QOTD: "The Inconvenience Of The Necessary"

 

New York Times columnist Charles Blow on the test facing America with the Malignant Loser's imminent indictment(s):

"We’re at a point in the nation’s history where we are called to endure what I call the inconvenience of the necessary, a point at which something is morally right — and morally unavoidable — but the political timing is problematic.

"We’ve faced these moments before, and too often we’ve eschewed the moral position for the political one — from allowing Reconstruction to fail and allowing Jim Crow to rise, to delaying acknowledgment of L.G.B.T.Q. rights, to the about-face on police reform in the face of a public panic about crime.

"Moving forward, unapologetically and righteously, with the prosecution of Trump is another test that our country faces and another chance our country has to make the right — or wrong — choice.

"History is always watching and always recording.

"Trump will not be remembered well. He will, I believe, be a marker of one of the times the country came closest to losing itself. The question remaining to be answered is how the rest of us will be remembered." (our emphasis)

Blow challenges us to tune out the political consultants and Beltway media's chatter about "will this help Trump" in the 2024 elections. Get on with the work that needs to be done, inconvenient or not.

 

QOTD: Not That Smart

Georgia Republicans' Senate nominee Herschel "How Many Kids?" Walker wants to set the expectations for his debate with Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock (D) low when he said this: “I’m this country boy, you know. I’m not that smart. And he’s a preacher. He’s a smart man, wears these nice suits. So he is going to show up and embarrass me at the debate Oct. 14, and I’m just waiting to show up and I’m going to do my best.”  Charles Blow gives his rejoinder in the quote of the day:

"Mr. Walker, I believe you when you say that you’re not smart. But intelligence has nothing to do with the size of your hometown or the quality of your suit. You are the personification of a game being played by Georgia Republicans: a wager that any Black Republican — in your case, an empty intellectual vessel — can beat the Black Democrat, a man who is thoroughly qualified and utterly decent.

Walker is Georgia Republicans’ attempt to undermine the image of Black competence, by making a mockery of Black people, by replacing a thinker with a toady. [snip]

Whether Warnock embarrasses Walker or Walker embarrasses himself or there is no embarrassment to be had during the debate is not the point. The point is that Warnock is a serious, competent candidate, and Walker is clearly a tool of his party — a Black former athlete handpicked by Trump to take down a highly educated Black clergyman who was elected by a coalition led by an ascendant Black electorate in the state.

No one on the night of debate — no matter how it unfolds, no matter how much the media sacrifices message to mannerism — can change these truths. When Herschel Walker tells you he’s not that smart, believe him."  (our emphasis)

QOTD: No Apologies Needed

 

"Democrats have to stop falling for the line that calling out the dangers that some voters present to the country is somehow a divisive, offensive, unfair attack on the innocent. No person who voted for Trump or supports him now is above being named and shamed.

Biden doesn’t owe Republicans an apology; they owe the country an apology."  -- New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow, in a column that details why President Biden may have been too soft in his condemnation of "MAGA Republicans" who form the majority of the Republican / Seditionist Party. 

The Dems need to include video of the January 6 attack on the Capitol in their campaign ads prior for the mid-terms not to sway the Trumpists, but to tie it to Biden's statements, and remind independents and the few non-Trumpist Republicans (and our broken media) of the mortal risk they pose to our democracy. Many of the Trumpists may not have joined the violent mob on January 6, but all of them either stood silent or supported their attempted coup in the aftermath. 

 

QOTD -- Salvation

 

"...The overturning of Roe v. Wade was monumental and is still stuck in voters’ minds. Many feel they are stuck in a nightmare and Democrats hold the only possibility of salvation.

"This decision, this victory by the forced-birth zealots, wiped out the progress Republicans were making by pushing the anti-wokeness canard — this idea that they had to fight back against racial indoctrination, against people who would redefine what a woman is and against health regulation.

"The War Against Woke now looks silly in light of the escalated War Against Women.

"Also, Trump has resurfaced as a foil." -- Charles Blow, yesterday in the New York Times ($ -- no link). Democrats have one of the most powerful messages going into the mid-terms and beyond:  We're Fighting for Your Freedoms and Democracy.  That umbrella concept covers the fight to defend a woman's reproductive freedom;  the rule of law and free and fair elections; common sense gun laws that keep us safer;  environmental laws that protect our country and planet;  a "stronger, fairer" economy that includes fair wages and affordable health care, etc.  We're faced with an increasingly fascist Trumpist Republican Party that must be defeated at every level if there's to be "salvation."  There's nothing more important than that this year, and likely in 2024.

