Fox News Version of Majority Rules: 70-80 Votes

In the Republican Fantasy World, a World that is completely ensured by its gatekeeper Fox News, the only way HCR should pass is with 70-80 senate votes. That's right, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) tells the GOP media relations department Fox News that anything less than 70-80 yes votes is not supported by the American people and is a "trick" by Democrats.

"If you're gonna pass something that's gonna impact everyone in this country personally, their own personal health care, and impact one sixth of the economy, you ought to get something like this passed with 70 or 80 votes in the Senate," he said. "That's the way you get the American people to say, yes, this must be a good idea.'"

Of course the Constitution of the United States of America states only a simple majority (51 votes) is required to pass any legislation in the senate. But not when Democrats are in control. The threshold then is 70-80. Anything less than that is thrusting a majority rules democratic governance upon the country and we can't possibly have something like that happen.

How To Effectively Combat Crazy GOP Lies

There might not be anyone crazier than Michelle Bachmann (R-MN). She's usually a pretty good judge for what loony talking point is best guiding the GOP. From death panels, socialist takeovers, freedom fighting to "charge of the light brigade," all are constant themes from her very usual playbook. Her intent is to say the most ridiculously bizarre things in order to make sure the MSM will repeat whatever it is she says. Whether or not it's true is of no concern to her. She knows the MSM will repeat it so much that eventually her crazy talk sticks in people's minds and becomes truth.

That's why when she says George Bush only ran up a $400 billion deficit, she could careless how true it is. Eventually Fox News will repeat it enough that it becomes GOP gospel (they do it nearly every day). Or when she says that President Obama has ran up more debt than all 43 past presidents combined, something so laughable that only a complete idiot could believe, she's just repeating Fox News talking points that have been around for almost a year now. The crazier the soundbite, the greater the chance it will be cheered and applauded by Republicans and mindlessly repeated on Fox News and hate radio. This is why Josh Marshall says the MSM is wired more for Republicans because it's the sensational that makes the headline and eventually becomes a fixture of belief by viewers.

The worse way to combat Bachmann's lies is with truth. In the reality-based community, George Bush ran up a $1.3 trillion deficit-- 3 times larger than what occurred in Bachmann's Republican Fantasy World. And if you add up the amount of debt accumulated by every president you get way more than the $1.7 trillion by the Obama administration. In fact, George Bush, the Greatest President Ever, accumulated $2.4 trillion. So right there it's easy to see that all of Obama's accumulated debt doesn't even equal one past president.

But like I said, that's the worse way to dispel the GOP Fantasy World. Facts mean nothing to them. They will believe nothing unless it's on their Fox News teevee sets. The only way to shut down such absolute lies, is to out crazy their crazy. Instead of saying "in reality George Bush ran up a $1.3 trillion deficit." Say "George Bush actually created a budget surplus large enough to pay off the two on-going defense of democracy wars in full." Two wrongs don't make a right. But in this case two crazies could possibly make the MSM actually fact-check instead of just repeating sensationals.

Um, About Those Deficits Fox News

There's no doubt Fox News went out of their way yesterday to ensure the Republican Fantasy World would be safe from reality. Not only did they cut away from Obama's truth letting when he was unprecedentedly questioned by Republicans of which he handled superbly. They also have tried to cover up any glimpse that Republicans looked like total fools for even trying to suggest Obama is remotely responsible for the massive deficit or is running monthly deficits larger than annual deficits run by the previous Bush administration. All that has been totally whitewashed by Fox News and this morning on their homepage Fox gives complete credit for Obama's focus on reducing the deficit to Republicans.

The front page lede is an AP wire that describes the president's efforts to actively combat the deficit, click to enlarge:

If Republicans supposedly hammered the president, they were shot down by Obama's factual answers. He is not running monthly deficits equivalent to Bush's annual deficits. That's pure lie. If you actually read the AP story, it too leaves out quite a bit.

Obama said "pay-as-you-go" rules that were in place in the 1990s led to surpluses at the end of the decade. But after Congress eliminated the rules, Obama said the result was the $1.3 trillion deficit he faced upon taking office in January 2009.

Um, about those rules. Guess who eliminated those rules? It was the very conservative and fiscally responsible REPUBLICANS! Guess who is responsible for the deficit? REPUBLICANS. The Obama administration had nothing to do with the $1.3 trillion deficit that was in place when he took office. That deficit, the one that Republicans and Fox News are now so concerned about came directly from, um, REPUBLICANS.

