More good news: jobless claims are down again. Here’s a graph of jobless claims from Steve B (click to embiggen) that explains why the Republican Party is ginning up the culture war — it’s easier than acknowledging that the economy is getting better.
Joseph Nobles
Best new tweet making the rounds:
beltane
I am hopping mad over this, Judith and Holofernes type mad. They have no more right to crawl in our vaginas than they have to crawl into childrens’ rectums. F&ck them!
Dork
The post title is Epic Win.
...now I try to be amused
“They make a big election about small things.” — Barack Obama, 2008
Mino
Please don’t forget the Democratic enablers. Mr. Kain.
SteveinSC
Unbidden, David “Yes-Give-Up-the-Ship” Axelrod makes a bold preemptive strike and surrenders before being asked in Round 1 of the Culture Wars Part XLII.
Punchy
What does Sully think about crawling into a wimmen’z hoo-ha?
Cap'n Magic
While the base number is down, there have been so many changes over time to how the rate is calculated and the definition of who is considered employed that you really need to look at the U-6 number-and THAT number is still at close to depression levels.
capt
Nothing “cultural” about the GOP attacks on women and women’s health.
amk
you left out mittmentum (or the tanking there of). that’s what is driving this faux poutrage of rw and their media enablers.
Schlemizel
thanks for trying to destroy sex for me for ever with that title!
Elizabelle
Here’s a link for emailing the White House with comments.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
MattF
The point, as ever, is the narrative. Republicans want to propagate a story that triggers anger and resentment. Period. The answer has to be a counter-narrative– and if Clint Eastwood is the one to tell it, that’s fine with me.
JenJen
@Joseph Nobles: @Joseph Nobles: LMFAO!! That’s fantastic!
amk
even ras sez more voters than evah blame shrub for the economy and that economy is picking up under that kenyan, muslin, soshalist.
When you’ve lost your own personal mouthpiece, ginning up nontroversies is the way to go. Would the stupid indies buy it ? Again ?
amk
@Joseph Nobles: FTW.
chopper
amazing how jobless claims have dropped consistently since obama took office. i know, i know, lots of people dropping off or giving up completely. good soundbit tho when the prez has to respond to mittens talking about unemployment.
kd bart
@Joseph Nobles Shouldn’t it be Public Sector Unionized Homosexuals Are Burning the Flag?
quannlace
What did Boehner say last Friday when that week’s good economic news came out? “Yes, it’s good news but…but…we can do better !”
And we are. Thanks for the encouragement, John!
J
Title summons rather horrifying image, esp. for BJs many women readers!
Gee
@Punchy:
Sully’s on vacation in merry old England this week but Zach Beauchamp has a good post: http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2012/02/controlling-birth-control-controlling-liberty.html
SenyorDave
Basic Rules:
1. The economy can’t get better because the President is a marxist, Kenyan, Muslim, Alinsky-lover.
2. If it gets better, it is despite the President.
3. If #2, then point out that the President is a Christian hating, homsexual-loving baby killer
amk
@J: shock and awe baby.
shortstop
While I appreciate the strength and pop of the headline, the imagery is giving those of us with vaginas a severe case of the willies.
Bulworth
Also, too: because they want to.
Larkspur
That’s it. I’m setting my netherbits to
STUNANNIHILATE.Ken
@quannlace: Shouldn’t it be Public Sector Unionized Homosexuals Are Burning the Flag?
No, because they aren’t limiting the attacks to the public sector anymore.
Lawnguylander
@Cap’n Magic:
This is not a report about the unemployment rate. It’s about new jobless claims.
shortstop
@Larkspur: Maybe we need some special-ordered vagina dentata. You know, dentures are much more lifelike than they used to be.
harlana
YA DON’T SAY!! this is shocking, SHOCKING, i tells ya! who knew?? wouldn’t the implication here be that anti-birth control people are actually PRO-ABORTION?? it would be irresponsible not to speculate.
harlana
Rush calls Eastwood a sucker
Paul in KY
@Schlemizel: Instead of ‘generic Republican’, imagine Newt ;-)
Villago Delenda Est
@harlana:
The desire to punish the sluts overrides any concern about saving babies.
Redshift
@Cap’n Magic: Nice try at dressing up the “they’re cooking the books” wingnut fantasy in nice language, but
that’s also on a similar downward curve. It’s not Obama’s fault the last Republican administration gave him a sky-high U-6 as a starting point. Fortunately, for all the hoo-hah about “no president (except FDR) has ever been re-elected with an unemployment rate above X,” people actually vote based on whether they think the economy is improving, not on where it happens to be on Election Day.
Admit it, you guys are screwed because America isn’t, and no amount of yelling about U-6 is going to change that.
GregB
Hell, World Nut Daily and their closeted megaphone Matt Drudge are wailing about a recent poll showing 20% of Republicans are leaning towards President Obama.
handsmile
They’re returning to the scene of the crime. It’s to punish their mothers for bringing them into this scary place. Such psychopathology festers at the root of Republican misogyny.
J.
When have Republicans needed a reason to crawl into women’s vaginas — or up people’s asses?
Chris
@SenyorDave:
Yeah, that was their excuse for Roosevelt and Clinton too. Not sure how the explained the Eisenhower/Kennedy/Johnson boom of Keynesian prosperity. But it’s getting a little old.
