(Screen grab courtesy of Carolyn Kay of Make Them Accountable.)
Carolyn Kay, whose stomach is stronger than mine, went spelunking over at the wingnut welfare foundation WorldNutDoily recently and found the charming item that graces this post. I just had to share it with you all.
Boy, the right-wingers really don’t like to see Americans talking about the deterioration of our infrastructure under their watch, do they? Especially when it’s put yet another nail in the coffin of the anti-taxes movement. Too bad for them that the 35W bridge collapse — and what it says about our nation’s roads and bridges and existence in general — was on the front page of the New York Times yet again this week. Above the fold, even.
Speaking of anti-tax wingnuts: Robert Beale, one of the guys behind WorldNetDaily, is on the run for being a massive tax scofflaw. His son, Theodore “Vox Day” Beale, writes for WND, having burned his bridges with the non-wingnut media for being a blatant bigot. Such nice, amiable people, eh?
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ding a ling
Of course, it is the Democrats fault! Responsible Republicans merely kept the Democrat Party from wasting the money and the only way was to keep them from ever getting it in the first place. HUH?
Maybe the Republicans need a new “contract with America”. You remember that. The contract that no one signed. But got shoved down our throats.
tres, again?
oh no, my tres streak broken! ah well ;-)
As I recall, back in the day, my family called the “contract with america” for what it was: “contract ON america”…
PW!
Nit typo: Last sentence I assume you meant “such nice,…”
And, courtesy of my sweet hubby, another one:
yestidie he opined that the repubs would undoubtedly find a way to blame Democratic Party for the laxity of mine-inspections ever since jr. got his hands on the purse strings.
let the mine owners police themselves, yeah sure.
How do they twist their logic so, without getting a brain bleed?
still single digits?
These anti-tax Republicans. How long they been writing bad checks now?
wangdangdoodle @ 7
They reside in the dreaded Evil Parallel Universe.
wangdangdoodle @ 7
I have no clue. My brain’s bleeding just reading that. Now let’s see, if we tried appropriating money for fixing the bridge before it collapsed, that would have been trying to support the welfare state. Or something. *Scratches head*…
With the economy going into the tank, deterioration of the infrastructure is going to accelerate.
My GF’s mother was at her bank yesterday and saw a friend who works in the loan dept. “How are you..blah..blah..” The friend said she had been really busy. She should be writing loans but she was processing loan defaults. The were coming in at a rate of 17 per hour!!!
I have to defend my methods and practices a lot to right-wingers, and it’s fairly easy: just ask them to pretend for a moment that Bush was a democrat… hits ‘em like an epiphany.
Here are some photos from my latest trip:
http://freewayblogger.blogspot…..hland.html
Advice to Republicans opposed to freewayblogging: Pretend for a moment that it wasn’t just our Constitution, Democracy and Civil liberties that were in danger – pretend it wasn’t our national standing or the lives of thousands of our soldiers and countless thousands of others…
Pretend it was something important, like Paula Jones’s honor that was at stake. Then would you be against full and unfettered free speech? Hell that’d be like arresting Paul Revere for disturbing the peace.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 9
For at least 25 years now minimum.
Clinton built and screwed up all the bridges and roads. He also started wars with half the Middle East. He also spied on American Citizens. And as for the sun going down at the end of every day … well it is those damn dems that do it and of course the repugs bring the sun back up in the morning… thank goodness.
Hot dogs and hamburger for Sarkosy… holy crap!
PB @ 11
I think they’re saying we gave all the money to the lazy brown people.
I’ll say it again:
________
To the affluent Bu’ush Party free-market-uber-alles cheerleaders for “drowning the government in a bathtub” -
The bathtub is the Mississippi River directly beneath the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis. It doesn’t give a shit how much bread you got.
But, hey, enjoy those tax cuts. Maybe President Bu’ush will assuage the aggregate grief of well-to-do, tax-hating Minnesotan victims’ next-of-kin with yet another.
Ronald Reagan was the grandfather of this movement. I can still hear him saying with disdain:
Tax and spend liberals.
-GSD
The trick is to now convince people that the nation has been run by and large and almost uncontestedly by the conservatives and Republicans for the last 3 decades.
They will scream and shriek, but remember they have been throwing that down our throat for years. “We win elections!” “America is all red.” Coulter said “We own the media now.”
Reagan and Bush, Bush, Clinton(traingulator) with a Republican congress, Bush/Bush and the all Delay orchestra.
It is their baby.
-GSD
Good gravy. I had no idea that the far right-wing of this country were so heavily abusing illegal substances; that’s the only cause to which I can attribute such massive, group-wide delusions.
Yeah. Nearly half a trillion spent to date on the Iraq War and it’s “but, but, Clinton!” and “but, but, Democrats!”
Completely out of their minds.
good morning phoenix woman!
drive by, will catch up on comments later, but wanted people to see this…..
o/t, but i LOVED this!!!!! and thought you would.
bush’s ‘golden boy’ speechwriter, gerson, a plagarist!!!!! it so miffed me that he got a column at wapo when he left the whitehouse……ends up when he was given accolades for others work, he said nothing….he was even credited for things last night on bill moyers show last nigtht……but one of the speechwriters is speaking out.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..newsletter
Well, I guess some people feel confident to believe that nonsense, since the Democrats were too stupid after the bridge collapse to say, “this is what happens when you are on your way to spending $1 trillion in Iraq, especially after it’s been proven over and over again that the Bush strategy there is a disaster.”