So yeah Fox News, let's talk about the deficit. Let's talk about who it is that is trying to rein in spending. Let's talk about how it is totally insane to think the very people responsible for all of it are now the ones "hammering" the president to force him to take measures to reduce it. Um, yeah, let's do this. Quit with your lying and quit with your force fed Fantasy and take responsibility because you aren't doing any favors. Where were you when REPUBLICANS ran up the largest deficit in human history??? You sure weren't running front page stories about reining in spending. Bunch of freakin' pansies.

Giuliani: 9/11 Was Imaginary

I watched Rudy Giuliani this morning with George Stephanopoulos lie through his teeth. That part doesn't surprise me in the least. It's that the media continues to enable the Republican Fantasy World that irks me.

Giuliani actually claimed there were no domestic terror attacks during Bush's two terms. He's a complete idiot. But such lies are standard Republican reasoning. Last month, former Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino claimed no terrorist attacks ever happened on Bush's watch. She must be smoking crack because on Bush's watch thousands of innocent people were blown up by terrorists right here on our soil.

When Republicans do admit that the worst terrorist attack in world history did actually occur, they claim it was inherited. So in their world, the attacks never happened, but if they did, it was because of Bill Clinton.

It has been a staple of the lunatic Republican Party to want to deny history. The last 8 years never really happened. Or at least it didn't happen the way reality recalls. The GOP did not run up a $1.3 trillion deficit, they did not leave Obama with two on-going endless wars, they did not cause the financial crisis and they did not increase the size of government more than any administration in history. All of that is just basic Republican history. And thanks to the spineless media, we are all forced to live in it.

*Update:

Forgetting 9/11 is crazy in its own right. Expecting the entire world to believe your delusion is another thing totally. Yet it seems the media is perfectly fine with allowing Republicans to pretend that 9/11 never happened, or that if it did happen, that they exhibit no responsibility for it whatsoever.

**Update:

Media whipping boy, Georgie Stephanopoulos, admits on his blog he made a mistake by not pressing the only mayor of a large metropolitan area to have 3,000 of its people blown up by terrorists when he made the comment that "we had no domestic attacks under Bush."

It seems even with his "my fault" admission, Georgie still can't do his job.

Later in the day, Giuliani issued a clarifying statement that he misspoke and meant to say that we didn't have any domestic terrorism on Bush's watch but now have since Obama took office. Again, Giuliani is lying. We indeed had plenty of domestic terrorist attacks after 9/11 and completely under Bush's watch. In fact, some were even committed by MUSLIMS!! And once again, George did not press him on it.

At Least They're Consistent

It's been a while since I poked around at the America-hating blog known as Right From Left. Readers will recall a few months ago self-described patriots Jaz and Kent teamed up to tag team some Revolutionary! freedom fighting. I would have to call their efforts a huge success at continually failing to live up to their very own rhetoric when it comes to "patriotism" and what they both deem to be "supporting the president."

To briefly refresh, Kent proudly wrote while Bush was president that any dissent should be done in private and that if it was done in public, it only aided our enemies and was "anti-American." To be fair, Jaz didn't say any of it. He merely cheered Kent on coming to his rescue when an "anti-American" (aka someone who didn't vote for George Bush) left a comment on the post. When the Glorious Reign of Bush ended, I brought it to Kent's attention that he was doing a lousy job of living up to the standard he had set for everyone else. And again Jaz came to his rescue. Such defense can only leave me to assume Jaz supports RFL's stance, a blog he now writes for, on criticizing the president. Or in the least, wishes Kent had never wrote it. It's an assumption I know, but one I have.

Well, looking through what can only be labeled as a pitiful excuse for anything remotely to do with America or patriotism, I see Kent and RFL has declared President Obama to be "an enemy of the United States." Multiple times actually. In a way it's good to see Republicans are only getting crazier and that they really no longer matter. But it's also sad to see two intelligent people so caught up in a web of political polarization that they just can't spin themselves out of it.

Adding to the List of Non-Responsibility

As predictable as GOP insanity is, it's still unnerving to watch the lengths they go to cover up the past and the total free reign the MSM allots them.

