Friday, June 25, 2010

Back Door Men

Republicans to Unemployed: Drop Dead. Msnbc.com treats this as a "blow to Obama," but it seems to me that it's a blow to the 15, 000, 000 Americans who are out of work. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), whose lapdog acquiescence to the Bush-Cheney economic "policy" that made this mess, piously opined that it's better for a few people to be desperate than to add .002 percent to the national debt that he also helped create. In other words, if you want to work and can't, the least you can do is bend over and make an immeasurably insignificant contribution to debt relief...

No one can say that last week was dull. After panning President Obama's Oval Office speech on the BP/Halliburton catastrophe, pundits fell all over themselves the next day in praise of his effectiveness in negotiating the escrow account. Obama then relieved Stanley McChrystal of command in Afghanistan, again to high marks (here and here).

But, the oil still gushes, the black pool continues in, and the American people yearn for an Augustine who will read a children's book for seven minutes and then order the tide to return from whence it came. No matter that this didn't work for Augustine, George Bush, or anyone else: The point is to act like you know what you're doing and be the kinda guy who Joe the Plumber can have a beer with when it's all over.

The usually astute Rachel Maddow drew progressive accolades for her alternative speech, through which she recommended that President Obama make promises that he couldn't possibly guarantee, alienate everyone he must work with, and attend to the spill with a Jimmy Carter-like focus to the exclusion of everything else (something voters just love). She paid lip service to a mainstay of the Gulf Coast economy ("short-term income") and all but said "jobs schmobs" in her ringing commitment to "mitigate" the economic impact of a long-term drilling moratorium. Maddow also mischaracterized the reconciliation process, something which one hopes she'd have more than a working familiarity with by now...

Michael Gerson braves up and derides Al Franken's characterization of the Roberts Court as having "...consistently and intentionally protected and promoted the interests of the powerful over those of individual Americans." The former Bush speech writer accuses Franken of hyperbole, then compares the Minnesota senator to a member of a French Revolution directory. The author of the phase "Axis of Evil" expresses disgust with Franken's "bile" and implies that Franken said things that he didn't say. The long-time political aide and speechwriter all but calls Franken a poser, then passes himself off as a Constitutional scholar...

JUST A SONG: Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone. Look out ma, here comes the elephant boy... 

McChystal went pretty quietly, slinking out the back entrance while Obama announced the firing. John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and the Connecticut Toad telegraphed support in advance, signaling that the GOP wouldn't oppose the president's decision. Mainly, that's each and every senator harbors fantasies of the presidency and wouldn't want to be undermined by the likes of McChrystal. In any case, he had to go: If you can't control yourself and your staff, how can you prosecute a failing war against the Taliban?...

The Texas GOP just doesn't go in for back door shenanigans...

Progressivism and liberty
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10 comments:

Taradharma said...

time for Hoovervilles to spring up at state capitals and the US White House. Think of all the Gulf Coast refugees erecting shanty towns on the Capital Mall.

K. said...

The Republicans would show them the same respect that Hoover gave to the Bonus Army.

Roy said...

As one of those 15,000,000 jobless Americans, I have a few words for the Republicans who keep voting down benefit extensions; unfortunately none of them are printable in public. And the version just voted down wasn't an actual extension, but an extension of funding for the existing Tier 3 and Tier 4 federal emergency extensions; it doesn't even begin to address those, like me, who have gone beyond the federally-set limit of 99 weeks. And there are a lot of us. In fact, many observers have pointed out that the falling unemployment numbers aren't a sign of an improving economy, but rather pointing to the large amounts of the formerly-collecting unemployed who, having gone beyond the 99 week limit, are no longer counted in the statistics. So not only is that funding extension for Tiers 3 & 4 needed, but there's a desperate need for a Tier 5. But according to the nay-sayers, we're just a bunch of lazy bums who need to suffer so we can be taught a lesson.

There are times when it's a very good thing I don't own a gun!

Joe "Truth 101" Kelly said...

Well God forbid wealthy people be asked to pay a little more to help out. Or even those of us with safe jobs who may not be wealthy but would gladly pay a few more dollars a week to help our fellow Americans and help our Nation get out of debt.

Frank Partisan said...

I used to love Sabu movies as a kid. I liked being reminded with the Twin Cities reference.

The Daily Kos says that the umemployment compensation defeat, is a conscious attempt to destroy the economy. What the GOP says is true about deficits, but in an abstract way. Long term the deficit will be a problem, that doesn't mean don't spend.

Leslie Parsley said...

The Republicans aren't just hurting the 15 million unemployed, they're hurting themselves. Come election time every one of those 15 million votes are going to the Dems - I hope.

Darlene said...

The news is so consistently bad that I want to be an Ostrich and hide my head in the sand.

There are days when I think there would be less stress if we didn't have instant news. The obsessive news media drill the bad news into our sponge-like skulls until we are overwhelmed with the terrible state of the world.

I know, I could quit reading or listening, but a political junkie needs his/her fix. I just wish for a day of mostly good news. Sigh!

Anonymous said...

They didn't give a rolling eff at a Halliburton donut for 8 yrs and now this piece of republican roadkill has the cheek to throw deficit numbers out in defense of blatantly fucking over the working poor, sorry, the outta work poor. This country is so ripe for a Ceausescu style housecleaning. I would love to see chinless mitch trying to splain hisself to about 1o million of these people at the end of a pitchfork.

TAO said...

Unemployment insurance....to be eligible for benefits you have to have had a job, and have been employed for sometime, and you have to be looking for employment.

Gee, seems to me that this program is the LIFELINE for captialism...its exactly the one program that ensures capitalism its support...

Without it, and it ain't much, then what will the people want? Socialism?

So, I guess Republicans want to push all the unemployed onto welfare permentantly....

If they want to pay for all new programs, on a pay as you go, and not increase deficit spending then why not stop all wars until they can pay for themselves?

K. said...

Except there's no welfare anymore, although you wouldn't know it to hear them talk.

They only want pay-as-you-go when Dems run the show. Otherwise, they're perfectly happy handing out goodies and running up the deficit. This line about Obama having a record deficit is galling, and all the more so since the MSM doesn't call them on it.

It's as if I dug an 8-foot hole and hopped in, then you come along and dig it a half foot deeper. I start whining that TAO put me in an 8.5 foot hole, and everyone nods sympathetically and says what a bad guy you are. It's that unsubtle, and yet it works.