The Prez Hits It Out of the Park.

Well, President Obama just knocked one out of the park with his first “State of the Union” address before the entire government of the United States, IMHO. Well, not quite. Attorney General Eric Holder was the “Designated Successor”. He’s the one, that in the line of succession would become president if something catastrophic happened. So he’s out of DC at some undisclosed location (which somehow does not sound nearly as ominous as when it was applied to Dick Cheney). I took note that he acknowledged the mucky-mucks that were there then turned and spoke directly to the American people. A few highlights:

The concern is that if we do not re-start lending in this country, our recovery will be choked off before it even begins.

It’s the bankers that have the capital and are not lending. Are they trying to sabotage Obama’s recovery plans? I laugh when I hear the right-wingnuts say we’re socialists. I’ve even told people, if we were socialists the bankers wouldn’t have testified before Congress, they would have been shot before Congress. I had a doctor agree with me.

Already, we have done more to advance the cause of health care reform in the last thirty days than we have in the last decade. When it was days old, this Congress passed a law to provide and protect health insurance for eleven million American children whose parents work full-time.

He got a standing ovation from the Democrats on this, but none of the Republicans stood, and I don’t think they even applauded, and I thought, Yeah, I hope someone’s getting a picture of this, how they’re disgusted about providing healthcare to children. How can you not say they’re simply heartless bastards?

I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.

Impressive. He’s putting it on the table now. He’s going for it, I think: national health care. Teddy Roosevelt first called for universal health care in the US. If he’d mentioned Truman, then it would have been for sure. He might as well, he’s as popular as he’s ever going to be.

That is why it will be the goal of this administration to ensure that every child has access to a complete and competitive education - from the day they are born to the day they begin a career.

I think he’s talking about college. The US should have free education through all levels at all times. It’s called investment in human capital. Something the so-called “free market” has been woefully lacking in since it’s ascendancy under Reagan.


And there was a lot more. I can’t believe how flat and god-awful Bobby Jindal sounded afterwards. Not to mention the fact he was spouting the same nonsensical Republican ideology and policies that have brought us to the edge of the abyss in the first place (if indeed we aren’t over the edge already and merely slowly picking up speed). If this is what the Republican Party is becoming, all I can say is, Bring It On…

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Credit Crisis Made Simple

This is pretty good.

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Republican Liars

I’ve had snippets of stuff for some days now and haven’t had the time to tie it together, so you’re getting the raw feed, so to speak:

It bothers me that Republicans and conservatives get to spout any old bullshit and wild-ass ideas and are never brought to account for the blithering idiots they are by the major media. From watching these people on TV, and listening to them on the radio for years now, it has become painfully obvious to me that most of them have no clue about what it is they are trying to pontificate. So imagine how horrifying it is to listen to their words being echoed by people you know and are close to. Aaaaaaaagggghhhh!!!!

The thing that ticks me off about the Republicans/conservatives is that they can flat out lie to us, try to revise history, and just generally have a very loose relationship with reality and real morals, all the while hypocritically posturing themselves as the righteous, responsible and truthful.

The Big Lie that they are pushing now is that Roosevelt and the New Deal did not get us out of the depression, that it was World War II that did that. Let’s look at a graph of GDP, a measurement that they like to use as a barometer of the economy:



What do we see when we deal with the real world and the actual facts of history? We see GDP peaked in 1929 when the stock market famously crashed. The Republican Hoover followed eight years of the Republican Coolidge. You see that GDP consistently went down for the next four years until 1932. By then, there was twenty-five percent unemployment and the people threw the Republicans out and brought the Democrats and Roosevelt in.

We see the New Deal begins and GDP climbs consistently for the next five years, exceeding 1929’s GDP by 1936. In other words, the Depression ended in 1933 since GDP began growing again that year, and continued until 1937. If you want to consider the Great Depression the trough of the graph of GDP over time, then it was over in 1936. The Republican Hoover took it to the low point, the Democrat Roosevelt brought it out.

Then, you have some Republicans pointing to 1938. Yeah, there was a down tick. Why? Because Roosevelt let himself get bamboozled by Republicans into cutting taxes and spending and the result was a recession in 1938. Roosevelt quickly reversed himself and growth resumed through 1941 and the beginning of World War II.

