"Let'em die!" --Tea Party's Motto

At the last GOP-TP debate, the audience erupted in approving cheers and applause when Gov. Rick Perry talked about his execution record.

Last night, at another GOP-TP candidates' debate, Rep. Ron Paul answered a hypothetical questioned posed by Wolf Blitzer.  The question was asked about a young man who opted out of buying insurance because of the cost and then who became ill with a catastrophic disease.

"What do you tell a guy who is sick, goes into a coma and doesn't have health insurance? Who pays for his coverage? "Are you saying society should just let him die?" Wolf Blitzer asked.

'Yeah!' several members of the crowd yelled out.

Paul interjected to offer an explanation for how this was, more-or-less, the root choice of a free society. He added that communities and non-government institutions can fill the void that the public sector is currently playing."


In a country of over 300 million people, Paul stupidly suggested that churches and other private charities could cover the cost of someone's catastrophic illness.  Perhaps this is his sneaky way of putting religious institutions out of business?

Then Paul contradicted himself with this remark at the end of his answer:

. "We have given up on this whole concept that we might take care of ourselves, assume responsibility for ourselves ... that's the reason the cost is so high." 

Actually, the cost comes down when the risk is shared by hundreds of millions of people who pay into a system like Medicare.

Paul must live in a world where he sees no poverty or families that struggle with financial problems.  Those are real problems for real people.   Who goes to a church or other charity expecting those people to pay for long-term costly medical care to save a life?    That's why we pay into a system where benefits are there for those who need them--Medicare. 

The people in the audience who cheered at the suggestion that someone should die because he had no medical coverage are the same people who support  getting rid of social security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, the EPA, and the Department of Education.   They support the elimination of police, firemen, and teachers' unions.  They and the politicians they hope to place in power envision a Hobbesian nightmare for America--a nightmare of violence, abuse, and neglect.

Interesting comments on the HuffPost blog covering this issue:

"Ron Paul fails to point out the hospitals still get paid by tax dollars when they treat uninsured patients. People don't get turned away, not because the hospital is magnanimou­s, but because the hospital gets paid. They are also required, by law, to treat anyone who comes in the E.R. (at taxpayers expense)
You can keep your "every man for himself"/ "only the strongest survive" 1850's worldview.

Why is Paul (or any bagger) even in the Goverment? The Government is clearly a waste of money, has no authority or obligation to do anything, and is evil. Why do so many of them want to be part of it?"

And:

"When I was in magazine publishing­, we had a saying: 'Once is a mistake, twice is a new style.'

I thought about that tonight while watching the CNN Tea Party debate. Applauding Rick Perry's record on executions was one thing; applauding the suggestion that society should allow a 30-year-ol­d who lapses into a coma and doesn't have insurance to die ... that's absolutely and utterly appalling.

Once could be forgiven as an anomaly, as an outlier. Twice?

That's today's GOP for you." 


Go here to read Smartypants' take on the GOP-TP's shameful reaction last night.

"The Worst of Humankind"

After 9/11:

“Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind.  The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.”  --Conservative President George W. Bush


The Worst of Humankind:

 "If America is ever the target of a nuclear attack, Dirty Bomb or an all out Nuclear Bomb, we must send these Dirt-Bag Pigs directly to HELL once and for all. And if this administration is NOT going to do anything against these Muslims, then we will have to deal with the administration and get them out of office, and put in someone will guts and the balls to do what is necessary. America can no longer live under the threat of these ANIMALS on a daily basis. Call me a right wing Islamophobe, or what ever else you want to, but enough is more than enough. Yes, Islam is a terrorist religion. You want proof? Read a newspaper! Read what these Radical Islimeballs are up to these days. They won't rest until they see us destroyed and dead. Let's not wait for that . How many innocent people have to be killed by these terrorist, until we do what we have to do? America is not used to have to fight a war the way that we have been fighting the past few. We have the capability of winning a war in a week or less, so why are our hands tied behind our backs? Where is the leadership of the past? Where are the Generals Patton and MacArthur of the 21st century? Are they only a memory?" --conservative blogger

