Product placement FAIL.

Thanks for the ducats, Fred.

Wrong frame.

The problem with celebrating "big government" is that under Bush and Cheney, government got a lot bigger. Moreover "big government" shouldn't be appealing to liberals if we're spending lots of money on stupid things, like say, endless wars/occupations, making insurance companies rich, etc.

Anyway, Republicans have spent 30 years loading "big government" up with negative associations, so that ship has sailed.

Really stupid tweets.

What a jackass.

HAHAHAHAHA! Deaths caused by people trying to drive through flash floods are sooooooo hilarious!

When your hatred of government has you mocking legitimate safety warnings, you probably need to step away from the computer and get some help.

UPDATE

Couldn't resist, had to hit this again.

Dear Obama 2012 campaign people...

Why isn't there an "Issues" tab on your website? It would be helpful to know what the president wants to do with a second term.

Did they weep for Bill Maher and Phil Donahue?

I see the wingers are upset that a sports network would prefer that it's on-air talent refrain from editorializing on politics. Good business practice, that.

But I remember a time when people who were paid to give their opinions on the news were fired because they said mean things about the Bush administration and the Iraq War -- and the exact same people shouting CENSORSHIP!!11!! today were applauding then.

Maybe courting independents doesn't mean giving Republicans everything they want, after all.

Duh.

51 percent of Dem-leaning independents want him [Obama] to more aggressively confront the GOP.

Dem-leaning independents are the ones it’s crucial Obama not lose. As Alan Abramowitz noted the other day, there’s a myth out there that holds that independents are a bloc of free-floating, wholly independent voters. Rther [sic], they mostly lean towards one party or the other.

The GOP is less popular than the Democratic Party and the President, so I never understood how giving in to them -- or even appearing to -- was smart politics.

Generally speaking, letting miserably unpopular people who tout miserably unpopular policies set the agenda is a bad plan. But what do I know?

PS.
John Kerry won independents in 2004. How'd that turn out again?

Ronald Reagan delivered us from the hellhole that was the American Century.

Friedersdorf, on the speech Marco Rubio gave at the Reagan Library that wingnuts are flipping over:

1) It's jarring to hear, in the same speech, that every president of the 20th Century save Reagan pursued a fundamentally flawed style of government that weakened our people... and that in the same period, we became the best, most rich, prosperous nation in the history of planet earth.

This is always the paradox, isn't it?

Big government defeated fascism in Europe and the Pacific and built the strongest nation and the largest middle class the world has ever seen. But yet we constantly hear shit like this.

So, from 1933-1981, the United States was "debauched" until St. Reagan of California saved us all from the evils of big government -- and promptly grew government.

Wingnuts suck at history.

The most sweeping financial regulations since the Great Depression, blah blah blah.

Oh, right. Dodd-Frank did nothing about TBTF.

So why don't we just roll them all into one big bank and call it good?

Now we just need more tax cuts and tort reform and we're all set.

I don't think there's anything wrong with getting rid of regulations that don't make sense -- but the Obama administration should be doing so in a way that doesn't validate wingnut framing. Say, for instance, "regulation reform."

Republicans are very careful about what they call a "tax increase" for good reason. They're protecting the brand.

Not sure why Democrats can't play that game.

McArdle plays the "both sides do it!" card on global warming.

So, one side says we should listen to the 98% of the scientists who've concluded that climate change is occurring and is caused by the activities of man.

The other side says the world is actually cooling, that quote, global warming, closed quote is a socialist conspiracy that liberals made up to expand the powers of government, banishes anyone in their ranks who acknowledge the scientific consensus -- and, also, too thinks Al Gore is fat.

But both sides need to knock it off!

Let the Two Minutes of Hate Against Chris Christie Begin.

It's one thing for a squish like Huntsman to go Gore, but the GOP's new favorite Big Daddy?

Say it ain't so.

Enthusiasm

This confirms what I'm hearing from other Democrats.

Only 48% of Democrats on our most recent national survey said they were 'very excited' about voting in 2012. On the survey before that the figure was 49%. Those last two polls are the only times all year the 'very excited' number has dipped below 50%.

[...]

The debt deal really does appear to have demoralized the base, and the weird thing about it is that this is one issue where if Obama had done what folks on the left wanted him to do, he also would have had the support of independents. The deal has proven to be a complete flop in swing states where we've polled it like Colorado, North Carolina, and Ohio. And in every single one of those states a majority of voters overall, as well as a majority of independents, think new taxes are going to be needed to solve the deficit problem.

I hope the White House doesn't think they can solve this problem by screaming "Perry!" pr "Palin!" because that's not going to cut it.

A good start would be telling me what Obama wants to do and is willing to fight for in his second term.

Uh, Ed Morrissey? Texas doesn't teach creationism.

Well, he stepped it in again, and this time, it's Ed Morrissey to the rescue!

Perry manages to get in a good backhanded slap at Mom, though, when he explains that Texas teaches both evolution and creationism, and says that assumes that students will be smart enough to figure it out for themselves.

Uh, perhaps fundie private schools in Texas teach creationism, but not Catholic or Jewish or Episcopalian private schools -- and definitely not public schools.

