I Hope You're Happy

The GOP Budget: More of the Same

Let’s see here, Repeal all of the stimulus spending that just about every economist in the world says we need, makes the Bush Tax cuts for the rich permanent, and the worst plan for health care since the employer based system we have now. It also puts another nail in the coffin of the GOP, as it illustrates hwo unrealistic and out of touch they are.

The Poisonous Queen

The Republican blogosphere is having a heyday about Michelle Obama touching, yes, touching the queen, and calling it a major political faux pas (and probably calling for Obama to resign amid the growing scandal). The tale of the tape, however is quite different, and I want to use this to illustrate how quickly anything gets taken out of context in Washington, and to be fair, both sides do it.

Now, long ago, I remember a commoner hugged the queen. Gasp! A Commoner? Off with her head! The media had a tittering about it, and the incident was mostly forgotten.

In this case, the Queen touched first. Maybe she was feeling overawed at the Obama mystique, or maybe she was feeling like Han Solo talking to Greedo, either way, don’t think this is a gotcha moment.

After all, it isn’t like she gave the Queen a backrub, or tried to leave a press conference through a locked door, or, threw up in the prime minister’s lap, or made up insulting nicknames for other heads of state, or got snubbed for a handshake at a world summit, or walked off with a “goodbye from the world’s largest polluter!” or using a racial slur for hispanics in reference to the Italian delegate, or……

Really, we need to grow up over this petty bullshit. There’s an economic crisis on, and the people throwing the shit are largely responsible.

Gay Marriage in the Heartland?

Suddenly Iowa is hipper and more progressive than California?

Iowa’s gay marriage ban “is unconstitutional, because the county has been unable to identify a constitutionally adequate justification for excluding plaintiffs from the institution of civil marriage,” Cady wrote in the 69-page opinion that seemed to dismiss the concept of civil unions as an option for gay couples. “A new distinction based on sexual orientation would be equally suspect and difficult to square with the fundamental principles of equal protection embodied in our constitution,” Cady wrote. The ruling also addressed what it called the “religious undercurrent propelling the same-sex marriage debate,” and said judges must remain outside the fray. “Our constitution does not permit any branch of government to resolve these types of religious debates and entrusts to courts the task of ensuring that government avoids them,” the opinion says.

“Next year, 2010, which is, obviously, going to be a signature year because it will establish, first of all, the power of this presidency and this president, all that he is embraced by at least the national media, he still didn’t receive a majority of the votes in this country, just those cast.”

Lou Dobbs everybody, Lou Dobbs.

US Spy Agencies still Plagued by the problems that led to 9/11

You mean like Republicans who want to put their agenda on shaky data?

The Dirty dozen of the financial apocalypse

Rolling Stone’s list.

These guys are getting charged for hoaxing

Of course they did point out the gullibility of humanity.

Peter Orszag, the author of the budget on the Daily Show

Funny how a comedian can ask the hard questions that newsmedia can’t.

How compromised can a politician get?

Chris Dodd can tell you. First he got a special mortgage from Countrywide. Then he has been underreporting the value of a home in Scotland to get out of some interesting investigations into his relationships with the witness to the sale. Now he was having a $1,000 dollar a head fundraiser with the head of Hedge Fund manager John A Paulson while being Senate Banking Committee Chairman. Of course he had to move it because it was at a club that excluded minorities. Can we not vote this guy back in during the next election in 2010.

Texas Board of Education votes to not put the age of the universe into textbooks, just to appease creationists

And there’s others for the whackadoo set.

I’m just going to have to disagree with Penn Jillette on politics and his Libertarian crap, and just enjoy Bullshit!

The rest of the world wants to spend now to get things going

So why don’t the Republicans?

The Trouble with the Obama stance on lobbyists is a lack of qualified people

I’m quite a bit more supportive of Obama than this commentator, so this is kind of a contrarian viewpoint to my own. Lobbyists are compromised by money, how many have lobbied for say, petrochemical companies, then gone to work for, say the Bush Administration EPA, then gone back to lobby for big petrol? Far too many. It’s a double edged sword, to skewer a cliche. Then again, the rate that he is appointing people is awfully slow…

The House passed the Obama budget

But the Senate is no sure sell….

The Parade of Racist Republicans Continues

They should probably get a marching band dressed in hoods….This time it was Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose who sent an email with a racially inappropriate content-namely, the White House issuing a statement that there would be no Easter Egg hunt this year due to the Watermelon patch. Them Negros like their watermelons, ya know, heh, heh, heh…..at least he has the class to resign.

The Holocaust Denying Bishop’s Apology falls a little flat

The Vatican said Bishop Richard Williamson’s apology wasn’t quite up to snuff, and he’s going to have to do a little bit better. Williamson apologized for his remarks on Thursday, saying he would never have made them if he had known “the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise.” The Vatican implied that he would actually have to change his position to fit that of actual historical fact, not just apologize for saying it while continuing to hold onto those beliefs. The Pope then returned to his adherence to a book that has very little basis in fact.

Bobby Jindal Lied to You

Remember that story about Bobby Jindal (Republicans: we can has minorities) cutting through red tape while sitting in the sheriff’s office during Katrina? Yeah, that didn’t happen. He wasn’t there. He was hardly even near there as news reports can confirm. In fact, he was in his palace overlooking the city, playing a violin the whole time. See how quickly he will lie to manipulate you?

Karl Rove = pot kettle = doing the economy harm

Karl Rove, just off a nearly eight year stint of destroying the nation, took some time out to explain how Barack Obama’s budget is bad for the economy. Because he is overspending. And he says it with a straight face. With bonus high tech dry-erase board graphics.

Rising stars: 10 Republicans to watch

And not a single one of them is competent.