LOL:
Mitt Romney talks about debt as if that's what is causing unemployment. Sheeple nod their fleece in agreement.—
Chris Dashiell (@cdashiell) May 16, 2012
…
Reminds me of this:
via: randomactsofchaos
Tag Archives: politics
Political cat
via: the-politicat
Chris Hedges argues that both Huxley and Orwell were right
Chris Hedges tells The Progressive in an interview that both Aldous Huxley and George Orwell were on to something, and their dystopic visions are neither far fetched nor incompatible:
“I used to wonder: Is Huxley right or is Orwell right? It turns out they’re both right. First you get the new world state [Brave New World] and endless diversions as you are disempowered. And then, as we are watching, credit dries up, and the cheap manufactured goods of the consumer society are no longer cheap. Then you get the iron fist of Oceania, of Orwell’s 1984.
“That’s precisely the process that’s happened. We have been very effectively pacified by the pernicious ideology of a consumer society that is centered on the cult of the self—an undiluted hedonism and narcissism. That has become a very effective way to divert our attention while the country is reconfigured into a kind of neofeudalism, with a rapacious oligarchic elite and an anemic government that no longer is able to intercede on behalf of citizens but cravenly serves the interests of the oligarchy itself.”
via: Utne Reader
“I’m off the committee if we’re going to talk about further defense spending.” ~ Sen. John Kyl
JON KYLE WANTS HIS UNICORN and his rainbow or he’ll take all his toys and go home:
On the first day of work on Thursday for a “super committee” charged with finding $1.2 trillion in new government savings, a member of the panel threatened to quit if defense spending cuts are discussed, underscoring the difficulties ahead.
Despite Republican Senator Jon Kyl’s surprise disclosure after the panel’s inaugural meeting that “I’m off of the committee if we’re going to talk about further defense spending,” other Republicans worked to put comprehensive tax reform squarely on the agenda and urged bipartisanship.
Source: sarahlee310
Kyl is out of his mind if he wants to pretend that defense spending cuts shouldn’t be discussed. Here’s some information from Brian Beutler at TPM on the defense budget vs. everything else:
The idea here is that since this money is largely devoted to education, health care, and other services that benefit broad swaths of the population, the amount of it should grow roughly with population size. This stands in contrast to defense spending, which is why the committee did not correct defense spending for population growth. We took the numbers and put them in a slightly different context, so you can see by what percentage spending and revenues have risen and fallen on a population adjusted basis over the last decade. Makes it pretty clear what is and is not the culprit of deficits and our supposedly out-of-control spending.
And, oh yeah, new revenue should also be discussed and enacted — like ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Wednesday: Madison, Wisconsin
![As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the state’s Department of Administration continued to refuse to comply with a court order to allow the public back into the Capitol Building in Madison, Democratic lawmakers literally climbed out their windows to meet with constituents on the Capitol lawn today. […] “You guys couldn’t get into our offices,” [Brian Schroeder, a staffer for Rep. Zepnick] told the people who stopped by, “so we’re bringing our offices to you.” Wis. Assembly Dems Climb Out Capitol Windows to Meet Constituents](http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lhhdp3tINl1qf10tro1_500.jpg)
As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and the state’s Department of Administration continued to refuse to comply with a court order to allow the public back into the Capitol Building in Madison, Democratic lawmakers literally climbed out their windows to meet with constituents on the Capitol lawn today.
[…] “You guys couldn’t get into our offices,” [Brian Schroeder, a staffer for Rep. Zepnick] told the people who stopped by, “so we’re bringing our offices to you.”
Wis. Assembly Dems Climb Out Capitol Windows to Meet Constituents
Tough talk
Obama grants a huge victory to gay rights groups
Statement of the Attorney General on Litigation Involving the Defense of Marriage Act: President Obama orders Justice Department to stop defending Defense of Marriage Act in court.
Tuesday morning reading
Is Jabba-the-Limbaugh really taking pot shots at Michelle Obama’s diet?
More Scoop On Palin: Her Reliable Media Mouthpieces: Bailey names names: Bill Kristol, Mary Matalin, former Bush aides Jason Recher and Steve Biegun, GOP officials Nick Ayers and Michael Steele, Rush Limbaugh, Laura Ingraham, Glenn Beck, Greta Van Susteren, Sean Hannity, and Bill O‘Reilly. Then this sentence: “We could normally expect them to repeat any coordinated message we sent.”
Budget baloney: Social Security isn’t to blame for deficit: Social Security isn’t responsible for the federal deficit. Just the opposite. Until last year Social Security took in more payroll taxes than it paid out in benefits. It lent the surpluses to the rest of the government.
Detroit Schools Closing: Michigan Officials Order Robert Bobb To Shut Half The City’s Schools: The Detroit News says the financial restructuring plan will increase high school class sizes to 60 students and consolidate operations. – Isn’t it great that the wealthiest 1% in our country got a tax break though? Thanks GOP-Teaparty!
Wisconsin: Is it merely the fact that certain unions (police, firefighters, state troopers) supported Walker that they’re now exempted from his plan to take away collective bargaining rights? Or is it something more?
Flailing: Gov. Walker (R-WI) has just announced that tomorrow evening at 6 PM he’ll deliver what he’s calling a “fireside chat” to discuss the impasse in the state.
