The old curse is, "May you live in interesting times." We do.
This edition of Vulture Droppings looks at the "interesting" goings on of the past week, which, of course, had to occur during a week when I was absolutely slammed at work.
Election rhetoric is in full stride as "the most importantest election ever" nears. Team Donkey, always disdainful of the little people in flyover country, is in full throat blaming the voters for the coming slaughter they face.
Democrats seeking to boost voter turnout this fall are beginning to sound like the late comedian Chris Farley's portrayal of a "motivational speaker" on Saturday Night Live. Farley's character sought to inspire young people by announcing that they wouldn't amount to "jack squat" and would someday be "living in a van down by the river."Great stuff. The Donkeys are selling a stupid electorate so they don't have to face the reality - that their policies are poison.
Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who prefers sailing vessels to vans by the river, recently tried out the Farley method. Said Mr. Kerry, "We have an electorate that doesn't always pay that much attention to what's going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what's happening." Bay State voters are surely thrilled to be represented by a man so respectful of their concerns.
This week President Obama chimed in with another uplifting message about the American electorate. Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that the tea party movement is financed and directed by "powerful, special-interest lobbies." But this doesn't mean that tea party groups are composed entirely of corporate puppets. Mr. Obama graciously implied that a small subset of the movement is simply motivated by bigotry.
The President said "there are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the President." The tea party is now supported by a third of the country in some polls.
Perhaps advocates for smaller government shouldn't take Mr. Obama's comments personally. In the new Democratic attacks on the voting public, not even Democrats are spared. Vice President Joe Biden recently urged the party's base to "stop whining" and "buck up," a message echoed by Mr. Obama in his Rolling Stone interview. The President demanded that his supporters "shake off this lethargy," warning that it would be "inexcusable" for liberals to stay home on Election Day.
Mr. Obama added that "if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place." Making the case for left-wing voters to show up in November, Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that he is presiding over "the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward."
We'd agree, but his problem is that most Americans don't like that agenda and millions of voters in both parties wanted him to oversee an economic expansion instead. Blaming the voters is not unheard of among politicians, but usually they wait until after an election.
And why wouldn't they blame the voters? After all, it's not like they have anything else to fall back on, particularly when the Screacher of the House has approval ratings that mirror those of BP.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's negative ratings have hit an all-time high in the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. A full 50 percent of those surveyed have a somewhat or very negative impression of Pelosi, while just 22 percent have a somewhat or very positive impression of her.Negatives on par with BP. Priceless.
Pelosi's negative rating is precisely the same as oil giant BP, which has taken a public relations beating in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill.
Stimulus was going to revive the US economy, remember? So why is it that it is China receiving the jobs stimulus was going to save?
Caterpillar, the world's largest manufacturer of construction equipment, will build a factory in China to produce mini hydraulic excavators, the company said in a statement.Caterpillar, you may recall, was one of the companies claiming that stimulus was going to allow them to rehire laid-off workers.
Jim Owens, the CEO of Caterpillar, Inc., "said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."Hey, Owens! Thanks for "rehiring" all of those workers.
Asshole.
We're constantly told that government spending cuts are impossible. Tell that to France.
President Nicolas Sarkozy's government launched a "historic" attack on France's soaring overspending on Wednesday, unveiling a budget which closes tax loopholes and imposes unprecedented spending cuts.Hey, how 'bout that?
Such a reduction so quickly is widely regarded as a huge undertaking, and a correction on this scale has never been achieved in modern French history.
But our spineless government can't find the will to do anything remotely similar. Sad.
