Joe the Plumber, called out

From reader Hopper:

He talks about kicking ass and taking names and all that. He talks about slapping people and shooting people. I want to get up in his grill, tell him he's a tool, a liar, a backer of policies that have killed America, and just in general a shitty human being and a terrible American. I also want to tell him to his face that I believe he talks tough but I would be willing to bet he's just a big-talking coward. And I want to invite him to react in any way in which he sees fit. And I want it on tape. Anybody have any idea how to get that done?

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The Party of Lincoln becomes the Party of Limbaugh

It's about time we used their freaks against them. And you know Limbaugh, there's no chance he'll do the smart thing and just shut up.

Top Democratic operatives are planning a stepped up campaign to promote Rush Limbaugh as the public face of the GOP — an effort that will include recruiting Dem governors to make this case on talk shows, getting elected officials to pen Op eds arguing it, and running more ads pushing it, a senior Democratic operative says.

Key leadership staff in the House and Senate, and in all the political committees, have been encouraged by senior Dem operatives to push this message wherever possible, the operative says.

“I’m encouraging everybody to go out and say this,” Paul Begala, the well-known Dem strategist, just told me by phone. “I’m hot for this. Let’s get this out every way we can.”

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CPAC rumor: Larry Kudlow to run against Dodd for Senate

If only Dodd could be so lucky. Kudlow wrote about the Bush economy as "The Greatest Story Never Told" almost one year ago and still can't accept that the GOP had any responsibility in the crisis. He's been at the forefront of the "blame minorities for the housing crisis" and "the market tanked in the autumn because they thought Obama would win" campaigns. Whether conservatives will be able to overlook his drug and alcohol addiction confession in the past remains to be seen. Read More......

Conservative, religious states consume the most porn. Biggest consumer? Utah

I hear the biggest consumer was David Vitter.

A new nationwide study (pdf) of anonymised credit-card receipts from a major online adult entertainment provider finds little variation in consumption between states.

"When it comes to adult entertainment, it seems people are more the same than different," says Benjamin Edelman at Harvard Business School.

However, there are some trends to be seen in the data. Those states that do consume the most porn tend to be more conservative and religious than states with lower levels of consumption, the study finds.

"Some of the people who are most outraged turn out to be consumers of the very things they claimed to be outraged by," Edelman says....

The biggest consumer, Utah, averaged 5.47 adult content subscriptions per 1000 home broadband users...

Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year's presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions. While six out of the lowest 10 favoured Barack Obama....

Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage....

States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed. A similar difference emerged for the statement "AIDS might be God's punishment for immoral sexual behaviour."

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Angered by his fellow Republicans, Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning may just quit

John Cornyn, who heads the Republican Senate campaign committee, has been on a recruiting mission to find Republican to run against Jim Bunning. Republican Senators really want to get rid of Bunning. But, they should be careful what they wish for, because they may get it -- but earlier then expected. And, the consequences would be beyond huge as reported yesterday in the Courier-Journal:

Already in conflict with his party’s leaders, Sen. Jim Bunning has reportedly said privately that if he is hindered in raising money for his re-election campaign he is ready with a response that would be politically devastating for Senate Republicans: his resignation.
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The Kentucky Republican suggested that possible scenario at a campaign fundraiser for him on Capitol Hill earlier this week, according to three sources who asked not to be identified because of the politically sensitive nature of Bunning’s remarks.

The implication, they said, was that Bunning would allow Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, to appoint his replacement — a move that could give Democrats the 60 votes they need to block Republican filibusters in the Senate.

“I would get the last laugh. Don’t forget Kentucky has a Democrat governor,” one of the sources quoted Bunning as saying.

Today, the same paper has a perfunctory denial from Bunning's office:

In a statement released through spokesman Mike Reynard, he said: "It's not true. I intend to fulfill my obligation to the people of Kentucky. If you are going to write something like this, you better make your sources known, because they are lying."

Two of the newspaper's three sources, reached after Bunning issued his statement, said they stood by their comments. The third did not return a phone call.

Clearly, Bunning is playing hardball (yes, that's actually the rare sports joke here at AMERICAblog. For those who don't know, Bunning played professional baseball for years.)

Don't forget, the Senate Republicans have a history of treating their colleagues badly. They forced Jim Jeffords out back in 2001, which tipped the balance of power. I love that Bunning is torturing his fellow Kentucky Senator, Mitch McConnell, the leader of the Senate Republicans. And, those Senate Republicans know Bunning is erratic enough to do it. Read More......

Obama: My budget represents the change I promised -- and I'm ready for the fight to pass it. Really ready.

Obama is laying out in his weekly address today. He's telling the special interests that he's ready for the battle over his budget.



Here's an excerpt:

This budget also reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited – a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession. Given this reality, we’ll have to be more vigilant than ever in eliminating the programs we don’t need in order to make room for the investments we do need. I promised to do this by going through the federal budget page by page, and line by line. That is a process we have already begun, and I am pleased to say that we’ve already identified two trillion dollars worth of deficit-reductions over the next decade. We’ve also restored a sense of honesty and transparency to our budget, which is why this one accounts for spending that was hidden or left out under the old rules.

I realize that passing this budget won’t be easy. Because it represents real and dramatic change, it also represents a threat to the status quo in Washington. I know that the insurance industry won’t like the idea that they’ll have to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs for American families. I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy that will create new jobs and new industries. In other words, I know these steps won’t sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they’re gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this:

So am I.

