What Will The Children Think?
One of the things that makes NewsBusters one of the most consistently entertaining sites anywhere on the Intertubes is that Bozell’s crack investigators are, well, blazingly incompetent and frequently wind up as the victims of their own investigation. I mean if Newsbusters did that child predator show on Dateline, they would catch themselves on their own set after long and steamy cyberchats with their own bait.
So, not surprisingly, hilarious mistakes were inevitable when NewsBlusterer Noel Sheppard got a good whiff of some of the right-wing’s favorite catnip, Obama’s teleprompter, the so-called TOTUS that tells Obama what to say whether he wants to or not. According to Noel, Obama used the TOTUS while addressing a bunch of sixth-graders. “How many of the children sitting in that room wondered why they have to memorize speeches they give to the class, but the most powerful man in the world got to not only use notes, but a teleprompter?” Sheppard fumes from his spittle-flecked laptop. How many wondered “why Obama comes to the meeting in a bullet-proof limousine when they have to ride in Mom’s four-year-old Ford Focus?” “Why does Obama get to meet with world leaders but we only get to meet with some member of city council on Civic Participation Day?” “Why does he make a huge salary, and we only get a cheap-ass weekly allowance?”
But my point isn’t really that the question Sheppard imagines is blindingly idiotic and that even the least intelligent sixth-graders would have understood why the most powerful man in the world would get to do some things that they don’t. It’s the same as the punchline to the joke about why a dog licks his balls. Because he can. Because the most powerful man in the world, as a tautological necessity, gets to do whatever he wants.
The real point here, however, is that Obama didn’t use the TOTUS with the elementary school kids but instead used it later during a press availability, something the media watch-hyenas over at NewsBusters would have found out for themselves if they had done something that real reporters do every day: pick up a telephone and make a call, rather than just sitting in their cubicles at Media Research Center with theirs trousers around their ankles doing the fappity-fappity to pin-up posters of Sarah Palin in running clothes and publicity stills of Scott Baio as Chachi Arcola. Fuck it — they didn’t even have to pick up a phone. All they had to do was mosey over to WhiteHouse.gov and see a video of Obama addressing the kiddies with TOTUS nowhere in sight.
Well, at some point even the NewsBlusters couldn’t ignore the damning video of Obama sans prompter and were forced to own up to their mistake make up some hare-brained rationale as to why they were right in the first place.
Students and teachers might still have been in the room for the President’s statement to the press, correct?
And Noel might also have a cause of action against the surgeon that might have removed 90 percent of Sheppard’s cerebral cortex when he took Sheppard’s tonsils out all those years ago. Not to mention what some surgeon might have done to Sheppard when Sheppard got the tip of his johnson nicked off right after he was born.
Oh, and Noel wasn’t the only person who got run over by his own short bus. Perfesser MiniInstaHickWannabee Jacobson did too.
I loved TOTUS in the Wizard of Oz.
Wasn’t Noel ordered to stay 100ft. away from what children think?
Well, when your head’s so far up your ass, as in the case of Sheppard, then it’s hard to tell the difference between a Telepromtr and the lack thereof.
W@ke Up ShEeples!!!11111!!! TelePromptErs!!!1111!!!! My pet goat, etc.
Publicity stills of Scott Baio as Chachi Arcola are greatly over-rated.
It’s upsetting to be first, but to have said something completely inane due to the pressure associated with a shot at that vital opening position in the comments. I admit to having succumbed to this enthusiasm, to the detriment of the thread. Please accept my apologies.
If I’d allowed myself the time to think things over, I’d have said something much cleverer, like “Toot toot! Here comes the train! Chuffa-chuffa-chuffa toot toot! Over the teeth, past the gums, look out, stomach, here it comes!”
But I didn’t. Regret is a bitter scourge.
No, that POTUS didn’t use TOTUS with the children but with the media is central to his point. Obambi is setting a poor example for the nation’s media stars who might start using teleprompters themselves.
Bozell’s crack investigators are, well, blazingly incompetent and frequently wind up as the victims of their own investigation.
Well, I never imagined that being one of Brent’s proctologists was a glamorous job*, but that sounds rather messy.
