More important true F-A-C-T-S you need to know about budgets, stimuli and jobs.

These are not theoretical. Click to embiggen.

Scott Brown... savior to turdpie in 2 weeks.

Less than a month ago, the wingnuts were ready to run Scott Brown for President. Now that he's sided with the American worker on a jobs bill, he's.... well.... look at his Facebook page.



According to Gawker:

These folks, Scott Brown's "Fans," thought Brown was literally the naked lovechild of Reagan and George Washington, but, in fact, he is a Senator from Massachusetts. And he would like to remain a Senator from Massachuetts, which means sometimes he will have to vote for things that the people in his state (not the people from Facebook) support.

So Brown patiently explained, on the Facebook, that he's voting for the bill because blah blah tax cuts bipartisanship etc. etc. This message has 3,546 comments of pure rage. (And 1,569 likes!)

Here's a good one:

"I wish your truck had broken down and you couldn't make it to Washington in time to vote for this bill! You were OUR "hope and change" and you let US down BIG TIME!!! Beck/Palin 2012!!!"

More GOP hypocrisy on health care and stimulus money

In advance of the health care summit, and flying in face of GOP lies objections, here are over a dozen GOP proposals included in the President's health care bill.

Bloomberg

Alabama Republicans Jo Bonner and Robert Aderholt took to the U.S. House floor in July, denouncing the Obama administration’s stimulus plan for failing to boost employment. “Where are the jobs?” each of them asked.

Over the next three months, Bonner and Aderholt tried at least five times to steer stimulus-funded transportation grants to Alabama on grounds that the projects would help create thousands of jobs.

They joined more than 100 congressional Republicans and several Democrats who, after voting against the stimulus bill, wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood seeking money from $1.5 billion the plan set aside for local road, bridge, rail and transit grants. The $862 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed last year with no Republican votes in the House and three in the Senate.

The problem isn't that they took the money. It's not. I didn't give back my $300 Bush tax rebate that I objected to. The real problem is the hypocrisy of taking the money that you voted against, posing for pictures at ribbon-cuttings for new jobs that comes from the money, and then calling the stimulus a failure that's produced nothing.

Meanwhile, the CBO released a report that says that, conservatively, the stimulus created at least 1 million new jobs (2.1 million is the high number) and added at least 1.5% to the GDP (3.5% is the high number).

Washington Post

The economic stimulus law added between 1 million to 2.1 million workers to employment rolls by the end of last year, a new report released Tuesday by congressional economists said.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office study also said the $862 billion stimulus added between 1.5 to 3.5 percentage points to the growth of the economy in 2009. The controversial stimulus law combined tax breaks for individuals and businesses with lots of government spending.

The report reflects agreement among economists that the measure boosted the economy.

Recovery schmercovery. The stimulus was bad.

Or not.

Obama's record on recovery

(via Bob Cesca)

The red bars represent recession unemployment under Bush, and the blue bars represent President Obama's jobless numbers. (Click to enlarge)



And people are actually thinking about voting for Republicans again? Really?! Not to be rude or anything, but what's wrong with you people?

And that's just "Main Street." What about Wall Street? I made this chart based on the Google Finance stock market ticker a while back. The Dow is steadily hovering above 10,000 now.



So we should what? Vote Republican? That's rich.

The stimulus is working; why the poll numbers are down

via BCGAB

Suck it, Republicans:

Between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs were created or saved through September as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to a Congressional Budget Office report.

The data, released Monday, say the real inflation-adjusted gross domestic product was 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent higher than it would have been had the $787 billion stimulus package not passed in February. Also, the stimulus lowered the unemployment by between 0.3 and 0.9 percentage points, according to the report.

Yeah, 10.2 percent unemployment is awful and the Democrats need to pass another jobs bill right away or else. But this proves that spending equals growth equals jobs equals recovery. It's the ridiculousness of the corporate press and the Republicans that put this very basic economic notion into doubt, but don't hold your breath waiting for a retraction of all the red-baiting and concern-trolling we endured last February/March.

As Matt Yglesias points out, it shouldn't be surprising that Obama's poll numbers aren't that great. In fact, there's historical evidence for this.