QOTD: Playing An Endgame

 

The New York Times' op-ed writer Charles Blow warns Dems (again) to stop expecting the unicorn of Republican bipartisanship. It's not happening for some obvious reasons:

"Democrats: Republicans don’t want you to win. It’s that simple. They want no successes on your watch, and they certainly don’t want to participate in said victories. [snip]

It seems to me that this has all been a performance, a going through the motions, a checking of the boxes, so that Democrats could say that they tried, that they extended a hand but were rebuffed. Democrats always seem to want to win the moral advantage, to say that they played the game with honor.

But that is meaningless when Republicans no longer care about that form of morality, when they no longer want to play the game by the established rules at all. Democrats are playing an honor game; Republicans are playing an endgame.

Republicans are in win-at-all-costs mode. They don’t really care how they sound today or will be judged by history. The only thing that matters is winning and retaining power, defending the narrative of America that white people created and protecting the power and wealth they accrued because of it." (our emphasis)

Thinking that the magic number of 10 Republicans will join Senate Dems in passing voting rights laws, infrastructure support, or any measure that will help the broad population is fantasy. Even if they weren't afraid of the wrath of their cult leader in Merde-o'-Lardo, most are just vicious, racist reactionaries (think Sens. Hawley, Cruz, Cotton, etc.) who have no compunction about obstructing popular legislation, as long as Dems propose it. In the meantime, they're playing the ultimately weak hand of culture warfare, and hoping that enough voters buy their gas lighting of the January 6 seditionist insurrection, their lies about the 2020 election being "rigged", and their attempts to actually rig upcoming elections through voter suppression.

Dems need to face it sooner rather than later: without eliminating or drastically curtailing the filibuster rule, the unified Senate Republican minority will sink the Biden agenda with glee, and use that "failure" to run on in coming elections.

QOTD -- Fatigue Is Not An Excuse

 

"Defcon 1 became our political default, and they wore down our anxieties about the danger. We are human beings; our panic can’t be permanent. Our minds and bodies simply aren’t meant to sustain it.

"But here we are again facing another very real threat to our democracy, and it would be a shame if we were so weary of Donald Trump and his supporters’ attacks on the pillars of this country that we dismissed warnings about what it all means, as with all others that preceded it. [snip]

"The Republican Party as it is now positioned is no longer simply a part of our political system; it is a threat to our political system. The party has converted itself into the enemy within.

"The question is whether we’re too tired from the Trump years to see what is happening and mount an actual defense." -- Charles Blow in his New York Times op/ ed "Fatigue Is A Luxury You Can't Afford." Fealty to an incompetent, widely unpopular, fascistic blogger in Florida is a hell of a drug.

QOTD -- The Voters Under The Stairs

 

"For years — decades even — the conservative elite had alternately tolerated, recruited or activated racists, white nationalists and white supremacists. The elite have their own versions of these biases, but they thought themselves more erudite and tactical, not brash and brazen. They would use surgical tools of voter suppression, states’ rights campaigns and defense of marriage and the unborn to advance their goals in a way they saw as honorable.

"But Trump saw the voters that the elites kept under the stairs, the ones they want to excite only around election time. He saw the resentment and rage in them. He saw that their voices had been muted and their tongues chastened.

"He drew them out. He let them vent. He allowed them to see they were indeed the majority of the party. He offered to be their leader, their white knight of white power, and they accepted. They grew loud and strong and he fed them red meat. They rampaged and he basked in the glow of the blaze.

"Leader and followers had found each other. Now the traditional Republicans were on the run or on the ropes. Rather than become victims of the mob, they yielded to it. They tried to tap into it. They tried to grab the reins of it." -- Charles Blow, explaining the dynamic that will keep the vast majority of spineless, craven Republican Senators from voting to convict their putrescent "alpha male."

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Charles Blow reacts to white nationalist dimbulb Donald "Rump" Trump's racist tweetstorm on Sunday:

... There can be no more discussion or debate about whether or not Trump is a racist. He is. There can be no more rhetorical juggling about not knowing what’s in his heart. We see what flows out of it.

White people and whiteness are the center of the Trump presidency. His primary concern is to defend, protect and promote it. All that threatens it must be attacked and assaulted. Trump is bringing the force of the American presidency to the rescue of white supremacy. And, self-identified Republicans absolutely love him for it.