Since they don’t want to continuously put the face of waste in Iraq on things like the bridge collapse and the pipe explosion in NY City, idiotic Republicans feel confident that spending on the, quote, “welfare state,” is the reason.
If you don’t define yourself, other people will define you.
If you don’t define the terms, others will.
They have a right to say it. Democrats are too stupid to use the waste in Iraq as part of the reason we can’t put money towards infrastructure in this country. Instead, they went into this foolishness about needing to raise taxes. No, you need to stop spending money in Iraq, and prosecute and recover the money from every company that received a no-bid contract for Iraq or Katrina and did nothing, as well as go after the people who were in charge of the money that went missing in Iraq.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 3
God forbid the Republicans come out with another one of these. It would make Tweety or Big Pumpkin splooge in their pants.
It’s as tho their Perception of Reality, is based on Fantansy and Imagination, rather than Knowledge.
dmac @ 20
They are all pretenders.
First we had down home George, the shitkicker farm boy who never reads newspapers and never traveled abroad. Now we are getting long lessons on world history from the new creation of Karl Rove. The Serious Dubya, with gravitas and a taste for reading history.
They do indeed create their own reality.
-GSD
OT..Markos on MTP Sunday..interesting
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/11/101718/659
nomolos @ 15
They’re scraping the bottom of the publicity stunt barrel making Sarkozy eat Hot Dogs and Burgers.
Rove will not miss any opportunity to appeal to Knuckle draggers – no matter that it will insult a foreign president (fellow right-winger as he may be).
World Wingnuts are guffawing and slapping their knees at the idea of Frenchy having to eat real Merkin food.
Wingnuts don’t know that the White House Chef is French and Dubya eats the best gourmet French meals that their tax money can buy (while they eat Cherios).
“Burning my bridges has taught be greater respect for rivers.”
Democrats used to spend money to build bridges, FDR for example. Republicans spend money to blow up bridges. It’s pretty simple.
hackworth @ 26
Although sometimes (for some of us) Cheerios are preferable to French food… :})
Before Bush left for his well earned vacation, destroying the Constitution is hard work after all, he suggested further tax cuts for corporations. They are direly in need of them as their record profits show. They have to stay competitive, don’t you know(i.e. send jobs and factories as fast as they can to China). Of course, in the spirit of being fiscally responsible, Bush wants these cuts to be revenue neutral so that means doing away with wasteful spending elsewhere in the budget, healthcare for children, bridges that don’t fall down, that sort of thing.
Dale @ 23
Well, one of my favorite scriptures in the Bible is, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”
Ignorance is the problem in this country and it’s behind the looming destruction of the United States Constitution and economy. As soon as people dump the dollar, which they appear to be on the verge of doing, Bush will put those executive orders into play, and we can forget about it.
Why? Because there are still too many ignorant people in this country who would rather vote for an American Idol than a President, and because the complicit corporate media has made “the truth” relative to your belief system instead of facts.
So fools like those Republicans in that poll think that the problem is the welfare state, instead of their approval of idiotic wars that waste resources — because bombs don’t recycle money back into the economy — and tax cuts for the rich.
dakine01 @ 28
Nope. Cherios are genetically altered. I will stick to home made organic bread and organic eggs and everything else organic
Oklahoma kiddo @ 3
Dude,that was a Contract ON America.
joseph stigltiz (chair of clinton’s council of economic advisors) has spoken openly about how during the clinton years, infrastructure spending was delayed in order to get the federal budget under control.
i hope our dem pols have learned their lesson and won’t try that one again. if we wait to get our financial house in order before taking care of our infrastructure (of all kinds) – it will just get stolen by the greedy again.
Recent poll shows that a large majority of americans are NOT in favor of raising the gas tax to pay for bridge repair….few are worried about bridges. They seem to think that this was a freak event.
A gas tax will be a fart in church if proposed and could spell the political death of whoever proposes it…just as the proposed increase in the car tax killed the ex governor of California…
nomolos @ 31
Don’t tell me that! Cheerios is a life long comfort food for me. That was my allowed and preferred dessert when I was a kid after cleaning my plate and I still keep it in the pantry.
I guess I’m going to have to do the fingers in the ears trick and sing La, la, la, la, la – I can’t HEAR you now…
The good news of the World Wingnut survey is that only 45 percent of the internet tubes’ wingiest wingnuts selected that answer.
It should have been 95 percent.
We’d get 95 percent at FDL for an answer that put the blame (squarely where it belongs) on Republican war profiteering, bankrupting the country, misplaced Rethuglican spending priorities, heartless and careless conservative ideology, etc.
What were the other answer choices? There must’ve been some other answers that blame the Democrats.
dmac @ 20
RawStory has a preview and it points out that this is not just a catfight among neo-cons. Scully is releasing details protected by “executive privilege”. Also note Rove is involved heavily, in Presidential statements, such as perhaps Tillman. I guess there is also an admission that they took the country to war with Iraq, but no big deal.
________________
…the extensive details that Matthew Scully revealed appear comparable to the internal communications that the White House has sought to protect from view through assertions of ‘executive privilege’ as it is investigated by Congressional committees for the firing of a group of US Attorneys.
