How Propaganda Works
March 8th, 2010Encouraging to see some mainstream coverage of the GOP 2010 campaign strategy document left behind in a hotel room in Florida. Seems that all along, the whole Democrat/Obama/socialist/communist/maoist thing was invented to scare Tea-Bigots into voting GOP. Many of the images, soundbites and one-liners attached to the Tea-Bigot ‘movement’ are just developed GOP propaganda, it turns out.
No big surprises, really, to punky progressives, but everybody else sure is sure excited by it. Even ‘Dead Intern’ Joe Scarborough ran a segment trashing the GOP playbook on Morning Joe. But don’t expect your average Tea-Bigot to jump at the truth about Democratic tyranny being fabrication. (S)he already knows it, knows that the socialist riff is just cover for the meme-whose-true-nature-can’t-be-acknowledged: “There’s a Nigger in the White House!”
From Leaked Documents Reveal GOP Plan:
National GOP leaders are doing damage control today after a Politico scoop lifted the curtain on the party’s plan to tap voters’ “fear” in the coming campaign season. The PR problem started when an absent-minded attendee at the Republican National Committee (RNC) confab on February 18 in Boca Grande, Florida, left a 72-page document from its 2010 strategizing session in a hotel room. Today, Politico reporter Ben Smith’s expose is making headlines.
The memo tracks the fundraising presentation that RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart delivered to the RNC’s $2,500-a-head annual retreat. The best path to victory in 2010, the document advises, is for Republican candidates to depict themselves as the best hope for resisting the “trending toward socialism” taking shape in a Democrat-dominated Washington.
And the document doesn’t shy from making its points graphically. MSNBC showed the images this morning on “Morning Joe.” The presentation portrays the Obama administration as “The Evil Empire,” including the now-infamous image of President Obama made over in the makeup Heath Ledger used in his performance as the Joker in the 2008 Batman movie “The Dark Knight.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears as Cruella De Vil from “101 Dalmatians,” and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is the witless cartoon dog Scooby-Doo. The memo candidly confirms that the aim of such caricature is to amp up “fear” among the GOP’s conservative base. The memo also makes fun of major RNC donors, categorizing some as “ego-driven” and easily pacified with “tchochkes” (a Slavic word for toys).
It’s a nice piece and all, but Dykes draws a false equivalency with this line:
And Democrats have shown a demagogic streak in the past, depicting George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as Bond-like supervillains and playing up alleged GOP plans to kill Social Security to rally voters behind a popular entitlement program.
Nowadays, the demagoguery of Right and Left are similar the way Drano and Kool-Aid are both liquids. Mountains of documentation indicate Bush and Cheney are indeed Bond-like Supervillians, while we now know for a fact that the fascio-commie-socialist stuff coming from the Right is calculated invention. So how does Dykes square a parallel between the two? And is he really saying that Bush & Co. didn’t mean it when they pounded the privatize social security drum for 2 years, that the Democrats just exaggerated all that?
Conservatives Wrong About Everything
March 7th, 2010Conservatives voted against 40-hour workweeks, claiming workers would become shiftless.
Conservatives voted against child labor laws, predicting the doom of American manufacturing.
Conservatives voted against social security, claiming we could never afford it.
Conservatives voted against Medicare & Medicaid, claiming we could never afford it.
Conservatives voted against work safety laws, warning mass corporate bankruptcies.
Conservatives voted against unemployment insurance, saying it made workers lazy.
Conservatives voted against workman’s compensation, accusing workers of scamming the bosses.
Conservatives voted against unions, claiming they were communist plots.
Conservatives voted against abolishing slavery, claiming the US economy couldn’t survive without it.
Conservatives voted against regulating Wall Street in the 1920’s, claiming banks couldn’t compete.
Conservatives voted against regulating Wall Street in the 1990’s, claiming banks couldn’t compete.
Conservatives voted against regulating Wall Street in 2010, claiming banks couldn’t compete.
Conservatives voted against giving women the vote, claiming the destruction of family and country.
Conservatives voted against legal abortion, calling it murder.
Conservatives voted against birth control, calling it murder.
Conservatives voted against sex education, calling it license to fuck.
Conservatives voted against giving black Americans the vote, fearing former slaves would get power and rape them.
Conservatives voted against auto safety laws, warining they would ruin the industry.
Conservatives voted against evolution, claiming God made everything in six 24-hour days.
