Public pessimism about the direction of the country has jumped to its highest level in nearly three years, erasing the sense of hope that followed President Obama’s inauguration and pushing his approval ratings to a record low, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
More than 60 percent of those surveyed say they disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy and, what has become issue No. 1, the stagnant jobs situation. Just 43 percent now approve of the job he is doing overall, a new career low; 53 percent disapprove, a new high.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Willard isn't scary enough.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Herman Cain, the choice of bigots.
But the fact is, Cain ran for president for nearly a year as an unrepentant bigot, arguably the first time we've seen that at the presidential level since George Wallace in 1968 -- and that's why he's attracted so many bigots.
Give people a reason to vote, and they'll vote.
And the only way the White House can reduce it is to give Democratic base voters a reason to get fired up and ready to go in 2012. Because the "adult in the room" stuff isn't enough.
Jobs bill was a good start -- but what's the agenda beyond that, guys?
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Sarah Palin thinks jobs = "titles."
Then again, she probably doesn't know what the word "sinecure" means, either.
Perry to wingnuts: please forgive me for calling you heartless xenophobes.
Presidential candidate Rick Perry on Wednesday apologized for saying that anyone who opposed giving tuition breaks to the children of illegal immigrants “did not have a heart.”That's true, but only because the GOP wasn't quite so batshit 10 years ago.
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, the Texas governor said he had made a poor choice of words during the Sept. 22 presidential debate, but he stood by his view that the decision in his state to extend tuition breaks was the right one.
“I was probably a bit over-passionate by using that word and it was inappropriate,” Perry admitted. “In Texas in 2001 we had 181 members of the legislature – only four voted against this piece of legislation – because it wasn’t about immigration it was about education.”
If you love America, you're ignorant of her history.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Billionaires against higher taxes.
Aside from the "I'm carrying the country on my back" line -- I loved this graf.
I pay taxes. I am willing to pay even more taxes but I would want accountability that the money was being spent wisely on infrastructure investments; education and retraining; and anything that makes us more competitive and gets people working again. That seems fair doesn’t it?Yes, that "accountability" you seek, Ted, is called "elections." Look into it.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Wick Pewwwwys feewings gawt huwt.
Texas Governor Rick Perry responded Monday to criticism by President Obama regarding his position on climate change, calling the president's remarks "outrageous" and suggesting Mr. Obama was exploiting the fires for political purposes.Where to begin?
"It's outrageous President Obama would use the burning of 1,500 homes, the worst fires in state history, as a political attack," Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan told Politico via email.
Let's start with the fact that it was the Secessionist who first used the wildfires as a political attack.
Moreover, it was the Secessionist who -- as wingers are known to do -- made climate change a political issue.
Texas is suffering through it's hottest, driest year ever. But global warming's a hoax!
Florida Republicans to Perry: STFU.
“There is a way to talk about Social Security reform without scaring seniors and while demonstrating to younger workers that you’re going to have a modern system that’s going to be there for them,” said Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. “We haven’t heard it yet.”
Putnam, a former Republican congressman, expressed concern about Rick Perry’s criticism about the creation of Social Security in his book. He also mentioned Florida straw poll winner Herman Cain’s repeated references to switching over to the “Chilean model” of entitlement programs.
“Claiming that Social Security is unconstitutional is a way bigger problem than saying it’s a Ponzi scheme,” Putnam said. “And I don’t think the average American aspires to the Chilean standard of living.”
Sunday, September 25, 2011
"The immigration thing."
"I was coming in for Perry, like a lot of people, but now I'm not sure," Charles Prachar, 72, a delegate from Macclenny, Florida, said before the vote. "I didn't like how bad he did at the debate and the immigration thing."
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Another GOP savior candidate to the rescue!
Christie is even less acceptable to the Teahadists than the others. He's admitted that he believes global warming isn't a librul hoax, he calls the anti-Sharia wingnuts "crazies" -- and he says people are born with teh gey.
Good luck, Chris!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Perry's immigration problem will doom his campaign.
But if you say that we should not educate children who have come into our state for no other reason than they’ve been brought there by no fault of their own, I don’t think you have a heart.That really pissed off Jim Geraghty.
