Your Seminal Teabaggerstock Moment

Courtesy TPM:

Because really, what America needs with an African-American president is more mobs implying lynchings.

[UPDATE 3:16 PM] McCain's presidential campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb sums up the entire teabagger movement in today's LA Times:

"Do we look crackpot? Yes," Goldfarb said. "But that's how the left looked to me in 2004, and in 2006 they took back Congress. Then they started marginalizing the lunatics."

Republicans only lost because Democrats "embraced the lunatic fringe" that wanted us out of Iraq and Afghanistan (which turned out to be a majority of Americans) and then threw them aside once they got control. The Republicans figure the same thing will work, because Code Pink wanting to get out of war is exactly like wanting to lynch Obama, right?

[UPDATE 3:50 PM] The Double G weighs in on the teabaggers and who controls them:

What's really happening with these protests is that the genuine rage and not unreasonable economic insecurity of these citizens is being stoked, exploited, distorted and manipulated by movement leaders for entirely different ends. The people who are leading them -- Rush Limbaugh, the Murdoch-owned Fox News, Glenn Beck, business-dominated organizations of the type led by Dick Armey -- are cultural warriors above everything else. They're all in a far different socioeconomic position than the "middle-income Americans" whose anger they're ostensibly representing. Their principal preoccupation is their cultural contempt for various groups (illegal immigrants, the "undeserving" poor, liberals) and their desire to preserve the status quo whereby the prime beneficiaries of government policies remain themselves: the super rich and the interests that control Washington. It's certainly true that many of these protesters are driven by the standard right-wing cultural issues which have long shaped that movement -- social issues, religious fears, cultural and racial divisions, and hatred for "liberals" as Communist-Muslim-Terrorist-lovers. For many, all of that is intensified by the humiliation of being completely thrown out of power, at the hands of the first black President. But much of it is fueled by the pillaging of the corporations and Wall St. interests which own their government.

Amen.

Familiar Territory

President Obama went to Wall Street today to call for strict financial reforms, giving a speech on the anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers.

President Obama traveled to lower Manhattan today a year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers to argue that the administration's response to the financial crisis has been successful and to pitch his plan to change the regulatory system.

"Although I will never be satisfied while people are out of work and our financial system is weakened, we can be confident that the storms of the past two years are beginning to break," said Obama, speaking in Federal Hall on Wall St. "The growing stability resulting from these interventions means we are beginning to return to normalcy. But what I want to emphasize is this: normalcy cannot lead to complacency," he added. (Read his prepared remarks here.)

If this sounds familiar, it's basically what he said five months ago in Georgetown at a speech on the same subject. It's been five months and Congress and the President have basically done nothing on reform. On an issue that really would be a bipartisan no-brainer with broad public support, Obama has done nothing.

Then again, nobody's really surprised by this.

Rumors Of The Death Of Public Option May Have Been Exaggerated

Not only is Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin saying that the final health care bill the President will sign have the public option in it, he's saying Republicans will be on board for it as well.

Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat who recently filled the late Sen. Ted Kennedy's seat as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Sunday that a Senate health-care reform bill would include a "strong" public option and that it would get through by the holiday recess.

He also said it will have support from "some" Republicans, although he said he isn't sure how many.

"I'm ready to carry on [Kennedy's] work, and I'm ready to get a health reform bill passed and to President Obama before Christmas comes this December," Harkin said in a fiery push for health reform during a speech at his annual Steak Fry, a fundraiser for Iowa Democrats.

"That bill — mark my word, I'm the chairman — is going to have a strong public option," he added to thunderous applause.

In a media availability held just prior to his speech, Harkin said he believed the legislation would be able to garner enough support from both sides of the aisle — potentially enough to label it bipartisan when all is said and done.

"We will have some Republicans on our bill," Harkin said.

Really. Glad to hear Sen. Harkin knows his Senate colleagues that well, because everything I've seen and heard is strongly pointing towards a neutered, worthless bill that will put an undue financial burden on millions of middle class Americans as they are forced to buy mandated insurance that their employers will no longer carry.

But that's just my opinion. Still, more power to Harkin.

Two Faces Of Jim DeMint

As Steve Benen points out, GOP hypocrisy continues to astound, especially that of SC Republican Sen. Jim DeMint.

It's hardly a surprise that Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) has fully embraced "Tenther" attitudes -- rejecting the federal government's authority to do much of anything based on a long-discredited, right-wing interpretation of the 10th Amendment.

