Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

As long as McCarthy is Speaker, the House will never be in order.

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

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

So many bastards, so little time.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

White supremacy is terrorism.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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

You are here: Home / A Decade of Fail

A Decade of Fail

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Heckuva job, Bush:

Thursday’s annual Census Bureau report on income, poverty and access to health care-the Bureau’s principal report card on the well-being of average Americans-closes the books on the economic record of George W. Bush.

It’s not a record many Republicans are likely to point to with pride.

On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked. By contrast, the country’s condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton’s two terms, often substantially.

On the upside, teen pregnancy is through the roof in Red States. Wolverines!

Who will be the first wingnut to attempt to discredit the census findings as an Acorn plot to damage Republicans? I’m going to go with Malkin, as always.

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109Comments

  1. 1.

    danimal

    “Who will be the first wingnut to attempt to discredit the census findings as an Acorn plot to damage Republicans? I’m going to go with Malkin, as always.”

    I’ll take Insty in a one-line snarkpost.

  4. 4.

    arguingwithsignposts

    I’m going to go with Malkin, as always.

    Oh, sure. Go with the safe pick, like picking USC over South Dakota School of Mining.

  5. 5.

    Xecky Gilchrist

    It’s not a record many Republicans are likely to point to with pride.

    It’s actually a record Republicans will point to and claim was perpetrated by Democrats.

  6. 6.

    SnarkyShark

    Census findings are facts and all scientificky.

    Therefore they can be ignored as having come from the devil.

    They will pray for “he who can not be mentioned” in the quite of their homes and then continue with their bearing of false witness without a pause.

    Sociopaths.

  7. 7.

    ellaesther

    Ok, I must have missed the memo: Why “wolverines!” ? The first time today, I just thought, “Meh, musta missed something.” Now I’m all “Hey! I missed something!”

    And I must say: This information has harshed my mellow, quite harshly. I keep hoping for some surprise good news — and all I get is entirely predictable bad news, that, of course, no one could have predicted….

  8. 8.

    Midnight Marauder

    All the wingnuts need is a little MichelleMalkinMath and these numbers will be looking as good as new!

  9. 9.

    Zifnab

    On every major measurement, the Census Bureau report shows that the country lost ground during Bush’s two terms. While Bush was in office, the median household income declined, poverty increased, childhood poverty increased even more, and the number of Americans without health insurance spiked.

    Nonsense. That report came out today? And who is the black President currently serving in office with a (D) in front of his name? Yeah. That’s what I thought.

    I’m pretty sure this is all Barak Obama’s fault.

    By contrast, the country’s condition improved on each of those measures during Bill Clinton’s two terms, often substantially.

    Blowjob says what now? Ironic that it’s Bush who will go down remembered for his economic policies. Historians really hate America.

  10. 10.

    General Winfield Stuck

    I don’t think Bush failed, at least what he and every other gooper presnit sets out to do in reality.

    Though not measured, I bet he created as many millionaires as any president has. Especially Iraqi ones. And income for the middle class was stagnant and the rich/poor gap grew by leaps and bounds. The real mission was accomplished in spades./ Of course, he went a little too far and the voters rebelled, and now wingnuts hate him for losing their electoral mojo. Sometimes too much success is fail. At least when it comes to economic class warfare shell games.

    As a former republican,, I would think you knew this.

  11. 11.

    JK

    Who will be the first wingnut to attempt to discredit the census findings as an Acorn plot to damage Republicans?

    I think it’s a toss-up between wankertarian Glenn Reynolds and insufferable doofus Byron York.

  12. 12.

    Parthenon

    I think an anecdotal and unverified refutation of these findings is in order. Something like, ‘SIGN OF THE TIMES: My friend Bill increased his clients in the Bush years, now on the decline.’

    I’m looking at you, Glenn.

  14. 14.

    kay

    I felt like I knew this by 2004, just locally and anecdotally, but I couldn’t prove it.
    Or convince anyone else, really.

