V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N.

OMG! President Obama is going on vacation?  Is it true that the Kenyan, Marxist, Commie, Pinko Socialist guy who isn't in love with America is actually taking his staff and daily briefings all the way to Martha's Vineyard in beautiful Blue Massachusetts for the 545th vacation since he's been preznit?

How dare this family man take time away from the country's problems  just like Congress has--since August 3 btw--and escape from people like Senator Tom Coburn (Jerk-OK) who says the president likes to help the poorest and the least fortunate among us only because as a  poor and less fortunate Black kid of a single mother, he got all kinds of good stuff from the gummit like food stamps so he and his mom could, y'know, eat.  What kind of country is this that allows that sort of free give-away for leeching minorities? 

But I digress.  Apparently, even the failed presidential candidate blow-hard, Donald Trump, is chiming in on the frequency of presidential vacations, even though he's too dumb to realize that Mr. Obama is a slacker on vacation taking time compared with Dubya and Saint Ronnie.  But don't tell the guy with the stupid hair and purdy mouth that fact.



THE EMBARRASSING DONALD TRUMP, FAILED, ALMOST-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE:  “They used to complain about George Bush, but I understand he’s already exceeded George Bush and we’re not even through the year. ... I think it sends a very, very bad message,”

But Mark Knoller of CBS, the unofficial keeper of presidential work schedules, reported that President George W. Bush had taken more time off than Obama at this point in his first term.

Obama’s upcoming vacation is his ninth vacation since taking office. Obama has spent all or part of 38 days on vacation away from the White House. He has also made 14 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 32 days, for a total of 70 days, Knoller said.

Bush, at this point in his first term, had made 14 visits to his Texas ranch spanning all or part of 102 days, Knoller said. He also made 40 visits to Camp David spanning all or part of 123 days. His vacation total at this point in his presidency was all or part of 225 days away.

Of course, these facts won't stop the rightwing snivellers from foaming at the mouth and spewing their toxic spittle all over the internet over President Obama's well deserved vacation.  They don't deal in facts, rather, they prefer lies and distortion to keep themselves roiling in their fake outrage.

BTW, to the numbnuts who think the president is "on vacation," understand that the president is still on call as the president even when he's on Martha's Vineyard and being briefed daily.  IOW, he's doing presidential work even though he's here in Massachusetts enjoying quality time with his family-- a family value, afterall.  Don't you just love family values presidents?

Welcome back to Martha's Vineyard, Mr. President. 

Relax. 

Enjoy your family. 

Every other president has done it, even in critical times.

MUSLIMS, ATHEISTS, MORE POPULAR THAN TEA PARTY POLL SHOWS

NEWS FLASH

Poll: Tea Party Less Popular Than Muslims, Atheists, 21 Other Groups | The debt ceiling deal has left the Tea Party more disliked than ever, as a recent New York Times poll shows. In April, 2010, 21 percent of Americans approved of the Tea Party while 18 percent disapproved of it. Now, 20 percent approve while a stunning 40 percent disapprove of it. Ironically, the conservative movement is now more unpopular than two often-marginalized groups it sometimes rails against — Muslims and atheists — and is the least popular of the 23 groups the poll asked about:

The Tea Party ranks lower than any of the 23 other groups we asked about — lower than both Republicans and Democrats. It is even less popular than much maligned groups like “atheists” and “Muslims.” Interestingly, one group that approaches it in unpopularity is the Christian Right.

MORE ON GOVERNOR PERRY'S JOBS MYTHICAL MIRACLE:

 “Texas has one of the highest percentages of workers who are paid the minimum wage and receive no medical benefits. Perry has also presided over a steady, decade-long decline in his state’s employment to population ratio. He inherited a ratio of more than 47 percent from George W. Bush, but now only 43.5 percent of Texans have a job, compared to 44.7 percent of the total U.S. population."

I guess Gov. Perry is hoping no one will actually, y'know, look at his record and his rhetoric and discover they don't match up in the truth department.  But Perry's one of those good ole Tea Baggers, and they create their own reality, which has no relation to truth.

Keep up the good work, Gov. Perry.  You're making things easier and easier for the White House:

"Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), using borderline-violent rhetoric towards Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, and casually throwing around words like “treacherous” and “treasonous.” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters today, “When you’re president or you’re running for president you have to think about what you’re saying because your words have greater impact. President Obama and we take the independence of the Federal Reserve very seriously and certainly think threatening the Fed chairman is probably not a good idea.”
As Greg Sargent explained very well this afternoon, rhetoric like Perry’s is exactly the sort of thing the White House needs to reinforce its larger message.

Here’s another reason Republican establishment figures have to be unhappy about Rick Perry’s implied threat towards Ben Bernanke: It plays into the Obama strategy of presenting himself as the “adult in the room” while elevating more prominent expressions of Republican excess or outright whackjobbery and using them as a convenient foil. […]

As Kevin Drum notes today, Obama has settled on a reelection narrative that is centered on the idea that he’s the only “sober, serious guy who’s fit to be president” in the room. He’s running against “Teh Crazy.” You can debate endlessly whether Obama is focusing his attacks too generally on “Congress” or whether he should be calling out Republicans more directly, but the overall objective is clear: Obama’s foil is Republican extremism and excess. Having the most prominent and accomplished true conservative in the presidential race suggest that a Republican Fed chairman may be guilty of treason, while implicitly threatening him with a species of Texas frontier justice — even in jest, if that’s how it was intended — can only help in this regard.