Of course, it is cruel and racist and xenophobic to punish children for their parents' actions. Anyway, short of refudiating himself, I don't see how the Secessionist survives this.Hey, Governor, if we wanted to hear suggestions that folks on the Right are heartless, we would have tuned in to watch a bunch of Democrats.
If you want to alienate Americans concerned about illegal immigration, the quickest and surest way is to suggest that they have cruel, draconian, xenophobic, or racist motives for their focus on border security.
Weekly Standard and its readers freaked out by GOP debate.
Yikes.Some of us have been insisting that the GOP has been taken over by crazies for a while -- nice to see that even the propagandists at the Standard have come along.
The e-mails flooding into our inbox during the evening were less guarded. Early on, we received this missive from a bright young conservative: “I'm watching my first GOP debate...and WE SOUND LIKE CRAZY PEOPLE!!!!”Yes, it obviously was his first GOP debate, because they've been sounding like crazy people for the past decade and a half.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
The Secessionist fades.
The problem with bragging about passing Mitt Romney's health care bill.
I still believe Romney will get through the GOP primary, because the Secessionist's Walker, Texas Ranger stuff will not play anywhere outside of the Old Confederacy. Also, it seems like every day the "Texas Miracle" looks less and less miraculous.
So if it is Obama/Romney, Obama's got his work cut out for him, because he's spent most of the past 18 months validating the GOP's deficit mania and talking about how government needs to "tighten its belt."
If the economy gets a lot worse, look out.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Great plan, Bill!
“If we cut government spending, which I normally would be very inclined to do when the deficit’s this big, with interest rates already near zero, you can’t get the benefits out of it,” Clinton said. “So what I’d like to see them do is come up with a bipartisan approach, starting with the payroll tax cuts because they have the biggest return.”
He added, “What I would like to say to both Speaker [John] Boehner and to the president is, OK, you both have your deal. Go work it out. Meanwhile, focus on putting America back to work now, because it just confused Americans.”
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Glenn Reynolds peddles the "half the country doesn't pay taxes" lie.
CHANGE: Obama Wants Americans to “Pay Their Fair Share” Except For the 47% Who Pay No Taxes.Yeah, that's not true.
Not only is the "ZOMG half the country doesn't pay taxes!" bullshit a lie -- it's a lie that, if they had an single ounce of intellectual consistency, they'd be celebrating.But the modifiers here — federal and income — are important. Income taxes aren’t the only kind of federal taxes that people pay. There are also payroll taxes and investment taxes, among others. And, of course, people pay state and local taxes, too.
Even if the discussion is restricted to federal taxes (for which the statistics are better), a vast majority of households end up paying federal taxes. Congressional Budget Office data suggests that, at most, about 10 percent of all households pay no net federal taxes. The number 10 is obviously a lot smaller than 47.
The reason is that poor families generally pay more in payroll taxes than they receive through benefits like the Earned Income Tax Credit. It’s not just poor families for whom the payroll tax is a big deal, either. About three-quarters of all American households pay more in payroll taxes, which go toward Medicare and Social Security, than in income taxes.
What, they want Obama to raise taxes now? I can't keep up.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Government sucks! Unless it benefits me personally.
Taxing the rich is popular.
In 6 days, Obama will have proposed over $2 trillion (that trillion with a ”t”) in new taxes, above and beyond what we already pay.
The big spender is on a tax hike bender.
1) Taxes are at historic lows.
2) The gap between the top 1% and everyone else is at historic highs.
3) Taxing rich people is very popular.
I understand that all they care about is keeping taxes low for rich people, but you'd think some of their shrieking would acknowledge -- however slightly -- at least some of these actual facts.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
C'mon, John Cole -- you're better than that.
Up next, the manic progressive wing starts screaming about Obama not just making his job plan law by waving a magic wand, the “bully pulpit” chorus begins, all while the media completely ignore Republican intransigence and instead focuses on the “rift” inside the Democratic party while having concerned and excited chats about Obama’s sagging popularity.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Scenes from the Texas Miracle.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Sick as a dog.
