MWMB 22: ...or Are You Just Happy to See Me?

PRESS PLAY!  It's MWMB's 22nd episode.  This week we learn what Comet's favorite  edible endangered species is (Comet is a Conservative Talking Wonder Dog).  Jim and Alex look at the, ahem, "stiff" competition for the open Senate seat in Mass, where one of the candidates posed nude for Cosmo.  We wonder if Herman Cain put his foot in his Pizza Hole with his "If you're out of work, Blame Yourself" comment. Geoff sings on behalf of the 99% and Jim reveals the horrible secret behind  Alex's bow tie...OH, and the Salute this week is a doozy- do you know who to root for? Because we don't.  Turn up your speakers and join us for MWMB, won't you?

Links to this week's stories:

Brown-Warren
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/scott-brown-elizabeth-warren-spar-over-nud...

Herman Cain
http://www.thegrio.com/politics/cain-on-poor-and-jobless-blame-yourself.php

Salute
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2789183/posts

Mwmb22: Or Are You Happy To See Me? by Mwmb Listen on Posterous

A PC says GOODBYE to Steve Jobs

As I watched the candle light vigils and saw the grief I was reminded of...well, Princess Diana actually.

Here is my tribute to Steve Jobs.

MWMB 21: It's Liberal Season

Please Listen, we don't exist unless you listen.  Jim and Alex are back with another batch of home-brewed political commentary. Grab yer guns, 'cause Jim has declaired it open season on Liberals. Comet runs off with a girl beagle...are they running for president or just out hunting Commies?  Jim and Alex touch on Obama's Jobs Bill, Steve Job's passing, Christie says "No Means No!" and, as promised, a discussion of Herman Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan.  Cabbage Patch Geoff cheers on the Wall Street Protesters,  and we do a VERY SPECIAL SALUTE to a VERY SPECIAL YOUNG MAN...yes, that's right, Kagan the Zucchini Shootin'  9 year old has done it again!  Don't miss MWMB, your source for homemade rhetoric.

Mwmb 21: It's Liberal Season! by Mwmb Listen on Posterous

MWMB: Hello Kitty Pistol and Putin on the Ritz

Not much blogging lately, but pod-casting continues unabated. On M.W.M.B. Jim the Hammer and Alex Geofferies (Played by yours truly) have had two weeks of fun hashing it out over Rick Perry's 30,000 person Prayer Rally - a "non-political" event in which he blamed "Government" for the recession.

We ALSO tackle Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedev and their political rivalry. ONE of them will run for President next year. Putin WAS president for two terms, couldn't run again right away, and so he put his little buddy Medvedev in office to keep the chair warm while he, Putin, did a stint as Prime Minister. But it seems that young Padawan Dmitry LIKES the job and might want to stay.

What's been fantastic about all of this of course is that BOTH CANDIDATES have been hiring rival teams of STRIPPERS to hit the street on their behalf. No, we didn't make it up, it's here

The girls of "Putin's Army" are trying to press him to run by taking off their clothes. Meanwhile, Medvedev's girls are supposedly on an anti drinking campaign. For each liter of beer the boys pour in the tank, another article of clothing comes off. Ah, politics.

Oh, yeah, and there's the HIT SONG in Russia "I want a Man Like Putin"

And that was just LAST WEEK....


In THIS WEEK'S EPISODE:

We head to the Iowa Straw poll to find out that Michelle Bachmann has won hands down with a whopping 28% of votes cast.

Meanwhile, the the guy who sounds like a BAD GEORGE W. BUSH imitation, Rich Perry of Texas, left his "non-political" prayer rally to head straight to New Hampshire and get started with his Presidential bid....

AND in Arizonia, a nice young man shot himself with a pink pistol.... but you have to listen to the show to find out where.

How can you NOT have fun?

Writing on the Wall: S&Ps Credit Rating Downgrade

Can you hear that? That odd noise that sounds like a fiery finger scratching on the palace wall? That's the sound of the US Credit Rating being downgraded. Earlier this week, in an event that passed unnoticed by those of us who do not belong (at least professionally) to the chattering class...the Chinese credit rating company Dagong said it is sending our credit rating down to an A rating based on our ridiculous looking account books.

At the end of the week came an event that garnished more attention: Standard & Poor downgraded the US Debt from AAA to AA+. The other two large firms, Moody's and Fitch, say they will hold the AAA rating for now...but have put us on notice that they will be watching.

Last week, the Republicans rammed a debt deal down the throat of Democrats...despite the fact that they still hold the White House AND the US Senate (by a whisker).

Is this the end of America? No...but it definitely feels like we're sitting down to dinner with Belshazzar: The writing is on the wall.