Conservatives voted against WWII, declaring Hitler good for Europe (yes, it’s true, almost 100 Congressmen and Senators).
Conservatives voted against equal rights for all citizens, claiming the Bible made some more equal than others.
Conservatives voted against leaving Vietnam, claiming that an industrial nation really, really could beat an insurgency.
Conservatives voted against environmental regulations, promising companies would police themselves.
Conservatives voted against emissions caps, saying global warming was a hoax.
Conservatives voted against higher mileage standards, predicting such constraints would cripple the car industry.
Conservatives voted against marijuana, claiming the complete moral decay of the country because of it.
Conservatives voted against separation of church and state, claiming America was founded by born-again Christians.
Conservatives voted against tobacco prevention/treatment, because they owned the tobacco companies.
Conservatives voted against campaign finance reform, calling it violation of corporate personhood.
Conservatives voted against public healthcare, calling it impossible.
Conservatives voted against maternity leave, saying a woman’s place is in the home, anyway.
Conservatives voted for killing the Indians, insisting it was God’s will.
Conservatives voted for segragation warning the races could never mix.
Conservatives voted for lynching, claiming a need to keep the nigras in their place.
Conservatives voted for the death penalty, claiming it would prohibit violent crime.
Conservatives voted for corporate personhood, so money could become free speech.
Conservatives voted for corporate war profiteering, because they were the war manufacturers.
Conservatives voted for Joe McCarthy’s commie & homo witch hunts, accusing even Eisenhower of being a Commie.
Conservatives voted for de-regulating public utilities, insisting the free market would drive prices to their lowest.
Conservatives voted for the scrapping of civil liberties after 9/11, claiming that the Constitution put the country in danger.
Conservatives voted for privatizing the military, because their friends were the owners, and also conservatives.
Conservatives voted for torture, claiming we’re not safe without it.
Conservatives voted for nearly 8 trillion dollars in 0% loans to the same banks who later needed a bailout.
Conservatives voted for staying in office even if you’re busted for illicit sex or political corruption–as long as you’re a conservative.
Conservatives voted against social welfare for poor people, warning that it would reinforce laziness.
Conservatives voted for corporate welfare for rich companies, claiming it would stimulate production.
The International Space Station
March 5th, 2010Sometimes thinking about outer space helps me decompress. This animation of the 12-year development of the International Space Station helped me relax tonight. Puts everything into perspective, and forces us to readjust visual scale several times.
Then there’s stuff like this giant supernova remnant, about 30,000 years old and (if I did my math right) more than 16,500 of our solar system diameters across. The light we see in this picture left the nebula 3,000 years ago, about the time the Mayans were discovering environmental regulation and forest management.
Did you know? You can regularly view the nighttime passage of the ISS and the space shuttle with the naked eye? Get schedules or downloadable charting applications here.
Where Were the Tea-Bigots Then?
March 3rd, 2010Where were the Tea-Bigots (who freaked out over “Obama’s” $700 billion TARP bailout) in late 2008, when Bush gave away nearly $8,000,000,000,000 (that’s eight trillion dollars) in 0% interest loans to Wall Street banks with no strings attached? We sure could have used their belligerent yammering; I guess things were way different then, what with a white boy in the White House and all.
Bush’s first no-strings giveaway to Wall Street, in September 08, pushed $2 trillion. The money came directly from the Federal Reserve to the banks, with Ben Bernanke promising transparency which he has ever since adamantly refused to provide.
Bush’s second no-strings giveaway to Wall Street, as reported in November of that year, brings the total to over $7.7 trillion–promised months before Obama even got elected.
Bush’s genius was in setting up this deal at the end of his second term, with the certainty that the coming economic crash would be blamed on Democratics, and divert attentiona away from this giveaway.
Here’s a simple math prolbem to illustrate the scamminess of these loans: Imagine I give you a $1,000,000,000,000 (that’s a trillion) ‘loan’. I require you to promise you’ll share some of this money with your poorer neighbors. I charge you NOTHING for this loan, nor am I going to tell anyone else I gave it to you. You put the money in your bank account, where you earn 1/2 a percent interest quarterly. How much profit do you earn the first quarter? $5,000,000,000 (that’s five billion). Not bad, for doing nothing. Free money.
