Join the Truth Team

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Willard "Mittens" Romney is lying about President Obama. The Obama/Biden campaign has a new tactic to highlight Romney's frequent falsehoods: fact-checking videos. Hold Mittens Romney accountable, join the Truth Team: https://my.barackobama.com/truthteamvid

Fact-checking videos below the fold.

Willard ‘Mittens’ Romney: ‘I’m rubber, you’re glue’

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

It has been incontrovertibly established that Willard 'Mittens' Romney is a pathological liar. Updated: Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity Vol. XII.

But Mittens suffers from another disorder frequently associated with pathological lying, psychological projection, a psychological defense mechanism where a person subconsciously denies his or her own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which he then ascribes to another person. This is the old schoolyard taunt, "I'm rubber, you're glue – whatever you say (about me) bounces off of me and sticks to you."

Mitten's psychological projection disorder is receiving a lot of media attention this week. Here is just a quick sampling. Paul Werdel writes at TalkingPointsMemo I’m Rubber, You’re Glue or "I know you are, but what am I?":

Call it the “I’m rubber, you’re glue” election.

Running President Bush’s campaigns, Karl Rove became famous for taking his opponent’s single biggest strength and turning it into his biggest weakness. Mitt Romney is laying out another approach: taking his own top vulnerabilities and projecting them onto his opponent.

As Romney begins to settle into the role of presumptive nominee, he is deploying the strategy more and more.

* * *

The “I know you are, but what am I?” dynamic is clear, if contradictory. Obama says I won’t lay out my real plans for Medicare cuts? Obama won’t lay out his plan. Obama says I want to end Medicare? Obama wants to end Medicare.

Even in his choice of stock phrases, Romney has raised eyebrows in recent days for using his opponent’s favorite lines. Twice in his Tuesday night victory speech in Wisconsin, he referred to Obama as “out of touch,” re-appropriating what is easily Democrats’ favorite descriptor for Romney in myriad press releases accusing him of being too wealthy and removed from average Americans to understand their problems.

The question now is whether Romney’s ju jitsu will insulate him from future hits on his well-established reputation for political opportunism — or merely serve to highlight his problems further.

March job numbers: In like a lion, out like a lamb

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Forecasts projected about 200,000 new jobs in March, the new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics fell short of expectations. Steve Benen writes at The Maddow Blog – Job totals disappoint, unemployment rate dips:

The U.S. economy added 120,000 jobs last month, while the overall unemployment rate dipped slightly to 8.2%. For the first time in a very long while, public-sector layoffs were less of a drag on the overall totals: the private sector added 121,000 jobs in March, while government lost only 1,000.

By any measure, today's disappointing totals are a real setback. While it's never wise to overreact to one report, March's job totals were the weakest since October, and reverse a three-month trend in which over 200,000 jobs were being created each month. In terms of revisions, January's totals were revised down a little, while February's were revised up a little.

While 120,000 new jobs would have been considered great in, say, late 2009, it's not even close to good enough now. This is a figure that barely keeps up with population growth, and is roughly half of what the economy should be producing as part of a larger recovery. Ideally, policymakers would see data like this and take steps to boost job creation, but given Republican efforts in Congress, that's no longer an option.

The overall economy has now added over 1.9 million jobs over the last year, and nearly 3.5 million jobs over the last three years. For America's private sector, it's 2.2 million over the last year, and 4 million over the last three years.

Here's another chart, this one showing monthly job losses/gains in just the private sector since the start of the Great Recession.

Steve Benen continues, The Maddow Blog – The search for silver linings:

But to borrow a line from Douglas Adams, don't panic. Brad Plumer notes some context that's worth keeping in mind.

One big question, however, is whether the BLS's estimates for March are actually correct. As Ryan Avent points out, because there's such a huge margin of error in these reports, there's a 90 percent chance that the U.S. economy added somewhere between 20,000 and 220,000 jobs last month. In recent times, the jobs figures have gone up significantly every time they get revised in later months. […]

Meanwhile, there's been a lot of talk lately about whether the freakishly warm winter artificially boosted the economy in January and February by helping the construction industry get an early start. (More on this below)

In other words, we paid in March for the good news in January and February.

Creative Protest (no, that’s not a pink elephant)

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie: I try to encourage readers from time to time to engage in creative protest. One I have threatened to do on several occasions is to send a pair of Neuticles (testicular prosthetic implants for neutered pets) to members of the legislature or Congress with a note that simply says "act like you got a … Read more

Rep. David Stevens: Gov. Jan Brewer and the North American Union

April 6, 2012

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

So I read earlier this week Arizona toll-road measure sent to Brewer, HB 2491, even though Arizona does not have any toll roads and in all likelihood will never have any toll roads. Buried in the article was this short paragraph:

State officials are hoping for federal approval to build Interstate 11, a north-south highway across the state that would be part of a transcontinental road connecting Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

When I read that I thought to myself, oh here we go! The John Birchers will be screaming about the CANAMEX I-35 "NAFTA super corridor" to turn us into a "North American Union" that right-wing loons like Alex Jones and Jerome Corsi at Wold Net Daily have been fear mongering over for years.

Sure enough, I was right. Governor Jan "one world order" Brewer signed HB 2491 into law before the ink was even dry on the engrossed bill, and Bircher Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, flipped out. SV legislator: Sinister plot is behind toll-highway plan ("Stevens fears I-11 link between Phoenix, Vegas will doom US"):

A Southern Arizona lawmaker thinks the United States could be on the road to losing its sovereignty if Congress funds a new highway from Phoenix to Las Vegas, or the state allows a private firm to build it.

Rep. David Stevens, R-Sierra Vista, told his colleagues they should do whatever they can to stop construction of the proposed Interstate 11. And it has nothing to do with cutting a new path through the high desert.

Fukushima, again

April 6, 2012

by David Safier Remember the Fukushima nuclear plant? The damage wasn't so bad, then it was worse, then it was contained, then it was . . . not so contained. Here's today's news, an AP piece I read in the NY Times. It's short enough, I'm including the whole thing. Japan: Plant Leaks Radioactive Water … Read more