(*Considering how often they have to pull his head outta there, there are ample opportunities for face time, I suppose.)
What makes it extra speshul is the post’s title: “Please tell me this is not so”
Because I’m too lazy to check it out myself. I know better than to rely on some other lazy-assed whinger’s “reporting” but I can’t resist the opportunity to make a fool of myself.
Fucking fuckety fucked Worpress FUCK YOU!
What makes it extra speshul is the post’s title: “Please tell me this is not so”
Because I’m too lazy to check it out myself. I know better than to rely on some other lazy-assed whinger’s “reporting” but I can’t resist the opportunity to make a fool of myself.
FYWP
OMG! Obama’s a pedophile hitting on sixth graders!!!
UPDATE: Oh, that’s quote’s from when Obama was talking to the press afterwards. The joke was about all the serious and growed-up press corps folks sitting in the desks of sixth graders. Well, um – yeah that makes sense…BUT it doesn’t disprove the claim that Obama is actually a child predator hungry for sixth graders to fulfill is perverse appetite.
I did eventually click through, knowing the results would be measured in blood. And it really is quite extraordinary how fixated they are on teleprompters, as if these devices were somehow inherently evil. It would be like deciding that microphones with foam pop filters on them are effeminate, or speeches delivered behind a podium are damning because the podium is there to hide the blowjob machine.
I’m tempted to compose an ode:
Bozell, sans scrotium
Directed his odium
At some negro POTUS
Whose pendulous scrotus
Was partly obscured by the podium.
Thank you. I’ll be signing tee-shirts after the show.
Bozell’s first problem was assuming that a bunch of 12-year-old children were as self-absorbed and misanthropic as he is. It follows logically from there.
Oh, wait, it was Sheppard. Really, who gives a fuck.
Scott Baio’s best role was Bob Loblaw. Bob Loblaw no habla Espanol.
Where were these folks when Bush was President?
Where were they during the 2004 debates when Bush VERY CLEARLY had a personal in-ear monitor set up so that Karl Rove or whoever could feed him lines?
I’m sure that was the Year of Teh Ghey Tehreat so they were busy having a hissy-fit about something else that year.
Whatever. Who takes these assclowns seriously anymore?
It’s like he’s too elitist to use the notes he scribbled hastily on the back of a cocktail napkin.
What, speechwriters? An absurd extravagance.
BUT it doesn’t disprove the claim that Obama is actually a child predator hungry for sixth graders to fulfill is perverse appetite.
It only proves that Obama thought that the reporters were sixth-graders, using the argument from NBMISTI that has proved so valuable in recent months, e.g.,
“No Black Man is Smarter Than I
A black man is president
ergo, I’m smarter than the president”
or,
“No Black Man is Smarter Than I
I thought that the president was speaking to children
the president is a black man
ergo, the president thought that he was speaking to children”
The possibilities are endless!
Slippy said:
Where were they during the 2004 debates when Bush VERY CLEARLY had a personal in-ear monitor set up so that Karl Rove or whoever could feed him lines?
It’s the old “attack-him-on-his-strengths” idea left over from the Rovian era. But it’s such a petty foible they chose. It’s like the group blasting him for smoking because they imagine that all liberals everywhere hate smokers.
Where were they during the 2004 debates when Bush VERY CLEARLY had a personal in-ear monitor set up so that Karl Rove or whoever could feed him lines?
That the entire media had this pointed out to them and decided to pooh pooh it as a “conspiracy theory” was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen them wish away. Even Jon Stewart wouldn’t touch this one.
Notes?? Notes contain words which are the things that liberals manipulate because they’re haughty. He should’ve picked up the podium and thrown it out the window, because the country needs a man of action.
I know. Not only was the wire visible running up his back, but his behavior made it clear that he was listening to someone that nobody else could see, and furthermore, it’s not like it’s some Star Trek fucking technology — musicians have used PIMs for DECADES now. They are very easy to procure and use.
It’s also an old televangelist trick. I forget which one was “miraculously” knowing details about audience members brought out on stage, but it turned out to be an earpiece and his wife reading information from questionaires the dupes filled out to be in the audience.
