Class warfare? Who says ...

From health care to education to mass transit to Social Security, if a government program helps those in need, Republicans oppose it. They will support tax cuts targeted for the wealthy, while opposing tax cuts targeted for those that aren't wealthy. The Republicans clearly have an overall ideology, and it is reflected throughout their agenda. Which isn't class warfare. But calling them on it is.

[Turkana at The Left Coaster]

Obama, the smiling Bushie ...

Other than for the first few days in office, has Obama done anything worthwhile?

The Dow is swinging wildly–down as much as 980 points within the last hour–largely due to insecurity about the situation in Greece and shaky retail sales. And according to Brad DeLong, who is generally pretty tight with the White House, Obama will come out in opposition to Audit the Fed this afternoon.

At a time when confidence in the markets desperately needs shoring up, the President should be looking to instill confidence in investors by supporting accountability and transparency within the financial system — not acting to shield the banks. [link]

Obama has catered to thieves and liars. Obama has bowed down to moneyed interests. Is there a single principle that Obama has not betrayed?

Not only has he chosen to follow Bush's murdering steps, Obama now makes jokes about killing people, just like Bush. The similarities are adding up ...

I don't find that a Democrat who acts like a ReThug is any improvement over a ReThug.

Really, at least Bush could not destroy Social Security while he was in office. He must be laughing his guts out now that Obama plans to accomplish what Bush couldn't. As far as Social Security and Medicare we would have been better off with McCain as President and the Congress in Democratic hands. As it is Obama has ruined the chances of many Democrats. If one could conceive of the ReThugs having the smarts and/or Obama having the 'audacity' one could almost imagine Obama being a pre-planned Trojan Horse working for the Republican/Corporate Party.

Today's quote ...

So basically Limbaugh and the boys are projecting again when they get themselves all worked over "the end of America." They are the ones who are undemocratic, but they've seamlessly re-looped the left's criticism of themselves back on the Democrats. And then supercharged the outrage. I think it may be a form of therapy for them.

Sometimes John McCain is funny and sometimes he is pathetic ...

From digby, here's an example of the pathetic John McCain:

I guess the Dems have really gone and done it this time:

Democrats shouldn't expect much cooperation from Republicans the rest of this year, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) warned Monday.

Terrifying prospect.

Well if the reThugs don't 'cooperate' the rest of the year then they will have succeeded in their goal of non-cooperation for the entire year. 100% non-cooperation is such an impressive sign of success for the reThugs. Congrats. Take the rest of the year off. Go home or somewhere out of sight. Maybe try exercising your brain, instead of your mouth, for awhile.

Seem to think? ...

... [Republicans] seem to think Democracy means that that elections are irrelevant, majorities are meaningless and that all legislation is contingent upon the permission of the Republican Party.

This is they way Republicans have operated for decades. Why shouldn't they? Democrats cave repeatedly. That is Dems either cave or they've been lying to their constituents all along. Which is better? Cowards or traitors?

Today's quote ...

It's really remarkable that we've gotten to a point in American history where the Republican Party has managed to make fair trials for people who commit crimes "controversial." ...

-- It's Come To This by Adam Serwer, The group blog of The American Prospect

It's not just the Republicans. Obama is continuing to ensure that US Law has no meaning.

As Glenn Greenwald writes:

... the most significant consequence of his [Barack Obama's] first year in office, in the area of civil liberties, is that -- with a few exceptions (most notably torture) -- he has transformed what were once highly controversial Republican "assaults on the Constitution" into bipartisan consensus which both parties now embrace, thus ensuring -- as Baker put it -- "that much of the Bush security architecture is almost certain to remain part of the national fabric for some time to come, thanks to Obama." Thus, a President who imprisons people with military commissions or even no charges at all -- and constantly invokes secrecy claims to shield the Executive Branch from judicial review over allegations of lawbreaking -- is now hailed -- by progressives -- as a stalwart defender of "the rule of law."

Today's quote (and a second one for good measure, oh and a third one too) ...

... some beyond galatically confused Nigerian failed to blow up a plane with his freaking underwear, for chrissakes, and that was it, the god damn Republicans and Dick Cheney came instantly hissing out of the woodwork ...

-- Please Get A Life, Republicans by paradox, The Left Coaster
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... As always, the most Serious and Toughest among us are the most easily frightened, particularly in the American media.

-- Craving terrorist melodrama by Glenn Greenwald, salon.com
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[this one was just too good to pass up]

Barack Obama, doing his best to make Dick Cheney’s questions about leadership look rational, has assigned John Brennan to conduct the Administration’s ballyhooed investigation into the claimed failure of the terrorist watchlist program in the Christmas Fruit Of The Loom Bomber incident.

