"He uses his folly like a stalking horse"

The obvious types of American fascists are dealt with on the air and in the press. These demagogues and stooges are fronts for others. Dangerous as these people may be, they are not so significant as thousands of other people who have never been mentioned.  ~Henry Wallace


I love the articles from the Guardian about American politics.

One can only guess what John Boehner's strategy has been during the past week over the payroll tax cuts. But it looks like he employed the "full bowel technique" with equal success. His Tea Party caucus kept stuffing him with rhetorical bran muffins so that every time he went to a microphone he was full of it. 

Poor muffins. I feel sorry for them. It can't be easy being forced into the service of Tea Party nonsense.

Adrenalin could keep the Tea Party going only so long outside the fetid ecosystem of Fox News, talk radio and the internet, before reality intervened and forced some kind of reckoning.

It continues to amaze me how obvious the reality of Fox News and talk radio is to the rest of the world, and how strenuously Tea Partiers and most Repubicans continue to deny it, clinging to their noxious little Roger Ailes bubble.

I don't agree with everything this writer says--he doesn't understand the depth and depravity of Republican hostage-taking, for example, especially over the debt ceiling. See here for an excellent analysis of how the President beat the Republicans at their own game.

The article's got the Tea Party Republicans nailed, however.

The Tea Party keeps thrashing around for someone, anyone, in whom they can invest their zeal and who the rest of their party (never mind the rest of the country) can live with. They've pretty much been through the pack and just when you think they've hit bottom they plumb new depths. It turns out there is no one who both makes sense to the Tea Party and the rest of the world, let alone their fellow Republicans. These are the people who have been dictating the pace and shape of economic reform for the last year. These are the birthers who believe in death panels, hate government intrusion unless it involves a woman's uterus and love wars and tax cuts but hate budget deficits. 

Hopefully they'll thrash themselves right out of Washington.

In the meantime, we desperately need a press who will tell the truth about what's happening, no matter the howls and whines from Republicans about "liberal bias." Facts are facts, and if they lean towards liberals, so be it. That's called reality. But if the American press won't provide this, it's good to know that there's someone in the world who will.

"The problem with political jokes is they get elected"

This is just great. I usually don't link to Huff Post, but this is worth it. A sharp reminder that in many cases today's comedians are doing what used to be called "journalism."

How to Speak Republican

Some samples:

Bible: A sacred text that provides incontestable answers when thumped.


Christmas: A holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, now rarely celebrated due to persecution by atheists.


Deficits: 1) Fiscal shortfalls incurred by Democrats that threaten to bankrupt the country. 2) Fiscal shortfalls incurred by Republicans that don't matter.


Extremist (Liberal): Espousing or adhering to political beliefs that are held by only a majority of Americans.


Fact: Information that has been verifiably posted to a RedState comment board.


Jesus: Charismatic religious leader and son of God; born in Bethlehem in the year 0; beliefs include love, charity, enhanced interrogation, privatized healthcare, elimination of the estate tax, and the right to carry concealed semiautomatic weapons.


Ronald Reagan: A fictional character based loosely on President Ronald Reagan.


I mean, really. How can sincere conservatives/Teapugs not read this and realize they're turning into a national joke? 

About Time, Captain Obvious!

All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.  ~George Orwell

The President's campaign manager is finally admitting what anyone who isn't blind in one eye and can't see out of the other has known for months (h/t Steve Benen at Political Animal):

But Senate Republicans want to block it [the American Jobs Act]. Not because they have a plan that creates jobs right now — not one Republican, in Congress or in the presidential race, does. They only have a political plan. 


Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory. They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.

Well, gee. It's not like anyone couldn't have known this was coming since Mitch McConnell said the Repug's most important objective was "to make President Obama a one-term president."

I don't know why Obama and the people around him didn't realize this long before now. I guess when you're trying to work with someone to do something important for the country, something desperately needed, it's very hard to admit that the group who literally hold the fate of  the American people in their hands could be this petty, nasty, selfish, and mean-spirited.

They are. And it's past time the President and his team admits this and conducts themselves accordingly.

"When public access to voting is impaired, our freedom is less secure"

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not [or cannot]vote." ~George Jean Nathan

I've signed a couple of petitions on whitehouse.gov, but I think this is one of the most important.

Press the Department of Justice to aggressively investigate and fight state laws that restrict voting rights

There is no evidence of massive voter fraud in this country, or indeed very much voter fraud at all. The only reason Republicans are pushing this incredible lie is to restrict the people (such as students, minorities, the poor) who would be most likely to vote Democratic.

In other words, they're trying their damndest to steal the 2012 election.

This should be an outrage. Please, go sign this.

Well, How About That

This is good news. Elizabeth Warren has been appointed to set up and run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, bypassing the fractious, divided kiddie playground of the Senate.

This means she can get to work protecting people like you and me from the rapacious pirates of the financial sector--and it's also a bit of a nose-thumbing directed to Mitch McConnell and his endless confirmation delays.

If we had to wait for her to be officially confirmed, everyone in America--not just one in seven, or 14 percent--will be in the poorhouse.

The Blame Game

This steaming pile of excrement arrived in my Time magazine yesterday.

Shorter Mark Halperin: Blame the victim

I've highly enjoyed Obama's latest speeches and press conference; it's about time he started piling on the Republicans. There's no shame in calling your opponent an "unprincipled chucklehead" (as Halperin puts it) if that is, in fact, what they are. Halperin admits this in an earlier paragraph.

Republicans aren't suggesting Obama's ideas are bad. Sticking to House minority leader John Boehner's playbook, they are simply dodging any action that might improve the President's standing.

But instead of suggesting that the Party of Obstructionists might actually consider, you know, not obstructing,
Halperin resorts to the time-honored technique of blaming the victim. That is, now that the President has finally lost patience and is nailing the Repubs for what they're doing (and have been doing since he took office) somehow the Republican stonewalling is all Obama's fault, just because he hurt their pwecious fweelings. 

This is patent nonsense. For myself, I don't mind "contemptuous rhetoric" in the least, especially when it's directed at those who so clearly deserve it. I don't know if shaming Boehner and his tone-deaf crowd is going to do much good in the sense of getting them to do what's right for the country, but at the least it will expose them for what they are.

Keep it up, Mr. President.