  16. 16.

    jl

    Ohhh Pulease. This is typical stale old paleo-liberal tripe and failed snark, showing a complete lack of logic, typical of all liberals.

    I’ll explain this very slowly, so just maybe the libs can have a chance of putting one and one together, for once.

    When the Census Bureau kicked ACORN off the 2010 count, it was feint, see? It was misdirection to distract us from the fact that ACORN had already taken over the Census Bureau. The very FACT (recorded in history!) that the Census disassociated itself from ACORN, is a sure sign that that ACORN has taken it over. Obama’s henchman did it all behind the scenes.

    Listen to Glen Beck, he will explain it all.

    We are all doomed, Unless you buy my inspirational tapes: How to Restore Our Lost America. Coming soon. Volume discounts available.maybe the libs can just have a chance of putting one and one together.

    Lyndon LaRouche tried to warn about this plot, started by the British spy, thug and drug dealer for the Queen, David Hume. But no one listened.

  18. 18.

    Linkmeister

    From a blog at the NYT:

    Mark Williams, a Sacramento talk radio host, was speaking to CNN on behalf of the demonstrators — many of whom carried signs comparing Obama to a witch doctor, an undocumented worker or a Nazi — when he played the blue collar card.

    Who is Williams? A garden variety demagogue who calls Obama “an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug” and the Democratic party “a domestic enemy” of America. He also refers to the president as “racist in chief.” That says all you need to know about leaders of the Tea Party movement.

    Williams repeatedly invoked the “working stiffs” who feel left out. Working people are always the last to get aboard the gravy train, and the first to be used in campaigns that will not advance their cause. And with these demonstrators, and the hucksters trying to distract them from real issues, history repeats itself.

    Where was the Tea Party movement when the tax burden was shifted from the high end to the middle? Where were the patriots when Wall Street, backed in Congress by Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, rewrote securities laws so that the wonder boys of Lehman and A.I.G. could reduce home mortgages to poker chips at a trillion-dollar table?

  19. 19.

    Corner Stone

    @Zifnab:

    Blowjob says what now? Ironic that it’s Bush who will go down remembered for his economic policies.

    Personally, I have to give you snaps for saying “blowjob” and then “go down” in the next sentence. Bonus for segging two presidents as a tie-in.

  20. 20.

    Linkmeister

    Well, hell. The last three paragraphs should also be blockquoted. They were, but it didn’t take. Shoulda put a [P] tag at the beginning of each para, maybe.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    ellaesther: You have never seen the greatest wingnut movie of all time? Red Dawn? Starring the just-departed and much lamented Patrick Swayze (though the wingers always skip over that Too Wong Fu thing–too gay)? Wolverines! Oh, and I think that, though I flunk all the other qualifications, slipping a Too Wong Fu reference should get me honorary membership in the Asian Posse.

  22. 22.

    WereBear

    Screwed!

    And barcoded-tattooed.

    All I can think of is my in-laws. Bachelor degrees for both of them, working as a teacher and a technical writer. Not from families with money. She stayed home for ten years to raise the kids. Yet managed to get a few children through college, own a couple of homes, and have a cushion for retirement.

    Of course, they were born several decades ago. The kids coming up now… saddled with debt at the moment of graduation, ready to go Max Max over the shrinking numbers of jobs, and studying up on coffee so they can at least be baristas… I’d like them to rise up and smite these whackos on the Medicare-provided scooters at the Teabagger rallies.

    But I suspect they are too nice and polite.

  26. 26.

    stinkwrinkle

    Silly, silly John. The wingnutz have already told us that W was a liberal, thus, his failings are our failings. Really Sir, you must keep up on these things!

  29. 29.

    Mark S.

    I’ve actually never seen Red Dawn. Is it good bad or just bad bad. I mean, Roadhouse, that movie is good bad all the way.