• Earlier this month former Bush press secretary Dana Perino made an astonishingly inaccurate claim that terrorist attacks never happened on Bush's watch. The whole world knows that's a complete lie. But the media Fox News allowed the claim to go unfettered. In the Republican Fantasy World, a world where Bush was a popular president and Iraq had something to do with 9/11, there is not one iota of anything negative Republicans are responsible for. They are purely Freedom Fighting Great American Patriots.

• Also we have the Great American Reagan "purity test" some in the RNC want future Republicans to be able to pass before they are allowed to run on their ticket. The "test" is supposed to qualify members of core Republican principles. A huge problem with the test is that it's a total lie. No where in the last 30 years of American history could any Republican pass the test, much less Reagan.

• We can't leave super tough guy patriot Big Dick Cheney out of this Republican lie fest. He recently told web-based media outlet Politico the Bush administration has no responsibility for the current condition of Afghanistan. This is the same administration that invaded Afghanistan in 2001 only to completely neglect it for 8 solid years. The administration that Cheney claims bears no responsibility also took resources from the war in Afghanistan and deployed them to Iraq-- a country that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11. Yet, Cheney with his five deferments from combat service in Vietnam gets to tell Americans that his incompetent administration has nothing to do with why we are still fighting a war that is second in length only to the one Cheney ran and hid from while he was of prime fighting age. Not a single follow up question from the very liberal media.
  

Now add to the list of the Republican Misinformation Campaign none other than Republican mouthpiece Mary Matalin. Matalin appeared on CNN last week where she freely stated the Bush administration inherited a recession and terrorists attacks and fixed them both.

I was there [in the Bush White House]. We inherited a recession from President Clinton and we inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation's history. And President Bush dealt with it. And within a year of his presidency at this comparable time, unemployment was at 5 percent. And we were creating jobs.

Yes, in the Republican Fantasy World, a recession that began 2 and a half months after Bush took office and the worst terrorist attack in world history that happened 8 and a half months after Bush took office are not the responsibility of the Bush administration. Instead they are credited to the previous president. And the very liberal media CNN allowed her to spout the lies without a single correction.

What planet are Republicans living on? Who gets to pass the blame as much as this? In what alternate universe do you get to oversee the worst terrorist attacks in history, two ongoing botched wars, grow government larger than any president in two generations, run up the largest deficit in human history and preside over the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and you not be responsible for any of it? Seriously, who gets away with this stuff? It has to suck to be Republican.

Broder Gets Paid to Live in a Make-Believe World

So-called conservative columnist David Broder gets paid to pretend the last 8 years never happened:

The day after the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) gave its qualified blessing to the version of health reform produced by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Quinnipiac University poll of a national cross section of voters reported its latest results.

[...]

The answer: Less than one-fifth of the voters -- 19 percent of the sample -- think he will keep his word. Nine of 10 Republicans and eight of 10 independents said that whatever passes will add to the torrent of red ink. By a margin of four to three, even Democrats agreed this is likely.

[...]

This is obviously turning out to be the case. While the CBO said that both the House-passed bill and the one Reid has drafted meet Obama's test by being budget-neutral, every expert I have talked to says that the public has it right. These bills, as they stand, are budget-busters.

Spare us the drama, Republicans.

All of a sudden, out of thin air, Republicans once again care about polls and about the budget. It's nothing short of amazing really. Of course this is not surprising to me since over three years ago I predicted Republican amnesia would set in.

Not one single time in Bush's entire 2nd term did he ever have a majority approval rating. That only meant to Republicans he was a true leader. But now, according to David Broder, it means the "public has it right." If we had applied such Broder logic then, Bush should have resigned. Too bad that didn't happen and too bad Republicans said just the opposite about polling 10 months ago.

In terms of budgetary matters, there had never been a presidency so fiscally irresponsible in American history. The man David Broder voted for twice, increased the budget deficit by roughly 1,000%. Never once did Broder write a column so concerned about increasing the budget deficit. Never did he even consider equating unpopularity with budget madness, but now that Bush is gone Republicans all over the country get to pretend-- just like Broder is-- that they are fiscally conservative and care about what the public thinks. And the MSM, just like the Bush enablers they have always been, lets them do it.

Geithner Talks Back

I must admit I'm not a big fan of Tim Geithner. Back before he was confirmed by the senate, I called for him to step aside. So there's certainly no love lost when I read items about Republicans calling for him to resign. It's only when Republicans want to pretend that everything was rosy until Geithner and Obama came along does it require a Fantasy World lesson.

