As the 2008 presidential campaign season began in earnest, the Republican candidates all paid their tributes to Ronald Reagan. His was a myth writ large, with facts being buried beneath legend, and little critical voice given to the realities of his tenure. One debate was jokingly referred to as a séance, so often was his apparition summoned from the great beyond.

Time has passed, though, and the times are more dire, and the Republicans are seeing their temporal grasp on power slipping once again from their fingers. With very little left in their bag of tricks, they are attempting to resurrect the language of the Reagan era. They are clinging to the talking points; this time, however, we have 25 years of evidence and the benefit of hindsight.
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54 comments (Latest Comment: 06/09/2011 03:22:30 by Raine)

Karoli at Crooks & Liars managed to catch the video of this exchange from Face the Nation yesterday. I concur with Karoli when she says "...Bothered about the jobs report? Talk to Mr. Boehner, because he's the guy who has set the agenda for this session of Congress. Democrats should be running with this message and asking Americans whether or not they understand Congress' role in the economy and what this crazy Republican House of Representatives is doing to tank it."

The jobs report last week wasn't great, and the higher unemployment numbers weren't helpful either, but the reality is that we still had jobs created, not lost. What I find interesting is that in 5 months, we have had NOTHING in the way of promoting economic recovery from the GOP-led House. Back in September, The Christian Science Monitor wrote the following: Republicans in Congress are urging two simple steps they say will help put Americans back to work: Freeze all tax rates at current levels and reduce federal spending. Interesting. In their ongoing attempt to do so, an already slow -- but growing economy, has slowed down even more.
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68 comments (Latest Comment: 06/07/2011 02:44:12 by Raine)

Good Morning.

Sarah Palin is an idiot.

There, I said it.
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18 comments (Latest Comment: 06/05/2011 04:19:32 by Raine)

With a year and a half to go before the 2012 elections, we have officially entered stupid season. I think I am getting burnt out on stupid, be it Chris Christie using a state helicopter to show up at his child's baseball game, anything associated with Sarah Palin, Herman Cain, Rick Scott, Eric Cantor, Pawlenty, -- right now I just have little patience trying to talk of the stupidity of what is going on. I don't want to talk about them. I do anyway because I believe an informed people makes for a healthy government. I still care. We are in our fourth year here on this blog, with another few spent at our former home, it's been more than a half a decade that we've been doing this, and yes I still care. Sometimes, I just get tired.

What floors me most is the fact that so few people seem to care. So few people seem to be curious about what is being done to the middle and lower class in America. We try to educate here on this blog. There are many places on the internet that do the same. Sometimes it feels more like a fight against disinformation rather than for enlightenment.
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65 comments (Latest Comment: 06/02/2011 21:02:59 by Raine)

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,995th day in Iraq, and our 3,511th day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do; with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4454 3511
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4313
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3595
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 226
Since Operation New Dawn: 36

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,598
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 891
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,487
Journalists - Iraq: 348
Academics Killed - Iraq: 448

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 202, 126, 250, 000. 00


Well, it was all over the news yesterday. Perhaps that preacher in California just missed the date, because if the KKK counter-protesting Westboro Baptist isn't one of the signs of the Apocalypse....I don't know what is.
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64 comments (Latest Comment: 06/01/2011 02:47:08 by livingonli)