I Hope You're Happy

10 things ever Teapartier should know. Really.

I think this is pretty dead on.

1. President Obama Cut Your Taxes
2. The Stimulus is Working
3. First Ronald Reagan Tripled the National Debt…
4. …Then George W. Bush Doubled It Again
5. Republican States Have the Worst Health Care
6. Medicare is a Government Program
7. Barack Obama is Not a Muslim
8. Barack Obama was Born in the United States
9. 70,000 Does Not Equal 2,000,000
10. The Economy Almost Always Does Better Under Democrats

I won’t have none of your gol’ dang evolution nonsense in this country

We don’t get to see the movie about Darwin discovering evolution and struggling with faith because heaven forbid we have a small art house movie provide some introspection for us to examine our own faith and beliefs. No, we need someone else to tell us how evil it is. Don’t believe them, those scientists are horrible people who spread lies with their empirical evidence and their scientific method. I have a book. Everything you need to know is in this book. But not just any one of this book. It has to be my version which has only the parts I and this James guy approve. Don’t read Darwin. He deal in facts.

Texas will no longer teach about the moon landing?

Obviously there wasn’t enough God involved.

Hmm, maybe that Nazi Obama parade float wasn’t such a great idea after all

Ya think?

Republicans are coming down on Olympia Snowe

The only one of them who really seems to think about, well, things, and make good choices for her constituents, based on facts and reason. Damn shame. Sen. Rockefeller hints at the pressure, and that she’s considering switching sides.

A Customer of Bank of America begins her own revolt against their high credit card rates

So your credit card company starts you at 12.99% then gets over-leveraged on bad investments mostly due to greed, then they double your card rates just to cover their own mistakes while rewarding the people who made the bad investments. Get out the guillotine and start chanting “Liberty”!

Orly Taitz’s client writes a letter renouncing her, Taitz believes it is a forgery

The birther queen has really let this whole forgery thing go to her head. I wonder if she believes in her own birth certificate?

Defending the decision to abandon the missile shield

Rep. Steve King: My best vote was against disaster relief for Katrina victims

Yes, Steve King (R-IA) thinks Katrina victims and New Orleans didn’t need any help.

Republicans are against net neutrality

Hm, what a surprise they are for big business and against what would be good for people. Net neutrality affects what voices are heard, what data is available to you and a lot more than you’d think.

Of course, this could just be another example of the “Party of no” Republicans. The Dems are for it, so obviously it must threaten our freedoms and our way of life, except that net neutrality is about freedom…I wonder how they justify this?

Michele Bachmann advocates zero regulations for insurance companies

Let’s think about this just a little bit. When’s the last time too little regulation worked out well for America? Let’s go back to the current meltdown. Or maybe the Savings and Loan Collapse, or the manufactured energy crisis in California, or Enron, or the oil speculation market, or the, well, the list keeps going. This is a fallacy of Libertarianism that just has to die.

There’s two kinds of Libertarians. One seeks free markets because the feel an unimpeded market will do what is best for it. They’re wrong. The market is driven by greed, not sense and practicality, and we’re reminded all too often (usually with an economic collapse and millions of Americans suffering) when that greed gets too overbearing.

The second is even more naive. The second believes that without interference, the markets will naturally do what is best for Americans and itself in a very altruistic way. This is the Ayn Rand, theory, but they are the Trekkies of the political world, relegated to the fringes of politics by their inability to recognize social dynamics. They stand over in the corner, sneering at the rest of us and our inability to see how great their idea really is.

But you know what I may have this group wrong. They may be the punk rockers of the political world, marginalized and sneering at authority, ready to trash a hotel room for their cause. Yeah, the altruistic libertarian is the Sex Pistols of politics, Ron Paul, the Johnny Rotten of them all.

I guess this would make the Michele Bachmann sort into the Pop Punk movement, out to make a buck while barely being competent at their trade.

Either way, we’re fucked.

About that whole secession thing, can I have some money instead?

Texas Governor Rick Perry who threatened to secede because of Obama’s stimulus spending, and turned down money to help their unemployment program is now begging for that money. If only it wasn’t people who would suffer from rejecting instead of say, Rich Texas Republicans. Hmmm wait, tax the rich. This is starting to become very clear now.

