Who's this guysaying nice things about Bush on our Iraq successbashing Bush over our economic failure?
Rather than focus on jobs creation in a country with climbing unemployment rates, Obama spent the better part of a year focused on passing a health care bill that looks like it will play no small part in the Democratic Party’s upcoming electoral woes.I'm not buying that spin. It is true that Hamsher had some of the most devastating critiques of Obamacare. But when I wrote my Open Letter in January 2010 to Hamsher asking her to join us in defeating Obamacare, there was no response, either directly or indirectly, in words or in action. Instead, Hamsher and others were focused on improving (e.g. public option) not defeating the legislation, an ultimately futiile quest which required a level of subservience to the Democratic leadership in the hope they would come through for you. They didn't.
Well, we warned you
I think that government needs to live within its means. I would like to go and join my voice with Mike Pence and others who when the 62 billion came out to be spent on Katria relief, he said wait a minute, I'm voting no and the reason is because I want to know where it's going, what it's going to be spent on and who is going to be spending it, so I'd like to join my voice there.That's it. Angle never says she would have denied relief to Katrina victims.
Among the many superlatives associated with Hurricane Katrina can now be added this one: it produced one of the most extraordinary displays of scams, schemes and stupefying bureaucratic bungles in modern history, costing taxpayers up to $2 billion....
The tally of ignoble acts linked to Hurricane Katrina, pulled together by The New York Times from government audits, criminal prosecutions and Congressional investigations, could rise because the inquiries are under way. Even in Washington, a city accustomed to government bloat, the numbers are generating amazement.Sharron Angle was right to insist on government accountability rather than government blank checks, even on an issue as important as Katrina relief. Had Sharron Angle's position been followed, there would have been Katrina relief, but without the historic fraud and waste.
"The blatant fraud, the audacity of the schemes, the scale of the waste — it is just breathtaking," said Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and chairwoman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Such an outcome was feared soon after Congress passed the initial hurricane relief package, as officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross acknowledged that their systems were overwhelmed and tried to create new ones on the fly.
The headline of the day at CNN is TRENDING: Clear majority says Palin not qualified to be president (emphasis mine):Two days after Sarah Palin fired up a large crowd at Glenn Beck's Restoring Honor rally in Washington, a newly released survey suggests a clear majority of Americans don't think the former vice presidential nominee has the right credentials to be president.This description of the poll is an outright fabrication. The actual poll question had nothing to do with credentials, qualifications, or even electability. Here was the actual question: "Do you think SARAH PALIN would have the ability to be an EFFECTIVE PRESIDENT?"
According to the new survey from Vanity Fair and CBS News' 60 Minutes, only 1 in 4 of all adults thinks Palin is qualified to be commander-in-chief while 60 percent say she is not.
Similarly distorted versions are all over the internet, in which the authors misread the actual question asked, and use it to opine on Palin's qualifications or election prospects.
A new poll suggests not. Only one in four Americans consider her qualified to be commander in chief, with 60 percent sure that she is not qualified. Those are awful numbers and I'm one who thinks the prospects of a Palin presidency are, for the moment, quite unlikely.Again, there is no truth to the characterization that the poll concerned qualifications or election prospects.
While the 2012 election is a long way off and poll numbers are difficult to interpret, in one recent poll of potential 2012 matchups, conducted Aug. 6-9 by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, 43% of registered voters said they would support Palin to 49% for Obama.HuffPo more fair than CNN and Time Magazine. It has come to this.
Agents from the FBI and ATF are asking for help from the public in solving the arson at the future site of the the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, Tennessee.--------------------------------------------
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.Obama thus sought to delegitimize opposition to his policies (at that time, his proposed policies) as nothing more than an emotional reaction driven by hatred, fear, and inherent racism or xenophobia.
“It’s not surprising that someone like a Mr. Beck is able to stir up a certain portion of [the American people]. … That’s been true throughout our history.”Thus, in his dismissive tone, Obama once again reduced opposition to his policies to nothing more than mob rule, or worse.
