Video David Krugman. Do The Teabaggers Want to Take the US Back to The Stone Ages?

Paul Krugman hit the nail on the head in this clip provided by PBS's Charlie Rose. Even conservative commentator David Brooks seems to have a hard to time defending the insanity taken over by his own party.

ROSE: There are two questions. One, if you look at the dysfunctionality of government in this case, who's responsible for them?

BROOKS: I don't pretend it's symmetrical... I wouldn't say it's symmetrical here. I do think the president and the Democrats have been much more flexible than the Republicans have been. I say that with a little pain maybe, but that's just simply the case. The president, to his credit has made his allies extremely uncomfortable, and if you were around in Washington yesterday when the entire Senate Democratic caucus erupted in fury, you saw that first hand. And so I think the Republicans are... it's a good short term negotiating strategy, but they are not seizing a deal which should be out there for them.

I'm sort of mystified why if the president is offering a $3 trillion in the reduction of government, why they're not seizing upon that and potentially settling either for nothing or maybe $500 million. I mean, it's just mystifying to me why they don't take this deal.

ROSE: Well, then take a guess. What's the answer?

BROOKS: Well, there are a lot of things. One, they will tell you they go home and nobody wants any more taxes. We ran on that, we pledged it. Second, and I think this part is bipartisan, the hatred is so strong, there is great personal resistance to doing a deal with the devil. And they regard Obama, or Boehner and Cantor as the devil. There's just sort of this emotional resistance to getting in a room, shaking their hand and having your picture taken.

And so even beneath the substance of it there's a great deal of emotional resistance, and when... even when the president makes an offer, which is a pretty good offer for Republicans, they're always looking for the weaknesses in it.

(crosstalk)

KRUGMAN: This is a longer term story. It's not just what's happened during these negotiations. The underlying reason we have dysfunctional politics right now is the radicalization of the Republican Party. I mean, Bruce Bartlett, a Republican, or maybe now an excommunicated Republican just said basically Obama is a moderate conservative. He's basically governing to the right of Richard Nixon. But what's happened is that the Republican Party has gone so far off into an extreme right wing position that we have gridlock because basically one party cannot say yes.

They cannot say yes to anything that might be coming from the other party. In a basic sense they don't accept the legitimacy of government by the other party.

BROOKS: To be fair to them, they would say that we've had government at a certain level of GDP for decade after decades, and roughly the same, and over the last couple of years its leapt up significantly, so if we want to bring it back to that level, to the 2008 level (crosstalk) that's the argument they would make.

KRUGMAN: David, all of that is the recession. All of that is that the ratio of government to GDP is higher because GDP is down and safety net programs; unemployment insurance and Medicaid and a few other programs that respond to hard times are up. If you take that out, there has been no increase in the size of government. That's an entire myth.

BROOKS: There is a long term trend of health care spending. I mean this is, and Paul and I have come back to this a couple of times in this conversation...

KRUGMAN: Right.

BROOKS: Health care spending is the problem.

KRUGMAN: Yeah.

BROOKS: And so there are two wildly different views of how you address that issue. And Republicans look out and see health care spending increasing, swallowing up everything else and they say we need something like the Ryan plan in order to fundamentally reform the structure of the program. And that's not a radically irresponsible position. It's a position you can disagree with, but it doesn't make them loons, I would say.

KRUGMAN: Well... we can go on. We should also point out that we have an enormous amount of obstructionism at all levels. Right? There's a tremendous number of unfilled positions. To a large extent Obama is trying to govern now with a hollow administration because he can't get officials approved. We had my former MIT colleague, Nobel Laureate Peter Diamond rejected for the Federal Reserve Board.

This is a crazy... uhh... this is what is making America ungovernable. It is the extremism of one party. You actually have an extremely accommodating, I would say alarmingly accommodating Democratic president, but a Republican Party that just won't deal.I am seriously beginning to believe these loony "no nothing" teabagger Republicans are determined to take down this country so they can go live in their underground bunkers, and subsist on the food "The Fox News Show"(in particular Glenn Beck) they have been warned to hoard while they collect overpriced gold coins celebrity spokesmen have urged them to buy as protection from the downfall of the U.S. dollar. Good bye civilization. God help us all.

For more see: http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/paul-krugman-calls-out-david-brooks-playin

Video:Teabaggers Distrupt Peacful Move On..Org Meeting With Threats

 A local paper in Roseburg, Oragan printed this story about a local group of MoveOn.org members who had peacefully assembled at a local park.  This is particularly disturbing in what it says about the real effects of "The Fox News Show" and it's group of propagandists.  The Teabaggers continually yelled out "Van Jones" and "Communists, Fascists and Marxists" In my opinion, these thugs are indistinguishable to the Nazi Brown Shirts (please forgive the Nazi analogy but when the shoe fits perfectly sometimes making the analogy is important),  They shouted "leave", "we don't want no Communists here" and berated and threatened the mostly older liberals until they did just that.  They left peacefully.  The group of Teabagger thugs were so proud of scaring old ladies and old men out of the park they even bragged about it, as you will see in the video. Even if they were Communists or Marxists (which they are not) or whatever, isn't this still America or is Fox's propagandist rhetoric turning it into something else.  Something scary and something very, very wrong.