After a barrage of insults this morning from Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) that ended with Brady calling for Geithner to step down, Geithner finally shot back:

"It is a great privilege for me to serve this president. I agree with almost nothing you said, almost nothing you said represents a fair and accurate picture of the economy today." He told Brady, "You gave this president an economy falling off a cliff."

Geithner continued: "Congressman, it's just a basic fact that a year ago, this economy was falling at a rate of six percent a year, it was losing between half a million and three-quarters of a million jobs per month and that process was not slowing" until President Obama began implementing his programs, Geither said.

Economically speaking, things are better today than they were when George Bush and the Republicans were in power. They left this country in the worst economic condition since the Great Depression. It's only been 10 months since a new president set new policies and a new economic course. It's going to take more than 10 months to fix 8 years of George Bush. But Brady's lecturing today of Geithner begs the bigger question of where was he? Why didn't he stand up and scold the Bush administration, the very people responsible for our economic condition, the way he has the new administration? It's plum fantasy to think the Obama administration has anything to do with the current crisis. Is the recovery going slow? Yes. But the very cause of it all belongs squarely on George Bush. It's really time Republican pretending ends.

Republicans Always Win

I knew it wouldn't be long until Republicans claimed NY-23 as a victory. Hipster doofus Erick Erickson doesn't let me down. Within hours of a historic Democratic victory, he writes:

The race has now been called for Democrat Bill Owens.

This is a huge win for conservatives.

Erickson goes on to state that it's a victory for conservatives because the outplay of the race showed that they would stand up to the establishment GOP and refuse to support fake Republicans. Win or lose, it was going to be with a conservative. And if you could combine the votes, conservatives would have won. Therefore, it's a victory. Let the Renaissance! begin.

Will's Own Unicorn

It's rather fascinating, in an ignorance of history sort of way, to watch Republicans like George Will squirm their way out of blithely ignoring George Bush's handling of the war in Afghanistan. Americans went years without really referring to Afghanistan as a war. It was merely Afghanistan-- largely because Republicans turned our attention to greater spoils in Iraq.

Now that Bush is gone, it seems almost a feverish pitch by Republicans that Obama should decide in a nanosecond what do do next to expand that war. For Will,-- at least from this latest op-ed-- installing Karzai as the defacto ruler of Afghanistan impaired democracy not one bit. But now that election fraud caused almost exclusively by Bush's negligent if not criminal mishandling of Afghanistan, President Obama has turned a blind eyed toward democratic transgressions in the once blooming paradise of Bush's Afghanistan. Like I said, fascinating to watch.

Teaching Afghanistan to elect good men really isn't something Republicans should be lecturing anyone about. If there was ever a fantasy creature roaming in the desert it had one hell of an unfettered party for nearly 8 years.

They Will Own It

I wonder if Kent and Jaz realize that their post calling Obama un-American and publicly criticizing his administration is, according to their blog, anti-American and only aids our enemies. 10 months ago, anything that dared speak ill of George Bush was the worst thing anyone could ever do to our country. But now today, Kent and Jaz want us all to forget such ancient history and never mention Bush again.

America: Fantasy World Version

One of the things I routinely hammer conservative bloggers and even my conservative friends for is their total lack of care for anything during the Bush years. Especially when it comes to fiscal matters, so-called conservatives were almost entirely absent during the 8 years of complete fiscal mismanagement that embodied two full terms of Republican rule. Blogs are the easiest to hit because of archives and their noticeably absent criticism of a president that took the largest surplus in history and turned it into the largest deficit in history while also doubling our national debt. I would think it would be hard to overlook such things if you considered yourself even the slightest bit conservative or fiscally concerned.

And then you come across something like this that explains how the people who cheered on George Bush sleep at night.

It's not that the very fiscally conservative Republicans objected to Bush's economics, it's that it never happened. In their world, the deficit became a concern on Jan. 20, 2009 when Barack Obama tripled it. It was then, too, that Iraq became a mess, Afghanistan became important, and unemployment turned into a national nightmare. Their Fox News teevees tell them so.

They get to pretend that it was Obama that tripled the deficit. Somehow, and this is only possible in the Republican Fantasy World, but somehow a president that inherits a $1.2 trillion deficit and then takes it to $1.4 trillion has tripled it. The fact that George Bush gave Obama a budget that was already $1.2 trillion in debt never happened. Instead, all of it is because of Barack Obama. It's so easy being Republican. All you have to do is pretend the last 8 years never happened and that anything wrong today is entirely because of the last 8 months.