“It was a rare day when Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Dan Bartlett, or someone else didn’t open the door to see what we were all howling about,” Scully writes. “As John [McConnell, who still serves in the White House] observed in late 2003, around draft 20 in the typically chaotic revising of an education speech, ‘We’ve taken the country to war with less hassle than this.’”
33% favor increase in the gas tax to pay for infrastructure repairs
65% oppose.
CNN
When I read this stuff, I don’t laugh, I cry because the media will run with it and many Americans will believe it. We, who get our news from the net, are still in the minority. The net cannot (yet) compete with FoxNews and way too many people still watch that garbage.
And, of course, as mentioned above, the Dems don’t help themselves as they should.
rwcole @ 38
How about taxing the rich and corporations?
OEST @ 21
i think this is a really important point.
why don’t the dems make this argument?
Does anyone actually “get their news from the net”? I mean you can read the news that’s on teevee and the newspapers on the net- but is there actually an alternative news source on the net? Most are like Drudge- they just provide links to selective stories that came from the Mass Media.
rwcole @ 38
Yeah. Hit the blue-collar folks in the pocket even more. What is wrong with these idiots?
-GSD
nomo
They weren’t asked that question.
RW.
TPM is a news source. They do their own gathering and reporting.
-GSD
Bill Moyers gave it a thumbs-up too.
nomolos @ 40
Or taxing the oil companies. They are earning record profits and getting free use of federal land. Bush let them off the hook on lease payments due the Federal Government.
Why won’t CNN run a poll that Americans will support? Because they are in the tank with Righty Tighty.
Why does CNN hate America?
OEST @ 30
I recently read that about 50% of the adult American population is functionally illiterate.
Can’t we go back and talk about peach cobbler and tomatoes? (Whines)
Hugh @ 29
The starve the beasters are filling the bathtub.
-GSD
rwcole @ 42
One can also read non-usa news on the net so the bushpropoganda machine loses some effect.
Also, a recommended new fellow friendly blogger.
Max Blumenthal.com
Max does and interview with The Forward and addresses the thorny issue as to why American Jews, and Israeli Jews for that matter might want to reconsider their relationship with the American Christian Fundamentalists.
-GSD
a new democratic administration will track all these people and know who is dangerous to them, blackmail them, and use them. just like this administration tracks all of us because we are dangerous to each other, blackmails our congress to vote for them or they will sell the dirt to their newspapers
who really cares about this now? we are pawns at best. no demos fought against the new spy game, they joined in. ask yourself why.
rwcole @ 42
I seldom watch the major netwks for news. What’s the point? I used to watch Imus in the a.m., now in flux. Sometimes catch Hardball. Then Keith. And there’s always cspan. But my UNDERSTANDING of the news comes from the net.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 — At a closed-door briefing in mid-July, senior intelligence officials startled lawmakers with some troubling news. American eavesdroppers were collecting just 25 percent of the foreign-based communications they had been receiving a few months earlier.
Skip to next paragraph
Threats & Responses
Go to Complete Coverage »
Multimedia
Graphic
Behind the New Wiretapping Rules Congress needed to act quickly, intelligence officials said, to repair a dangerous situation.
Some lawmakers were alarmed. Others, jaded by past intelligence warnings, were skeptical.
The report helped set off a furious legislative rush last week that, improbably, broadened the administration’s authority to wiretap terrorism suspects without court oversight.
It was a surprising victory for the politically weakened White House on an issue that had plodded along in Congress for months without a clear sign of urgency or resolution. A flurry of talk in the last three weeks on intelligence gaps, heightened concern over terrorist attacks, burdensome court rulings and Congress’s recess helped turn the debate from a slow boil to a fever pitch.
nyt
GSD @ 43
This is correct. The gas tax is regressive since it takes a higher percentage of income from the poor and those in the middle classes than from the rich. That said, with all the price fluctuations in the price of gas, most of which are the result of market manipulations by the oil companies, a few cents change in the cost of a gallon of gas would scarcely be noticed.
I wonder what the answer would have been if the question had been something like “Would you be willing to pay 3 cents more for a gallon to make sure the bridge you were crossing didn’t fall down on you?”
rwcole @ 42
democracy now! by podcast, every day M-F
RWCole,
Shorter NYTimes.
“We don’t want the evidence to come in the form of a mushroom cloud.”
Cue the Charlie Brown theme.
-GSD
The story in the NYT lays out pretty clearly what happened that led to dems caving on the spy issue…The spy guy reported to congress that due to recent court rulings- their intelligence flow had nearly stopped and that we were entering another period with lots of “chatter”…
Dems feared that they would be blamed for another 9/11 and caved in.
There’s yer story.
nomolos @ 40
Somebody on this site the other day mentioned a “war tax” (I wish I could remember who), but I thought that was the best idea I’d heard in a long time. It covers “paygo,” and can be structured to taxing the rich and corporations (who are the ones primarily profiting from this war, after all.) I could go for trickle down taxes! It could wake people up. It’s what you’d expect fighting dems to bring up to fight the Bush influence. Why are we not hearing this kind of thing from Congress? The political climate and geography is downright scary these days. I’m still looking for an answer to why the results of this particular vote demonstrate so clearly that Rove actually did have “the math” after all.
rwcole @ 54
Wow. What the hell is going on? How has this become public? Is there a spigot somewhere that some telecom et. al. has closed? By accident or on purpose? Or are foreign sources getting wise?
