Did you ever see the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High? Do you remember the scene where Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) crashes his friend’s older brother’s car into a pallet of cinder blocks? After they both survey the devastating damage to the front-end of the car, Spicoli announces confidently, “Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman, he’s got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it.”
The GOP might be getting a kick out of learning that our current president used to act a lot like Jeff Spicoli in high school, but right now it’s Mitt Romney that reminds me of him. The Republicans drove the economy into a pallet of cinder blocks and now they’re offering us the exact same tools they used to wreck it as a way to fix it.
I mean, at its most basic, “Dudes on ‘ludes should not drive.” We tried the Reagan way and wound up with a giant debt, a Savings and Loan crisis, and a nasty recession. We tried the Bush the Lesser way and wound up with the biggest goddamned disaster since James Buchanan was president, and the worst economy since Herbert Hoover. We got an even bigger recession, an even bigger banking crisis, and much more debt.
And where did the government’s “ultimate set of tools” go when it came time to fix New Orleans. We had Republicans out there saying that the city should just be abandoned.
The truth is, the Republicans’ toolbox never changes. It comes down to, leave greed alone to do its magic, less government revenue equals less government debt, and a whole bunch of lies and divisive language to confuse everyone.
Don’t let anyone try to convince you that elections don’t matter. In 2000, if we had nominated Bill Bradley and John McCain, we would have had less money in politics. In 2004, a Kerry win would have tilted the Supreme Court to the left instead of giving us Citizens United and unlimited corporate cash in our elections. Do you know how fucked up the Middle East and Central Asia would be right now if Sarah Palin and John McCain had been running our government over the last three and a half years?
Mitt Romney’s out there saying that he has a pro-business plan that will cause full employment, like we have no memory banks and it’s some kind of guarantee.
Businessman Romney: It says one hundred percent guaranteed, you moron!
Barack Obama: Mister, if you don’t shut up I’m gonna kick one hundred percent of your ass!
That’s how this needs to go down.
In some respects Romney reminds me of Nixon. The “secret plan” to end the war (which actually had somewhat more to it than Romney’s BS on the economy even if it too was ultimately BS), the pubic unease and weirdness, the inability to connect with average people, and of course the constant lies.
Actually when I think about it, Nixon would be an improvement.
or McCain’s secret plan to get Bin Laden
Was it “Lose to Obama?”
It worked!!
When I taught government to seniors in high school they would usually conclude that Americans were stupid. I always argued against using that conclusion because other elements could be used to explain voter habits. Now, I’m beginning to believe that the students were right! I can’t believe that the GOP can practically yell at women that they should remain barefoot and pregnant and get any votes from that gender but they do. The GOP tells American workers to work for slave wages and still convinces them that unions have no value. Rush is still #1? He beats them up and they still listen to him. Maybe they are are all masochists.
I don’t actually have a comment for the post, but I saw the title and immediately thought of this:
How fucking high is Laura Bush? Jesus, lady, I know it sucks having to be dragged back to the White House for some portrait bullshit, but how many different prescription drugs are you on? She should check herself into the Betty Ford Clinic and tie everything up in a perfect little former First Lady bow.
It looks like her right eye is not in sync with her left. That would be a condition, not a drug issue. The muscles of her eye might be weak.
Yes, but at least the other three are looking in the same general direction. She might have lazy-eye, have had a stroke, or some other issue, but that picture is still just weird.
I agree with clearskies, Nixon would definitely be an improvement.
Koh Tao
BooMan, I wanted to give you a shout-out for the Fast Times references. The book is extraordinarily good, and of cource the movie is iconic.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“Learning about history, and having some pizza!”
Partisanship: the ultimate dope.
I get it, but the problem is the democrats don’t have any tools, either. claims that the democratic party is wayyyyy better at anything don’t jibe with current congressional job approval rating which is what? 10 percent?
Of course the democrats talk about a plan, and make excuses about the eveel repugs stopping them– but excuses don’t equal strategy.
Your comments consistently constitute crimes against logic.
Congressional approval ratings reflect how people feel about Congress, not the individual parties, which is why the partys enjoy much higher approval than Congress. Republican obstructionism makes it so Congress can’t even pay its bills on time without a fuss. Congress is broken and so people hate it.
Your second logical error is to think that approval ratings mean that one party is better or different than another.
That doesn’t follow at all.
In Wisconsin, Republican Super PACs just outspent Democratic Super PAC’s 7 to 1. That would not have been possible if McCain had beaten Bush in 2000 and become president or if Bradley had beaten Gore in 2000 and become president or if Kerry had beaten Bush in 2004 or, probably, if Gore had become president in 2000.
Why? Because the Supreme Court wouldn’t have 5-4 conservative majority if any of those elections had turned out differently, or, in McCain’s case (in 2000) he would have enacted strong campaign finance laws that most Republicans would have accepted.
So, elections matter. There are enormous differences between the parties.
If Gore were elected, our counterterrorism policies would have continued to be a high priority, making much more likely that the 9/11 attacks would have been preempted, possibly avoiding the economic consequences of those attacks, and the wars that followed and the changes in the laws that followed.
Fuck it. I’m not going to itemize the damage done to this country by Bush and Cheney. If you don’t know that history, you have a short memory.
this post is just funny.
made me laugh a couple of times today