"He [Bush] never said that we would close up Gitmo and release these animals! He never said let’s forget and forgive, and he would have never allowed the incredibly insensitive idea of a Mosque to be built on that site. Instead of acknowledging that radical Islam is the problem, we elected a president who blames America, whose idea of freedom is the right for women to suffer in silence behind a veil and those who damn our country or believe that our own government staged the tragedy of September 11th, ...Yes, we are placating and appeasing the Muslim world, the same Muslim world that was celebrating and dancing in the streets on 9/11 and still do. The same Muslim that want to push Israel into the sea. . Instead standing up to those terrorist threats, we placate to them because we are afraid that we may offend these mass murdering radical Muslims. And we dare not offend them by even publishing cartoons about them. Sure it was fine to paint George Bush as a dumb Chimp and to criticize and make fun of the way he pronounced the word Nuclear. But don't dare to publish a cartoon of Obama as a Black anything. And don't dare to mention the fact that Michelle Obama has a big ass or that she and her Hubby love to pig out on Hamburgers etc while she preaches Healthy Eating habits." --conservative blogger 

Porochista Khakpour, Op-Ed, New York Times, 9/11/2011

"Just six days after 9/11, at the Islamic Center of Washington, President Bush said, “Those who feel like they can intimidate our fellow citizens to take out their anger don’t represent the best of America, they represent the worst of humankind.” He added: “The face of terror is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is peace.” Did that assurance mean more to white Americans coming from someone who looked like them?
                   
Xenophobia and racism still abounded, but the lid stayed on the pot. Perhaps when Republicans held both the White House and Congress, conservatives weren’t sweating a thing; for them, people of color, along with all our white liberal friends, were lumped together in one misery-loves-company fringe. But now that the tables have turned, conservatives have positioned themselves as aggrieved victims. (I recall the advice of an older female relative: Always let men you’re in relationships with have all the power; it’s when they lose power and get insecure that your problems start.)
Indeed, has the most irrational breed of 9/11 payback emerged precisely because we elected an African-American president whose middle name — the name of cousins of mine — has turned into an H-word slur? A commander in chief whom the most misled and confused perceive in cartoon cahoots with terrorists, or at least as their religion-mate? As if that weren’t enough, take last year’s Fort Hood gunman, add a helping of the would-be Times Square bomber and top it off with “ground zero mosque” — and voilà, a boiling hot summer of anti-Islamic assault. Suddenly, anyone with skin as dark as President Obama’s could be a “secret Muslim,” and any Muslim must surely be a not-so-secret terrorist."      

Kevin McCarthy

Remembering him and all who lost their lives.

Kevin McCarthy

I measure every Grief I meet
by Emily Dickinson
I measure every Grief I meet With narrow, probing, eyes – I wonder if It weighs like Mine – Or has an Easier size. I wonder if They bore it long – Or did it just begin – I could not tell the Date of Mine – It feels so old a pain – I wonder if it hurts to live – And if They have to try – And whether – could They choose between – It would not be – to die – I note that Some – gone patient long – At length, renew their smile – An imitation of a Light That has so little Oil – I wonder if when Years have piled – Some Thousands – on the Harm – That hurt them early – such a lapse Could give them any Balm – Or would they go on aching still Through Centuries of Nerve – Enlightened to a larger Pain – In Contrast with the Love – The Grieved – are many – I am told – There is the various Cause – Death – is but one – and comes but once – And only nails the eyes – There's Grief of Want – and grief of Cold – A sort they call "Despair" – There's Banishment from native Eyes – In sight of Native Air – And though I may not guess the kind – Correctly – yet to me A piercing Comfort it affords In passing Calvary – To note the fashions – of the Cross – And how they're mostly worn – Still fascinated to presume That Some – are like my own –

"Pass This Jobs Bill!"

“Pass this jobs bill!"

It was a big, bold speech that challenged the do-nothing Congress to action.  Mr. Obama will take his message to the American people.

 “The question is whether, in the face of an ongoing national crisis, we can stop the political circus and actually do something to help the economy.”       

If the past 2 1/2 years have told us anything, it is that the TP-GOP will obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, and to hell with helping the American people.  The TP-GOP circus has not delivered on their promise of JOBS!  JOBS!  JOBS!  Now that Mr. Obama has challenged them, let's see what their excuses will be for not  giving Mr. Obama his proposed expansion in payroll tax cuts.  The TP-GOP believe in tax cuts, but the question is, do they believe in tax cuts when they're proposed by a Democratic president?

Mr. Obama ended his speech with this:

"Regardless of the arguments we’ve had in the past, regardless of the arguments we will have in the future, this plan is the right thing to do right now. You should pass it. And I intend to take that message to every corner of this country. And I ask -- I ask every American who agrees to lift your voice: Tell the people who are gathered here tonight that you want action now. Tell Washington that doing nothing is not an option. Remind us that if we act as one nation and one people, we have it within our power to meet this challenge."

