From Kos:

"Of all the criticisms of Obama, this is the most obviously legit. The president's economic team hailed from Goldman Sachs, and their entire focus has been on bailing out the banking sector from their own excesses. The banks were functioning "properly" in Wall Street's eyes, when they created the credit default swaps and other schemes that destroyed the world economy. "Yet rather than help consumers, oftentimes victims of Wall Street's excesses, they rewarded the villains, time and time again. And then, they tried to hide it. "That Wall Street aristocracy has been coddled by this administration, while regular Americans end up victims to Democratic meekness and Republican obstructionism. It shouldn't be this way. Let Republicans carry water for Wall Street crooks. Democrats should be fighting for everyone else. "The problem with the economy isn't the bankers. Is that no one has money to buy shit. Giving the bankers free money doesn't solve that."

There's more in the post.

Bits and Pieces for the Week of August 21 - 27

"The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but ..." (Mike)

Not Trickling Down: The Percentage Of Americans In Poverty Now Equals China TAX THE RICH!! TAX THE SUPER RICH MORE!!! (7 of 6)

I strongly suggest that you swallow what's in your mouth before you start this video.


The value of this jet could probably solve California's debt problems.

World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
World of Class Warfare - The Poor's Free Ride Is Over
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

The poor consist of a family of four, making an average yearly salary of $22,350.00.
99.6% own a refrigerator, "You food chillin' mother fuckers! How dare they!" - Jon Stewart
81.4% own a microwave, 78% have A/C, 63.7% have Cable or Satellite TV, 54.5% have cell phones, 48.6% have coffee makers, 32.3% have two or more TV's, 25% own a dishwasher.

Bits and Pieces for the Week of August 14 - 20

An implausible, but not necessarily impossible, threat from outer space. (Mike)

HOLY SHIT: U.S. government is seriously considering destroying military retirement pay. (Mike)

Cyberloafing (surfing the internet at work) actually boosts worker productivity! (Mike)

Nouriel 'Dr. Doom' Roubini: ‘Karl Marx Was Right’ "At some point capitalism can self-destroy itself. That's because you cannot keep on shifting income from labor to capital without not having an excess capacity and a lack of aggregate demand. We thought that markets work. They are not working. What's individually rational...is a self-destructive process... We're not there yet," Roubini said, but he did add that the current trend, if it continues, "runs the risk of repeating the second leg of the Great Depression" -- the 'mistake of 1937.'" (7 of 6)

Louis C.K. has reinvented the sitcom. It's possibly the best show on TV right now. (Mike)

New drug could cure nearly any viral infection. "Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection." (7 of 6)

When will they listen? Widow: After 8 deployments, Army Ranger takes own life. "Staff Sgt. Hagemann had orders to return to Afghanistan this month for a ninth tour of duty." I know, when we have a draft and make the rich start serving! (7 of 6)

Rick Santorum, the stand-up comedian?