So, when DeMint told Aaron Wiener over the weekend that he thinks Congress lacks the "constitutional authority" to intervene on health care policy, it was fairly predictable. Of far greater interest was DeMint's response when asked about Medicare. This matters, of course, because if there's even a shred of intellectual consistency to the Tenther approach, everything from Medicare to Social Security, the G.I. Bill to the interstate highway system, should be deemed unconstitutional.

DeMint expressed doubts as to the legality of Medicare under the Constitution, but said, "Regardless of constitutionality, it is a promise that we have to keep.... I think Medicare and Social Security have to be protected."

"Regardless of constitutionality" strikes me as an instant classic. Indeed, it's the worst of both worlds -- DeMint's ideology is so far gone that he actually believes Medicare and Social Security are unconstitutional, but DeMint's principles are so weak that he supports the illegal programs anyway.

For the American mainstream, DeMint's legal analysis makes him a nut. For the Tenther fringe, DeMint's willingness to deliberately endorse policies he considers unconstitutional makes him a sell-out.

Got that? A government run health care program and a social safety net like Medicare and Social Security are untenable and unconstitutional, but they have to remain untouched because we made a promise to our seniors.

"Regardless of constitutionality" indeed. It's just a piece of paper to them, and it means whatever they say it means.

Huey, Dewey and Louie Want More War

Sens. McCain, Graham and Lieberman have a collective op-ed piece in the WSJ (natch) this morning extolling the virtues of applying more expensive hardware to explosively rearrange chunks of rubble in Afghanistan.

Their doubts are natural and understandable, and we must respond to them directly and clearly. Our problems in Afghanistan are not because the Taliban are invincible or popular. They are neither. Rather, our problems result from what was, for years, a mismanaged and underresourced war.

Our mistakes are infuriating, but they are also reversible. We traveled to Afghanistan nine months ago and again last month. In the intervening time, a significant shift in our strategic leadership and focus has taken place there.

We have an exceptional new commander on the ground, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who has begun a top-to-bottom overhaul of all aspects of our war policy and put forward a dramatically new civil-military strategy that clearly identifies failed policies and prioritizes the proven principles of counterinsurgency, including protecting civilians, creating legitimate and effective governance, and boosting economic development. With Gen. McChrystal, together with a new ambassador and a new deputy commander, we believe we now have the team on the ground that can win this war.

However, we need more than the right team and the right strategy. This team must also have the resources it needs to succeed—including a significant increase in U.S. forces.

The Surge is back, baby! We can't afford health care for Americans, but we have no choice but to pour billions more down the Afghanistan rathole. That's fiscal responsibility we can believe in!

Meet The Bungles

In answer to the question I posed Friday, the answer was "The bigger disaster was the Bengals themselves" as they managed to find a way to lose their home opener to Denver in the final seconds of the game.

For a team that has lost games by almost every conceivable scenario over the past 19 years, the Bengals 12-7 loss to the Denver Broncos in Sunday’s opener at Paul Brown Stadium came on the unthinkable – a fluke tipped pass.

After a Cedric Benson 1-yard dive play with 41 seconds remaining, Denver got the ball on their own 13 needing a miracle to get even in field goal range. After Brandon Marshall was unable to haul in a Brandon Marshall pass on first down, they got the miracle and much more.

On a play the Broncos fittingly call “All Go”, Orton once again tried to find Marshall, but Leon Hall tipped the ball up at the Denver 38 while Chris Crocker and Roy Williams tackled Marshall. The problem was that Hall tipped the ball backwards, where Brandon Stokley made the grab at the 45 and raced 65 yards up the left sideline, outracing Dhani Jones in the process.

Stokley then took some time off the clock by running parallel to the end zone along the 1-yard line.

“It was the wrong play, he caught it and he scored. The right play would be to knock it on the ground or pick it off,” Hall said.

Who Dey, indeed.

Diss Them, But Don't Dismiss Them

Pandagon's Jesse Taylor brings up a good point this morning:

It’s often said that we shouldn’t dismiss the opposition to Obama as racists, or crazy, or potentially violent. And the thing is, we aren’t dismissing them. We’re accurately describing them, and taking their threat very seriously. There’s an assumption in our discourse that by describing someone as a paranoid bigot, we’re marginalizing them and saying they don’t have influence. This is largely because of a mainstream-media driven assumption that anyone who appeals to large numbers of people or makes their voice influential on the national stage must ergo be rational. I, for one, am totally willing to admit that crazy people such as Baron Weephausen can have a huge, even outsized effect on the political debate while still potentially needing a steady supply of adult diapers for what we call “rage leaks”.

