Palin Attempts To Answer Question

Feb 7th, 2011

In all seriousness, this may be the most intellectually challenged statement from any major player on the right I have ever encountered. Again, Sarah Palin speaks only to the most adoring and fawning interviewers. 

The venues in which she appears are specifically chosen to ensure that she hits it out of the park. That she can't manage to win a rigged game is the point of drawing attention to moments like these. The following is a response to a question from David Brody for Pat Robertson's 700 Club regarding her position on the American reaction to the Egyptian crisis. We must assume that this is the best she could do in gluing together her prepared talking points.

"It’s a difficult situation, this is that 3am White House phone call and it seems for many of us trying to get that information from our leader in the White House it it seems that that call went right to um the answering machine. And nobody yet has, no body yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and I’m not real enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from DC in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And in these areas that are so volatile right now because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And we do not have all that information yet."

Okay. Let's bypass analysis of her troubled grammar.

First of all, framing an answer to so complex a set of of geopolitical equations with the imagery of a not terribly popular Hillary Clinton Campaign Ad from the 2008 cycle is jaw dropping. More amazing is the fact that she clearly didn't understand the ad itself which was not about answering the people's questions but rather an ability to manage crises while the nation sleeps.

Second of all, Mrs. Palin implies that we don't, in fact, have the information telling us what America "stands for." One has to wonder whether she even realizes that this was the gist of her remark

Third of all, that such a staunch apologist of the secretive, torture dependent security-state constructed during the during the George W. Bush years would now be condemning the Obama Administration for not be exposing the inner-workings of an international crisis more publicly simply boggles.

I could go on...

Rep. Jack Kingston's Amusing Denials

Jan 30th, 2011

The real irony here is watching a man denying evolution and in the process making a monkey out himself.

Another Amazing Chris Christie Moment

Jan 14th, 2011

Does Gov. Chis Christie (R-NJ) have any clue how necessary municipal bonds are going to be for his state's survival over the next several years? Perhaps I should rephrase the question; 

Does Gov. Christie have any idea what municipal bonds are or how investors in this particular market respond to politicians when they say stupid things?

From Business Insider:

"Yesterday we noted how a New Jersey muni bond offering was pulled just a few minutes after Chris Christie said at a town hall that healthcare costs were threatening to "bankrupt" New Jersey.

Now it's a little unclear if the connection was real. For one thing, yesterday was an ugly day in the muni market. For another thing, everybody knows that healthcare costs are a huge issue everywhere. And beyond that, people also know that words like "bankruptcy" may be a bit hyperbolic.

Still, all the talk of muni bankruptcies aren't making muni bond salesmen happy.

Bloomberg quotes head of bond trading at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management in New York, Gary Pollack, as saying "He is scaring some people when he says the state is going bankrupt... it wasn't timed well."

You have to feel for muni bond dealers right now: The media drumbeat is relentless about how ugly the muni situation is, and of course they're accustomed to selling munis as tax-free safe-havens, so obviously they're going to freak out when a borrower is using that kind of language, even if the causality is nonsense."

It would appear that Gov. Christie just doesn't get the interconnectedness of the issues facing New Jersey.

It Would Be Funny... But...

Jan 7th, 2011

If you haven't yet read Matt Taibbi's most recent column on Speaker John Boehner, you really must. Here's one of the choice anecdotes:

"Of all the longtime Republican Beltway hacks who are now scrambling to find ways to throw enough sunshine on the Tea Party mob to keep their jobs, Boehner has been the most hilariously transparent. In yet another scene straight out of a screwball comedy — maybe it was an earlyhommage to the now-departed Leslie Nielsen — Boehner in November 2009 stood up in front of a crowd of Tea Partiers who had gathered to protest the upcoming Obamacare vote, and tried to stroke his audience by holding up a copy of the Constitution. Professing his love for the sacred document, Boehner pledged to "stand here with our Founding Fathers, who wrote in the preamble: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident.'" The crowd was silent. Boehner had confused the Constitution with the Declaration of Independence."

At this juncture, I can't tell if he's more drunk than stupid or simply an ignorant drunk.

Republican Budget Cut Proposal Idiocy

Dec 28th, 2010

It doesn't get much better than this. From the NY Times:
"Note to the incoming Republican majority in the House: Eliminating government programs that do not exist does not save money. 


Of the few specific cuts that Congressional Republicans have proposed in their promised assault on annual budget deficits, one of the biggest by far would save $25 billion over 10 years, they claim, by ending an emergency welfare fund. The Republican Study Committee, which includes more than 100 of the most conservative House Republicans, promoted the idea in a statement this week, saying, “With the national debt quickly approaching $14 trillion, Washington needs to get serious about cutting spending.”

Well, seriously, the fund expired Sept. 30."

We have 2 years of this to look forward to. This is a reminder of what President Obama is up against.

The Things They Believe

Dec 16th, 2010

Average Murdoch Drone

AlterNet picked up on an interesting study by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland. The story is gaining in popularity under the banner headline, "Study Confirms That Fox News Makes You Stupid." 

Indeed, as regular visitors to The Hand know, we no longer refer to FOXNews as "FOXNews"; Rather, we call it The Murdoch Device. In this examination of factual awareness on the part of their viewers, there weren't any real surprises but it's good to have the data for confirmation. 

• 91 percent believe the stimulus legislation lost jobs
• 72 percent believe the health reform law will increase the deficit
• 72 percent believe the economy is getting worse
• 60 percent believe climate change is not occurring
• 49 percent believe income taxes have gone up
• 63 percent believe the stimulus legislation did not include any tax cuts
• 56 percent believe Obama initiated the GM/Chrysler bailout
• 38 percent believe that most Republicans opposed TARP
• 63 percent believe Obama was not born in the U.S. (or that it is unclear)