Your precision bankruptcy of Chrysler and GM was a miracle…. now about those dealerships closing….

Congress is taking up the issue of those dealers that are closing due to the bankruptcy, to make them un-close, and help our automakers fall back into bankruptcy. Thanks Congress!

Libertarians should read this book

“The Myth of the Rational Market” examines the concept of a market that know what is best for it, and comes to the conclusion that the people that run the market don’t really know what is happening in the market, much less what is best for it.

Justin Fox’s The Myth of the Rational Market: A History of Risk, Reward, and Delusion on Wall Street is a book that chases down a provocative debate that the author discovered while working forFortune magazine: the idea that the market is driven by fear, psychological quirks, fads, and other “irrational” factors, and as such, it does not represent a set of prices derived from the decisions of millions of actors, but rather a set of nearly impossible to predict fluctuations that are about as useful as a series of coin-tosses.

As evidence for this I offer you this:

Want to revive the housing industry? I’ve got just the thing, it’s called an Adjustable Rate Mortgage

God help us.

The BBC exposes three fake psychics

The host of the show created a fake history, put it up on the website of an old Chocolate factory, let the psychics read it on their own, and then brought them onto the location. Miraculously, all of them spouted the same information. If only we had somebody to try this with our congressmen to see who will spout false information. Oh, wait, those are lobbyists.

Zell Miller is still a work of art

Says Rahm Emanuel should use Gorilla Glue to keep Obama in place. Is he a)really familiar with arts and crafts materials b) cashing in his endorsement with the Gorilla Glue Corporation, or C) proving that he can make a plausibly deniable racist remark in public like a real Republican?

Mark Sanford has a little more explaining to do

Apparently he liked to make those love jaunts in first class at very high cost to the taxpayer.

Iran’s former president says it is time for the release of protesters, a believable election

Yeah, that would be nice.

Pat Buchanan thinks the Supreme Court appointment should go to another white man

And his reasoning- get this- is that white men deserve more, and have done much more.

Did you hear the one about the Republican and the racist joke? Oh you have?

Hillsborough state committeewoman Carol Carter may lose her position because of the racial joke she forwarded in an e-mail. Ready for the bad taste?

I’m confused

How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?

Her response is even more frightening:

I have been asked to send this apology for my earlier e-mail. I am sorry that it was received in a negative manner. I do hope that we are going to be allowed to keep our sense of humor.

As you can now see, it went to very few people. I did add Todd Marks in this apology, as he is in the mix now. I am also sorry to learn that some of these persons are not real team players. There really was no reason for this to go beyond those that I e-mailed (8 people). This was not an e-mail blast as I do not have that capability.

Is she really saying It should be okay, because it was sent to only a few people (her private racist cabal?), and that the people who spread it beyond this circle were the ones commiting the wrong? Hm, is she saying she can’t be racist because she can’t send email blasts?

And here is her boss’s response:

“I’m pretty much done with those sorts of inappropriate and, and — I am at a loss for words,” Greer said. “I just came back from Washington, D.C., working to get our first African-American elected as (Republican National Committee) chairman.

He’s just touting his love of the black man because all the cool kids are doing it. The subtext of what he said is that he was working to get a black man elected to head the RNC, instead of the right man.

One other great line:

“That kind of behavior has no place in the modern day Republican Party,” Stokes said.

Seems the modern Republican party didn’t become modern until Nov. 5th, 2008. Funny that.

Finally, a Job Bush can handle. Hardware store greeter

I like the idea of the secret service standing next to the hardware store greeter.Just tickles my fancy.

Libertarians on the stimulus, or why Libertarians don’t get it.

Let’s see, repeal corporate income taxes (so the government has less money, and they can pay larger bonuses), Reduce Social Security and Medicare (so the poor and vulnerable get poorer and more vulnerable), eliminate wasteful spending (like the Republicans did, right?), withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan (you’re just pandering for votes here), Limit union power (because we need workers with less rights), Renew free trade (because we haven’t lost ALL of our jobs to other countries yet), expand legal immigration (because more people for less jobs is really what we need right now), and stop bailing out businesses (let it all collapse). Kind of sounds like what got us into this whole mess.

Obama Revamps faith based initiatives…

So they aren’t so faith-based anymore. Fox news is panicking.

