Lawrence O'Donnell Has Kids To Feed

As President Obama hastily called a press conference yesterday to try to tap down the liberal backlash against his "compromise", I shared an e-mail with my father predicting that primetime MSNBC hosts would have their pitchforks out. That is exactly what happened:

Olbermann CRUSHES Obama in Special Comment

Maddow argues Obama is on road to irrelevance

However, it turned out I was not entirely correct. Lawrence O'Donnell was a dissenting voice who thinks Obama made the best deal at the right time. He took a stance that it would be Armageddon to let tax rates go back to the Clinton rates on January 1st.

Am I the only one who thinks that O'Donnell just got a new primetime hosting gig (probably with a nice fat pay raise) and now he is looking out for the pocketbook of Lawrence O'Donnell?

And I was especially perturbed by his Rewrite segment where he slammed our least favorite pelican enemy, Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La). O'Donnell said:

(Landrieu) was one of the few Democrats in the senate who voted for the Bush tax cuts that set the Treasury on the road to ruin.

Okay, so in O'Donnell's analysis, the Bush tax cuts set the country on the road to ruin? His solution: extend the Bush tax cuts. Good call, Larry. Good call.

Rise and Fall

A modern tragedy:

We know. We know. You worked so hard to get where you are. It all crescendoed in 2007-2008. People loved you and so many of us had such high hopes. This will change everything we thought.

Then, the results started coming in. Immediately, it was not all that we hoped for. Let's be patient we thought... there is a lot of work to be done and it's not going to happen overnight. Then, the disappointments and missteps started to accumulate. The disgruntled whispers gradually became a little louder. Now, with your recent stunt, you've basically lost everyone who truly believed in you.

And, honestly, it's you. It's not us. You're just not who we thought you were.

It's time for a change.

Let's just make sure we keep our corrections straight:

I don't want to see Jim Harbaugh as the 45th POTUS and Hillary Clinton coaching U of M football!

Secret Muslim or Secret Republican?

Last year, Bill Maher did a rant during his New Rules segment on Real Time where he said:

(Republicans) actually worry that Obama is a socialist. Socialist? He's not even a liberal!

I noted this quote to a conservative family member who responded something along the lines of "that is too stupid to even comment on."

Well, score another one for Bill Maher. This tax "compromise" (i.e. roll over/capitulation) is a spit in the face of all the liberals and progressives who worked so hard and donated so generously to get Barack Obama elected president.

Apparently, we elected not a secret muslim but rather a secret Republican.

Consider me depressed.

The Balance Sheet of Barack Obama

In 2008, I was a donor to the campaign of Barack Obama.

Until recently, I certainly presumed I would again be donating in 2012.

In my head, at least, I devised a tally sheet for my eventual 2012 contribution.

For example, we start with the baseline of my 2008 contribution ($500 if I recall correctly). Then, as he progresses through his term, I add/subtract $ based on his accomplishments.

Here is something like it might look like:

HEALTH CARE REFORM PASSES (+250)
NO PUBLIC OPTION (-200)
FINANCIAL REFORM PASSES (+200)
DOES NOT END 'TOO BIG TO FAIL' (-180)
CREDIT CARD REFORM (+50)
GUNS IN NATIONAL PARKS (-25)
GITMO STILL OPEN (-50)
DADT NOT REPEALED (-50)
NO NEW ENERGY POLICY (I.E. CARBON TAX) (-100)
OPEN NEW WATERS TO DEEP WATER DRILLING (PRE SPILL) (-75)
MORATORIUM ON DEEP WATER DRILLING (POST OIL SPILL) (+15) --- no brainer, little credit deserved
NO IMMIGRATION REFORM (-0) --- I don't care about this one
FAILED TO PROSECUTE TORTURE (-50)
ESCALATED WAR IN AFGHANISTAN (-50)
FAILED TO CAPTURE/KILL BIN LADEN (-50)

Well, as of December 7, 2010... I'm afraid your account has gone negative, Mr. President. I want my $500 back.

And, by the way, I don't want a friggin' tax cut!