I don't expect President Obama to get all he wants for America from this Congress, but the onus is clearly on Speaker Boehner for taking action and taking the proposals set out in last night's speech seriously.  No longer will we take "Hell NO!" as a policy for putting Americans back to work.

Via ThinkProgress:  "Top economic analysts are giving favorable estimates of just how many jobs President Obama’s new plan would create. Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, predicts Obama’s “American Jobs Act” will likely add 1.9 million jobs and grow the economy by 2 percent. The nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute reported that it would boost employment by around 4.3 million jobs, with 2.6 million jobs coming from new initiatives alone.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman offered praise for President Obama’s announced jobs legislation, calling it ” significantly bolder and better” than he expected. However, he pointed out that “nothing will be done until the American people demand action,” noting that Congress will need to be persuaded to take action on jobs."

More Responses to Mr. Obama's speech here.

And the predictable assclowns of the GOP:

"While he didn’t yell “you lie,” Rep. Jeff Landry (R-LA) broke congressional decorum last night when he quietly shilled for the oil industry with a sign reading “Drilling = jobs” during President Obama’s jobs address to a joint session of Congress. Other Republican lawmakers boycotted the speech, even though Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) urged his members to appear."

Do we need further proof of the 2-year old mentality of the TP-GOP?

 

RICK PERRY

RICK PERRY: 

Social Security is a Ponzi Scheme and unConstitutional.  Now watch this nose-dive.


David Frum:

"The revelation from the Republican presidential debate: Rick Perry and his team utterly failed to prepare answers to utterly predictable questions on “military adventurism” and Social Security. Worse than that, Perry’s Social Security answer delivered President Obama the perfect clip for a 2012 negative ad: Rick Perry in his too-new suit and too-shiny tie denouncing Social Security as a Ponzi scheme. If Perry wins the nomination, expect to see that moment reiterated in as many TV ads as $1 billion in presidential campaign funds can buy."


RICK PERRY:

Do I lose sleep over the possibility of having killed  an innocent man?     HELL NO!

GOP AUDIENCE: YEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAW!

Alex Massie:

"[I]t was when Perry talked about the death penalty that you saw how his candidacy can tap into the conservative soul: he was utterly untroubled by the thought he might have authorised the execution of an innocent prisoner (as he almost certainly did in the case of Cameron Todd Willingham) and, what's more, the audience cheered him to the echo. I thought it revolting but it was popular stuff, delivered in the appropriate "alpha male" style of a man with balls big enough to fry an innocent man. And, in the end, that's what a large part of Perry's appeal rests upon: an idea of how a conservative Presidential candidate should look, talk and walk. Never mind the substance, feel the attitude dude."

Steve Kornacki:

"It's easy to read too much into a debate, but if Wednesday night did nothing else it proved that the biggest threat to Rick Perry's candidacy continues to be Rick Perry."
WHEREAS, throughout our history, both as a state and as individuals, Texans have been strengthened, assured and lifted up through prayer; it seems right and fitting that the people of Texas should join together in prayer to humbly seek an end to this devastating drought and these dangerous wildfires;

"NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal and robust way of life."--Official Proclamation from Texas Governor Rick Perry – April 2011

“There have been 34,000 Mexicans killed directly attributable to the drug wars. It is a very dangerous place. Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.”--Rick Perry – Feb 2011 - Juarez is in Mexico


“Texas is a national example of how to best prepare our children for higher education and the workplace… I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution.”*--Rick Perry – 2010 THE VOTE: K-12 Education article. 9/11/2010

* Texas ranks 31st out of 50 states in Math and Science scores

Stick a fork in this dude.  He's done.

Texas vs. Massachusetts

Via Andrew Sullivan's blog:

"Texas vs Massachusetts


They are poles apart on the numbers of uninsured. Perry's Texas has 27.2 percent of its population without health insurance - the worst record in America. Massachusetts has an uninsured rate of 5.2 percent - the best. And yet Romney is still apologizing for this achievement.


Tell me: is it actually a Republican goal that people cannot have decent access to healthcare? Do they have any proposals to help?


That's a fair question. I've heard people on the right ask where in the Constitution does it say that people have a right to health care.


My answer is that it's in the preamble to the Constitutution where the Founding Fathers wrote this:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Can anyone deny that ensuring that people have access to affordable health care is promoting the general welfare?  And how can people secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and their posterity if they are saddled with catastrophic medical bills that wipe out their family's financial security?

I'm thankful I live in Massachusetts, the state that helped me in one of the worst moments of my life when I faced a life-threatening illness and found my insurance was woefully inadequate and would not cover the minimal cost of fighting the disease.