Cantor: Freedom Fighting on the Front Lines

I'm not sure the word delusional can properly sum up just how off base the Republican Party has become. I joke, quite a bit, about Republicans viewing themselves as Freedom Fighters. But it's not like I'm making a big stretch in any regard whatsoever. Just to be certain here's what Rep. Eric Cantor had to say last week at the Values Voters Summit.

Speaking about the Tea Baggers he referred to them as “fighting on the fighting lines of what we know is a battle for our democracy.”

Our troops are on the front lines of battle. Not Tea Baggers. There is no comparison. Like I said, I don't even think delusion is an accurate term anymore. I don't even think Fantasy World captures the true unreality these people live in. There is no other way to say it, they really believe they are Freedom Fighting Revolutionaries.


*Update:

When asked to defend his claim about Freedom Fighting on the front lines, Cantor retreated and then threw out a huge lie to rally the troops.

Q: You told tea party activists that they are on the “fighting lines,” that was your quote, of defending our democracy. Do you really think Obama is a threat to our democracy?

CANTOR: What I do think is that we’ve had an unprecedented 8 months in Washington of continued increase in bailouts [...]

Q: So just to be clear, our democracy is completely secure under Obama?

CANTOR: I think we need to be very, very cognizant of the drift that we are seeing towards more government takeover [...]

That's just not true. Do we have to go through this again?

George Bush increased government more than any president since FDR. It is bona fide truth George Bush bailed out more companies than Barack Obama. Bush ordered the federal government to takeover AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Sterns, CitiGroup along with 234 individual banks, he was the president that signed the $700 billion TARP bailout. It was a Republican that integrated the federal government into private industry more so than any president in 80 years. Own it!

But that's not all of it either. It was George Bush that created Homeland Security, the largest government department in history. It was George Bush that implemented No Child Left Behind, the largest government takeover of education in American history. It was Bush that gave us the Patriot Act, and warrantless spying-- two programs that by far instrument the largest federal interference into the lives of private citizens since WWI.

For Eric Cantor to say that the last 8 months are "unprecedented" when it comes to government bailouts, all because Obama carried through with the auto industry plan that was already in the works before he took office, is an outright lie. You can go suck a big fat one Cantor.

No president did more to create unprecedented government growth and intrusion than George W. Bush. And never, not one time did Cantor or the Tea Baggers rally to stop him. Never did they protest Bush's actions and call themselves Freedom Fighters. Anyone who dared call Bush out for any of his large government expansion programs was denounced as succumbing to Bush-hatred syndrome or being anti-American. For the 8 years of George Bush, Tea Baggers were no where to be found. They gladly supported a president that called for war without end, large government expansion programs, warrantless spying, socialized entire industries, and spent more money than any in history.

But now, they are against government bailouts, huge expansion programs and spending federal dollars. Eric Cantor, you are a liar and a bad one at that.

**Update:

I rest my case.

Cantor tells sick constituent to look for "existing government programs," or perhaps "charitable organizations." He added, "No one in this country, given who we are, should be sitting without an option to be addressed."

The same Eric Cantor that says he and Tea Baggers are on the fighting lines fighting for Democracy and against the spread of government, encourages a constituent to look for government programs to help with medical care and expenses. He even plainly states no one should be denied the option of having their need/sickness addressed. He's such a Freedom Fighter and so against government that he thinks people with medical needs should look to the government for help; it's so imperative that no one should go without it. There is definitely something morally wrong with this whole thing.

Including the Public

In the Republican Fantasy World, President Obama is not supposed to go on Sunday political talk shows to defend his policies against people who entirely staged protests against him. If he does, he's taking over America's airwaves, much like he wants the government to take over everything. Republican whinebags can't possibly fathom a president that includes the public in a national debate.

Make Them Own It (2 Updates)

It's really something to watch. Super Patriot Tough Guy Kent, over at Right From Left, is having a meltdown trying to reconcile his words about opposing President Bush with his now plethora of posts attacking President Obama. Sometimes even calling the president a socialist, Manchurian candidate, liar, you name it Kent's done it.

Honestly, nearly every post is aimed at undermining the President of the United States. Taking a stroll through some of his archives I discovered what Kent said about dissent and criticizing his fellow tough guy Republican, President Bush.

