* I always forget to plan these things for the blog, but I’m going to be on vacation until Tuesday next week. I guess those days I’m gone you’ll have to go somewhere else to find out what’s happening in the world… or just assume nothing interesting is going on. Probably more arguments about the debt ceiling. Just wait until I get back to find out what happened.
* By the way, still no debt limit deal. I’m kind getting tired of this story. I wish we could talk about something else in politics. But don’t worry, as Obama has found a way to solve this issue: Give yet another speech! Yes, he spoke during prime time last night; I’m not sure what was said, though. I wasn’t going to watch it, so I thought I’d just read the commentary of some pundit who did watch it, but I can’t find anyone who did. I looked, and there is no evidence anyone watched it. I don’t think even the most faithful Obama supporters can pretend there’s anything to gain from listening to him talk; in fact, they probably find it easier to delude themselves that Obama’s competent if they don’t ever listen to him speak.
* Don’t worry, though: Harry Reid has a budget plan to save the day. It’s $2.7 trillion in cuts — though $1 trillion of that is from the military winding down in the Middle East, which was already planned anyway. Plus, he included nothing on entitlement reform, so 50% of the budget is untouched. So basically it’s another one of those things where he pretends something is getting done while preserving the status quo. Still, it has no tax hikes in it, so Republicans at least got that concession not to further destroy the economy.
How much, though, do we really expect to solve the debt crisis while a Democrat is still in the presidency? I mean, his sine qua non is spending other people’s money. This isn’t like pushing Bill Clinton into welfare reform; if Republicans get Obama to really hunker down and cut the budget, they will have destroyed everything he loves and his whole purpose of being. If it actually happened, Obama would probably just stay in his bathrobe all day and smoke cigarettes and watch Captain Kangaroo until his presidency was over. Wow, I almost described a utopia.
* While Obama is struggling to avoid making any significant cuts, the American people have their own idea to reduce spending: Repeal Obamacare. Recent Rasmussen poll has 57% in favor of repealing the law. Why is it so unpopular? I guess after it was passed, people found out what was in it.
* People are acting like it’s shocking that Obama said he’d like to “bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.” Don’t all liberals mainly find democracy to be an inconvenience? That’s why they’re always trying to find ways around it, such as getting things changed through activist judges. They just can’t understand why people would think they actually have to convince middle America and those crazy right wingers their ideas are good instead of just imposing them on everyone since they think themselves so gosh darn smart (but, of course, not smart enough to convince anyone their ideas aren’t moronic). In a way, they’re like Saddam Hussein, who would have his sham election — feeling the need to at least pretend democracy is a good idea — and then just go ahead and do whatever he wanted.
Okay; I went a little too far there. It’s not like liberals would idolize someone named “Hussein”.
* The wealth gap between whites and minorities is at its highest level in a quarter century. The average white household net worth is twenty times that of the average black household. This whole thing of having Obama as the first black president was supposed to be a big boon for minorities, but in practical terms, not so much. And it has to be psychologically a problem too. I mean, what if when they had the first black baseball player in the major leagues, instead of Jackie Robinson, they had someone who really sucked at the game? How would that help race relations? Well, hopefully no one blames Obama’s horribleness on his race and instead on his desire to emulate useless white liberals.
* Democrat Representative David Wu, best known for being pictured dressed in a weird tiger suit, has been accused of an unwanted sexual encounter with the teenage daughter of a donor. Pelosi has already asked for an ethics investigation, and combined with Weiner being pushed into resigning, the Democrats are getting a better record on this sort of thing. I mean, you shouldn’t need to praise people for what would usually be considered holding standards of basic decency, but remember that these people are all sociopaths. So baby steps.
* People seem pretty certain Rick Perry is going to enter the presidential race. Even though he hasn’t announced yet, Intrade already has him as the front runner. And it’s hard to see why he wouldn’t get the nomination. He’s the type of conservative the base loves, he’s governor of a state that’s actually creating jobs in this economy, and he’s not Romney. I mean, I could get behind Romney if I needed to, but like so many other Republicans, I really really don’t want to. Oh, and another plus for Perry is he really defuses Obama’s “I inherited this mess from Bush” argument. Perry is in the same economy and inherited the state of Texas directly from Bush, yet he’s not sucking it up. I know there has to be some problem with him, but I don’t know of any offhand. He likes cutting spending, right?
