Mitt, the Better We Get to Know You, the Less We Like You

The GOP primaries are so boring to me I've about given up writing about them. It figures that as a Democrat I wouldn't like them all that much, but in years past, I've found GOP electoral politics fairly fun. Not this year. This year, despite what should be something like a carnival, with all the fun of a freak-show, I've just about had enough. The most interesting thing about Mitt Romney to me is that this man once thought it was just fine to take his family on a vacation with their Irish Setter strapped in a pet carrier to the roof of the car for twelve hours. I think twelve hours in a pet carrier for an Irish Setter is animal abuse.

It was telling to me that even Mitt knew that once he was forced to release even one year of his tax returns we'd like him even less, and he was right. I suppose there are those of us who wouldn't have cared all that much that he'd have been in a minus 15% tax bracket, but those off-shored accounts raised eyebrows with even some fussy GOPers. Go figure. Maybe they didn't mind the accounts in the Cayman Islands so much, but  Swiss Accounts? Now that's just downright snooty.

And if you are a real Christian, Mitt, why can't talk about your Christianity (if it really is Christianity) in a way that doesn't give us all the creeps. You're stiffer than that Quaker crook Nixon. Because when asked on a survey about the "once you've gotten to know the candidate" do you like him more now that you've gotten to know him better?" the answer is a resounding "NO, LESS!'

And the bad news for the GOP overall is that turnout is down in the primaries. Go ahead CPAC. Spend Your Billions on Negative Ads.

Now I think I'll take a nap.

It Must Be Election Season Because the Bullshit is Knee Deep

Sam Seder tells it like it is.

GOP Liars and the Lying Lies They Keep Telling

I suspected that the economy was unraveling before the election was over, but had no idea how bad it really was until Bush, himself, the Decider in Chief, asked for Billions to bail out his buddies on Wall Street, the very guys who got the big beefy tax breaks, and the obscene bonuses for ruining the economy, just as Bush himself was heading out the door, pockets bulging.  That worked well, didn't it?  The Republicans seemed to have no problem bailing out Wall Street,  and then blaming Obama for TARP, but when it came time to hand out a few paltry dollars as a stimulus to the economy to bail out those of us, lowly middle class taxpayers who'd lost our homes, our pensions, our life savings in the Wall Street melt down, well that was a different story.

The Republicans are still at it.  They don't give a flying fuck about the middle class.  They keep voting against extending unemployment benefits for those hardest hit by this deep recession, the lowly middle class.  They are telling the ignorant teagaggers that unemployment benefits are a form of welfare for the lazy.  Once again, they are wrong.  A wage earner who has worked his or her whole life and is now unemployed due to the contraction in the job market caused by the recession, has been contributing through payroll deductions to an account that is just for this kind of event, is now being insulted on a daily basis by the GOP.  Unemployment Insurance is just that.  It's insurance in the event that one will be unemployed due to no fault of one's own. If you don't know this you've never punched a timeclock.

The Grand Old Party is a Fraud

After eight years of the Bush administration, the Republican Party -- to put it bluntly -- is a mess and a fraud.

There is an intellectual case to be made for the economic philosophy that the party purports to represent. I disagree with it strongly, but I respect its integrity -- in a way that this administration and the Republican leadership in Congress clearly did not.

The Republican Party said it believed in free and unfettered competition, but it picked winners and losers through a system of crony capitalism. All it takes to make my point is a name: Jack Abramoff.

The Bush tax cuts, which heavily favored the wealthy, showed that the president and his allies in Congress didn't believe in progressive taxation. I think that's outrageous, but the administration goes further and actually seems to prefer a regressive tax scheme. That's the only explanation I can think of for why hedge fund managers making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay taxes at a lower rate than their chauffeurs.

This is a small excerpt from Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post today. Here's another:

Can any Republican candidate claim with a straight face to represent the party of small government? For that matter, can any Republican candidate plausibly explain what the party is supposed to stand for these days?

It's pathetic to hear right-wing talk radio blowhards try to associate Barack Obama with "radical" or "socialist" views when a Republican administration is tossing aside "Atlas Shrugged" and speed-reading "Das Kapital.

Thanks Eugene, I needed that.