Outstanding change

The right likes to repeat over and over that Obama has done nothing to lift America out of the Republican recession (and almost depression), and the economic stimulus that they opposed (admitting that something was indeed done) failed. However, simple facts blow away their empty political rhetoric to the point where even the main stream media must report it:

"The U.S. economy grew at its fastest pace in more than six years during the fourth quarter of 2009"

money.cnn.com/2010/01/29/news/economy/gdp/index.htm?hpt=T1

One need only look at the simple graph to see the difference between Republican and Democratic economic policies. Massive debt, tax relief to the rich and deregulation culminated in NEGATIVE 6.4% GDP growth, while under Obama we've turned that into an INCREASE of 5.7%.

Plus, I've never understood how their followers can accept the logic that if Democrats cannot fix Republican economic blunders quickly, then Republicans should be put back in charge to return to the same failed economic policies that created the problems in the first place.

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Why it's good for government to be transparent. On the topic of "the government should be able to pay for something before spending", the vote was absolutely unanimous for Republicans. Following their party's orders to oppose anything that President Obama wants to do to help America, all 40 voted NO. Every single Republican Senator wants the debt increased instead. That is why they cannot be trusted with the national checkbook.


www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm

Senate Republicans vote 40-0 against re-establishing PAYGO rules. They'd rather continue the only plan they've had since 1981 - massive debt for US taxpayers.

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One of the things that President Obama wants to improve, as laid out in the SotU address, is access to college for American students. This is in contrast to a Republican approach:

www.allgov.com/ViewNews/Congressmans_Foundation_Has_Money_for_Golf_Outings_but_Not_for_Scholarships_100127

Congressman Steve Buyer (R-Indiana) raises $800,000 over 7 years for a scholarship program that has yet to actually award any scholarships. It has been able to pay for fundraising golf outings at luxury locales.

One dollar, one vote

Olbermann on the Supreme Court "corporations are people" decision. This should be required viewing, as folk need to understand the severity.
thisweekwithbarackobama.blogspot.com/2010/01/keith-olbermanns-special-comment-of.html

Do folk really get the ramifications of this? This is not to give power to the mom-and-pop shop down the street, it's for multi-national corporations. For example, an oil company interested in drilling in Venezuela can now legally give BILLIONS of dollars to a candidate on the sole basis that they will launch a war against the people of Venezuela, so they can reap more billions in profits - this will be good for business, good for profits and is now perfectly legal. That company need not be an American company - it can be Russian, Chinese, Saudi, anything. Whomever has the most money is now free to try to purchase US elections. Thanks, Republicans.

Grayson:
grayson.house.gov/2010/01/grayson-save-our-democracy.shtml

If we do finally understand the horrible ramifications of this, from that can we now extrapolate just how damaging to democracy it is when judges are picked based on their extremely biased political views, rather than their dedication to the Constitution and laws which they are supposed to serve?

==================
White House response
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-todays-supreme-court-decision-0

==================
"All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any
political purpose should be forbidden by law" ---Teddy Roosevelt

Based on their current stated values, conservatives now consider Teddy Roosevelt to be anti-American, since they're applauding the ability of foreign and multi-national corporations to spend unlimited money to promote candidates of their choice.

www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/519819

==================
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power" -Benito Mussolini

How to explain the 5 Republican political appointees to the Supreme Court?
"Garbage in, garbage out...If you have selfish ignorant citizens, you're gonna get selfish ignorant leaders." -George Carlin

I'm sure our founding fathers would have been happy to know that in 2010, corporations linked to foreign governments would be legally entitled to campaign for and against our nation's candidates for public office.

trueslant.com/level/2010/01/22/supreme-court-ruling-means-get-used-to-campaign-ads-from-mother-russia

===================
“The rule announced today — that Congress must treat corporations exactly like human speakers in the political realm — represents a radical change in the law,” he said from the bench. “The court’s decision is at war with the views of generations of Americans.”

www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/26bar.html?hpw

Just curious, this is very likely the single greatest act of "judicial activism" ever perpetrated on the United States. Foreign companies (many of which are synonymous with their foreign governments) can now legally pour billions of dollars into US elections to insure that our representatives respect their wishes, rather than the citizens of the US.