Thanks to Mitt Romeny and his health care initiative, I was able to face this terrible time in my life with dignity and the security of knowing I would be able to get the medical help I needed.

President Obama took the best parts of Romney's health care initiative and passed the ACA for all Americans, thus giving all Americans the ability to secure the blessings of Liberty for themselves and their posterity.

A President Perry or Bachmann and other GOPers want to overturn President Obama's health care law.  What happened to me could happen to anyone--YOU, for example.  Why would anyone want to send Americans back to the days of losing their financial security and homes just because they got sick?

Think about it.

I do. 

All the time.
 

HISTORY OF RECENT GOP PRESIDENCIES

Some interesting facts from Thom Hartmann



h/t Sue, at Helloooo...Mr. President, Are You Listening?

Hello, God? It's us, the fringies in the GOP.

I was just wondering, after reading Rep. Michele Bachmann's explanation of her "joke" about God sending messages to people written in His inimical earthquake and hurricane hand, if she has any insight into what sort of  message God is sending to the people in the area of Austin, Texas?  


People like Bachmann, Gov. Rick Perry, and Pat Robertson, who claim to understand the mysterious ways in which their mysterious god works, are silent when tragedy strikes areas of this country where the people's political and religious beliefs most closely reflect their own.


We come to the conclusion then that when terrible natural disasters happen in mostly blue states, it's God's judgment on how the people are behaving; but when terrible natural disaster happen in mostly red states, it's, well, just a natural disaster with no punishment intended for God's own people--Goopers.  See their god sends calamaties as a judgment on their behaviors only to liberals and non-whites, not His beloved Anti-Help Thy Neighbor conservatives. 


Just thought I'd clear this up for everyone.


BTW, two of the above loonies want to be your president.

CONSERVATIVE COLUMNIST: DISENFRANCHISE THE POOR! THEY DESERVE NO RIGHTS!

So in addition to eliminating Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the EPA, the FDA, NOAA, the Department of Education, the hurricane hunters program and tying disaster relief to budget cuts, we now have another conservative with another idea to improve this country: 

Disenfranchise the poor! 

How long before the presidential front runners in the GOP, who thump their chests the loudest about loving the Baby Jesus and about being Super Christ-ers, come out and condemn this assault on the very least of our citizens?  Anyone taking any bets?

Matthew Vadum writing in the very popular conservative blog, American Thinker:  

Why are left-wing activist groups so keen on registering the poor to vote?

Because they know the poor can be counted on to vote themselves more benefits by electing redistributionist politicians.  Welfare recipients are particularly open to demagoguery and bribery. 
Registering them to vote is like handing out burglary tools to criminals.  It is profoundly antisocial and un-American to empower the nonproductive segments of the population to destroy the country -- which is precisely why Barack Obama zealously supports registering welfare recipients to vote."

If, as this columnist says, the poor are nothing but blood-sucking drags on America, why just disenfranchise them?   Why not eliminate them entirely so people like Vadum don't have to look at them or, even better, think about their low, insignificant and unproductive lives?

What is so disturbing about this is not just the monstrously evil suggestion that poor people should be disenfranchised, but that the conservative who suggested it felt comfortable in making such an outrageous proposition public, with, apparently, no fear of being hounded from a civil society like a flea-laden rat. 

We've come to a point in our nation's life where conservatives believe the American people are with them in wanting to eliminate anything that benefits the most needy and to keep in place financial privileges that benefit the most wealthy.  Because everyone learned in Bible School that Jesus said "Whatever you do for the richest, most powerful of mine, you do for me."

The American people do not support any of the GOP's ideas about eliminating Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the rest of the programs that make us a caring and civil society.  Americans want to reduce the deficit, not by getting rid of social programs, but by increasing taxes on the wealthiest.

But back to the wannabe oligarch, Vadum, who believes poor people should have the right to vote taken away because they would vote their own self interest. (BTW, who DOESN'T vote her own self interest?) I would remind this ridiculous man that the poor do pay taxes every time they buy a taxable item either in a store or at the service station.  This conservative's idea of making people who are financially less fortunate less than full citizens is repugnant to all true Americans, and it is class-warfare reasoning like Vadum's, and not the ones he erroneously listed, that compel less fortunate people to vote Democratic and not Republican.

