let’s start this rant by reminding you that the man occupying the White House currently got to where he is in spite of the fact that:

• He is a black man;
• He had a father who was a Kenyan Muslim;
• He has an unusual name;
• He didn’t have a ton of political experience when he ran and;
• He had to beat one of the most established legacies in Democratic politics in the primary, and a respected war hero politician in the general election.

Barack Obama could very well be the most brilliant politician of our day. He knows what’s up far better than we do. To NOT defer to his judgment except in extreme circumstances is much like hiring a mechanic to repair your car and then telling him how (s)he should rebuild your carburetor. Put simply, if you think you can do it better, then do it. Otherwise, shut the hell up, because you sound stupid when you criticize an expert. 

That is why all of you Monday morning quarterbacks out there – those of you who are constantly going on about how big a screw-up Obama is, and how he “should have” done something that YOU think would have “worked better” -- just look pathetic. Seriously, you look sillier than shit, and it’s pissing most liberals off, because you’re affecting the discourse, and you’re making it more difficult to beat the right wing, which absolutely MUST be our first order of business for the next several election cycles. Pardon my French, but FUCK the Blue Dogs. THEY are NOT the problem. The problem is the extreme right, who are hell-bent on dismantling this country, one brick at a time.

As many of my long time visitors are aware I have avoided being too critical of the policy decisions made by this President, or acting like a spoiled brat because my pet causes (Ending the wars, criminally investigating the Bush administration, and outlawing the Diebold voting machines) have either never been addressed, or are being addressed much slower than I would have liked.

And just like this Milt Shook guy, I have come to realize that the President is making progress, and out maneuvering the Right Wing, behind the scenes and out of the view of many of his critics.

I have confidence in this President, and believe he is doing the best he can within perhaps the MOST divisive political climate since the beginning of the Civil War.

Is it fast enough for some of us?  Clearly, the answer is no.

Could anybody else do the job with more competence?  Again I believe the answer is no.

So for all of you morons who keep talking about finding a Democrat to challenge Obama in the primary, I have but one question for you: "Are you out of your fucking minds?"

In desperation Teabaggers start hallucinating bizarre daydreams of Sarah Palin defeating President Obama.

Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Today's laugh out loud, Rocky inspired, fantasy of a Sarah Palin victory in 2012, comes to us from some poor sad sack at the American Thinker:

Can you imagine the excitement of Palin throwing her hat into the 2012 presidential ring? Move over, Thrilla in Manila (Ali/Frazier), as the most exciting fight of all time. I'm talkin' Palin vs. Obama, Mano a Mano: the Thrilla from Wasilla vs. the Chicago Thug.

Betting on this "fight of the century" could help Vegas's economy recover from Reid being their senator and Obama trashing businesses that go there.

The more I think about Palin vs. Obama in the ring, the more excited I become. Images flash in my brain. It is the long-awaited, much-anticipated day of the main event.

Palin enters the ring wearing an Old Glory-themed robe to Lee Greenwood singing "God Bless the USA (Proud to be an American)." Obama enters the ring wearing a pink robe, courtesy of Code Pink, as Al Sharpton sings "We Shall Overcome."

For fourteen rounds, Obama and Palin pound each as the upper hand changes several times. Then, round fifteen -- the final round.

Palin, exhausted from battling Obama and his tag-team partner, the liberal media, miraculously lands a knockout punch to Obama's jaw. The final bell rings. The fight is over. Sarah Palin has won the 2012 presidential election. The crowd of mostly Tea Party patriots goes crazy with jubilation. Obama's media is stunned.

Reporters flock to the rubber-legged, emotionally drained Palin. Sarah's eyes focus on her husband Todd as he pushes his way through the thronging media. Sarah fearfully yells, "Tooooooodd!" Todd yells, "Sarah!"

Finally he reaches her. They embrace. "Todd, I love you!" "I love you, too!" is Todd's reply. Our national anthem plays in the background.

...........WTF?

As all of you know I enjoy creating parodies once in a while, but I can tell you with no equivocation that I would be hard pressed to come up with ANYTHING as hysterical and pathetic,to illustrate the bizarre fantasy that these people have for this woman, than what you just read.

And the truly humorous part is that they are dead serious!

I cannot help but imagine the field day that Sigmund Freud would have with these fantasies.

D.C. Douglas thanks the Tea Party.

This guy gets better and better all the time.

Happy 50th Birthday Mr. President!