I just want my $500 and my vote back.

Another Request From Furriners

Earlier today, I requested that ESPN stop putting Matt Millen in the booth for Michigan (and MSU) games. They have not contacted the site to thank us for our input but I assume they got the message and will comply.

To follow in the same vein, I have a request for cnn.com:

We get it, Sarah Palin hates the media and liberals. You don't have to make every gd time Sarah Palin opens her moose hole a lead story on your political 'ticker'. I swear, every friggin' time I go to your website, I see Palin Blasts Media or Palin Slams Liberals. Please, I beg of you, stop it! We don't care! I half expect to see a story documenting her bowel movements you guys are so infatuated with her.

Consider The Source

I would, me personally, I'd give Rich Rodriguez the benefit of the doubt and let him continue what he started here. -- Matt Millen on 11/27/10 during Michigan-Ohio State game

And, by the way, request for ESPN: PLEASE DO NOT LET MATT MILLEN DO UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (OR MSU) GAMES!!!! WE HATE HIM!!!! It ruins the game for the viewers in this state. I am not kidding.

Furriners Loves Chris Spielman

Chris Spielman is a great source of quotes. This weekend while he was doing the Pittsburgh v Cincinnati game, he said this on one of the latest batch of awful calls regarding the wussification of the game of football:

(I'm) kinda used to watching football, I don't know what they're playing. (Bob Griese laughs) I mean (that) seriously.

The second quote that shows that Mr. Spielman is apparently a mind hacker who steals ideas right from my brain (regarding the announced deal for Derek Jeter for three years at $17m per year):

You got A-Rod sitting over there at third (base)... maybe move him to short... nice knowing you, Derek! Thanks for the years. It's pro sports... what have you done for me lately?

Furriners Civil War!!

No, no, no! I am not with my Furriners colleague on this one.

I hate, hate, hate this compromise from President Obama. And I will whine about it until 2013 when a new President is inaugurated and I am beginning to think it just may not be Barack Obama. He may yet be saved by the fact that the Republicans are bunch a kooks who still seem to not have a reasonable alternative.

Another thing that comes to mind is that there has been a lot of talk in my life about predictions. Elijah Moon had drastically incorrect predictions on the Chicago Bears and the St. Louis Rams. I have a brother who still says Rich Rodriguez is a great coach (had previously predicted a national championship within three years of his hiring in 2007) who is "on the cusp of greatness". I was incorrect that the Derek Anderson plus Larry Fitzgerald combo would result in a Super Bowl title (Fitzgerald really dropped the ball on that one!)

Yesterday was the first time that I legitimately thought to myself... what if Hillary Clinton were president? Did I back the wrong horse in 2007-08? Maybe I should have gone with Zenyatta rather than Big Brown?

President Obama agrees to a compromise on the Bush tax cuts; Progressives upset

As a Liberal who is informed about the sweetheart deals that are in place for the top 2% I am disappointed that the President has decided to compromise on the tax cuts for the rich. Having said that, what I really don't want to hear right now is whining from progressive congressman. Democrats had control of both the House and the Senate and with that power did nothing on these tax cuts. The President ran on lowering taxes for everyone making $250k and below and yet Congressional Democrats couldn't be bothered to take up the matter when they had the political capital to do so. Why these Democrats didn't force Republicans to go on the record before the elections, is beyond me. Did the President fail to push this agenda and rally support - yes, but why would the President be out in front of something that members of his party were not planning on touching. Maybe next time these Democrats will get mad before it is too late and present the voting public with a bunch of simple minded ideas to latch onto, just like the Republicans do. Democrats have taken every opportunity to let Republicans control the message and they act surprised at the results. Get mad at the President if you like but realize the part you play in the Presidents failures.

Breaking News: Tea Party movement thinks they are important

Not since George W. Bush claimed "Mission Complete" has then been such an embarrassing overstatement of the facts as a recent Michigan news paper article stating "There's no denying the Tea Party's impact". The article goes on to attribute the recent wins by Republicans and a handful of "Tea Party" candidates as proof.