Exactly right. One of the lines I’ve heard Obama use three times in two days is, “I know you’re frustrated; I’m frustrated, too.” It’s part of a not-so-subtle effort to draw voters a picture: sensible people believe American politics is broken, and the president is on their side. The question for voters is whether someone like Obama, the grown-up who solves problems, or someone like Perry, the buffoon who accuses Ben Bernanke of treason, can be trusted to help make politics work again."

h/t Steve Benen/Washington Monthly

PRAGMATISM, THE PRESIDENCY, AND ACTIVISM, by Sheria at The Swash Zone

Friend and fellow blogger, Sheria, posted this excellent piece over at The Swash Zone. It deserves to be read by all. Thanks Sheria!

"I have repeatedly read posts by others who argue with great passion that President Obama should follow in the examples of Abraham Lincoln in addressing slavery and FDR in addressing the Great Depression. I appreciation the beacons that both former presidents are in the history of this country; however, what we believe to be true and what is fact often are vastly different.


A recent article, Frederick Douglass, the activist who would not 'grow up' offers a frame for evaluating the repeated criticism of President Obama from many members of the left. This article deals with President Lincoln as assessed by Frederick Douglass, not as a historian many years after the facts but as a witness to those events.


One of the most common misrepresentations of history is the oft repeated mantra that Lincoln freed the slaves. He didn't. The Emancipation Proclamation only applied to slaves that lived within the borders of states that were in rebellion against the Union; it did not apply to any slaves in the border states that were still loyal to the Union nor Confederate states which had already come under Union control; President Lincoln did not wish to lose the support of those slave owning states. The goal was to preserve the Union. As the Confederacy was not under the President's control, it did not accept Lincoln's offer to agree to the emancipation of slaves in exchange for compensation. The reality is that the Emancipation Proclamation was a grand gesture and of great symbolic value but it didn't free any slaves. [see for ex. pbs.org, thinkquest, national archives] In the year prior to the EP, 1862, Congress had passed a law that freed any Confederate slaves who escaped to the Union states and added those slaves to the Union's military ranks. Slavery did not officially end in this country until 1865 with the passage of the 13th amendment. [Id.] 


The factual details don't lessen what Lincoln accomplished. I offer this history lesson because I think that the adherence to mythology is interfering with the ability of progressives to get on the same page and work at the business of re-electing Barack Obama. Lincoln was no cowboy riding in on a white horse. He compromised on  what Frederick Douglass and  the abolitionists saw as the most significant cause of the Civil War, ending slavery. He did so because the Union could not afford to lose the slave owning border states to the Confederacy.


In 1862, Horace Greely, editor of The New York Tribune addressed an editorial to Lincoln in which he suggested that Lincoln's administration lacked direction and resolve in its war efforts. Lincoln responded with a letter to Greely that few seem to accurately recall:

'My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. [Lincoln letter]'

Frederick Douglass took issue with Lincoln's willingness to abide slavery if that was necessary to preserve the Union. However, Douglass was also pragmatic and eventually came to respect Lincoln's seemingly measured tread.  


In April 1876, in a speech delivered at the unveiling of the Freedmen's Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln,  Douglass said of Lincoln: 

'...I have said that President Lincoln was a white man, and shared the prejudices common to his countrymen towards the colored race. Looking back to his times and to the condition of his country, we are compelled to admit that this unfriendly feeling on his part may be safely set down as one element of his wonderful success in organizing the loyal American people for the tremendous conflict before them, and bringing them safely through that conflict. His great mission was to accomplish two things: first, to save his country from dismemberment and ruin; and, second, to free his country from the great crime of slavery. To do one or the other, or both, he must have the earnest sympathy and the powerful cooperation of his loyal fellow-countrymen. Without this primary and essential condition to success his efforts must have been vain and utterly fruitless. Had he put the abolition of slavery before the salvation of the Union, he would have inevitably driven from him a powerful class of the American people and rendered resistance to rebellion impossible...Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined. [emphasis added] [Douglass' Oration]'

Frederick Douglass was an activist and activists do not have to answer to a constituency, nor do they have to play well with others. There are those who no doubt will dismiss my evaluations of activism vs. politics as narrow and cynical. I intend it as neither, but simply pragmatic. 


Activism is an essential part of political and societal change but the demand that such activism be regularly and blatantly engaged in by this President is to ask him to go beyond the bounds of his office. I chose to focus on Lincoln because of sheer laziness. Lincoln has been a hobby of mine for years and I didn't have to do a lot of research. However, similar issues can be raised with FDR's presidency.


Douglass' evaluation of Lincoln doesn't diminish the man at all but it does make it clear that no man walks on water and offers a prism that reflects how I believe history will also view Obama. Just as was Lincoln, Obama is the President, not an activist. His responsibilities are vastly different than those of an activist. I believe that far too many are demanding that Obama take on a mythical role that no president has ever exercised. 


Bachmann just won the straw vote election out of a field of Republicans, any of whom is saner than she. I find that frightening. Rather than contributing to the constant criticism of President Obama and the continual refusal to acknowledge all that has been accomplished (an extensive list) our common goal should be to ensure that the President has a second term to work towards our goals. Douglass voted for Lincoln in 1864 in spite of his concerns and supported Lincoln's campaign. We have a president who understands the system and who is working that system with every tool at his disposal. What we need are activists; the campaign slogan has always been, "Yes we can." What have you done lately?"

SUNDAY NIGHT POETRY

In the old days a poet once said
by Ko Un
In the old days a poet once said our nation is destroyed yet the mountains and rivers survive Today's poet says the mountains and rivers are destroyed yet our nation survives Tomorrow's poet will say the mountains and rivers are destroyed our nation is destroyed and Alas! you and I are completely destroyed

QUEEN OF STRAW

Michele Bachmann, the woman who will NEVER be president, won the Iowa straw poll on Saturday.


Wow!  I'm so not impressed.


Other winners of Iowa's straw poll?  Pat Robertson and Mike Huckabee.