 

INHERIT THE IGNORANCE

Apparently, in order to be supported by the GOP's base, a presidential candidate must debase him/herself and announce to the world his/her distrust of science. All of the presidential contenders, save for Jon Huntsman, have proudly voiced their doubts about Evolution as settled science, thus making monkeys of themselves in the eyes of enlightened minds in all corners of the world. All corners except in America, where we are at the bottom of the heap in all surveys that ask what percentage of our population accepts Evolution. Only Turkey is lower than we are.

This will warm the hearts of wilfull know-nothings and ensure that their children will carry on in their tradition of believing in a book written by Bronze Age superstitious, women-hating, old men. Good on them.
No amount of evidence will ever dissuade these types from their inscient world view. And as the presidential popularity polls show, the dumb and the ignorant will surely inherit the top Republican polling spot.



Here is Richard Dawkins, eminent ethologist and evolutionary biologist with his take on the lastest embarrassment from the GOP, Governor Rick Perry:


"There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

Any other organization -- a big corporation, say, or a university, or a learned society - -when seeking a new leader, will go to immense trouble over the choice. The CVs of candidates and their portfolios of relevant experience are meticulously scrutinized, their publications are read by a learned committee, references are taken up and scrupulously discussed, the candidates are subjected to rigorous interviews and vetting procedures. Mistakes are still made, but not through lack of serious effort.

The population of the United States is more than 300 million and it includes some of the best and brightest that the human species has to offer, probably more so than any other country in the world. There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities.

A politician’s attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy but, compared to Perry’s and the Tea Party’s pronouncements on other topics such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician’s attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. Evolution is a fact, as securely established as any in science, and he who denies it betrays woeful ignorance and lack of education, which likely extends to other fields as well.

Evolution is not some recondite backwater of science, ignorance of which would be pardonable. It is the stunningly simple but elegant explanation of our very existence and the existence of every living creature on the planet. Thanks to Darwin, we now understand why we are here and why we are the way we are. You cannot be ignorant of evolution and be a cultivated and adequate citizen of today.

[skip]

There are many reasons to vote against Rick Perry. His fatuous stance on the teaching of evolution in schools is perhaps not the first reason that springs to mind. But maybe it is the most telling litmus test of the other reasons, and it seems to apply not just to him but, lamentably, to all the likely contenders for the Republican nomination. The ‘evolution question’ deserves a prominent place in the list of questions put to candidates in interviews and public debates during the course of the coming election."

Richard Dawkins wrote this response to Governor Perry for On Faith, the Washington Post’s forum for news and opinion on religion and politics.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (Jerk-MN) Says Earthquake and Hurricane is God's Warning to Washington

"WASHINGTON – Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann told Floridians Sunday that Hurricane Irene and the earthquake felt along much of the East Coast last week were messages from God to warn 'politicians' to start heeding divine guidance, which she suggested is being channeled through small government conservatives.

'I don't know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We've had an earthquake; we've had a hurricane. He said, 'Are you going to start listening to me here?'  Bachmann, a third-term Minnesota representative, told a crowd in Sarasota that the St. Petersburg Times estimated contained around 1,000 people.

[skip]

Her comments appear to link God's will with those who believe the U.S. government is too large and intrudes too much on people's lives. A Bachmann spokeswoman has not responded to a request for clarification of the congresswoman's comments. "

I have some questions for this foolish woman who will never be president:  If the earthquake and the hurricane are God's message to the politicians in Washington [that means he's speaking to you, too, madam, and the Tea Party wrecking crew], how, pray tell, can you determine that God was going after the politicians on economic policies and not the Congress people who are threatening to dismantle the EPA, NOAA, FEMA, Social Security, and Medicare to make more difficult the lives of millions of Americans and guarantee a permanent underclass in this country?

Did God come to you, Michele, in a vision and personally tell you at whom he is directing his wrath?  If so, I think you should be running for pope and not president.  When "God" speaks to clerics and holy people, that's called divine revelation; when he speaks to lay people, it's called insanity. 


Also, the next time God talks to you [you DID say he told you to run for president, didn't you], could you ask him to tell you what the people in the state of Texas did that pissed him off so royally?  They're enduring one of the worst droughts in the state's history--under the leadership of a Tea Party yee-haw, who loves the Baby Jesus more than Darwin.  Governor Goodhair even led a prayer rally for rain, which was ignored.  The drought is worse now than ever.


Dozens of people died as a result of hurricane Irene, and not one of them, to the best of my knowledge, was a Washington politician--one, in fact, was a 9-year old boy. You diminish those tragic deaths by conjuring up an out-of-control maniacal God who would obliterate innocent men, women, and children to make a political point. 