So yeah, it was hardly far fetched that after two abysmally stupid performances, Bush’s team got desperate and resorted to that in order to at least have him occasionally seem coherent or knowledgable about anything.
True men don’t speak with words. Words are empty. Words are without weight. True men, and therefore Real Americans, speak with their fists.
Of course, it makes novels quite difficult to get through.
It’s like he’s too elitist to use the notes he scribbled hastily on the back of a cocktail napkin.
Well, that was the source of conservative economic theory for decades!
Where were they during the 2004 debates when Bush VERY CLEARLY had a personal in-ear monitor set up so that Karl Rove or whoever could feed him lines?
That wasn’t a PIM, it was a pacemaker for his brain.
Yeah, but it wasn’t The Laffer Set of Words, it was the Laffer Curve. Which means a drawing. So, not elitist. And also too.
Cheney of course, was able to speak extemperaneously on any subject at great length, and in many tongues by virtue of his demonic possession. Legion’s been around a long time and knows a lot of shit. Dude can handle a crowd.
help
Drawings aren’t elitist?
You know who drew stuff? Hitler. And Obama has already given up on trying to draw and moved straight to words, which makes him Double Hitler.
As for Bush, there is a reason shit like this was written and found entertaining at the time, and it wasn’t because he was known for being loquacious and mellifluent. You knew he was using a teleprompter when he didn’t sound like Sarah Palin.
How many wondered “why Obama comes to the meeting in a bullet-proof limousine when they have to ride in Mom’s four-year-old Ford Focus?”
“How come Obama gets to watch ‘Lost’ without doing his homework first? How come Obama doesn’t have to finish all his lima beans? Why doesn’t Obama have to take the trash out every night?”
And Obama has already given up on trying to draw and moved straight to words, which makes him Double Hitler.
And who ELSE was all about using words and shit?
George Bernard Shaw, that EVIL DOUBLE DOUBLE HITLER!
EXCELLENT NEWS, AROO, AROO, BREAKING!!!!1!!1!!:
Michele Bachmann is going to release her own version of health care reform.
At the center of her “market-based” proposal is of course a terrible misunderstanding of the market, that tax exemptions for private health insurance would improve costs.
Carefully done drawings with a lot of thought put into them are elitist. Drawings done quickly or with very little thought behind them — i.e., an Eagle crying over the Twin Towers with Lynrd Skynrd playing in the background while F-22’s fly over with hands coming out flying the big middle finger to… Where was I?
Noel Sheppard would probably fall asleep in the middle of a Turing test ’cause he stayed up all night studying for it.
At the center of her “market-based” proposal is of course a terrible misunderstanding of the market, that tax exemptions for private health insurance would improve costs.
No, be serious. Don’t tease us like that.
Michele Bachmann is going to release her own version of health care reform.
Let me guess – the “Bandaids For Bozos” program?
That was Peter Popoff, debunked by James Randi in 1983. He of course is still a major huckster and hasn’t let a little thing like being a complete and utter fraud dissuade him from a life of hucksterism.
I guess people who are otherwise completely useless need a place too. I just wish it was WELL BEHIND the position in line that formerly employed auto workers and IT technicians are standing in. Like, maybe Popoff could get the crumbs of the crumbs after they’ve been eaten.
It was invisible. But it was there. It was. It was. Teleprompter! Teleprompter!
Michelle Bachmann has already released an economic plan in which the Congress votes for ‘prosperity’.
So, get ready for the Bachmann AMERICA SHOULD PROSPERITY bill which will mandate that America will succeederize in the prosperitation.
* Single quotes added to transcript.
OT, check out this NY Times magazine profile of Charles Johnson. Turns out the guy was in some ways saner than I thought, in other ways, crazier.
BACHMANN: I voted for prosperity.
Aren’t Libertarian fucknozzles like Michelle always claiming it’s not goverment that produces wealth?
So what the hell is she talking about? Does she even know?
I just voted for a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich, but, alas, I do not have one now. Perhaps some unAmerican jerk is filibustering me.
“get ready for the Bachmann AMERICA SHOULD PROSPERITY”
Accompanied by her new book, “I Can Prosperity and So Should You.”
Michele Bachmann is going to release her own version of health care reform.