Which means "Texas" doesn't teach creationism.

What the hell is Morrissey thinking?

23%

Obama's approval on the economy is tanking:

Once again, for the billionth time—no one gives a shit about deficits. No one. Not even the teabaggers who claim they care about the deficit. No one cares.

Rick Perry, right about something!

Rick Perry: Climate science skewed by ‘dollars’

That's true! But not in the way he says, obviously.

ExxonMobil sure gets their money's worth.

Government is evil, except when it brings us electricity.

Indeed.

What Perry either ignores or doesn’t know is how greatly Texas has benefited from the investments and regulations of the federal government he despises. He grew up, he tells all who will listen, on a small, hardscrabble Texas farm. But it was Franklin Roosevelt’s Rural Electrification Administration that brought electricity to those farms, which, left to the mercies of the market, would have remained dark for decades. The New Deal threw money at Texas, bringing it dams, highways and schoolhouses. The cumulative effect of policies such as the federal minimum wage has been to diminish the disparity that long existed between the industrialized North and the more poverty-stricken South.

The Texas thang.

I am not in the least bit surprised that the Secessionist put his foot in his mouth this early. I've been saying for a while that he does this shit all the time in Texas and can get away with it. I'm amazed people keep referring to him as a "great campaigner" when in fact, he hasn't been tested.

Now it's true that Republican politicians aren't usually punished for being too right-wing, but the Texas Teabilly stuff doesn't play well in purple states -- and GOP politicos know this.

Rover.

Putting the shiv in Perry and Bachmann.

This isn't surprising, the Bush/Rove people do not like the Secessionist.

Hippie punching.

Geebus, this has become a cliche.

Look, there's a reason Obama's under 40% and it's not because of "liberals." It's because there's 9.1% unemployment and people are worried that we're about to slip into another recession.

They're doing it wrong.

Yikes.

Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Plouffe, and his chief of staff, William M. Daley, want him to maintain a pragmatic strategy of appealing to independent voters by advocating ideas that can pass Congress, even if they may not have much economic impact.

That worked in 1995. In 2011, with a 9.2% unemployment? Just yikes.

UPDATE

Yep.

The war on PBS.

Ya think?

Thanks, Republicans!

Behold, the Teabagger tax.

A Standard & Poor’s director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default — a position put forth by some Republicans.

Really stupid tweets.

Akaka, of course, represents the people of Hawaii.

Jim DeMint needs to explain why taxpayers are paying for nitwits like Amanda Carpenter to tweet.

Republicans caught on tape.

You can bet the Secessionist isn't going to be taking questions from the media, or dare to do events like the one Willard did here. The result usually isn't pretty.

Jonah Goldberg, brave conservative killer of rioters.

It's never hard to figure out what side they would've been on in 1776.

You can follow Instaputz on the Twitter machine here.

America blames Republicans, Teabaggers for debt ceiling fiasco.

Unsurprising.

The debt ceiling debate hurt Americans’ view of Republicans, bolstered their opinion of Democrats, and drove the tea party’s favorable ratings to a new low, a poll on Tuesday found.

Just 33 percent of Americans approve of the Republican Party, while 59 percent disapprove in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Tuesday. That’s a net negative 10-percentage-point shift from less than a month ago, when 41 percent of those surveyed by CNN said they had a favorable view of the GOP while 55 percent had an unfavorable one.

[...]

The tea party movement fares slightly worse than the GOP and has its most dismal ratings since CNN began asking about the movement in polls in January 2010. Thirty-one percent said they see it favorably while 51 percent see it unfavorably. In July, those numbers were 37 percent and 47 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, Putz is still fighting the good fight.

Willard, you're doing it wrong.

Willard:

"I don't think it's simply the president's fault," Romney said in reply to a question at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Concord, N.H., Monday. "I'm sure there are many people to share responsibility for the excessive spending in Washington over the past couple of decades."

Erickson:
Bet the Secessionist doesn't make that mistake.

Cui bono?

Via Krugman:

The market is not puking. Some prime broker is puking the stocks held by one or more very large hedge funds.

So lets play the game: guess who got the margin call!

I think we should be all shorting democracy at this point.

Narratives that aren't true are bad narratives.

Kevin Drum, predictably, didn't care for Drew Westen's piece about Obama.

The problem isn't that Obama didn't have a story. He did, and he told it pretty well. His story was one about the dysfunctional partisanship destroying Washington and how to move beyond it. You might not like that story, but it was there. And while it obviously didn't succeed in moving the needle on partisanship, it did allow Obama to produce a pretty decent set of legislative achievements. As much as two years of anti-conservative stemwinders would have thrilled me, I doubt they would have produced anywhere near as much.

Uh, what?

One, dysfunctional partisanship, in fact, was not the root cause of most of our big problems. Indeed, it's the opposite: if Democrats had been more partisan about the Bush tax cuts and the Iraq War -- we would be in much better shape today. Also, Glass-Steagall was repealed in a very bipartisan manner, with Bill Clinton signing Phil Gramm's bill at the end of his presidency, and the Rubinites applauding.