The fact that a movement gains momentum does not make it rational or worthy of driving public discourse; it just means that far too many people are gullible enough to believe that Barack Obama is hunting down grandparents and harvesting their worn-out organs to mulch his organic garden with. They’re dangerous, they’re stupid, they’re angry, but what they are not is “dismissed”.

I agree, and as I've said, if anything these guys are stone cold dead serious in their beliefs that Obama must be stopped by any means necessary. And those means include the possibility of violence.

To dismiss them as harmless cranks would be a grave error.

Dollar Dollar Bill, Y'all

Investment guru Jim Rogers says a dollar currency crisis is on the way as the next leg of the continuing financial disaster.

"How can the solution for debt and consumption be more debt and more consumption? How can that be the solution to our problems?," he said.

"I would expect there to be a currency crisis or a semi-crisis this fall or next year. It's crony capitalism, Bernanke and Greenspan have brought crony capitalism to America … but that's not going to solve the world's problems," Rogers added.

There are still "gigantic amounts of horrible, horrible debt that hasn't been dealt with" in Central Europe, while hopes that China will pull the world out of recession are overblown, according to Rogers.

"China saved up a lot of money for a rainy day, it's raining and it's spending it," he said. "But China cannot pull out America or India or Europe from all this. Their economy is a 10th of the US. Hallelujah, let them do good things but they're not going to save the world."

The Federal Reserve has tripled its balance sheet and the US government's debt skyrocketed, which may cause currency problems next year, while protectionist tendencies have already started, he warned.

On Monday, China has requested World Trade Organization talks over US-imposed duties on Chinese-made tires, which China has branded protectionist.

"We're going to have some serious problems in currency markets, we're going to have serious problems in the world markets if we see protectionism rising and rising again," he said.

Rogers has two good points: bailing out the financial industry had added trillions to our national debt, and protectionism is already on the rise, witness the growing trade rift between the U.S and China that has gotten a lot more serious this month. China has responded to U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires by threatening to do the same to U.S. chicken and auto parts imports to China.

And it's only going to get worse. The U.S-China trade imbalance simply can't survive this recession. Something's going to have to give on a permanent basis, and the results may change the entire global economy for decades.

Keep an eye on this trade war. The first shots have been fired, and the whole world will soon be reacting to it.

StupidiNews!

• A purported tape released from Osama Bin Laden warns that President Obama can never win the war in Afghanistan.
• Russia is lending Venezuela's Hugo Chavez $2 billion for purchasing tanks and anti-aircraft systems.
• Chinese official fear the global economic slowdown will cost that country millions of jobs and set off widespread labor unrest.
• Analysts say Iran is acquiring U.S. military technology through Malaysia.
• The FTC has pulled the plug on corporate spyware distributed by, of all companies, Sears and Kmart.

Last Call

Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe has declared the public option dead, and wants President Obama and the Democrats to simply drop the matter and move on.

Speaking to CBS News anchor Bob Schieffer on Sunday, Snowe suggested that President Barack Obama had shown "flexibility" on the key feature of his reform proposals during his State of the Union address on Wednesday,

She added: "It's universally opposed by all Republicans in the Senate, and therefore there's no way to pass a plan that includes the public option. So, I think it's recognizing that, because it is a roadblock to building the kind of consensus that we need. Even [Senate Finance Committee] Chairman [Max] Bauccus has indicated, no proposal could be passed in the Senate that includes it. So, it would be best to just move forward."

Among those Republicans is Rep. Lee Terry (R-NB), who told MSNBC on Sunday that a recent U.S. Treasury report claiming over half of all Americans will lose their health insurance over the next decade did not affect his resolute opposition to the public option.

Other Republicans, such as Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) and John Kyl (R-AZ), were quoted by The New York Times on Saturday arguing from varying perspectives that a public option is just an overstep too far.

Sen. Gregg said called it "a stalking horse for a single-payer plan," then switched his metaphor to, "more than the camel’s nose under the tent."

"It is the camel’s neck, and probably front legs, under the tent," he added. "There is no way the private sector will be able to compete."

Got that? Half of Americans will lose their insurance by 2020, meaning that we will have more uninsured Americans than insured ones in this country.