  30. 30.

    stinkwrinkle

    The best movie, AND the best Swayze movie, was Roadhouse. Buy enough alcohol to have yourself talking funny and watch that movie. I guarantee a great time. Ben Gazzara was the bestest villain EVAR, and Swayze was all you ever wanted him to be!

    (Of course, I never saw Red Dawn or To Wong Foo…)

  34. 34.

    Corner Stone

    @Mark S.: {buying ticket to wherever the hell Mark S resides}
    Mark, my good chap. Can you tell me what that constellation over there may be?
    *prepares to punch in neck

  36. 36.

    Jager

    Wingnut Econ 101:

    !.The economic improvement the country enjoyed during the Clinton years was because of Reagan’s economic policies.

    2. The slump during the Bush years was Clinton’s fault.

    3. The current uptick in the markets and manufacturing is because of Bush’s economic policies.

    All the surplus money when Bush took office, left over cash from Reagan…

    Got it? Good!

  37. 37.

    General Winfield Stuck

    Your student loan bill passed the House.

    Get the Government out of my federally backed student loan, commie libtard want to take over everything. Pretty soon they’ll have their dirty red mitts on my public schools.

  38. 38.

    Corner Stone

    @stinkwrinkle: The argument can be made to support your Roadhouse contention.
    HOWEVER, without ever actually viewing RD, how can you claim to understand the Swayze ouvre?

  41. 41.

    Keith G

    Ya but, you gotta love the republicans. I just read the Egan link. The GOP have fucked over the working class of this country nine ways to Sunday and yet they can still rally the cracker vote.

    I mean, it is sheer brilliance. If the screwed up bunch of losers I support (read Dems) had half of the determination and guile of republicans, not only would we all have medical care but I would be able to marry the man of my dreams on the court house steps in Birmingham, Ala.

    This will be one of those instances that history students will be studying years hence and think out loud, “WTF?”

  42. 42.

    stinkwrinkle

    @Corner Stone: I can’t make that claim. But Roadhouse rules, no matter how good Red Dawn is. I should watch RD, I agree, but the fact that wingnuts love it is a really bad sign. Shit, I *was* a wingnut back then (which is probably why I love BJ), and I still never saw it. I’ve never heard anyone speak up for Roadhouse, so I feel safe in recommending it. :)

  43. 43.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @kay:

    Yes, I know. I just was watching one wingnut after another wave the bloody rag of Marxist takeover on the House floor this afternoon.

    These fools are not only playing with fire, they are bringing cans of gasoline.

  44. 44.

    kay

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    I knew the subsidy to private lenders was indefensible when Republicans were reduced to arguing that we had to give private lenders 80 billion dollars over 10 years to save JOBS….. in the private student lending industry.

    “It’s about JOBS!”

    Okey-doke.

  45. 45.

    Corner Stone

    @Jager: The Big Dawg’s back!
    Boning his way across the Red States! He is totally kickin’ it old school Braveheart style!
    “If we can’t get them out, we’ll breed them out.”

  46. 46.

    AkaDad

    Bush unfortunately had to pay more attention to the war on terror, which Clinton ignored. If Bush had more time he would have won the war on poverty.

  48. 48.

    Corner Stone

    @stinkwrinkle:

    I’ve never heard anyone speak up for Roadhouse

    Are you Fng kidding me? Roadhouse is a wingnut’s closet homo wet-fucking-dream come to film!!
    Holy Jeebus protect us all!

    I’m just messin’ with ya. I could write a PhD dissertation on RD and Roadhouse and their cultural relevance qua their descriptive nature of society as a timeline.

  49. 49.

    kay

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    I don’t think Republicans can credibly defend the subsidy. Really. It’s just ridiculous.
    Not that Democrats will capitalize on this, because that would be…smart.
    BUT: Pelosi is good on college affordability issues. She completely gets those.