Of course, after the S&P downgrade, both political parties started to get their talking points out: Michelle Bachmann said Treasury Secretary Timothy Gietner should resign and House Speaker John Boehner (pronounced "Boner"...we still speak English here at Rip and Read, not German) said Democrats can't run anything. (This despite the fact that Republicans have been in charge for MOST of the past 30 years, during which this crisis grew.)

Meanwhile, the Obama administration...ever inspiring...began to whine about the fact that S & P should not have so petty, adding that it was really mean, and pointed out a 2 trillion dollar accounting mistake in Standard and Poor's numbers...according to Bloomberg, an unidentified spokesman from S&P responded that the mistake speaks for itself...which I can only presume means that, when a debt is SO LARGE that two trillion dollars can be overlooked....then your country doesn't really have a leg to stand on at the complaint department window.

(Vladimir Putin , by the way, weighed in...calling the US a Global Parisite...such a sweet guy.)

In the end, of course, this has been the natural result of the long term Republican Strategy of "Starving the Beast"-- George W. Bush rammed through a tax cut AND fought two wars...when the Republicans seized Congress, they did away with PAYGO- a measure put in place during the Clinton years which required Congress to find new funding to pay for ANY new programs OR Tax increases.

Back February of 2009, I wrote that the Democratic party had lost the battle for the latter half of the 20th Century...the GOP is halving everything it's own way, despite Barack Obama's victory in 2008, despite the recent lesson of the cost of the Bush years...

We who are just to the left of center are going to need to come up with a new strategy... otherwise, the handwriting is on the wall.

In the meantime, we got a debt Ceiling bill last week that does NOTHING to solve the problem... Emmanuel Cleaver (D-MO) called it a "Satan Sandwich"...

Here's my take...

A new Episode of MWMB

This week's program is not for the faint of heart. First, Jim and Alex start fighting so fast over the Minnesota Government Shutdown that we don't even get to the opening credits until 5 minutes into the show. And then, we digress into a long rambling conversation about Canada Day...and Alex reveals a surprisingly bitter aspect to his personality while Jim takes the high road. Along the way, we discuss the fact that Goldman Sachs is off-shoring to Singapore after having said "yes please" to a $10 Billion Dollar US Taxpayer Bailout and we wonder how to solve the problem of turtles on the runway at JFK. Geoff gives us an old fashioned prison song and a good time is had by all. Tune in! Also, MWMB is going on summer hiatus....we'll be back on July 22 or there abouts....watch your Facebook pages.

MWMB: Chillin' with the Newspaper

MWMB is BACK for another week of fun, fun, fun. Find Us HERE! No intense political debates this week. Instead, Alex and the Hammer go on a stroll through the front pages of America's newspapers and discover the secret to getting babes to like you and learning how to have more fun in prison. Plus, we uncover more unpleasant facts about the French (what a surprise) and Alex unveils a new mind control device and learns that he can't say the polite word for "fart". DON'T MISS IT-- head on over and, please, LEAVE a comment!

MWMB: God Goes to School

MWMB returns, now that I'm back from Vacation. This week we talk about why Minotaurs make the best pets for Republicans, touch on Michelle Bachmann, take a few pokes at Weiner and then settle in for a discussion of Separation of Church and State.... the Rutland Herald,of Vermont reported last week that the class valedictorian reported he was not allowed to deliver half of his speech because he was not able to publicly thank God for his academic success. He said that the Law and not the school was to blame. So I guess that casts me in the roll of Godless liberal...

The National Debt: Peter Welch in the Hill

An article about Peter Welch from Vermont appears in "The Hill"... and it helps to underscore a important fact: The national debt is ticking time bomb. The Tea Party republicans are correct in having identified this, and actually trying to work to fix it. This is a massive change for a party who, while they have paid lip service to cutting the debt, is actually largely responsible for it. (Under Reagan, the debt went from $997 billion to $2.85 trillion-- an important gift to America which we should remember whenever we are tempted to eulogize the man.)

But, of course, the Tea Party is wrong in it's approach. In it's efforts to "Free the Rich" (from taxation, from Regulation) it would actually produce stagnation...the very wealthy have no desire to be subject to market forces which might displace them...and historically, they have taken great pains to prevent the free market from working. When market forces finally do win out, we end with disasters like the Great Depression...from which recovery is all but impossible.

It's time to elect Democrats who understand that belt tightening is important if we are to survive to grow another day, AND who understand how to wage the political battles necessary to prevent the Tea Party from inadvertently cutting our throats.

From the article, it sounds as if Congressman Welch is doing a pretty good job.

Did the French Start Every American War Ever?

Jim and I took a break from discussing semi-contemporary issues.... and discuss Jim's theory that the French are to blame for every war America ever had to fight....don't miss this week's show.

MWMB: The French Conspiracy by MWMB Podcast And More


And, if you've got the time, don't miss last weeks show in which Alex does his best to prove that every American Republican is a right wing birther nut.

MWMB: Born In the USA? by MWMB Podcast And More