The Irrelevant Right: Minus The Crazies, What Else Is There?

Can anyone deny that the most trenchant and effective criticism of President Obama today comes not from the right but from the left? Rachel Maddow's grilling of administration economic officials. Keith Olbermann's hectoring of Democratic leaders on the public option. Glenn Greenwald's criticisms of Elena Kagan. Ezra Klein and Jonathan Cohn's keepin'-them-honest perspectives on health care. The civil libertarian left on detainees and Gitmo. The Huffington Post on derivatives.

I want to find Republicans to take seriously, but it is hard. Not because they don't exist -- serious Republicans -- but because, as Sanchez and others seem to recognize, they are marginalized, even self-marginalizing, and the base itself seems to have developed a notion that bromides are equivalent to policy-thinking, and that therapy is a substitute for thinking.

via theatlantic.com

The "untethered" Right taking back the House and Senate? Hahahaha.

The Right has lost their mind. Republican "success" is based on a bad economy and the consequent anti-incumbent feeling. And as the economy starts to improve, the feeling will be the Democrats have not done enough.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Ezra Klein: Explaining Derivatives

via voices.washingtonpost.com

Ezra Klein tries to explain what derivatives are to better understand Financial reform.

"Here's the good news: You don't need to understand the different types of derivatives. All you really need to know is that financial firms trade derivatives, they're worth an extraordinary amount and there's a category of them that's almost totally unregulated. That's a big part of the reason why the financial crisis was as severe as it was: We had no idea how many derivative contracts these major firms had with each other -- and with everyone else. So when Lehman fell and other banks threatened to follow, no one could predict the consequences. "What we mean when we say a company is 'too big to fail,'" says the Roosevelt Institute's Mike Konczal, "is that they have too much derivative exposure too fail."

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"Obama Is Considering Banning Fishing In America"

Tea Baggers puttin' their thinkin' caps on, a.k.a, the coded "We Want Our Country Back" message which is really "the President is a black guy". Classic line: Old Lady, "Obama is considering banning fishing in America!"

They say Tea Baggers are well educated. Ummmmm, yeah.



Source: http://www.youtube.com/NewLeftMedia

Quote Of The Day: Austen Goolsbee

The Luntz legacy:

"Everybody knows a consultant just handed them that line and they’re just reading it. It doesn’t matter what’s in the bill. It could be a bill about breakfast cereal and they’re going to say this is a bailout bill." -- Austen Goolsbee, member of the Council of Economic Advisers, on Republicans' claim that the financial reform bill is a bank bailout

Source: http://www.realitychex.com/

Conservative Radio Silence On Financial Regulation

You can see why the issue would pose problems for the right. First, it threatens the self-image they've developed over the last year as opponents of the government-business nexus. Second, it's difficult to work out a free market response. If you let Wall Street invest however it likes, it will eventually precipitate a financial crisis, with massive government intervention being the only option to save the economy. Or else you can break up the big banks, or limit their ability to take on systemic risk. Either way, government has to get involved at some step in the process. It almost seems like conservatives can't choose which form of government intervention to accept, so many of them just aren't choosing.

via tnr.com

You can follow Frank Luntz talking points for so long. The conservatives do not have a coherent message or analysis, so they they say nothing. They retreat. It's a non-issue for them.

When leadership is needed and tough issues need to be looked at and digested, the Democrats have to do it alone, then get the non-bipartisan BS criticisms. The "Party Of No" has shut themselves out of any meaningful role.

Next up, the Immigration Bill. See how McConnell and Co get clobbered with their lame Luntz talking points, then keep their heads down for this one, too.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Fox Newsers Rally For GOP Over 300 Times

In recent years, at least twenty Fox News personalities have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or causes, or against Democratic candidates or causes, in more than 300 instances and in at least 49 states. Republican parties and officials have routinely touted these personalities' affiliations with Fox News to sell and promote their events.

via mediamatters.org

Fair and balanced? Check the link and see all 300 instances.

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GOP: Graham's "Stealth Gayness" Is A Danger

Right-wing group fears Sen. Graham’s ’stealth gayness’

According to the right-wing political action committee Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC), Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) needs to "make his homosexual lifestyle public knowledge in the interest of political integrity and national security."

Or, in the words of one blogger, Graham's "stealth gayness" might pose a danger to us all.

And it's not the first, second or even third time rumors about Graham's sexuality have surfaced. For the unmarried conservative senator who Jon Stewart once joked "looks like an old lesbian," the question has become increasingly thorny for him.

"I'm a tolerant person," ALIPAC leader William Gheen told a crowd in Greenville, South Carolina over the weekend. "I don't care about your private life, Lindsey, but as our U.S. Senator I need to figure out why you're trying to sell out your own countrymen and I need to be sure being gay isn't it."

The crowd of conservatives erupted into cheers.

The America that the GOP envisions is defined by their negatives and you have to follow their prejudices to join.

The American spirit is very positive, but the Right Wing wants to deny and criminalize minorities, whether they be gay or sick or from another country.

It's 2010 and the Republicans are still stuck on these issues. Would be nice if they outed some of the idiots like Palin who are truly dangerous.

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Even GOP Advisers Can Not Defend GOP Tactics

I cannot defend what they're doing," Halperin said. "They are willfully misreading the bill or they are engaged in a cynical attempt to keep the president from achieving something.

via washingtonmonthly.com

Host Joe Scarborough turned to Time's Mark Halperin, and urged him to "defend the Republican position" on the Wall Street reform legislation. Halperin, who often seems more than sympathetic to the GOP line, couldn't bring himself to support the Republican arguments.

It's nothing short of calling the GOP liars.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com

Christianists Don't Get Separation Of Church And State

Christianists are not happy with being allowed to believe their mythology freely, they have to go beyond the separation of Church and State and mess with American history.

"The Government of the United States Of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" Treaty of Triploi, 1797

Facts matter. The framers of the Constitution knew that if you allow organized religion to interfere with secular law, secular law can interfere in organized religion.

But Palin and others believe that the door only swings one way. And they're idiots for it.

Watch Olbermann take down Palin.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Sarah Palin's Ignorant Imperialism

Sarah Palin thinks Barack Obama is a wimp. She's been going around to Tea Party rallies, invoking the spirit of revolutionary Boston and castigating Obama for failing to exalt American power and punish our adversaries. She seems blissfully unaware that the imperial arrogance she's preaching isn't how the American founders behaved. It's how the British behaved, and why they lost. Palin represents everything the original Tea Party was against.

via slate.com

Frequently wrong, never in doubt.

Sarah is the leader of the "I Want My Country Back" coded message among white conservatives. She stirs up Southern white males who long for when blacks knew their place. She is above apology for anything wrong she has said and uses history out of context to make points only her delirious base would agree with.

And her obsession with power is so obvious that any approach less then wiping out your opponent or bombing another country is seen as both wimpy and enslaving the masses. Her message is "Obama Is A Wimp, He Is Going To Make You His Bitch". Such logic and wisdom.

Posted via web from liberalsarecool.com