  50. 50.

    jl

    Thanks for the update. I made fun of Obama conspiracy theories above, but now I have something to say that sound a little conspiracy theory-ish. But I have seen evidence, and am sorry I did not keep track of it.

    I think that the GOP knows very well that working class whites, especially men, are getting reamed and the GOP overlords and wardheelers are OK with it. For some of the high level operators, like Grover Norquist, this is pure pragmatic cynicism. For others it is a kind of Marxist style rationalization (we can’t let the peasants get comfortable with any government programs or solutions whatever since that will a road to hell. Dangerous and tempting temporary comforts for the masses must be sacrificed for the long term unregulated ultra free market utopia that will arrive after we destroy the income tax, social security, medicare, etc.).

    I’ve seen quotes from the Norquist crowd that explicitly acknowledge that the peasants must suffer for glorious big business advancement and the GOP’s own political advantage. Pressed, suffering working class white folk are natural dupes for GOP thought. And I have seen quotes from nutcase GOP congressmen saying that things must get worse for these stalwart patriots before they get better.

    I feel like I should have kept track of this madness and made a file (and if I had the foresight to know I could make some $ by turning it over to the Obama secert police, I probably would have).

    Has anyone else heard this species of GOP thought?

  51. 51.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @kay:

    They are wingnut welfare junkies, and dems finally said no more drugs/cash for you. It was good to see dems stand up to the banking lobby, Maybe a sign to come, we can only hope.

  52. 52.

    Mark S.

    @Corner Stone:

    I used to fuck guys like you in prison. (jk)

    My other favorite line:

    Doc: Your file says you’ve got a degree from NYU. What in?
    Dalton: Philosophy.
    Doc: Any particular discipline?
    Dalton: No. Not really. Man’s search for faith. That sort of shit.

  54. 54.

    Shell

    “Wingnut Econ 101:”

    Any good economic news for the rest of the week? Due to Cheney’s successful spinal stenosis surgery! Unblocked his Republican chakra.

  55. 55.

    bernini

    @ellaesther
    I believe it started with the National Review ranking top wing nut friendly movies. Red Dawn made the list. Plot: commies attack the US and some high school kids fight back. “Wolverines” was their battle cry.

    Someone else should prob post a better summary, or link to a good online synopsis from TMP or similar (prob a good thread somewhere here in BJ land to ref…?).

  56. 56.

    WereBear

    Roadhouse? Roadhouse!?!?!

    As someone who owns a boxed set of Ed Wood, let me recommend it in the highest terms. All the cliches one could want, topped with the whipped cream of plot winks and the utter lymphatic mayhem of… well.. sheer joy of mayhem.

    I mean, it’s got a philosophy of bouncing.

    Jiminy Christmas, don’t deny yourself.

    Enhancement of brain chemicals only adds to the fun.

  58. 58.

    Corner Stone

    @Mark S.: My fav is actually from Red:
    “I got married to an ugly woman. Don’t ever do that. It just takes the energy right out of you. She left me, though. Found somebody even uglier than she was. That’s life. Who can explain it?”

    And Brad Wesley is the abso-fucking-lutely perfect synopsis of the modern GOP.
    I can go all night.

  59. 59.

    General Winfield Stuck

    This from todays appearance by John Boehner with Jim Lehrer on PBS news hour.

    JEFFREY BROWN: Right. But as the leader of your party, as one of the leaders, how do you see your own role or responsibility in, for example, perhaps disassociating yourself from extremes or tamping down some of that rhetoric? What’s your role?

    REP. JOHN BOEHNER: Well, I think — you’ve heard me over the last several months make it clear that we want Americans to involve themselves in this discussion, but it ought to be civil. And, by and large, almost all of it is. Oh, there’s going to be someone now and then who’s going to get out of control or yell, but we are in the middle of a modern-day political rebellion in America.

    JEFFREY BROWN: Rebellion?