One frustrating aspect of “horse race” coverage of the U.S. political system is that the people who insist on covering important policy debates as a kind of game are also pretty bad at analyzing the game.

Nor should it surprise anyone that 11 months of deteriorating economic conditions have taken a toll on Obama’s popularity.

Look at Ronald Reagan’s approval rating:


At the time there were probably lots of clever stories written about why Reagan was doing better or worse on whichever day. But looking back at things from 20 years later, the moral of the story seems to be pretty simple “recessions and giant scandals make presidents unpopular.” And of course they do!

So the next time you hear Doucheborough talking about how the numbers show Obama is tanking, remember he's looking at snapshots and trying to get you to tune in tomorrow for the political equivalent of "How'd the Celtics do last night?"

I'll also remind you of this post from last week, showing that the only place Obama is down is among Republicans. It used to be that a lot of them hated him. Now even more do.

Krugman: The story so far, in one picture

(NYT)
World industrial production in the Great Depression and now:

Basically, we started out with a year that matched the Great Depression, but have since pulled back a bit from the edge of the abyss.

Recovery Bill #2?

(Bob Cesca)
This chart might be the best pitch for more jobs-oriented spending:


Here's the decision the president will have to make regarding unemployment. Does he continue to let the recovery happen steadily on its present course and risk losing everything because of continued long-term (but slowing) unemployment? Or does he push for a second recovery bill that would surely create more jobs, while also begging a negative reaction from the wingnuts (Tyranny!) and deficit hawks (Generational theft!)?

Reich and Krugman are naturally pushing for number two as well.

Lawrence O'Donnell Reduces Eric Cantor To Babbling

(Huff Post)
Media Monitor Brian Cohoon drew our attention to this clip from MSNBC's Morning Joe, where Lawrence O'Donnell subjects Eric Cantor to some sort of reporting-like substance, effortlessly reducing Cantor to nonsense.

Basically, O'Donnell asks Cantor a straight question: "Are you going to vote for the 'tax seizure bill'?" That's the bill introduced by Charles Rangel that would recover these AIG bonuses that threaten to bring civilization to its knees. Cantor's basic answer is no, but the roundabout evasions are a heaven-sent melange of tongue-tripping malarkey: "LISTEN," Cantor purrs, "I am for whatever we can do right now to get that money back into the Treasury." Except that "whatever we can do right now" isn't, as it turns out, a PLAN. What follows, roughly paraphrased from the original Cantorese, is this: "But uhm, WHY ARE WE HERE TO BEGIN WITH ... and the Rangel bill is terrible tax policy ... but I will get those bonus payments back, with NECROMANCY, or I'll pass a bill that requires Tim Geithner to figure all of this out, on pain of death or something."

O'Donnell summarizes: "What you're telling us today is that you have no idea how to get the money back, we'd like to ask the Treasury Secretary to do it. We will not vote for Charlie Rangel's tax proposal." Then they argue some more. Finally, out of nowhere, you hear Joe Scarborough say, "He's going to vote FOR it!" But Scarborough has nothing in all the world upon which to base this conclusion.

Anyway, Eric Cantor, the guy just oozes leadership. Probably from a weepy pustule.

Start at 2:45 right after Doucheborough finishes fellating Cantor.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Obama: I am ready for a fight

"I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:

So am I."

President Barack Obama

It's about time.

The next giant domino to fall, the one that might kill u: credit card debts

Arianna Huffington has penned an excellent piece regarding the coming storm - mirroring last fall's collapse of Lehman et al - as credit card defaults rise and the securities-backed markets that they prop up failing.

According to the Federal Reserve, the total outstanding credit card debt carried by Americans reached a record $951 billion in 2008 -- a number that will only climb higher as more and more people reach for the plastic to make ends meet. What's more, roughly a third of that is debt held by risky borrowers with low credit ratings.

And that's not the end of the economic downward spiral. As more and more Americans default on their credit card debt, banks will find themselves faced with a sickening instant replay of the toxic securities meltdown from the mortgage crisis. In another example of Wall Street "creativity," credit card debt is routinely bundled together into "credit-card receivables" and sold to investors -- often pension funds and hedge funds. Securities backed by credit card debt is a $365 billion market. This market motivated credit card companies to offer cards to risky borrowers and to allow greater and greater amounts of debt.

