'I Have Weapons of Mass Destruction. Invade Me.'

Last night, former GOP Senator John Sununu stopped by The Daily Show to discuss the stimulus bill and other political matters. Stewart seemed in no mood-- more so than usual-- to swallow bullshit. It made for a good interview.

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John Sununu

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Oh, and my take on the whole Gregg/Commerce Secretary debacle? Obama got played... another Lucy/Charlie Brown/football teaching moment for the Democrats. As Bill Maher noted to Larry King last night, there aren't any more moderate Republicans in Congress. They all retired or were voted out in favor of moderate Democrats. All that is left is the far-right base which is scared of Rush Limbaugh, is acting like immature frat boys, thinks FDR caused the Great Depression, and thought Sarah Palin was their savor.

And Andrew Sullivan is also correct... they have declared war on Obama; it is all they have left. If Obama thinks he can win the opposition over with Cabinet appointments, his endless legislative compromise, and dinner invitations, he is mistaken. The public remains on his side, and he has a decent majority in Congress, that should be enough for now. If the remaining Republicans want to avoid further electoral bloodshed in 2010 and beyond, they will come around, at the least on the big issues. If they don't, it's their funeral.

The President at this point should abandon any illusions he has about bipartisanship, and just focus on making sure his agenda is successful. He wasn't elected to make John Boehner happy, he was elected to get shit done (not to mention clean up the mess caused by a certain opposition party's eight years in office). I think they're (slowly) starting to realize it.

[UPDATE: The stimulus has passed. How will it be spent? Read up here and here.]

Context

How close did the U.S. and the world come to complete economic collapse last year? Pretty damn close.

Meanwhile...

So, apparently, the President's Wall Street tax cheat Treasury Secretary convinced him to take any and all teeth out of the second part of the bailout plan. The corporate free-for-all continues.

I'll let the lower headlines on this Huffington Post screengrab speak for themselves-



The full details-- beyond the infuriating headlines-- are available in the AFP wire service report, which states the plan "also includes new efforts to boost consumer lending [and] limit home foreclosures." That is all well and good, but the real problem behind this overgrowing economic avalanche is that the system is broken. And no one, except the type of Democrats who you only ever see if you watch Rachel Maddow, seems to view fixing it as a priority. Basically, the house is crumbling from bottom to top, and they're worried about buying new curtains. We are fucked.

Also, the Senate has passed the battered stimulus package. Our last remaining hope is that Democratic leaders can un-fuck it up in the conference committee. That's the story to watch now.

We have a lot of serious problems as a country to resolve besides even this huge one (health care, energy, etc). Let's hope President Charlie Brown (and I say that with affection) has learned his lesson in how to deal with his political opponents before he ends up on his back again. More of the fiery Obama we saw in last night's press conference-- one assertive and not afraid, because he has the facts on his side-- and less of the one who lets Geithner dictate policy to him rather than the vice versa.

Clusterfuck to the Poor House

The Daily Show sums up the stimulus debate to date-

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Clusterf#@k to the Poor House - The Death of Hope

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On the plus side, Pres Obama finally took his case to the nation last night... watch it here.