The bottom line, as I see it, is that in this time of international unrest, it is extremely important that every American supports President Bush. I don't care if you personally disagree with the man or his policies. The fact is, dissent at this time, while important, can (and should) be done privately. When you or anyone you know publicly rips Bush, it weakens us in the eyes of the international community. And, most importantly, in the eyes of our enemies.

It's pretty clear Kent thinks all dissent should be done in private. When you publicly rip the president you weaken us as a country. The most important part, says Kent, is public ridicule aids the enemy.

That's a far cry from what Kent is doing today now that Bush is gone. His entire blog is devoted to publicly criticizing the President of the United States, something 8 months ago he would have called anti-American. In fact, he does just that...

There's plenty of time to debate the merits of policy, the opinion of war, the opinion of Administration policy. But not now. If you are a Bush critic, understand that you are being anti-American and that you are very much aiding and abetting our enemies around the world.

For bringing this to his attention, Kent has now called me an enemy. I've committed the ultimate sin in the Republican Fantasy World. I called them on their hypocrisy, forced them to own up to it and asked them to reconcile it with how they behave today. Remember, we are not supposed to ever bring up the last 8 years of President Bush or how his supporters acted toward dissent. We are only supposed to focus on today. Everything else is ancient history.

*editor's note:

Just for the record I'm not saying Kent can't criticize the president. He can do whatever he pleases, and I'm sure he will. All I'm saying is how can anyone say what they did about President Bush and not expect to be held to the same consistent standard now. It's truly a sickness that plagues the people trying to pull this off. There's no reason why we should let any of this slide by or go unnoticed.

*Update:

Kent's latest reply has to be the most delusional reply ever written, even for the Republican Fantasy World. He says dissent against Obama is okay because it's about policy. But dissent against Bush was only about "hatred." Yes because invading a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 had nothing to do with policy. Own it Kent. All of Bush's policies were great. There was never a reason to disagree with him. People who did only did because of hatred. Own it.

**Update:

Mikey in the comments section brings up a good point about the policy disagreements with Bush versus personal hatred. Like I said there, I'm a policy guy. I worked at a think tank for over two years where I analyzed policy. From there I went to the senate where I-- guess this-- wrote policy. I'm a policy guy through and through. My disagreements with Bush had nothing to do with personal hatred but nearly everything to do with policy disagreements. To write off all disagreement as "hatred" is juvenile and sadistically irresponsible. There's no reason to let people like Kent off the hook for their past and current comments regarding dissension and politics. Make them own it now or live with it forever.

One Way to Sell a Book

Former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, admits he was pressured to raise terror threat levels on election eve 2004.

This isn't surprising news to those of us in the reality-based community. What's surprising is instead of accepting the fact the Bushies used threats of terrorism for political gain, Republicans will now just call Ridge a liberal terrorist sympathizer and dig deeper into their Fantasy World.

Rasmussen Answers

Kent's got me on this one. I don't know how I'll survive. He used a poll other than Rasmussen to prove the Republican Party was not the most unpopular organization in America. NPR's latest has the GOP one point ahead on their generic ballot. I'm proud of him.

Then mind boggling I know, he uses Gallup to show Obama is at an all time low. Yes 53% proves Obama is unpopular. Too bad it's double what George Bush was but that's ancient history now. What's interesting is if you go through his archives there isn't one single post about Bush's gutter approvals. Quite the contrary really. He uses Bush's historically low approvals to prove he was a true leader. Kent's same but messed up logic doesn't apply to Obama, however.

Anyway, Eric Kleefield spoke to Scott Rasmussen about his new Presidential Index that Kent loves to use to prove Obama is unpopular, and he defended it by saying it measures the intensity of feeling. So Rasmussen even admits it's not a gauge of overall approval just feelings of intensity. In the Republican Fantasy World that's how President Obama's job approval gets measured, by feelings of intensity and not the historical yes or no. Too bad for Kent he already admitted that he "disagrees with polling methodology that pretends we need two different categories of approval." Uhhhh that's my point Kent.

*Update:

One of the reasons why it's inaccurate to create a brand new method at which to measure President Obama is because it gives wingers like Kent reason to believe a false reality. For instance, here's Kent explaining why he stood behind the Presidential Index (before he discredited it that is):

I'm taking the strongly approve number as the primary gauge of Obama's full approval and comparing it with Bush's overall approval ratings according to the WaPo link I cited yesterday.

