Headlines - Saturday August 13

Obama Created More Jobs In One Year Than Bush Created In Eight

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There are competing explanations for why, in the middle of a continuing economic crisis, the President is choosing to focus on the one issue that won't just not help, but will actually exacerbate our economic problems in the near term. From Robert Reich:

 

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Wow.

A Standard & Poor's director said for the first time Thursday that one reason the United States lost its triple-A credit rating was that several lawmakers expressed skepticism about the serious consequences of a credit default — a position put forth by some Republicans.

Without specifically mentioning Republicans, S&P senior director Joydeep Mukherji said the stability and effectiveness of American political institutions were undermined by the fact that "people in the political arena were even talking about a potential default," Mukherji said.

"That a country even has such voices, albeit a minority, is something notable," he added. "This kind of rhetoric is not common amongst AAA sovereigns."

When the Luddites are denying evolution, it's one thing, but they bring their uniquely misinformed religiously-inspired "facts" to the economic sphere, what happens if you get downgraded.

 

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Greg Sargent: No more phony outrage over Obama camp's `attack' on Romney

 

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It's the North Sea; they'll never figure out how much leaked. "Oil giant Shell is battling an oil leak in a North Sea pipeline off the British coast, a company spokesman for the Anglo-Dutch company said. It was not immediately clear how much oil had leaked into the sea, Wim van de Wiel told AFP news agency in The Hague on Friday. "We have discovered a leak in a flow line between a well and a production platform" in the North Sea van de Wiel said.  The leak was discovered on Wednesday after an oil sheen was spotted on the surface near the Gannet Alpha production platform, around 180 km east of Aberdeen."

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Wonkette: Indiana GOP Lawmaker Trolls Craigslist Ads For… (You Can Guess) 

It's becoming cliche — the anti-gay crusader, who spends his time in office legislating against gays, turns out to actually be gay himself.

One may begin to wonder just how many of the anti-gay crusaders currently occupying public office are similarly self-loathing and repressed.

All of them? 80 percent? 50?

You may also notice this phenomenon is almost entirely exclusive to the Republican party.

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Need to stop a U.S. protest? Get your corporate buddies to crush 'em. "A rail transit provider in the United States disabled mobile phone services to prevent a planned protest on Thursday, attracting criticism and unflattering comparisons to crackdowns on dissent in the Middle East. Demonstrators in northern California's Bay Area had planned a protest to condemn the shooting death of Charles Hill, who was killed on July 3 after Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) police officers responded to complaints about a drunk man at a station in the city of San Francisco. Hill was fatally shot in the torso - police said he had lunged with a knife - and protesters responded eight days later with a demonstration that shut down three San Francisco BART stations. In a statement released on Friday, BART said organisers planned another protest over the Charles Hill shooting during busy commute times on Thursday, which "could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions. Organisers planning to disrupt BART service on [Thursday] stated they would use mobile devices to co-ordinate their disruptive activities and communicate about the location and number of BART police," the statement said. "BART asked wireless providers to temporarily interrupt service at select BART stations as one of many tactics to ensure the safety of everyone on the platform." James Allison, the deputy chief communications officer for BART, told Cnet News that mobile services were disabled in four San Francisco stations from 4pm to 7pm local time."

 

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White House photo sparks protest A White House photographer was allowed to take and widely distribute a photo from the ceremony Tuesday for the return of the remains of 30 American troops killed in a weekend helicopter crash in Afghanistan despite the Pentagon's claim that any public depiction of the scene would violate the wishes of bereaved families.

 

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If cash isn't sitting in savings  accounts of ordinary people, and it isn't circulating through the economy, where is it? Sitting in the bank accounts of rich parasites who are bleeding us dry with the help of their bought-and-paid-for republican legislators. "When asked where they would turn if they needed $1,000 in cash fast, only 34 percent of Americans would look to their savings accounts for the money, according to a recent online poll by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. The other 64 percent would be forced to go elsewhere, from taking out a loan to borrowing from a family member. In a study released in June, Bankrate reported that only 24 percent of the nation has access to six-months of emergency savings, the majority of whom come from high-income households. In contrast, corporations today are sitting on close to $1.12 trillion in cash, a 59 percent increase from 2008."

 

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Sometimes the right has the cruelest take of all on their weak bench. Scott Johnson's rundown of the republican field is as clear-eyed an assessment as you'll find anywhere, and surely ought to make even the most disspirited Democrat take heart.

 

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"Obama is going to use 'weird' as code for 'Mormon.' I am really starting to respect that urban, rhythmic, Socialist, Kenyan secret Muslim." –Stephen Colbert, on the Obama campaign's apparent plan to target Mitt Romney as "weird"

 

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All of modern politics in one chart.

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A new study of homicide and suicide rates over a 107-year period shows that murders and suicides shoot up under Republican administrations, and drop significantly during Democratic presidencies. It's an interesting read, and the conclusion seems to lie in the disparate policies the two parties put into place. In other words, the socio-economic stress caused by conservatism is very bad for you.

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Here's a Daily Mail article, with spectacular pictures, about snorkling with sperm whales.

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Wisco: Voter ID solves nothing.

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There were many memorable moments during last night's Clown Car Debate, but none were quite as important as this particular moment.

The candidates were asked if they would walk away from a deficit-reduction deal that raises revenue, even if the deal carried a cuts:revenue ratio of 10:1, and every single candidate raised their hand to say yes.

Regardless of what happens in Congress between now and next November, every single Republican presidential candidate has officially signed on to the "No Compromises; No Revenues" bandwagon.

Regardless of which candidate eventually goes on to become the nominee, they will have emerged as the nominee by strictly adhering to a non-compromising platform with a pledge to never raise taxes under any circumstances.

If you watched last night's debate, and you weren't left feeling immensely grateful that Barack Obama is our president rather than one of these lunatics, there may be something wrong with you.

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"Levi Johnston, who got Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol pregnant, has a sister Mercede, who just posed for 'Playboy' and said some very unflattering things about the Palins. She said Track Palin, who she dated, used cocaine and oxycodone, that Sarah Palin forced him to go into the military to protect herself, and that if Palin became President she'd have a mental breakdown. Then the photographer asked her to turn a little so he could get both nipples." –Jimmy Kimmel

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"Congress has the lowest approval rating ever. 82 percent of the American people say Congress sucks. But to be fair, these are the same idiots who voted these people in, so they can go suck it as far as I'm concerned."