The Borowitz Report gets it:

AMES, IOWA (The Borowitz Report) – Calling the results of today’s Iowa straw poll “alarming,” Standard and Poor’s took the unprecedented action of downgrading Iowa’s IQ.


While the effects of such an extraordinary measure are hard to predict, experts say the IQ downgrade could result in Iowans having difficulty completing sentences or operating a television remote.

“This downgrade would be very upsetting to Republicans in Iowa,” said an S & P spokesman.

“Fortunately, there’s no way they’ll understand it.”

The winner in the straw poll, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn), gave a rousing victory speech that was simulcast in English across the state.

But there may be tough sledding ahead for Rep. Bachmann, as a new poll shows her losing support to Texas Governor Rick Perry among voters who describe themselves as morons."


Late night jokes:

“Newsweek is taking heat for calling Michele Bachmann ‘The Queen of Rage.’ Michele says, ‘There’s only one raging queen in our household, and it’s not me.’” –Conan O’Brien

“‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ made $54 million this weekend. It’s about small-brained creatures who rise up and take over the Earth. First they form political groups called Tea Parties.” –Jay Leno

h/t Blue Mass. Group

Here's a song for the Queen of Straw:

ROMNEY AND PALIN INCREASED TAXES TO IMPROVE THEIR STATES' CREDIT RATINGS

But don't tell their followers, it would make their heads explode and make them look at these two Republican presidential hopefuls as the hypocrites they truly are. [Palin keeps showing up at presidential hopeful events playing her cute little game of "Am I or Am I Not Running for President."]

Here's what Palin--who screeched about NOT raising the debt ceiling--did as governor of Alaska:

How Sarah Palin Got a AAA Credit Rating for Alaska

"Alaska recently had its bond rating raised to AAA for the first time in the state's history, largely due to fiscal improvements brought about by Sarah Palin while she was governor. The state currently enjoys a $12 billion budget surplus.

This is unquestionably a good thing for the people of Alaska, just as the country's downgrade is a bad thing. The state enjoys lower borrowing costs as a result. But especially in light of the current dysfunction in Washington, it's important to understand why Alaska's fiscal situation improved: It was largely because Palin raised taxes. Specifically, the state oil tax. Her central achievement as governor was signing a law, Alaska's Clear and Equitable Share (ACES), that dramatically increased the state's share of oil profits just as oil prices began to take off. "

But Palin would never admit to the fact that she raised taxes and how that improved Alaska's revenues.  Why?  Because she and her fellow Tea Party nuts are against raising taxes under any conditions.  But facts are stubborn things, and Palin--hypocrite that she is--won't point out to anyone that raising taxes improved Alaska's credit rating. 

Now on to Mitt Romney and his hypocrisy [this is nothing unusual for him]:

From the New York Times editorial today:


"Rejecting compromise was not the way Mr. Romney governed. He balanced the Massachusetts budget with new income from $269 million in closed tax loopholes, and $271 million in increased fees. He has claimed unconvincingly that those were not taxes, but it turns out that his administration boasted about them to the bond rating agencies in 2004 and 2005, and his state won an upgrade by demonstrating fiscal prudence. Now he is repudiating that approach at the federal level.
       
That has been the nature of every Republican debate this cycle: deny the truth or tell an outrageous lie with such bellicosity that no one dares to challenge it.
       
Representative Michele Bachmann, for example, said the credit downgrade was because the government could not pay its debt. Standard and Poor’s actually said it was because lawmakers like her did not take a default seriously. Representative Ron Paul ridiculously claimed that the United States is bankrupt. Tim Pawlenty said President Obama had no plan to reduce social insurance spending, conveniently forgetting that Mr. Boehner walked away from the president’s overly generous offer to reduce that spending in exchange for revenue increases.
       
The Republican Party has been led into its current cul-de-sac by manipulative officials who would not tell voters the truth about the government’s finances. It will remain there if even its “moderate” leaders refuse to break the pattern."


And finally another Massachusetts Republican politician lying about how increasing revenue here helped raised our state's credit rating--when the then governor, Mitt Romney--petitioned S&P to do so:

Scott Brown, lying like the rest of them (via Blue Mass. Group):

"In an op-ed in today’s Boston Globe, Senator Brown shares with us his recollection of how, a decade ago, Massachusetts pulled itself out of recession using only spending cuts and bipartisanship.

'In 2001 to ’02, the bursting of the technology bubble hit the Massachusetts economy hard. Our unemployment rate was growing faster than any other state in the country, and we faced a fiscal crisis that many experts said was the worst since World War II. The projected deficit for 2003 was nearly $3 billion.

But instead of raising taxes, Democrats and Republicans worked across the aisle: We tightened our belts and balanced the books by cutting spending. It wasn’t easy, but after some tough negotiations and re-setting of priorities, we turned our deficit into a surplus and the economy and jobs started coming back.'

A pretty story that neatly coincides with the Senator’s campaign platform. The only problem is that it’s not true. The state did raise taxes on income, capital gains and cigarettes in 2002, increasing revenues by $1 billion to help close the deficit.

We in the reality-based community always stand ready to help with the fact checking, Senator."


Why does any honest person belong to the GOP?  These are blatant examples of two conservatives running away from their own actions--actions that benefitted their states and actions they now condemn at the federal level.  And then a conservative senator telling lies about how Massachussetts received an improved credit rating after raising revenue.

These  people sicken me.

(I'll be posting at a later date about Elizabeth Warren's upcoming challenge to Scott Brown for the junior senator's seat here in Massachusetts.)

GO ELIZABETH!

