Good morning Jane

Math class is hard.
Journalism class is harder.
And to think that the Post used to employ Allan Sloan.

The media is now reporting on the tsk-tsking of John McCain like it matters. Funny, I can’t remember the media giving John Kerry any attention after he lost to Bush.

Also, with the news that Eric Cantor is suckling at the Gingrichian teat, is anyone in the media going to bring up the fact that Newt was THE architect of THE most partisan era in recent American political history?

-G

can they also compare the package to bush’s more then a trillion dollar package in mifflr class assets as gifts to the wealthiests people on the planet?

why isn’t this stimulous compared to bush’s?

I just visited dean bakers page and he needs someone to proof read, notice my bold, the f should be a t;

If might also have been helpful to put some of the items highlighted by Republicans in cont

Also, with the news that Eric Cantor is suckling at the Gingrichian teat, is anyone in the media going to bring up the fact that Newt was THE architect of THE most partisan era in recent American political history?

No. This has been another installment…

That pixilated regional paper…… is that a weekly? Can I pick it up for free at the Metro stops? Heard of it but never seen it.

The class warriors, such as most of WaPo, seek to de-legitimize FDR’s New Deal and the whole reality that government funded work projects can be effective.

They rationalize their view that the elites must not suffer buy implying that forces similar to those of gravity and science must keep the elites in their cushy existence, with the majority of Americans left to scramble for the crumbs which fall of the elite’s dinner tables.

I’d also like to examine the claim that the “New Deal of the 1930’s” represented “only 2% of GDP”? Clearly that’s an average over several years…is it the complete 1930’s? Does it also include the years when FDR dramatically pared back social programs in the late part of the decade? And precisely how was GDP measured? When it was at its nadir? Or when it was at its peak? Or was that an average of the years the New Deal was operative? And when did the “New Deal” begin and end? Many of the most beneficial programs continued on.

So one realizes that there are so many ways to distort these numbers (particularly when they are ratios) to support a Right Wing meme. Just compare very different periods or measures and hide the distortions deep in the scalars.

Really. John McCain. The coverage of his opinions always recalls to mind the observation of my man, Joe Biden, from 2004: “Who gives a shit?”

We have a newspaper like that at the cabin.

Does Cokie write the cooking column?

I like Begala’s recommendation to red states (despite the source):

“If you oppose the stimulus, don’t take the money”

Seems simple enough to me.

Dean Baker is shrill.

that’s a great response, I would love obama to go with it;

“if you opose the bill we will be happy applying your state’s share to those states that did not opose”

bing

Most Republican governors aren’t as crazy as their Senators and Representatives.

me too. it would hurt the innocent people in those states, though, right? Wrong. They’re the people who keep electing these fuckwads. Nothing innocent about that. Their fault.

The reply to that question by Lindsey Graham yesterday was – we are going to have to pay it back so we might as well use it.

Two comments:

(A) rethugs lie a lot. On an apples-to-apples basis, the New Deal was the equivalent of 5.9% of GDP in 1933. It was massively larger in terms of proportion of the Federal budget.

Check out this Reuters article:

http://www.reuters.com/article…..LG20090213

(B) remember that the relative contribution of labor (which was dirt cheap) to infrastructure was much higher in the 1930s than today (much less capital had to be laid out, relatively speaking, to get the same amount of workers to shovel dirt).

Think so? I dunno. They just needed the cash to fund services and meet balanced budget amendments. The reps in Washington don’t give a shit about that.

Dope.

They’re the people who keep electing these fuckwads. Nothing innocent about that. Their fault.

sorta like how you and i are at fault for george bush being president?

oh, besides those two problems with rethug logic, there’s one more: once you take out the stupid tax cut portion of the stimulus, isn’t the current one about 2.3% of GDP? In which case, our stimulus is less than half the size of the 1933 stimulus (again, using real numbers as opposed to the products of the rethug Ministry of Truth).

Andrew Jackson would’ve given their states zilch.

two problems with rethug logic

What is this thing called rethug logic?

AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Sister Hamsher, it is all well and good to point to the “liberal” take-downs of the corporate shills by folks like Dean Baker but until Dean Baker shows up on the jet stream of the WaPo op-ed page as well as ridin’ the rails of the American Prospect Blog I won’t get too excited. As a matter of fact, I wonder if concentratin’ on exposin’ the Washington corporate pundit class is worth the effort…folks out here in the boonies where I work and live haven’t believed these media whores for a long time.

In fact, if our efforts are focused on fightin’ the corporate mercenary press corps we risk losin’ site of the fact that, increasingly the minority party isn’t represented by the corporate press either…in fact the ground troops of the fascist party, the entire political work force of corporate fascism doesn’t read these pathetic nincompoops and is ready to march these fools to the same concentration camps with the “liberals” the queers and the “d***ies”.

I hope your not gettin sucked into the bubble of the beltway fagot hassles, Citizen Hamsher, because before the pundits are exposed on the front pages of the WaPo the Aryan Nation will be doin security for President Ron Paul.

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THE WAR IS NOW ON YOUR FRONT LAWN!!