100 Things You Can Say To Irritate A Republican

Conservatives are so easy to anger these days. Even the most insignificant statement can set off their tempers. If you want to enrage a conservative, I suggest saying the following: 1. A Socialist wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. 2. Jesus healed the sick and helped the poor, for free. 3. Joseph McCarthy was an un-American, witch hunting sissy. 4. Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee were traitors. 5. The South lost the Civil War, get over it. 6. The Founding Fathers were liberals. 7. Fascism is a right-wing trait. 8. Sarah Palin is an ugly cow (said to conservative males). 9. The Earth is round. 10. Reagan raised taxes eleven times as President. 11. Reagan legalized abortion as Governor of California. 12. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency. 13. Ronald Reagan supported gun control. 14. Global warming is real. 15. Republicans hate illegal immigrants, unless they need their lawns mowed or their houses cleaned. 16. The military is a government-run institution, so why do Republicans approve the defense budget? 17. The Cold War is over and the Soviet Union no longer exists. 18. Paying taxes is patriotic. 19. Republicans: Peddling the same failed economic policies since 1880. 20. The Republican Party began as a liberal party. 21. The Presidents’ full name is Barack Hussein Obama and he was born in the United States of America. 22. George W. Bush held hands with the King of Saudi Arabia. 23. President Obama saved the American auto industry, while Republicans wanted to destroy it. 24. Hate is not a Christian virtue. 25. Jesus was a liberal. 26. Republicans spend MORE money than Democrats. 27. Tea parties are for little girls. 28. Public schools educate all children; private schools are for indoctrinating children. 29. The Constitution is the law, NOT the Bible. 30. Sharia law doesn’t exist in America. 31. The President is NOT a Muslim. 32. Corporations are NOT people. People are people. 33. Fox News isn’t real news, it’s just a racist, sexist, hateful, right-wing propaganda machine. 34. The Federal Reserve was a Republican idea. 35. Women are equal citizens who deserve equal rights. 36. Women control their own bodies. 37. Abortion is a relevant medical procedure, just ask Rick Santorum. 38. Please use spell check. 39. It’s “pundit”, not “pundint”. 40. Social Security is solvent through 2038. 41. Health care is a right, not a product. 42. Roe v. Wade was a bipartisan ruling made by a conservative leaning Supreme Court. 43. G.O.P also stands for Gross Old Perverts. 44. The donkey shouldn’t be the Democratic mascot because Republicans are the real jackasses. 45. Barack Obama ordered the killing of Osama Bin Laden. It took him two and half years to do what Bush couldn’t do in eight. 46. Waterboarding IS torture. 47. 9/11 happened on George W. Bush’s watch, therefore he did NOT keep America safe. 48. Republicans invaded Iraq for oil, so Iraq should be allowed to invade Texas to get it back. 49. Separation of church and state is in the Constitution, it’s called the First Amendment. 50. Muslims are protected by the Constitution, just as much as Christians. 51. Barack Obama is the first African-American President, get over it. 52. The Oval Office is NOT a “whites only” office. 53. America is a nation of immigrants, therefore we are all anchor babies. 54. The white race isn’t disappearing, it’s evolving. 55. God is a particle. 56. Evolution is real. 57. The Earth is 4.54 billion years old, not 6,000. 58. The Founding Fathers did not free the slaves. 59. The Revolution was NOT fought over slavery. 60. Paul Revere warned the Americans, NOT the British. 61. Federal law trumps state law. 62. The Civil War was about slavery, NOT state’s rights. 63. Corporations care more about profits than they do about people. 64. Getting out of a recession requires government spending. 65. Glenn Beck is a nut-job. 66. Republicans: Paranoid since 1932. 67. Republicans don’t want to pay for your birth control, but they want you to pay for their Viagra. 68. Republicans actually NEED Viagra. 69. Fox News is owned by an Australian and has a Saudi prince as an investor. 70. Republicans complain about immigrants taking American jobs, then freely give American jobs to foreigners overseas. 71. Republicans hate communism, so why do they refer to themselves as red states? 72. Labor unions built this country. 73. Republicans hold America hostage as a political strategy; the temper tantrum throwing kind of political strategy. 74. Jesus was a Jew, not a Christian. 75. When Republicans see black, they attack. 76. Inside every Republican is a Klansman or a Nazi waiting to bloom. 77. Republicans only care about children BEFORE they are born. 78. Republicans are hypocrites, they’re just too stupid to know it. 79. The Christian-Right boycotts movies that have violence, and then promotes guns and insurrection. 80. I think therefore I am NOT a Republican. 81. Republicans that oppose gay marriage are most likely in the closet themselves. 82. Churches should stay out of politics, or be taxed. 83. People are too poor to vote Republican. 84. Democrats think for themselves, Republicans form think tanks to do it for them. 85. Republicans hate education because they couldn’t hack it in school. 86. Greed is one of the seven deadly sins and Republicans wallow in it. 87. A little socialism on the Left is better than a little fascism on the Right. 88. The current corporate tax rate is the lowest in 60 years, so stop whining about it being too high. 89. Republicans: Anti-Gay Marriage, Pro-Lesbian sex. 90. Republicans: Terrorizing the American people since 1981. 91. Republicans have their own terrorists, just look up Timothy McVeigh. 92. Republicans love outsourcing, just ask the Chinese Communists. 93. The Republican answer to the oil spill was to apologize to BP, a foreign oil company. 94. Democrats will be working hard to bring jobs to Americans, while the Republicans tea bag each other in the middle of the aisles. 95. Voter disenfranchisement is immoral and un-American, that’s why Republicans do it. 96. Republicans would let your house burn down unless you pay them to put it out. 97. Democrats want to take care of the sick. Republicans take their credit cards and then deny them medical attention. 98. Republicans say teachers are union thugs, then proceed to rape and mug the entire middle class on behalf of corporations. 99. Republicans think rape isn’t a crime, but miscarriages are. 100. Republicans are idiots and arguing with them is a waste of time! Stephan D. Foster Jr.

