Same Shit, New Day

Repubs absolutely adore this play.  They run it all the time.


hat tip = Addicting Info

In 2004 and 2008, RushBo and Cheney at al were telling us that if we voted for the Dems, al-Qaeda would get us.  Now it's "Vote Republican or lose your job".  There's just always a boogey-man du jour.  But, Repubs (generally) use threats that aren't firmly anchored in a little thing called objective reality.  We elected Obama, and none of the bad things they told us would happen happened.

• no concentration camps
• no confiscation of guns
• taxes are down, and the Dow is up
• oil and banks and telecomm weren't nationalized
• no forced gay marriage (or whatever the fuck that one was about)
• kids are still reciting The Pledge in school every day
• and on and on and on

But - throwing a bone to the centrists in the crowd - yes, the Dems play the same game (tho' with one notable difference).  The Dems have been trying to warn us about the Repub agenda:

• kill the unions
• overturn Roe v Wade
• defund the safety net
• de-regulation
• cut down on competition and accountability

The difference being that the Dems are warning us about real problems with a Radical Right agenda, and the Repubs are mostly just makin' shit up.

Gettin' It Done - 18

I don't like spending more money than we've got, and I don't like debt and I don't like thinking we're losing control of the size of government, and I don't like all the things that everybody else doesn't like about the economic pickle we're in.  But this is so simple it's stupid - if nobody's spending money, you don't have an economy.

18. Passed Mini Stimuli: To help families hurt by the recession and spur the economy as stimulus spending declined, signed series of measures (July 22, 2010; December 17, 2010; December 23, 2011) to extend unemployment insurance and cut payroll taxes.

Bad Lip Reading

From last week:

Today's Pix

New AutoTune

hat tip = Balloon Juice

Doing The Laundry

From Rolling Stone Magazine, by Tim Dickinson:

Are Romney's tax dodges legal? It's impossible to say for sure, given how little he has disclosed. But tax experts note that there are plenty of red flags, including an investigation by New York prosecutors into tax abuses at Bain Capital that began on Romney's watch. "He aggressively exploits every loophole he can find," says Victor Fleischer, a professor of tax law at the University of Colorado. "He's pushing the limits of tax law beyond what many think is reasonable." Indeed, a look at Romney's finances reveals just how skilled he is at hiding his wealth – and paying a fraction of his fair share in taxes.

 The more I learn about this guy, the smaller he looks.

Gettin' It Done - 19

Dunno what to say about this one except that you gotta know where to put your resources.  So maybe I'll just shut up and let the guy work.

19. Began Asia “Pivot”: In 2011, reoriented American military and diplomatic priorities and focus from the Middle East and Europe to the Asian-Pacific region. Executed multipronged strategy of positively engaging China while reasserting U.S. leadership in the region by increasing American military presence and crafting new commercial, diplomatic, and military alliances with neighboring countries made uncomfortable by recent Chinese behavior.

Take Me Down To Your Dance Floor

One from Gram Parsons - covered by Ryan Adams.

Sounds Vaguely Important

What makes the stories in this clip different from stories we used to hear in school about Robber Barons and Company Stores and dead Union Organizers?

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This just keeps sounding shittier and shittier.

On Process

I get into it a lot sometimes - not into the process so much as into the conflict that the process is supposed to help us avoid.  Which I think is kinda the point here.  If more of us were able to pay more attention to what goes on and participate in making the thing work, maybe fewer of us would be gettin' fucked over so often(?)

Anyway, next time somebody starts complaining about how snarky or angry or crazed you sound when trying to talk about what should or shouldn't be happening in the world, point 'em to this little gem from Up With Chris Hayes:

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