But there's not a single Republican who will vote for the public option in the Senate, Snowe says. Too worried about America's precious insurance companies. At least Snowe is finally being honest: there's not a single Republican in the Senate or the House for that matter who will vote for a real health-care reform bill. Not a one.

And we're too worried about the horrible "government takeover" of health care to worry about the corporate takeover of it.

If Obama does drop the public option, do you think Republicans are magically going to vote for the Democrats' plan? Anyone? No? Didn't think so.

No public option. No trigger mechanism. What they really want is no health care reform plan at all.

Worse Than Before

Nobel laureate economist Joesph Stiglitz says that the state of the financial services industry is actually worse now than last year before the collapse of Lehman Bros., and I for one agree with him.

“In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,” Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. “The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.”

Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’s administration to curtail the size of banks, and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who suggested last month that governments may want to discourage financial institutions from growing “excessively.”

A year after the demise of Lehman forced the Treasury Department to spend billions to shore up the financial system, Bank of America Corp.’s assets have grown and Citigroup Inc. remains intact. In the U.K., Lloyds Banking Group Plc, 43 percent owned by the government, has taken over the activities of HBOS Plc, and in France BNP Paribas SA now owns the Belgian and Luxembourg banking assets of insurer Fortis.

While Obama wants to name some banks as “systemically important” and subject them to stricter oversight, his plan wouldn’t force them to shrink or simplify their structure.

Stiglitz said the U.S. government is wary of challenging the financial industry because it is politically difficult, and that he hopes the Group of 20 leaders will cajole the U.S. into tougher action.

I honestly think it's going to take another major negative financial event or some sort, either another housing bubble pop or another sharp rise in unemployment (or both) that lays the banks' balance sheets open once again, and will force Obama to take action.

Right now nothing has been done. Nothing. Another financial bubble is forming as we speak, only the crash this time will come much sooner, and when it hapens again this time, it really will be Obama's fault. Banks are getting bigger, not smaller.

They'll be forced to shrink soon, along with our economy.

Baked Alaska Is A Dish Best Served Cold

SNL's Tina Fey has picked up an Emmy for her portrayal of America's favorite quitter. Also!

In winning her Emmy, Fey beat out two contenders from her own NBC comedy, "30 Rock," which leads all shows with 22 nominations. She made reference to Palin, who resigned in July as governor of Alaska less than a year after she was chosen as Senator John McCain's running mate in last year's U.S. presidential election.

"Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin!"

It marked Fey's sixth career win, and she is in contention for two awards at the main ceremony, including best comedy actress.

Did Tina Fey deserve it? You betcha!

The Party Of No's Joe Says No

Joe "You Lie!" Wilson told FOX News Sunday this morning that he's not going to apologize publicly in the well of the House.

"I am not going to apologize again," Wilson said on "Fox News Sunday." "I apologized to the president on Wednesday night. ... I believe that is sufficient."

Still, Democrats say Wilson broke House rules and should go to the floor and apologize, or risk facing a resolution condemning his actions.

"My view is that it's politics, this is plain politics," Wilson said. "The Democrats are playing politics. This is just a way to divert attention...It's a diversion from people looking at the bill and their concerns about the bill."

"People know my civility, they know this is a one-time event," he added. "I believe in the truth, what I heard was not true."

But asked by host Chris Wallace if the president were lying when he said the bill would not cover illegal immigrants, Wilson said: "I believe he was misstating the facts," and would have explained his outburst in a different way "if I had time."

Wilson also defended his campaign fundraising off the incident, saying that Democrats have "made me the No. 1 target for the elections.

The response from his district in South Carolina has been overwhelmingly positive, he said, but it'll be "tough" for him to handle when Democrats move to rebuke his actions.

I've said this before: Joe Wilson brought this all upon himself, and like most Republicans he's playing the victim card and blaming the mean old Democrats for making him follow House rules and hurting his feelings.

The man continues to look like an ass, and if the parties were reversed, not only would Republicans be demanding whatever Democrat made an outburst like that be censured, but that they should resign as well. The charge of "Well they're just playing politics!" rings hollow after the Bush administration, folks. None of this you see is Joe Wilson's fault, according to Joe Wilson.

Between this and the Not Two Million Birther March yesterday, it's been a miserable couple of days for conservatives in general and Wingers in particular. But don't be too hard on Joe: he can't apologize. His Obama-hating base would disown him in a heartbeat. Of course, the longer he holds out, the more damage he does to the Republican brand.