We are watching a very dark chapter in this nation’s history unfold in real time. We are watching as a president returns naked racism to the White House. And we are watching as fellow citizens — possibly a third of them — reveal to us their open animus for us through their continued support of him.  (our emphasis)

Goldie Taylor says it plain and simple:

Trump is not a fine person. His words Sunday were not racially “charged,” “fueled,” or “tinged.” They were unapologetically racist.

And, if you support him, so are you.

The rotted out Republican Party has also once again revealed itself, through its silence, as the Trump Party of white nationalism.  (Hell, even UK Prime Minister Theresa May called him out.)

If there ever was a timely reminder who and what Democrats are fighting against, this is it.

Kyle Pope discusses how Trump manipulates the media, the latest example being the ICE show raids, to distract from unpleasant headlines or failures -- and how the media should respond:

Unfortunately, for a press corps engineered to serve up heart-pulling melodramas, all of this will likely prove too juicy to ignore. We’ll watch the horror show, and then we will be subject to panel discussions about the latest partisan “controversy,” with Trump strolling out jut-jawed to declare his toughness on the border, while Democrats and human rights activists loudly protest the raids as immoral and unjustified. Who’s in the right?, the media will ask. Who knows? [snip]

What makes this all so difficult for reporters is that Trump’s actions can not be dismissed as media gambits; the drama unfolding merits urgent attention. Odds are that there will be even more pain as a result of Sunday’s raids. Journalism’s job must be to frame the immigration crackdown as a campaign event—not a policy response—that claims lives as collateral damage. Trump’s manipulation of a crisis is the point. That is the heartbreaking story that needs to be told.  (our emphasis)

Speaking of unpleasant headlines, today is the day sex predator and trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has his bail hearing. Stretching credulity, his lawyers want him released on bail and restricted to his Upper East Side $77 million mansion wearing a GPS monitor.  But,

Prosecutors are not buying those arguments.

They said in court filings that Epstein's wealth makes him a major flight risk, as he owns a private jet as well as six homes, including a private island in the US Virgin Islands. The plan proposed by Epstein's attorneys is "little more than a barely-secured bond masquerading as a 14-point plan," prosecutors said.

They argued that his proposal to use the home as collateral is pointless because the government is seeking to seize the property if he is convicted. They also dismissed his offer to agree to extradition in any country as "unenforceable," and they said electronic monitoring would do little but "merely give the defendant less of a head start in fleeing," according to the court filing.

Further, prosecutors said Epstein could use his wealth to tamper with the investigation -- and has a history of doing just that.

Meanwhile, the case of Trump rape victim E. Jean Carroll may not be over:

“I hadn’t thought about pressing charges, but now people are convincing me that it's smart,” she told The Daily Beast. “If I get a really smart attorney, we might be able to get around [the statute]. I’ll be exploring it.”

The attorney would have to find a way around New York state law, which lifted the statute of limitations on rape years after Trump's assault occurred.

If there was justice in the world, Epstein's sex predator partying pal Trump would be in an adjoining cell right now.

We close, as always, with our strong recommendation to go over to Infidel 753's link round- up, which seems to offer even more great links week upon week.

A Spine Stiffener, A Strategy, And A Strategery

We had to pass along some snippets from good reads on vicious jackass Donald "Rump" Trump today.  Please go to the links for the full articles.

Charles Blow on the darkness at Trump's core -- hatred:

He hates women who dare to stand up to him and push back against him, so he attacks them, not just on the issues but on the validity of their very womanhood. 

He hates black people who dare to stand up — or kneel — for their dignity and against oppressive authority, so he attacks protesting professional athletes, Black Lives Matter and President Barack Obama himself as dangerous and divisive, unpatriotic and un-American 

He hates immigrants so he has set a tone of intolerance, boasted of building his wall (that Mexico will never pay for), swollen the ranks of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and attacks some as criminals and animals. 

He hates Muslims, so he moves to institute his travel ban and attacks their religion with the incendiary comment that “I think Islam hates us.” 

He always disguises his hatred, often as a veneration and defense of his base, the flag, law enforcement or the military. He hijacks their valor to advance his personal hatred. 

So I remember that. I center that. I hear “I want to hate” every time I hear him speak. And I draw strength from the fact that I’m not fighting for or against a political party; I’m fighting hatred itself, as personified by the man who occupies the presidency. That is my spine stiffener.