Rick Perry for President? Tell Him to Fix his $27 Billion Dollar Texas Deficit First, and Then Tell the Other Person Who Will Never Be President to Stop Being a Magnificent Hypocrite

Maybe Perry can hold a state-wide prayer meeting and ask God to fix the deficit.  Afterall, look at all the rain his prayers produced for his drought-ridden state.


RICK PERRY'S HUGE BUDGET DEFICIT:

And Texas ranks 49th out of 50 states in low taxes.  Tell us, Gov. Good Hair, how low taxes = jobs and low deficits.

Meanwhile, Texas is the killingest state in the Union, and compares favorably in state killings with Iran.

On to the next candidate who will never be president:


Michele Bachmann:  Magnificent Hypocrite.

Bachmann harangues anyone she can get to listen to her about the government's "orgy of spending" while holding out her greasy hypocritical hand for government money.  Her followers will ignore this rampant duplicity because it's part of their culture to support people who say one thing and then do the opposite.

"Though Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has repeatedly trashed the Environmental Protection Agency and vowed to have "its door locked and its lights turned off" if she gets to the White House, new information obtained via the Freedom of Information Act shows that she petitioned the EPA for help and grant support at least twice, among at least 16 requests for federal funds and help.
Many of those funding requests would require dipping into stimulus funds, the Huffington Posts's investigation showed. Bachmann has in the past dismissed President Barack Obama's massive stimulus plan as "fantasy economics" and advocates for limited government and fiscal conservatism.

“During the last 100 days we have seen an orgy [of spending]," she said of the stimulus and auto industry bailout May 4, 2009. "It would make any local smorgasbord embarrassed."

According to the obtained records, just three weeks later, on May 20, Bachmann wrote to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and asked for funding for a rail park in Minnesota "which will enhance economic development and job opportunities in this rural Minnesota community."

These latest findings are only the latest in a line of incongruences between Bachmann's campaign rhetoric and her personal record, including the revelations of Bachmann's federally supported home loans, federal subsidies received for a family farm and the clinic she owns with husband Marcus Bachmann accepting Medicaid funds."

Joe Scarborough this morning on Bachmann:



"Michele Bachmann's first answer was, I wish the federal government had defaulted. Had defaulted! A week after Americans lost--some of them perhaps lost half of their pensions. Lost half of their 401ks. When trillions of dollars went down the drain with Americans suffering, she said that and got applause, and if anybody thinks that guys like my dad are going to be voting that way...they are out of their mind and they are too stupid not only to prognosticate, they are too stupid to run Slurpee machines in Des Moines...Michele Bachmann is a joke. She is a joke. Her answer is a joke. Her candidacy is a joke...Iowa, if you let her win, you prove your irrelevance once again."



Smartypants has a great post up on how extreme the GOP has become just over the past 4 months.


Crooks & Liars exposes Bachmann as the repugnant liar that she is.

Michele Bachmann will never be president.

THE TRUTH YOU WON'T HEAR ON FOX OR READ ON THOSE NUTTY RIGHTWING BLOGS

How's that "Hopey He'll Fail-ey Thing-ey"  working out for you Sarah?  Rush? Glenn?  Conservatives?

And how's that "Amerik-ey Don't Like-y Him Thing-ey" going?

John Boehner got 98% of what he wanted and was REAL happy, then his poll numbers went south, along with poll numbers for the Republican Party.

And who came out just fine?  The man whom the lunatic Tea Party and Mitch McConnell said they wanted to defeat, destroy, impeach, send back to Kenya, or whatever they hoped for in their sad little wet dreams:

"Despite widespread anger at Washington over the last month’s debt ceiling negotiations and a week of brutal financial news, several polls this week have suggested that Obama and the Democratic brand are hanging tough for now.

A look at Obama’s approval ratings across all 50 states released on Monday showed him gaining ground in a number of critical states since the Democrats’ disastrous midterm election.

A CNN poll on Tuesday showed the Republican party more unpopular than ever in the wake of the debt ceiling fight while Democrats are holding steady.

 And here’s that CNN poll, which has really bad news for Republicans in the wake of the debt ceiling fight. 

Republican unfavorables in the CNN poll have surged to 59 percent, with just 33 percent favorable (Democrats are even at 47/47.)

Meanwhile, the tea party is in even worse shape, with their numbers under water 51 percent unfavorable, and just 31 percent favorable.

In other words, the tea party is down to its core supporters only, and nothing more.

Hostage taking has its price.

In the poll, only 41 percent of respondents said their congressman deserves re-election, with 49 percent saying no mas. And just 25 percent say most members deserve to be re-elected, with a whopping 70 percent saying they do not.

Democrats are at 38/58 don’t deserve/deserve re-election and Republicans are at 31/64."

President Barack Hussein Obama:  Never, never, never underestimate the guy who beat the Clintons, got health care passed [when presidents have been trying to pass it for 100 years], and got bin Laden. 

He's eating the TPers' lunch, and they don't know it.  They're too busy listening to FOX News' lies.  LOL!

h/t The Reid Report

THIS IS FOR THE OBAMA-BASHING LIBERALS WHO HAVEN'T TAKEN THE TIME TO READ HISTORY OR UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS PRESIDENT HAS ACCOMPLISHED

It's bad enough to read and hear the lies and misrepresentations put out by foaming-at-the muzzle extremist TPers and GOPers. But to read and listen to some liberals attack and undermine the president without understanding how government works and how FDR had to compromise with the worst elements in the Republican Party is not only disheartening but unfathomable as well.

Here's some history from Steve Benen:

"I’ve mentioned this before, but I often think about Social Security at its origins. In 1935, FDR accepted all kinds of concessions, excluding agricultural workers, domestic workers, the self-employed, the entire public sector, and railroad employees, among others. And why did the president go along with this? Because Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to cut deals with conservatives, even in his own party — many of whom were motivated by nothing more than racism — in order to get the legislation passed.