I don't envy the position he's in, but he put himself there. Man up, Wilson. Take responsibility.

Epic Seventy Thousand Is Not Two Million Fail

Many of the Wingers claiming two million people showed up at yesterday's "We love this country, now get the hell out" rally in Washington D.C. were working off a quote from ABC News that said the number was 1 million to 1.5 million, later it magically became two million. Freedomworks president Matt Kibbe announced as much to the crowd.

Only one problem. ABC News never said that.

At no time did ABC News, or its affiliates, report a number anywhere near as large. ABCNews.com reported an approximate figure of 60,000 to 70,000 protesters, attributed to the Washington, D.C., fire department. In its reports, ABC News Radio described the crowd as "tens of thousands."

Brendan Steinhauser, spokesman for FreedomWorks, said he did not know why Kibbe cited ABC News as a source.

As a result of Kibbe's erroneous attribution, several bloggers and commenters repeated the misinformation.

They did indeed, from Malkvinvania to Pajamas Media to A.J. Strata to the UK's Daily Mail.

They of course are having none of the reality of 60k to 70k. It was two million, and anyone who says it wasn't at least a solid seven digit number is clearly working for the Obama media machine, right guys?

Still, those who did show up were folks like this:

No one on the tea party express seems concerned with the vocal fringe of the crowds that come with offensive signs -- besides Nazi imagery, a poster of Obama as an African witch doctor has become popular -- or the numerous conspiracy theories that float around most tea parties.

In Battle Creek, Michigan, a woman in her 60s says, "I really don't want to be a guinea pig for the experiment they have with the population control." In Canton, Ohio, a woman argues with an Obama supporter: "He's going after our kids to try to indoctrinate them into a national defense army."

The Tea Party Express tour has been free of violence, but occasional outbursts of vitriolic hatred toward the president combined with some menacing outward appearances often overshadow the more moderate tea partyers.

In Louisville, Kentucky, two young men in camouflage fatigues roamed the crowd trying to recruit new members for their militia called the Ohio Valley Freedom Fighters. They bear signs reading "AK-47s: today's pitchfork" and "Quit worrying. Start your militia training today."

In Jackson, Michigan, a young man didn't need a sign. He was carrying the real thing: A loaded AK-47 assault rifle and two loaded handguns.

"I don't want a revolution. I don't want a civil war," he said. "But it is a possibility. It's there as an option, as a last resort."

From the stage, Deborah Johns and Mark Williams never interact with most of these characters. Russo shrugs it off, saying that the early stages of every political movement have people like this.

To Wierzbicki these troubling elements are just part of the price of a grassroots movement. He is convinced they will not derail the movement.

"The message will be moderated by the time it gets to 2010," he says.

The message will be moderated. Sure it will. An angry teabagger mob built expressly around the irrational "vitriolic hatred of the president" will moderate its message in time for the 2010 elections.

That's the most laughable thing I've ever heard. Anyone else here believe the message is moderation? Anyone else here believe that the GOP and the astroturf organizers are going to tell these rabid wolverines "Hey, chill out?"

Anyone else believe that should the teabaggers be told this, that they will turn that anger on the Republicans for not having the guts to "do what has to be done?" We have people talking about open, armed revolution here, folks. These guys are deadly f'ckin serious.

This whole thing is EPIC FAIL...one of the largest EPIC FAILS I think I've ever seen.

Last Call

Via Steven D at the Frog Pond, I'd like you to meet Las Vegas pawnbroker and gun salesman Glen Parshall.

Mr Parshall, though, is not just a businessman for whom the recession is a boon. He is also one of the out-riders for libertarians who believe that America under Obama is turning into a socialist state.

I do not exaggerate.

"We've got someone who is an out-and-out Marxist, a total socialist, who is trying to put everything under government control," Mr Parshall told me.

"There's a lot of people that are rising up," he says.

He and other self-described "free-thinkers" make much of Thomas Jefferson's statement: "The Tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

I asked him whether, given the taking over of America by a socialist, violence against Mr Obama would be legitimate.

"If they don't start conforming to our constitution, we may have to rise up in arms and take our country back," Mr Parshall replied, though he says that would be a last resort if elections did not do the job first.

And there's a hell of lot of people out there who believe exactly like Glen Parshall does, that violence against Obama and the government may be justified.

The really chilling thought is that there are people in this country who think the time for that violence has already come.

Night, folks.