Christine Brennan on the successful way the Philadelphia Eagles handled Trump (as opposed to the NFL owners):

A crotch-kicker needs an opponent. Without one, what is he? Without a race to bait, without someone to accuse, without a target to lash out at, what can he do? When there is no one to scapegoat or to scream spittle at, then what? He has to stand there and try to look and be presidential. That’s what the Eagles understood when most decided not to go to the White House and shake his hand, leading to the event’s cancellation. And that’s what the camera so pointedly revealed Tuesday at the “patriotic” ceremony Trump devised to replace it: the pointless pugnacity of the uptilted chin, the uncertainty about what to do or even where to stand, the fumbling for words of a song. 

Sebastian Mallaby discusses the reasons for Trump's "absurd" foreign policy, as he prepares to meet with the other G-7 countries:

... Facing a belligerent Russia, an increasingly authoritarian and assertive China, a dicey North Korean summit and a blank space where there used to be an Iran nuclear deal, Trump has hit upon a truly absurd policy: alienate the few potential friends you have. 

Why does he do this? The reasons can be grouped under three headings: narcissism, ignorance of international relations and ignorance of economics. [snip] 

The president has created a new standard. Instead of rules, he offers his infernal Twitter feed. Instead of patient pursuit of public goods, he brings the zero-sum hustle of the real estate business. The Trump era cannot end soon enough.

So, stiffen your spines, don't be baited, and work to end this miserable period in our history as soon as possible.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full article/ story.

Greg Sargent writes about the lazy and false pundit/ media narrative emerging about how Democrats are running in 2018:

There’s a narrative about our politics right now that you constantly encounter on social and political media. It goes like this: Democrats are too obsessed with the Russia investigation, or with Stormy Daniels, or they’re just too focused on “not being President Trump,” and as a result, they aren’t articulating an affirmative agenda and risk getting caught flat-footed by Trump’s supposedly rising popularity. 

But this narrative is entirely wrong, and two new pieces this morning help set the record straight. Taken together, they point to a much more accurate version of what’s happening: Trump’s unpopularity does in fact remain historically abysmal. This and Trump’s many scandals are in fact helping Democrats — but not in a way that is immediately apparent and not in a manner that betrays any unhealthy Democratic obsession with those things.

We've seen this movie before:  lazy, closed- loop media picks narrative based on desired outcome, obsesses on shiny object, hello "President" Trump.  Don't count on them "saving" us when it comes to the Trump- Russia scandal, either.

Leonard Pitts, Jr., on "putative Christians":

Today, we will discuss one of the most pressing threats to American Christianity. Meaning, of course, American Christians. 

Yes, that’s an overly broad statement. All those Christians whose faith requires them to live the Good News, to feed the hungry, to house the homeless, speak for the voiceless and welcome the stranger, surely do not threaten the faith. To the contrary, they empower it. They are what Christianity is supposed to be. 

But we’re here to contend with what Christianity too often is. Having seen putative Christians excuse the liar, rationalize the alleged pedophile, justify the sexual assaulter and cheer as walls are raised against the most vulnerable, it’s obvious that many of those who claim that name embody a niggardly, cowardly, selfish and situational “faith” that has little to do with Jesus.

Pitts provides the case of North Bend High School in rural Oregon as a prime example of how this "religion" is practiced by its faithful pharisees.

Charles Blow on what we must do in every election until we weed out the coin- operated Republican gun fondler caucus:

People seeking common sense gun control must become single-issue voters on gun control. Support for more restrictions may not be the only reason to vote for a candidate, but it must be sufficient to vote against one. 

We have to stop waiting for politicians to display courage and instead start to instill fear in them. 

As an individual voter, you don’t need to have a slate of reforms in mind, you only have to vote consistently for candidates who are committed to reviewing the issue and advancing smart, effective policy.

Silver Spring Bureau Chief Brian clued us in on a fascinating website, livingnewdeal.org, that tracks the thousands of ongoing projects begun in FDR's New Deal, and how those projects are living all around us today.  From high schools to national parks to libraries to dams to the National Institutes of Health, find examples in your state and across the nation of how progressive government yields fruits for the benefit of generations to come.

Lastly, please check out Infidel 753's link round-up of "various interesting stuff [he] ran across on the net over the last week."  Lots of humor and serious stuff, too, as usual.

