The Growing Obama Generation

via Taegan Goddard:

The Republican Party is "growing more and more irrelevant to America's young people. In marked contrast, young people's support for the President has expanded beyond the 66 percent support they gave him last November."

"Republicans struggle among young people for a very specific reason. At a time when young people are paying close attention to politics and when so many are struggling economically, even more so than older generations, the Republicans simply do not speak to the reality of their lives or to the issues important to them. This perception stands in marked contrast to their reaction to Barack Obama."

Any young person who has grown up during 9/11, the Iraq War and Katrina can see the Republicans are hardly a winning brand. No one likes losers and the party of "no" have a massive record to contend with.

9/11 showed us all they had no idea about defending the United States and subsequently had no need for the Constitution in making decisions regarding our freedoms. They said no to all our civil liberties and wire-tapped and data-mined the enire country.

The Iraq War showed they had no planning or mission and had no respect for the civilians of the Middle East. They said no to the Rule of Law, the Geneva Conventions and Habeas Corpus. It also showed they had no way to pay for the war so they hid it from the annual budgets.

Kartina showed they had no remorse for letting a city go through hellish times and had no intention of helping the citizens of the Gulf coast after the destruction. They sad no to hiring qualified people to run Government Agencies like FEMA.

So after 8 years of no clue and no success, the current GOP continues to have no ideas whatsoever and just says "no" to everything the other side has to offer, sight unseen. They have been reduced to one syllable for this next generation to remember them by. That's branding!

The Republicans are on the precipice of becoming irrelevant and do I care: no.

Source: Democracy Corps

Palin's Poor Treatment Of Special Needs Kids

Here's a timeline to remember:
1. Obama joked on Jay Leno that he bowled like a special Olympian.
2. Soon after, Obama apologized for the joke.
3. The next day, Sarah Palin said she was "shocked" at Obama's poor attempt at humor.
4. That same day day, Palin turned down nearly $40 million in Federal funding for programs catering to special education kids.

If Palin had looked further than her talking points, she would have seen the recovery package passed by Congress and signed into law by the president would have directed around $36 million to Alaska in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act money, including funding for the same Americans who participate in the Special Olympics.

Palin said she was shocked by Obama's comments. What about being shocked by your own actions? Actions do speak louder than words, you betcha.

And this is the same lady who doles out $1200 oil subsidy checks to all Alaskans calling the recovery package "bribes".

Source: The Plum Line

Matt Taibbi: Wall St's Gang Rape Of The American Dream

Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone is not happy:

"It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire."

Great article on how Wall St is using the crisis to expand power. That power, and the "too big to fail" mentality, has put our government is the position to save the deranged and abusive financial world. We are in a marriage of greed and stupidity where

"we still think this is some kind of unfortunate accident, not something that was created by the group of psychopaths on Wall Street whom we allowed to gang-rape the American Dream."

To that predicament, Taibbi notes about the Wall St types we are to save:

"valueswise they're on par with crack addicts, or obsessive sexual deviants who burgle homes to steal panties. Yet these are the people in whose hands our entire political future now rests."

Psychopaths and sexual deviants? Sounds like the ruling class in a nutshell.

Source: Rolling Stone

Colbert-Steele Rap Battle: Off The Hook

The Stephen Colbert v Michael Steele off the hook "rap battle" went down last night. And guess what, the RNC chair brought it on with a little helpful editing.

Check out the video to see who won.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Michael Steele's Rap Battle Response
comedycentral.com

Source: ColbertNation

Jim Gaffigan E-Card

New record coming out from Jim Gaffigan.

Be sure to check out the "Ribs and Bologna" skit

Wilkerson And Maddow On Cheney: He Is Called Dick for A Reason

Why is Dick Cheney going to the media trying to undermine the current President. Almost predicting attacks? He is like a fear mongering heckler now.

Don't the conservatives get all mad when you attack the President? Or is it just their Republican President?

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, ex Chief Of Staff for Colin Powell, on Rachel Maddow discussing how incompetent Dick Cheney is, was, and will be.

High Income Taxpayers Need To Man Up

Great op-ed in the NYT on how the taxes going up on the mega-rich will not have a big negative effect. The story of the rich changing their lifestyle and/or charitable contributions is pretty weak:

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan research group, estimated that in 2011, when the changes would be due to take effect, only 1.8 million taxpayers — 1.2 percent of the total — would have their deductions reduced. Just 1.9 percent of taxpayers with income from a small business earn enough to be affected by the limits.

So roughly 98% of the population is unaffected, and the 2% that are, are mega-rich.

Get out my violin. The tax cuts for the rich in 2001 under Bush were not needed. It was just his way of rigging the system. Those days are over. The middle class is going to get its day.

Source: NYT

Bernanke: No More "Too Big To Fail"

Fed Chair Ben Bernanke looks to end the "too big to fail" moral hazard scenario:

"The United States needs a safer way to shut down large nonbank financial firms without destabilizing the entire financial system, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Friday.

"We have such a regime for insured depository institutions, but it is clear we need something similar for systemically important nonbank financial entities," he said in prepared remarks to a community bankers convention in Phoenix.

"Improved resolution procedures for these firms would help reduce the too-big-to-fail problem by giving the government the option of safely winding down a systemically important firm rather than keeping it operating," he said.

True capitalism would let these big institutions fail. America doesn't have true capitalism so using that "market economy" angle when screwing over the little guy is even that much more vengeful. Little guys guys can fail, they deserve it. Big guys? Oh, they need all the government help and tax dollars they can get.

