Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This fight is for everything.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This really is a full service blog.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

T R E 4 5 O N

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

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Reader Interactions

64Comments

  1. 1.

    TR

    It’s amazing how actually including the costs of Iraq and Afghanistan in the debt projections will change things.

  2. 2.

    WyldPirate

    The sad thing is that the crazy-arsed GOopers are going to get away with it. Sort of the fulfillment of “you repeat a lie long enough…”.

    Face it John. You were probably sucked in numerous times. Say for instance “Reagan was a real conservative” lie. Nothing was further from the truth. The stupid senile SOB spent money like wild, instituted the largest tax increase in history (Social Security fix) and doubled the deficit during his turn. Dealt with terrorists. Overthrew elected governments and committed the same sort of rampant criminality that the Bush 43 malAssiministration did.

    This brings to mind a Fleetwood MAc song: “”Tell Me Lies”. The American public is a sucker for lies every time.

  3. 3.

    bago

    This needs to go with the “budget plan” pics.

    Quoth the Boehner: “Mister President, here it is”.

  4. 4.

    cleek

    they’re preaching to the choir now, re-enforcing the inchoate fury that brought us the inanity of the teabaggers, the threats of secession, the endless cries of “soshulism” and “fascism”, the “Obama = Hitler” t-shirt, and the tears of Glenn Beck.

    fact-checking the Party just labels you as an enemy of the Party.

  6. 6.

    ** Atanarjuat **

    If I had mad Photoshop skillZ, I’d definitely run with this meme and post the results on Fark.

    The recent “no numbers” Republican budget proposal would be a good start.

    -A

  9. 9.

    GregB

    The conservative golden boy Douthat drops a turd in the op-ed section of the NYT’s editorial page.

    He wishes Cheney had run instead of McCain.

    Suddenly Kristol is looking like Safire.

    -G

  10. 10.

    Jrod

    How the fuck do they figure that the debt was going to flatten out for the January line? And that it would dip a little bit in 2019? And wasn’t the debt well over $6 trillion before 2008 rolled around?

    Let me guess, the lower line assumes, as George Bush did, that war funds came from the munitions fairy and weren’t actually part of the debt, but since that liar Obama insists on including those costs in his budget, and since it’s a forever war those costs will never ever fall, Obama has bankrupted us.

    Or is it even dumber than that? Christ, it is, isn’t it?

  11. 11.

    r€nato

    One of the basic principles of any sales pitch is the ‘call to action’.

    So what is the call to action here? Obama is going to make the deficit soar, so I should… vote GOP?

    Har. Har. Har. If I were not committed to either party – that is, a persuadable voter – I would look at this and say, ‘christ, we need a third party,’ not, ‘yes, let’s put back in power the gang of idiots who got us in this mess in the first place.’

  12. 12.

    dmsilev

    @Punchy: I think it’s supposed to be “Debt projection for George W Bush’s incredibly fiscally responsible budget” vs. “Debt projection for Barack Hussein Hitler Stalin Obama’s death-to-America budget”.

    -dms

  13. 13.

    joe from Lowell

    They really are the party of that SNL sketch with Dan Ackroyd at John Boehner.

    “I think America wants to see those little girls taken down a peg.”

    Nice chart, jerks! You made Obama sad!

  14. 14.

    ricky

    Suddenly Kristol is looking like Safire.

    For the starving turds begin to look like meat.

  15. 15.

    Michael

    Donchaknow that 30 years of upward distribution of wealth and neglect of the national material and educational infrastructure isn’t allowed to be fixed? Fixing it might require some delayed gratification of the whims of those who benefitted the most from the upward redistribution and the prior public investments in education and infrastructure.

    Part of me really wants some revolutionary tribunals……

  16. 16.

    shortstop

    Barack Obama’s frowny face in the graphic is especially impressive.

    Yes, after the shot of Nancy holding her head high instead of hanging it in shame like any normal person would after personally causing every lost job in America, they thought they’d better go with the “Damn, where did I go wrong?” Obama.