-- Obama Appoints Fox To Evaluate Terror Watchlist Henhouse by bmaz, firedoglake.com

Anyone know what happened to the Obama of the campaign trail? Not that I'm a very good judge since I wasn't very taken with him, but he certainly did seem to have his ducks in a row and I was hoping to see a little of that behavior in his endeavor to implement some promised --now what was that he promised?-- oh, yeah, change.

We have money ...

for war, but NOT for jobs ...

for war, but NOT for health care ...

for war, but NOT for education ...

for war, but NOT for peace ...

We have all the money you want as long as it's for war.
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Dennis J Kucinich via Crooks and Liars:

"The message is clear: We have money for war but not for jobs," said Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio). "We have money for war but not for health care. We have money for war but not for education. . . . We have money for war but not for peace."

Apt characterization of Republicans ...

... and, sadly, of not a few Dems:

... [they denounce a judicial decision] for reasons having nothing to do with law and everything to do with their own political beliefs and outcome preferences -- i.e., they're advocating, as usual, for the consummate act of outcome-based "judicial activism" which they endlessly claim to oppose.

Yeah, yeah, just part of the game ...

Source: Reid Fed Up With GOP Obstruction, Committed To Finishing Health Care By Xmas

Come on, if Obama cared about jobs ...

... he'd actually do something about them.

The only programs Obama is going for are what used to be called Republican programs --- permanent wars and more transfer of the nations wealth to the degenerate rich. These are now officially Democratic programs also.

What's left of the Republican Party is literally insane. The Democratic Party has morphed into the Conservative/War Party. There is no Party for the left.

All sane people has been ejected from the Republican Party. The controllers of the Democratic Party have no intention of honoring any promises to Progressives. They will continue to stage elaborate political theater in order to pretend they are 'working very hard' but can't quite make anything work.

I really think that working through the Democrats is a lost cause. Either give up or start a new movement. The collusion between Reid and Obama is manifest. Taking these people seriously is a wasted effort.

Classified Benchmarks ...

America's insanity just gets better and better. Once again the US has, will you believe it, BENCHMARKS! Remember those. Those benchmarks that have no consequence when they fail to be met. Those benchmarks that are forgotten when they no longer work as a propaganda tool.

But wait, these BENCHMARKS are better. These bench marks are CLASSIFIED. Just think of the propaganda value of CLASSIFIED BENCHMARKS.

Now that must be what Obama SMARTS brings to Bush STUPIDITY.

Way to go. Change you can believe in.
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Apparently Obama is working for the Republicans:

While Democratic lawmakers are increasingly opposed to a possible troop increase, Republican lawmakers say the move is necessary and that the president needs to convey that in his speech tomorrow.

Of course, fighting 'insurgents' and citizens in a country far, far away keeps the US from taking care of it's own problems: health care, education, starving children, overcrowded prisons and other little matters like an increasingly insane political environment.

Not to mention all the money certain factions make in and around the military establishment. Afghanistan is not the only center of corruption revolving around this war of the very wealthy and very unChristian 'Christians.'

Ah, yes. The US is such a leader of nations ...

Copenhagen Climate Talks Already In Trouble. Guess Why.

Way to go Obama and our oh so self important Senators, the Dems as well as the Thugs ...

John McCain and Jon Kyl are using Medicare but do not want all Americans to have access to what they have ...

Anthony Weiner Points Out the Hypocrisy of Members of Congress on Medicare but Against the Public Option

From Think Progress: Rep. Weiner Identifies 55 Republicans On Medicare Who ‘Steadfastly Oppose’ The Public Option

Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) office today released an internal study showing that 151 members of Congress “currently receive government-funded; government-administered single-payer health care — Medicare.” Of those 151 members, 55 are Republicans who also happen to be “steadfastly opposed [to] other Americans getting the public option, like the one they have chosen.” Included on Weiner’s list are anti-public option crusaders Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Orin Hatch (R-UT), Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), and Rep. Peter King (R-NY).

Crazy, but true ...

I like the way Krugman summarizes Bush's 'presidential' accomplishments:

The symptoms of Bush Derangement Syndrome, in its fullest version, are that you believed

1. That the Bush tax cuts were sold on false pretenses, and were fiscally irresponsible

2. That the Iraq war was sold on false pretenses, and that invading Iraq was a mistake

3. That for all his posturing, Bush was actually doing a bad job of fighting Al Qaeda

4. That the use of torture was ineffective as well as immoral, and was hurting America

5. That the economic expansion of the middle Bush years, such as it was, was driven by an unsustainable housing bubble

6. That the Bush administration was distorting science to avoid taking action on climate change

Crazy stuff, with one common theme: it was all true.

Killer Kyl is just not sure that having no healthcare is a killer ...