When delivering red-meat speeches in public, FDR saw his Republican critics and “welcomed their hatred.” When governing, FDR made constant concessions — even if it meant occasionally betraying his principles and some of his own supporters — in order to get something done.


[skip]


Four years into Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential term, the worst of the Great Depression seemed behind him. Massive jolts of New Deal spending had stopped the economic slide, and the unemployment rate was cut from 22 percent to less than 10 percent.


'People felt that there was momentum,' U.S. Senate historian Donald Ritchie tells Guy Raz, host of weekends on All Things Considered. 'Finally, there was the light at the end of the tunnel.'


So Roosevelt, on the advice of his conservative Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, decided to tackle the country’s exploding deficits. Over two years, FDR slashed government spending 17 percent.


'All of a sudden,' Ritchie says, 'after unemployment had been going steadily down, unemployment shot up, the economy stagnated, the stock market crashed again. And now it seemed we’d come out of the Hoover Depression to go into the Roosevelt recession.'


Similar decisions Roosevelt made about spending and austerity are being discussed at the White House right now. In the long term, both political parties say they agree that austerity is a good thing. But what about in the short term, while unemployment remains high?


In other words, today’s emo progressives would have been savagely attacking FDR the same way they’re attacking Obama now. And they would have had more grounds, between the internment of the Japanese, FDR’s initial failure to respond to the slaughter of innocents by Adolf Hitler (it was the Japanese we ultimately went to war against) and his ongoing refusal to address issues of racial segregation, lynching and discrimination against African-Americans, including in the armed forces. That and the compromises FDR accepted as part of the New Deal, including explicitly keeping racial parity out of the equation, would have made Roosevelt as great a villain to the purist progressives of today as Obama has become. And their disappointment would have been just as great.


The bottom line: Roosevelt was no less a great president — even a great liberal president. But being president requires compromises, often unpleasant ones, and there is no 'perfect' example of caution to the wind liberalism for the purists to point to. They can feel free to demonize Obama, but not with the weight of history on their side."


And to those of you who insist that President Obama shoulda/coulda advanced his liberal/progressive agenda more aggressively, here's another reality check:

Barack Obama and the myth of the progressive ‘majorities’

TEA PARTIERS CHEER AMERICA'S DOWN-GRADING (video)

These TPers in Wisconsin on Sunday were happy to hear the news and even happier to hear that S&P blames them for the debacle.


Do we need anymore evidence of their lunacy? 


I've read rightwing blogs that blame Mr. Obama for the Tea Baggers' financial jihad.  That's to be expected from people who are too stupid to understand that the GOP just cut off their noses to spite America's face.


If it weren't hurting Americans, I'd be laughing the loudest at their complete lack of self-awareness and the damage they've inflicted on themselves.



h/t Crooks & Liars

Politicususa has an article on how the Tea Party's hatred of President Obama has driven the GOP to humiliate America.

And this is the sort of idiocy we find on rightwing blogs.  Poor things.  Too immersed in their ignorance to understand how stupid this makes them looki:




LOL! h/t to Southern Beale:

A WHOPPING 72 PERCENT OF AMERICANS DISAPPROVE OF THE GOP

The usual deluded rightwing bloggers are pretending that the current debacle--America losing its triple A rating--is President Obama's fault.  But those are nothing more than transparent lies they're posting on their blogs, backed up by absolutely NO evidence. 

The American people have decided that Mr. Obama is to be trusted with the economy, and NOT the GOP.  The American people have also unequivocally decided that the Tea Party is a destructive element of the GOP.  We on the left knew this, and predicted that their slash and burn method of governance would take this country to new levels of despair.  And we were right.

A commenter over at conservative pundit, David Frum's blog, had this to say:

"Granted, it is our right to “throw the bums out” in a democracy, but I’m not sure what we’ve really accomplished in recent years with this approach. The past three Congressional elections have seen 69, 29, and 37 seats change hands. Compare that to the preceding five (1996-2004): only 7, 10, 6, 5, and 11 seats changed hands in those years.

The fact that each successive election seems to produce a landslide victory for one of the two parties says something very unflattering about the state of our political system. We’re not a group of concerned citizens voting with our heads and our hearts; we’re more like an angry mob with pitchforks and flames laying waste to whatever is right in front of us, tarring and feathering today the person who was leading us yesterday.

I think what’s most telling is that even a Fox News Poll conducted last week showed that more of the responders blamed Congressional Republicans for the debt issue than President Obama.

Of course, though, every poll that gives a result you don’t like is simply biased….."

 --kuri3460 // Aug 5, 2011 at 9:29 am


kuri3460 is correct.  The extremist rightwing bloggers have put blinders on and refuse to face the facts.  That doesn't change the truth.  It only makes them feel secure in their ignorance.


WHAT AMERICANS THINK ABOUT THE DESTRUCTIVE TsEA PARTY:


"A record 82 percent of Americans now disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job — the most since The Times first began asking the question in 1977

More than four out of five people surveyed said that the recent debt-ceiling debate was more about gaining political advantage than about doing what is best for the country.

Nearly three-quarters said that the debate had harmed the image of the United States in the world.

The Republicans compromised too little, a majority of those polled said. All told, 72 percent disapproved of the way Republicans in Congress handled the negotiations

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. In mid-April 29 percent of those polled viewed the movement unfavorably, while 26 percent viewed it favorably. And 43 percent of Americans now think the Tea Party has too much influence on the Republican Party, up from 27 percent in mid-April.

The poll found that Mr. Obama was emerging from the crisis less bruised than the Republicans in Congress.

