Political Bloviation

Let’s review how we got to where we are:

Jan 2001 – Clinton leaves office with an annual budget surplus of $128 billion
May 2001 – Congress approves and Bush later signs a $1.35 trillion broad based tax cut that primarily reduces the burden on the wealthiest tax payers.
Sept 2001 – Terrorist hijack and crash airplanes into [...]

OK, am I the only one who finds this to be an extra-constitutional abuse of power? Sen. Selby is holding all nominations up until $40 billion in earmarks for Alabama are passed. Where exactly does the Constitution say one dumbass from Alabama can hold up the entire Senate until he gets his bribe? The Senate [...]

Matthew Yglesias » Judd Gregg, When Left to His Own Devices, Is an Orthodox Conservative Who Doesn’t Care About the Deficit.
h/t to Ezra Klein who points out that no one who voted for the programs that drive the deficit (Bush Era tax cuts, Medicare Part D, two unfunded wars, financial bail out and the regulatory [...]

The good and bad of iPad pricing.
Mostly the bad IMHO. At $499 for the entry level model sans 3G they’re not doing themselves or their customers any favors. I really fail to see how this is a game changer unless it spawns cheaper open source  competitors.
I’m not an Apple hater, I  have an iPhone 3GS. [...]

White House Jumps On Unexpected Boost – Touts Obama’s Q&A With GOP | TPMDC.
Whatdayouknow? The public prefers the “leaders” of our country to act like grown-ups and talk to each other rather than act like elementary school recess bullies. Go figure.

Comedy writers everywhere rejoice:
(Apple Fanboys, put a sock in it and grow a sense of humor!)
The iPad Is A Comedy Gold Mine: Pics, Videos, Links, News.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

You have to love a headline like that, lol. Did the dog lawyer up and issue a statement proclaiming innocence?
A hunter trying to retrieve duck decoys got a surprise when he was accidentally shot by his own dog.
The accident occurred Saturday when the female Labrador retriever stepped on her owner’s loaded shotgun, causing the safety [...]

My personal favorite Nobel Prize winning economist has a take on why Canada came out of the recent banking disaster relatively unscathed, while the US economy and financial institutions took a major beat down. It all comes back to the regulatory environment. The US decided, or rather the captains of industry in banking and a [...]

Krugman is not happy about Obama’s non-defense discretionary spending freeze. I agree that it’s counter-productive in the midst of the biggest downturn in since WWII to talk about cutting spending when that spending is what’s standing between us and another great depression. It’s also counter-productive to adopt the rhetoric of the right’s worst demagogues. If [...]

I love the smell of schadenfreude in the morning. Smells like… irony.
Sadly, No! » Awesomest Teh Schadenfreude EVAR!!!!1!.
The FBI, alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in downtown New Orleans, arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s [...]

Obama pivots to the right and adopts a faux spending freeze. Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money comments:
…Democrats continue to play the sucker, believing that they have to “fiscally responsible” so that Republicans can take a better fiscal picture and piss it all away on upper-class cuts. The most charitable construction, reflected in a [...]

First we had Pat Roberson’s much quoted statement saying that Haiti suffers from natural disasters because they “made a past with the devil”. Now we have Hugo Chavez trying to up the ante on stupid:
Chavez says US ‘weapon’ caused Haiti quake.
He believes that the US caused the earthquake using some sort of seismic super weapon. [...]

YouTube – Balls Beer for Health Care Reform, the Full Version.
What democrats desperately need, Balls!

Happy birthday. I love you and I miss you sis…

Krugman puts a stake in the ground on HCR:
Op-Ed Columnist – Do the Right Thing – NYTimes.com.
A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test [...]

Republican Opposition to Obama Plan for Deficit Panel – NYTimes.com.
Well of course they oppose a panel for deficit reduction, they created it. It came from unfunded tax cuts and benefit increases (think Medicare Part D), coupled with two unfunded foreign wars. They see Democrats retreating on HCR and are pressing their advantage. Democrats still lack [...]

“The appearance of influence or access will not cause the electorate to lose faith in this democracy,” the Supreme Court said
via Ezra Klein – Goldman/Exxon 2012.
They are correct, the electorate had already lost faith in democracy.

Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate
The Village Voice nails it. See the GOP won, let’s all just give up and go home now.
They elaborate:
The lesson, as always, is that when Democrats win, they lose, and when they lose, they are obliterated.

The Supreme Court knocks down limits on campaign contributions allowing special interests to further savage the democratic process. Ain’t that grand?
Further reading here: Justices Overturn Key Campaign Limits
If we’re determined to treat corporation the same as natural persons, then they need responsibilities to go along with all those rights. Perhaps the first should be a [...]

Kevin Drum takes on the notion that there are Republican votes to be had for a more conservative approach to HCR:
This fantasy that there are Republican votes for a more moderate bill really needs to end. There are no Republican votes for healthcare reform, no matter how moderate or conservative it is. They’re opposed to [...]