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….