Having a campaign spokeswoman make excuses for you after your callous pronouncement and claim you were "only joking" doesn't cancel out the fact that you're a heartless nincompoop whose idea of something funny is the destruction of thousands of people's lives.  

THREE CHARTS THAT EXPLAIN REALITY

It is useful in any discussion on the economy and jobs to have the facts.  A picture is worth a thousand words.  Therefore, in place of words, I offer these three charts as visual proof of who is responsible for the economic troubles we are experiencing now, and how President Obama's 2 1/2 years in office has improved the mess Bush left us.  

A majority of economists understand that government cutting spending during a downturn makes that downturn worse.  We need another stimulus; the first one was not big enough.  In the meantime, read these charts and understand for the gazillionth time that YES, it absolutely is BUSH'S FAULT,  and Mr. Obama, with the help of a cooperative Congress, could do much more to improve the disaster Bush left to the American people. 

The reality is that improving the economy would give Mr. Obama a second term, and we all know that the GOP has clearly stated that denying President Obama a second term is more important to them than improving the economic life of America and putting people back to work.  It is difficult to understand how anyone could continue to support a political party with such a small, spiteful goal:  The continued suffering of the American people for political gain.
 
h/t daily kos

More reading here.

IRENE

I've got my candles, flashlight, food provisions, a bottle of deliciously liberal Chardonnay,
and a Julien Barnes novel all ready for Irene to come crashing into Boston on her psychedelic motorcycle.

Stay safe everyone.

UPDATE:

The bleak, uncaring world of Libertarianism:

"GILFORD, N.H. -- After a lunch speech, Ron Paul slammed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, and said that no national response to Hurricane Irene is necessary.

"We should be like 1900; we should be like 1940, 1950, 1960," Paul said. "I live on the Gulf Coast; we deal with hurricanes all the time. Galveston is in my district.

Let's take a look back at Galveston circa 1900, shall we?

The Hurricane of 1900 made landfall on the city of Galveston in the U.S. state of Texas, on September 8, 1900. It had estimated winds of 145 miles per hour (233 km/h) at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. It was the deadliest hurricane in US history, and the second costliest hurricane in US history based on the US dollar's 2005 value (to compare costs with those of Hurricane Katrina and others).

The hurricane caused great loss of life with the estimated death toll between 6,000 and 12,000 individuals; the number most cited in official reports is 8,000, giving the storm the third-highest number of deaths or injuries of any Atlantic hurricane, after the Great Hurricane of 1780 and 1998's Hurricane Mitch. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900 is to date the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States. By contrast, the second-deadliest storm to strike the United States, the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane, caused more than 2,500 deaths, and the deadliest storm of recent times, Hurricane Katrina, claimed the lives of approximately 1,800 people."

h/t Dependable Renegade

"THE STRIDENT CLAMOR OF BAD PEOPLE"

"A Painting In The White House Depicting Obama's Racism

Is this what Obama preaches about being non-bias? Or is this what he learned by sitting in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years? As The Revvvverend Jessie Jackson says keep the racial hate alive! Or something like that. Is this what America is all about? Or is it all about having a racist President in the White House? What’s next ? Having a painting of Mexican illegal’s jumping the border on his wall? Or a painting of Dick Cheney shooting his friend at a Hunting Accident. I have a great idea, why not have a really big painting of the DRUNKEN Ted Kennedy swimming away for the drowning Mary Jo Kopechne at Chappaquiddick. I’d go for that one. I’d even vote for having a painting of Obama Blaming Bush for all his woes. Or maybe a painting of Moochie Obama walking down the streets of Spain in her African costume and all the little kiddies following her just like the Pied Piper. Or a painting of Moochie on Vacation captioned "Let them eat cake""

****************

I'm not going to link to the blog that posted this pile of strident, incoherent, and illiterate pigshit. Why give the blogger more traffic.   My regular readers will guess correctly who it is.


That he or anyone else of his ilk can interpret hanging an American iconic work of art in the White House as a "racist" action on the part of President Obama illustrates how devoid of basic human decency many on the fringe have become since the election of our first bi-racial president. Only this blogger's morally depraved readers will agree with his ignorant, bilious rant. 

Honorable people will see it for the tragic example of mindless bigotry that it is.


"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do not be silent.

UPDATE:

The people visiting the above quoted blog, as well as the blog host, didn't bother to do one ounce of research on why the Rockwell painting is hanging in the White House.  The woman who is the subject of the painting, Ruby Bridges, suggested that the White House allow it to be featured there.  The commenters at that blog swallowed the blogger's lies whole--just like, I might add, those who blindly follow and believe the misinformed leaders on the right:  Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity, etc.

