Kevin Drum observes, "The Republican Party is now officially hostage to a band of primitive conservative ideologues whose knowledge of economics was already outdated when Christians were being fed to lions. They are simply beyond belief."

posted at 9:26 AM by Sid the Fish
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Josh Marshall:

Despite the campaign's sharp break in Obama's direction in the last week of September, we need only remember the sharp break in McCain's favor in the first two weeks of the month to know that elections can change quickly. That said, I've been thinking over the last few days that if John McCain loses this election he will have lost much more than the presidency. His reputation as an honest and honorable politician will be wrecked, I suspect, for good -- particularly among centrist and independent voters and the centrist commentator class in New York and Washington.

[…]

My verdict may be a severe one but I think a lot of people -- a lot of former admirers -- are coming around to agreeing with the general outlines. McCain has revealed himself as a liar well outside the permissive standards applied to politicians. He's shown himself to be reckless to the point of instability, repeatedly putting the country at risk (exploiting the Georgia crisis, picking Palin, storming the bailout negotiations) for transparently self-serving reasons. And in too many ways to count, he's conducted his campaign in disgraceful and dishonorable ways.

I have been a political junkie for my entire adult life, which dates back to the Nixon years. I have never seen a more incompetent, mendacious, dangerous candidate for president. God help us if this bitter old man somehow manages to get himself and his hyper-ambitious running mate elected.

posted at 7:31 AM by Sid the Fish
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posted at 2:31 PM by Sid the Fish
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On January 21, 2009, I hope someone replaces this pack of filthy lies with something resembling a little truth:

Biography of President George W. Bush

Since becoming President of the United States in 2001, President Bush has worked with the Congress to create an ownership society and build a future of security, prosperity, and opportunity for all Americans.

How’s that working out?

President Bush has also worked to improve healthcare …

Except for the 47 million Americans who have no insurance.

… increase homeownership, especially among minorities …

I’ll remember that next time someone tries to blame the mortgage crisis on the Clinton Administration.

conserve our environment …

Drill, baby, drill!

… and increase military strength, pay, and benefits.

Or not.

Good lord, this is a disgraceful piece of propaganda.

posted at 12:49 PM by Sid the Fish
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Jonathan Schwartz digs up this quote from Abraham Lincoln speaking as a member of the Illinois state legislature on January 11, 1837. He’s referring to a dispute between private shareholders of the Illinois State Bank:

It is an old maxim and a very sound one, that he that dances should always pay the fiddler. Now, sir, in the present case, if any gentlemen, whose money is a burden to them, choose to lead off a dance, I am decidedly opposed to the people’s money being used to pay the fiddler…all this to settle a question in which the people have no interest, and about which they care nothing. These capitalists generally act harmoniously, and in concert, to fleece the people, and now, that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.

Schwartz continues: “Lincoln’s speech was given just as one of the greatest speculative bubbles in US history was bursting. This was followed by the Panic of 1837, which led to a six-year contraction described by Milton Friedman as ‘the only depression on record comparable in severity and scope to the Great Depression.’”

So far.

It’s worth noting that Andrew Jackson was about to turn over the Presidency to his longtime supporter Martin Van Buren. The official White House bio explains what happened next:

Declaring that the panic was due to recklessness in business and overexpansion of credit, Van Buren devoted himself to maintaining the solvency of the national Government. He opposed not only the creation of a new Bank of the United States but also the placing of Government funds in state banks. He fought for the establishment of an independent treasury system to handle Government transactions. As for Federal aid to internal improvements, he cut off expenditures so completely that the Government even sold the tools it had used on public works.

Not exactly what we need right now. However, I do wish he had succeeded in this project:

Inclined more and more to oppose the expansion of slavery, Van Buren blocked the annexation of Texas because it assuredly would add to slave territory--and it might bring war with Mexico.

Maybe we could sell Texas and Alaska to cover the national debt?

posted at 12:24 PM by Sid the Fish
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What should John McCain’s next zany stunt be?

posted at 2:49 PM by Sid the Fish
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Awesome:

posted at 11:27 AM by Sid the Fish
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posted at 8:01 AM by Sid the Fish
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Hey, Christians! Margaret Cho has a few things she wants to say:

Don’t fucking question my Christianity you fucking idiot assholes. If you continue to have a problem, then talk to God about it, not me, you fucking racist homophobic misogynist fake Christian shitheads. God thinks it is funny that I swear so much. He said I could use his name in vain or whatever. He just wants me to use it. He loves me. So fuck you. And I guess he loves you too. Even though you are fake Christian assholes. If you were truly Christians, you would let gays get married, and send them fucking presents from Bed Bath and Beyond!

If you truly believed in Jesus, you would try to be like him and love us, fags and dykes and feminists all. God bless you, even you. You fucking fuckers.

Amen.

posted at 4:12 PM by Sid the Fish
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Brilliant:

The McCain-Palin campaign has launched the Palin Truth Squad to keep America safe from the truth about Governor Sarah Palin, her family, her cronies, and her inexperience. In keeping with the general strategy of the McCain campaign, the Palin Truth Squad will make sure that the truth about Sarah Palin is kept as far from American voters as possible.

Disclaimer: “Not actually paid for by McCain-Palin 2008, Big Oil, the people who deny you health coverage, or Richard Mellon Scaife.  Or by Obama -- this parody is the work of one independent blogger.”

posted at 3:26 PM by Sid the Fish
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I wish I believed in an afterlife, because if I did it would comfort me to know there is a special place in Hell for Dick Cheney:

A GOP congressional leader who was wavering on giving President Bush the authority to wage war in late 2002 said Vice President Cheney misled him by saying that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had direct personal ties to al-Qaeda terrorists and was making rapid progress toward a suitcase nuclear weapon, according to a new book by Washington Post investigative reporter Barton Gellman.

Cheney's assertions, described by former House majority leader Richard K. Armey (Tex.), came in a highly classified one-on-one briefing in Room H-208, the vice president's hideaway office in the Capitol. The threat Cheney described went far beyond public statements that have been criticized for relying on "cherry-picked" intelligence of unknown reliability. There was no intelligence to support the vice president's private assertions, Gellman reports, and they "crossed so far beyond the known universe of fact that they were simply without foundation."

Armey had spoken out against the coming war, and his opposition gave cover to Democrats who feared the political costs of appearing to be weak. Armey reversed his position after Cheney told him, he said, that the threat from Iraq was actually "more imminent than we want to portray to the public at large."

I don’t believe in souls, either, largely on the basis of stuff like this.

posted at 7:24 AM by Sid the Fish
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Thank God(tm) I had the sound off for this:

posted at 8:38 PM by Sid the Fish
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