Americans said that they trusted Mr. Obama to make the right decisions about the economy more than the Republicans in Congress, by 47 percent to 33 percent."



I think all the reports of President Obama’s political death are a bit premature. Pay no attention to the dissemblers on the right who are trying to put the blame for the Tea Party's calamitous behavior on everyone else but the toxic Tea Party.  Happily, the American people are not so easily duped.

MORE ON THIS DISCUSSION OVER AT "SMARTYPANTS'" BLOG.

GREAT INSIGHT INTO THE RACIAL ASPECT OF THE TEA PARTY BIGOTRY HERE.

"HOW MY GOP DESTROYED THE U.S. ECONOMY" by David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's director of the OMB

The GOP's sainted president's own financial advisor, David Stockman,  explains how the fiscal mismanagement of the American economy during the Reagan years brought us to this disaster.

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- "How my G.O.P. destroyed the U.S. economy." Yes, that is exactly what David Stockman, President Ronald Reagan's director of the Office of Management and Budget, wrote in a recent New York Times op-ed piece, "Four Deformations of the Apocalypse."

Get it? Not "destroying." The GOP has already "destroyed" the U.S. economy, setting up an "American Apocalypse."

Yes, Stockman is equally damning of the Democrats' Keynesian policies. But what this indictment by a party insider -- someone so close to the development of the Reaganomics ideology -- says about America, helps all of us better understand how America's toxic partisan-politics "holy war" is destroying not just the economy and capitalism, but the America dream. And unless this war stops soon, both parties will succeed in their collective death wish.

But why focus on Stockman's message? It's already lost in the 24/7 news cycle. Why? We need some introspection. Ask yourself: How did the great nation of America lose its moral compass and drift so far off course, to where our very survival is threatened?

We've arrived at a historic turning point as a nation that no longer needs outside enemies to destroy us, we are committing suicide. Democracy. Capitalism. The American dream. All dying. Why? Because of the economic decisions of the GOP the past 40 years, says this leading Reagan Republican.

Please listen with an open mind, no matter your party affiliation: This makes for a powerful history lesson, because it exposes how both parties are responsible for destroying the U.S. economy. Listen closely:

Reagan Republican: the GOP should file for bankruptcy

Stockman rushes into the ring swinging like a boxer: "If there were such a thing as Chapter 11 for politicians, the Republican push to extend the unaffordable Bush tax cuts would amount to a bankruptcy filing. The nation's public debt ... will soon reach $18 trillion." It screams "out for austerity and sacrifice." But instead, the GOP insists "that the nation's wealthiest taxpayers be spared even a three-percentage-point rate increase."

In the past 40 years Republican ideology has gone from solid principles to hype and slogans. Stockman says: "Republicans used to believe that prosperity depended upon the regular balancing of accounts -- in government, in international trade, on the ledgers of central banks and in the financial affairs of private households and businesses too."

No more. Today there's a "new catechism" that's "little more than money printing and deficit finance, vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes" making a mockery of GOP ideals. Worse, it has resulted in "serial financial bubbles and Wall Street depredations that have crippled our economy." Yes, GOP ideals backfired, crippling our economy.

READ THE REST OF THIS DAMNING ARTICLE ON HOW THE GOP DESTROYED OUR ECONOMY HERE.

STANDARD AND POORS DOWNGRADES US CREDIT RATING THANKS TO THE GOP'S DEBT CEILING DEBACLE

UPDATE I: [h/t from our friend Sue of "Hello...Mr. President"]

Quote from S&P:
"Compared with previous projections, our revised base case scenario now assumes that the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, due to expire by the end of 2012, remain in place. WE HAVE CHANGED OUR ASSUMPTION ON THIS BECAUSE THE MAJORITY OF REPUBLICANS IN CONGRESS CONTINUE TO RESIST ANY MEASURE THAT WOULD RAISE REVENUES [emphasis added], a position we believe Congress reinforced by passing the act."

UPDATE II:

National Journal: ‘It’s hard to read the S&P analysis as anything other than a blast at Republicans’ | The National Journal takes a close look at the S&P decision to downgrade U.S. credit. The conclusion: “It based it on the political game of chicken over the debt ceiling, a game that Republicans initiated and pushed to the limit, and on a growing gloom about the partisan deadlock. Part of S&P’s gloom, moreover, stemmed explicitly from what a new assessment of the GOP’s ability to block any and all tax increases.” Read the full analysis here.



The GOP causes the downgrading of America's rating:

For the first time in America's history, the debt ceiling was held hostage by the GOP until it got its demands; and less than a week after the GOP's terrorist tactics, for the first time in America's history, Standard & Poors downgraded America's credit rating.


"A day after Moody's Investor Service warned that the United States's credit rating was in danger of being lowered, Standard & Poor's followed suit Thursday.

S&P, one of the three major ratings agencies, said it "has placed its 'AAA' long-term and 'A-1+' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the United States of America on CreditWatch with negative implications."

S&P said the move "reflects our view of two separate but related issues. The first issue is the continuing failure to raise the U.S. government debt ceiling so as to ensure that the government will be able to continue to make scheduled payments on its debt obligations. The second pertains to our current view of the likelihood that Congress and the Administration will agree upon a credible, medium-term fiscal consolidation plan in the foreseeable future."

"We still believe that the risk of a payment default on U.S. government debt obligations as a result of not raising the debt ceiling is small, though increasing," S&P said."

From the NYTimes:

"The downgrade could lead investors to demand higher interest rates from the federal government and other borrowers, raising costs for governments, businesses and home buyers. But many analysts say the impact could be modest, in part because the other ratings agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, have decided not to downgrade the government at this time. "

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“The downgrade reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenge,” the company said in a statement."

