Michelle Bachman-Too Stupid for Words-Tries to tie Swin Flu to Jimmy Carter

Since moving to Minnesota, I've found that I really like it here...however, like every beautiful silver lining, it does come with at least one cloud. In Minnesota's case, that cloud is Michelle Bachmann. Bachmann is rabid, vicious, mean...AND Stupid...in fact, she may very well be the prototype for Sarah "I can see Russia from My House" Palin.

Now, she is blaming SWINE FLU on Democrats.



She says it's interesting that the last time Swine Flu broke in 1976 out was also under a "Democrat" President. Not only is this patently stupid, but it is also WRONG- Gerald Ford, Republican was President in 1976-- holy carp-- can't this woman even take five seconds to look at wikipedia or something before she opens her gaping mouth?

When we first met Michelle she was Pawing all over George Bush at his State of the Union speech.

She next burst into national consciousness when she implied (in the 2008 campaign) that anyone who didn't vote Republican probably hated America...

And now this.

Why the hell is she in office? I mean, really? Aren't there ANY smart Republicans?

US News and World Report: Obama Ends Reagan Error- whoops-- Era?

Interesting Article in US News and World Report about the differences between Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan. While Reagan shifted the financial direction of the country back to pre-Depression Era trickle-down economics- Obama is taking a page from FDR's book: using the government to pump massive amounts of cash into the system...

Take a look:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20090428/ts_usnews/whyobamaisleavingthereaganerabehindwhenitcomestoeconomicpolicy

The 6th Annual OLMSTED COUNTY DFL DINNER: Hope you can make it.

Something I worked on this weekend-





Original Post and video at: rip-and-read.blogspot.com

'Nuff Said: Americans High on Obama, Fox News Too Tough on the President

from: http://rip-and-read.blogspot.com/
I don't have much time to blog today, but there isn't too much to say, either: two headlines from today's news sum it up.
1) AP Poll: Americans high on Obama, direction of US
2) Nearly 3 in 10 say Fox News too tough on Obama

And, as always, John Stewart explains it all for us:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Balzheimers Disease
thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

The Future of Centrism

http://rip-and-read.blogspot.com/

I read a great article this morning in CQ Politics. Now that Democrats seem to hold all the cards in the Federal Level, it will be very important to keep in step with the American people...

The DLC was established in the 1980s in response to the overwhelming success of the Reagan Revolution, particularly in the South. It recognized an essential truth about the Democratic Party...that it had moved away from it's blue collar and middle class roots and appealed only to those on the far left of the American political spectrum. Since the Republican party, at it's heart, still represented the Corporate Halls of power while relying on the right-wing fringe as foot soldiers, this left the majority of Americans without a political voice.

And so, since the American blue collar worker and the middle class are largely conservative, they chose the right leaning GOP over the seemingly leftist Democrats. The DLC was formed to change this. The political landscape began to change with the election of Bill Clinton (once Chairman of the DLC) in the 1990s, and the Democratic party lurched back towards the center. Not, however, without a great deal of internal animosity, and there are large portions of the Democratic party base where the DLC is anathema. (Visit Green Mountain Daily, or the Daily Kos for a taste of this.)

"The political mission of the DLC has been largely accomplished,"
said Reed, who's had the group's No. 2 post since 2001.
"Twenty-five years ago, the forgotten middle class had serious
doubts about Democrats, and now Democrats are winning the middle
class, suburban voters, moderates by handsome margins. Our next
challenge is to deliver on that promise and earn those votes for
years to come."

On a broader level, though, the group will face the same tension affecting the entire party: the sense among liberals that “their ship has come in,” as Kind puts it — and that, as a result, the need for moderation and compromise in Democratic politics has passed. But Democrats only have that majority because they’re holding on to seats that could easily return to Republican hands. In the House, for example, 49 districts that elected Democrats were carried by Republican John McCain at the top of the presidential ticket in 2008[emphasis added].