Good op-ed about how the Republicans are playing politics with the economy and nation suffers

There’s so much common sense in this article, it’ll smack you in the face.

Obama getting aggressive and smart in defending his stimulus package

Now, I read the other day that critics of this plan ridiculed our notion that we should use part of the money to modernize the entire fleet of federal vehicles to take advantage of state of the art fuel efficiency. This is what they call pork. You know the truth. It will not only save the government significant money over time, it will not only create manufacturing jobs for folks who are making these cars, it will set a standard for private industry to match. And so when you hear these attacks deriding something of such obvious importance as this, you have to ask yourself — are these folks serious? Is it any wonder that we haven’t had a real energy policy in this country?

You’re using reason to combat politics? I see what you did there…..

Cheney is still fearmongering

Glad to see he’s out of the wheelchair. He was kinf getting a Dr. Strangelove vibe to him.

Permanent Republican Majority + 8 Years of Bush = Permanent Republican Minority = win

Rove to let the Obama White House determine his Executive Priviledge Status

This is your mastermind? Him? Oh, he’s going down hard.

Your Bush Admin NSA: Spying on prominent Americans, and just about everyone else

Whistle blower tells all.

That’s it for today, folks. Please take a look at gearsecure.net. 1 new listing today.

Stephen Fry on language. Hes very right, but Im still going to point out incorrect usage of apostrophe’s (’sic).

More data on financial meltdown. 21 million jobs created during Clinton’s presidency, 3 million during Bush’s. If you would like to help create some jobs, consider donating a few dollars to gearsecure.net

We’re living in Ayn Rand’s universe. This is the corner stone of Libertarian philosophy. I submit it to you as a consideration of other philosophies. Here’s a selected passage:

“Politicians invariably respond to crises — that in most cases they themselves created — by spawning new government programs, laws and regulations. These, in turn, generate more havoc and poverty, which inspires the politicians to create more programs . . . and the downward spiral repeats itself until the productive sectors of the economy collapse under the collective weight of taxes and other burdens imposed in the name of fairness, equality and do-goodism.”

It sounds like a pretty solid argument until you realize that the problems we have currently were caused by a laissez-faire Libertarian style loosening of Federal Regulations and a lack of independent oversight which caused corporations to get greedy and make poor business decisions while the policy makers encouraged them on.  This fiscal crisis proves that if allowed, markets will gravitate towards greed over prudence, and doesn’t know wha tis best for it, and we all lose out in the end.

Johnny says “To be happy, find the middle ground and stay there. And also, cover your ass.” Hm, author doesn’t even have comments enabled. Coward.

The Top Ten Countries by Robot Density. I think that says it all.

Loren Coleman and the Cryptozoology museum.

Arctic melt is 20 years ahead of climate models I have a climate change skeptic article brewing.

I want the car, the house and my kidney back.

Democratic Presidential politics

1.    The Audacity of Hope beats the Politics of paranoia and division
2.    Every campaign must one day come to an end in the face of reality. Even Hillary’s.
3.    Politics is more than a name (Clinton, Kennedy).
4.    The expressed desire to castrate somebody reflects rather poorly when that person is the fulfillment of your life’s mission. And you want to get your son into his vacated Senate seat.
5.    Dennis Kucinich is a lucky man.
6.    When in the thick of it, if you’re a woman, showing stress and shedding tears makes you more human, if you’re a man it means you’re weak.
7.    In political poker, gender and race are essentially equal hands, and only serves to divide the pot.