Have you ever wondered why Teabaggers remind you of Civil War Reenactors?

Courtesy of Salon:

The Tea Party movement takes its name from the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when American patriots dumped British tea into Boston Harbor to protest British imperial power. But while New England was the center of resistance to the British empire, there are few New Englanders to be found in today's Tea Party movement. It should be called the Fort Sumter movement, after the Southern attack on the federal garrison in Fort Sumter in South Carolina on April 12-13, 1861, that began the Civil War. Today's Tea Party movement is merely the latest of a series of attacks on American democracy by the white Southern minority, which for more than two centuries has not hesitated to paralyze, sabotage or, in the case of the Civil War, destroy American democracy in order to get their way.

The mainstream media have completely missed the story, by portraying the Tea Party movement in ideological rather than regional terms. Whether by accident or design, the public faces of the Tea Party in the House are Midwesterners -- Minnesota's Michele Bachmann and Joe Walsh of Illinois. But while there may be Tea Party sympathizers throughout the country, in the House of Representatives the Tea Party faction that has used the debt ceiling issue to plunge the nation into crisis is overwhelmingly Southern in its origins:

The four states with the most Tea Party representatives in Congress are all former members of the Confederate States of America.

Well that certainly explains the rampant racism, fundamentalism, and attempts to destroy the country.

Essentially the election of a black President seems to have reignited a covert Civil War, which is being waged by individuals who could care less if the country is destroyed in the process because they do not recognize its legitimacy anyhow.

Okay, NOW can we call them terrorists?

Jon Stewart points out that the Teabaggers are unhappy with the debt deal because "government still exists."

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Yeah I guess these so-called "patriots" simply will not be happy until there is nothing left of the country but a smoldering crater.

You know like the one that sits between their ears where their brains are supposed to be located.

Did President Obama get taken in this debt ceiling compromise, or did he quietly, and calmly win again?

Interesting analysis from The People's View:

Here's the quick and dirty (The White House has a summary here and more details here):

• $900 billion in initial cuts (below CBO's baseline) through capping discretionary spending (meaning that nothing is being cut right now). Both parties had largely agreed to these cuts during the debt talks. This is really only about $750 billion of actual cuts; the other $150 billion comes from saving on interest payments on the national debt. This also raises the debt ceiling by $900 billion.
• Initial cuts do not include Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or programs for the poor. It actually increases Pell grants - even in Boehner's bill.
• $350 billion (almost half of these cuts) in cuts in the base defense budget - these are not simply the savings coming from winding down the wars. This actually cuts the base defense budget.
• Specifically protects the President's historic investment in Pell Grants.
• Sets up a bipartisan "supercommittee" of Congress (half and half Democrats and Republicans) to achieve $1.5 trillion in additional deficit reductions with both tax reform and entitlement reform on the table.
• They must achieve at least $1.2 trillion in reduction or automatic cuts set in of that amount, spread equally between security (Defense and Homeland Security, mainly) and domestic spending set in. Social Security, Medicaid, low-income assistance programs and Medicare benefits are exempt (yes, I know you can swear you read or heard on the ether that it is not so, but it is. Follow along below). These are the so-called "triggers."
• Either way, the debt limit goes increases additionally by a commensurate amount to the cuts (at least $1.2 trillion, at most $1.5 trillion).
• A balanced budget amendment is guaranteed a vote, but not passage. But Congress can avoid both the supercommittee requirement and the alternate automatic cuts if it sends a balanced budget amendment to the states (which. will. never. happen. - because Republicans won't agree to anything balanced in terms of the balanced budget amendment.).    

Remember that the President can still veto anything coming out of this committee and Congress (in which case the triggers go into effect).

 
Now let's get to the fun part: the triggers. The more than half-a-trillion in defense and security spending cut "trigger" for the Republicans will hardly earn a mention on the Firebagger Lefty blogosphere. Hell, it's a trigger supposedly for the Republicans, and of course, there's always It'sNotEnough-ism to cover it. No, the loudest screeching noise you hear coming from Krugman and the ideologue Left is, of course, Medicare. Oh, no, the President is agreeing to a Medicare trigger!!! Oh noes!!! Everybody freak out right now! But let's look at the deal again, shall we?  

From the White House fact sheet, here is what the President actually agreed to.   