To many Democrats who opposed the action, it was a reflection of fear mongering by the White House, and political capitulation by some fellow Democrats.
“There was an intentional manipulation of the facts to get this legislation through,” said Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, a Democrat on the Intelligence Committee who voted against the plan.
The White House, Mr. Feingold said Friday in an interview, “has identified the one major remaining weakness in the Democratic Party, and that’s its unwillingness to stand up to the administration when it’s making a power grab regarding terrorism and national security.”
“They have figured out that all they have to do is start talking about an imminent terrorist threat, back it up against a Congressional recess, and they know the Democrats will cave,” he added.
Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, said the White House “very skillfully played the fear card.”
“With the chatter up in August,” Ms. Harman said, “the issue of FISA reform got traction. Then they ran out the clock.”
A White House official said the push was driven by genuine concerns by Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence, for the government’s ability to conduct terrorist surveillance.
nyt
rwcole @ 58
But the court rulings would only stem the flow IF they had followed the court rulings! They don’t follow any rulings!
Steve-AR @ 47
I am a tad suprised it would be that high. I figured it would be 28 to 30%.
Should give credit to the dems who listened to the fear mongering and said “bullshit”- MOST did not pee their pants and go along.
rwcole @ 58
Which, on the face of it, isn’t a bad story. But I know that when I prepare for executive level reviews within a Federal agency, there’s always background material to support the assertions that the principle is making. And I’m used to having to brief the principle on any and all questions that might be asked — including questions that will attack the basic premise of his or her arguments.
So what I want to know is: what kind of lazy-*ssed staff work is taking place on the Hill that Senators and Representatives are unable to ask substantive questions?
I need an economist out there to help me.
All my republican friends keep shoving it up my arse about “let the market take care of things”
If that’s the fucking case, how come the FED
came to the rescue yesterday? Shouldn’t
they have said let the market take care of the
correction? What happened to their Free Market
Lingo?
it’s what these fascists do;
cause the problem and then blame everyone else for the problem they caused
same thing with Iraqupation, create the travesty then blame the democrats it
I’d like to tax all the Republican parents who support the Bush Iraq war, and have healthy children over the age of 17, who refuse to enlist in the military. The Republicans respond to pocket book issues, better than anyone else.
Bay State Librul @ 66
Not an economist but it seems that the free market they worship is only up to the point where it would cost the bush base money at which it becomes standard soci*l*sm.
rwcole @ 61
That’s good Russ has figured it out and is willing to make a strong statement (stronger that what he released earler). But it’s too damn late.
I don’t believe the reports of increased “chatter.” If they have less data, then how could they tell the chatter was up?? What does “the chatter’s up” mean on the basis of less data?
They are LIARS. They are lying about the chatter. We are fools to assume they have given anyone in congress any solid evidence. That’s part of the problem: there is no solid evidence, so they have to manipulate to get what they want.
They are LIARS.
They studiously ignored ALL of the 9/11 warnings. They couldn’t even get off their asses for Katrina. We have no evidence anything is different now.
They only care about making shit up.
rwcole @ 58
While attractive as a story, it doesn’t get to the coordination and orchestration of the cave in by Pelosi and Reid. Nor does it explain why instead of addressing the problem presented by the FISA court ruling, Pelosi and Reid facilitated a Republican bill that was aimed not at fixing a specific problem but in granting Bush vast new powers to spy on us. Nor does it explain why the sunset was kicked 6 months down the road instead of 3 months or even 6 weeks. Nor does it explain why there are no safeguards to monitor the program for abuses.
We are heaing a lot of CYA stories about why the Democrats did what they did. Pelosi and Reid were lied to by McConnell. Pelosi faced a rebellion from the Blue Dogs. They were stampeded by increased chatter. I prefer the simpler scenario that the Democrats bailed because they wanted an extra week of vacation and they were banking on the fact that it was summer and no one would notice or care what they did before leaving town.
Steve-AR @ 25
This is very exciting. That Markos is given widespread attention at the same time that Bill O’Reilly has gone insane about DKOS is important. Markos also cowrote an op-ed with Susan Gardner in the Washington Post which declares that progressives ARE the mainstream.
frank 33 at 37 says-”RawStory has a preview and it points out that this is not just a catfight among neo-cons. Scully is releasing details protected by “executive privilege”. Also note Rove is involved heavily, in Presidential statements, such as perhaps Tillman. I guess there is also an admission that they took the country to war with Iraq, but no big deal.
________________
…the extensive details that Matthew Scully revealed appear comparable to the internal communications that the White House has sought to protect from view through assertions of ‘executive privilege’ as it is investigated by Congressional committees for the firing of a group of US Attorneys.
