Pandering to the Base

Fresh out of ideas for real progress, yesterday it was the Republicans giving another gift to the rich with the compromise allowing today's House approval of a further $70 billion in debt for us, $70 billion given to investors in the form of a two-year extension of the capital gains and dividend tax cuts. To add insult to injustice, they even opened up the Roth IRA, one of the few tax shelters available to us non-rich, to the rich so they can put their money in and never have to pay taxes on it again. Today, gas prices, the Iraq war, Plamegate, illegal domestic espionage, stagnated Katrina rebuilding, environmental injuries and health care aside, they passed a resolution that the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance and the oath of citizenship should be in English. In the closest we've ever had to a national language, so eine Haufen Idioten.

So, it's official. Bush One and Bush Two want Bush Three. Actually, it's a shame Jeb has to follow George, it seems Jeb may be the only one of the three with any substance to him. In any case, I think the Bush name may be soon gone from American politics, it having hit its nadir in King George the Clueless. Further evidence of Crawford's absentee idiot's idiocy, his latest Judicial nominee was rated as "unqualified" by the American Bar Association, making him the ideal Bush nominee. What's wrong, not enough qualified Wingnuts left for the bench? I guess being in the Federalist Society qualifies you for just about anything, regardless of what fifteen experts say about you.

Perhaps that's why generic Democrats lead generic Republicans by double digits in preference to control congress. Of course, gerrymanders will probably protect most of the Right from their righteous rewards.

In today's episode of Whoring for Dollars, the Government refused to cite China for currency manipulation. By keeping their currency cheap, they're proping up ours with their billions of dollars in reserve. They could also cause the dollar to go into free-fall should they decide to put their billions in Euros or the currency of some other, more fiscally responsive country. Some day they will call the massive debt we keep accumulating, both private and public, then we will get to see how hyperinflation feels. So, of the instruments of national power, our military is stretched to the breaking point, our diplomacy works against us and our economic power is in the hands of the Chinese, who own enough of our debt we can't apply pressure on them. Perhaps that's why generic (and specific) Republicans see the writing on the wall: The hero of the 2000 election, Katherine Harris of Florida, is trailing her Democratic opponent by double digits and they can't get anyone else to run.

There's a lot more but there are a lot more bloggers out there.