Staying down for the last couple days has ne feeling closer to human. I’m current with replies. I’m hoping to return full time as February begins.
Jig Zone Puzzles:
Saturday’s took me 4:26 (average 5:27). To do it, click here. Yesterday’s took me 4:32 (average 5:51). To do it, click here. Today’s took me 4:10 (average 5:48). To do it. click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From NY Times: Republicans have a problem. For years they could shout down any attempt to point out the extent to which their policies favored the elite over the poor and the middle class; all they had to do was yell “Class warfare!” and Democrats scurried away. In the 2012 election, however, that didn’t work: the picture of the G.O.P. as the party of sneering plutocrats stuck, even as Democrats became more openly populist than they have been in decades.
As a result, prominent Republicans have begun acknowledging that their party needs to improve its image. But here’s the thing: Their proposals for a makeover all involve changing the sales pitch rather than the product. When it comes to substance, the G.O.P. is more committed than ever to policies that take from most Americans and give to a wealthy handful.
For several days, I have been thinking about doing an article about how this softer, gentler Republican approach is lipstick on a pig. Paul Krugman beat me to it, and wrote an excellent piece. Click Through.
From Think Progress: During an interview on Meet The Press on Sunday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) predicted that the sequester cuts are “going to happen” and made no concrete proposals for how to avoid the reductions. The tone represents a sharp rhetorical and policy shift for the onetime GOP vice presidential nominee, who warned during the 2012 presidential campaign that the cuts would “devastate” the country and undermine job growth.
“I think the sequester is going to happen,” Ryan said, referring to the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts to the Pentagon and other government agencies that will go into effect unless Congress approves offsets. He charged that Democrats rejected the GOP’s replacement legislation — the bill cut the food-stamp program, slashed Medicaid, undermined funding for the Affordable Care Act and disaster relief — and failed to produce their own alternatives.
There’s a lot not to like about the sequester, but it is better than anything else Republicans have offered, because it does not gut the entitlements for which Americans have paid for our entire working lives.
From The Nation:
When John Boehner whined last week that Obama’s goal for his second term is to “annihilate the Republican Party” and “shove us into the dustbin of history,” he was working the party into a psychological state much like James Franco had to in 127 Hours: They’re getting ready to accept that they will have to sequester their arm with a dull knife.
Of course, Obama’s War on the GOP is about as real as the liberals’ War on Christmas—both are paranoid, apocalyptic fantasies marketed to drum up fear and self-pity on the right. Obama telling Republicans to “Please proceed” is no more tantamount to annihilating the GOP than chirping “Happy Holidays” is to eliminating Christmas.
Instead, this is a classic case of psychological projection. Paul Ryan, Newt Gingrich, Frank Luntz, and senators Bob Corker, Tom Coburn and Jim DeMint, among other right thinkers, actually held a meeting the night of the 2009 Inaugural to plot to undermine Obama’s newborn presidency with nonstop obstructionism. The next year, Mitch McConnell said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” And yet, after these plans failed to block Obama’s re-election and instead cost the GOP a number of House and Senate seats to boot, here is Boehner saying his party is the victim of existential aggression.
Virtually everything Republicans say is projection. In this case, Obama has always been far kinder to his Republican adversaries than they deserve. I agree that Obama’s goal to annihilate the Republican Party is not real. That said, mine is, and Obama’s should be.
Cartoon:
17 Responses to “Open Thread–1/28/2012”
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Saturday ~ 3:30 I liked those coconuts when Jerry posted it but I did it again and my time got worse 3:45 Yuck!
Sunday ~ 5:46 I drowned!
Today ~ 4:31 I couldn't quite make it under that triumphant arch.
Sunday ~ 5:05 So far, TomCat's the winner. Of course, Lynn may come sailing along on her size 9's.
Today ~ 3:40 I made it under the arch, but will I get all the way over the river or will Lynn kick me into the water?
Saturday — 4:17 I'm not nuts at least!
Sunday — 4:19 Well Jerry, these 'broad understandings' have to have some benefits.