Kyl: 'I'm Not Sure It's A Fact' That Lack Of Health Insurance Causes People To Die

Gregory then asked, "And is it a necessity to tackle the fact that there are more and more Americans who die because they don't have access to health insurance?"

Kyl's response:

I'm not sure that it's a fact that more and more people die because they don't have health insurance. But because they don't have health insurance, the care is not delivered in the best and most efficient way.

I imagine Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) -- of "Republicans want you to die quickly" fame -- might have a field day with this one.

Now Jon Kyl, an embarrassment to Arizona second to John McCain, is not Bush-stupid. So he must be making this up as he goes along. Like McCain does.

There's reality:

• 45,000 deaths are linked to lack of health insurance coverage each year
• uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher death risk than their privately-insured counterparts

Then there are the Republicans ...

Michelle Bachmann. A laugh a minute ...

Far be it from me to suggest that we just don't like the lack of morality that is a required part of being a Republican politician, a group to which Michelle Bachmann belongs in spades.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): It may bother them that conservative women are happy and don't need government in order to be successful in life," ... "I have a great husband, great kids. I had a great career as a federal tax attorney. And I don't need government to be successful. And it seems like they have a stereotype for women and I don't fit in their stereotype. [emphasis added]

Though she doesn't need no stinkin' government she does live off of it --directly and indirectly.

I'm not implying that many Dems are not corrupt. But it does not yet appear that being corrupt is a requirement to join the group, though the corrupt do appear ascendant.

Today's quote ... Washington Doesn't Get It: We Need More Jobs

A whopping 83 percent see unemployment as either a fairly big or very big problem; and 81 percent say the Obama administration hasn't done enough to deal with it.

And there just aren't a whole lot of things that more than 80 percent of Americans agree about.

Not coincidentally, large majorities of voters also see the government's economic policies as helping banks and Wall Street -- while few see themselves or average working families in general as benefiting.

So why isn't political Washington fully engaged in addressing the unemployment problem? For the same reasons it can't seem to get much of anything done these days: most notably the abject lack of boldness from the Democrats and persistent obstructionism from the Republicans.

Democrats have been particularly terrified for decades now of doing anything that can be said to actually cost the government money. (Republicans, ironically, have no such scruples.) So our modern ruling party has found itself boxed in by its own president's support for "pay-as-you-go budget rules". And the fact is that very serious concern about the deficit -- even now, when it's the least of our troubles -- is considered a hallmark of serious thinking in Washington. Those who don't toe the line are written off as crazy, wild-eyed radicals.

-- Washington Doesn't Get It: We Need More Jobs by Dan Froomkin

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-news/reporting/dan-froomkin,

Out of the mouths of Americans ...

The following two quotes are taken from today's Glenn Greenwald article Georgia/Russia: how our political discourse works

Sarah Palin, ABC News interview, September 10, 2008:

PALIN: For Russia to have exerted such pressure in terms of invading a smaller democratic country, unprovoked, is unacceptable and we have to keep...

GIBSON: You believe unprovoked.

PALIN: I do believe unprovoked and we have got to keep our eyes on Russia, under the leadership there.

and

John McCain, presidential debate, October 7, 2008:

[Putin] has exhibited most aggressive behavior, obviously, in Georgia. . . .We have to make the Russians understand that there are penalties for these this kind of behavior, this kind of naked aggression into Georgia, a tiny country and a tiny democracy.

Not only do our high visibility politicians and media 'luminaries' make the facts up but they have no apparent hesitation in excitedly encouraging the US to actions that they state as absolutely wrong, unChristian, evil, contemptible (pick most any negative adjective you like) when others engage in such actions. How do McCain and Palin reconcile the above words with US actions in Iraq and the current build up of excitement over Iran that is eerily similar to that that preceded the invasion of Iraq? The answer is that they don't bother nor attempt to reconcile the incomprehensible position. They do not have to justify nor explain. All they have to do is speak the same lies over and over.

The only ones who have to explain or justify their words are those who buck the current Political/Media fantasy. And then the words that they are asked to justify have nothing to do with their position, with the facts nor the logic of their argument but, rather, with a few specially selected adjectives. For example:

Notice that Alan Grayson is trying to talk about the need Americans have for health care while the 'panelists' are concerned about the adjectives he uses to describe the Republicans in the House and similar diversions. It's really great the way Grayson keeps to his points about health care and refuses to be misdirected by the silliness of the kind that the media regularly dishes out to anyone who doesn't regurgitate what the corporate media deems acceptable.

It would be funny if we weren't living it ...

Study of Bush's psyche touches a nerve

A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity". ...

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Link via The Existentialist Cowboy: It's the Hypocrisy, the Financial Collapse, the War Crimes.