In other news, I don't understand why this kind of advice wasn't given 18 months ago.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Too crazy for Rick Perry.
Monday, September 12, 2011
No more Two Minutes of Hate left.
Erickson. Coulter. Ace of Spades. Leon Wolf. These are the sorts of people -- indeed they are the very individuals -- who draw on tribal loyalty and employ vitriol to enforce political orthodoxies. Amazingly, they seem genuinely shocked that a pathological culture impervious to reason now exists around Palin, as if a movement that began with critics being assigned to a virtual leper colony could end any other way. Loath as these people are to admit it, Kathleen Parker was right all along. So was Daniel Larison and David Brooks (and to be frank, I was as prescient as anyone).Adding, the entire left (and the majority of independents) were right all along as well. Pretty much everyone except the GOP rump, including Glenn Reynolds.
I'll have to find another subject for my Two Minutes of Hate series.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Telling us what you're going to do with your second term would be a good start.
“We need to work more on the message,” Mr. Rodriguez said, adding that much of Mr. Obama’s challenge stems from a group of Republicans who “simply say no” to all of his advances. “We have to re-energize people and get them back to the party.”What message? Hard to "re-energize" people when you're not telling them anything.
Still no "issues" tab on the campaign website.
He's not just angry, he's stupid.
Abraham Lincoln helped establish the Republican Party with a speech denouncing an 1854 law, written by a Democrat Senator, that allowed slavery to expand into the western territories.Idiots.
The very brave Paul Ryan.
Friday, September 09, 2011
Angry black man watch.
MICHAEL BARONE: Obama The Unhappy Warrior: “Barack Obama looked and sounded angry in his speech to the joint session of Congress.
Thursday, September 08, 2011
Good speech.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
Freakshow.
I kinda feel like the pinata at the party here.
Let the Two Minutes of Hate Against Erick Erickson Begin
To paraphrase Ann, a lot of us fell in love with Sarah Palin because of her enemies and a lot of us have fallen out of love with Sarah Palin because of her fans.
Tuesday, September 06, 2011
The wages of austerity.
Under Gov. Rick Perry (R) this year, Texas slashed state funding for the volunteer fire departments that protect most of the state from wildfires like the ones that have recently destroyed more than 700 homes.
Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain were slated to have their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million, according to KVUE.
The majority of Texas is protected by volunteer fire departments. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas and only 114 paid fire departments. Another 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.
I blame the hippies.
But the simple fact is they're not working politically.
Monday, September 05, 2011
Slow on the uptake, cont'd
"We're going to see if we've got some straight shooters in Congress. We're going to see if congressional Republicans will put country before party."Going to see?
So, the whole voting unanimously against the stimulus, health care reform and hostage-taking over the debt ceiling wasn't convincing enough?
Sunday, September 04, 2011
1927.
Dr. Jim Jirjis, director of general internal medicine at Vanderbilt University, said people, like Willis, without access to care often die of conditions that were much more common decades ago.
"He [Willis] might as well have been living in 1927," Jirjis said. "All of the advances we've made in medicine today and are proud of, for people who don't have coverage, you might as well never have developed those."
Saturday, September 03, 2011
Global warming, un-debunked.
Oh well.
Hey, I tried to warn them.
Let me save you some trouble here, wingnuts. You’re going to need to do a little better than a Big Oil-funded flat-earther from the University of Tractor Fixin’ and Bible Learnin’ to override every major scientific society and academy on the planet.
Just trying to save you a little trouble here.
Friday, September 02, 2011
Awful.
Black unemployment is at 16.7%.Reminded me of this.
Black male unemployment is at 18%.
White unemployment is at 8%.
Unemployment for those 25+ with bachelor's degree or more education is at 4.3%.
Neckar drivers no likey da preznit.
Thursday, September 01, 2011
Slow on the uptake.
“It is a big deal that the House said ‘no’ to the president from our end,” a White House source with intimate knowledge of what took place between the House and the president told me Thursday. “This confirms what we all know: They will do anything in the House to muck us up.”This confirms? Way to keep up, guys.