(Source: iheartchaos, via aimeenoodle)

Obama Wraps Up Midwest Bus Tour →

Politicians only do “Midwest” bus tours. No California bus tours, no Southern ones. The Midwest is the political version of the boy who “loves” you but really needs his space three weekends a month so he can vote for John McCain.

"When you watch Republican congressional stooges play out the desperate comedy of solving America’s deficit problems by making fewer photocopies of proposed bills, or by taking an ax to budgetary shrubberies like NPR or the SEC, remember Christy Mack and her fancy new carriage house. There is no belt-tightening on the other side of the tracks. Just a free lunch that never ends."

Matt Taibbi does the important work.

"Mr. Obama, speaking from the White House near midnight, said the two parties had worked together to produce “the largest annual spending cut in our history,” and that “both sides had to make tough decisions."

Some tough decision. I can’t even begin to express how disappointed I am in the Democratic Party this year. A few (small but significant) saves in exchange for continuing to wreck our economy and future as a favor to the wealthy. Just like December, just like this coming fall.

The only liberal thing about CPB is the word “Public”

While public radio and television cultural broadcasts often seem to attract a liberal audience, the news shows (even the local news here in the Bay Area) go out of their way to avoid even presenting anything to the left of “maybe we shouldn’t cut Social Security.”

All Things Considered has as it’s “liberal” commentator E.J. Dionne, who views it as a good thing that “As many Americans see [President Obama] as moderate as view him as a liberal.” They’re fetishists for the (constantly rightward-moving) center, like every outlet the right tries to slur with the “liberal media bias” tag.

So when Republicans make a lot of noise about defunding CPB, it’s just another way of pulling the political debate in this country further to the right. ATC, Morning Edition, and Marketplace will try even harder not to “appear” liberal, facts be damned, and eventually we’ll all forget that there ever was such a thing as an accurate presentation of the state of things.

Go donate to your local station. Center-obsessed as it is, we need the reasoned and serious presentation public broadcasting now has a monopoly on. And who else is going to broadcast fantastic hour-long programs like Sound Opinions, This American Life, Radiolab, or The Sound of Young America?

"If coal is so good for us hillbillies, then why are we so poor? We’re a colony here, and the coal companies rule."

Judy Bonds, environmental hero. She died of cancer January 4. Yesterday, the EPA revoked a Clean Water Act mining permit from Arch Coal, who would not use more expensive but less destructive mining techniques than mountain top removal .

A short video featuring [Homeland Security Secretary Janet] Napolitano will appear on TV screens at select checkout lanes, asking Wal-Mart shoppers to contact local law enforcement to report suspicious activity.

Wal-Mart and DHS are rolling out a “spy on your neighbor” PSA system at 588 stores. Gives me the creeps. I wonder what “suspicious activity in the parking lot or the store” was deemed worthy of the Secretary’s attention? It strikes me as a way of getting shoppers and local law enforcements to do Wal-Mart’s loss prevention for them.

Additionally, this made me very, very sad:

“Wal-Mart is a place where people gather, it’s a place where you sometimes see your neighbor the most,” Fogleman said.

The President’s Last Stand Is No Stand At All

robertreich:

The deal the President struck with Republican leaders is an abomination.

It will cost $900 billion over the next two years.

…

And for what?

Wealthy families won’t spend nearly as large a share of what they get out of this deal as will middle-class and working-class families, so it doesn’t do much to stimulate the economy.

…

House and Senate Democrats should reject this abomination.

The President should get himself new advisors. 

"[DADT] has worked well to allow people of faith to be able to serve in the military without feeling muzzled. What my chaplains are concerned about it is, will they still be able to preach from all of the scriptures in their role?"

Retired Army Chaplain Col. Ronald Crews, completely misunderstanding what it’s like to feel “muzzled” in the military.

Joan Walsh:

Let’s face it: Democrats got kind of lucky in 2006 and 2008. Republican incompetence and cronyism, a protracted, unpopular war and, finally, a terrifying economic meltdown gave the party control first of Congress and then of the White House.

That’s the kind of “luck” it takes to vote out an insane cabal of professional prudes and xenophobes? Might as well throw in the towel. The Democratic Party apparently can’t stand up for the bottom 80% of us with more passion than my baseball-coach economcs teacher brought to class. They can’t even muster a coherent defense of Nancy Pelosi, the most effective Speaker of the House of my lifetime. It’s pathetic.

Without serious and significant campaign finance reform (which the Soak the Poor Bloc on the Supreme Court seems unlikely to allow in the near future), they’ll remain beholden to the same financial aristocracy that controls the GOP. The public will continue to believe that their taxes went up this year instead of down. Everyone will admire Warren Buffett, but nobody will actually follow his recommendations.

For a look at how scared and craven the Democrats have become, listen to the second half of the This American Life episode “This Party Sucks”. Paul Begala tries to dress up their lack of organization and agreement as “independent thinking,” but it rings hollow.