For a year and a half, we've seen rallies and town-hall shouting and attack ads and Fox News special reports. But I still haven't the foggiest idea what these folks actually want, other than to see like-minded Republicans winning elections. To be sure, I admire their passion, and I applaud their willingness to get involved in public affairs. If more Americans chose to take a more active role in the political process, the country would be better off and our democracy would be more vibrant.That's right. Nothing to see here. Move along.
But that doesn't actually tell us what these throngs of Americans are fighting for, exactly. I'm not oblivious to their cries; I'm at a loss to appreciate those cries on anything more than a superficial level.
The point is that (a) the teabaggers don’t actually have a cause, just a lot of resentments; and (2) [sic] their slogans and symbols are displays of tribal dominance only. Most teabaggers have no idea what the slogans and symbols mean.As does someone else:
I don't really think of most of them are [sic] bad people, especially the elderly ones who have been frightened and manipulated into fighting against their own best interests. Yet, they are part of the problem and if we're to save civil society, sadly, these are the people we must battle.Remember, shhhhh.
Well, Glenn Beck's eyes certainly weren't dry. He started weeping while telling the crowd that somewhere out there was "the next George Washington".I just saw people peacefully exercising their constitutional rights of assembly and free speech in the best tradition of our country:
Dunno about you, but when I saw pan shots of the crowd -- which was one of the whitest crowds in D.C. in recent memory -- I mostly thought I saw "the next Timothy McVeigh."
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."Timothy McVeigh stood for the exact opposite of the freedoms protected by the First Amendment and the message of the Restoring Honor rally.
Political Rally Or Not? We Report, You DecideBut not to mind, Think Progress also had photos of t-shirts like this one (unfortunately, TP gave no link as to where to order one):
For months, Glenn Beck has breathlessly insisted that today’s “Restoring Honor” rally was a completely non-political event. ThinkProgress attended the event and documented what we saw. Decide for yourself if Beck’s rally was non-political:
"Racists Hide Racism At Racist Rally"All is fair in love and the card game. At least take some of your race cards from a different rally, and play them here.
MANDERS: We have domestic enemies. We have home-born homegrown enemies in our system. And I for one think we have some of those enemies in the walls of the Senate and the Congress.In his first post, Sargent noted that '[i]n fairness to Angle, the incendiary remark was made by Manders."
ANGLE: Yes. I think you're right, Bill.
ANGLE: Well, we were talking about what's going on in Congress, of course, and the policies that have come out of Congress, and those policies as we've all seen over the last 18 months have definitely hurt our country.
* * *
ANGLE: There is no doubt that the policies that have been coming out in the last 18 months have injured us, and injured us most specifically here in Nevada.So, reading the transcript in Sargent's column, it is clear that Angle explained that she was referring to harmful policies. There is nothing in Angle's comments or clarification which suggests what Sargent (and the Reid campaign) wants to suggest about Angle, that she is advocating violence against members of Congress.
Reflecting hardened views of Reid, his unfavorability ratings remain high and nearly unchanged from past surveys: 52 percent have a negative opinion of him, while 39 percent have a favorable view, and 9 percent are neutral. Two weeks ago, the numbers were 51-40-9.Reid is in trouble, and his team knows it. Expect even more over-the-top attacks on Angle, but it will not help. Reid is a fully known quantity, and people know they don't like him. That will not change.
Voter opinion of Angle is still shifting. She is seen unfavorably by 43 percent and favorably by 32 percent compared with 45-37 two weeks ago. Another 24 percent have a neutral opinion compared with 17 percent two weeks ago, suggesting a quarter of Nevadans still have an open mind.
The vote on Elena Kagan's confirmation to the Court, along with the previous year's confirmation vote on Sonia Sotomayor, are critical for the future of the Second Amendment. After careful consideration, the NRA-PVF announced today that it will not be endorsing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for re-election in the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Nevada.And further h/t to another commenter for pointing out the absurd coverage at Outside The Beltway, including this gem: Harry Reid Unveils First Negative Ad. First negative ad? Maybe it's a joke I just didn't get. Reid's campaign website has a catalog of the negative ads he's run, link here if you dare.