This is just like a conservative to only be able to see things through the very small prism that is the conservative world. To have a opinion and to find facts to support that opinion while ignoring reality.

The fact is, Republicans won because of the economy. This same thing happened to Reagan. Just because the Tea Party came into existence around the same time doesn't make them responsible. If the economy improves by 2012 all the Tea Party will do is further splinter the Republican party and then fade away to obscurity by 2014. The people who ran under the Tea Party umbrella were opportunists who couldn't get elected as Republicans. They will soon be assimilated into the Republican cult and any Tea Party activism will be beat out of them.

This self aggrandizing by the Tea Party only proves how uninformed the Tea Party really is.

Republicans should take a stand against unemployment benefits

Republicans really don't care about the costs of extending unemployment benefits. All of their actions suggest they are willing to jack up the deficit to benefit their base. The reason they hate unemployment is their belief that people on unemployment are lazy. Unfortunately many in their base have had to accept unemployment benefits and they really appreciate the assistance while hating the fact that they need to accept unemployment. This reality leads to polls favoring an extension of the unemployment benefits, which is again not good for Republicans.

Given that Republicans believe those on unemployment are lazy and polls don't really matter to them, I say they take this opportunity to draw a line in the sand. If Republicans truly believed their own rhetoric, they would let the unemployment benefits lapse and people will have no choice but to return to work. Since getting a job is solely based on the want to work according the Republicans, we should see an immediate drop in the unemployment rate shortly after the benefits run out. With all of the extra tax revenue these newly employed would generate, we could afford to rehire many of the laid off police officers and spend extra money on correctional facilities. This will be necessary since apparently even lazy people need to feed their families and apparently being too lazy to work doesn't make you too lazy to become a criminal.

I know what your thinking, this sounds too good to be true. This is practically the Utopian society that you as a Republican have always dreamed of. Republicans, being the only people willing to pull themselves up by their boot straps will find jobs and prosper and Democrats, all being lazy, will expose themselves as the criminals they really are and spend the rest of their lives behind bars. Now if only the Republicans in DC had the balls to back their own beliefs. If only.

Psst...tax cuts are stimulus spending!

Lost in all of the conversation about extending the Bush tax cuts is the fact that Republicans support stimulus spending. There was a reason the stimulus package contained almost $300 billion in tax cuts. It stimulates the economy. The problem I have with the tax cuts is not their stimulative properties but the fact that they are a very poor stimulator, especially when give to those in the higher tax brackets. The next time a Republican claims to be against stimulus spending just remind them that they are completely full of shit and they only difference between them and the Democrats is that a Republican only cares about stimulating the rich.

DREAM Act again proves Republicans aren't serious about deficit reduction

The CBO has reported that the DREAM Act would reduce the deficit by $1.4 billion over the next 10 years. This is very unfortunate for the Republicans since their highly paid, completely bias economists had previously come up with a figure of $6 billion added to the deficit.

Now that the official CBO report is out you would assume Republicans would be all over it, after all, they claim that the recent election was a referendum on big spending government and reducing the deficit is their top priority. The problem is Republicans only talk about deficit reduction when they don't like a bill and stating their actual rationale behind their object is not politically popular.

As the information piles up Democrats are proving to be the more fiscally conservative party of late. Republicans are against Health Care reform even though it reduces the deficit. Republicans want to keep the Bush tax cuts even though they increase the deficit. Republicans voted against the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act which cuts the deficit by $1.3 billion over the next 10 years. Add to this the 8 years of Republican led spending under Bush and you start to see that Republicans don't hate the deficit, they hate non-wealthy Americans.

Republicans love to paint themselves into a corner

I have noticed recently that Republicans aren't very good a predicting the outcome of their decisions. I have two examples.

First, John McCain had previously stated that he would support a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't tell if the military's top brass told him they supported ending the policy. I think John McCain never planned on this happening as he assumed top military leaders would think like he does and would never back such a change. Unfortunately for John McCain they called his bluff. Rather than stick to his word and vote to repeal DADT, McCain has gone on the offensive. That is, after all, what you do when you are backed into a corner. The fact is McCain has always supported the policy and never expected to see it repealed during his tenure so sounding rationale for an upcoming election, made sense.