The conservatives used to cry about "judicial activism" whenever there was a ruling that they disagreed with. Now that we're facing this devastating blow to the fundamentals of democracy, where's the outrage?

Perfect

http://i.imgur.com/qo9kr.jpg

No matter what one particular political party starts to claim during election time.

Conservative family values

Down on your luck? Don't look to the GOP for anything but being called an animal, undeserving of food.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35067031/ns/politics-more_politics
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/jon-stewart-blasts-gop-ca_n_436674.html

==================
Meanwhile, down in conservative Texas

If you want to write children's books, but your name has similarities to someone who wrote about something that must be banned, like Marxism, don't bother trying to sell your children's books in Texas. They'll be banned by their board of education, just to be safe.

scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2010/01/texas_boe_bans_childrens_book.php

==================
So, now that the dubya rendition of conservative values is behind us, what are the ramifications that we're left to deal with?

"The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade"

Unwed teenage pregnancies are up as a direct result of the "just say no" campaign to eliminate education on the taboo subject of sex. The conservative "abstinence only" approach seeks to minimize knowledge and precaution, and has only one potential outcome - more babies born to unwed teenage mothers. I don't know why the conservatives consider this a family value, but their plan is working as intended. Mission Accomplished.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/25/AR2010012503957.html

Something else to get the conservatives mad

The conservatives threw a huge fit when President Obama decided that part of the emergency economic action that was required to prevent a full-blown depression was to save General Motors, rather than allow it to fall into bankruptcy and put 3-4 million Americans out of work.

Here's the next chapter that has Republicans fuming:
money.cnn.com/2010/01/26/autos/gm_electric_motors/index.htm

That's right. Instead of outsourcing the new electric motors to a foreign country, they're going to be made right here. While I would consider this a huge positive for both GM and the US, this decision files in the face of the long-term conservative plan to move manufacturing overseas.

United States of GE

Sen. Feingold: "The American people will pay dearly for this decision when, more than ever, their voices are drowned out by corporate spending in our federal elections"

thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/political-fallout-from-the-supreme-court-ruling

Billions can now be thrown behind any puppet who will work exclusively for the masters who paid for their election. There no longer needs to be any veil of doing the will of the people. Great.

Can't be more blatant

‘I believe in racial and ethnic profiling’ because ‘all terrorists are Muslims or Middle Easterners.’ - Jim Inhofe

thinkprogress.org/2010/01/21/inhofe-profiling

Yea, that's not racist at all. And it's not some random whackaloon at a teabagger rally. That's one of their Senate "moral" leaders.

Also interesting that a Senator from Oklahoma has completely forgotten about the Oklahoma City bomber. Stay classy, Republicans.

Well, duh

Someone in the mainstream media (and a conservative-leaning pub at that) finally had the guts to say what they've all known for a very long time.

www.newsweek.com

Gee, ya think that might be why everything that "news" channel reports is suspect?

Letter from Roger Ebert

rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100114/OPINION/100119985

I'm assuming that now fox "news" and the rest of conservative media will start launching personal attacks against Ebert...

=======================
Olbermann on conservative mouthpieces Rush's and Robertson's comments on the disaster in Haiti


Remember, old Pat was selected by the conservatives to be Bush's spiritual adviser because of his moral superiority.
edition.cnn.com/2010/US/01/13/haiti.pat.robertson/index.html

Um, Pat, I'm not the Biblical scholar that you are, but I'm not sure that Jesus preached that the correct response to human suffering is to taunt them.

Ah, that old-time conservative moral superiority.

Pillar of the new party platform

Why is this becoming a pillar of the Republican party platform?