Bush left office with an overall 33% approval rating, one point higher than Obama's current strong approval number.

The real world just doesn't work that way. In the Fantasy World, Rasmussen creates a brand new measurement for Obama, which gives off the appearance he's unpopular, and Kent-- amongst others I'm sure-- gladly admit they apply two different standards. If we used the Index to measure George Bush his would be -50. But we can't do that because like Kent says, Bush gets to use his overall approval. All Rasmussen has done is give wing nuts, the same people who constantly push conspiracy theories to discredit the President of the United States, a graph to link to. These are brilliant people I'm telling ya.

Wing Nuts On the Spot

The official stance of the Republican Party is that President Obama is illegitimate because he was born in Kenya or some other communist Muslim place. They have no time for issues that are pressing for our country such as budget discipline, two ongoing wars, or health care reform. They instead want to focus everyone on their conspiracy theories.

In light of such complete ignorance, Dem Rep. Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii will introduce a measure that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Hawaii’s statehood and describes it as Obama's birthplace. Oh what will the right wing nutjobs do?


*Update:

Well the nuttiest right wing nutjob of them all Michelle Bachmann blocks the Obama birthplace resolution from coming to the floor. That's how scared and how in control the wingers are of the GOP. What if a Democrat blocked a resolution honoring Texas and calling it the home of the greatest president ever George Bush? Couldn't imagine what the Great Patriots of the Republican Party and the media would have done then.

Nope. Bachmann's motion was a procedural move to end debate and bring the measure to a roll call vote later in the evening. Once it hit the floor, it passed 378-0. All known Republican birthers voted in favor of the resolution.

They Really See Themselves as Revolutionaries

"Iranian twitter activity similar to what we did in House last year when Republicans were shut down in the House."

That's a tweet from Republican Congressman Peter Hoekstra posted a little over an hour ago. How insane can Republicans really be? They truly see themselves as modern day Warriors battling enemies for the good of mankind. Everything they do is a Revolution!

Their Tea Bag Parties are revolutionary, so they claim. Last year they hosted a circle jerk on the House floor (of which Hoekstra is referring to above) and called it a modern Revolution! They beg for the return of their self-labeled Reagan Revolution and whenever they win a House or Senate seat it immediately becomes a Revolution. They are entirely consumed with being tough, macho Freedom Fighters.

If anyone else, anyone who may, let's say, become the first black man elected President of the United States, or have 4 million people celebrate in the nation's capital when he's sworn in, or have some of the largest crowds ever assembled wherever he goes, dares make mention that things are changing, Republicans immediately label whoever that person may be as un-American, liberal, socialist or weak. But they send a text message from a circle jerk on the House floor and they are greatest thing since Abraham f'n Lincoln.

*Update:
(h/t tpmdc)

Next to being Great Warrior Revolutionaries, the GOP sees itself as "perpetual victims" of oppression. Long ago, like 6 months ago, they were in charge of the Executive Branch of the American government. Today they are but an oppressed lot much like that of the Iranian people.

"Good to see Iranian people move mountains w social media, shining sunlight on their repressive govt - Texans support their bid for freedom," Culberson posted earlier today. He then followed it up with this: "Oppressed minorities includeHouseRepubs: We are using social media to expose repression such as last night's D clampdown shutting off amends"

Is there anything sadder than seeing the people who want to Constitutionally enforce marriage inequality and removing a woman's right to privacy, wallow themselves in such self-pity? Not to mention, these are the same people who want us to bomb the holy daylights out of Iran. Repulsively deranged to their core.

Don't Point While Looking In a Mirror

Newest Republican Fantasy World denial is that the white supremacist Holocaust Museum gunman was a "lefty."

Their reasoning is since Ahmedijad is a Holocaust denier and he's an islamofascistliberal, Holocaust deniers are all "liberals" and can't possibly be right wing. What they're really saying is that in their make-believe world, a world where George Bush was a popular president, all things evil are liberal and someone like von Brunn must be a liberal.

Fact of the matter is antisemitism is neither left wing nor right wing but white supremacy and nationalism are certainly part of right wing ideology. What is messed up is American political labeling.

I'm not saying this guy was a Republican, I'm saying the Republican Party is moving in the direction of this guy.