Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

The willow is too close to the house.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

People are weird.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Consistently wrong since 2002

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

They punch you in the face and then start crying because their fist hurts.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

The words do not have to be perfect.

You are here: Home / Archives for Elections / Election 2008

Election 2008

Post-Debate Analysis

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Here is my deep post-debate analysis:

Anyone who votes Republican in 2008 needs their head examined. Seriously, Obama and Clinton are so head and shoulders above the GOP field, the Dems should walk away with it. Unfortunately, I can still see McCain winning it all.

Having said that, I score the debate for Obama. One of the things I like about him is that when asked a question, there isn’t an instant response spit out. He pauses, he starts to respond, and you can tell he is thinking, and not merely reciting. The highlight for the night was when he called the bullshit fearmongering about immigration what it is- scapegoating. That was refreshingly honest.

There are so few issues that the two differ, but when they do, I tend to agree with Obama. Additionally, he was right about the Iraq war, and it drives me insane that Hillary simply can not admit she was wrong. well, actually, pretty much everything about Hillary drives me insane, although I try to keep that under control.

The most devastating question of the night came from the voter who had never been able to vote in an election without a Bush or a Clinton on the ticker (same for me, too). It is time for some new blood.

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The Upcoming Budget Fight

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Bush, as one last middle finger to the GOP who has slavishly worshipped him, has offered up a budget chock full of election year treats for the already down on their luck Republicans:

Lawmakers and lobbyists are dismissing the possibility that Congress will go along with massive cuts the Bush administration is planning to propose in the Medicare and Medicaid programs when it unveils its fiscal 2009 budget proposal Feb. 4. A senior administration official said Thursday afternoon that the cuts would total some $200 billion over five years, $178 billion in the Medicare program.

Medicare is “still growing at a rate higher than inflation,” the official said. The budget plan “slows Medicare’s rate of growth from 7.2 percent to 5 percent.” The official added that the plan would reduce by nearly one-third the “unfunded obligation” in Medicare over 75 years. Medicare is funded through premium payments and automatic payroll deductions, but also by yearly outlays from general revenues.

President Bush said in his State of the Union address Monday night that the nation must begin confronting the rising cost of entitlement programs. “Everyone in this chamber knows that spending on entitlement programs — like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — is growing faster than we can afford,” he said.

But even before the news broke Thursday that the proposed cuts would approach $200 billion, lawmakers and lobbyists who reacted to an earlier report that the cuts would total some $100 billion were emphatically predicting that the reductions would go nowhere.

“This budget will be dead on arrival,” Rep. Pete Stark , D-Calif., Chairman of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, declared. Frederick H. Graefe, a Washington hospital lobbyist, insisted that the plan is “dead before arrival!” he insisted. “You can quote me on that — please!”

All those years licking Bush’s boots, and this is what you get in return- attempts to cut Medicare during an economic downturn during an election year where Republicans poll lower than herpes and Ann Coulter is promising to campaign for Hillary over McCain. Anymore compassionate conservatism and the GOP will be relegated to permanent minority status, with nothing but a few religious nuts, a couple warmongers, and Hugh Hewitt. Wouldn’t that just be terrible?

Actually, it would be precisely what needs to happen- the GOP needs to be utterly destroyed, and that has been my goal for several years. I am really looking forward to slipping in that last knife.

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Is He Or Isn’t He?

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Conflicting reports up on memeorandum about whether or not Romney is throwing in the towel and not spending any more of his fortune. This report claims they are done with the ad buys, this story seems to indicate they are going forward with a large purchase.

As to Romney, I have thought about this a good deal, and I simply can not narrow down what exactly it is that thoroughly repulses me about him. It isn’t the Mormonism, as I couldn’t care less about people and their religion unless they are chucking it in my face. I think it is equal parts his naked opportunism, who is supporting him (Hugh and company), and the fact that he is the one individual in the race that when I look at him, my inner self says “he is so totally full of shit.” I haven’t been so thoroughly convinced someone was full of it every time they opened their mouth since, well… Bill Clinton. It really is a mystery why I can not stand the man so much- he isn’t as objectionable as Tancredo or some of the others, but I just have had a knee-jerk dislike of the man since the beginning.

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Gee, Ya Think?

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The NY Observer on the apparent split between the GOP talking heads and pundits and the GOP voters:

But it may simply be that the Republican electorate (or at least enough of it to select a nominee) may not be as ideologically pure as the conservative pundits might prefer. Perhaps many Republican voters really do think global warming should be addressed. It could be that lots of Republican voters like tax cuts but want them accompanied by good old-fashioned budget cuts. It may be that when they’re not in the throes of an impassioned immigration debate, many Republican voters wouldn’t mind eventually legalizing millions of immigrants, so long as the border is sealed first. And frankly, G.O.P. primary voters simply may find Mr. McCain’s heretical support for campaign finance reform a lot less significant than personal character traits like honesty, courage and persistence.

It sure would be nice to think that the base of the dwindling GOP is not as batshit insane as the nutters at the NRO, Red State, etc., but I have not seen much evidence of it. The thing that needs to be said, over and over, though, is that Rush Limbaugh and those guys simply aren’t conservatives. They just aren’t. Radically restructuring government to create an unaccountable executive is not conservative. Building a security apparatus that is designed to spy on citizens is not a conservative principle. Runaway spending and bloated budgets are not conservative ideas. Torture and permanent aggressive wars are not conservative principles. Fearmongering and keeping the electorate scared is not a conservative principle. And on and on.

The fact of the matter is the self-styled loud-mouth conservatives just aren’t very conservative.

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Magical Unity Pony Sighting

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Get you some M.U.P. right here:

“I know it is tempting — after another presidency by a man named George Bush — to simply turn back the clock, and to build a bridge back to the 20th century,” the Illinois senator said in Denver.

“… It’s not enough to say you’ll be ready from Day One — you have to be right from Day One,” he added in unmistakable criticisms of Clinton, who often claims she’s better prepared to govern, and her husband, who pledged during his own presidency to build a bridge to the 21st century.

Consider this your open thread.

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Mitt Romney, Economist

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I have the flu and a fever, so feel free to write this off as feverish conjecture, but I find this interesting:

Given four choices, 45 percent of Florida Republican primary voters said the economy is the most important issue facing the country. Terrorism was picked by 21 percent of voters, while immigration and Iraq were picked by relatively few. The economy also was the top issue out of three choices for voters in the Democratic primary, which none of the candidates contested because of questions about whether Florida’s Democratic delegates will be seated at the convention. The economy has been seen as increasingly important since the start of the 2008 presidential nomination season. McCain won the votes of Republican voters most concerned about the economy, getting 40 percent of their support. Clinton easily won the support of those Democrats who were most concerned about the issue.

Unless I am confused, isn’t Mitt Romney’s whole campaign based around his business acumen, and his ability to get the economy back on track? And yet, even among Republicans, he can not capitalize on his so-called strength?

Is it possible that his business experience is a net negative- with people losing their asses in the market and losing their homes because of the loan fiasco and after several years of an allegedly booming economy that people are not feeling, perhaps Mitt merely symbolizes the business executive cashing end of the year 30 million dollar bonus checks while everyone else is hurting?

Again, just a feverish thought, because I am not sure why those concerned with the economy broke for McCain.

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