* As I found out from one of those interminable birther e-mails I got, there is now going to be a birther summit. Yay, a big gathering of people all saying stuff like:
“Wow! Obama’s birth certificate sure is faked!”
“Not only that, but there is evidence it is EXTRA DOUBLE FAKED!”
“I did a PDF analysis of the birth certificate, and determined it was a PDF, WHICH CAN BE FAKED!”
Can you even comprehend the stunning innovations that will come out of this meeting of the minds?
In a way, though, I envy these people. Think of living in a world where your concerns weren’t the economy tanking and the country drowning debt, but instead the biggest threat facing the nation were what artifacts you could find in a PDF image. What a calmer, simpler world.
* Community is my favorite comedy on the air right now, and I was quite amused by this photo from their first day of shooting for season three.
The Treasure of the Washington DC……..
Sen. Reid: Hola, senor. We are Democrats. You know, the defenders of the middle class.
Taxpayer: If you’re the defenders of the middleclass, where are your budget plans?
Sen. Reid: Plans? We ain’t got no plans! We don’t need no plans. I don’t have to show you any stinkin’ plans!
Taxpayer: You’d better not come any closer.
Sen. Reid: We aren’t trying to do you any harm. Why don’t you try to be a little more polite? Give us your tax money and we’ll leave you in peace.
Taxpayer: I need my tax money myself.
Sen. Reid: Oh, throw that ol’ tax money over here. We’ll pick it up and go on our way.
Taxpayer: You go on your way without my money and go quick!
Reid: Look here, amigo. You got the wrong idea. We don’t wanna get your taxes fer nothin’. We wanna buy it. Look. I have a health care program with a gold chain, made in your own country. The health care plan and the chain – they worth at least two hundred bizzillon dollars – I ‘change it fer yer taxes. Y’better take it, thatsa good bizness for you!!
Taxpayer: You keep your health care. I’ll keep my taxes!
Reid: Oh, you keep it? You will keep it?? We won’t get it?? I’LL SHOW YOU!!!
“Can you even comprehend the stunning innovations that will come out of this meeting of the minds?”
Frank you give the Birthers far too much credit, at best they have one mind that they have to parcel out amongst all of them.
@zzyzx: A gem. Pure gold. Or some such.
Nobody puts one over on Fred C. Dobbs.
The problem with Perry is that he will more than likely be yet another soft pantywaist loser when it comes to immigration. That’s the indication from his governorship so far, and it’s unsurprising considering his connections to George Bush.
He may be a soft pantywaist loser on a few other issues, but by now, do we really care anymore?
Perry is a Conservative ?
I’ve got two problems with Perry. First, he knows enough to play up border security during an election, but then completely forgets about it when it’s not an election year. That tells me not to trust him, and that he doesn’t really get that border security is important. Second, he’s way too quick to hit the eminent domain button, as evidenced by his Trans-Texas Corridor shennanigans. This tells me he does not have a good grasp of limited government. He might be a conservative by national standards, but that’s only because the nation is completely boned. He’s no conservative, he’s a politician.
“The wealth gap between whites and minorities is at its highest level in a quarter century.”
Well, how much does welfare pay?
I hate Community and I actually went to community college. I think the problem is I’m not really nostolgic about my time at community college. It really wasn’t all that great. I think it was the vague notion I always had when I went out there that someday I would have to fill out a job application and admit that I went to community college. Sobering.
Anyway everyone knows that the best comedy on TV right now is a tie between Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Workaholics and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
If Perry declares, I’m all about him. I’ll roll around naked in Perry campaign signs and drink Perry kool-aid. He’s the only Republican I’ve heard so far that I think has an excellent chance of socking it to Obama. That said, I’m not sure where everyone is coming from on the illegal immigration complaint. I don’t know of instances where he’s been soft on it. Someone fill me in?
Let’s look on the bright side. Perry supports legalization of incandescent light bulbs. <==Lamest pun on IMAO, ever.
You’ll be drinking the Perry-ier, eh, Carolyn? Does that come with a Republican Senate main dish and a repeal of Obamacare side dish?