As these borrowers continue to default, banks and the investors who bought their packaged debt will take a serious hit. And how are the credit card companies trying to offset the rise in bad debts? By raising rates on the rest of their customers -- making it likely that more of them will end up defaulting, causing even more losses for the banks. And round and round and round we go.

Read the whole piece. You should be frightened.

PROVEN: Sean Hannity is an out-and-out liar

In an interview with PA Congressman Dave Sestak, Sean Hannity persists in trying to create lies out of whole cloth.

In his favor: he can repeat talking points like no one else. Even Irish apes can be trained.

WAQB: The wrap-up

WAQB: Wednesday Afternoon Quarterbacking.  After Obama's speech last night, let's look at some of the threads.

First, Bobby Jindal tried to mock some of the Recovery Act spending by criticizing volcano monitoring. Really? The guy whose state got destroyed because the government did not have early monitoring for hurricanes now mocks natural disaster preparation.

Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman writes:

And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.

I suggest that Krugman not float that idea. Methinks the GOP would go for it.

On top of that, this is an old GOP ploy to criticize legitimate programs by citing them in an indignant voice. In 1932 it would have been: "The government thinks they're going to put asphalt and cement coast-to-coast? For cars to go all willy-nilly? Oh ha-ha-ha.  Next thing you know they'll be telling us we can skip the train and FLY to our destinations.  Silly pinkos."

Krugman writes:

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

Then Jindal decides to go after federal spending when his state has benefited from federal spending in hurricane recovery finds. Jindal was throwing red meat to the hard right while showing himself to be nothing more than a hypocrite.

This shows the total lack of ideas on the right. They trot out Jindal because he's not white. He's exotic. But he's no Obama. To the GOP, Jindal is their counter-punch to Obama simply because he looks "different".

They trot out Michael Steele as head of the GOP. Now, Steele is qualified, but I'll eat my old socks if he wasn't elected partly because of his color. It's an "oooh, we need one of those" move.

And then Steele TRIES to act black, promising an "off the hook" approach to strategy. Really? Off the hook? You think using hip urban language is what will get you inner-city votes? Keep going. Nice work.

Jindal was a smarmy condescending joke.  He spoke to us like we're retarded.  Actually, no he didn't.  People don't talk to the retarded like that.  Referencing my post last night, someone posted the following on YouTube.


David Brooks - David F'ing Brooks - called Jindal's speech a disaster.

I think Bobby Jindal is a very promising politician, and I opposed the stimulus package - I thought it was poorly drafted - but to come up at this moment in history with a stale, "government is the problem...we can't trust the government"...it's just a disaster for the Republican Party.

Jindal's speech was panned from both sides of the aisle. From HuffPost: "he came up short. Both Democrats and Republicans alike panned Jindal's rebuttal in terms that were decidedly harsh: "amateurish," "laughable" and, most commonly, "a missed opportunity. "

Finally, HuffPost's Jason Linkins makes the comparison between Jindal and Kenneth the Page from NBC's 30 Rock.

They're both Southern, and they both have weird religious things going on what with Jindal's exorcisms and Kenneth's views that "choosing is a sin" and that hot is "the devil's temperature." They also both have the tendency to look like they're dressing up in their fathers' suits.

Zero credibility

(from Bob Cesca)

Rick Santelli, new president of Spazzy White Guys, Inc., on September 2, just days before the initial financial collapse, Rick Santelli said, "I think the economy is healthy."



He fits right in with John McCain, who, if you'll remember, was the GOP hero 3 and a half months ago.


How about this: if the GOP wants to suddenly declare themselves the party of fiscal responsibility and smaller government, then how about admitting that all of the Bush programs they supported were fiscally irresponsible. You know, those programs they supported such as Homeland Security, invading and endlessly occupying Iraq (at $8 bil/m). They supported Bush's $1.2 trillion tax cut for, much of it targeted to the wealthiest one percent.

Because without that admission, they're just playing political football.

Badly.

Because in case you missed it, Obama's numbers are UP among non-Republicans.

Matt Yglesias at ThinkProgress

Republican desperation and lies

One of the new talking points for the GOP is to demonize the $8 billion in the Recovery Act to build high-speed rail lines. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal trots out the line on the Sunday talkers, criticizing the "Disneyland to Las Vegas" line.