On a separate note, it's been a while since I've made the time to visit green mountain daily...going back today and casting an eye over the posts, I realized how much I missed it!

Hillary The Movie: Free Speech

Today, I listened to a story on NPR that had me at the edge of my seat. The link to the story is here: Hillary: The Movie Opens At the Supreme Court.

On the one hand, I hate the idea that political speech can be limited in any way (even when it's a movie made by Right-Wingnuts.) If Hillary The Movie looses, then I could see that the right wing could use similar arguments to stop people I agree with.

On the other hand, I can't stand the idea that corporations can fund political speech without being limited and without being forced to reveal who they are.

While I, as a private citizen, may be able to make a tiny You-Tube movie about, say, George Bush...I would have a hard time even securing the rights to the pictures I needed to make my point. Not to mention the ability to travel around the country to get interviews, film on location, etc.

All these things make for powerful story telling-

A large corporation, however, would have no problem doing these things and many more- and paying for a platform and advertising for their movie as well...their speech would be SO much louder than mine that there would be no hope of a fair exchange of ideas....

This is a story worth following.

Hemorrhaging Money: The Latest Spending Bill

Just listening to NPR's report on the latest spending bill...chock full of earmarks...which the President will sign.

I wish he wouldn't. For both reasons of style and substance, I wish he would send this bill back to the hill and say: "Try again. Fast. We can't wait."

I've written before about the massive American Debt and why it frightens me. We need to begin rebuilding- slowly, carefully, and strongly...so that the Republicans can not pull the American Government to the ground again for a long, long time.

Back in the late 1990s, Bill Clinton went toe to toe with a Republican Congress over spending and won. He also balanced the budget and began to make progress toward reducing our national dept to manageable levels.

In those moments, a subtle shift began in the minds of the American people: Perhaps the Democrats were NOT the party of "Tax and Spend" - perhaps it was the Radical Republicans who were doing the most harm by trying to "drown the American Government in a bathtub."

This shift was only partial, it will take more work to fix it firmly in American minds. As the poorly built edifice of the Bush Era comes crashing down around our ears, the American people again saw the Democratic Party as responsible enough to reverse the nation's downhill course...

That positive image of us as Democrats will NOT stay fixed in the minds of the American people if we are seen to be using this opportunity to shunt funding off to isolated groups and pet projects at a time when the entire American public stands in economic peril.

This morning, I heard another story on NPR...(It's not posted yet, so you'll have to find it yourself...I may not have all the details right, either)...one of the items in this bill is $1.5 MILLION Dollars to hire 8 people to change road signs on an Arizona interstate from metric back into the Imperial system...

$1.5 MILLION DOLLARS! To employ only 8 people.

Sorry, my fellow Democrats- but this kind of foolishness is doing the GOP's work for them.

Breakfast in London

Going down to breakfast this morning, I realized how much I’d missed the British Press. Pouring a cup of coffee and tucking in to a Full English Breakfast (Eggs, Bacon, Sausage, Baked Beans, Mushrooms and – I skipped it- a fried tomato ) I also burrowed into the Daily Telegraph.

In just a few minutes, I got a snap shot of the British Economy and view of the world:

In hard times, skinny ties are back in.

The Queen is rolling out the Red Carpet for an “informal visit” with President Obama this month. (The President is flying into Standsted, rather than Heathrow- it seems our LAST President brought the whole airport to a stop when he flew into London in June…gumming up the works with “extravagant” demands.)

Gordon Brown returns to the UK after his visit to the United States. No one here is impressed, despite his calls for a “Global New Deal” from President Obama.

The Bank of England is getting out it’s paper and magic markers to draw some new money (which, in reality, may turn out to be even more worthless than I’ve made it sound.)

23 Percent of Britons are saving nothing…the fall in interest rates have made it almost useless to put money in the bank…as there is very little to get in return.

Russia just passed a law making it a criminal offence to criticize Joseph Stalin’s conduct of World War 2.