FOAD, IGM.
Ben Shapiro on Peter Jackson:
Ben Shapiro is an asshat. “King Kong” was a great movie.
Peter Jackson uses too many pastel colors.
Unsurprisingly, the giggling gaggle of gross Obots here at Sadly, O!, will defend their Thief in Chief to the ends of the earth, ignoring how everyone sane and solid Blue realizes what a fraud this Preznit is…how he requires a teleprompter to even think, how he has sold out his Pathetic Party and more importantly, those millions of cracks in the ceiling that wanted and deserved Hillary, that true Blue leader of real Appalachian Reagan Democrats, and who have in turn run away from Obummer like he’s a sinking ship, which he of course is, a fact repeated by me and other true Blue Democrats on this wretched blog two years ago. Listen to me now, Obots, and realize the true folly of your beloved messi-duh.
Accompanied by her new book, “I Can Prosperity and So Should You.”
How do you do strikeout on this site? Anyway, strike out “Should You” and replace with “Can I.”
Fxxt.
Also, I love how you’re taking out your misogyny and bitter hatred out on Ms. Bachmann; no, we don’t see how much you fear her excellent leadership, no not at all, Obots.
I had some wingnut call out the teleprompter thing on a message board I go to sometimes. The smackdown went down pretty much the same as it did here, and it was epic.
I just voted for a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich, but, alas, I do not have one now. Perhaps some unAmerican jerk is filibustering me.
You should thank that jerk. That shit killed Elvis. (Although the drugs didn’t help.)
Abybody wanna take bets on how long we would have to ignore Iris before she starts praising the leadership of Elizabeth Báthory just to get our attention?
Not in the least.
taking out your misogyny and bitter hatred out on Ms. Bachmann
She stops acting like a clown, and we’ll stop laughing at her.
Until then…
The
striketag has to be spelled out in full. A simple s won’t work. If six letters is too many, I believe thedeltag works as well.Of course, the ever-sneaky WP lets you see it work with an s in preview, don’t it?
Somebody say “clown?”
a fact repeated by me
…the fact that is mine, MY FACT!
Oh, good, Iris is here.
I believe Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy to be the finest directorial effort of all time, surpassing even Citizen Kane.
Hell, I don’t think it’s Jackson’s finest directorial effort.
VB needs to get out more often.
I use the del tag, as in
TroofieIris is a crank.You should thank that jerk. That shit killed Elvis. (Although the drugs didn’t help.)
Besides being fat, white, male, aging, pop stars hooked on a perpetual cycle of uppers and downers, the peanut butter and banana sandwiches are about the only thing Elvis and I have in common. So I’m not all that worried about it.
But, FWIW, I think Elvis liked his deep fried, not grilled.
OTea, but Tea Hee Hee
Wazzup cocksuckers! Just chillin’ on the motherfuckin’ boat. Guess what you fuckin’ brokedick dogs? I got mine. Eazy Ezra here got his. Lloyd “God’s Work” Blankfein is here with us, sippin’ Crys and smokin’ blunts coz he got his. Now we’re gonna freeze spending. How does my piss taste, loyal looney libs? Have a nice fuckin’ night and don’t forget to donate to the party or you’ll get Bush again.
Only $100K for the Grifter Queen to make the Tea Party splooge? A bargain!!!
Do I sense a disturbance in teh force? I love watching Real Americans learn that getting reamed by capitalist money-grubbers isn’t always the best option. Like watching a baby take his first steps.
don’t forget to donate to the party or you’ll get Bush again.
shit, the inmates are taking over the asylum, so we WILL get Bush again, and it doesn’t seem that you fuckin Democrats can stop it, so fuck you, I’ll keep my money for drugs and drink, thank you very much.
Oh, and Rahm? Eat a bag of dicks. while standing under a bag of hammers.
That was Peter Popoff, debunked by James Randi in 1983. He of course is still a major huckster and hasn’t let a little thing like being a complete and utter fraud dissuade him from a life of hucksterism.
Well, it doesn’t hurt that there is a distressingly large subset of self-proclaimed Christians for whom the injunction “be in this world but not of it” got turned into “create our own little bubble sealed off from the world, with occasional poachings of the cheesier pop culture that we can ‘Christianize’.”