“It was a rare day when Karl Rove, Josh Bolten, Dan Bartlett, or someone else didn’t open the door to see what we were all howling about,” Scully writes. “As John [McConnell, who still serves in the White House] observed in late 2003, around draft 20 in the typically chaotic revising of an education speech, ‘We’ve taken the country to war with less hassle than this.’””
thanks! stealing from fdr and jfk speeches, man, oh man, the turds……the main article by scully at the atlantic is subscription only…..darn it.
the wapo article i linked at 20 was interesting, too……
wonder if gerson will lose his column at wapo? ya think? no, they’ll promote him for being such an excellent stenographer…….
rwcole @ 61
Hermann Goering:
“But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”
Joe Klein’s conscience @ 63
dakine01 @ 69
there is no such thing as a free market that works
with a free market big bussiness buys small bussiness and there is no competitition, you devolve into a robber baron economy
the only people that want “free market” are the robber barons and the sheep that have been convinced by the robber barons to vote against their own interest
dakine01 @ 69
IANAE but there is no such thing as a free market. It is a fiction, a myth. All markets are managed. They always have been throughout history. The only questions are by whom and for whose benefit.
Boston1775 @ 72
Poor Bill-O. Every time he goes on the war path against anyone on the left, it backfires on him!! Look at Franken’s book sales, Michael Moore’s movies, and now this.
BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!!!
The “Free Market” that gooper talk about doesn’t exist and never has.
When Adam Smith wrote about the “free market” it was a logical abstraction- describing how markets might operate when dealing with undifferentiated commodities (like “corn”) when suppliers are small and have no direct contol over the price they recieve for their products or the quantity they collectively bring to market..
None of those assumptions apply in the “real world”. In the real world, oil companies, for example can manipulate the amount of product brought to market and the price at which it is offered- they are also able through advertising to creat product differentiation that makes their go juice appear to be better than the other guy’s.
This is all totally contrary to the assumptions of the “free market”
Goopers are describing a world that never was and never can be.
Off to enjoy the sunshine. See all later.
Hugh @ 77
I think you, perris, and I are all saying pretty much the same thing, although you both said it better than I did.
There are those in my party who have a spine. Just not many.
We’re going to lounge around the pool off and on today. Wonder how many will perish in Iraq while we do this. Just another day. With nothing to do but relax.
I am left speechless
The Justice Department said that Gonzales arrived in Baghdad on Saturday for his third trip to Iraq to meet with department officials who have been there to help fashion the country’s legal system.
“I am pleased to see firsthand … the progress that the men and women of the Justice Department have made to rebuild Iraq’s legal system and law enforcement infrastructure,” Gonzales said in a statement released by the department.
http://www.boston.com/news/nat…..s_baghdad/
Also I would like to ask re the eavesdropping debate, 25% of what? What constitutes exactly a foreign based communication? Are we talking US-foreign, foreign-foreign? US national-foreign? Is it foreign communications which go through US switches but which could be picked up elsewhere? Is it targetted communications of specific individuals or connections? And if there were a US side or American national to these, why weren’t they passed through the FISA court?
wangdangdoodle @ 78
perris @ 86
To answer your question, yes BillO is a moron.
And I believe the Senator in question was Chris Dodd
Hugh
Well that would all be “classified” wouldn’t it…?
If you’ve got an liar in the White House- it’s likely he’s gonna win lots of battles with congress when national security is at stake. That’s the ol bottom line.
rwcole @ 54
Saw this in the morning. What came across to me was that they were trying to frame it as an inevitable (and valid) response to the situation. I think people at FDL did alot better analysis with their time lines (Wigwam and Selise) which showed the real give and take.
Richmond
I didn’t see the writer trying to frame the story at all- just to report what happened.
rwcole @ 88
Err,
made upclassified? Yes.OEST @ 21
Thank you so much for repeatedly calling us stupid, you and your straw man you brought with you.
That helps me so much, thanks a bunch. I guess I was liking myself just a bit too much lately.
I don’t recognize your name, not certain if you comment here regularly — but the Democratic Party members here along with the progressives who aren’t Dem members have consistently and frequently SCREAMED about the vast resources this administration has squandered because its rejection of government as an instrument of, by and for the people to solve problems that individuals cannot solve on their own.
The tens and now hundreds of thousands of members of DailyKos have screamed about it. The members of the HuffPo and TPM communities have screamed about it. We are only too conscious of the waste laid to our nation’s name and budget by this administration, since many if not most of us have suffered for this over the last 6-plus years, including those of us who’ve suffered losses in some way due to the Iraq War and to Katrina.
Some of the most important posts this site has ever published were about this administration’s abuses of our national resources on poor prioritization, like Christy Hardin Smith’s post about the Sago mining accident, A Question of Doing What’s Right.
And many of us commenters here in this blog are actively putting boots to the ground to take this country back, putting it to candidates who are not representing us (like HRC’s dodging the question of money from lobbyists at the YKos convention a week ago), or promoting those that do (like BlueAmerica candidates featured here each week), while phonebanking and going door-to-door and contacting our elected officials to get in their faces to change the status quo.
The question is no longer about the Dems you call stupid — I am one of those Dems. The question is what the hell you are personally doing about it, because coming here and berating all Dems with a f*cking wide paint brush isn’t going to cut it any longer.
Lead, follow or get out of the way.
And some people cannot understand why we need a break on Saturday mornings around here…
Thank you Rayne, that was righteous.
What civil war?
BAGHDAD — A powerful roadside bomb on Saturday killed the governor and police chief of a southern province that has seen fierce internal fighting between Shiite factions, officials said.