    REP. JOHN BOEHNER: Rebellion. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been around the country in a number of members’ districts, and I’ve been watching this grassfire grow all year. And the American people, they’re concerned about what their government is doing. They know that these trillion-dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, this is not sustainable. And they’re concerned that government here in Washington is getting too big, getting too much control, and they’re making their opposition to it known. And all of my colleagues have encountered their citizens more engaged than they’ve ever seen them.
    Now, I went to a tea party in West Chester, Ohio, on September 5th, Labor Day weekend, along with some of my colleagues; 18,000 people were there. And there were some Democrats there and some Republicans there. But three-fourths of the people there were people — average Americans who’d never been engaged in the political process, really didn’t know much about it, except that they were concerned about where our country was going. And so this conversation that’s underway is healthy for our democracy. It was Thomas Jefferson 220 years ago who said, “A little rebellion now and then is good for our democracy.”

    Modern day political rebellion. Oh yea motherfuckers, bring it on.

  60. 60.

    stinkwrinkle

    @Corner Stone: I’m glad you clarified that. ‘Cause I was about to drip some tears. I mean, DAMN, Swayze sticks it to THE MAN in Roadhouse! Funny, though, how that came out not long before the wingnut revolution, in which THE MAN was totally deified. But then, I also loved Wanted Dead or Alive with Rutger Hauer, which was pretty much every right-blogger’s fantasy, before it was cool to hate ISLAMOFASCISTS.

  61. 61.

    JGabriel

    @General Winfield Stuck:

    Though not measured, I bet [Bush] created as many millionaires as any president has.

    That’s not actually a metric Republican presidents care so much about. The real measure of whether a GOP president was successful is: what percentage of America’s wealth is controlled by his friends? If the top 1% has a greater percentage of the economy after he took office, then he is successful.

    It doesn’t matter if that greater percentage is, in fact, worth less. As long as everyone else is even poorer, then the wealthy have even more power.

    By that measure, Bush might even be considered more successful then Reagan.

    .

  62. 62.

    Anne Laurie

    On the upside, teen pregnancy is through the roof in Red States. Wolverines!

    Yeah, the “Quiverful” Xtianists are gonna win the generational argument by outbreeding us DFHs. Because, as Gore Vidal was arguing 40 years ago, nothing keeps a serf in line as effectively as the knowledge that his many, many kids will starve if he doesn’t scurry to obey his masters’ every whim. And semi-literate highschool dropouts piecing together multiple part-time, subminimum-wage jobs to feed the kids they wouldn’t have had if they hadn’t grown up in “abstinence-only” school districts don’t have the time, the energy or the information to contest whatever horrors the local Robber Baron small-town-aristocracy chooses to inflict on the Ones Who Can’t Get Away.

    You think it’s a coincidence that the Bidniz Baron wing of the Republican Party are so enthusiastic about the People’s Republic of China?

  63. 63.

    Jager

    Cheney’s surgery was to relieve him of “chronic back pain”, (is he on Medicare? Or is he on some fancy VP retiree plan?)
    Is there an operation he can have that will stop him from being a pain in over half the country’s asses?

  65. 65.

    Polish the Guillotines

    From the Egan article:

    The first nine years of the new century have yet to find a defining label

    How about The Decayed?

  66. 66.

    Meyer

    Those teen pregnancy stats are simply stunning. The correlation between high teen pregnancy rates and republican voting patterns is off the charts.

    Makes me wonder if McCain didn’t know about Bristol Palin’s condition before the VP pick and if Bristol wasn’t a major reason Sarah was chosen.

  69. 69.

    WereBear

    @stinkwrinkle: Well, I loved it too.

    I also loved Wanted Dead or Alive with Rutger Hauer, which was pretty much every right-blogger’s fantasy, before it was cool to hate ISLAMOFASCISTS.

    You know, “F$&K the bonus” and all that.

    But it was mostly Rutger Hauer. Depending on one’s orientation, that might not work for everyone.