Republican Presidential Politics

8.    Conservatives are as conservatives admonish.
9.    Divide and conquer is not a good strategy for the political battlefield.
10.    Fear leads to the dark side.
11.    Some people believe everything you tell them. Those people voted for Sarah Palin and that lecherous old guy that followed her around.
12.    Lecherous is a word that isn’t used enough anymore.
13.    A pitbull’s bite is a good deterrent to voters.
14.    The only thing that is un-American is believing an opposing viewpoint is un-American.
15.    When using Yahoo for professional off the record email, make sure your password is not public knowledge.
16.    When running on a cleaning up corruption platform, it helps to not be corrupt yourself (this is for Palin, but repeats for Blagojevich).
17.    There really should be a separation between personal and politics.
18.    Being a political sideshow is not good for advertising your business, especially if you’re a plumber.
19.    Sometimes being a plumber is more interesting than being a presidential candidate.
20.    When you’re a presidential candidate, make sure your running mate and mascots are not more entertaining than you are.
21.    When suspending your campaign, go directly to Washington D.C., do not make a stop for an interview, and mosey into town a day late and without a plan, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
22.    Apparently, one of the primary means of gaining foreign policy experience is proximity.
23.    In choosing a vice presidential running mate, choosing an unknown quantity means you’re getting an unknown quantity.
24.    It takes more than a fresh coat of lipstick to make a pitbull or a pig look intelligent.
25.    When choosing a running mate to parrot talking points, sometimes choosing a parrot would be more effective.
26.    Guilt by association is hard to make stick, and not a valid campaign strategy.
27.    You can neither put lipstick on a pig, nor designer labels on an Alaskan governor
28.    The person leading us into our science fiction future should be able to use email
29.    I never want to hear the word “maverick” again
30.    knowing how many houses you have is a pretty important piece of information
31.    You can’t see Russia from Wasilla. Not even with really good binoculars.
32.    Republican women appear to be either hausfraus or Nazi Dominatrixes.

Legislative Branch

33.    No matter what bad things you say about the Democrats, if you smile nicely and plead a little they’ll let you back into the club.
34.    Florida’s 16th District has really bad cooties
35.    According to Michele Bachmann, we don’t have to worry about the environment because Jesus saved us.
36.    The investigation into anti-American politicians should start in Minnesota’s 6th district

Media

37.    You are what you eat applies equally to eaters and FoxNews Viewers.
38.    Ann Coulter is a hate crime
39.    Chuck Norris may have a roundhouse kick that can deflect asteroids, but he’d never win a political debate.
40.    The media sucks at the teat more than bites the hand that feeds. So many opportunities for hard follow-up questions lost.
41.    Watching Fox News on a Democratic victory night is the best show in town.
42.    It is increasingly difficult to get away with lies due to the internet and bloggers. This is the up side of the Schwartz.
43.    The media is going vigilante with blogs. This is the downside of the Schwartz.
44.    Even though the Huffington Post doesn’t pay its contributors, it still plagiarizes.
45.    Thanks to in-depth reporting that holds itself to high standards, we now know exactly what it looks like when you put lipstick on a pig.

General elections

46.    The Bradley effect no longer exists, if it ever did.
47.    It is entirely possible that people just didn’t like Bradley.
48.    Religion is beginning to be a political faultline
49.    When running for political office, don’t piss off David Letterman.

Gubernatorial Politics

50.    The Free market value of a Senate seat in Illinois will likely be measured in time, not dollars.
51.    When running on a cleaning up corruption platform, it helps to not be corrupt yourself, Blago.
52.    When choosing a governor in Illinois, the lesser of two evils is still pretty evil.
53.    It’s good to be the king, not so much to be Elliot Spitzer.
54.    Getting your ex brother in law fired is more trouble than it is worth.
55.    Congrats to the 48 other governors who didn’t make a spectacle of themselves.
56.    Roland Burris is now Rod Blagojevich’s middle finger.

Continuing stories

57.    What happens in an airport bathroom in Minnesota does not stay in an airport bathroom in Minnesota, and the court won’t let you take it back either.

Economy

58.    The Fundamentals of our economy are not strong
59.    When Congress asks you for a plan before they give you bailout money, have a plan ready to go.
60.    Free Market Libertarians are wrong.
61.    The Market doesn’t know what’s best for it.
62.    If the returns on investment are too good to be true, they probably are.
63.    Ponzi is more than a fun word to say.
64.    Madoff is a name “Made Off” is a verb phrase that should be preceded by “almost”

Misc

65.    Chinese democracy is possible, but it will take far too long, cost far too much, and ultimately be disappointing.
66.    When faced with the choice of maybe losing a Senate seat to the Republicans or leaving the choice in the hands of a corrupt governor, Illinois Democrats are just as timid as their Senate Big Brothers.
67.    There is one thing that we can all agree the Bush Administration did right: the Anti-Telemarketer no-call list.
68.    Say good bye to the two worst presidents we’ve ever had, Cheney and What’s his name.