It's safe to say that I don't understand some of the new Republican motivations. Here they go again, this time in Massachusetts. Why does the GOP consistently attack the victim of this particular kind of crime?

airamerica.com/politics/01-12-2010/why-do-scott-brown-and-gop-hate-rape-victims

"In 2005, [Republican candidate Scott Brown] sponsored legislation to allow doctors and nurses to turn away rape victims from Massachusetts emergency rooms"

Brown added “It’s not about the victim."

Uh, yes Mr. Brown, it is. You may choose not to believe it, but it's a horrible crime.

=======================
Interesting
i.imgur.com/cTivi.jpg
So they're admitting that it IS a choice. This is a dramatic turnaround from Palin previously repeating the anti-choice and anti-reproductive rights rhetoric of the Republican Party.

Keep your government hands offa my medicare

This time it's not a teabagger at a "hate Obama" rally, it's a GOP Senate candidate in Colorado. Assuming their base has no understanding of how things actually work in this country, Republican Jane Norton: "Government Should Play No Role in Health Care".

Therefore, anyone receiving any kind of aid from Medicare or Medicaid should immediately be dropped, and have no health insurance whatsoever. Also, drug companies should be trusted to make any claims they want about their drugs, as the FDA should get out of the healthcare business. Oh yes, and there should be no minimum standards for cleanliness or safety in medical facilities. Plus, don't forget that we should stop all funding for medical research.

Ah, hollow Republican talking points. Such a bounty of comedy and tragedy.

Of course, this is the political party that would look at devastation on a massive scale, with thousands and thousands thousands dead, and have their lackey twist it into "proving" a ludicrous political point while completely discounting the value of human life.

mediamatters.org/mmtv/201001130017

====================

Hey, speaking of the teabaggers...

One of their complaints is that the government is not transparent enough. Even though they supported the secrecy of the Bush Administration, choose to ignore the increased openness of the Obama Administration, and are going to close their entire convention to the media.

www.pensitoreview.com/2010/01/13/tea-baggers-demand-transparency-from-dems-but-ban-media-from-convention

Same old Republican empty words. Do as I preach, not as I do.

Well said

Well said, sir. Well, said.

What a difference a change in administrations makes

The Federal Reserve banks made a $52 billion profit in 2009, and returned $46 billion of that sum to taxpayers.

money.cnn.com/2010/01/12/news/economy/fed_profits.fortune/index.htm

In just a year, we went from Bush's version of a bailout where taxpayer money was just handed out with no hope of being returned, to Obama's version of a bailout where the government can actually turn a profit on portions of it, to the benefit of the American taxpayers.

Add to this the stunning announcement by GM that the US taxpayers will also make a profit on the bailout they received. That's right - a profit for the taxpayers. An actual fix to the economy instead of just transferring taxpayer money to cronies. A good change indeed.

Straightforward talk from Texas

Not everyone in the Lone Star State is a rubber-stamp follower of dubya like the MSM would like us to believe. Some recognize exactly what has happened under the last 3 Republican administrations:

www.texaskaos.com/diary/6326/republicans-delivered-the-worst-decade-in-modern-us-history

"Tragically for the American taxpayers, we, our children, our grandchildren and great grandchildren will have to clean up the squalor. It will take generations to undo the GOP's financial carnage."

American Taliban

Think the Taliban is extreme for trying to kill a guy who drew a cartoon of Mohamed? Well the American Taliban, The Tea Party movement, have issued dozens of death threats to an American cartoonist.

rawstory.com/2010/01/tea-baggers-death-threats-cartoonist

www.markfiore.com/mark-fiore-blog/learn-to-speak-teabag-tea-party-response-to-right-wing-complaints

Stay classy, conservatives.

Whose country comes first

Since when is it appropriate for US Senators to go to a foreign country
and tell the leader - if the US doesn't do what you want, we'll stand with
you against it?

mediamattersaction.org/blog/201001110006

Approaches to immigration

On the topic of illegal immigrants, conservative vs. liberal approaches are diametrically opposed. The conservative approach is to round them up and either deport or jail them. The liberal approach is to get them on the normal path to citizenship.