Imagine, however, that you could invest this money anyway you wanted, and received a modest 5% return. What’s that profit look like? $50,000,000,000 (that’s fifty billion). In one quarter. At this rate, in less than two years, you could recoup the entire loss of the subprime mortgage market.
However, you refuse to share any of that money, so it never makes it back into the economy. You poorer neighbors go belly up, and you use that interest free loan to buy up all their properties. What should I do with you?
Even worse, you invest that money poorly, make a bunch of CEO’s rich but lose the rest, and then come back to the government for rescue $$. Now what should I do with you?
From Bloomberg:
The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the nation last year, are intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months ago.
The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The commitment dwarfs the plan approved by lawmakers, the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. Federal Reserve lending last week was 1,900 times the weekly average for the three years before the crisis.
When Congress approved the TARP on Oct. 3, Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson acknowledged the need for transparency and oversight.
Bernanke has since publicly defied calls by Congress and the Senate to reveal the recipients of these freebie loans, as well as the full conditions under which the money was granted.
Republicans and Tea-Bigots have steadfastly blamed Obama for the TARP caper and the overall financial meltdown, and just as steadfastly ignored the free loans that Bush gave out. That’s because the business interests behind the Tea-Bigots are the same interests behind the Bushes.
Pat Robertson’s Haitian ‘Deal With the Devil’ Story
March 1st, 2010U.S. Army counter-intelligence officer Captain Lawrence Rockwood attempted to blow the whistle on the military for criminal negligence during 1994-95’s support mission in Haiti. He claimed that US forces not only turning a blind eye toward gross human rights violations (including torture and murder), but were even actively supporting them. Cpt. Lockwood was court-martialed and eventually kicked out of the service, minus 2/3 of his pay, for his trouble. He said, on the day of his sentencing, “More important than my career, I am concerned that the US Army is attempting to marginalize the Nuremberg principles in the most subtle and quiet manner possible. Indeed, during the seven-day trial, the government side insisted that personal and command responsibility for human rights violations is irrelevant for American military personnel.”
After Lockwood, other soldiers came forward with similar accounts. One wrote under the pseudonym Michael Valentine, and was first published in university and alternative newspapers in the mid-1990’s. His first-hand account, entitled The Belly of the Beast, is chock full of fascinating details and disturbing anecdotes about U.S. complicity in the abuse of the Haitian people. He includes the first iteration I’ve been able to find of the story that crazy Pat Robertson promoted after the Haitian earthquake–that Haitian leaders had made a deal with Satan to help them overthrow their French slave masters in the 19th century, and were now paying the piper for that decision. Seems there’s a CIA angle to the story; find the rest of the story here:
Belly of the Beast
by Michael Valentine
In August of ‘94, just one month before the decision was announced to occupy Haiti, we were instructed to attend an intelligence briefing on Haiti that had been coordinated through the 3rd Special Forces Group staff.
This briefing would be the one and only predeployment intelligence briefing we were to receive. For this presentation, the staff had conscientiously avoided using any of the former Haitian nationals that worked and lived in Fayetteville and Fort Bragg. These included a professor of physics at Fayetteville State University, his wife, a Creole instructor at the Special Forces school, and various Haitian-American soldiers on active duty in Fort Bragg.
To ensure that we had a reliable source for this one and only predeployment brief, our intelligence gurus selected an expatriate, white, American, fundamentalist Protestant preacher. This gentleman had occupied himself for the last 11 years, in a small community outside of Cap Haïtien, salvaging the heathen souls of some 300 local congregants. He was an emaciated, blepharitic man, tall and thin, in a black suit, reeking of Calvinist austerity and burning with years of besieged righteousness.
He began his account with a personal introduction and a brief history of his mission. Then came a brief historical account of the nation of Haiti. The account was perfectly informative as long as it confined itself to events, personalities and dates. What followed his synopsis, however, was a bizarre narrative. He flatly declared that the successful Haitian revolution against the French Army was inaugurated with a bargain. Jean Jacques Dessalines, the Haitian leader of the revolution, according to this preacher, had struck a deal with the devil. With complete seriousness, our intrepid young missionary, explained that Satan himself, disguised as a voodoo deity, contracted with Dessalines to assure him a military victory. In exchange for the victory, Satan was to be given control of the new nation for a period of 200 years.
I’m not sure what surprised me the most at that briefing. The outlandish characterization of the first independent black nation in the Western Hemisphere? The fact that an Intelligence Officer on the Group staff had coordinated for his presence? Or the spellbound attention being paid this crackpot by hundreds of allegedly rational grown men who were in the room listening?
