What is the deal with attacking Rush Limbaugh?

In the past couple of weeks or so I have noticed an up tick in attacks on comedian Rush Limbaugh, especially coming from the White House and Democratic associated groups. I just don’t get it.

Rush is the voice of the Republicans? When has he not been? Did Democrats wake up one day, click on their radio, and say “What the fuc*???? Who is this person?”

But then again I don’t care. Democrats need a different plan.

Maybe it’s pay back for the attacks on the group Move On during their ad controversy in 2007. Or maybe the storm caused by the misuse of comments by General Wesley Clark about John McCain. It could even be a counter to the Swift boating of John Kerry in 2004.

It gets a lot of press because the villagers are looking for ways to give more press coverage to the GOP plus they have thousands of hours to fill on their cable channels and talk radio shows and not enough white young women go missing to keep fill that time. Besides Shark Week is in July.

Rush lies. The guy cherry picks his call ins. He is a bigot. He called Obama and Hillary pretty much every name in the book without losing his job. Probably 90% of his listeners are sheep and will never be reasoned with and they agree with all he says. Rush loves the attention and press coverage because he loves to play the victim. There is nothing new about Rush.

Using the power of the White House and the Democrats to attack the windbag is really like shooting fish in a barrel. And it has the same effect like sending another “strongly worded letter” from the Congress that we often saw during the final years of W’s term instead of Congress growing a pair and exerting some legislative power than comes from being in the majority.

The fact remains that the public voted and the GOP has nothing to offer. Rush has nothing to offer but cries of victim hood.

We have some serious issues to take care of and right now Rush and the GOP are irrelevant. They are a waste of time.

Here is an agenda I would like to see:

1. Ignore Rush Limbaugh – turn off the radio or enforce the Fairness Doctrine and a return to owner responsibility to the local community to provide a wide range of voices. Both items are still in the FCC rules.

2. Smack the GOP upside the head – have the Dem leadership explain “we gave them a chance and now we WILL do it our way…” Every time a Dem gets on a Sunday or Cable talk show and asked why they haven’t been “bi-partisan” they have to say “we gave them a chance and they refused to go along. If they want to participate our door is open but we won’t ask them any more because we don’t have to…” They need to say this EVERY FRICKING TIME when a microphone is shoved in their face. That’s how you frame a discussion.

3. If one of those Sunday or cable shows keep giving all the air time to the GOP refuse to accept an invite to one program as an example. Then hold a press conference outside the studio of that program and point out how one sided the talk shows are considering the reality outside the DC beltway.

4. Replace Senator Harry Reid with someone who will act like a majority leader in the Senate of the party with the majority. Maybe Reid just has a lot of lube left over from 2008?

I know it is hard to adapt to a new power structure but we need the Dems to learn fast and get on the stick or they will lose the chance the 2008 elections gave them.

Shocker! US House Republicans vote against stimulus bill

Just like knowing an episode of the TV show Three’s Company would involve a misunderstanding of some kind, Republicans in the US House voted against the $825 billion stimulus bill put forward by President Obama and the Democrats. This was even after Obama wined and dined them to join the cool kids hoping to save America. Instead they crapped in the leftovers and kicked the dog. Yes, classy.

Of course those of us outside the beltway bubble saw it coming especially after seeing video of House Minority Leader John Boehner giving his views on the plan:

What? Couldn’t understand him? Does it really matter?

The Democrats have the majority and the White House and they tried to bring the GOP along for the ride. They even threw some bones to them but again they crapped in the leftovers and kicked the dog.

Tax Cuts equals “Bad Faith Economics”

Back in my college days, I had a friend who I would debate various topics with on those late night study sessions in the study lounge. He use to drive me crazy because he would always take the opposite position and would never yield, compromise, or even acknowledge any of my points. No matter what evidence I provided he would refuse to accept it. These debates wouldn’t go anywhere because of his stubbornness but he enjoyed them. He would walk around for a few days with a smugness believing he bested me. That’s how it seems Congressional Republicans are acting over the proposed stimulus plan.