2012 advance look: So far in the lower Hudson Valley I have seen maybe five bumper stickers calling for four more incompetent years from Obama, and one (1) other presidential bumper sticker…for Huntsman.
Lots of generic conservative stickers, though; a few Obama ’08 stickers from people who don’t own a scraper.
But only one lawn sign, spotted this morning at a bus stop on Route 9…calling for a meetup…and it’s for…..you guessed it…..
RON PAUKL!!>!>!>>!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!
Perry? Wasn’t he like a cheerleader or something in college? I don’t know about you, but I want the guy who was throwing the football not the guy that was throwing pom-poms as my POTUS! There is something just so not right with male cheerleaders!!! So when you were in Junior High, did you have a pinein’ to be a “cheerleader” some day? If you did, I’ll bet you got home from school early so you could dress up in your mommies clothes and put on some lipstik and such!!!
I’ll stick with Palin or Bachmann. At least they are real women! Palin actually played sports rather than did the cheerleader thing!!!
Obviously, ussjimmycarter doesn’t know anything about the studly yell-leaders at Texas A&M.
It’s not even noon yet, but having read “Nuke the News”‘ there’s now nothing to do.
Frank takes almost as many vacations as Obama. Almost.
Reid’s budget plan has more holes than a screen door. Or more loopholes than Hangman’s Hill in Tombstone.
Perry / Paul 2012 !!111!!! Sters and queers
I don’t know, seems to me that if the media had investigate or the FBI or CIA whether or not “the Kenyan” was a legal citizen we wouldn’t be having this issue with the economy. As someone who has experienced first hand the consequences of “the messiah’s reign” I think it would have been 10 times infinity even under Hitlery. She at least knows how to make a decision. They’re mostly wrong but she does know some successful business men instead of just Social/Communists.
She also really hates to look stupid. So if nothing else she’s do something just to protect her pride.
10 times better. sry
I’m afraid I have to agree with Jimmy and #6.
Gone are the days when even the great Coolidge wasn’t the most conservative politician in America. Perry seems to believe in the profit motive, a sight more than I can say for the current President, but what else is there? He has still shown signs that he, too, would disobey the Constitution at times. And make no mistake, failure to enforce our border and immigration laws, common as they are, is a disgraceful, totally unlawful failure.
I’d vote for Perry, but I obviously would be less than enthused about it.
So I’ll keep my mouth shut if the GOP nominates him.
Yell leaders? Yea, K! Prancing up and down the sideline going 1, 2, 3, 4 were going to beat your team some more!!! That’s a yell leader right? Do you go to “yell leader” school as a young boy? I would think sparklies on your face would be a nice touch! Sparkly Yell Leaders!!! Yay!!! Male Yell Leaders need to be “pants” at every game by drunken football fans!
The only times I ever voted for perry wasn’t because I liked him, it’s because he was the lesser of the evils. If anything I would rather have David Dewhearst (the lt govenor of texas) as president. He is actually conservitive, this last budget cycle Texas was facing an 18 billion dollar shortfall, and he worked out a plan that balanced the budget without raising taxes.
Honestly, I would take Perry over all others in a heartbeat, but that’s like taking a kick to the junk over getting your junk cut off and fed into a garbage dispoosal.
I dunno, seanmahair, this doesn’t look too smart of Hillary: http://www.sondrakistan.com/?p=8029
So. Another vacation? Guess that means General Basil and WebMaster Harvey will be here while Frank’s gone. Yes / no / maybe so??
I’m wondering why ussjimmycarter is the only one making me laugh today.
I don’t know much about Perry. I am hoping he is a real conservative. I am tired of having to compromise before I even get to vote in a primary.
If I have to compromise, I will vote for RONPAUL!!!!111!! in the primary. He is half crazy, but that means he is half not crazy.
I think Perry is another RINO! I don’t know why but since Mittens is getting his ass kicked, I think the GOP establishment is in a panic to get a RINO in the mix at some level. They know that Mittens is done. He was toast when he declared Global Warming man-made! So now they need someone to carry their water. Someone that Carl Rove, Hannity and Laura can get behind. Someone that Obama can actually beat!!!