"Consistent With Past Practice, Sequester Would Be Divided Equally Between Defense and Non-Defense Programs and Exempt Social Security, Medicaid, and Low-Income Programs: Consistent with the bipartisan precedents established in the 1980s and 1990s, the sequester would be divided equally between defense and non-defense program, and it would exempt Social Security, Medicaid, unemployment insurance, programs for low-income families, and civilian and military retirement. Likewise, any cuts to Medicare would be capped and limited to the provider side. Read that again." 

That's what the media and the whiners are not telling you. The President agreed to no Medicare benefit cuts in the "trigger." None. The cuts, if they automatically happen, would go to whom? The providers. Who are these providers? Doctors, hospitals, clinics, Medical device makers, service providers, drug manufacturers. Who do you think they mostly donate to in the political season? 

The entire pressure on these Medicare cuts are on the private medical (and pharmaceutical) industry! So let's ask that question again. The Medicare "trigger" is a trigger really from whom again? As a matter of fact, both big triggers (Defense and Medicare provider cuts) are triggers for the Republicans.

The author of the post (Who by the way is a MUCH better policy wonk than I am) also makes the point that these "triggers" cannot go into effect until 2013, which is AFTER we have the next election.  In other words the make up of the Congress might have substantially changed by that point and the President may have MORE instead of less support. 

Go ahead and read the whole post, and visit the numerous links provided and determine for yourself who knocked who down and took their lunch money.

Personally I feel much better.

 

A weary President Obama announces deficit agreement.

Like most liberals I am not even remotely happy that we seem to have bent over backwards for the good of the country while the Republicans have done nothing but act like anarchists determined to see America's reputation, and standing in the world, destroyed.

Especially since it appears that even this agreement (IF it actually gets passed) would still not ensure that our AAA credit rating would remain intact:

Stock markets around the world rallied on Monday, in relief that the world's largest economy would probably avoid running out of cash this week. But the agreement, which includes around $2.5 trillion of spending cuts over the next decade, has been criticised by some on both sides of the political divide, and will probably not save America's triple-A credit rating.

You know I once described to a friend that the problem with many relationships is that the person who cares the least about its survival, or the feelings of the other person, is the one in charge.  Since they have less invested in the relationship's survival they are free to act with impunity, while the person who is determined to "make it work" is frantically attempting to smooth things over and keep the relationship together.

Essentially that is what we are seeing in this situation between the President and the Democratic party, and the Republicans and their Teabagging Rottweilers.  A scorched earth approach does not seem to bother the Teabaggers because they either don't understand the repercussions, or simply don't give a shit.

But watch the video up above again.

Do you see how tired and saddened that man appears?

That is a man who felt the needs of the American people in his BONES.  In this relationship HE is the one who cares too much, and who will always do what he needs to do to save the relationship/country, and the people who will be devastated by its demise.

And that, despite whatever we may feel about this apparent capitulation, is WHY he deserves our support and our faith.  He did not give up on us, and by God we should not give up on him.

You can wear a thousand flag pins, and own NOTHING but red, white, and blue underwear, but if you cannot put the needs of the American people above your own ideology, than you are NOT a patriot! And you are not part of the solution, you ARE the problem!

Greta Van Susteren pulls the short straw and once again has to pretend that Sarah Palin has anything intelligent to say about what is going on in this country.

You know the first thing that leaps out at me is that Fox News hosts ALWAYS refer to Palin as "Governor" multiple times, like they are trying to remind their audience that once upon a time this dimwit actually had a real job.

Then only a few sentences into her remarks she starts the middle school attacks on our President. (By the way you nasty harpy bitch, the President is referred to as "No Drama Obama." HE is not the reason that we are facing a potential crisis, that would be the politically illiterate Teabaggers YOU helped get elected to sabotage our country!)

By the way Geitner said we "would not default" based on his belief that the politicians would not really allow that to happen:

Geithner said Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "had been absolutely clear, they are not going to let this country default.

But pressed several times, Geithner refused to reveal if the Obama administration had a back-up plan and had begun deciding which checks would be signed and which would not.

"We will do everything we can to mitigate the damage," he said, revealing that the United States writes 80 million checks a month.

That does NOT mean there is not a crisis, only that the grownups will try to minimize the damage if the children continue throwing a fit and not taking seriously the responsibilities that the American people assigned to them.

Okay is it just me, or does Palin look especially venomous today?


Gee I certainly hope I did not have anything to do with that.