It’s quite probable that many of Popoff’s flock never heard about the debunking and so can be sheared for years to come.
A bit OT, but I just thought of an awesome toilet picture you could use: check out this Monty Python sketch, The Most Awful Family in Britain. It’s got a nice shot of Terry Jones sitting on a toilet, holding a cereal box that bears the legend “Free Inside: The Pope”.
” Obama has already given up on trying to draw and moved straight to words, which makes him Double Hitler.”
I Double Hitler dare you to put your tongue on that pole!
Burt Prelutsky:
You can laugh if you want but Obama has done much that Hitler and Stalin have he wants our freedom, he can’t have it. USA Heartland is fighting back!
Shutup Iris, you obviously don’t understand misogyny since you suck the very dick of it by voting Republican.
Now you could say that misogyny cuts across party lines and I’d tend to agree, but where we seem to part and I keep my feminist chops and you are left looking on the ground, wondering why they aren’t mixed in with the semen spittle dripping from your mouth, like you were told there would be, is because I can understand the big picture and you can’t.
So you keep going there girl, you git yours while you can, where ever you can, because there’s no service for girls who don’t give good service in the Republican party.
My friends, Iris is an in-joke that rubes fall for.
he tode us there was a TOTUS
in the face of the POTUS
we took the word as truth
gullible like the youth
some say stupid
How uncouth!
We took the word as truth
we are the investigators
we thought about plenty
in the building elevators
we pondered and we plundered
our under drawers asunder
we sent our invoices in
to the mighty wingnut welfare king
and thus another story was born
of pubic hairs ripped and torn
of endless cyber porn
between heated investigatory yorn
he tode us there was a TOTUS
who was I to know it was bogus?
My friends, Iris is an in-joke that rubes fall for.
Bullshit. That Iris is the real deal and must be countered with authority.
I still think the square box on Bush’s back was not a radio but a TENS machine, its electrical stimulus subbing for the massive amounts of narcotic analgesics which he normally used to endure chronic pain from an old cheerleading injury (themselves a substitute for the alcohol and cocaine he used prior to that).
What, you think he would babble like that if he weren’;t doped up and also in constant pain? I think that’s the best possible explanation for 2001-2008.
babble
it still sounded too much like english to suit my tastes. we need a president who speaks in tongues and brandishes snakes on stage
The State of the Unquiet Spirits Address, delivered to the Congress of the United Snakes
You misspelled “garnishes”.
USA HEARTLAND!!!!
Think about this, Libs — anagrams for “USA heartland” include:
Atlas Unheard (We ignore Rand at our peril)
Satan Had Rule (Sound very much like Obama to me)
A Heard Sultan (Sounds very much like Obama to me)
A Tundra Shale (Canada’s oil sands)
Tan Slur Ahead (What we’re about to call Obama)
And finally, a fine description of Glenn Beck:
Herald At Anus
BOOKMARK IT!
How could I have been so blind?
You misspelled “garnishes”.
i meant like Marlon Brandish
Second Non-Lester, I tip my hat to you. Or should I say, I potty, you I math.
Geez, Iris, act like a lady, would you? Just once, is all I ask.
So, you tip your hat, do you, Felonious Monk? Or should I say…
Folk Onion Muse???
I think we all know who you REALLY are.
“It’s quite probable that many of Popoff’s flock never heard about the debunking and so can be sheared for years to come.”
As we say around here, sadly, no! As I recall at the time Popoff’s flock was shown the video tape and the audio of him being coached and they still believed in him. I think it was Freud who said that “God is invisible”. Meaning that one’s ideology renders itself invisible to you. Someone can wave conclusive proof you are wrong right in your face and you will never see it.
We see this today on Wall Street where despite the total collapse of neoliberal economic ideology people still act as thought markets are self regulating and the administration is blindly following them by freezing government spending in the middle of a recession. So I wouldn’t laugh too hard at the fundies.
Welcome to the great depression 2.0. Bigger and badder then you can imagine.