It’s ok thought, because Palin is going to jump in after him and land on his nads!!! And sissy boy Perry will be history! One Palin punch and he will be running home for his mommie!!!
I’ll run around my house naked shouting “Oklahoma Oklahoma Oklahoma!” if Palin gets the nomination. It isn’t going to happen.
Carolyn, at least you’re not saying you’ll go naked if Newt Gingrich gets nominated. That just wouldn’t sit well, visually speaking.
Let’s see. Some red flags about Perry: (1) former Democrat; (2) Al Gore’s campaign manager; (3) big supporter of the Trans-Texas Corridor (“NAFTA superhighway”); (4) pro North American Union; (5) against the border fence; (6) granted illegal immigrants in-state tuition at Texas colleges; (7) big spender – Texas government spending has nearly doubled under his tenure since 2000.
No, I’m not gonna dance naked for Rick Perry, Carolyn.
Maybe for Herman CAIN!
Rick Perry is a political transvestite.
(Okay, so was Ronald Reagan, but come on! Al Gore? You’ve GOT to be kidding me! No way. I’d rather get behind Romney. Wait. That doesn’t sound right…)
ACTUALLY, fellow IMAOers, I’m pregnant! So, probably no running around naked after a couple months go by. At least not for a little while. To think: I thought the queasiness was because people kept putting Obama’s face on the TV screen.
Carolyn – congratulations! But most of the queasiness probably IS because people keep putting Obama’s face on the TV screen!!
Hey, ussjimmycarter! Frank’s on vacation. Let’s take over his blog! Hehe.
@ussjimmycarter: Your posts remind me of an old Dave Barry article, where he wrote to the effect that when he was in school, there were certain things guys just did not do, and being a cheerleader was about six of them. (And, getting to pick up girls and hold them aloft by their personal regions was not a good enough excuse.)
Sparkly yell leaders are like sparkly vampires – an abomination.
Congratulations, Carolyn!!!!eleventy1!!
Thank you, Jimmy. DamnCat, thank you as well, although now you’ll have to make an effort to do your business like a dog here. If you litterbox it, it could hurt the baby. In exchange for you obliging me I’ll help you plot against MarkoMancuso.
Good luck getting the DamnHighPraiseCat to do business like a dog around here! Maybe if you offered him tuna…
Actually, if Palin WON the Presidency, I’d consider going naked in celebration – but I’d have to remember to put down the sign that says DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW!
Not to worry, Carolyn – I shall restrict myself to Jimmy’s & Marko’s gardens for the duration.
Good Idea Jimmy!!! Frank is away so now the NON-HIGH PRAISE WINNERS shall play!!! Muwhahahahahah! Hey, Carolyn what do you look like? Like are you a babe or anything? That would be like awesome if you are!
I’m going to be on vacation until Tuesday next week. — Frank J, is indeed qualified to be Preznit!! Frank J. in 2012!!
Congratulations, Carolyn.
Though you are quite obviously smart enough as is, any opportunity for me to quote Chesty is a perfect opportunity.
“I admit we don’t seem to have the proper leadershio at the top, but there’s nothing wrong with kids today. … My wife and I follow the ideas my mother used on her kids, making them study each night after supper, and when they report that they have mastered their lessons, quizzing them. That’s how my brother and I were handled, and the method got my older daughter on the dean’s list at Smith College, and my son on the headmaster’s list at Christchurch School, and helps my younger daughter make out well in public school, thanks to her mother. I find that a great deal of what I learned in public school came through my mother. Our children don’t need to be coddled, and they shouldn’t be condemned. Above all, for heaven’s sake, let your sons alone and let them grow up to be men.”
Thanks, Cat! Tuna for you. You can also share my first helping sashimi once the baby comes. We’ll be pals. My husband doesn’t like cats, but he also DOES like Barack Obama, so I figure you can hang here and antagonize him. It’ll be great entertainment.
JimmyCarter… if you think I’m a babe now, wait about 2 months! I’ll be waddling, and everyone knows that’s sexy.
“Since 2001, according to the Star-Telegram’s Mitchell Schnurman, Texas’ debt has grown at a faster rate than that of the U.S. government. Perry assumed office in December 2000. ”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20082696-503544.html?tag=stack
Really Frank, How Stupid do you think we Are?!?!?