Monday — 3:32 Jerry, I would never kick you into the water! Push . . . maybe! After all, I'm a sweet little puddytat. I'm no Garfield and you're no Odie!
Mashed, Crunched and 9d.
NY Times ~ Lipstick on a pig, indeed!
Eliminate the income tax to benefit the rich and maybe their constituents will finally wake up and see that they are paying for the real moochers in society, the uber-wealthy.
Think Progress ~ I would rather have the sequester happen with its cuts than anything the RepublicanTs propose. Their proposals would surely "devastate" the country.
The Nation ~ I am really starting to believe that the RepublicanT party is actually full of paranoid schizophrenics. Before I only thought that. Now, I'm certain it's true.
Cartoon ~ It was a sad day in our space program. I recognized the picture immediately. I was home watching the launch that day and one of the astronauts was a local man named Gregory Jarvis.
Amen. Rachel Maddow followed this up last noght.
Amen again.
Dang! How insulting for paranoid schizophrenics!! 😉
I hear you. That graphic needed no explanation.
A bad product is still a bad product no matter what the sales pitch says. Republicans have yet to learn that.
I agree. The sequester is better than anything the republicans have proposed to replace it.
"…“annihilate the Republican Party” and “shove us into the dustbin of history,” " is just what the republicans deserve. Of course it is what you would expect from the party that said there number 1 goal over the last four years was to make Obama a one-term president. Yes, they wanted to "annihilate" Obama and shove him into the "dustbin of history". Seems like a appropriate ending for a failed party.
Whoops. That should be "their", not "there". (I do know the difference!)
Amen Jerry. The people they represent think it is a good product. They may make Marx a prophet, horrid as that end would be.
Right thinkers = wrong thinkers most of the time.
Very well said, Phil.
Puzzles — Saturday — 4:17 I'm not nuts at least!; Sunday — 4:19 Well Jerry, these 'broad understandings' have to have some benefits.; Monday — 3:32 Jerry, I would never kick you into the water! Push . . . maybe! After all, I'm a sweet little puddytat. I'm no Garfield and you're no Odie!
NY Times — Can a leopard change its spots? Of course not! And neither can the Republican/Teabaggers. They did not learn a thing in 2012 as evidenced by their continued war on women etc, etc.
Think Progress — Paul Ryan on Meet the Press:
Ryan is whining, yet again, or is it 'still'. By "working with Democrats" he means doing things the Republican/Teabagger way, dictating the terms. He is NOT bipartisan; he is NOT collegial; he is NOT a negotiator! And amazing that selective memory of his! I too remember that last minute proposal from the WH at which the Republican/Teabaggers turned up their noses.
I'm sorry guys, but as a beacon of hope to the masses globally, the US is not. Not any more. The party of No, the party of death, whatever it is called needs to be put to death for the attempted murder of America. The country seems to be on political and economic life support.
The Nation — As I started reading about Boehner's whining, I immediately thought of projection, and the Republican/Teabagger's commitment voiced by McTurtle to make Mr Obama a one term president by obstructing him and the Democrats at every step. Johnny boy, how do you like the taste of your own medicine. I said earlier that leopards don't change their spots. Little Johnny is proving that.
Cartoon — The fateful day . . .
This was the flight that Christa McAuliffe was on when it came apart just over 1 minute into the flight.
So Reagan was big on education and science! How far the Republican/Teabaggers have fallen from their sainted Ronnie Ray Gun. Interesting to in the Wikipedia piece that NASA appears to have taken many short cuts and exhibited lapses in good judgement when the investigating commission filed its report. "…demonstrate the reliability of space flight at a time when the agency was under continuous pressure to find financial support." … hmmmmm. . .
Bit I'm still TC!
Yes. What they are saying is completely divorced from what they are doing.
Democrats have offered many alternatives including sevceral that origibnated with Republicans.
You'll love today's cartoon.
Today Saint Ronnie Ray Gun could not win a GOP primary for dog catcher.
Glad you're starting to recover TC – I agree with everything everyone has said about the GOP and the TP – but they said it much better than I could!
Thanks Pat.
Glad you are feeling better, I can't add to what the others have said, I totally agree with them
Thanks Edie.