So Much for “Free” Ways…

Obama Administration sells out, will allow tolls to be collected for driving on interstate highways that have ALREADY been paid for by tax dollars.

Always Remember, Kids!

It’s not a “mandate” unless it includes a majority of white people, preferably white men!

Putin and the Right: Remember When?

The American Right Wing has always had a disturbing man-crush on Vladimir Putin, they just seem to have forgotten it lately. Even now, though, some like Cong. Mike Rogers can’t help slipping in a little praise for Putin as they bash Obama.

It Sucks To Be Boehner

John Boehner has, for all intents and purposes, been deposed by Ted Cruz as Speaker of the House in a (so far) bloodless coup. The Lunatic Fringe caucus of his party takes its orders from Cruz, leaving him powerless to extricate himself from the shutdown debacle Cruz got him into in the first place, even though he clearly has the votes to end this. How crazy is the Lunatic Fringe Caucus, you may ask? Crazy enough that even Grover “Drown the government in the bathtub” Norquist thinks they’re crazy. Uncharacteristically, Obama and the Democrats are standing firm and Republicans are taking huge hits in the polls. You have to work pretty hard at it to get a 10% approval rating. What’s the solution? If this trainwreck continues for a month, Democrats and a few sane Republicans can force a vote through a discharge petition, which will also likely be the final nail in the coffin of the Boehner speakership. It could also provide momentum for Democrats to retake the House, though they still have a high hurdle to overcome thanks to gerrymandering. Unless something changes dramatically, this seems like the most likely scenario to me.

 

Drifting Away

Does anyone, including President Obama, have any idea what he wants to accomplish in his second term?

Some Socialist!

How the Obama Administration protected Wall Street banksters from their richly-deserved prosecution.  If you really want to understand just how corrupt the American political system has become, this is a good lesson.  In the final analysis, money talks and bullshit walks.  As long as we continue to allow Wall Street to purchase our democracy, this is what we will continue to get, plutocracy.

Obama 2.0

Overall, a good speech. Surprisingly for the notoriously centrist Obama, it was an explicitly liberal/progressive speech, tagging formerly forbidden topics like gay marriage and climate change. This, combined with the generally more aggressive stance he’s taken since Election Day gives me a little more hope for the next four years.

Reality Bites

Very good article from the conservative press by former Reagan official Bruce Bartlett on why Republicans lost and are likely to keep losing. Spoiler alert: it’s because the inmates are running the asylum.

The Future of Math

If the Republic Party insists on continuing as the party of angry old white men, they are doomed.  And don’t blame the rednecks; privileged white kids at Ole Miss of all places shouted racist insults and burned Obama signs last night.  There is at least anecdotal evidence of other well-educated people giving themselves over to a sort of mass hysteria that simply would not exist if Obama was white guy Barry O’Toole from Schenectady.  I’ll talk about this at length more later, and let me emphasize that this is not an indictment of all Republicans as knuckle-dragging racists, but based upon the reactions I’ve seen so far I see little to no evidence that the GOP is in the mood for any sort of reflective soul-searching.

Now Let The Whining and Blame Throwing Begin!

Why Romney Lost:

1) He didn’t pretend hard enough to be conservative;
2) Hurricane Sandy only attacked white people;
3) Obama used his Satan powers to deceive nation;
4) Voters inspired by free giveaway of iPhone 5’s to Democrats;
5) Nominating a rich, elitist asshole after the largest economic meltdown in 70 years turned out not be the winning strategy heretofore imagined;
6) Influx of Muslim illegal alien voters from Mexico who voted with fake IDs