The first approach resonates well with the Republican base, with the "real Americans first, everybody else last" mantra. The second approach resonates well with the Democratic base, with the "build the best society possible for the people" mantra.

The ramifications of the first approach would COST the US $2.6 TRILLION. The ramifications of the second approach would ADD $1.5 TRILLION to the national gross domestic product.

www.alternet.org

Improve our economy and society vs. harm our economy to temporarily achieve a political agenda. Seems like an easy choice, but the latter has a lot of supporters.

Mainstream conservatism?

Just how fringe is "mainstream conservatism"?

National Public Radio is, of course, the very definition of non-partisan, centrist and actually fair and balanced. The mainstream of conservative media has gone so far right, that they are now reporting as factual news (what they consider "fair and balanced") that NPR is some kind of "left-wing jihadist deal."

That's right, jihadist. Fox "news" is now reporting that NPR exists to actively plot and carry out attacks against America. Seriously, that is how dumb they think "their base" is.

www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2010/01/bill_oreilly_says_npr_is_leftw_1.html

Conservative accomplishments

Some of what the 0's have brought the US:
* The U.S. produced 32-percent of the world's gross domestic product back in 2000... it's now 24 percent - the sharpest decline by any country in modern history - except for the late Soviet Union

* The U.S. started the decade with a budget surplus... but ended with a deficit equal to 10-percent of GDP

* The economy was at full employment in 2000... now we have 10 percent unemployed... and another seven-percent that's underemployed or has given up looking for work...

* As many as one-third of all U.S. manufacturing jobs disappeared in the past 10 years, our national debt doubled... and China practically holds the mortgage on us

* Add in two wars, tax cuts under Bush, astronomical deficit spending, the housing crisis - and we have a real mess on our hands

Ah the irony - this list came from an article by the very conservative and Republican Pat Buchanan. Conservative economics worked as designed, and the above list is simply a part of the consequences that didn't matter to them. The conservatives loved the ride, and boasted about the great triumph of what they were doing to the economy. But now that the country must suffer through the aftermath of their handiwork, they're all saying "Oh, but that wasn't real conservatism - put us back in charge and trust us again. We'll run the same gameplan, but somehow it'll make everything better."

Sure I'll do it - for charity

Hannity officially chickened out and would not keep his promise for charity. Another commentator did take up the challenge, and found out what was always known, that waterboarding is a form of torture.

Olbermann decided that Muller's bravery at facing the torture technique that Hannity said he'd undergo - well, that was worthy of donating to charity.

thinkprogress.org/2009/05/23/oblermann-charity-mancow

It's a MOVIE

Gotta love conservative logic. Avatar has now grossed over a billion dollars, only the fifth movie ever to do so. But the pundits are told to rail against the film, so they proclaim it as one of the dumbest movies ever and ... of course ... anti-American.

Uh, so anyone who liked the movie hates America? Uh...

"Cameron's grand cinematic fantasy ... seems to have hit a very raw nerve with political conservatives, who view everything -- foreign affairs, global warming, the White House Christmas tree -- through the prism of partisan sloganeering."

latimesblogs.latimes.com/the_big_picture/2010/01/avatar-why-do-conservatives-hate-the-most-popular-movie-in-years.html

How about this radical notion - just enjoy a fun movie.

Hume vs reality check

OK, this Daily Show bit is funny
seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/22506

But isn't the bigger question: why does fox "news" consider it fair and balanced news reporting to denigrate non-Christian religions and tell a specific individual that he should convert to Christianity? That sounds more like religious recruiting than reporting facts...

Rush wants socialized medicine

Hm, when he receives it, Rush is a big fan of socialized medicine.
trueslant.com/rickungar/2010/01/03/rush-limbaugh-accidentally-endorses-obamacare

I'm sure he went right back to the standard "want Obama to fail, and America with him" rhetoric as soon as he returned to his talking point show.