"On Wednesday, Ruby Bridges — the now 56-year-old woman depicted in the Norman Rockwell painting "The Problem We All Live With — described to Politico's Josh Gerstein her efforts to convince President Obama to hang the painting in the White House."

If I were to point this fact out to those bigots, they'd accuse me of "blaming Bush."

"THE PROBLEM WE ALL LIVE WITH"

That's the title of the famous Norman Rockwell painting dipicting Ruby Bridges of New Orleans walking to her first day of school.


Ms. Bridges was only six years old when her parents volunteered her to help integrate New Orleans schools.  As a result, she became the subject of a Norman Rockwell painting that captures her innocence and the malignant hatred the little girl endured on the day she walked into the all white William Franz elementary school in NOLA.

"The court-ordered first day of integrated schools in New Orleans, November 14, 1960, was commemorated by Norman Rockwell in the painting The Problem We All Live With.^[5] As Bridges describes it, "Driving up I could see the crowd, but living in New Orleans, I actually thought it was Mardi Gras. There was a large crowd of people outside of the school. They were throwing things and shouting, and that sort of goes on in New Orleans at Mardi Gras." Former United States Deputy Marshal Charles Burks later recalled, "She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn't whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we're all very proud of her."--Wikipedia

The Norman Rockwell painting was recently placed in the White House on a temporary basis. 



More here.


The election of our first bi-racial president has brought out the racism that never really disappeared after the Civil Rights Act, but, instead, went underground; and in parts of this country, flourished.  All one has to do is read the comments under the report in Politico to understand that reality.  All one has to do is look at the racist emails sent around by conservatives who think it's only a "joke" to depict the First Family as primates; all one has to do is stomach one afternoon listening to Rush Limbaugh bring Mr. Obama's race into his rants against the president's policies and then listen to his followers call it "comedy;" all one has to do is read the remarks spoken by members of the media and Congress--remarks that, make no mistake, are based on Mr. Obama's race.

This weekend a memorial to The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., will be dedicated at the Mall in Washington, and already I've read people complaining about this the way certain people complained when a day was set aside to honor Dr. King's birthday.

None of this surprises me; all of it saddens me.  I thought, within my lifetime, I would see a lessening, not an increase of the problem we all live with.

DID YOU FEEL THAT?

Yes!  I sure did.  And I'm in Boston.

At around 1 o'clockish, (didn't check my watch), I heard a funny noise and looked up at the ceiling thinking the people above me had dropped something. I then began to feel a swaying in the living room.  I looked down at the sofa table and saw the orange juice in it sloshing back and forth in the glass, as well.  I knew immediately it was an earthquake. 

I've experienced two while visiting my daughter in SoCal, and I remember feeling one when I was a kid and living in a suburb north of Boston.


Yes, it was a 5.9 earthquake and the epicenter was in Mineral, Virginia.

More here.

LIBYANS HOLD SIGN THANKING "FANTASTIC 4"

Grateful Libyans hold sign thanking the "Fantastic 4," U.S. President Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and U.S. Ambassador the U.N. Susan Rice .

David Gergen:

"DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, John, I think there have been a lot of signs here in recent days that Gadhafi is coming toward his end….So I think he’s getting down to his, as I say, I think he’s going down to his final days. In terms of interpreting how this was done, if — Obama took a risk. If Gadhafi had been there for six months, I think he would have lost that gamble and he would have been seen as ineffectual. If he brings him down soon, I think it’s going the other way. John, you know, they got Bin Laden. If they get Gadhafi too, that’s a pretty good summer for President Obama.

….You have to say that if we get him, if he is toppled — and I do think he’s going to be toppled, either dead or alive, I think he’s going down and going down fairly soon. That with U.S. playing a secondary role, one which I have gone the other way, I would prefer the U.S. in a more muscular role, but if the Obama approach works, you have to give him credit for it.

Gergen’s conclusion that he would have liked to have seen Obama take a more “muscular” approach, but if Obama is successful then we have to give him credit, is one Gergen lived up to yesterday when he admitted he had been wrong by tweeting:

#Gadhafi seems finished! If so, #Obama/alliance approach vindicated. Critics (including me, Neo-cons,GOP, etc.) shd give credit."

h/t Politicususa

REBELS HOLD TRIPOLI

UPDATE BELOW


The New York Times is reporting that Libyan rebels are holding Tripoli:

WASHINGTON — As rebel forces in Libya converged on Tripoli on Sunday, American and NATO officials cited an intensification of American aerial surveillance in and around the capital city as a major factor in helping to tilt the balance after months of steady erosion of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s military.       