  70. 70.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @Jager:

    Is there an operation he can have that will stop him from being a pain in over half the country’s asses?

    and could we find one that would do the same for his daughter?

  72. 72.

    jl

    @Polish the Guillotines:

    “The first nine years of the new century have yet to find a defining label”

    The Polish’s suggestion of ‘decayed’ is nice.

    I tried to push the ‘Oh-zone’ but it never took around my parts.

    If that don’t suit you, I trot out a new proposal ‘The Naughts’

  73. 73.

    Davis X. Machina

    The first nine years of the new century have yet to find a defining label

    Condemned.
    Toxic.
    This decade contains policies and politicians determined by the State of California to be carcinogenic.

  74. 74.

    stinkwrinkle

    @WereBear: I’m pretty straight, and my love for Rutger came from Blade Runner. *shrug* Like what you like, I say! Or like the hikers say, “Hike your own hike.”
    (but if you don’t like Roadhouse, something in you has died :)

  76. 76.

    Anne Laurie

    REP. JOHN BOEHNER: Rebellion. I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve been around the country in a number of members’ districts, and I’ve been watching this grassfire grow all year. And the American people, they’re concerned about what their government is doing. They know that these trillion-dollar deficits for as far as the eye can see, this is not sustainable. And they’re concerned that government here in Washington is getting too big, getting too much control, and they’re making their opposition to it known.

    Boehner proves his Christianist God does not exist, because he wasn’t struck dead by a bolt of lightning for this deeply toxic level of bone-deep hypocrisy.

    Hell, if Senator Obama had said this on TV back in 2007, Boehner would’ve been demanding he be renditioned to Gitmo before the news cycle ended.

  77. 77.

    JGabriel

    The first nine years of the new century have yet to find a defining label

    How about: The Great Rip-Off?

    .

  80. 80.

    Anne Laurie

    @Polish the Guillotines:

    “The first nine years of the new century have yet to find a defining label.”
    …
    How about The Decayed?

    Death SpiralDecade.

    Republican Death Spiral, if we’re lucky. America’s Death Spiral, if we’re not. Global Death Spiral, worst comes to worse.

  81. 81.

    jl

    @JK: Little Johnny Boehner’s general swank reminds me of a smart-ass but not overly quick in the head, gunsel in a 40s noire gangster flick. I suggested the nick name ‘Johnny Bones’ right here at Balloon-juice some time ago, but like the ‘Oh-zone’ it did not take either.

    I looked up ‘gunsel’ to make sure I spelled it correctly and the online English dictionary says gunsel also means catamite. But I don’t keep up with that kind of political gossip, so maybe it is just a coincidence.

  82. 82.

    arguingwithsignposts

    The post title is wrong. It should be “A Decade of EPIC FAIL.”

    as for a title for the decade: Ur doin it wrong!

    Since Internet memes are so integral.

  84. 84.

    jl

    “Death SpiralDecade.

    Republican Death Spiral, if we’re lucky. America’s Death Spiral, if we’re not. Global Death Spiral, worst comes to worse.”

    Nice. But these suggestions leave out the dead pan black humor and trenchent self-satire of the GOP antics, as well as their heroic effort to attract the lost Reagan Youth Brigades via glibertarian, Christian rock and denatured hip-hop.

    So, how about: the Rebublican Death Spinal Tap years.

  86. 86.

    WereBear

    @stinkwrinkle: Rutger Hauer OWNED Blade Runner. Ah, I get all light-headed with the last scene with the dove.

    Sweet man, too, with a true love of the environment and a work ethic that lets him rise above the dreck he gets handed to act in.

    But back to the political topic: My own B-movie scenario is that Boehner needs a total skin transplant from rampant Carrot Skin Syndrome, and the only match is the corpse of a centenarian Blues musician.

    There he is, on the floor of the House, tapping his foot…

  87. 87.