Second, Republicans have had such a fervent hatred for Barrack Obama that they decided early on to block everything he supported. They were put to the test shortly after his inauguration with the stimulus bill. Having no good rationale for being against the bill they decided the best way to attack it was under the guise of the national debt. Debt and Deficit was never a problem in Republican policy prior to Obama's election but simple minded people don't need good rationale they just need something simple to rally behind. Once they decided this was their new narrative, TARP, which many of the Republicans supported under Bush, came under fire. Not because of who it helped or the lack a regulations that it required which would prevent history from repeating itself, but because it added to the debt. Unfortunately for Republicans the fear mongering worked and people started to hate TARP and Stimulus. The problem for Republicans is that they really love deficit spending. They want to extend tax cuts that will be far more detrimental to the national debt and the deficit than Stimulus, TARP, and Health Care reform combined. They were so excited about having a way to slow down President Obama's progress that they never took the time to realize that being successful would be to their own detriment.

Luckily for Republicans Americans is stupid and they don't realize when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. They support tax breaks for very rich people who already pay less in taxes than they do. They support policies that allow the rich to get rich while keeping the poor and middle class from advancing. Essentially by supporting the Republican position on things they support the exact opposite of their own interests.

Republicans seem to have a policy of short term gain regardless of the long term implications. Their positions on the two topics listed above poll poorly for them and it is their own doing. Now if only Democrats had the balls to make them pay for their mistakes.

John Shimkus thinks God will solve Global Warming

John Shimkus' official position on Global Warming is; don't worry, God's got your back. The irony is that according the believers, God works in mysterious ways and often sends signs which lead to a change in ones life. Well perhaps God has sent us a sign by increasing the temperature and melting away ice caps. Maybe all of the recent reports and the growing concern over Global Warming were a sign from God that things needed to change. Perhaps God is really concerned about air quality and since smog and cancer didn't change Republicans minds God decided to turn up the heat (literally) and flood out the human race.

As far as I can tell Mr. Shimkus has half of it right, God will take care of Global Warming. He has given us more than enough signs that excess carbon dioxide in the air is bad and he expects us to do something about it. Its just too bad that Mr. Shimkus is using God as an excuse not to act, rather than truly understanding that God has already acted and the failure now rests on the heads of his believers that place greater importance on Jesus like depictions on toast than actual signs of the apocalypse. As the old saying goes - the greatest trick the Devil every pulled was convincing Christians that Global Warming doesn't exist!

Dinner for Schmucks featuring Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck

Just when I thought Glenn Beck had nailed down the top spot in the dumbest statements per hour category, clearly leaving Rush Limbaugh in his dust, Rush comes back with a completely idiotic statement of his own, closing the gap, and again drawing even with Beck.

On his November 24th radio show, while discussing President Obama's recognition of Native American accomplishments, Rush decides to play the fake white victim card and claim that Indians are to blame for the diseases associated with cigarettes because they introduced the European settlers to tobacco.

Apparently Rush feels that there is a "myth" being propagated that "we were incompetent idiots, we didn't know how to feed ourselves, so they came along and showed us how."

It makes you wish Rush would read verbatim off of pre-written scripts like Bill O'Reily so that he could read how stupid his own arguments are before he makes them. How can you claim on one hand that we are not incompetent idiots then claim that we were powerless to the ills of tobacco. Its not surprising that a former drug addict is in a rush to place blame on everyone else rather than accepting responsibility for his own actions.

At this point I have to assume that Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are either currently under the influence, completely nuts, or have a secret bet to see who can come up with the bigger line of shit and still retain their audience. Stay tuned.

Jon Stewart and Glenn Beck

After watching the Daily Show last night I was excited to see that Jon Stewart was back to the Jon Stewart I have come to know and love. He seemed to have lost his way in an effort to prove how unbiased he was and how Americans should all just get along which seemed to be motivated by the Rally to Restore Sanity. Fortunately, last night Jon again took full aim at the blatant hypocrisy of the Republicans as he seemed to realize that the crazy on the right is not proportional to the crazy on the left. Meeting in the middle requires an effort from both sides and I hope Jon has realized that right now the only people willing to work across the isle, are sitting on the left.