The officials also said that coordination between NATO and the rebels, and among the loosely organized rebel groups themselves, had become more sophisticated and lethal in recent weeks, even though NATO’s mandate has been merely to protect civilians, not to take sides in the conflict.
       
NATO’s targeting grew increasingly precise, one senior NATO diplomat said, as the United States established around-the-clock surveillance over the dwindling areas that Libyan military forces still controlled, using armed Predator drones to detect, track and occasionally fire at those forces.

[SKIP]

“NATO got smarter,” said Frederic Wehrey, a senior policy analyst with the RAND Corporation who follows Libya closely. “The strikes were better controlled. There was better coordination in avoiding collateral damage.” The rebels, while ill-trained and poorly organized even now, made the most of NATO’s direct and indirect support, becoming more effective in selecting targets and transmitting their location, using technology provided by individual NATO allies, to NATO’s targeting team in Italy.
       
      
[SKIP]

Administration officials greeted the developments with guarded elation that the overthrow of a reviled dictator would vindicate the demands for democracy that have swept the Arab world.


A State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland, said that President Obama, who was vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard, and other senior American officials were following events closely.
Privately, many officials cautioned that it could still be several days or weeks before Libya’s military collapses or Colonel Qaddafi and his inner circle abandon the fight. As Saddam Hussein and his sons did in Iraq after the American invasion in 2003, the Libyan leader could hold on and lead an insurgency from hiding even after the capital fell, the officials said.

A discussion over at Politico on President Obama's strategy in the Libyan revolution:

Jonathan Schanzer
Foundation for Defense of Democracies :

President Obama will certainly appear vindicated by the news that Tripoli has fallen. Libyans have even more reason to celebrate, now that the long war against Muammar Qadhafi appears to be nearing its end. But a bigger battle - an internecine one - may still be looming.

Darrell M. West
Vice President, Governance Studies, Brookings :

Sometimes, a patient and gradual strategy works well and that is the case with Libya. The U.S. does not always need to send in American troops to get the desired results. It took six months, but Obama’s strategy paid off.

James Carafano 
Heritage Foundation, Defense and Homeland Security :

Looking Forward

Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan - all remind there is lots of work to be done after the capital falls.

It is time to focus on what comes next.

UPDATE from Andrew Sullivan's blog:


Steve Benen is steamed by the partisan tone of McCain and Butters' statement:

Remember hearing about the "blame America first" crowd? Well, say hello to the "thank America last" crowd.

[...I]f McCain and Graham really want to complain about why “this success was so long in coming,” maybe they can talk more about their trip to Tripoli two years ago, when both McCain and Graham cozied up to Gaddafi, even visiting with him at the dictator’s home, discussing delivery of American military equipment to the Libyan regime. Both senators shook Gaddafi’s hand; McCain even bowed a little."

 

Libya Falling: A Less-Costly American-led Way of Waging War
By Mark Thompson

"So the U.S. was able to spearhead the imminent collapse of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in Libya on the cheap. We launched full-fledged invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq against murderous tyrants, but elected not to do the same in Libya. Is this a new template for U.S. wars, or just an acknowledgment of a war-weary nation?


It’s a little of both, actually. President Obama, who was elected, in part, to help wind down those two post-9/11 wars, had no desire to begin a third. But he was willing to help NATO and the Arab League by providing a precision-guided attacks in the Libyan war’s first two weeks, before taking a decidedly back seat for the next five months."


Read on at Battleland.

SUNDAY NIGHT POETRY

I Am Much Too Alone in This World, Yet Not Alone by
Rainer Maria Rilke translated by Annemarie S. Kidder

I am much too alone in this world, yet not alone
   enough
to truly consecrate the hour.
I am much too small in this world, yet not small
   enough
to be to you just object and thing,
dark and smart
I want my free will and want it accompanying
the path which leads to action;
and want during times that beg questions,
where something is up,
to be among those in the know,
or else be alone.

I want to mirror your image to its fullest perfection,
never be blind or too old
to uphold your weighty wavering reflection.
I want to unfold.
Nowhere I wish to stay crooked, bent;
for there I would be dishonest, untrue.
I want my conscience to be
true before you;
want to describe myself like a picture I observed
for a long time, one close up,
like a new word I learned and embraced,
like the everday jug,
like my mother's face,
like a ship that carried me along

THE FAR LEFT'S ANSWER TO TEA PARTY? THE DONNER PARTY! via Bill Maher