  17. 17.

    r€nato

    I’m thinking the “you should have voted McCain/Palin” graph line assumes no stimulus funding and no bailouts/emergency loans. Basically, going Galt on the economy.

    Because that’s exactly what the Bush administration did when the crisis hit last fall…

  18. 18.

    Cat Lady

    @joe from Lowell:

    I’ve watched that skit a couple of times, and really, it’s not funny because it looks like a re-enactment. Proof that the GOP has become unspoofable.

  21. 21.

    SpotWeld

    How long before someone on a right wing blog claims that skipping 2011 is a feature and not a bug?

  24. 24.

    Cat Lady

    @SpotWeld:

    If they skipped 2012 they at least could have pretended it was a shout out to the Mayan prophecy crowd. That would mean they’ve heard of the Mayans, so they would have gotten a two-fer.

  25. 25.

    dmsilev

    I’m particularly impressed with the skipping 2011 bit, because that implies incompetence above and beyond the call of duty. Excel or similar software will generally notice that you’re typing in a consecutive list of dates, and will try to complete the sequence for you. You actively have to work at it to omit a whole year.

    -dms

  26. 26.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I used to think that the whole currency situation was engineered, and a part of me still thinks that Geithner’s Chief of Staff, the lobbyist from Goldman, has some scheme that is getting out of control.

    But since observing this Administration zooming a 747 chased by fighter planes through Manhattan at 500 feet, I am becoming convinced that these people are just dummies.

    And this makes me feel better.

  28. 28.

    Comrade Darkness

    @Jrod: It was 10.7 Trillion already on January 1 2009 so this “graph” is just fail all around. That and the “we don’t dare zero intercept it because it would already be really high at the front of the graph” shit they are pulling.

    The future costs associated solely with Bush’s prescription drug plan dwarfs this whole thing down to a little line at the bottom anyway. Delusional wingers bringing on the ignorant like it’s 1981.

    Try this one for some perspective. Look at that line coming down. But then Reagan happened to the country, bribing the people with their own money. Good old conservative Reagan, f*cking the country over for the long haul, then Clinton gained some ground, and gee, look what happened again with another republican administration.

    Suddenly these wankers care about this, like f*cking overnight? Like the teabaggers…where were you the last 30 years when the rest of us were repeatedly pointing this out?

  30. 30.

    SLKRR

    Considering that the debt was already $10 trillion+ in 2008, there are some serious math fails going on in that graph. Skipping 2011 just adds that extra touch.

  33. 33.

    Michael

    Speaking of “The Party of Fail”, there are these two gems on the holdup of the Sebelius nomination:

    http://community.adn.com/adn/node/140780?pageNum=1&&mi_pluck_action=page_nav#Comments_Container

    Team Sarah, a social networking site of nearly 70,000 of Gov. Sarah Palin’s supporters, is hoping its members have a shot at derailing the nomination of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as the president’s Health and Human Services secretary.The site, which came into being to support the Alaska governor during her 2008 vice-presidential bid, bills itself as being “dedicated to advancing the values that Sarah Palin represents in the political process.” Team Sarah is affiliated with the Susan B. Anthony List, which seeks to elect women who oppose abortion. ………………………………………………… Today, the website sent out an action alert to its members, asking them to call the office of Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kansas, and urge him to vote against Sebelius’ confirmation. Sebelius is expected to be confirmed tomorrow by the Senate. (Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, may also vote against Sebelius. A spokesman said today that Murkowski is disappointed with the Kansas governor’s “apparent lack of interest in the Indian Health Service and on Native issues in general.”)

    http://www.kansasliberty.com/liberty-update-archive/2009/04may/tiahrt-withdraw-sebelius/

    Kansas Congressman Todd Tiahrt is among members of Congress urging President Barack Obama to withdraw the nomination of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ……………………………………………………………………………………The letter, a copy of which was released to Kansas Liberty by a Tiahrt spokesperson, was drafted by Rep. Doug Lanborn, a Colorado Republican, and will be sent to the president tomorrow. The names of every cosigner of the letter will not be released until Tuesday. ……………………………………………………………………………………The letter is the latest effort by conservatives trying to stall or turn back the Sebelius confirmation attempt. It points to Sebelius’ “close collaboration with the abortion industry,” in requesting that Obama withdraw the nomination.