The problem was this. Most of the Special Forces soldiers there had no previous interest in Haiti. Most of them harbored cultural and racial preconceptions of Haiti. All had been exposed to the drumbeat of skewed media coverage of Haiti. Many were fans of both the CIA and Jesse Helms, both of whom were staging a concerted venture to shape foreign policy on behalf of the Cedras regime, by fabricating rumors about Aristide. Almost all of them were thoroughly ignorant of both the history of Haiti and the dynamics of the current crisis…
The takeaway here is that the Pat Robertson tale was probably originated by, and certainly disseminated by, CIA and other US military intelligence as part of an American policy-influence campaign. Over a decade later, the religious right uses the story again to the same desired end.
Flying Thru the Galaxy?
February 24th, 2010If you board a jetliner and begin flying away from the earth at 550 mph, you’ll reach the moon in about 18 days. Stay in that jetliner until your newborn daughter leaves for her third year of college, and you’ll have reached the sun.
Or maybe head in the opposite direction on the day you’re born; at 550 mph you’ll gain Jupiter orbit as an 82 year old woman.
If your family stays on the plane for 750 years, your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson will party on Pluto.
And in 5,000,000 years, when that jetliner finally comes in for a landing on a small planet around Alpha Centauri, the the star nearest to Earth, your family line will have completely disappeared, and what is left of humanity will be floating in zip-lock bags scattered throught the galaxy.
“Like Teaching Your Dog to Drive…”
February 20th, 2010“Charging them [the GOP] with hypocrisy, appealing to their better, more practical, more what‘s-best-for-the-country patriotic angels is like trying to teach your dog to drive…It wastes a lot of time. It won‘t work. And ultimately the dog comes out of the exercise less embarrassed for failing than you do for trying.”
Rachel Maddow, Feb 10, 2010
I want to BE Rachel Maddow. Below are excerpts from her 2.11.10 transcript, in which she shines a spotlight on 22 of the GOP white mice who opposed the Obama stimulus package in Washington, then claimed credit back home for jobs that the stimulus bill created:
MADDOW: If there‘s one thing that Republicans agree on now, it is that the stimulus is a bad, bad policy. It‘s a bad idea that does bad things. It‘s a bad president‘s bad way of making a bad economy more bad because he‘s bad. Stimulus bad.
Also? Stimulus good. What you‘re looking at here are pictures of the same Republicans who have trashed the stimulus as a bad, bad thing in their home districts taking credit for all the good things the stimulus has done.
That‘s Bobby Jindal there, governor of Louisiana who has railed against the stimulus, then gone around the state handing out big fake checks with his own name on them as if the money came from him instead of from the stimulus that he‘s been railing against.
Then, there‘s Congressman Phil Gingrey of Georgia. That‘s him getting all Publisher‘s Clearinghouse with a giant check for funds that he voted against and criticized as worst than worthless. He called the money and that check he‘s holding a boondoggle and a dismal failure.
And it‘s not just a couple of these guys who have been caught like this either. Republican John Mica of Florida trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district as “helping improve one of our key economic generators.”
Republican Frank Wolf of Virginia trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying, “We could use that money desperately. There are a lot of things up here that that money could be used for.”
Republican Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home state by attending the groundbreaking of a sewage treatment plant that it funded and praising the jobs that it would create in his district.
Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas trashed the stimulus, voted no, and praised its effect in her home state by saying this funding will spur growth in Texas communities.
Republican Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district as a great thing for this county. We‘re not accustomed to federal dollars in that magnitude finding their way to North Carolina.
Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri trashed the stimulus, voted no and then praised its effect in his home district by saying it would create jobs and ultimately spur economic opportunities.
Republican Joe Wilson of South Carolina, remember him? The “you lie” guy? He trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying it would provide jobs and investment in one of the poorer sections of that district.
Republican Senator Bob Bennett of Utah trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying said, the addition of federal funds would maximize the stimulative effect on the local economy.
Republican Pat Tiberi of Ohio trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying it would support businesses and jobs.
Republican Mary Bono Mack trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in her home district by saying the funding will provide much needed assistance.
Republican Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home state by saying that just one proposed stimulus-funded project in Nebraska would create 38 new jobs.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home state by highlighting a project he says would create over 200 jobs in the first year, and at least another 40 new jobs in the following years.