Madison AFL-CIO threatens to go out on a general strike.
Oil soars past $105 on Libya violence: Experts warned that oil prices could rocket to record levels beyond $147 per barrel — if the unrest spreads to Saudi Arabia.
Terrible things are happening to the protesters in Libya.
Fifty million “environmental refugees” will flood into the global north by 2020, fleeing food shortages sparked by climate change, experts warned at a major science conference that ended [yesterday].
GOP’s curious targets for budget cuts
Jon Stewart, on the GOP’s curious targets for budget cuts: “Our only way out of this mess is to cut programs that affect people who vote for Democrats.”
“The Constitution is the Constitution”
Click image for a new video of Rep. Weiner calling out the GOP representatives FOR VIOLATING THEIR OWN RULES:
It’s a long video, but so interesting / unreal.
Conservative radio host Michael Medved calls Limbaugh’s and Palin’s attacks on Obama “distasteful” and “destructive”
Are conservatives finally – at long last! — getting sick of the nutcases and crackpots?
In a February 14 Wall Street Journal op-ed, conservative radio host Michael Medved criticized Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh for their “distasteful charges” that President Obama is, in Palin’s words, “purposefully weakening America.” Medved further wrote that Obama’s “most paranoid critics” label him “as the political equivalent of a suicide bomber: so overcome with hatred (or ‘rage’) that he’s perfectly willing to blow himself up in order to inflict casualties on a society he loathes.”
One wonders if Medved will wind up apologizing to Limbaugh (like every other conservative critic seems to do) for accurately stating that Rush’s argument against Obama (below) is “perfectly imbecilic:”
On his radio show last July 2, the most influential conservative commentator of them all reaffirmed his frequent charge that the president seeks economic suffering “on purpose.” Rush Limbaugh explained: “I think we face something we’ve never faced before in the country—and that is, we’re now governed by people who do not like the country.” In his view, this hostility to the United States relates to a grudge connected to Mr. Obama’s black identity. “There’s no question that payback is what this administration is all about, presiding over the decline of the United States of America, and doing so happily.”
Regardless of the questionable pop psychology of this analysis, as a political strategy it qualifies as almost perfectly imbecilic. — from Medved’s op-ed, titled, “Obama Isn’t Trying to ‘Weaken America’“.
If we’re being honest, we’d have to say that almost everything Rush says on his radio show — or that Palin says on Fox (or tweets or facebooks) — is perfectly imbecilic. But that’s why these entertainers connect with a certain rabid segment of our population.
I’m just glad to see that more conservatives are becoming distressed about who is speaking “for them” and about what’s actually being said. It only got this bad because they didn’t speak out sooner — and they didn’t speak out sooner because they thought they’d be able to manipulate the crazy to their advantage. Instead the crazy took over their party.
Andrew Breitbart got served!
Andrew Breitbart, the owner of several conservative Web sites, was served at the conference on Saturday with a lawsuit filed by Shirley Sherrod, the former Agriculture Department employee who lost her job last year over a video that Mr. Brietbart posted at his site biggovernment.com.
The video was selectively edited so that it appeared Ms. Sherrod was confessing she had discriminated against a farmer because he was white. In the suit, which was filed in Washington on Friday, Ms. Sherrod says the video has damaged her reputation and prevented her from continuing her work.
— Love that he was served at CPAC.
GOP-Teaparty gloves
Obama’s Egypt Strategy
The Vindication Of Obama’s Egypt Strategy? Andrew Sullivan notes:
While Marc Lynch emphasizes that there “is no question that the first, second and third drivers of this Egyptian revolution were the Egyptian people,” he still praises Obama’s handling of the situation:
The Obama administration … deserves a great deal of credit, which it probably won’t receive. It understood immediately and intuitively that it should not attempt to lead a protest movement which had mobilized itself without American guidance, and consistently deferred to the Egyptian people. Despite the avalanche of criticism from protestors and pundits, in fact Obama and his key aides — including Ben Rhodes and Samantha Power and many others — backed the Egyptian protest movement far more quickly than anyone should have expected.
Their steadily mounting pressure on the Mubarak regime took time to succeed, causing enormous heartburn along the way, but now can claim vindication. By working carefully and closely with the Egyptian military, it helped restrain the worst violence and prevent Tiananmen on the Tahrir — which, it is easy to forget today, could very easily have happened. No bombs, no shock and awe, no soaring declarations of American exceptionalism, and no taking credit for a tidal wave which was entirely of the making of the Egyptian people — just the steadily mounting public and private pressure on the top of the regime which was necessary for the protestors to succeed.
And Bush’s violent means of spreading Democracy may have helped in a roundabout way too.
Donald Trump goes full-wingnut at CPAC
Donald Trump climbs aboard the fail train:
“Our current president came out of nowhere. Came out of nowhere. In fact, I’ll go a step further: the people that went to school with him, they don’t even know him. They never saw him. They don’t know who he is. It’s crazy. [Wild applause.] With no track record — and, I will tell you, he’s got nothing to criticize. He’s a wonderful guy, he’s a nice man, but there was no record. Nothing to criticize. He didn’t go in wars. He didn’t go in battles. He didn’t beat this one, that one, have enemies all over the place. Nobody knew who the hell he was. He’s now our president! He’s our president! [laughter]” (video)
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