The GOP has always been factually challenged but is always a good read when someone points it out in a high profile publication like the New York Times.

Paul Krugman, professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University and who won the 2008 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, demolishes the current GOP talking points against the proposed stimulus plan. Let me stress. Paul Krugman is an expert in economics. It his job.

In his January 26th column he states:

As the debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the plan’s opponents aren’t arguing in good faith. Conservatives really, really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t want to see government activism vindicated. So they are reaching for any stick they can find with which to beat proposals for increased government spending.

Bad Faith Economics

He then went through the talking points and shreds them:

John Boehner, the House minority leader, calling the plan to “spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives” is simply a cheap shot and easily dismissed. The fact is the proposal is an expansion in the number of states that can use Medicaid money, with a federal match, to help low-income women prevent unwanted pregnancies, which would save the states $400 million.

The Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created? Nope. Closer to $100,000 and lower if you take into account the tax income from those new jobs.

It’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because taxpayers should decide how to spend their money? Krugman notes that a large percentage of any tax cut would be saved so spending on things like infrastructure will get more bang for the bucks. Increased tax revenue and increased spending in the private sector by the people with those created jobs will amplify the results. As an aside, the last tax cut Bush gave, when all of us got $600 or more in a check only created an infinitesimal ripple in the economy.

We should favor monetary policy over fiscal policy? Nope. Because interest rates are effectively zero right now. There are no more monetary tricks to pull out.

Krugman closes with a even more true fact facing the GOP. Obama won the election. The public has spoken.

We need better roads, bridges that don’t fall down, and school buildings that don’t make students sick. The LAST thing we need is a tax cut.

Proof Senate Republicans are douchebags and hate America

Late last night Republicans in the US Senate killed a bill that would provide a bridge loan to US automakers to prevent their collapse. What did they want in exchange for their vote? They wanted the UAW to make concessions on wages so that they make as much as workers in non-union foreign car plants that happened to be in the states many of the douchebags represent. How convenient.

Why do the Republicans hate America?

If the automakers fail next comes the suppliers then the suppliers of the suppliers and after any business dependant on car makers for their lively hood. You will see millions put out of work just so GOP douchebags can break a union.

Classy!!!

What ticks me off more is the GOP douchebags never demanded wage concessions from Wall Street when they voted to give it $700 Billion. 

Here is a list of Senators who voted for the Wall Street plan but voted against the automaker plan:

Bob Bennett, R-UT
Richard Burr, R-NC
Saxby Chambliss, R-GA
Tom Coburn, R-OK
Norm Coleman, R-MN
Bob Corker, R-TN
John Ensign, R-NV
Chuck Grassley, R-IA
Judd Gregg, R-NH
Orrin Hatch, R-UT
Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-TX
Johnny Isakson, R-GA
John Kyl, R-AZ
Mel Martinez, R-FL
John McCain, R-AZ
Mitch McConnell, R-KY
Lisa Murkowski, R-AK
John Thune, R-SD

Also note that Corker and McConnell have foreign owned car plants in their state so we know why they want to kill US automakers.

Job killing douchebags, every last one of them.

*Update* The douchebags even wrote out their plans to bust the union in a freaking memo!!!!

TV Networks have very short memory

John Amato points out on Crooks and Liars that since the election, the Sunday talk shows have returned to the usual conservative bias:

It’s no coincidence that right wing/Conservative guests far outnumber the left wing guests this week on the Sunday talkers. The country just rejected Conservatives and the entire GOP and gave Obama a complete mandate, but does that matter to the networks?

Atrios:

Highlighted this before, but on the teevee on Sunday we have:

7 Appearances by Republican current elected officeholders
3 Appearances by Democratic current elected officeholders.
2 Appearances by Republican former elected officeholders.
1 Appearance by a Bush Cabinet Secretary.
T. Boone Pickens
Ted Turner.

Right Wingers dominate the Sunday Talk Shows

So now we not only have the “how does this hurt Democrats” but now add “How does this help the GOP…”

(sigh)

That’s why I refuse to watch the Sunday Talk shows. Same old same old.