Bits and Pieces for the Week of August 7 - 13

This is how stupid our political discourse has gotten. Candidates now announce that they are going to announce their candidacy for office. (Mike)

Terminating the Teabaggers (Mike)

21 Signs That The Once Great U.S. Economy Is Being Gutted, Neutered, Defanged, Declawed And Deindustrialized. This article makes a strong argument for "Trade Deficits!" (7 of 6)

How Obama is neutralizing the Left. (Mike)

"....Corporate power’s ascendancy over politics and society – by now mostly financial – has reached the point that both political organizations, which at this stage barely resemble traditional parties, are far to the right of the population on the major issues under debate...." (Mike)

Here's to you, California. (Mike)

Germany discovers that boosting unions reduces unemployment. "Germany... enacted policies based on strengthening and building unions as a way of increasing consumer spending through higher wages paid to union workers. Thus this policy reduces unemployment by increasing workers' purchasing power... German policies encouraging union building and negotiation power found that it was able to reduce economic inequality... It should be noted that Germany has the tightest market regulation of banks in Europe." And it doesn't have near the bloated defense spending America has. (7 of 6)

Why We Can Thank Republicans for a Double-dip Recession. "It was never a debt crisis. The debt crisis was manufactured. It's been a jobs, wages, and growth crisis all along. And that reality has finally caught up with us... Now that we're slouching toward a double-dip recession, the only hope is voters will tell their members of Congress -- who are now on recess back home -- to stop obsessing about future budget deficits and get to work on the real crisis of unemployment, falling wages, and no growth." (7 of 6)

A Rant Worth Hearing

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Bits and Pieces for the Week of July 31 - August 6

You may never see anything like this again in your lifetime. (Mike)

This year The Atlantic's web site added a section containing timely and professional-quality photo galleries. (Mike)

Stop picking on truck drivers. (Mike)

The recovery is dead. (Mike)

It's becoming clearer day by day that the Obama whom people had elected is not the Obama they THOUGHT they were electing. If you review all his decisions during his term as President, it becomes crystal clear that he is a moderate conservative. He's done more for Republicans in 2-1/2 years than Bush did in 8. (Mike)

Banks' shadow inventory of homes will keep house prices artifically inflated, and keep potential buyers away. (Mike)

Labor's Discontent With Obama Surfaces Yet Again "We have now had at least three or more experiences of the president explaining to people that he has a plan and it is under control but the results don't match," said Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union. "He has an unreasonable Congress that doesn't respond to reason. So why continue to reason with them?" Exactly Andy... WHY? (7 of 6)

"....'Eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly,' she stressed, 'Get six to eight hours of sleep and see a doctor regularly. But no one wants to do that,' she said with exasperation. 'But they'll use a hose to flush themselves out! The use of these methods are unhealthy. And what's scary is we only examined the cases that were reported to hospitals and doctors. Imagine all the people who are using these products and methods and have side effects and never go to the hospital. We don't know about them. The numbers could be staggering.'"

The "shadow" colon cleaners.