    Current wafflers include Murkowski, Brownback and Spector (who is trying to outwingnut Toomey, and will fail).

  35. 35.

    Brian J

    I understand that responding to some from the lower echelons demeans the standing of the White House, so I’m not necessarily advocating that the administration picks a fight each time the other side decides to come up with a new package of distortions and lies. Yet, we have the presidency and both houses of congress and all of the accompanying offices, like the OMB, the CEA, and the CBO. Why can’t some of the officials in place simply call these assholes out for their mendacity, particularly if they try to use someone’s own research to attack the administration, like they did with Christina Romer a few months ago? I’m not saying Larry Summers has to scream “John Boehner, Eric Cantor, and Mitch McConnell are MOTHERFUCKING LIARS” at the top of his lungs, or do something else that opens him, someone like him, or the administration as a whole open to criticism of not being civil, but if there’s a forceful but still polite way to call them out and shut them up, at least for a few weeks, why hasn’t it been done? Is there just no way to do that, or is it that Obama feels it isn’t worth his time?

  36. 36.

    Hunter Gathers

    Failing 7th grade math must be the number 1 prerequisite to joining the GOP. That and an unlheathy fear of the non-whites and the gays.

  37. 37.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    If the GOP listened to people like Andrew Bacevich instead of Newt Gingrich and Dick Cheney they might actually have some credibility, or at least get a more sympathetic hearing from the American electorate. Here’s Bacevich today: (With my emphasis added.)

    Granted, Obama has acted with dispatch to repudiate several of George W. Bush’s most egregious blunders and for this he deserves credit. In abrogating torture, ordering the Guantanamo prison camp closed, and setting a deadline for withdrawing troops from Iraq, Obama is turning the page on a dark chapter in American statecraft. After the hectoring and posturing that figured so prominently in his predecessor’s style, the president’s preference for dialogue rather than preaching is refreshing.

    But however much Obama may differ from Bush on particulars, he appears intent on sustaining the essentials on which the Bush policies were grounded. Put simply, Obama’s pragmatism poses no threat to the reigning national security consensus. Consistent with the tradition of American liberalism, he appears intent on salvaging that consensus.

    That is some fair criticism. Although Obama never portrayed himself as anything other than a pragmatist and a centrist on most issues. Instead of shouting out that Obama is a liar and a soc1list, Bacevich actually makes a pretty fair argument that the changes being made are around the peripheree.

    (via)

  39. 39.

    Brick Oven Bill

    Spotweld; I need to clarify the record. I thought ‘teabag’ referred to a scrotum, and I am still not sure what the popular slang noun-form refers too. Let alone the verb, which I have two theories as to what it means, one of which seems like a waste of time, when you have a voluptuous woman awaiting companionship.

    But in the case that ‘teabag’ refers to a testicle, instead of a scrotum, you may instead refer to me as ‘Mr. Iron Teabags’.

  40. 40.

    Michael

    I just dug out this neglected gem from last week that somebody needs to cram down Michael Steele’s fucking throat on an hourly basis.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090423/ap_on_go_co/us_sebelius_hhs

    The head of the Republican Party called on President Barack Obama to withdraw Kathleen Sebelius’ nomination as health secretary unless she answers more questions on abortion. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said Thursday that Sebelius, the Democratic governor of Kansas, has not been forthcoming about her ties to a Kansas abortion doctor, George Tiller.

  42. 42.

    DanF

    The GOP is becoming to America like Chrysler has become to John’s dad. Even if they made a good argument, who would believe them?

  49. 49.