Republican John Linder of Georgia trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying the employment opportunities created by this program would be quickly utilized.
Republican Mike Castle of Delaware trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by sending out press releases touting how imperative those funds were.
You want to see Mike Castle of Delaware handing out one of those giant checks? Yes, as if he hadn‘t actually voted to kill the money that‘s in that check. Mike Castle is running for senator from Delaware now, presumably on the platform of being a giant hypocrite.
Republican Eric Cantor not only trashed the stimulus and voted no on it, he coordinated the feat of having all House Republicans vote against it. Then he held a job fair in his home district at which nearly which half of the companies who were at the job fair because they were in a position to hire have received stimulus funds.
Even John Boehner, leader of the House Republicans, who has led the trashing of the stimulus and voted no on it and who bragged so enthusiastically on Republicans in the House all voting against it.
When it came to his home district, John Boehner praised the federal funding for shovel-ready projects that will create much needed jobs.
Republican Senator Jim Inhofe of denying-global-warming fame – he trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised the effect in his home state by saying it would help spur additional economic growth.
Republican Jack Kingston of Georgia trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying these funds should help save or create local jobs.
Republican John Carter of Texas trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying it was a victory for the economy in central Texas.
Republican Glenn Thompson of Pennsylvania trashed the stimulus, voted no, then praised its effect in his home district by saying it would be great for employment in the area.
None of this is a secret, which is the most important thing to understand about it. Republicans right now do not care about policy. By which I mean, they will not vote for things that even they admit are good policies.
On policy terms, they have been caught bragging on the stimulus as good policy. I have no doubt that some of them think that health reform is good policy. We know they think things like a deficit commission or cap and trade or pay-go are good policy because they‘re on the record supporting them.
But they‘re not going to vote for them because – screw policy. Screw what even they believe is good for the country. Screw what even they believe is good for their own districts. They are not voting yes for even things that they agree with, for anything substantive.
They are not going to vote yes for anything substantive that this president supports. It‘s not going to happen. You‘re not going to earn Republican votes for a second stimulus, for example, by pointing out it‘s good policy that creates jobs. We know they already know that.
They concede that in their home districts and they are still not voting for it. And they are unembarrassed about this fact. They are not embarrassed. Charging them with hypocrisy, appealing to their better, more practical, more what‘s-best-for-the-country patriotic angels is like trying to teach your dog to drive.
It wastes a lot of time. It won‘t work. And ultimately the dog comes out of the exercise less embarrassed for failing than you do for trying. Grow up, Democrats. Face the music. Do it alone. You‘re the majority. Kill the filibuster if they won‘t let you use that majority. The country needs you to.
A Rich Tradition of Delusion
February 12th, 2010Tonight I spent some time on the website of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, NC. The pastor of this church gained a little notoriety last October by sponsoring a Bible Burning (because there are just too many perversions of the King James Bible loose in the world). His bonfire plans became a minor cause celebre for the burgeoning Birther/T-Bigot movement.
This is classic stuff; you couldn’t make it up:
Come celebrate Halloween by burning Satan’s bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God’s Word the King James Bible.
We will also be burning Satan’s music such as country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contempory Christian, jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.
We will also be burning Satan’s popular books written by heretics like Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll, John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham, Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa, The Pope, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.
God must not have liked the idea of the good Pastor burning all His Good Books, though, because He caused it to rain for 40 hours and 40 minutes and the burning never occured. According to the church, the event was still a great success for the Lord.
Amazing Grace Baptist Church’s website is full of mundane ugliness. Obama Hussein, death-to-homos, abortion = murder, music is sin kind of stuff. More interesting is the long legacy of barn-burner, old-timey preachin’ that this church celebrates. Turns out that behind the delusional religious messaging is a rich tradition–of con men, mostly. I listened to bits of sermons and song by long-ago masters of religious oratory, men who knew how to squeeze a buck out of an empty wallet. Grace church especially likes this preacher–the Lord’s first real kung fu guy:
The website has dozens, maybe hundreds, of sermon sound files; the preacher rants often include bluegrassy tunes with cute lyrics about Satan and the Bible. There’s a handbook on how to get to hell (spoiler: do nothing, and trust yourself). Scattered across the site are little doctrinal gems like this one: “We believe that the Bible (KJV) is inspired by God. If it wasn’t inspired, it wouldn’t be God’s Word.” Or my personal favorite: “A true scholar is one who believes the Bible (King James Version only) whether he understands it or not.”