Furthermore, it wasn't this story that produced a bunch of bills. What produced the bunch of bills was huge Democratic margins in both houses. Republicans unanimously voted against the stimulus in the House, and they unanimously rejected the Affordable Care Act.

Then they were able to use their partisan opposition as proof (and this argument is echoed by people like McMegan) that Obama broke his promise to be "bi-partisan."

So, not only was the narrative not true, it blew up in his face. You can't be "post-partisan" when the other side insists on being partisan.

The glorious era in US history when we were adhering to Christian principles.

Uh, I think that would've been...never.

Teabaggers: still very thoughtful and civil Americans who just are concerned about the nation's debt.

Lovely people.

The founder of Tea Party Nation claimed liberal ideology is responsible for "a billion" deaths over the past century during a raucous rally here Saturday in support of one of the six Republican state senators facing a recall election Tuesday.

"I will tell you ladies and gentlemen, I detest and despise everything the left stands for. How anybody can endorse and embrace an ideology that has killed a billion people in the last century is beyond me," said Tea Party Nation CEO Judson Phillips.

Nice company you're keeping, Putzy.

The best thing yet said about the S&P downgrade.

Thanks, Republicans!

Assholes.

We lowered our long-term rating on the U.S. because we believe that the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling and the related fiscal policy debate indicate that further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed and will remain a contentious and fitful process.

Prolonged controversy: Republican's fault. Democrats wanted to raise the debt ceiling.

Bigger cuts: Republicans' fault. Obama had $4T on the table, Boehner walked.

Raising revenues: Republicans' fault. They've refused all tax increases.

And yet,

Dem spin is this is on the GOP. But GOP doesn't control the White House or the Senate.

America hates Teabagging.

Putz weeps.

The public’s opinion of the Tea Party movement has soured in the wake of the debt-ceiling debate. The Tea Party is now viewed unfavorably by 40 percent of the public and favorably by just 20 percent, according to the poll.

Because, really -- how else would you rather spend your Saturday night?

And at 11, an exclusive investigation on the shady activities of homosexual illegal alien union members.

"Conservative."

Clemons:

When she was hired by the Washington Post, I asked Fred Hiatt what he had in mind with this acquisition and was told that he wanted a more conservative voice on the team.

Rubin's domestic US conservative commentary is limited, and not nearly as frequent as her posts that touch on Israel. That's not "conservative" but rather a silo of work in one obsessive, highly toxic area of debate in which she provides a flamboyantly Likudist portal.

Thank you.

I really do hate the lazy shorthand of mislabeling stuff right-wingers believe "conservative." It flatters these nutjobs, and throws the entire scale out of whack. There's nothing "conservative" about the ideas that global warming is a liberal hoax, that Obama is a Kenyan Marxist or that tax cuts pay for themselves.

Now, these may be positions a large number wingnuts embrace, but that doesn't mean they're inherently "conservative."

The debt is all Obama's fault.

Indeed:

It took Megan a couple of years to pursue this meme. Glenn Reynolds was doing it from Day One.

Really stupid tweets.

It's rare when wingnut idiocy leaves me speechless, but this is one of those times.

The market loves austerity!

Still nope.

Big win! The adult in the room!

Everyone loves austerity!

The hard-won, last-minute agreement to raise the debt ceiling and cut the deficit gets low ratings from Americans, who by more than 2-1 predict it will make the nation's fragile economy worse rather than better.

I guess I still don't understand this doing-enough-to-piss-off-your-base-and-never-enough-to-satisfy-the-crazy-opposition-to-capture-the-middle strategy.

Maybe someone can explain it to me.

Terrorists? Only we're allowed to call ourselves terrorists!

The wingnut ragegasm over Biden maybe-or-maybe-not calling the Teabaggers terrorists is amusing on several levels, especially since they got there first.

But the simple fact is, they cheered on the Quitter when she did it to Obama, their hero does this on a daily basis, and during the Bush/Cheney years, Democrats were regularly accused by the administration of treason.

As for Putz,

And readers point out that the Obama-is-Hitler stuff was mostly from Larouchies, who are hardly right wing.

Hahahahahaha, no.

Let's see. Among the right-wingers that have compared Obama to Hitler include: Paul Broun (R-GA), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, the Jacksonville, FL GOP, the Iowa Tea Party, the Republican Women of Anne Arundel County -- and that's just off the top of my head.

Then there's the wingnuts who've danced around the issue -- like Rand Paul, Jim DeMint and Michele Bachmann.

Not to mention the gigantic cache of unnamed Teabaggers who carried Obama/Hitler signs at Teabagging rallies.

Oh, and check the headline of this article from World Nut Daily -- just last week.

Obama following in Hitler's footsteps

Here's another at Clownhall.

Obama as Hitler

Seriously, Putz -- blaming on the Larouchies?! You're getting sloppy, old man.

The market loves austerity!

Not.

Really stupid tweets.

Uh-huh.

Boehner: I got 98 percent of what I wanted

No bright side.

Reich:

Anyone who characterizes the deal between the President, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics.

Yeah, Jon Alter was on MSNBC last night saying this was a victory for "centrism and compromise." I couldn't believe what I was hearing.