Big Fat Whale by Brian McFadden

I find it amazing that Republicans, who doubled the debt of the country in eight years and produced no new jobs doing it — gave us an economic record that is totally bereft of any productive result — are now criticizing [Obama] for spending money. … This stimulus is our bridge over troubled waters. He did the right thing.

- Bill Clinton

link

Rand is just a boring Nietzsche.  They both preached the same self-centered, amoral, end-justifies-the-means, power-is-everything kind of irresponsible bullshit. I honestly have no idea why anyone would read Rand when they could be reading Nietzsche instead.  His philosophy may have been every bit as reprehensible, but at least he had a gift for vivid language and powerful imagery; Rand is just painfully dull.

- my friend Sean

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax.

John Cole at Balloon Juice, referring to a budget stimulus discussion between conservative blogger Instapundit, uber-wingnut Michelle Malkin, and Joe “Are my 15 minutes up yet?” Wurzelbacher (aka, NOT Joe the NOT Plumber).

In stimulus discussions over the last few days, Republican lawmakers have dominated Democratic ones 2 to 1 on cable news, as represented by this handy chart:

…imagine the reaction if Rhandi Rhodes was penning editorials in the NY Times dictating the course of policy for the Democrats, and the Democrats were embracing her pearls of wisdom. I can’t believe the Republicans are going to gamble their future [on Limbaugh] like this, but then again, nothing they do surprises me.

Balloon Juice

This is interesting as well:

BTW- the best part of the Limbaugh stimulus is that he supports a 900 billion dollar stimulus, so I expect that means he will shut up about the size and cost of the bill, as it is clear that he doesn’t care that it costs that much, but what bothers him is that his share isn’t big enough.

Two of the top five WORST years for job losses in the United States are George W. Bush years.

Including 2008.

– Number Of U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq: 322.
– Number Of U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan: 151.
– Number Of Jobs Lost: 1.9 million.
– Number Of Banks Federal Government Now Owns Stock In: 206.
– Number Of Uninsured Americans: 47.5 million.
– Change In Housing Prices: declined 18 percent.
– Change In Health Insurance Premiums: increased 5 percent.
– Change In Use Of Food Stamps: increased 17 percent.

Bob Cesca

…when Reagan came into office we were the largest exporter of manufactured goods and the largest importer of raw materials on the planet. And the largest creditor. More people owed us money than anybody else in the world. Now just twenty eight years later we’re the largest importer of finished goods, manufactured goods, exporter of raw materials which is kind of the definition of a third world nation and we’re the most in debt of any country in the world. This is the absolute consequence of Reaganomics.

Thom Hartmann

The core of the Republican strategy is, in essence, riling up the rubes. And while the rubes are frothing about gays coming to steal their kids and Mexicans coming to steal their jobs, the Republicans and their backers get to max out the credit cards and stick the rest of the country with the tab.