British commuter trains are slower now than they were before the war. (“The” war here is WW2.)

Men are suffering more stress than women in these hard times.

The Princess Royal visited the British outpost of Gibraltar – this made the Spanish angry (the lost the “rock” by treaty in 1713.), but the people of Gibraltar defended their right to a visit from their Sovereign and her family…Rip and Read says: Hear! Hear!

Burning the History Books- The Right Wing and FDR

In the past couple of days, I've been browsing my bookshelves, revisiting the New Deal.

It seemed important right now to go back and take a look at what happened, particularly since the Right wing in this country has been vigorously spreading the lies that FDR's New Deal, perhaps the most successful reform in history, was, in fact, a failure.

The purpose of this misinformation campaign is to trip up President Obama in his attempts to restore prosperity to the American people...and return this country to the right track.

The Right-Wingnuts have worked long and hard (Since Reagan's victory in 1980) to strip this country of the prosperity and protection put in place by FDR.

As I continue to read about this, I find that Chris Miller, who's blog, Smart Remarks, I discovered a couple of days ago has written a nice piece on this debate...I recommend it.

It can be found here: http://blog.smartmemes.com/2009/02/a-dose-of-history/

The Wingnut Gospel: Obama will Kill Small Business

Yesterday, Media Matters, published a great article entitled "Washington Post and New York Times let Boehner revive small business tax falsehood." I encourage you to read it.

Sometimes, however, even greater insight can be found in the comments than in the article which prompted them...here are some of my favorites...

From Nerzog:

I guess the Replutocrats think that if they keep repeating this lie, the Media will stop bothering to correct them..... oh, wait, it's already happened.

The Democrats need to take it upon themselves to publicly debunk this myth as often as it takes. As media savvy as they are, Obama's team doesn't seem to realize yet that the Replutocrats own the media, and they'll have to find alternative means to get the truth past all the bullsh*t.

I particularly like the term: RePLUTOcrats....and think I shall adopt it.

And here is another insightful comment, this one from Snoopy:

My experience these last few years is that tax cuts puts more operating capital into the owner's pocket who in turn uses that capital to outsource manufacturing to china and india, thus putting even more capital into his pocket. Who needs quality when you've got 3 billion potential customers who think transister radios are awesome technology!

A great discussion on corporate vs. personal taxes took place between neon desert and nerzog . Here's the take-home:

I was under the impression that incorporation legally segregated the individual from the business, thereby protecting personal property from liabilities incurred by the business.

That being the case, anyone making >$250k/yr from their small business who hasn't incorporated should be assessed a stoopidity surtax anyway.

You said it, buddy.

And last but not least, some great advice from Col. Harlan Sanders (no, probably not THAT one):

These are the questions I keep asking the conservatives on this issue. I'm just going to copy from a recent thread;

Do you own a business? If so, have you ever let an employee go, or decided not to hire a new employee because your taxes were raised?

Do you work for somebody else who has done these things?

Do you know anybody personally who has?

Friend of a friend?

anecdotal?

Fictitious right wing email claiming to?

An example , with the essential numbers in revenues/expenses that is feasible?

Cheney2012, to his credit, at least tried to fake a generic anecdotal answer;

"I have known several business owners over the years who have SHUT DOWN completely because of increases in taxes."

What I never get is a credible example. I've owned a small business, I've worked for small and large companies, and have never seen an employer eliminate or add a job because of taxes. It's part of the Wingnut Gospel, and is used as a given, a starting point for their arguments, something that happens all of the time, but something that I've never seen a real world example of.

I'm not saying it's impossible, I'm just asking that anybody who wants to use this as a common occurence cite some reality-based example. Maybe some numbers, some specifics on the company, where were the revenues and expenses when this company decided it was better to pass up those profits than to pay taxes on them.

I've seen taxes used as an excuse by people who couldn't run a business, maybe that's the bottom line.

Great Discussion.