Monday Reading - "Parasitic Presidency"

The New York Times' Charles Blow has a hard- hitting op/ ed on the shitgibbon (as usual, the entire piece is worth a read) and concludes:

This is a 70-year-old man who has lived his entire life as the vile, dishonest, incurious creature who got elected. That election validated his impulses rather than served as a curb on them. 

Trump will continue to debase and devalue the presidency with his lies. Trump will continue to follow Bannon’s philosophy of internal deconstruction of our government, its principles and its institutions. And Trump will continue to leech as much personal financial advantage as he can from the flesh of the American public. 

That’s who Trump is. America elected a parasite.

In his op/ ed, Blow cites the number of Executive Orders signed by the shitgibbon (16 in 45 days) having a broad impact on the lives of Americans. The use of these orders to further the "deconstruction of the administrative state" (as advisor Steve "Loose Cannon" Bannon has put it) have impacted environmental quality, gun laws, financial controls, Obamacare and immigration/ border "security" among other areas.  But it looks like these nihilists are far from through:

On @POTUS's schedule tomorrow:

THE PRESIDENT signs an Executive Order entitled “Comprehensive Plan for Reorganizing the Executive Branch”

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) March 13, 2017

If that doesn't send a chill down your spine, you're not paying attention.

Sunday Quotes And Reading

Here's Mark Sumner on the collection of plutocrats gathering in neo- fascist faux "populist" Donald "Rump" Trump's cabinet:

So we’ll get public schools shaped by people who’ve never attended one, law and order from people who’ve lived their lives behind security gates, health care from people who have personal physicians, and transportation policy from people who have their own jets. We’ll also get a lot of extra drug testing, reduced wages, and cuts to unemployment—because these billionaires know it’s you working people who are taking more than you’re worth.

Sumner refers indirectly to an article in Politico naming the various rich older white people either named or rumored to be in line for cabinet positions ("Trump's Team of Gazillionaires").  That article's also worth a look, to see who Rump will have in place to protect the interests of the White Working Class (spoiler alert: =snicker=).

While others at the New York Effing Times were busy affixing their lips to Rump's rump =cough= Maggie Haberman =cough= , Charles Blow wasn't going to go along to get along:

You are an aberration and abomination who is willing to do and say anything — no matter whom it aligns you with and whom it hurts — to satisfy your ambitions. 

I don’t believe you care much at all about this country or your party or the American people. I believe that the only thing you care about is self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment. Your strongest allegiance is to your own cupidity. 

I also believe that much of your campaign was an act of psychological projection, as we are now learning that many of the things you slammed Clinton for are things of which you may actually be guilty. [snip] 

You are a fraud and a charlatan. Yes, you will be president, but you will not get any breaks just because one branch of your forked tongue is silver.

Blow's op/ ed is worth saving and referring back to whenever the sight of the corporate media kowtowing to the non- popularly- elected shitgibbon becomes too much to bear.  It burns with the righteous intensity missing in most of the post- election chatter.

Joy-Ann Reid warns of the corporate media's dressing Rump in the "Emperor's new clothes," a process already well underway:

You may be asked, over the next four years, to accept things you never dreamed would be acceptable, and to turn a blind eye to vulgarity and hypocrisy and failure. You’ll be sold the pageantry of presidential succession, along with lighthearted stories about Melania’s New York shopping sprees or Ivanka’s parenting tips. Long forgotten will be questions about the former’s immigration lies or the fact that potentially any world leader has seen photographs of the first lady naked; or about the many times the latter has been the object of prurient commentary by her father. Religious leaders will grin and embrace the Trump presidency as if it was blessed by God almighty, even as they hover over bill signings designed to consign women and gays back to second class status and ignore the Biblical admonition  to see to the poor, the widow and the orphan.

While her message is addressed to fellow journalists as well as the public, the understanding is that the corporate media may already be too compromised to serve as a moral truth- teller in the face of Trumpism:

... [T]raditional media are bending under the weight of fake news and meme culture. And the tug of normalization is powerful; even pleasing, when reality is unthinkable. The urge to look away, to pretend to see fine threads when the king comes strolling by, with his bare belly jutting out, can be irresistible.

 For the good of the country, here’s hoping enough people resist.

Amen to that.

Finally, please go over and check out the great, eclectic links provided by Infidel 753.  It's a better digest than you'll get in the New York Effing Times Sunday edition.

Monday Reading - Carrying The Fight To The Republican Vandals

A couple of good reads on the struggle between the Republican vandals and people who want government to work (as usual, please read the entire pieces).