A small political gathering of about 18 liberal thinkers at River Forks Park Sunday afternoon erupted in conflict when about 35 members of the conservative tea party intruded upon the meeting, waving flags and holding signs accusing the rival group of being communists, Marxists and socialists.

The liberal group — organized by MoveOn.org — decided to leave the park and move its potluck to a nearby home. Members of the conservative group followed, parking at the entrance of a private lane leading to the home to continue their protest.
Roseburg Democrats Dean and Sara Byers said Monday they told tea party members who followed that they were not welcome to drive down the lane to their home.
The Byerses said they got out of their car to stop vehicles from entering the driveway and one tea party member almost ran them over.
Sara Byers said she was so shaken she called 911. She said a Douglas County deputy called about an hour and a half later and said he had been unable to respond because of other incidents. Byers said she was still considering filing a criminal complaint against members of the tea party for harassment.
A leader of the tea party group, Rich Raynor of Roseburg, disputed the liberal group's version of events.
“They are liars,” said Raynor, director of Douglas County Americans for Prosperity. “That is what communists do

 Watch and you decide:

Teabaggers Show True Colors to TPC Callers!

Earlier I posted a link to a video of a woman named Nicole Sandler who was arrested, detained at police headquarters and maced for questioning Congressman Allen West of Florida at a town hall meeting he hosted, presumably to answer questions from his constituents. Apparently Congressman West was under the impression Town Halls were held so elected officials could explain to their "stupid" electorate why said elected official is correct on every issue.  Maybe I'm "stupid" but I'm under the impression that Town Halls are for the people to let their Representative know what the people think. Allen's past should have indicated the type of elected official Floridians were getting. He was reprimanded after violating the rules of military conduct American servicemen are required to follow when questioning a prisoner or war. In Col. West's case, he asked all those present to leave and then proceeded to threaten the prisoner's life by placing a handgun to the man's forehead. He retired shortly after the incident.  After being elected he chose his very good friend and one "I look to for advice", radio personality Joyce Kaufman.  Here's a video of Kaufman at a teabagger rally before the election.

Once this video surfaced as well as some of Ms. Kaufmann's numerous other outrageous statements she's made on her radio show, Allan West was forced to rescind the offer.  However, he still states he "values her advice" and "will still consult her from time to time".


I realize the post on "Political Carnival" is not exclusively concerning Rep. Allan West but it is indicative of the type of arrogant, my -way- or- the- highway, nutjobs this country elected out of a justifiable anger with the economy. But listen to what the people they elected are saying:  ""They are right and anyone who doesn't get it should be eliminated".  At the expense of invoking Godwin's Law here, this does sound eerily similar to things we heard at another not so distant time in this world's history.  I beg of you Americans. Let your voices be heard over this insanity. Listen to the crazy threats of violence from people like Joyce Kaufman or Sharon Angle's "second amendment remedies" rhetoric. These people only love this country when they are in charge and that kind of conditional love isn't real. But they do not represent the country you and I know and love.  They can threaten us, like the cowards they are, all they want but THEY WILL NEVER SILENCE US.
Please read this exclusive from TPC where their callers did an excellent job getting the truth out of the offices of Bachman, Ryan and more teabaggers. A MUST READ:
http://thepoliticalcarnival.net/2011/04/28/tpc-exclusive-reader-calls-offices-of-bachmann-ryan-cantor-webster-tea-partys-right-so-stop-voicing-concerns/





TPC Exclusive- Reader calls offices of Bachmann, Ryan, Cantor, Webster: Tea party’s right, so “stop voicing concerns”

Anthony Weiner - Democrats Who Fight - Standing up for what we believe

Remember this guy?



As Anthony Weiner so perfectly explained about our (at times overly) cerebral, noble and extremely fair party, "Democrats have a tendency to bring library books to a knife fight".  I would never want Democrats to behave like Republicans or, god forbid, those crazy Teabaggers, but there is a time to stand up to bullies. In reality they are nothing but cowards, something we all learned in kindergarten the first time we made one cry with just one push; which is why they only go after the little guy, i.e. the unemployed, the uninsured, kids on free lunch programs, the 9/11 first responders, etc. Even Atticus Finch would have had it with these guys!

Congressman Weiner has recently started his own blog, for those of us frustrated with Democrats putting up with the shamelessness and hypocrisy of the Republican party. Please check it out!

Anthony Weiner - Democrats Who Fight - Standing up for what we believe