You can laugh if you want but Obama has done much that Hitler and Stalin have
Why yes. Hitler and Stalin both breathed oxygen and walked upright. Both were known to wear pants.
The resemblance is uncanny!
The Noel with no soul has the notion full of poison.
The POTUS with the TOTUS has view that is true.
Major Kong, you lie! Stalin never wore pants. Look at the photographs — he wears a garment resembling culottes, sometimes a kilt, and occasionally a full-length ball gown in woolen twill with red silk trim, such as during his October Revolution speech in Red Square on Nov. 7, 1941. Google it.
Lenin wore pants, sometimes capri pants in the summer, but always trousers with legs. Hitler of course wore pants, and towards the end, sometimes two pairs of pants, the innermost pair back-to-front. Evidence of this can be found in these books:
• Kubizek, A. (1976). The Young Hitler I Knew. Greenwood Pub Group. ISBN 0-8371-8664-1
• Waite, R. (1993). The Psychopathic God: Adolf Hitler. Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80514-6
• Knuckles, P. (1964). Recipes From Hitler’s Kitchen. Random House. ISBN 0-2343-88780-5
So can someone get those Crack Investigators over at NewsThrusters working a bit harder? Maybe they could even try cutting his crack with drywall or baby-powder instead of powdered mercury?
kthxbye
First they came for the crones of chaos, and I did not speak out because I was not a crone of chaos;
Then they came for the thunderhawks, and I did not speak out because I was not a thunderhawk;
Then they came for the bugbears, and I did not speak out because I was not a bugbear;
Then they came for the elf warmages, and I did not speak out because I was not an elf warmage;
Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.
Oh. Elf. War. Mage. (Thought it was a recipe for a moment, & I’m hatin’ cold elves.)
I Double Hitler dare you to put your tongue on that pole!
You’re on!!!!
Noen, I just heard about it. Here’s the article, for anyone interested.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/us/politics/26budget.html?hp
I’ve been rationalizing and explaining away all the seemingly conservative and regressive actions the Prez has been taking. I’ve been very patient, and tried to calm those who weren’t. I can’t accept this. Obama is a spineless, gutless coward, willing to sell out the American people to please a bunch of idiot deficit hawks who will never support him anyway. Mr. President, assuming you follow through on this, go fuck yourself. I’m tired of making excuses for you, and you won’t be getting my vote in 2012.
If you microwave ’em make sure to pop a hole in ’em first.
Well, at least we can see both of Noel’s hands, so there’s that…
That may be so, non-Lester, my friend. Or should I say, Hep Tete Gonad Lesson Incarnate.
I’m with Felonious. Obama seems to think we (his real base) are as stupid as his enemies in the Republican base — and yet them, he treats with love! I’m ill from it. Bring on the trolls, I’m agreeing with them from now on.
Oh wait, now I see Felonious M. outed me like Troofie outed himself in the previous thread. Damn you, I AM Hep Tete Gonad Lesson Incarnate!
I mean, what’s the sort of procedure for that thing? Does it have to pass congress? Because I don’t think it would-even Blue Dogs love their pork. Or is it some sort of executive order? I mean, Jesus Fucking Christ on a stick, I wouldn’t have expected this shit out of Bush. I sent him an e-mail, just to do something, but don’t accuse me of thinking I can change things. I guess the best thing I can do is find a good liberal third party to get behind.
Well fuck, man. I’m about done with Obama myself. Spineless fucker.
OK, now that I’ve had a slight chance to calm down, three things.
I still don’t believe that, in his heart of hearts, Obama is a conservative. I do, however, think that he’s so much of a cowardly idiot, a slave to conventional wisdom, and an obsessive about bipartisanship that it doesn’t make a difference.
I do think this move might make him more popular with all the “thoughtful independents”-you know the type. Unfortunately, it will fail, and all those thoughtful independents will turn on him, because that’s what they do, to the closest Dem they can find.
I’m still hoping for a ray of sunshine, that it’s not as much of a freeze as it sounds like, or Congress will vote it down, or there will be such a huge backlash on the left that he’ll have to reconsider. Yeah, I’m still the fucking eternal optimist even when I’m proclaiming doom, but I can’t come to grips with this story being as horrifying as it sounds, and will spend the next few days looking for an escape hatch.