Charles Blow on why government is "broken" and who's breaking it:

Congressional Republicans have been sent to Washington with a mandate not so much to conduct business but rather to collect a bounty, to do what they promised and what their supporters expect: Stop Obama at any cost and at every turn, to erase his name or at least put an asterisk by it.

Blow concludes with this observation about the Republican/ plutocrat master plan:

Liberal ideology depends on a productive federal government; conservatism rises when that government is crippled. 

Republicans, in all their cynicism, are increasing their efforts to break the government. 

Isn’t America great?

E.J. Dionne, Jr., on the Democratic push-back that's already started on net neutrality, climate change and immigration:

Republicans did a brilliant job in the campaign playing on the idea that Obama is weak, passive and without a game plan. That was the not-so-hidden meaning of all their television ads about the Islamic State, Ebola and immigration. So Obama has made clear that he won’t be weak and passive and that he has a game plan. 

But what of the hand-wringing by the usual suspects to this continuing "partisanship"? Dionne:

Yes, Washington may again be engulfed in partisan warfare. But at least this time, it will be over things that are actually happening.  (our emphasis) 

And, we might add, things that are actually worth fighting for.

Today's Cartoon And Reads

Love "The G.O.P.'s Long-Term Plan" diagram.

(click to enlarge)

(Brian McFadden, via gocomics.com)

From E.J. Dionne, Jr., on dealing with the Republican Congress:

[Sen. Mitch] McConnell’s main argument with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), and his followers is not about ends but means. McConnell is no less focused than Cruz on bringing down Obama and discrediting Democratic governance, but McConnell needs to be more subtle about it.  [snip]

Solving the country’s economic riddle would be a much better use of their time than investing in the fantasy that McConnell and [Weeper of the House] Boehner will try to make Obama look good. 

Charles Blow looks at the more general mood and methods of the right-wing opposition:

His term must be tarnished; his accomplishments erased. 

Some people blame the president for not cultivating more congressional relationships, across the aisle and even in the Democratic caucus. There may be some truth to that, but not much, I believe. No amount of glad-handing and ego-stroking would compensate for the depths of the opposition. Nor would messaging. 

This is a president who was elected by an increasingly diverse national electorate that some find frightening, a president who is pushing a somewhat liberal agenda that some have found intrinsically objectionable, and a president who is battling some historical personality tropes that many cannot abandon. 

To his opponents, this president’s greatest sins are his success and his self. 

So, if you're listening Democrats, don't repeat the mistakes of the past 6 years by thinking the Republicans are acting in good faith or with good intentions.

Morning Reading

From the New York Times' Charles Blow:

"The country needs the president to rise to this crisis in word, spirit and deed. We need him to reach out of his nature and into the nation’s need. We are on the precipice. There’s growing concern that we may slip into a second, more painful recession. There is little optimism that the housing crisis will loosen its grip on the economy anytime soon. The unspeakable truth is that we may well be on the leading edge of a prolonged period of national stagnation, if not decline.

A robotic Sustainer-in-Chief with an eerie inhumanity will not satisfy. At this moment, we need less valley and more mountaintop."

More and more progressives are concerned about the seeming passivity of President Obama. As many have said, the President needs to "go big" with a jobs and economic recovery plan, and dare the Rethugs to oppose it. With interest on Treasury notes at record low levels, the U.S. can borrow money almost interest free, and we need to get large public works projects underway that will have good return on investment. Time to get going and get serious.

BONUS: Here's Jonathan Alter's take on the same subject.

In The Months To Come

The New York Times' Charles Blow has a good column on President Obama's temporary bump in the polls after the killing of Osama bin Laden, America's short attention span, and the coming flood of right wing corporate money to diminish and deny Obama's accomplishments. A key quote:

"According to a report issued last week by the Center for Responsive Politics, the Republican Governors Association received more than $60 million — nearly half of all the money it raised — from businesses, lawyers and lobbyists. That was nearly twice as much as the Democratic association received from those sources. And the biggest corporate contributor to the Republicans was, you guessed it: News America, a subsidiary of the News Corporation, which owns Fox News."

Nothing President Obama does will ever win over the right wing tycoons, much less the befuddled teatard sheeple that they've manipulated with a mixture of "socialist/Marxist/Kenyan/Muslim" lies about Obama, and a strong seasoning of racism thrown in.

Sunday Morning Reading

Charles Blow wants us to "take the long view" in politics. Since the long view would seem to favor progressives, we'll do just that.