Perry? Isn’t Obama spending our money fast enough for you?
You know how in movies when they have the character wake up and finds the whole awful thing was a dream?
Well the Birth Certificate thing is like that – except this time it is real! All that crap he signed including Obamacare? Undone! Democrats and Obamanoids? Humiliated on a truly historic scale!
And excuse me, but isn’t an engineer supposed to care just a little bit about what is real and what is not real? That birth certificate joke he posted is so phony only idiots and ignoramuses believe in it.
I don’t believe you are an idiot, so are you just ignorant or do you have some great and fiendish scheme where you are just pretending to look gullible?
helpful researcher,
I don’t have much of a dog in the fight (not a Republican), but the CBS “Dem talking points to hit Perry” piece leaves out a couple of important points about Texas debt.
First, he’s been governor for ten years. Over ten years, lots of things will grow with or without direct control by the governor.
Next, there’s this (politifact site):
“It turns out that transportation is responsible for most of the added debt load under Perry, increasing from basically nothing in 2000 to $11.8 billion outstanding as of Aug. 31 2009. That’s because before 2001, the Texas Department of Transportation lacked the authority to borrow money to pay for road projects. Voters gave it that power in 2001 when they approved a constitutional amendment that Perry supported.
Addressing transportation in his 2001 state of the state speech, Perry said, “I would like for both chambers to pass a bonding program to jump-start construction across our state.”
In 2007, voters also passed a constitutional amendment to create and fund the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas with $3 billion in bonds over 10 years, starting in January 2010. Perry had championed the cause with cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong and others.”
So, yeah, debt increased and Perry was on board with it…but it was also debt voted on and approved by the voters in Texas to develop infrastructure and do cancer research.
You have to admit, it does put a different color to the “Debt doubled under his governorship” talking point when the voters could have voted down almost all the increase in debt.
Hi Non-Republican Rock Throwing Peasant,
You could say the whole country was on board with the spending of Obama since they elected him. That doesn’t make it right.
KID: “Mom, my friends said it was ok to throw rocks at the windows!”
Mom: “If your friends ran off a financial cliff would you do it too?”
Perry was the quarterback of the faster than Obama spending.
All government spending is for something nice with a bow on it. It is still unaffordable, and built on debt, political largesse and ego trips. Perry is a lying money sucking RINO with good hair – pretty much Romney in a cowboy hat.
Yeah, and it’s amazing the rate that people are jumping on Perry’s bandwagon, helpful researcher. Reading over at Ace, I’m just dumbfounded at their reasons. We’re not very bright… we non-Democrats.
Yeah, well Ace’s readers are smarter than us.
Well, Marko, they sure are. And apparently, so is Herman Cain. He apologized for is comments about Islam citing freedom of religion and such.
Scratch Hermain Cain off my list of first choices.
Islam is not a religion. When are people gonna wake up, Marko?
Maybe Harvey knows.
Ok, I can agree that promoting Perry over Romney is a lesser of two evils thing… but as a conservative from Texas, I feel the need to show the side of our governor that conservatives based elsewhere seem to have not heard about. Here are my two big points:
1) Three words: Trans-Texas Corridor
2) He was the big proponent of something called the Business Margin Tax in Texas. I don’t know its current status of it being overturned/repealed/etc. (my CPA informant said two years ago that lawyers for various businesses were lining up to sue the state over it), but it is, essentially, a gross receipts tax. Perry pushed for its passage in 2007 using the argument that it would allow the state to keep property taxes down. Well, now we’re having to do what we were going to have to do anyway, cut spending on all sorts of things because revenues are down. All the while small and medium-sized businesses are seeing their tax liabilities skyrocket under the current system.
My big point is the TTC, that was just a rampant abuse of eminent domain that made people so furious that it’s been shelved. Perry was by far its leading proponent (for reasons probably involving graft, cronyism, corruption, etc.). The margin tax was only instituted in 2007, so we haven’t seen the long term effects of it on the Texas economy, but let me tell you that lots of small business are hopping mad about this. If you want to know why Kay Bailey ran against him last year, part of it is because real estate investors wanted her to overturn the Margin Tax that’s killing them by making them carry a tax liability even if they’re not currently turning a profit.