Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

So have you seen the latest attack ad from The Flake against Dr. Richard Carmona with the tagline "another Obama big spender"? That's pretty rich coming from this guy.

Before I address the ad, let's look at The Flake's voting record on major legislation. Representative Jeff Flake – Voting Records – Project Vote Smart (this is the record of an ideologue).

The drivers of our national debt since 2001, when President Clinton was running budget surpluses and the national debt was projected to be paid off in full by the end of the decade, are: the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003; the war in Afghanistan and the unnecessary war in Iraq that were put on the nation's credit card; the unfunded Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidy to Big Pharma; and the Bush Great Recession in 2008 which led to the TARP bailout of the financial system and a recovery package to prevent the country from spiraling into a Great Depression.

So how did The Flake vote on these measures?

The Flake voted for the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003 without paying for them. He voted for every tax cut measure under Republican control of the House (2001-2006). He proved that he is an ideologue by voting against tax cut measures contained in recovery bills proposed by the Obama administration under Democratic control of the House.

The Flake voted for the Authorization of Use of Force against "terrorist organizations," i.e., the war in Afghanistan, and the unnecessary war in Iraq. These wars were put on the nation's credit card and paid for with borrowed money that added to the national debt.

The Flake had an interesting game he played with runaway "borrow and spend" budgets during the Bush years. He voted for Republican House budget resolutions, which is the framework of the budget, but routinely voted against the separate appropriations bills that actually funded the government (so he could maintain his street cred as being against government spending). The appropriations bills The Flake did vote in favor of were for the Department of Defense. The Flake had a mixed record on those Supplemental Appropriations for the wars that the Bush adminsitation used to keep war spending off budget. The Flake voted against these Supplemental Appropriations beginning in 2006.

The Flake did vote against the Medicare Part D prescription drug subsidy to Big Pharma. He does not get a pass, however. He subsequently voted against bills which would have permitted Medicare to negotiate for lower rates and to import prescription drugs to lower costs to consumers. He did nothing to control the cost of this subsidy to Big Pharma.

When the economy blew up in 2008 as a result of casino capitalism by the banksters of Wall Street and failed GOP economic policies, The Flake voted to do nothing.

That's right, The Flake would have let the financial system collapse and take the economy down with it in a death spiral of a Great Depression. The Flake voted against every recovery measure and voted against unemployment benefits for the millions of Americans thrown out of work as a result of failed GOP economic policies. If you think the past four years have been difficult, imagine the economic hellscape it would have been had The Flake and his ideological extremist pals gotten their way.

Given his record in adding to the national debt with the Bush tax cuts and two wars on the nation's credit card, The Flake is in no position to criticize his opponent, who has never served in elective office.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

When I posted about the September jobs report on Friday, I noted in passing that "The right-wing lives in a closed-loop alternate reality in which facts cannot penetrate their insular bubble. I am sure we will be hearing conspiracy theories this morning — that's what the right-wing thrives on for cognitive dissonance."

All I can say is… Wow! I never imagined how deeply ingrained "Obama Derangement Syndrome" has become in the mighty Wurlitzer of the right-wing noise machine. This is anecdotal evidence to support my political science theory that 42% of the public is batshit crazy at any given moment, believing in things that are demonstrably and provably false.

I agree with Jared Bernstein who took former GE CEO Jack Welch to task for his defamation of the economists at the Bureau of Labor Statisitcs (BLS), for which Welch publicly admits that his conspiracy theory is without any basis in fact.

Bernstein wrote, "Jack Welch should be ashamed of himself. The BLS is an institution with tremendous integrity, and with very deep procedures and methods to ensure the most accurate, unbiased, and and confidential collection, analysis, and reporting of data known to this or any other country." Jared Bernstein: Jack Welch should be ashamed of himself.

BLS economists are consumate professionals who take their work seriously, unlike any of the political hacks who work for the GOPropaganda right-wing noise machine. There is a solid case for defamation here, even under the strict New York Times v. Sullivan standard for the "media," and I use that term loosely.

Only the uninformed who are unfamiliar with how the BLS functions would dare to make such a defamatory statement. There are many layers of protections BLS builds into their data, analysis, and reporting systems:

A March report from The Washington Post details how the jobs reports are made, describing the analysis process as "an eight-day security lockdown" during which confidentiality agreements are signed each morning and computers are encrypted and data locked into a safe every time one of the analysts goes even to the bathroom (itals mine).

Confidentiality agreements…data in a safe every time you go to the bathroom…layers of data security…decades of a perfect track record on data integrity.

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

I am sure all the late night comics will be doing Big Bird skits. Conan O'Brien did this spoof on Big Bird and Mitt Romney using the Alfred Hitchcock classic North by Northwest (1959).

Video below the fold.