Archive for February, 2009
My Thoughts On The Santelli Allegations
For the sake of argument let’s grant Playboy that Rick Santelli’s now famous rant came from an authentic, absolutely genuine outrage that wealthy Republican backers might pay someone else to rant on TV instead of him. Obviously Santelli and the CNBC network would have some egg face but, other than that, who gives a crap? [...]
February 28, 2009
· 
Tim F. · 
82 Comments
Posted in: Media, Rumormongering
Saturday Night Open Thread
An almost live action shot from the Tunch Cam™: In other words, Saturday night is looking an awful lot like Sunday through Friday night around here. On to something different, this paragraph in a story about pears confused me: The Bartlett pear was the principal ingredient of fruit cocktail, which my generation back home had [...]
February 28, 2009
· John Cole · 151 Comments
Posted in: Cat Blogging, Open Thread
It’s That Simple
Bankers have discovered the dirty secret of modern finance. If one guy loses a little money he gets fired. If a firm loses a lot of money its position suffers and, if the loss is great enough, the desks and property get sold off piecemeal. But if enough firms make shitty investments and lose enough [...]
February 28, 2009
· Tim F. · 29 Comments
Posted in: Assholes, Domestic Affairs
Hateful
Charles Erwin Wilson, a GM exec who eventually became Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense, once told Congress “I thought what was good for the country good for General Motors and vice versa” (this is the source of the famous “What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA” expression). I’m no corporatist, but I’ve always [...]
February 28, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 48 Comments
Posted in: Burkean bells
Paging Radley Balko
More of the new professionalism here (via): My favorite part of this vicious assault is after he has kicked her, punched her, banged her head off a wall, thrown her to the floor and beaten her some more, they then handcuff her and have her completely subdued, and pull her to her feet. By her [...]
February 28, 2009
· John Cole · 95 Comments
Posted in: Assholes, Outrage
On The Positive Side, .005% Of Unemployed Plumbers Will Support Them To The End
It occurred to me that good strategic reasons explain why the Republican party has become sandwich board silly. Let’s run through the institutional advantages that have kept the party afloat until now. Money from rich people. Other movements have come and gone, but since FDR established the middle class and poor as the Democrats’ base [...]
February 28, 2009
· Tim F. · 55 Comments
Posted in: Republican Stupidity
But I Thought It Was Pork?
This is kind of funny. While Newt Gingrich is promoting investment in transportation, the official GOP position is that kind of spending is pork, and Bobby Jindal came out swinging against it the other night. Oops: Louisiana’s transportation department plans to request federal dollars for a New Orleans to Baton Rouge passenger rail service from [...]
February 28, 2009
· John Cole · 61 Comments
Posted in: Clown Shoes, Republican Stupidity
Crowd Size, Then And Now
I was going to do a big post comparing the rhetoric downplaying the size of protests in the 2003 era and the current tea party, but what it boils down to is I am just too lazy to do the research. Instead, I will just use pictures. A few bitter cranks in San Francisco protesting [...]
February 28, 2009
· John Cole · 50 Comments
Posted in: Clown Shoes
Out of Ideas. No, Really. They Are Just Out of Ideas.
Yesterday at Outside the Beltway, James Joyner, who is attending CPAC, listed Newt Gingrich’s 12 point plan for the GOP to recapture the hearts of America (and I have cut the descriptions of the items down, you can visit OTB for the full list): 1. Payroll Tax Stimulus. 2. Real Middle-Income Tax Relief. 3. Reduce [...]
February 28, 2009
· John Cole · 57 Comments
Posted in: Clown Shoes, Republican Stupidity
Peak Wingnut And Other Imaginary Things
That was such an awesome theory. ***Update*** I broke the internets; it’s fixed now.
February 28, 2009
· Tim F. · 32 Comments
Posted in: Assholes, Media, Republican Stupidity
FUBO
Suck on this, libtards. C-list wingnut yakker Bob Lonsberry has unleashed an avant-garde gamechanger on the struggling Obama administration: a word came to me. A newly coined word. Four letters. Pronounced “foo-bow.” Like in “food” and “bow and arrow” – “foo-bow.” [....] Then the phones lit up. Dozens and dozens of people called. They wanted [...]
February 28, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 125 Comments
Posted in: Burkean bells
Late night music thread
I’m not sure why, but this song captures my political mood perfectly. Consider this an open thread.
February 27, 2009
· Angry DougJ · 62 Comments
Posted in: Other
Ben Stein on CNN
I’m not sure if any of you watched it, but Ben Stein was just on CNN with Laura D’Andrea Tyson and Wolf Blitzer, and not only defended the budget, but basically threw the last eight years under the bus and then, and this is what blew me away, stated that he agreed with Paul Krugman [...]
February 27, 2009
· John Cole · 147 Comments
Posted in: Media
The New *New* Coke
Fresh off the news that Obama’s poll numbers have rebounded to 67% approval, some in the GOP have come up with an innovative new strategy to knock him down a peg: Top Republicans charged President Barack Obama with driving the United States toward socialism on Friday, opening an ideological attack on his big spending plans. [...]
February 27, 2009
· John Cole · 140 Comments
Posted in: Clown Shoes, Republican Stupidity
Friday Open Thread
I’m eating dinner, and I just heard Wolf Blitzer state that a group is under investigation for their role in assisting up to 200 suicides by “extreme methods.” As opposed to the milder methods of suicide, which only leave you dead. At any rate, here is a shiny new Friday night thread. Is BSG still [...]
February 27, 2009
· John Cole · 92 Comments
Posted in: Open Thread