Chris Matthews rightly dismisses it as "cartoon talk", "stupid talk".

MSNBC's David Schuster confronts Republican Congressman Darrell Issa when Issa tries to slip the lie in. Forward to 4:20 for the clip. Ironically.


As reported by Steve Benen at Washington Monthly:

...as negotiations on the package wrapped up, Rahm Emanuel secured an extra $8 billion for high-speed rail. The Maine and Pennsylvania Republican "centrists" approved, and the bill progressed. The $8 billion is not directed at any specific state or project.

Meanwhile, Newt Ginrich sees this bill as his party's ticket back to power in 2010.  He's been leading the cry against pork-barrel spending such as a project for marsh-mouse preservation.

Here's the problem: there is NO project. It's another lie. In some more great reporting, Benen notes:

MSNBC's "Morning Joe" has been repeating the marsh-mouse claim quite a bit lately, and to its credit, the show invited PolitiFact.com's Bill Adair on to the show this morning to scrutinize the story. Asked if MSNBC was "unfair" to go after this story, Adair said, "You were.... This one gets a 'false' on the Truth-o-Meter.... The reality is, the money is just not in the bill to do this the way that they said."

Joe Scarborough said he'd talked to a Republican House member about this, who defended the claim. Adair said the GOP lawmaker "lied to you."

Go to the :45 mark and watch how simply flabbergasted the crew is that they miht have *gasp* reported a lie as true.

How disingenuous. How awful.

Bailout, Lies and Videotape

On CBS' The Early Show S.C. Gov Mark Sanford said Thursday the sheer size of the stimulus package will end up hindering any economic recovery. "I think the problem that was created with too much debt will never be solved by adding yet more debt," he said. "I think there are a number of wrinkles that have caused a number of us to say 'Wait a minute, let's take a long look at whether or not this really makes sense for our state.'"

Still, Sanford said he would accept the funds.

"Being against it doesn't preclude taking the money."

Sanford ignores several things.  Number one, he doesn't state who it was that actually created this problem "with too much debt" (Bush).  Two, he never offers a solution.  It's easy to be against something.  My question to the governor is 'what are you for'?

Additionally, Republican Governors such as Sanford, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Sarah Palin of Alaska and Rick Perry of Texas - all of whom are lining up to run against Obama in '12 - are contemplating refusing the money.

Nice job. Put your political interests ahead of your constituents.  Isn't that impeachable?

However it's all a sham. U.S. Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the No. 3 House Democrat, put language in the bill that allows state legislatures to overrule their governors and take the bailout money.  It was designed to prevent one shortsighted governor from tanking their entire state to maintain a dogma.

Clyburn's language allows these governors to have their cake and eat it too. Refuse the money, and when your legislature overrules you and takes it, you can accept the benefits of it.

This is all political hackery.

Howard Dean, former DNC chair, has dared these governors to decline the money and then explain to voters why their taxes went up because of a political stunt.

Then there's just plain ol' crazy.  "The sky is falling" crazy.  Batshit crazy.  Michelle Bachmann crazy.

Michelle Bachmann, she of the Hardball comments insisting the government should investigate the political leanings of it's own members, is back.

Now, she's issuing the crazy. Obama is stealing money from Republican districts and passing it out to Democratic ones. He's giving ACORN, an organization working against inner-city poverty $5 billion (untrue).

Unfortunately, she runs into Keithiness.

However, there is uber-blogger Bob Cesca.  I referenced his HuffPost column in here yesterday.  A rightwingnut named Denise decided to start an e-mail conversation with Mr. Cesca.  She was, unfortunately, fighting unarmed.

Read.

Hannity: There's a goblin on the wing!

Let's start with Hannity's 2 minute version of the apocalypse. Rather than "O Fortuna", perhaps a better backing track would be Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills".

War! Pestilence! Death!

(Unfortunately HuffPost doesn't allow embeds, so you have to click here to see the video)

Next, let's proceed to the segment he calls "Socialism You Can Believe In", where "the American way of life is being hijacked".

But the best part: After eight years of the largest government expansion in American history, Sean Hannity complained last night that the recovery bill is (say it with me)..."the largest government expansion in American history".