"So am I." That's the kind of talk I like to hear. "So am I." I'll admit to being very pleasantly surprised by the Obama budget. It's just rare to see a politician keep his or her promises. But, he did a pretty good job, which, of course, is making the Republicans even more apoplectic. More importantly, Krugman was impressed.

So, Obama is ready to get into the right with the big lobbyists and special interests who think they own Capitol Hill. And, don't leave out the Rush "I want him to fail" Limbaugh Republicans who will be fighting to protect tax breaks for the really wealthy, you know, people like Rush. Read More......

Saturday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

We've got an animal poem as the poem of the week today. It's "Moles" by Mary Oliver. (The moles better watch out for that hawk in the post from the other night. I told John that there's a huge hawk hanging out in the park between his place and mine. I've seen him -- and first saw him when I heard his wings swooshing above us (and by us, I mean Petey and me.) The bird is bigger than Petey. I'm still not sure what kind of hawk he is. I just think it's cool to see nature like that in the middle of the city.)

From the ongoing series "Haiku for the Obama Administration," there were some real gems this week. For example #102:

Tim's giving "stress tests"
He is grading on a curve--
Big banks get a pass!

And, in response to raving Rick Santelli's paranoid claims that the Obama administration is threatening him, come this brilliant smackdown:

Mrs. Santelli,
Obama knows where you live!
Hide the silver NOW!!!

The haikus are written by KarenMrsLloydRichards every morning in the open thread. She cracks me up every day.

Let's get started, but start slow. It's Saturday... Read More......

Should people with disabilities be hidden from children?

What the hell is the matter with people? These must be the same people who fear the world around them and prefer living life in a cocoon. Oh no, life! CNN:

A children's show host who was born with one hand is facing criticism from parents over her disability.

BBC spokeswoman Katya Mira said the corporation has received at least 25 "official" complaints recently about Cerrie Burnell, new host of two shows on the BBC-run CBeebies television network, which is aimed at children younger than six.

The official complaints do not count the dozens of negative comments lodged in Internet chat rooms, Mira said.

In one chat room, a father lamented that Burnell being on the show forced him to have conversations with his child about disabilities.

However, there have also been messages of support for Burnell.

"We have also received 99 appreciations of her," Mira said.

Burnell started as a presenter of the shows in late January after acting with theater companies in Manchester, England, and Brazil.

A BBC news release in January introducing Burnell made no mention of her disability, but a publicity photo showed the right sleeve of her sweater pulled up, showing her arm stops just below her elbow.

And the BBC was right. There's no need to mention it because it has no impact on whether she can act or not act. Read More......

Lloyds discovers an additional $114 billion in high risk loans

This is exactly what crushes the spirit of the market. Banks and their media cheerleaders keep telling us that the surprises are over, the bad debt behind us and the good times are near. The market needs calm, boring and predictable behavior for one quarter and then another and another, etc. "Discoveries" of new bad debt only enhance the existing belief that it's a dangerous market.

Lloyds banking Group revealed yesterday that it had found £80bn of high-risk loans at HBOS, the bank it bought last month to save it from collapse.

The high-risk assets are part of £165bn of loans that Lloyds said were outside its own appetite for risk. Surging bad debts on HBOS's books drove it to a £10.8bn loss for 2008.

Impairment losses at HBOS surged to £9.9bn from £2.01bn a year earlier, with two-thirds coming from the corporate bank, with its heavy weighting towards the stricken commercial property and housebuilding sectors.

Alex Potter, a banking analyst at Collins Stewart, said: "The scale of the deterioration in the HBOS book has shocked us."

Lloyds said that HBOS's estimate of the losses for 2008 was only a third of Lloyds', which itself turned out to be too low by £1.6bn.

Eric Daniels, Lloyds' chief executive, said the bank's forecast had not predicted that the economy would shrink by 1.5 per cent in the last quarter of 2008, increasing pressure on borrowers. "While we were pretty gloomy, what actually happened is we were not gloomy enough," he added. But he insisted that the losses were not far off Lloyds' expectations and were manageable.

Uh huh. Who ever could have forecasted anything like that? Read More......

Looking out my back door

Looking out my own back door, the garden continues to grow thanks to the weather warming up a few degrees and no sub-freezing temps. The camellia's still have another few weeks to go though this will be the first time in three years that they have not bloomed in February. Read More......

Jobless claims higher than forecasted, hit 26 year high

Although there is not any good news in this report, there is a report out today that suggests layoffs at large corporate businesses will start to decline. The jobless data from CNNMoney:

The number of Americans filing initial claims for unemployment insurance spiked, and those living on unemployment benefits hit a record high, according to a government report released Thursday.

For the week ended Feb. 21, 667,000 Americans filed initial jobless claims, up 36,000 from a revised 631,000 the previous week. That's the highest figure since October 1982.

Economists polled by Briefing.com were expecting claims to drop to 625,000.

In a sign that more jobless Americans are having trouble finding work, 5,112,000 continued on unemployment for the week ended Feb. 14, the most recent data available. That's the highest number since the Labor Department began keeping records since 1967.

Initial claims are expected to sharply increase, and it's likely they will reach 750,000 per week in the upcoming months, according to Ian Shepherdson, economist at High Frequency Economics in New York.

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