Archives for 2009

I’m watching CNN, and I am not making this up, someone paid to have a commercial state the following (and I paraphrase):

“Congress just spent 800 billion dollars. To get an idea how much that is, imagine if you spent a dollar every day since Jesus was born…”

I stopped what I was doing. I wonder how much it cost to air that commercial- should I start counting a dollar every day since Martin Luther was born? Or was it cheaper than that and I should start counting a dollar every day since Pope John Paul II was born?

*** Update ***

Not the only one to notice this:

Now, there’s a bit about this that renders it disingenuous…which is the whole thing. The American economy is massive – $14.28 trillion, in fact. If you started the day Jesus Christ was born and spent $1 million every day since then, you wouldn’t reach the size of the American economy by the year 10,000. Or 20,000. This is why we don’t measure the size of our economy in Jesus Money, despite the declaration of such in the RNC platform.

To put this in further context – over the course of Jesus’ life, at $1 million a day, and presuming his death at the age of 33 (including leap years), the value of Jesus’ life would have been $12.053 billion.

Microsoft’s yearly revenue last year was $60 billion, meaning they earned five Jesuses in a year.

Apparently the ad said a million a day, and not a dollar a day as I thought I had heard.

Peak Wingnut is a Unicorn, The Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot All In OnePost + Comments (50)

Wingnut Daily brings the goods:

A U.S. soldier on active duty in Iraq has called President Obama an “impostor” in a statement in which he affirmed plans to join as plaintiff in a challenge to Obama’s eligibility to be commander in chief.

The statement was publicized by California attorney Orly Taitz who, along with her DefendOurFreedom.us Foundation, is working on a series of legal cases seeking to uncover Obama’s birth records and other documents that would reveal whether he meets the requirements of the U.S. Constitution.

“As an active-duty officer in the United States Army, I have grave concerns about the constitutional eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to hold the office of president of the United States,” wrote Scott Easterling in a “to-whom-it-may-concern” letter.

***

Taitz told WND she had advised Easterling to obtain legal counsel before making any statements regarding the commander-in-chief, but he insisted on moving forward. His contention is that as an active member of the U.S. military, he is required to follow orders from a sitting president, and he needs – on pain of court-martial – to know that Obama is eligible.

I guess if he needs a lawyer, there is always Andy McCarthy. I was never an officer, and just an NCO, but this strikes me as an effective way to make sure you do not have a long and fruitful military career.

Soon To Be Former Soldier Raises Birth Certificate IssuePost + Comments (127)

Eve Fairbanks discusses the theatrics and cunning stunts of the last few weeks from the GOP and asks a fair question:

Why are Republicans taking so many pages out of their failed candidate’s campaign playbook?

The Republican Party has been using a grab-bag of strategies to counter Obama’s policies over the past month. They rail against the stimulus package for its (supposed) pork. They hammer home their points with gimmicky videos and props. They speak in warrior rhetoric and revel in heroic, fighting-man stunts. But if there is one strand running through all these strategies, it is that they evoke a discomfiting feeling of deja vu. We’ve seen this stuff before: The GOP is currently reliving John McCain’s presidential campaign. The return to the strategies of their fallen candidate may be the saddest illustration of the current state of the party.

I honestly think it is because of the echo chamber, and because they simply have not had to think for so long that the echo chamber just rules. As far as I can tell these days, there are only three events Republicans remember throughout history, and those three events are the basis for every decision they make. The events are WWII (in which a damned furriner, Churchill, is the conservative hero), the Reagan administration, and the Republican take-over of Congress in Clinton’s first term. It doesn’t matter that they “misremember” those three cherished memories and don’t seem to have the ability to accurately assess those time periods. If you are wondering why the Bush administration and the past eight years is not one of those three memories, it is because they decided the day he left office that he is not a true conservative. Down the memory hole with you, George, and take those damned dogs with you!

Let’s just take one of these to prove the point. As WWII is one of the pivotal moments Republicans remember, every enemy is Hitler -Saddam Hussein? Hitler.

Putin? Hitler.

Kim Jong Il? Hitler.

Barack Obama? Hitler.

Likewise, anyone who does not do precisely what the wingnut crowd wants is instantly an appeaser and akin to Chamberlain.

Barack Obama- appeaser and Chamberlain.

Iraq War Critics- Appeasers.

Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, and Arlen Specter- Appeasers.

And on and on. So what you have is a movement centered on a fictional history based on three events they don’t remember too well, and they are completely at the mercy of the echo chamber, which has themcompletely dumbed down by talk radio and the circle jerk of self-referential pundits that tells them exactly what they want to hear. If you remember correctly, the wurlitzer was telling us after the last electoral drubbing that this is a center-right nation, despite the fact the GOP got hammered.

In other words, they think they won because “conservative values” still rule the day. Now what are they doing? Well, since they were told they won, they believe it, and they are continuing to do the same things they did during the “winning” election, spicing that up with their favorite memories from their three events- calling everyone an appeaser, feigning fiscal responsibility while pretending no one remembers the last eight years, chucking out tax cuts as a solution for everything while pretending Reagan balanced the budget and never raised taxes (Health care a mess? Tax cuts! Market melting down? Tax cuts! Need some economic stimulus? Tax cuts!), and unifying in opposition to the Democratic President just like the good old days of 1993.

Like I said- they aren’t very bright. Break out the celebratory tire gauges, bitches!

*** Update ***

And this.

*** Update #2 ***

I swear to FSM that I did not see this until someone linked it in the comments:

But in the warped fantasy of Transatlantic Neoconomia, the world in which every diplomatic challenge is another 1938 and all peaceful negotiation is “appeasement”, any snub of St Winston is sacrilege, a sign that the Atlantic bridge is crumbling.

It’s too early to judge the tenor of Obama’s foreign policy. His taste in Oval Office decor bodes well, however, especially given Bush II’s disastrous tendency to view the world in Churchillian terms of good and evil.

I’ll Take “They’re Not Very Bright” for 1000, AlexPost + Comments (65)

Sorry but I have to indulge my WaPo chat fixation again today:

Washingotn, D.C.: Tonight, Obama will no doubt say he inherited this mess, not his fault, etc. What would have happened if Bush, after 9/11, got up there and said. We need to understand this was Bill Clinton’s fault for gutting our intelligence agencies in the mid 90s, being attacked three times and doing nothing and refusing to take bin Laden when Sudan offered him in the 90s. How do you think that would go over?

With such a hypothetical question, it’s really hard to say how that might have gone over, right?

Update: I googled “Bush blamed Clinton for 9/11” and here’s the first thing that came up:

“They looked at our response after the hostage crisis in Iran, the bombings of the Marine barracks in Lebanon, the first World Trade Center attack, the killing of American soldiers in Somalia, the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa, and the attack on the USS Cole. They concluded that free societies lacked the courage and character to defend themselves against a determined enemy… After September the 11th, 2001, we’ve taught the terrorists a very different lesson: America will not run in defeat and we will not forget our responsibilities.”

What if?Post + Comments (113)