“So yeah, it was hardly far fetched that after two abysmally stupid performances, Bush’s team got desperate and resorted to that in order to at least have him occasionally seem coherent or knowledgable about anything.”
…and once they figure out a way to insert a chip in Sarah Palin’s brain, Brown/Palin 2012 will be a lock.
I mean, what’s the sort of procedure for that thing? Does it have to pass congress?
It would be how he structures the budget for negotiations with Congress. Ezra Klein discusses it a little bit here.
But look, let’s drop all the bullshit, we know we are not deficit hawk wankers here. But we also know that the government wastes a lot of fucking money on some serious bullshit. I’d rather seem him cut it from the military of course, but I think even President Jesus would have a hard time doing that. If Obama really could squeeze that waste out, it would be same as a ‘spending freeze.’ We also know that the awful deficits that are being run up over time hardly pay for a high quality of life anymore. Its the fucking third world in a lot of this country, so why run up a deficit for it anymore? Christ, I’d pay twice as much in taxes if it was actually spent of infrastructure and universal health care. But no one will raise taxes, the money is being wasted, we are going to drown in debt in the not too distant future, so we might as well spend less money.
“I do think this move might make him more popular with all the “thoughtful independents”-you know the type.”
You mean the fecking morons who elected him on a “fix the economy!” platform and then rallied around the GOP less than half a year later to say “stop spending our money!” Those guys?
At this point, these people piss me off more than the GOP. Say what you want about conservatives (or liberals), at least they have some kind of a coherent set of ideas. But the independents, the people with no ideas at all, endlessly flapping in the wind, changing their positions on issues faster than you can say “flip-flop,” drawn to whatever newest political movement can distract them with the most shiny colors and soothing tones… I actually find them even more infuriating. And that small 10% or less of the voter bloc is what controls our elections. Man, our future is not looking good.
Whatever the saying is: If you’re so stupid you can’t make up your mind, or grasp concepts beyond hot & cold, no one should be paying any attention to you, independent clowns.
Yes, Chris, those morons. I’m not agreeing with them, only predicting their actions.
I know you weren’t. Just letting off steam – sorry if it came off otherwise.
“I’m still hoping for a ray of sunshine, that it’s not as much of a freeze as it sounds “
This appears to be the case. It would seem from reading on TPM that it won’t be an across the board freeze but that some programs will see a cut and others a raise and general spending will rise.
I was basing my worry on front pagers at DailyKos but TPM seems to have a better idea of what is really going on. Even then it’s all guesswork until it’s announced. I think it’s too soon to panic.
(where have I heard that before?)
But we also know that the government wastes a lot of fucking money on some serious bullshit.
Specific examples? Bonus points if it’s wasteful spending by a federal agency or “program” (the definition of which I do not know), as mentioned in the NYT article.
Super duper bonus points if it’s something that can be realistically cut. Farm subsidies probably aren’t going anywhere. Neither is, say, the inability of Medicare to negotiate drug prices.
Even most “pork”, which would seem to fall outside this freeze, is genuine economic stimulus, albeit imperfectly allocated. Waste? Meh, I say.
Newsbusters, The Onion. The line blurs into hilarity.
I can’t sleep. Between clinging to my shitty, meaningless, degrading job, and watching the nation hurtle down the money sewer, I’ve got nothin’ left. It’s 4:40 AM in Los Angeles, I’ve been up all night reading the Supreme decision to make corporate personhood into something even more super awesome and working on my resume, and the pursuit of happiness is simply out of reach.
Somebody send a troll on here, we’re getting too sincere and revealing about our personal fears.
At least it’s going to rain later.
U-S-A!
Someone can wave conclusive proof you are wrong right in your face and you will never see it.
bit like being a republican or conservative
I gotta admit, it’s getting a bit tiring getting stabbed in the face all the time. I’d been hoping maybe Obama could see about getting my face stabbed a bit less, but it seems like he’s increasing the face-stabbing. I guess it’s important to appeal to the politicians and pundits who like to see people get stabbed in the face, even though those politicians and pundits will eventually stab him in the face.