    LauraM

    If I were not committed to either party – that is, a persuadable voter – I would look at this and say, ‘christ, we need a third party,’

    I’ve been saying this for a while now.

  51. 51.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @Brick Oven Bill:

    I meant big boobs Rusty.

    That’s right, we were talking about Republican leadership. Are Boehner and Cantor at your place for coffee?

  52. 52.

    Hunter Gathers

    @The Grand Panjandrum

    While I generally belive in Larison and Bacevich’s assertion that Obama is not challenging the concept of Empire, they offer no realistic alternatives. While I really do enjoy reading thier work (the Times should have hired Larison as opposed to the douchenozzle Douthat), I place paleo-conservatives in the same boat as libertarians.

    Sure, thier policy ideas sound great in theory, but when applied to the real world, they are unteneble. Libertarians essentially want to turn the clock back to 1790, and paleocons want to apply the same foreign policy that we held from 1920 to 1941. Non-intervention sounds nice, but non-intervention also contributed to the rise of fascism in the 1930’s. They present a false choice between intervention and non-intervention.
    Or perhaps I am wrong, and should just shut up.

  53. 53.

    Rick Taylor

    This is the Republican strategy. Run up the debt to record levels. Leave office in the midst of a once in a generation economic meltdown. Then blame the fallout on the Democrats.

  55. 55.

    Beej

    Okay, that’s it. From here on out, no Democrat should ever again use the term Republican Party. Until and unless the idiots start using the proper name for the Democratic Party, I move that we start a movement to rename the other party the “Repub Party” for any and all purposes.

  56. 56.

    Beauzeaux

    I prefer to refer to Republicans as the Whiny Ass Titty-Baby Party, but to each his own.

  57. 57.

    D. Mason

    Non-intervention sounds nice, but non-intervention also contributed to the rise of fascism in the 1930’s. They present a false choice between intervention and non-intervention.

    I guess I’m what you would call a paleocon even though I voted for Obama(most conservative candidate by my standards). I don’t really see anyone arguing for non-intervention except for Ron Paul and who listens to him? The only real argument I see going on re: intervention is “slightly less plz”( d ) vs. “MOAR”( r ). This has been the argument in America on this topic for my whole lifetime which admittedly isn’t all that long. While I agree that “none” would be a poor choice, I wish the argument would shift a good bit more towards that end of the spectrum because “slightly less plz” is still way too much for my tastes.

    Also, Make a Brute, also.

  58. 58.

    SpotWeld

    B.O.B. seeing how you have just requested to be identified as “old iron balls” I will take that as indication of much more monikoer for you…

    Specifically, “Arnold ‘Ace’ Rimmer” or more fittingly “Ace Hole”

  59. 59.

    Comrade Kevin

    @SpotWeld:

    Specifically, “Arnold ‘Ace’ Rimmer” or more fittingly “Ace Hole”

    HA! I loved that show. “Smoke me a kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast”

  60. 60.

    David Hunt

    @Rick Taylor:

    This is the Republican strategy. Run up the debt to record levels. Leave office in the midst of a once in a generation economic meltdown. Then blame the fallout on the Democrats.

    Not quite. It’s my opinion that the Republicans knew that they had very little chance of retaining the Whitehouse in 2008. Therefore, I suspect the Bush Administration strategy was to try to manipulate the markets such that the inevitable economic meltdown wouldn’t hit until after the inauguration, making the meltdown more easy to blame on whichever Democrat won.

  63. 63.

    PhysicsFun

    @wobbly:

    It sounds like you’ve been out of circulaton for a while. Things are very different these days and there are probably some pretty big adjustments you’ll need to make. Let’s just get you started by saying stupidity has run amok and leave it at that at that for the time being. Consider yourself warned.

  64. 64.

    Comrade Darkness

    @SpotWeld: You want just “Rimmer”. Ace Rimmer was a really cool alternative universe guy who inspired beautiful women to smear themselves with taramasalata. “Rimmer” was an immature, egotistical, pantywaisted jerkwad.

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