Here's part of the great Bob Cesca's HuffPost piece "Sean Hannity's Ridiculous War Against Socialism".

When I watched the video of Sean Hannity's Tuesday night show, I was half expecting him to leap out of his chair, grab his producer by the lapels and scream something about a goblin on the wing of the airplane -- all puffy and bloodshot -- hair mussed, tie undone -- spittle and sweat flying all around.

I'm calling upon Sean Hannity to use his prime time television program as a platform to rally Republican politicians, cable news hacks and citizens alike to refuse delivery of not just recovery bill spending, but all so-called "socialist" government programs. Send it all back. End American socialism now! All of it.

Refuse to send your kids to socialized public schools and universities; refuse to use socialized roads and highways; refuse to call upon socialized police and fire departments; shut down the socialized air traffic control; refuse to visit socialized national parks; tell grandma that her Social Security and Medicare will have to be sent back to the government; demand the immediate dismantling of our socialized American military. Sarah Palin and her supporters in Alaska should refuse all forms of "redistributed wealth" by sending back their checks from the socialized oil program there.

Send it all back. I'm sure the entire roster of Neo-McCarthyite pundits enumerated above -- Limbaugh, Scarborough, Hannity and the like -- have already forgone their usage of these socialist services so we can assume they've figured out a ways to get by. How hard can it be really? I mean, who needs roads when there are hot-air balloons and jet packs. Socialist fire departments? A house fire will eventually burn itself out, won't it? As for the pre-socialist 50-percent poverty rate for the elderly? If we can put a man on the Moon (also a socialist program), we can invent some bootstraps that'll fit over grandma's therapeutic stockings.

Jon Stewart: Hypocrisy Buster

Jon Stewart takes down former Republican Senator John Sununu on Judd Gregg and the bailout. How do these guys espouse this crap with a straight face?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

John Sununu

Obama: I am an optimist, not a sap

(Ron Brownstein - National Journal)

In a conversation early Friday evening with a small group of columnists, Obama was flexible about tactics and unwavering in his goals. He signaled that he's open to consultation, compromise and readjusting his course to build inclusive coalitions, but fixed on the results he intends to produce. 

...

(Regarding the stuimulus:) "The end product is not 100 percent of what we would want," Obama said. "But I think it is a very good start on moving things forward."

...

 "I think that there were some senators and House members who have a sincere philosophical difference with the idea of any government role in boosting demand in the economy. They don't believe in [economist John Maynard] Keynes and they are still fighting FDR." Some was tactical: "I also think that there was a decision made... where [Republican leaders] said... 'If we can enforce conformity among our ranks, then it will invigorate our base and will potentially give us some political advantage either short-term or long-term." He paused. "Whether that's a smart strategy, I think you should ask them."

...

Yet while promising to continue to seek peace with congressional Republicans, Obama also made clear he's prepared for the alternative. "I am an eternal optimist [but] that doesn't mean I'm a sap," he said pointedly. "So my goal is to assume the best but prepare for a whole range of different possibilities in terms of how Congress reacts."

Axelrod v. Turd Blossom

Axelrod To Bush Advisers: Butt Out

David Axelrod, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, had harsh words for some of former President Bush's closest advisers during an interview with the Post's Lois Romano yesterday, dismissing as "intramural stuff" the critiques offered by the former Administration.

Axelrod praised Bush for his handling of the transition while sharply criticizing some of the former president's advisers.

Axelrod said he was "disappointed" by former Vice President Dick Cheney's comments regarding the planned closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison and the suggestion that it would increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack; he described himself as "surprised" by former White House chief of staff Andy Card's remark that not wearing a jacket in the Oval Office was disrespectful.

But, Axelrod saved his strongest condemnation for the man who held his job in the Bush White House: Karl Rove. Of Rove's criticism of Obama's economic stimulus plan, Axelrod said: "The last thing that I think we are looking for at this juncture is advice on fiscal integrity or ethics from Karl Rove -- anyone who's read the newspapers for the last eight years would laugh at that."

Rove did not return an email seeking comment. But, he did pen an op-ed today in the Wall Street Journal in which he starkly criticized the way Obama has gone about addressing the financial crisis and heaped praise on congressional Republicans for how they have handled the matter.