[mod note: Certain words will automatically place comments in moderation as they are often used by spammers and/or trolls. Furthermore, screaming about a comment in moderation will not get it released any faster. Thank you.]

also, according to the Reuters piece:

“Roosevelt followed up with a Second New Deal in 1935 based on the Works Progress Administration, which built airports, bridges and public buildings across the nation. Smith said the initial $4.88 billion appropriation for this program equaled about 6.7 percent of GDP at the time.”

That’s 6.7% 2 years after the 5.9%. Gosh these thugs lie a lot. Lie. Lie. Lie.

COME ON CENSORS, THAT ISN’T A DISPARAGING PHRASE!!

There’s also that numerator and the denominator thingy — too much to ask that WaPo reporterpersons figure that out. If government spending were to remain stable while the economy tanks, the ratio would rise all by its little self. It’s beginning to look like the journalism schools turned out journalists like the MBA programmes turned out bankers.

Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Here we go again folks…the FDL language police are shootin the friendlies again!!

It’s beginning to look like the journalism schools turned out journalists stenographers like the MBA programmes turned out bankers banksters.

Fixed it for ya

stenographers and banksters? How about liars and thieves?

thiefs even

uh oh. norske, you been trying to sneak a mc***nton in?

Friepup Freedom Fighters:

Shit, this place has turned into fuckin’ fern bar! Go read the interview with Nancy Pelosi’s dughter about her experience with the Brown Shirt masses (even she doesn’t get it!!) and then tell me that absence of “civil discussion” and politically correct language is the biggest threat to liberty in Amerika….WHERE’S MY POST??!!

Very good response. Anyone with a voice in the MSM should be using it often and with alacrity.

Citizen selise:

I’m outta ammunition Citizen selise and I can’t afford ta waste any energy fightin’ with fuckin oversensitive “liberals” who will send their kids to time out in their rooms while the neighbors are bunin down their house!

God save us from limosine liberals and the Cool Kid wannabes!!

I say make them take the money. Force them to be the socialists they so fear. Let them see the devestating effects of infrastructure and jobs.

your comment is up norske, with a mod note that certain words trip the filters. i know i’ve had many comments trip the filters (usually for too many links) and so they are trapped in moderation purgatory until a nice mod releases them (usually within just a few minutes).

Getting stung like that would probably make the red state voters think twice about electing these sonsabitches the next time around. Accordingly, I remain quite comfortable with Begala’s recommendation.

well, no, it’s not our fault. but it was our burden. so in staets like mine it would be my burden to deal with stimulus $$ not comming here. i dunno. taht might not have the intended effect of waking up these people. they might just take it out on Obama and the dems

alacrity!!!! we have a winner! my word of the day. I’m going to use it 3 times today. after i find out what it means.

There’s a thought. But it would be compulsory that any participation in the largesse be referred to as “socialism”. It would be worth it just to see Eric Cantor vapor lock.

Republicans tend to make stuff up as they go along.

good point. i just have trouble with the burden being put on the children who aren’t in a position to affect things one way or the other.

Well, honey, ya better use your word with alacrity, time’s a-wastin’!

All projects funded should have big signs stating that the funding came from the stimulous and in the rethug areas with an addendum that it was opposed by _____________ your local rethug dunderhead. School boards, municipal governments, state governments etc should announce the positions saved.

LOL!

I have been receiving The Washington Post since the 1980’s.

It is a corporatist, power elite rag which also has to service a (shrinking) redneck readership.

They have a reader’s Ombudsman whose IQ must barely break the century mark. The previous Ombudsman was fairly intelligent, and raised too many thorny contradictions for the Post, so they downgraded.

The paper is full of status quo propagandists like Howard Kurtz, and Dana Milbank, who pose as mainstream in their commentary/reporting, but slip in right-wing buzz-bombs at strategic points – very much in the manner of Fareed Zakaria.

The Post loved the Iraq War. I am sure the daily nearly half page ads purchased by the American WMD manufacturers during the gin-up and invasion had nothing to do with the paper’s daily creation and selections of “news” stories about the Saddam threat to Oklahoma.

lol. Yes. They must say “socialism” to receive any benefit of any kind.

i will do so in a prompt and alacritous manner but without being redundant or repetitive.

The error in Graham’s statement is that the red states already don’t pay their fair share of taxes and get back a lot more than they put in. So why should we continue that same process? Don’t you think it’s about time that they shelled out what they are in arrears? If they were this far in arrears in child support payments, they would be facing a long time in jail.

The nation is at war on two fronts. Certainly the Republican Party is the first but their ally needs to be recognized as perhaps an even greater threat. The corporate media and their ability to shape public opinion however the please.

I’ve reached the point where it becomes necessary to accept the fact that expecting the media to report properly on Obama’s objectives or on the crimes of the Bush administration is a lot like an alcoholic taking the next drink and expecting that the same thing that happened the last time won’t happen again, in other words, the insanity of not learning from previous insults and mistakes.

I’m tired but will continue to vent my outrage at every chance I get. I confront people who make coded racist remarks and let them know that it isn’t cool in the America we want to live in to engage in racist blather while our country falls down around our ears.

I don’t read the Times or the WaPo or Time, Newsweek, or the other organs of disinformation nor do I watch MSM news. I watch TV maybe three hours a night: Keith, Rachel, then Family Guy and Robot Chicken on Adult Swim…that regimen seems to be more relevant and less maddening.