JABbering Stooge

Given this fact:

Source: Steve Benen

Is it any surprise at all that this goes on?

Pulling a collective Rip Van Winkle, the White House press corps has awakened from its extended nap just in time to aggressively press the new Democratic administration, just as it dogged the last Democratic president during his first days in office back in the 1990s. Conveniently skipped over during the press corps’ extended bout of shut-eye? The Bush years, of course.

Suddenly revved up and vowing to keep a hawk-like watch on the Obama administration (“I want to hold these guys accountable for what they say and do” [Quote from ABC’s Jake Tapper. Why am I not surprised? — Ed.]) and all of a sudden obsessed with trivia, while glomming onto nitpicking, gotcha-style critiques, Beltway reporters have tossed aside the blanket of calm that had descended on them during the previous administration, a blanket of calm that defined their Bush coverage.

The normally-unflappable POTUS on the story in the New York Times that Wall Street rewarded its executive officers for running their companies into the ground to the tune of $18.4 billion:

You know, I’d be pissed, too. I mean, we gave these jokers $350 billion to, you know, actually help people harmed by the foreclosure and credit crises, and what do they do with the money? Buy more coprorate jets, reward CEOs for running their companies into the ground, lay off over 60K workers in one day and plot extortion against CEOs that don’t toe the fascist line.

Gitmo is too good for these economic terrorists.

Good riddance Blago. Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

Karl Rove, whitewashing Bush’s legacy in an op-ed in the Murdoch Street Journal:

Yet, as Mr. Bush left Washington, in a last angry frenzy his critics again distorted his record, maligned his character and repeated untruths about his years in the Oval Office. Nothing they wrote or said changes the essential facts.

To start with, Mr. Bush was right about Iraq. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein in power. And the former president was right to change strategy and surge more U.S. troops.

A legion of critics (including President Barack Obama) claimed it couldn’t work. They were wrong. Iraq is now on the mend, the war is on the path to victory, al Qaeda has been dealt a humiliating defeat, and a democracy in the heart of the Arab world is emerging. The success of Mr. Bush’s surge made it possible for President Obama to warn terrorists on Tuesday “you cannot outlast us.”

[…]

At home, Mr. Bush cut income taxes for every American who pays taxes. He also cut taxes on capital, investment and savings. The result was 52 months of growth and the strongest economy of any developed country.

Mr. Bush was right to match tax cuts with spending restraint. This is a source of dispute, especially among conservatives, but the record is there to see. Bill Clinton’s last budget increased domestic nonsecurity discretionary spending by 16%. Mr. Bush cut that to 6.2% growth in his first budget, 5.5% in his second, 4.3% in his third, 2.2% in his fourth, and then below inflation, on average, since. That isn’t the sum total of the fiscal record, of course — but it’s a key part of it.

He was right to have modernized Medicare with prescription drug benefits provided through competition, not delivered by government. The program is costing 40% less than projected because market forces dominate and people — not government — are making the decisions.

[…]

He was right to stand for a culture of life. And he was right to appoint conservative judges who strictly interpret the Constitution.

And Mr. Bush, a man of core decency and integrity, was right not to reply in kind when Democratic leaders called him a liar and a loser. The price of trying to change the tone in Washington was to be often pummeled by lesser men.

[…]

But despite facing challenges and crises few others have, the job did not break George W. Bush. Though older and grayer, his brows more furrowed, he is the same man he was, a person of integrity who did what he believed was right. And he exits knowing he summoned all of his energy and talents to defend America and advance its ideals at home and abroad. He didn’t get everything right — no president does — but he got the most important things right. And that is enough.

Why isn’t this Magnificent Bastard in jail for treason yet?

A plug for three pro-IDiot crockumentaries at Dumbski’s Crib:

Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson on “Stupid Design”:

Any questions?

Sidebar: Dr. Tyson is just plain awesome. Not only did he appear on The Colbert Report a record five times, but he got his Master’s degree from U. T. — Austin.

Tags: BPSDB

MSRNC: “Engineers give roads, other public works a ‘D’”

You know, when the Grumpy Old Psychiatrists who’ve been running things treat all infrastructure maintenance as so many Bridges to Nowhere (just like they’ve been treating the VA as yet another Big Gubmint handout to “lowlifes who don’t deserve it”), no one should be surprised when the backbone of our economy comes crashing down all around us.

A: If there’s an ellipsis in the quote, it’s probably mined.

En fuego, as always. Be sure to read the whole thing.

Congressman Boehner, Senator Cornyn, tear down this stonewall!

While everyone else has been having fun with Bill “Perpetually Wrong” Kristol’s final column for the New York Times, I would be remiss if I didn’t deal with this breathtaking bit of historical and economic fatuousness from ideological (and literal) cripple Charles Krauthammer on Fux News last Saturday:

Look, this is one of the worst bills in galactic history. It’s not only on the timing of it — as we saw from the Congressional Budget Office, more than half of the infrastructure stuff with the bridges and roads will not be spent until two years hence when the recession will be likely over or coming out of it, and it will only add to inflation, not jobs.

Umm, Charles? Funding infrastructure maintenance creates construction jobs, which in turn feed money to the contractor supply companies, which can then afford to hire people, who can then feed and clothe themselves, stimulating those industries, and on and on… Is any of this getting through to you?

No? Then think about it this way. Crumbling infrastructure is part of the problem with keeping our status as the world’s #1 economy. Remember the I-35W bridge collapse? One of the main reasons why that was such a major news item is that it was a major means of transporting goods into and out of Minneapolis. With that vital link gone, it suddenly became a lot harder (read: more expensive) to bring stuff into and take it out of Minneapolis, which put a serious dent in the local economy. And since Minneapolis is a major city, it’s a major player in the national economy. In other words, when Minneapolis suffers, America suffers.

And galactic history, Chuckles? Seriously. Galactic history? How’s that comment going to look when we’re up on the galactic stage having a huge prick-waving contest with the rest of the aliens?

Well, yeah, Zort. Did you hear about that Earthling named Krauthammer who said that his leader’s economic stimulus policy was one of the worst in galactic history? It couldn’t have been worse than Zarthog the Flatulent squandering the lives of 1,000,000 Gvoontlings in the War of Primus XII!

You get the idea. Meanwhile, let’s deal with the rest of Krauthammer’s tripe.

This bill has a fifth of a billion for grass at the Jefferson Memorial. FDR left behind the Hoover Dam and Eisenhower left behind the Interstate Highway System. We will leave behind, after spending $1 trillion, a dog run in East Potomac Park.

See, this is why I created the category “You Fail Economics Forever” — anyone who paid attention in Econ 101 will tell you that the very foundation of modern industrial society is the infrastructure used to produce widgets. You have to invest in capital projects in order to produce commodities that people want. The electric grid to power factories, the machines to make the products, the roads to transport raw materials to factories and finished goods to market — all of it is absolutely vital for businesses to not just merely survive, but thrive. It’s the sine qua non of an industrial society, and Krauthammer snidely dismisses it all as so many Bridges to Nowhere™.

Seriously. Dude, go back to psychology. You’d be much happier there. And more successful.