"Well scaring the American people is exactly what President Obama is doing in that bizarre speech he gave last night. It reminded me of when he insisted that TARP had to be passed. You know it was life or death at that time also. We had to..uh..increase spending or the Federal government, or people would be starving on the streets..I mean..uh uh..look at what TARP resulted in."

You know I hate to distract Palin while she is on one of these anti-Obama rants of hers with facts (After all we know how much she hates facts, because they always seem to favor liberals.), but TARP was passed in October of 2008, by George W. Bush.  It is kind of hard to blame President Obama for legislation that was put into place BEFORE he was in office.

Oh, and you would think that Palin might remember this, since her running mate John McCain suspended his campaign to help get it passed. (Damn, no WONDER Palin hates facts so much!)

But sorry to interrupt, you were saying?

"Reinvent the will?"  You know I have never met an Alaskan who could not say "wheel" properly. Every time she opens her mouth she embarrasses the crap out of us.

You know the minute that Palin says, concerning the debt ceiling, "I don't want to see it raised," is when a real journalist would stop the interview and apologize to their audience for bringing on somebody who has no understanding of the topic being discussed.

And riddle me this Batman, why are the Teabaggers, who wave the Constitution around like it is a sacred document on par with the Bible, now pushing for a Balanced Budget Amendment?  Aren't they the crowd who believe that the Amendments which freed the slaves and allowed women the right to vote, are what started this country's downward spiral into Socialism in the first place?

When I watch these "interviews" there is always a moment where I stop and wonder if ANYBODY is really taking what this idiot says seriously.  I hear her spout these canned talking points, and rattle on using inflammatory language, and yet everytime she stops to take a breath I realize that the oxygen that she just used up was completely wasted. Actually, not that I want to see any harm come to her, I kind of think ALL of the oxygen she uses is wasted on her.

I really think that the only reason that we see Palin in this interview is because she is contractually obligated to appear on camera a couple of time a year, and that she was overdue. She has no expertise on the topic, adds nothing to the debate, and, even with the teleprompter reflected in her glasses, relies almost solely on the regurgitation of one size fits all talking points that essentially make her sound like a Chatty Cathy doll.

Her looks are fading rapidly, her wigs are becoming more obvious, and her talking points are becoming punchlines for late night comedians.  Hell even her most ardent supporters cannot force their families to go to her movie with them, or buy her daughter's book.

Even an endorsement from her, which used to carry some weight in conservative circles, would probably hurt a candidate far more than it would help them, so I cannot see anybody seeking her out for a photo op.

I still think we need to keep at least one eye cocked in her direction, because her base is potentially the most likely groups of Americans to open fire in a mall, or drown their children because they are possessed by liberal demons, but I think for all intents and purposes that Palin is yesterday's news.

Of course I still think we all need to buy Joe's book, and Nick's movie.  After all every corpse deserves a postmortem.

P.S. Oh, and don't forget the babygate book too. I have a call into the author for an update, andI hope to have that for you soon.

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?

The President asks the American people for help in solving the looming debt crisis.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Courtesy of MSNBC:

Decrying a "partisan three-ring circus" in the nation's capital, President Barack Obama criticized a newly minted Republican plan to avert an unprecedented government default Monday night and said congressional leaders must produce a compromise that can reach his desk before the Aug. 2 deadline.

"The American people may have voted for divided government, but they didn't vote for a dysfunctional government," the president said in a hastily arranged prime-time televised speech.

He appealed to the public to contact lawmakers and demand "a balanced approach" to reducing federal deficits.

In his call to action, Obama recalled former Republican commanders in chief. "In the past, raising the debt ceiling was routine ... Congress has always passed it, and every President has signed it. President Reagan did it 18 times. George W. Bush did it seven times. And we have to do it by next Tuesday, Aug. 2, or else we won't be able to pay all of our bills."

I thought the President sounded exasperated, and weary from fighting over every little thing. He has done just about everything imaginable to make this problem go away and has volunteered far deeper cuts than most Democrats are comfortable with, and STILL the Teabaggers are holding a gun to the Republicans head and refusing to let them negotiate in good faith.

I certainly hope that the voters are paying attention and realizing just WHO is acting like the responsible grownup and who is acting like the petulant child.

If you want to contact your elected officials and tell them to stop playing politics and do the right thing, just click here to find out who needs a piece of your mind.

John Boehner takes his lack of balls and goes home, essentially ending any talk of raising the debt ceiling.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Politics is all about the negotiation, and the ability to compromise.