The infrastructure is deteriorating because gays are trying to get married and public schools do not promote prayer. The only thing that has prevented a complete infrastructure collaps is the fact that Republics are standing proudly against gay marriage and for government sponsored prayer…oh and they’re also against pornography.
Only Larry Flynt is in favor of pornography- when asked publicly.. Ya have ta wonder who buys the stuff- goopers I guess.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 95
This fits the pattern of most civil wars where there are many sides and shifting alliances. Think the Lebanese Civil war or the civil war in Afghanistan after the Soviets left and before the Taliban arrived. The American Civil War was extremely atypical.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 95
That must be Basra, where the Brits are holed up at the airport.
Badwater @ 96
Also, no flag burning…Nothing ruins infrastructure like flag burning…..And voter fraud! Voter fraud!
The infrastructure serves at the President’s pleasure!
The situation in Basra, which is now in the hands of warring shites, is going to be the poster child for why we should not leave Iraq…tic..toc..tic
Rayne @ 93
I salute you.
I don’t know when or how it happened,but for some damned reason people in this country seem to think that there is only one way to do something and one solution to any problem. And that we can only fix one thing at a time,in a certain pre approved way.
WTF happened to multi-tasking? There’s about 230 million adults in this country,you mean to tell me we can’t do more than one thing,more than one way? Puh-lease.
You wouldn’t see this happen if Democrats were not in charge in Congress.
Overcharges By Lockheed To Be Repaid
“Lockheed Martin Corp.’s disclosure that it overcharged the U.S. government $265 million during the past five years of work on a massive Defense Department fighter program comes at a time of heightened sensitivity in Congress to defense-industry oversight and intensifying budget pressures on the armed forces.
Lockheed, the Pentagon’s top contractor, said that it discovered an “inadvertent billing error” with the F-35 Joint …”
http://online.wsj.com/article/…..ts_news_us
rwcole @ 79
Goopers aren’t particularly good at history, rwcole.
Adam Smith lived in the 1700’s, when economies traded in labor, before the Industrial Revolution changed the basis of trade from labor to energy, before the Information Economy placed value on knowledge as a means to reduce dependence on energy.
In the 1700’s, I might be spending my morning on my farm, the afternoon on cooking dinner, the evening on repairing clothing — and I might have little means for providing revenues to the government from the works of my hands if I were simply scraping by or barely feeding my children with the literal toil of my hands. I would not have dared to imagine having leisure time to write this missive, nor imagine communicating broadly with others from different states and nations; I might not even be able to read nor write.
The theories that applied in that time frame no longer work absolutely, just as theories of science from that time, like Newtonian physics, no longer work absolutely. Why should economic theory be different?
But that requires a grasp of history and an ability to think abstractly, which is apparently discouraged in favor of completely obedience in right-wing fundie circles.
I keep wondering what’s going to happen to the swell war Clusterfuck started.
Turns out that no matter WHAT congress does, we’re gonna have to bring down the troop level by March- cause we’re outta troops- add to that the brits withdrawin- and the need ta send more troops to replace them- and you end up with a huge decrease in troops strength in Baghdad and the triangle.
No wonder the war czar says that it wouldn’t hurt to look at a draft…
So what’s gonna happen next month?
I suspect that both dems and goopers will be trying to make the necessary draw down in March appear to be as a result of them takin a stand.
Jumping down to the bottom (again). Sorry if this has been stated above.
I just had a “conversation” with a wingnut who blamed the Democratic mayor for the bridge collapse. (rolls eyes)
Years of Republican policies: Tax cuts, deregulation, gutting OSHA, are all responsible for the decaying infrastructure. Period. The bridge did NOT fall under the purview of the city as it is part of the national highway system. The fed and state are responsible for it. Plus cutting taxes had a wonderful little trickle-down effect leaving all those who depend on federal supplements, including the cities, hurting for finances.
Rayne @ 93 –
i did not see OEST’s comment as directed at you or me or anyone else here… more a comment on the what dems in congress have not been saying.
maybe i was wrong?
but i know i’ve been making that argument since before the war started – and not just in conversation. for example, i spent hours handing out flyers to drivers at a major intersection in town.
and i’m guessing that in addition to what you write here, you’ve been making that argument strongly within your party work.
didn’t even occur to me it could be directed an us…. and i’m still betting it wasn’t.
Wealth of Nations was written in 1776
The industrial revolution was already under way.
It isn’t so much that “things changed” it’s that there has NEVER been such a “free market”.
Powerful forces OTHER than the market have been influencing production and price since egyptian times.
Badwater @ 96
MUWAHAHHAHA!!!!
MSNBC – French Pres. Sarkozy has arrived at the Bush family compound in Maine. Sarkozy’s wife and kids were supposed to be there too but they called pickles and told her they had sore throats. No hotdogs and hamburgers for them.
selise @ 107
My issue with OESTs comment is that s/he says the dems aren’t saying the right things. But how do we know they aren’t? The mass media reports what best defines their reality. Cogent arguments don’t fit the reality they are trying to fabricate.
Rayne @ 104
Add to that the me,me,me “prosperity gospels” being rotated onto best seller lists and you have people who think that that free market is only for people sanctioned by God. After all,if God loved them they’d be rich,or at least not,eww,poor. So,the free market isn’t just economics it’s also holy writ.