Meanwhile, every crisis that’s ever happened on their watch, from Hoover to Reagan/Bush to W. Bush, only happened because of traitorous liberal counterrevolutionary saboteurs, or because the conservatives kept not being conservative enough, damn it!
Chris
@harlana:
Anybody know if there’s a study about how high the abortion rate is vs how frequent condom/contraceptive use is? I can guess what the results would be, but not sure where to find it.
geg6
@Redshift:
Well, I was coming in to say pretty much the same thing, but you’ve saved me the time and effort. Many thanks.
Not to mention that this is about new jobless claims, not the unemployment rate.
Stoopid trolz need reading comprehension.
AkaDad
The lower unemployment rates means that Bush’s policies are finally starting to work!
WereBear
@harlana: Oh, I would so love a grudge match between The Man with No Name and The Man with No Soul.
Patricia Kayden
What percentage of women vote for those who are crawling in their privates? They’ve made their position clear. Vote accordingly.
jayboat
I lol’d when I saw the ad for Ann Coulter- FREE! right above the headline of this thread. Heh.
redshirt
@AkaDad: LOL. Indeed. That argument will surface the moment it’s clear to everyone that things are looking up.
They are such predictable assholes.
Shinobi
While my brain felt the title of this was hilarious, the lower half of my anatomy is now closed for business.
Here’s an antidote for all the other ladies. I know what I’ll be looking at for the next hour.
rikryah
I welcome this. Mainly because, nothing cuts through all the abortion discussion to the heart of the matter about the right-wing war on women than to inform, even the most apolitical of women – that the President wants you to have your birth control free, and the GOP says no.
harlana
@WereBear: me wants! i mean, i know it’s sort of juvenile and all that – but still, some sort of showdown would be nice and entertaining, sort of along the lines of some reporter asking:
‘Mr. Eastwood, Rush Limbaugh discussed this ad extensively on his show and said you got “suckered into” doing it. He seemed to imply that you did not know what you were doing when you did this ad. What is your response to Mr. Limbaugh?’
harlana
@rikryah: srsly, what’s not to love?
shortstop
@Shinobi: We owe you, girl. Thanks for that.
Shinobi
@rikryah: Amanda Marcotte on Twitter makes a good point: “If every man whining about the BC mandate was asked to describe his wife’s history of pregnancy prevention 1st, this would be over.”
As much as this is stupid republicans, I think it only comes up because so much of the politerati are male.
Bill H.
@Redshift:
Well, the number of employed has a pretty funky historical curve, as does the number “in the labor force.” I think they are cooking the books, but it predates Obama and has nothing to do with him. I think it is the result of a bureaucracy trying to somehow make government as a whole look good, without really even knowing why it should do so, going back several decades. They have changed the “models” and the “adjustments” and the “survey methods” and the interpretations so many times that they no longer know what any of it actually means.
I suspect that things actually are getting better, but I don’t think the bogus BLS numbers are the best illustration of that.
Rita R.
@Shinobi:
And all of the Catholic hierarchy — with the added bonus of being celibate, at least nominally.
grandpa john
@harlana: Probably
Come on punk, make my day
JCT
@harlana: I’m enjoying the visual of Clint going “Boo” at Rush — would wet himself in 2 secs flat. What a waste of protoplasm.
JoyousMN
Srsly? If THIS is what the Republicans want to campaign on, I say:
BRING IT ON
Svensker
@Chris:
This Slate article features a study abroad that shows that abortions went down significantly when contraceptive use went up. When the Bushies and their ilk around the world stopped funding contraceptive use because folks like Planned Parenthood were providing it, abortions went up.
matryoshka
When the Bushies and their ilk around the world stopped funding contraceptive use because folks like Planned Parenthood were providing it, abortions went up.
And that’s how we know it’s not abortion that really bothers them. It’s women having control over their bodies that is the bridge too far.
Villago Delenda Est
@Svensker:
Which demonstrates my point about this entire issue: it’s never been about abortions. It’s always been about punishing the sluts. Always.
Rawk Chawk
I used to do this also, when I was in the closet. Later, I embraced the fact that I prefer crawling onto things rather than into them.
Svensker
@Rawk Chawk:
Oh, you are Tim, afterall.
Rawk Chawk
@Rawk Chawk:
If all the closeted Repubs would do likewise, they’d probably relax and stop obsessing over other people’s vajayjays.
Rawk Chawk
@Svensker:
lol. What? Is there only one homosexual on this site?
Chris
@matryoshka:
What always strikes me about that is that Pat Robertson, when asked about forced abortion in China, turned out to be totally cool with it: they’re doing what they have to do, y’know, don’t judge.
Probably the biggest giveaway that they don’t really give a damn about the little babies’ lives. Although I’m sure there’s a healthy dose of “let’s hope the Chinaman abort themselves to death” slipped in there, you know, just like they’re always accusing Planned Parenthood of doing.
Diana
Perhaps the Republicans would like to add to their discourse the effectiveness of abstinence, bring in a few facts, figures, graphs to illustrate their point, adding as a footnote how many of them actually use this method in their own bedrooms. Maybe we could get them to sign a pledge drafted by someone of GOP note, somebody like R,L.