NYTimes editorial, 8/6/2011:

"Washington may be in denial, but the rest of the country knows what’s going on. A New York Times/CBS News Poll, released the same day as the July jobs report, showed that by a ratio of more than two to one, Americans say that creating jobs should be a higher priority than cutting spending.

The poll also showed that a record 82 percent of Americans now say they disapprove of Congress, a sentiment that is surely fed by the belief of an overwhelming majority who told the pollsters that the debt ceiling fight was more about gaining political advantage than doing what is best for the country.

[skip]


The American people understand what’s needed, even if Congress doesn’t. As Stanley Oland, 62, a Republican from Kalispell, Mont., told the pollsters: “Unless you have working people, you don’t have revenue from taxes. If you cut spending, jobs will be eliminated and you won’t get any revenue. Every dollar spent creates jobs.”

There you have it.  The GOP's leaders have unequivocally stated that its number one priority is to make Mr. Obama a one-term president.  We don't have two political parties.  We have the Democrats and a party that believes only it has the right to govern and any other politician from the Democratic Party needs to be delegitimized and demonized.   Before Mr. Obama took office, the radio hate mongers, i.e. Rush Limbaugh, told audiences that they hoped the newly elected president would fail.  Mr. Obama won the 2008 election handily, but to the GOP, this was not legitimate because the American people voted in a Democrat--for the first time in America's history, a bi-racial president.

The GOP's apologists become indignant when anyone suggests that there are  racists in the Tea Party, but the racist emails and photoshopping of Mr. and Mrs. Obama to look like apes, whores and pimps prove otherwise.  It's not the Democrats who are sending around those disgusting images.

I hope voters--independents and moderates who want congress and the president to compromise; the ones who determine presidential elections--take a good hard sober look at the destructive, racist elements in the GOP and its determination to destroy this country so that they can remove Mr. Obama, a compromiser, from office.

If your 401(k) and your stock portfolio are losing their value, thank a Republican because it's the result of their plan to make Mr. Obama a one-term president.  To hell with how it ruins YOU financially.

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post:

"Ever since Obama walked through the doors of the Oval Office for the first time as president, he has been beset by one crisis after another that would sap his support or raise doubts about him and his leadership. There was the imploding economy in early 2009 and the actions taken to prevent another Depression; the politically debilitating health-care debate and the law that helped fuel the rise of the Tea Party and the loss of the House; the response to the gulf oil spill and the swine flu epidemic; the struggling economic recovery and frustration over the lack of jobs; the debt-ceiling fiasco; the delegitimizing birther nonsense that gained traction; and a Republican minority in the Senate and then a Republican majority in the House that see their sole purpose as thwarting anything that might be viewed as a success for the president, even if it might do right by the country.
Given all that, a 48 percent approval rating is damned impressive."

AMERICA OVERWHELMINGLY DISAPPROVES OF JOHN BOEHNER AND CONGRESS--GOOD GOING TEA PARTIERS

After dragging this country through days of brinkmanship and fear, John Boehner and Congress have earned the wrath of the American people.  Worldwide financial markets are reacting to the reckless, disastrous blackmail the Tea Party foisted upon America.  How's your portfolio doing today?

You can thank the Republican Party for not kicking the TPs juvenile asses to the curb for this unprecedented  hijacking of our national debate.  Americans are angry, and their anger is directed at the GOP. 

President Obama's numbers, OTOH, are holding steady.

Today's GOP is not just the Party of NO! it's the party of "Let's Keep the Kenyan Commie Marxist Socialist Guy to  One Term by Destroying America!"  They believe in burning down the country in order to save it.

Remember that when you vote in 2012.





NYTimes/CBS Poll:

Well, Congress has done it. It's hit its highest disapproval ratings since the New York Times/CBS News poll was created in 1977. In the wake of the debt debate, a full 82% of Americans are displeased with the legislative branch, with only 14% approval.

It's not so much the deal that was struck on the debt ceiling increase, which Americans were split on: 46% actually approved of the deal versus 45%. It was the perceived motivations that have people upset. 82% of the poll's respondents said that disagreements between parties on the debt ceiling debate were due to "gaining political advantage," rather than "doing what's best for the country," which only 14% saw as the motivator for Congress. Those numbers perfectly mirrored the general Congressional ratings.

As was the case with other polling around the debt deal, some individual political leaders have taken a hit. In this case, House Speaker John Boehner's disapproval rating went from 42% in April of this year to 57% now, while his national approval rating only went from 32% to 30%. President Obama saw a slight increase in his disapproval rating over that time as well, from 45% to the current 47%, but his approval went from 46% to 48%.

In the end, the poll really shows that Congress, having never really been that popular individually, is reaching new lows. The percentage of respondents to the poll that thought this is either "dissatisfied" or "angry" with Washington was 84.

h/t Talking Points Memo

THIS IS WHO THEY ARE

Yes, Tea Partiers. That's EXACTLY What You Are: TERRORISTS! Now Live with how America Perceives You.

"Be careful what you pretend to be because you are what you pretend to be."
Kurt Vonnegut 

The Tea Partiers are shocked, shocked, SHOCKED! that they've been characterized as the slash and burn terrorists that they most certainly are.  When you act like thugs, people will call you thugs, and the American people see the Tea Party as nothing more than know-nothing thugs who terrorized the country with the threat of financial disaster unless they got their way.  This is the behavior of jihadists, not politicians. 

And when the Randian Tea Partiers are faced with the fact that Americans and the world see them as destructive, incompetent fools--Hello Michele Bachmann!--they cry FOUL!  It's not FAIR!

Well it is a fair and accurate description of how they've behaved and what their ideology is.

Live with it, Tea Baggers.  You so richly deserve all the disgust and loathing America is feeling right now for what you put it through.