Maybe getting stabbed in the face is the American dream…
Somebody send a troll on here, we’re getting too sincere and revealing about our personal fears.
How about a drama hamster?
~
Wow. Krugman firebags Obama.
Brutal.
But no one will raise taxes, the money is being wasted, we are going to drown in debt in the not too distant future, so we might as well spend less money.
But that’s backwards. If we’re going to drown in debt anyway, SPEND THE DAMN MONEY; someone will get some benefit. Spending is inherently stimulative.
All the freezes and deficit hawkery does is allow more tax breaks for rich fuckers. see the last forty years.
I also don’t see where the waste is, other than the military and Congressional healthcare. LaFollette used to do the Golden Fleece award, and it was always some program that amounted to $20,000 or $50,000 somewhere; doesn’t even add up to a rounding error. Thirty years of cutting programs has made them all anemic, which is I guess part of the goal. I too wish the Dems wouldn’t play along with this. The Depression and the destruction of WW2 were not repaired by deficit hawkery.
I say, screw all the creditors and bring on some Zimbabwean style hyperinflation. we could all pay off the national debt out of pocket change and have money left over for a snickers bar.
OK, I’ll be the troll (just this once, then I’ll need to go take a shower. You all owe me):
Oh, you’re all so precious, I could just eat you libs up with a spoon! How adorable to see you all sitting around stamping your feet and huffing about how Obama has let you all down, and he won’t get your vote anymore, and those cowardly Dems won’t get any of your money, no sir! I tell you, it’s so cute! Let me get the camera, I want to put this in your baby books! All dressed up like grownups with your stuffed animals sitting around the table, and your allowance money stacked up all neat like that–just precious!
Now either grow the fuck up or go on back to bed now, kids, the adults don’t have time to play games right any more. The Supreme court has made official what we have known all along–politics in this country is completely controlled by corporate money. It always has been, of course, but now we don’t have to pretend anymore. You kids are old enough now to stop believing in fairy rainbow gumdrop unicorns now.
Your vote, and your pathetically miniscule little campaign donations and your letters to Santa were cute, but it’s time to join the real world now. Every dime you have saved, added together with every dollar you will ever earn in your life, and that of everyone in your family, your friends, your enemies and every one else you have ever known or will ever meet doesn’t add up to a dry fart in a high wind next to what the corporations are going to put on the table. If Exxon decides to invest just 2% of its annual profits in political races this year (raise you hand if you believe they won’t think this is a good investment–anone? Good, you;re learning! It will be more money that what was spent by the Obama and McCain campaigns in 2008 combined!
So, fine, keep your babysitting money in your Buzz Lightyear coin bank, and cast your vote for Ralph, or Cynthia, or Dennis, or Pat Fucking Paulson. It’s a “protest” with about as much clout as a boycott of Wal-Mart by the Poughkeepsie Lyons Club because they stopped selling Necco Wafers. I hope it makes you all feel better, but the reality is Democracy is over. It was fun while it lasted, we had some great times, a lot of fun pictures for the scrapbooks and all, but it was only a matter of time until the real power–the only real power that has ever existed, really–wealth–came back to tell us all to put away the toys and get. Back. To. Work.
Funny, Steerpike, I didn’t think the gun barrel would taste so oily….
Ooh, that was excellent, Steerpike. Now spank me.
Allow me to add to the first analogy (since your examples are benefits of presidency relative to childhood rather than activities of presidency relative to schoolwork).
“Why is the President allowed to have an entire bureaucracy do the math in his budget when I have to figure out my own home economics budget on my own?”
Given the second piece of reasoning (that because there might have been students or teachers present when he later used the teleprompter) I believe we can prove that Brent Bozell has sex with goats.
First, Brent Bozell has sex with goats.
Lacking evidence of this I can assert that he definitely has had sex [no video, but if he’s married, we can take suppose he is performing his divinely mandated husbandly duties]. There might have been goats present between Bozell and his wife.
Therefore Bozell has sex with goats.
And finally, for more fun:
“Obama urinated during the State of the Union! [Video does not show this.] Well, Obama might have gone to the congressional bathroom after the State of the Union and urinated, and there might have been some representatives present, so he urinated during the State of the Union.”