That stuff is incredibly popular here in Metro Atlanta. What these idiots forget is that while the universe may be boundless,the earth and it’s resources are not. I don’t get it,if Jesus is coming for these people,why do they have investments in anything for the future? Why bother with a bigger house or car or what have you?
selise — I hear you, but I also have begun to see a concerted attack on Dems in order to break us up. If the problem described lies with the so-called Blue Dogs (which I believe one of our community has more appropriately renamed the Blue Weasels), then aim fire directly at the appropriate source.
We are approaching a time where a Democratic super-majority is possible, and using an extremely broad brush will play into the hands of the minority party by painting us ALL as the source of this nation’s problems, just as the same entities of the right-wing were able to make the use of the word “liberal” a toxic label.
We will only be able to fix the real problems within our ranks if we point to specific problems rather than allow all of the rest of us to be berated in spite of our considerable investment in taking our country back.
Blue Weasels = target
Candidates taking money from corporate lobbyists = target
Complicit corporate media = target
DLC = target
Fire away.
All good and accurate comments on the mythical Republican Free Markets, guys!
Its a myth – an oversimplification reduced to a sound byte that feeds the illiterate and xenophobic fans of Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, Glenn Beck, O’Reilly, Boortz, et al.
There is no such animal as free markets. Corporate welfare, Crony Capitalism, No-Bid Contracts, Privatization, exploitative trade agreements, taxation, tariffs, tax loopholes, subsidies and more, all work to eradicate a free market.
A small example of Republican Free Markets at work: Bush bails out the airline industry after 911. The CEO’s pocketed the money and the airlines went out of business anyway. In a real free market, the airlines would go out of business without the CEO’s pocketing the corporate welfare (our tax dollars).
Well the boys (Mittie, etc.) are in Iowa today. I’m on the edge of my seat. The suspense is killing me.
If Jesus comes, they would vilify him. He is a DFH, after all.
This was a pleasant day. And then someone mentioned the DLC.
I am still waiting to understand what it is that the DLC actually, really, really does.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 116
Oh come now, OKK.
You can surely not complain about the use of those letters in a sentence where someone lights them up with a targeting laser.
Bombs away, baby.
Red Dogs, not Blue Dogs.
-GSD
selise @ 41
I agree. The silence from the Dems at this point on anything is *deafening*…and I can’t quite tell if it’s a media shut out, or if they are indeed happily out fundraising or vacationing or whateverthehelltheydo in August…
From their website:
Can you say “co-option”?
Good, I knew you could.
What a waste of bandwidth. We all know they are the face of the centrist side of mega-corporate interests. Wonder how much they paid a consultant to develop that “About Us” dreck?
Selise, I took it the same way Rayne did. I’m a democrat, which means (in some people’s minds) that I’m responsible for the mess. Just because our so-called leadership is not doing their jobs, doesn’t mean I’m not doing my part. I took the comment as just another way to paint all democrats with a broad brush. I’m tired of being denigrated by people who don’t lift their finger, and who just expect everyone else to solve the problems. But the problems belong to all of us, and we should all be part of the solution, instead of whining and buying into the republican frame.
Moving it where? Republican Lite?
Ugh. I have to find something constructive to do, like build a website for a progressive candidate or create a business plan for a progressive think tank, or begin work on a new alternative media outlet that reports real news.
Because I’m certainly spinning my wheels here when people continue to paint all Dems as the problem.
Rayne @ 119
I never complain. ;0)
Now if the Bloggers with everything else going on woulod keep the Muder Incorporated (republican party) in the fore front news with VERY VERY VERY heavy articles that it was on their watch AGAIN that MORE AMERICANS were KILLED it was on their WATCH that the bottom line was given MORE prominence than HUMAN LIFE.
Way to go Murder Incorporated (republican party)
wangdangdoodle @ 111
excellent point. i’ve been watching a lot of c-span and was drawing my conclusions from that. but i don’t watch all the time, and there are other ways to try to take the case to the american people. so, i should have said that “i’m not seeing it” rather than “they’re not doing it”.
still, i’m not seeing it.
nomolos @ 84
We need to destroy it over here so they can rebuild it over there. It’s a yin-yang sort of thing.
-GSD
Rayne @ 122
I think it’s safe to say the DLC website almost incites me to riot.
On that Iowa Republican Straw Poll:
This charade should prove to everyone who and what the Right really stands for, or doesn’t.
Howard Dean lost to John Kerry for one major reason:
The Veterans came out in force and reminded everyone of 9-ll and the war. And our duty as voters.
Of course the public then said f#@! that and voted for Bush anyway…..
#1 guy Romney? Coward, and has 5 sons more interested in saving the Mormon banks than Americas rights.
#2 guy Ghouliani? Big 3 time champion dodger/coward.
#3 guy Newt? Bloviating Coward/dodger
#4 guy Thompson? Prime time dodger/coward.
I’m laughing so hard I can’t go on but to say: PSSST: these guys need guns because they have no balls of their own!
IOWA, LISTEN UP!
Only one Republican candidate is a truthteller, and has the balls and the military service to be commander in chief. I hope Iowa votes for Ron Paul.
But wait. Tone down. Hold on kiddo. Kool the rant. Lahoma tells me. “The DLC loves Senator Clinton.”