One other important bit of information from yesterdays Daily Show is that Glenn Beck is a complete moron. I'm not sure if he is just trying to increase his ratings or he is truly as dumb as he comes across. His latest rant, which Jon exposed, had Glenn claiming the US had the best food quality in the world and then lambasting the FDA as an evil form of government control. He is playing to the absolute idiots here. You don't get to act all patriotic and claim the US is number one and then fail to recognize the very reason we are number one. Hey Glenn, without the FDA we would be just like any other country. You can call it the government controlling what you eat, which it isn't, but if you hate the system then you don't get to celebrate the superior results of the system. Congratulations Glenn Beck, you make Rush Limbaugh look rational. Tool!

Open Letter To Your (Democratic) Senator

I sent this to Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow. It is okay with me if members of Furriners Nation copy-n-paste to your particular senators.

Dear Senator,

I just wanted to voice my opinion about some reports I have read about today. It is being reported that all GOP senators are vowing to not cooperate with any legislation until the issue of the expiring tax rates are dealt with (presumably extended for all Americans including those making $250k+).

Please do not fall for this tactic! Does anyone have any reason to believe the GOP will cooperate with ending DADT, the DREAM Act, passing the START treaty before the end of the year, extending long-term unemployment benefits, etc. if you extend tax cuts for the wealthy?

That is ludicrous. Recently, I watched a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving where Lucy, as always, promises to hold the ball and takes it away at the last second... please do NOT let the Democrats play the role of Charlie Brown!

I am guessing the GOP is actually not willing to let all the tax cuts expire in their desire to protect the wealth of the top 2%. Perhaps deep down they even know that is fiscally irresponsible to do so and are doing so only to secure future campaign donations? Regardless, please stay true to the principles of the Democratic Party (and the promises of President Obama) that the government needs to work for average Americans and not for the moneyed elite.

Thank you,

Derek Anderson Fan Club
Ann Arbor Chapter

Republicans - I call bullshit!

Of all the irritating double talk coming out of the Republicans the one that bothers me the most is their fake concern over the deficit. In debate over extending unemployment yesterday Republicans claim they will not vote for something that increases the deficit. Bullshit! Republicans are pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts which will increase the deficit significantly. Apparently Republicans are so entranced by their own rhetoric that they are choosing to ignore the fact that unemployment checks have a much greater stimulative affect on the economy than tax cuts. Scott Brown made the following statement yesterday:

"We should have spent seven days working on the one thing that the people in November sent a very powerful message -- and that is getting our economy moving again. Focusing on jobs, jobs, jobs.”

Well Mr. Brown, unemployment adds less to the deficit and increases jobs more than your precious tax cuts. If only Democrats could get Americans to understand this, we could start moving the country in the right direction.

Pure Michigan add campaign in jeopardy

Outgoing Governor Jennifer Granholm and incoming governor Rick Snyder both support a renewal of the Pure Michigan add campaign while the Republican lead senate refuses to address the need for money that would allow Michigan to purchase add time in an aim to increase tourism in the state.

This is another clear example of Repubocrisy. Republicans hold business and business ideology in the highest regard and often suggest that government needs to be run more like a business. Unfortunately their rhetoric doesn't match their actions. One of the main tenants of of business is that it takes money to make money. The Pure Michigan add campaign has been shown to have a good return on investment meaning that it brings in more money to Michigan than it costs. In business if a program you have makes a profit you don't shut it down and claim it is for budgetary reasons. That is completely counter intuitive to business people, yet that is exactly what Republicans are doing.

There is a reason that companies like GM continue to advertise while losing money. It has a good return and they would have lost more money if they didn't advertise. Republicans are determined to say one thing and do another. Either Republicans don't understand the very ideals they claim to hold dear or they don't actually believe in their own rhetoric.