Meanwhile, the many times DEFEATED narcissist, Sarah Palin, has gone all postal because of the "terrorist" label that the Tea Party is stuck with and called that label "vile."

Really.

This monumental LOSER is a monumental hypocrite:

Palin has lobbed the “terrorist” claim against her own political opponents in the past: In 2008, she accused President Obama — then the democratic nominee for president — of “palling around” with terrorists.

Get lost, Palin.  No one cares about you anymore.

Meanwhile this reality check from Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish:

"The deal that was reached over the weekend seems to be Obama giving the GOP the immediate field but redeploying to higher ground. The dynamics of the super-committee certainly favor the Democrats, and it could really damage the conservatives over the next year and a half. Who would have thought that raising the debt ceiling twice would be more politically dangerous for the GOP than Obama? Each time it gets raised, the most radical of the Tea Party express get more and more dissatisfied with their current batch of conservatives. This all adds up to more and more primary challenges next year, while Obama looks more and more like the sane choice to the general public."

 

Meep Meep.

ERIC ERICKSON OF RED STATE

Erickson compares Mr. Obama to Keyser Söze,
 fictional character in the 1995 film The Usual Suspects. Söze is an underworld kingpin whose ruthlessness and influence have acquired a legendary, and even mythical, status among law enforcement agents and criminals alike.

The use of the name in popular culture is a shorthand reference to being fooled, by an actual villain, into believing in a villain who does not exist." --Wikipedia

So Erickson, a shameless political hack, likens President Obama to a villian, when the whole world knows that the Tea Party Terrorists held America and the world hostage to their thuggish demands.  Nice fantasy work there, Eric.  Like all bullies and cowards, you deflect responsibility from yourself and the Tea Party Terrorists and blame the only adult in the room.

Fortunately, the American people aren't buying your bullpuckey.

But thanks for admitting Mr. Obama will come out of this better than will the Tea Party Terrorists.

Erickson writes:

He’s got the Democrats to take the fall with the base, convinced Obama is an inept negotiator.

He’s got the GOP befuddled thinking they’ve had some success.

Meanwhile, Obama himself gets several loose ends sewn together that could complicate his re-election, including the debt ceiling, spending cuts, and tax reform.

And if he pulls it all off and wins re-election, he’s also secured full funding for Obamacare, killed off the Bush tax cuts for good, and probably cut defense spending enough to be re-allocated elsewhere in 2013.

People saying the Democrats were big losers are right. On policy.

But politically, Obama is a massive winner and if he wins re-election will also have some long term liberal policy victories greeting him January 1, 2013.

THE LAST LAUGH

From TPM Reader RW ...

"Let me get this straight. The President kept revenues on the table, did not touch the sunset provisions in the Bush tax cuts, ensured that military cuts keep the GOP honest, protected Medicare by adding in only provider cuts in the trigger, made the reduction apparently enough to stave off a debt downgrade, got the debt ceiling raised, wounded Boehner by demonstrating to the world that he is controlled by the Tea Party caucus, took out the requirement that a BBA be passed and sent to the states and got the extension through 2012? What exactly is wrong with this deal?"

PRESIDENT OBAMA AS ATTICUS FINCH?

David Atkins over at Digby explores this in an analysis of the deal extorted by the extremist Tea Party thugs.

I've never been in the camp of progressives who believe Mr. Obama should act like a bully and double down on threats and intransigence.  Atkins explains that we liberals/progressives never supported that style of governing.

"It is not our instinct to take an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. It is not our instinct to play by the rules of "The Chicago Way", where an act of aggression by an opponent is responded to with an act of equal or greater retaliation by your own side.

[skip]

When faced with an opposition willing to use lies, extortion and terrorism to achieve its goals, there are two possible responses. The first is equal and opposite aggression: to give as good as you get. But the second is to remain open-handed and and assume that by being the adult, turning the other cheek and giving way to your opponent even if only temporarily, you will seize the moral high ground and let the opponent's own momentum carry him over to his own destruction.

That is the essence of what can be loosely characterized as "Eastern" wisdom, a very Taoist or Buddhist approach. In the Christian tradition, this sort of counsel can be found throughout the Book of Matthew. In a more secular vein, it could be called the Atticus Finch approach. Insofar as one gives Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt, he almost surely sees himself as Atticus Finch refusing to punch back even as the villain spits in his face."

I don't like the deal that the extortionist Tea Party Republicans extracted from the adults in our government.  I'm angry with how they took us to the brink of disaster and at their incompetence in and ignorance about governing.  What this capitulation to their threats and demands means will play out over the next year and a half.

Meanwhile, I tend to agree with the assessment written by "Smartypants:"

MICHELE OBAMA in 2008:  "Here's the thing about my husband: even in the toughest moments, when it seems like all is lost, Barack Obama never loses sight of the end goal. He never lets himself get distracted by the chatter and the noise, even if it comes from some of his best supporters. He just keeps moving forward.

And in those moments when we're all sweating it, when we're worried that the bill won't pass or the negotiation will fall through, Barack always reminds me that we're playing a long game here. He reminds me that change is slow — it doesn't happen overnight.

If we keep showing up, if we keep fighting the good fight and doing what we know is right, then eventually we will get there.

We always have."

SMARTYPANTS:  "As we hear rumors about what might be in the debt ceiling bill, I begin to wonder about that long game.

I've had one guess in the back of my mind for a couple of days. Its not like I have the greatest track record in these predictions. But its still interesting to throw this kind of thing out there. And then this morning I saw something that made it seem even more likely.

What I saw was an short note in Politico titled WH fine with no new revenue until 2013. It refers to something Gene Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council, said."

FACT SHEET ON THE DEAL HERE

The Daily Kos stands with President Obama.  Link here.