Source: NYT

Obama's Direct Message To Iran

Obama's direct message to the Iranian people. The internet class of Iran must be overjoyed to see such diplomacy. Will this be the dawning of a new era? Those who wish for conflict will never appreciate this video. Those who have something to live for will.



The velvet glove perfected.

Source: www.whitehouse.gov/

Suze Orman: Bush Owes US Every Penny

Investment guru Suze Orman on Bush ruining the country:

Sitting in a green room after her TV interviews, she lambasts everyone from Alan Greenspan to Larry Summers to the former president of the United States, who holds an especially dark place in her heart. "Commander in Chief?" she says of George W. Bush, with a mix of disbelief and scorn. "You blew up every single financial vessel we had and if you think you aren't personally responsible, well, the blame starts at the top. There is no higher top than you, SIR! If I were you, I would feel so absolutely horrific that I would take every penny I had and distribute it to anybody and everybody to help them in whatever way I could. You owe the American people every penny of your fortune and your family's fortune."

MSM stepping up to the plate for once. Would have been nice a few years back.

As Balzac said: "Behind every great fortune there is a crime". Add Cheney to the Bush scoundrels who have profited, lining their pockets, using our country for war and oil.

Source: HuffPo

March 19: 6th Anniversary of Iraq War

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

Too much to think about in terms of loss.

Arnold Hearts Barack

Arnold Schwarzenegger was mesmerized by our President during a recent town hall meeting:

"When have you ever seen a president be that out there? I’ve never seen that. Usually people are so guarded. The aides are always so guarded. They’re so afraid that you will blow it or that you will make news that’s unintended and all those things... But I think he’s so smart. He’s so clear with his thinking and he’s so well informed and has been dealing with policy in all this and is also very philosophic it’s almost like. I think he’s just like – I think it’s beautiful."

Sounds like he has a man crush. It's about time the 2 political parties started saying nice things about each other.

Source: Politico

Faux "Outrage" Make News Cycles

The markets are stable. The Dow is up 20% off its lows. A massive downward spiral has been averted. Investors have faith again in the market.

Why is there this fake "outrage" against Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner regarding the bonuses at AIG?

The old Secretary Henry Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Bush Administration were the ones who crafted the initial bailout. They approved the bonuses. They are the ones you should be outraged at. They are the ones who had the original three-page bailout request for billions with absolutely no oversight back in September.

Tim Geithner has a perception problem, maybe, but he is part of the Obama team that is doing a great job turning this economy around. Are you really mad that he took a day to announce that he knew about the AIG bonuses? Is Geithner now supposed to run to the public and craft a message whenever there is a minor bump in the road? Let him do his job.

It's so amazing that all this "outrage" is now being reported on over trivial matters. Where was the reporting of outrage through the Bush years? Would have been nice back in 2002 and 2003 before we went into war.

Obama's NCAA Picks

Obama's handwritten NCAA picks. His Final Four are Louisville, Memphis, Pittsburgh, and North Carolina. He bailed on my UCONN.

He picked the UNC Tar Heels to win it all.



Source: whitehouse.gov

Bush The Torturer

These are facts. Bush advocated and used torture. Not "torture", but torture. Bush repeatedly said the US does not torture. He lied. He lied a lot. With a straight face, he knew that he was the person who instituted torture, and then flat out lied to all of America. Never lose sight of the sequence of Bush using torture, denying torture, then being found guilty of using torture.

No more side-stepping the issue as partisan, this is what the Red Cross found:

"The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment."

We need a truth and reconciliation commission. NOW!

All these top guys in the Bush Cabal knew what going on. No one up the chain of command resigned. No one was fired after massive failures like Abu Ghraib. That's how you know they were all in on it.

Now that Bush and Cheney are out of office, commence the trials.

Source: Thomas Ricks

Obama's New Brand Of Politics

More of this will be written about as Obama re-defines how politics is played in America, but Taegan Goddard begins the sports metaphors:

"Politics used to be compared to "playing hardball" -- named for the baseball thrown faster than a speeding bullet straight for a batter's head or the dangerous squeeze play used to push home the winning run. That's no longer the case. In the Obama era, the sport can now better be defined as "playing curveball" -- after the moving, shifting baseball thrown to fool a batter into swinging wildly and missing."

How many times has Obama been under-estimated over the past 2 years? It's like he's won two Cy Young awards and we still don't know if he's good. Relax. He's an ace.

Bush, in baseball terms, is the rich kid who inherited a great baseball team and drove it into the ground, thus ruining the team and his family name.

He would have been the owner who introduced illegal activities to his team. Bush would have gone against the spirit of the game and the decades old traditions, as well just common sense, and bought the steroids for his players! As if that matters to Bush.

Source: Political Wire

Pope Benedict: Dead Wrong On Condoms

Having never used a condom, what insight does Pope Benedict have on the matter? Isn't it his job to end suffering?

Pope Benedict XVI said on his way to Africa Tuesday that condoms were not the answer in the continent's fight against HIV, his first explicit statement on an issue that has divided even clergy working with AIDS patients.

If he is trying to emulate Jesus, living in his mansion with the Papal jewels, how do you reconcile the wealth and the total lack of caring?

Is it semantics: they are not the answer? Maybe they are not the answer as in a "cure", but condoms help thousands, if not millions, of women from getting HIV and AIDS from men. How can Benedict look at at all the suffering and orphaned child, or even children with HIV, and think, "yeah, we need less condoms so we can increase the chances of this pain in the world".

The Church is so out of step with helping modern day problems because they cling to Bronze Age text.

Source: HuffPo