Hoiwever compromise requires BOTH sides be willing to give up a little something.

As far as I can tell the Teabaggers simply do NOT understand this process, and are holding the Republican party and the American people hostage until they get their way. Which by the way happens to be fundamentally impossible under the constraints they have placed on negotiations.

This is what happens when people are directed to vote by their latent racist urges and hate, instead of by their brains.

Remember many of these are the same people who believe that Sarah Palin, or Michele Bachmann, have the "common sense" necessary to rescue this country from one of the very few individuals with the ability to actually solve the problems facing us today.  Which, by the way, is all we need to know about their ability to reason.

President Obama talking to a group of bipartisan college students about politics.

A friend sent this to me the other day and I am very glad that they did.

If you listen carefully to what he is saying it essentially explains exactly how he sees his job and why he approaches difficult problems in the measured way in which he does.

I still feel, despite the fact that there are many things still undone (Or not being done fast enough for our liking), that this man may have a real chance to go down in history is one of the greatest Presidents we have ever known.

Do you remember all of that talk about Obama's "lost base" of support? Yeah, not so much.

"86 million? Now THAT is a pretty fucking big deal Mr. President!"

Courtesy of the First Read:

In a conference call with reporters this morning, the Obama re-election campaign used its fundraising numbers to signal that its base of supporters is engaged and energized for 2012.

Campaign Manager Jim Messina fired off the numbers: 552,000 individual donors, 260,000 new donors who didn't contribute in 2008, and average contribution of $69 per donor, 98% of total contributions coming from donations of $250 or less.

"This should end any chatter about our grassroots base," he said on the call.

Every time the media decides that Obama is losing something, he always proves them wrong. Isn't that right Bin Laden?

By the way I proud to report that I am one of these 552,000 individual donors. How about you?

Some chilling words from Bill Maher.

I tend not to agree that Palin has a chance to become President, and I am always taken aback by the fact that there are many well educated people who believe it is not an impossibility.

I will say that if there was a devastating terrorist attack, and Obama was perceived to have not reacted adequately, that all bets are off as to how terrified and stupid the American people would suddenly become in response.

In THAT climate even an idiot like Sarah Palin, who did nothing but talk about God and American exceptional-ism, might actually have a shot.

However I have great confidence that Obama WOULD react appropriately, so this scenario is unlikely to present itself.

Anybody of a different opinion?

Math hates Rick Santorum.

The other day GOP Presidential candidate, and mathematical wizard, Rick Santorum had the following back and forth with CNN's Ali Velshi:

SANTORUM: [Obama] passed a huge stimulus package that now we know, over the past two quarters, has actually cost American jobs, and that’s from the report of his own administration. They claimed in December that, uh, by the end of last year that they created 280 million jobs, and now they’re saying that they created only 240 million jobs. So look, in this, you’re talking about huge increases in spending.

ALI VELSHI: Senator, I’m going to ask you to restate that, I’ve never heard that in my life. Tell me again, what you just said.

SANTORUM: If you look at the report that came out on Friday, the President’s own economic advisers said that the jobs stimulus package actually created fewer jobs over the period of time, since the uh, since the stimulus package went in place than it did when they reported back in December. In other words, there’s 30 million less jobs as a result of the stimulus package.

VELSHI: That’s not a loss of jobs, Senator, that’s a smaller aggregation of jobs. You can’t go on a campaign, a national campaign with this kind of math Senator. It’s just incorrect…I know you’ve got a lot of interviews to do. You might want to check that math.

Here is the video of the exchange.



As ridiculous as Santorum appears during this argument with Velshi, Think Progress points out that Santorum just gave the Obama administration credit for completely solving the jobs crisis and is too ignorant to realize it.

Velshi is absolutely correct that Santorum needs to check his math, but he missed the huge problem with Santorum’s numbers. The entire American civilian labor force is about 153 million people. There are currently 13.9 million people unemployed. If the Obama administration had created 240 to 280 million jobs, the unemployment crisis would have been solved several times over, and America would have so many jobs that it would need to start employing workers from all over the world just to fill all the available positions.

So either Barack Obama is the greatest President in American history, and can solve economic problems with a wave of his hand, or Rick Santorum is an under educated douchebag.

Sadly it appears the latter is more likely.

(Though to be fair, if we give him a second term in office Obama just might prove to be the former as well. I still have hope.)