I’m not usually the conspiratorial type, but watch Gov. Chris Christie explain how the Obama administration disqualified the state of New Jersey from hundreds of millions in education funds because some clerk in Trenton turned in the wrong excel spreadsheet:What possibly could go wrong?
The U.S. Education Department on Thursday released a videotape that appeared to contradict Mr. Christie's claim that federal officials refused to allow New Jersey to fix a mistake on its application. In a statement, Mr. Christie faulted Mr. Schundler for providing false information about the presentation.So I have updated the post title.
"I was extremely disappointed to learn that the videotape of the Race to the Top presentation was not consistent with the information provided to me by the New Jersey Department of Education and which I then conveyed to the people of New Jersey," Mr. Christie said in a statement. "As a result, I ordered an end to Bret Schundler's service as New Jersey's Education Commissioner and as a member of my administration.
Using A Different WeaponWhat a relief.
Last night in Queens Omar Rivera walked into the al-Imam Mosque on 24 Steinway Street with a bottle of beer and penis in hand and proceeded to urinate on the congregation's prayer rugs while uttering variousanti-Muslim slurscurses.
The "clearly very intoxicated" Rivera was taken into custody by the NYPD.
Late Update: The New York Post originally reported Rivera using 'anti-Muslim slurs'. But they've now revised their story. The NYPD would not confirm to TPM whether Rivera's curses were tied to Islam. And subsequent reporting by the Washington Post suggests Rivera was so drunk he probably didn't know he was in a Mosque. So probably just your standard random urination in place of worship issue.
Later Update: NYPD now confirming to TPM that they are not treating this as a bias case.
"UPDATE at 8/26/10 9:40:47 am
"The predictable narrative that Enright is a “leftist” is collapsing like a wet paper bag. L Magazine reports that Enright’s Facebook page featured a link (now removed, after his arrest) to Tea Party politician Greg Ball."
So when we see seemingly inane local controversies brewing, we should keep in mind that these can quickly become national conflagrations if the right determines it’s a way to manipulate the public discourse.
In that regard, the “war on Christmas” has been raging for years and now it seems the war on Happy Birthday has begun....Yes, the right is manipulating the national discourse by pointing to the absurdity of an elementary school banning the singing of Happy Birthday.
A ban on singing “Happy Birthday” lasted all of four days at Chesterfield Elementary School in Missouri after angry parents bombarded the school with complaints.Update: They Lied Us Into The War On Happy Birthday
“Singing is not permitted due to the sensitivity of all student beliefs,” wrote Principal Jodi Davidson in a letter to parents dated August 13.
On August 23 Davidson sent another letter reversing the policy noting that students “are permitted and encouraged to sing the happy birthday song in the classroom.”
However, students will not be permitted to sing the traditional song in the cafeteria and all birthday treats must be individually inspected by the school nurse.
Here’s how it works: When 19 Muslim terrorists fly planes into buildings and murder thousands of people, it’s not a reflection on all Muslims. Or any Muslims besides those 19, for that matter. But when a drunk A-hole in the same neighborhood yells “As-salaam alaikum! Consider this a checkpoint!” and stabs a Muslim cabbie, it’s a reflection on all opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque.--------------------------------------------
Republican National Committee Slashes New York Muslim Cabbie
It wasn’t the 21-year-old Michael Enright who drunkenly slashed his New York city cab driver after asking ‘Are you Muslim?’More to follow on the left-wing blogosphere befooling itself, once again, à la Bill Sparkman.
It was the Republican National Committee. From August of 2006, the RNC decided to demonize Muslims and Islam as a campaign ploy, to scare apparently easily spooked white Christians. In recent weeks, Newt Gingrich sharpened the blade by comparing Muslims to Nazis. Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio asked if the Sunni Kuwaiti Sufi Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who is on a good will mission to the Muslim world on behalf of the US State Department and was deployed in the same way by George W. Bush, is a terrorist in the employ of Shiite Iran.
The slasher was apparently “very drunk,” but what does being drunk do to a person? Makes them suggestible, lets primal emotions come to the fore. Newt Gingrich and Rick Lazio may as well have kept Enwright in their basements in chains and whipped him into a frenzy as to spew their hatred on the airwaves.