In spite of myself, however, I can’t help feeling an affinity with this little fundamentalist church. We’re doing the Lord’s work by condemning so many of the same things:
- * all the goddamned bibles in the world
- * country music
- * Billy Graham
- * the Pope
- * soft and easy music
- * Tim LaHaye (Left Behind author)
- * James Dobson
- * pop music
- * southern gospel (I’m sorry, it depresses me)
- * Rick Warren
- * contempory Christian music
- * and most of all, that poison-spewing, monster-from-hell idiot box:
The People Who Brought Us Bush…
February 8th, 2010The people funding the ascendant T-Bigot movement, and agitating for armed revolution against the government, are the same people who brought us George W. Bush in 2000. The money behind Beck, Palin, Romney, Limbaugh, Gingrich, et al, is the same money behind the Bush phenomenon, and the voters who screamed about saving the country from the Democrats in 2000 are today’s Tea Partiers railing against The Nigger in the White House! Let’s recap some of the many accomplishments of the last guy the T-Bigots put into office:
- Entered office with the strongest surplus in U.S. history, left with the most damaged economy in U.S. history
- Invaded and occupied two sovereign nations (who posed little threat to us) , and tried for a third
- Logged the highest annual deficit in history
- Raised the debt ceiling twice so we could accumulate more debt than any country in history
- Helped Big Oil rack up the highest corporate profits of any company in human history
- Oversaw the highest number of private bankruptcies ever filed in a 12-month period
- Presided over the biggest stock drops in stockmarket history
- Became the first president in decades to execute a federal prisoner
- Was the first president ever to enter office with a criminal record
- Took more vacation than any U.S. president, even beating the previous record-holder, Ronald Reagan
- Failed to prevent the worst security failure/deadliest terror attack in U.S. history
- Went on the most campaign fundraising trips of any president
- Gave away more no-strings, 0% loans to big banks/finance industry (almost $10 trillion worth) than any world leader, ever
- Lost nearly an entire U.S. city to natural causes
- Cut unemployment benefits for more out-of-work Americans than any president
- Presided over more home foreclosures in a 12-month period than any other president
- Appointed more convicted criminals to administration positions than any president
- Oversaw the largest expansion of U.S. federal government in history
- Set the record for the least amount of broadcast press conferences of any president
- Signed more executive orders disregarding laws and the Constitution than any president
- Presided over the biggest energy crises in U.S. history
- Left unprosecuted more corporate malfeasance than any president
- Oversaw the biggest gas price hikes and highest gasoline prices in U.S. history
- Cut the most healthcare benefits for war veterans
- Triggered the all-time record for street prostestors worldwide (15 million, against invading Iraq)
- Ignored/dissolved more international treaties than any president
- Assembled the richest White House cabinet/administration in U.S. history–$100,000,000 avg net worth
- Presided over the most expansive corporate/stock market fraud of any market in any country, ever
- Budgeted the largest annual spending increases in U.S. history
- Lost the U.S. position on the UN’s Human Rights Commission–first time ever
- Received the most corporate campaign donations
- Spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president
- Disappeared for most of a day during national crisis, unprecedented (and got caught lying about the enemy having Air Force 1’s code)
- Failed to capture the U.S.’s most notorious enemies, Osama bin Laden and the anthrax killer
- Generated the most ill will toward America of any president; 71% of Europeans viewed him as the biggest threat to world peace and stability
- Dismantled U.S. policy against awarding taxpayer-funded contracts to convicted criminals
- Appointed more lobbyists and other corporate conflicts of interest than any president
Way to go T-Bigots. You sure know how to pick ‘em!
Tea-Bigots or Tea-Baggers…
February 2nd, 2010I like Tea-Bigots best (besides, calling Tea Partiers Tea-Baggers just insults real tea-baggers). There’s no getting around the fact that we didn’t hear a goddamned peep out of these nitwits during 8 years, but as soon as “there’s a nigger in the White House!” it’s government tyranny, 24×7.
I just googled Tea-Bigot and got zero hits. I may have coined a new phrase here; is it possible nobody’s thought of it before? If the term catches on, and someone on TV uses it, I could get famous.
Must race to be the first. The clock is ticking…