Weasels?
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? – About a Group of Weasels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSciU1tW9LQ
Bush’s Reverse Midas Reign is inspiring other countries to get more repressive.
Trickle down dictatorship.
Robert Mugabe signs electronic communications interception laws, others call it part of a dictators’ toolkit.
-GSD
Rayne @ 121
Do Tell, DLC. Where is this new territory that you have staked out beyond the left-right debate?
Rayne @ 113
rayne, all good points. i’d add the congressional leadership to your list of targets. they (along with out presidential candidates) are the public face of the party. and that’s who i think of when someone makes a comment about what the dems are saying.
i’ll be happy when you, and people like you, are the party leadership and the public face of the party. i don’t think this is impossible – i love that dean is chair of the dnc.
i hope you know that my complaints are directed at the congressional leadership – and not at you and others like you who are fighting the good fight.
GSD @ 129
Gonzalez knows a good legal system when he monkey fists it.
Just a quick drive by. I had a brief face-to-face with my congressman, Joe Donnelly this morning. The only thing I brought up was his FISA vote. He needs to realize what a horrible mistake that was.
My little town (pop approx. 2,000) had their annual parade this morning and Joe and his wife, Jill, actually showed up to walk in it.
I walked a lot of parades with him last summer when I was running for state rep and he was running for congress so he knows me and went out of his way to come over and say “hi.”
I think he wished he hadn’t when I brought up FISA. Although I was VERY civil about it.
GSD @ 134
Eek! My inlaws are in Zimbabwe as we speak. They’re due to come back in September, and it can’t some soon enough.
Lindy @ 123
Lindy, I thought I’d add another voice in defense of what OEST said. See, I’m really not mad at all Democrats, just the DINOs that did the most horrendously stupid move, strategically, morally, and practically, that I have seen from any political party for a while now. I felt like I had been hit in the gut. I felt betrayed by our own. I saw why Obey screamed at his constituents “We don’t have the votes!” I saw all thought of Impeachment of the most incompetent, corrupt, and ridiculous excuse for an Attorney General in my memory evaporate. This vote drew me a very detailed picture of what our problems really are, and the pictures are not rosy, that’s for sure.
I’m doing my part as best I can. It seems like every few days now I have a new reason to write my Congressional Representatives (including the Senators), and sometimes I’m writing to those Congress critters that are on a specific committee. I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve got, but it never seems to be enough. We supposedly had a majority, now that’s not enough. The President issues edicts to Congress in a particularly insulting manner, and instead of telling him no for once, because that’s what their constituents want from them, they comply like sheep. So if some of us, in our anger and frustration, happen to slip into calling some acts of our fellow democrats stupid, please don’t take it personally. If the shoe doesn’t fit, please don’t wear it!
Howie and Jane upstairs with a Blue America candidate who is aiming to kick John Cornyn’s wrinkly white ass!
Sufilizard @ 138
well done! thank you!
have you email christy to let her know? i think it would give her some cheer to know.
I’d never heard of this “Vox Day”.
Here’s an excerpt from his latest screed, dated July 30, 2007:
Umm… OK?
Rayne @ 93
What you are is predictable.
I knew someone would mention what people have “SREAMED ABOUT” before, which is why I specifically said “after the bridge collapse.”
I watched all of these Democrats come on television after the collapse and skirt around the issue of the waste in Iraq as this country crumbles, without asking the question “WHAT ARE OUR PRIORITIES.” Barney Frank said one sentence about it, and almost swallowed his tongue, and made sure not to keep saying it. Amy Klobuchar said one sentence on Lou Dobbs and turned as red as her dress and made sure not to say it again.
The point is, the Democrats should have made it the CENTER of their argument. The American people would have agreed, but they are afraid to rock to the boat. They listen to these ignorant consultants who wouldn’t know how to win an argument if the opposition went home.
The strategy of those in Congress, as they showed, was to make it about taxes, which is just plain stupid. The bulk of Klobuchar and Frank’s comments was tax policy, which is typical of the Democrats. Talk about something that makes the American people’s eyes glaze over, instead of seizing a red meat issue and making it about priorities — infrastructure or Iraq, and then making the Republicans choose.
The Democrats know nothing.
PB @ 121
Peter DeFazio gave a passionate speech on the House floor about spending money in Iraq, but the majority of the Democrats want to make it about tax policies, which is just plain dumb.
OEST @ 144
Name names. Cite examples. Who is this “majority of Dems”? I’ll even give you a cheat sheet, a resource with the voting records, standings on issues and issue groups ratings.
I can see the media shut out and/or its manipulation of the truth at work. If you were actively working on the ground, you’d see it, too. Like CNN’s Amy Walters last Sunday morning claiming Hillary had improved her position during the Presidential forum at YearlyKos — although Hillary was solidly booed and hissed for her dodging questions about taking money from lobbyists.
And Walters claiming Edwards remained a third tier candidate after his performance at YKos, in spite of far more solid crowd approval at YKos — and not a single boo or hiss.
Example cited. Show us yours. Just bashing Dems at large is not going to win you any friends from people like me who are shedding blood, sweat and tears to change the party from the ground up.
oh, my sides are splitting! from Think Progess:
Gonzo visits Iraq to offer advice on setting up legal system.