And the payback isn’t long in coming — today’s used car prices are soaring owing to reduced supply....
See how that works? You can’t get something for nothing. Cash for Clunkers turns out to have been a highly inefficient wealth-transfer program, that is, one that destroyed a bunch of wealth along the way. It gave wealth to those already relatively wealthy people who did the government’s bidding (that is, those who could afford to part with a used car and buy a new one). And now it’s taking wealth from those relatively poor people who need a used car today — in the form of higher prices.In Rhode Island, as I posted before, the unintended consequences hurt everyone, not just the poor, because Rhode Island taxes vehicle ownership based on used car prices as of December 31. By artificially inflating the used car market last year, Cash for Clunkers increased everyone's state taxes in Rhode Island this year. If prices are continuing to rise, as the article indicates, next year will bring an even larger tax bill.
Along the way, it destroyed hundreds of thousands of cars — that’s the real wealth these poor people don’t have access to anymore, because the scrapped cars aren’t a part of the economy.
In other words, the White House spent $3 billion to make used cars more expensive for working-class families. Nice work.--------------------------------------------
Although CBO has examined data on output and employment during the period since ARRA’s enactment, those data are not as helpful in determining ARRA’s economic effects as might be supposed because isolating the effects would require knowing what path the economy would have taken in the absence of the law.The Heritage Foundation, in connection with an earlier CBO Stimulus report, noted the flawed methodology of the CBO:
The CBO's conclusion that the stimulus created jobs is based on an economic model that began with the premise that all stimulus bills create jobs. In other words, the conclusion is already assumed as a premise. Logicians call this the fallacy of begging the question. Mathematicians call it assuming what you are trying to prove....
The problem here is obvious. Once the CBO decided to assume that every dollar of government spending increased GDP by the multipliers above, its conclusion that the stimulus saved jobs was pre-ordained. The economy could have lost 30 million jobs, and the model would have said that the economy would otherwise have lost 31.5 million jobs without the stimulus. An asteroid could have hit the United States, wiping out everyone outside of Washington, D.C., and (as long as Washington still spent the stimulus money) the CBO's economic model would have produced the same stimulus jobs data. There is no adjustment made to reflect what actually happened in the economy after the stimulus was enacted.The American people "may have" won 3.3 million jobs. This is what it has come to:
Michael Bennet, D-Colo, at a town hall meeting in Greeley last Saturday, Aug 21 said we had nothing to show for the debt incurred by the stimulus package and other expenditures calling the recession the worst since the Great Depression....
Regarding spending during his time in office he said, “We have managed to acquire $13 trillion of debt on our balance sheet” and, “in my view we have nothing to show for it.”--------------------------------------------
Shortly afterward, Shi’ite supporters of Hizbullah and sister organization Amal set fire to a Sunni mosque in the nearby neighborhood of Basta, according to an AP photographer.Worldwide outrage to follow?
Salah, a 40-year-old who did not wish to give his last name, said he had been inside the Bourj Abu Haidar mosque when he heard a commotion outside and people screaming, “Calm down.”
Then, 20 minutes later, he heard gunshots and bullets slamming into the mosque.
“They were shooting at the mosque. I think these people are crazy. They must have gone home to get their friends,” he said.
"That Reynolds, Althouse and William Jacobson are employed as faculty at US law schools tells you all you need to know about how debased the law is in this kkkountry."There was a time when they actually were funny over there. Now, I think they're just depressed because it hasn't worked out quite as they expected.
Let us by all means make the "Ground Zero" debate a test of tolerance. But this will be a one-way street unless it is to be a test of Muslim tolerance as well.Which makes this NPR post, Rancor Over Mosque Could Fuel Islamic Extremists, particularly inane. If history has proven anything, it is that "fuel" is the one thing for which "Islamic Extremists" do not want. If not this, something else.
Thousands of vehicles were bogged down Monday in a more than 100-kilometre (62-mile) traffic jam leading to Beijing that has lasted nine days and highlights China's growing road congestion woes.--------------------------------------------