    Xenos

    The 1850s have been called, by some historians, the ‘Decade of Controversy’. That sounds pretty mild for what was happening, and for what followed it. At this point the aughts deserve to be called the ‘pre-Wingularity’, or maybe ‘the days of wealth, peace, and prosperity, before the Great Death’.

    The 1920s were called ‘the Jazz Decade’. Maybe we are just in the ‘Spaz Decade’.

  92. 92.

    Brian J

    I’m curious how the Republicans who claimed that tax cuts would bring about all sorts of good things would square these results with their original predictions. My guess is, the answer will be…more tax cuts.

  93. 93.

    geg6

    kay: Sorry I’m late to the thread, but YES! Now if the Senate just mans up and does this, I can finally be just a little bit proud of Nancy and Harry. The student loan system is about to become sane once again. The bill also increases Pell grants. There’s much to like here and I can guarantee that this is gonna pay it’s own way in real terms and in political dividends. It could go further and I certainly only view this as a start (more regulation of alternative private loan lenders and realistic borrowing limits on Stafford Loans as step 2). But this will only bring good to our country and so I’ll be content. For a little while anyway. ;-)

  95. 95.

    Ed Marshall

    I don’t attempt any sort of reason with the remaining Republican sympathizers. All their bitching gets, “Your tears are sweet, nom, nom, nom”. That’s the end of politics talk usually. If not, I ask them to defend the last eight years and no one wants to even try.

  96. 96.

    WereBear

    My defense of Nancy Pelosi keeps getting better.

    She’s showing signs of being a Fighting Dem… we should encourage her!

    (Ellipses used liberally in this thread.)

  97. 97.

    Jager

    Yes, John “Boner” as a mid level hood in a gangster movie, the guy who fucks up and still has attitude. Then he gets the shit kicked out of him about a third of the way in…lots of slapping, gut shots and a couple of kicks in the nuts! Total and utter humiliation! Have him cry for good measure! I’m thinking of the way Sonny beat the shit out of his smarmy brother in law in Godfather 1

  98. 98.

    cmorenc

    Michelle Malkin is the wingnut version of Rose RoseAnna Danna, except that Gilda Radner was only pretending to be the most astounding airhead on the planet.

  99. 99.

    mai naem

    What don’t you people get with this? This is all Barack Hussein Obama’s fault because through his Kenyan witch doctor (who he knows because he was present during his birth in Mombasa), he had secret control of GW Bush and in fact caused Dubbya to start the Irocki war and the Afghan War and also took, the financial meltdown so that he could win the election and ram this country down the road to socialism.

  100. 100.

    Brian J

    I can’t say I ever had a lot of respect for the skills or intelligence of Boehner as an opposition leader, but he really became a sad sack of shit when he willfully exploited the “death panel” nonsense. He could have easily tried to distance himself and other party remembers from the irresponsible clowns spreading that lie, but instead, he chose to fan the flames of the hysteria. He’s lucky nobody got hurt or even died, otherwise he would have had blood on his hands.

  101. 101.

    burnspbesq

    Am I belaboring the obvious by calling Boehner an ignoramus?

    Fool, if you’d stayed awake in Econ 102 you would know that those trillion-dollar deficits are supposed to be temporary. And if we can get rid of you and your idiot friends, they will be temporary, because we will get a tax system that can pay for the services we give ourselves.

    Keynes, dimwit. John Maynard Keynes.

  106. 106.

    bob h

    The Red States also lead in diabetes and hypertension, according to a report in the Times. It is natural that their legislators would turn their backs on HCR.

  108. 108.

    BillCinSD

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    It’s the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. and we are looking for our first winning season since 1986 this year. Also, Plus it’s homecoming tomorrow so I get the afternoon off. Wolverines! I mean Hardrockers!

    Red Dawn was produced by/started the career of Jack Abramoff. Supposedly a remake is being filmed.

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