Even if one concedes the point of World War II getting us out of the First Republican Great Depression, what was the war but an enormous public works project? And here’s the real kicker, even though GDP goes up throughout the War, average people felt a lowering of their standard of living due to rationing and other shortages.

So then, anyone that tries to spout this stuff is either ignorant or lying. If it’s ignorance here are the facts of the case. You are no longer ignorant. To continue is to lie.

The question is why is this getting any play in the Media?

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A Picture of Our Current Situation.

Check out this graph that shows employment losses over all the recessions since World War II. Check out the trajectory of the current one. That does not look good.

Don't ever forget. This has been brought to you by the Republicans, Wall Street and the Media. They totally rejiggered things from the time I grew up and ran it off a cliff. I see no reason they should get to keep their ill-gotten gains. It has been a scam from the beginning, and they are still trying to run the scam. If you hear someone say liberals are the cause of this, realize they are lying and the only reason they are saying it is to somehow benefit their own pocketbook at the expense of yours.

Not Three Weeks In

Not even three weeks have gone by and the neo-fascist Republicans are revealing they are going to make Obama’s life as miserable as possible. They are going to try to obstruct and undermine anything that he tries to do and blame the failure on him. Also, I have no doubt that the Bushistas have left some time bombs for him.

Check out Paul Krugman’s columns. Krugman is last year’s Nobel prize winner in economics and as far as I can tell has a real handle on what’s going down, and what had been happening over the last eight years to his great horror. Another guy to check out is Ravi Batra at Southern Methodist University. These were voices saying no, the fundamentals of the economy are not sound. In fact, there’s some serious erosion going on and you know what happens when the house is built on sand.

Make no mistake. We are on the edge of the Second Great Republican Depression, if not already beyond the point of no return. The reason we are here is due to the unraveling of the protections that had been put in place under Roosevelt (FDR) to prevent a rerun of the thirties, and the implementation of a cockamamie economic theory. Beginning with Reagan and on through the latest Bush, Clinton included, the safeguards against this sort of thing were taken away. And now they’re shocked, shocked they tell you, that gambling had been going on.

It shows what little honor these bastards have. Frankly, we owe them no respect. These people are no friends to people like you or me. It is a testimony to the power of the propagandistic control of the media, and the people’s complacency, that these people are not only not in chains or worse, but are out there free to make our lives even more miserable. In some very real ways, our lives and Obama’s life are intertwined, and our and the success of our children and grandchildren are all intertwined with his success. If he fails, just where do you think that is going to leave us?

Which brings us to the arch-blowbag himself, Rush Limbaugh. He flat out said, “I hope he fails.” He’s actively having his dittoheads call their representatives and senators and tell them to be against this stimulus bill, and so the calls are running like a hundred to one against. I called my senators offices in DC Friday and told them I wanted them to support the President. God, I loved saying that to my Republican senators, I want you to support the President, with great emphasis, with great relish on the word, President. Saxby Chambliss’s office was respectful. It hung in the air like a lead balloon at Isakson’s.

If Obama fails, what do you think is going to happen? Do you think it will get better or get worse? If Obama fails, it means things will get worse. It will not only be worse for us, but for our children and grandchildren. Rush Limbaugh has as good as said to me that he hopes my life, and the lives of my family, my wife, my mother, my brother, my in-laws, my children and grandchildren get worse. He’s saying that to all of us out here in the normal world that he hopes our lives get worse. And all the while he gets richer and richer.

I welcome the idea that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto leader of the Republican party. Every Republican needs to have him hung around their necks like a dead, sticking, rotting albatross. I think I’ll call my senators back and ask if they’re going to stand with the President or with Rush Limbaugh. If the Republican Party wants to whittle itself down to the size of dittoheads, it’s fine with me. Rush’s great stats are that he gets something like fifteen million people who might tune in to his show sometime during the five days he’s on. Hardcore dittoheads are much less. My guess is at least three fourths of Americans think Rushie is totally full of shit.

By the way, just what is someone who actively works against the American government and people? Weren’t they the ones just saying this to us? As far as I’m concerned Rush Limbaugh has crossed the line.

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